On the mountain top of the Lord

By Wendy Cohen
Reprinted by permission of the author

What follows is a story about American politics, but its message is universal, as it discusses how all of us are required, by God, to handle emotional, mental, and spiritual blackmail. It also provides understanding about how prophecy can be misinterpreted and used incorrectly. I hope you enjoy it!

A Real-Life Parable

One day, in 2012, when I was in the USA for a few months, I was hiking high up on a mountain outside of Tucson Arizona under a crystal clear blue sky. Not a single cloud from horizon to horizon. There was just a faint breeze, with a sweet pine scent.

All of a sudden the Lord said, “Run to the car now! Hurry, before it’s too late!“

“Why, Lord? It’s a beautiful day and I just want…“

“Run, as fast as you can, now!“

Panicked, I raced over rocks and around boulders, on the trail, it seemed, for hours. Clouds, black and heavy, soon appeared, flying towards me, outflanking me. The serene balmy sky became thick from horizon to horizon with tumultuous movement. Lightning and thunder hit the ground, encircling me as I ran and ran. I finally got back to the car, opened the door and the hail began to fall. Before I could get inside, it was falling like golf balls, so thick I couldn’t see anything but hail. It was impossible to drive. I stayed on top of the mountain all night, with the hail crashing down, the sky almost continuously lit up, from horizon to horizon, by multi-tongued lightning strikes. Finally, by daybreak, the storm had abated, and I was able to crawl down to the city below, crunching over the ice.

The Lord said to me, “This is what will happen in 2016.“

I was scared, but filled with wonder. The night had been fearful, but shockingly beautiful. God’s message sounded apocalyptic. I told one friend about it, but otherwise, kept silent, watching to see what would happen. 2016 came and went, and nothing apocalyptic happened.

What was wrong with my prophetic ears? The message could not have been clearer, more dramatic, more urgent. It felt like the world was crashing down around my head. Right? Out of a blue sky, which I believed represented a nation at rest and at ease, came the most horrendous storm, representing something horribly violent, suddenly appearing “out of nowhere.” Armageddon, maybe? Before it appeared, God had commanded me to rush to my “ark” of safety. Clearly, in my mind’s eye, He was going to protect me/us within the storm. There, with God’s help, I had “weathered” its furious onslaught, but without the ability to leave the scene. Whatever was going to happen, we would be safe, but would not be able to “escape.” And now, in 2016, nothing? Had I misheard? Misinterpreted? I did not know, but I was glad I had kept my mouth shut!

Then came the election of 2020, with its ensuing events.

The Lord said, “Remember what I told you about 2016? Look back to what began, in 2016, with Trump’s election and look to what has just transpired. You have been in the midst of a violent, magnificent, spiritual storm, with incessant, provocative, illuminating thunder and lightning, ever since 2016. You have been shielded and protected, but you have not been able to escape the storm’s fury. In 2012 you obeyed Me and trusted Me and I kept you safe in your car as you waited out the storm. You must trust Me now to keep you safe as this storm increases. You will also need to wait out its onslaught in the safety of My presence. Do not rush down the mountain into the political fray, spewing out your own thunder and lightning to war with the thunder and lightning of the enemy. Instead, become an ark of safety for those who want protection because the “sky is falling.” Rest in my safety and watch what I will do. The mountain top is not a place of passivity, of slothful rest, but it is the place of My glory and it is in My glory that you are safe. Stay in My prayers, in My presence, and I will show you what to do and how to pray. Be prepared to act effectively and efficiently.”

Two Applications:

Application to the Election and the Prophets
I had heard correctly, but I had misunderstood, drawing conclusions from what I already knew, interpreting God’s message according to my own understanding, which was not submitted to the LORD. (Paraphrase Proverbs 3:5-6) My imagination had taken over, and I was hearing the message through my own excitement, switching from the LORD’s voice to my own, without any conscious thought about it.

During the election season, I believe many of the prophets did the exact same thing. God was offering our nation a conditional promise, dependent upon our desire to choose Him or not. But a 2nd Chronicles 7:14 prophecy is not a guarantee. “IF My people” … is not a guarantee, it is an opportunity. Yes, we prayed. Yes, we repented, but most of us didn’t understand the extent of the battle that was facing us. And most of us missed God’s heart, just like Uzzah missed God’s heart, when he steadied the falling Ark with his hand. God killed Uzzah for physically touching His Ark, because God’s Ark was untouchable. (2 Samuel 6:3-8) Perhaps we, as a nation, lost the election because we have touched God’s Ark with blasphemy far too many times. After decades of grieving and blaspheming God’s Holy Spirit, our prayers, as sincere and passionate as they were, did not undo our damage. (Matt 12;30-32, Eph 4:30, Is 63:10)

Thus, there is a deeper level of obedience and surrender that is needed here. Even though we don’t know how to achieve it, God does, and He is waiting upon us. A much greater opportunity for glory awaits us than winning this election. We have just begun.

I did not hear that Trump would win this election. Rather, the Lord kept my focus on Nazi Germany. He encouraged me to exhort people to fight, in God’s Spirit, in His Love, against an international demonic war (bigger than Naziism). We have now lost the first battle. That also happened to Joshua at Ai. But after Joshua removed the sin from his camp, he and the Israelites defeated Ai in a stunning rebound. So will we, in Yeshua’s Grace, in full repentance from our corrected sin, and in His timing.

We are being trained to fight a war of extraordinary proportions, about God’s sovereign identity, and ours in Him. It is a holy war, and God, including God within us, will win. We don’t understand this holiness, and what is expected of us. But God is teaching us. Right now, He is using our defeat to teach us. Like at Ai, He used the Israelites’ defeat to teach them.

Counting the cost of God’s victory includes counting the cost of what He is requiring of us. We must each bring this to God in the quietness of our prayer closets. Nobody’s journey will be exactly like anybody else’s, but each will include abject surrender and abject focus on YHVH. In understanding the tenacity and capacity, plus the resilience, of the enemy, we can appreciate that Salvation belongs only to the LORD (Ps 3:8 literally says that Yeshua belongs to YHVH) The enemy will indeed prove himself to be a “worthy” opponent, but He will be defeated by God’s Authority. God will crush the grapes in His winepress. To the extent that we are doing and saying what Yeshua is doing and saying, thinking and dreaming what Yeshua is imagining and creating, we can be part of His victory. If we can pray about the cost and pay it, praying about how God wants us to fight, moment by moment, campaign by campaign, and about how God wants to keep us clean, God will prepare us and train us for His greatest victory. I am repenting for lack of trust in God. I have faith, but it is not yet enough for this season. I am also praying to accept all the emotions that are swirling inside of me, to give them completely over to God with simplicity and faith. I think it would be wise for all of us to consider what we need to return to God. It will be very important in the days and years to come …

Application to Fighting from the Mountaintop, from God’s Victory
The enemy seeks hatred and revenge. God seeks love. When we love, purely and simply, without any ulterior motives, we force the enemy to engage in the opposite of his nature. Because he is fed by hatred and revenge, God’s love nullifies him. God‘s kingdom is fed by love. Love amplifies God, if that is possible. When we forgive and approach the enemy with unqualified love, we strip him of all his power, and he cannot function. In the gospels, YESHUA’S enemies could not capture Him until God’s timing had come. He could walk right through a crowd, but no one could seize Him. The apostle John couldn’t be killed, even when he was boiled in oil, because of his love and trust in Yeshua. (Tertullian: The Prescription Against Heretics, Ch 36) Daniel couldn’t be eaten by lions because of his love and faith in God. So be it with us.

We understand the principle on a personal level. We know:

•forgive those who hurt us

•release them

•break agreement with them

•hand them over to God

•trust God to judge them properly

But we also need to apply that principle to all the people in Congress, to the new president and vice president, to all the people spreading lies, to all the media, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and whomever else. We need to forgive them, release them from ourselves, break agreement with them, and hand them over to God for his proper, righteous judgment. As we do so, we surrender our fleshly needs and reactions to God, and we invite Him to bring about His Kingdom reality in that person or situation. When done with a full and open heart, God’s Kingdom Love Justice Authority can pour down, binding or freezing that evil, so that the trapped person can come completely free. This is a gift we can give to anyone or anything that has harmed us, wherever they may be.

Any and every negative emotion feeds the daemonic. Let me repeat that. Any negative, unloving, emotion feeds the daemonic. The daemonic is nourished when they get us angry, filled with “righteous” indignation, or riled up. We want to starve them, not feed them. We want to make their jobs impossibly difficult, not easy. We want to heap burning coals on their heads. (Proverbs 25:22 and Rom 12:20) We need to completely forgive and love all the perpetrators and blasé bystanders, handing them over, people and demons alike, with all their structures and machinations, to God for His judgment.

Like Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, and like Yeshua, on the cross, it takes unreasonable, God-filled faith and courage, to forgive criminals who are in the act of perpetrating evil against our Lord and His humanity. We ask to be filled with Your unreasonable, supernatural, God-filled faith and courage NOW and unto eternity, LORD YESHUA!

Dear LORD,

Wherever we live, we hand You our current government. We also hand You all the people and things manipulating our leaders. We declare over them all, “YHVH’s Kingdom come, YHVH’s Will be done, in our nation, as it is in Heaven.” We release them to You, LORD GOD, forgiving them for any harm they may have caused us personally, or caused anyone, any organization, or anything we know, and we declare that they all belong to You. All our nations, and all their leaders, are Yours to heal, deliver, remove, or incapacitate, as You choose. Please have Your complete and utter way with them all. We ask only this: that the greatest love and the greatest mercy possible be applied in all situations, and that every single bit of harm or confusion they have caused, personally, mentally, financially, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, or otherwise, be released and removed from everyone affected, and that anyone or anything needing healing be healed by You. We ask that all intended or unintended harm to Israel or to our nations come under Your Blood. We ask that Your Sovereign Will prevails over any and all attempts to force Israel or any other nation to obey any ungodly expectations. We ask that only Your Godly intentions would prevail in Israel, in our own nation, and in all the nations. Further, we ask You to help us corporately keep all the wayward people and structures in prayer, vigilantly, every moment of every day, until proper order is restored in Your Kingdom. In Yeshua’s Holy Name I pray.

I hear the LORD say:

“Trust me. A very painful and difficult ride is ahead, yet the victory will be sweet, beyond your imagination. Run into my presence. Jesus was glorified in Me, upon the cross. Be glorified in my glory. Do not count your lives unto death, for this is the needed surrender. But still, expect to live, for this is the glory appointed to you. Wait upon me. I will do it. Be at peace and be calmly surrendered to my will. Be filled with joy and satisfaction in the moment. Be ready to hold each other up and not to let each other down. Do not fall into the enemy’s tactics, do not fly down the mountain, in the dark, in the falling hail, crunching over the ice on the road, doing battle in the natural. Instead, stay safe in my glory, and I will bring you and the world home to me. You will see your victory in Me. Shalom.”