20 YEARS - RETURN TO THE PROMISES

This year God has been drawing my attention back to things he said 20 years ago. At that time My wife and I made a decision to leave everything behind and to move to Mankato, in response to the invitation of God. 

In August of 1992, He said He was going to take this city, overturning the leadership: 

1. First, in His house(s) of worship, those who represent ecclesiastic authority
2. Second, in the business community, those who represent financial power
3. Third in the political arena, those who represent political power
4. Fourth in the educational arena, those who represent educational authority  
5. Lastly in the spiritual atmosphere (spiritual powers and principalities)  

I see a 20-year pattern in Jacob’s life that God has used to speak to me. Jacob left home and was running for his life from his brother’s wrath. Then Jacob lies down to rest, and he takes a stone to lay under his head as a pillow. As he slept he had an open vision of Heaven; a ladder appeared with angels ascending and descending on it. When he awoke He said, "this is none other than the gate to heaven, the dwelling place of God." He placed his pillow up on end as a stone monument and poured oil over it.
He anointed the rock and called the place BETHEL - and Jacob made a vow to God. 

¹⁰ Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. ¹² Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.¹³ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”¹⁸ Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹ And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, ²¹ so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. ²² And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Jacob could have left after 7 years with his first wife, he could have left again in another seven years with his second wife, but each time he re-signed up for wages from Laban. After 20 years of working in Laban's house, God spoke to Jacob, "get up and go to your father's house." Jacob decides to flee rather than face Laban who seems to have a bit of control over him. So he flees again in the middle of the night, this time from his father-in-law. Laban and his men catch up with him three days later. In their discourse in the mountains of Gilead, Jacob says... 

⁴¹ I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 

• 7 years for Leah (weak eyed)
• 7 years for Rachel (beloved)
• 6 years for flocks and herds.

Jacob travels back towards his father's house and eventually he re-enters Canaan (the promised land) and God sends Jacob, now Israel, back to Bethel to fulfill the vow he made 20 years earlier. 

This time however, as Israel he does something a little differently... he pours wine over the rock first and then anoints it with oil, if you remember 20 years ago,the first time he poured only oil, no wine, why? 

What is going on?

BETHEL - he returns to Bethel and pours wine as a drink offering for forgetting over the rock and then pours oil over the rock, for the future. 

God first showed me this in October of 2007, we were celebrating five years of the new name, Covenant Family Church. The Lord asked me a question, Why did Israel pour wine over the rock? I didn't know, so I asked God why? 
This Scripture reference came to mind and I went to read it and found in verses 6-7 wine is for forgetting.    

Give strong drink to him who is perishing,And wine to those who are bitter of heart.

Let him drink and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more.  Proverbs 31:6-7

That Sunday morning in October of 2007 I poured red wine over the rock I brought, as part of the five-year celebration. Then I poured oil from Pat's flask of oil over the rock. The wine and the oil combined at the bottom of the container and the past and the future became mingled together. 

All in all the end of the 20 years signified the beginning of the 21st year. Since 21 is a Sabbath or seventh year, it was the year of release from Laban.  

When Jacob became Israel he was to remember his past as Jacob no longer. So he poured wine over the rock, to forget the years of toil for Laban and the changing of his wages ten times. Then he poured oil over the rock to anoint his future. 

When Jacob obeyed the voice of the Lord and arose to go to his father’s house he met the angel of the Lord, on the way who gave him a new name. I think we are about to see God fulfill his word to take this city. This is something I have been waiting for since 1992, when he first spoke this to me and to others, most of whom, are no longer here in Mankato.




The number twenty is indicative of redemption you can find out more at
the biblical meaning of numbers by Stephen Jones,


Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
At Home In MN