Greetings!

Well, the Pope's visit is over and the Yankee Stadium Mass is over. The thirteenth day of the first month has come to an end and I've yet to see any indication the lawless one has been revealed. What does it mean? We keep watching and praying. This is not the letter I was hoping to write.

I spent the day at home on the computer once again, actually spending very little time checking the news. I figured I'd get a spiritual alarm, or plenty of email or phone calls if anything significant was happening. I spent some time in prayer, and during the course of studying something I didn't expect to be studying I did receive what I believe is some significant revelation insight. I don't yet know how it should be interpreted but it sure spoke to me LOUDLY and it shook me up a bit, and, in light of the latest email topics the meaning that I got from it is certainly confirmed.

The title of this email comes from John 13. I spent most of the day doing something that has recently come on my short list of things to do but, until this morning, I had no expectation of working on it today. It seemed to me like an odd project to occupy my time with on this very key day. I analyzed the thematic structure of John 13. Judging by the lack of comments made about thematic pattern content on theopenscroll.com it seems almost no one pays any attention to this kind of thing, yet, it means a lot to me because the Lord always rewards the effort. He did today. Here's what I learned. It has to do with a rooster, and death, and life, and has something to say about today.

When I was most of the way through the project I got down to verses 36-38. When I began to focus on the specific context being the time when Peter, as a type of the church, will be seeking the Lord and able to follow Him where He could not follow before, the last verse seemed, at first, rather incongruent.

If I was looking at this on some other day, I don't know if I would have got it, but it was today and I did get it.

Historically, of course, the Lord was about to go to Gethsemane. Peter followed him there, no problem. The Lord was arrested. Peter didn't follow by being arrested, although if it were not for the Lord's intervention he certainly should have been because he cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest. Peter followed the Lord as far as the courtyard of the high priest. There, he denied the Lord three times.

Ultimately, the Lord went to the cross. Peter did not yet follow him there. As the Lord prophesied to Peter (John 13:36) that he would follow Him later, it eventually came to pass that Peter was indeed crucified on a cross, upside-down, and he did follow the Lord all the way there. That is the historical perspective. Peter passed the love test, even his final exam. Consider the prophetic perspective at the present time. Peter foreshadows the church; sometimes the Bride, sometimes the Body, but either way, the church. This is another love test, another season of final exams. Will the church pass this time? Here's the pattern.

What does that mean? Three times it must fail. It is appointed for the church to fail the love test three times before it may then pass it. Peter modeled it, and the three denials must come before the rooster crows. Before the rooster crows? Have you ever heard a rooster that sounds a bit like a shofar? The trumpet call of God, the shout of the archangel - the rooster crowing announces a resurrection! As familiar as I have come to be with the Resurrection on the Third Day principle, and as thoroughly as I covered the timing aspect of this subject in a writing on Gethsemane many years ago, I never saw it quite like this! Immediately after Peter denied the Lord for the third time, the rooster crowed! "Quick, get up!" comes to mind! Resurrection morning, comes to mind! The Sun is up, the Bridegroom is here!

Or when the rooster crows? Indeed! The cockcrowing watch is the third listed watch of the night, which is an important timing element, but beyond that, when the master comes it will be at the crowing of the rooster!

And then, those who deny the Lord will follow the example of Peter as he went out and wept bitterly! Resurrection always comes with judgment.

So, it may be the third denial is past. The event is modeled for us while Peter is in the courtyard, still on the 13th day of the first month. Why did this insight about the three denials and the rooster crowing have an emotional impact on me today? I felt it very personally. Around my apartment it has been a very, very quiet day. The usual Sunday activity seemed to be going on as usual, but somehow the silence was deafening. Email, phone calls; all was very still. Like many of you who have been paying close attention to the signs and have found the Lord drawing you very near, I had a high expectation today, expecting to see something I've described on these pages for many years. When I understood about the three denials, I felt a deep conviction that I was not yet ready, personally, not as though the accounting were impersonal, remote or distant. I have felt this before, like a death. The three denials of Peter before the rooster crows spoke to me of three deaths. I felt the third one came today. The corporate church was audited and it failed the love test and I'm included. The Lord was denied, for the third time. I relate this to the three Shemittah since the sign of 1991. First death - 1994. Second death, 2001. Third death, today. Intercessors understand about this death routine. Before the Lord can or will use you for His work you have to be put to death, your soul, your self, your flesh has to be fully submitted as unto death. You will have to go through a series of deaths. They are painful, and they are not forgotten. I don't know if anyone is ever really willing at first if they have a sense of what this actually means, but we can be made willing.

What does it mean that the third death came today? I don't know. I don't know how to interpret the fact I didn't see anything I expected today. When will the lawless one be revealed? When is the Bride Theft? Watch and pray. I'm not going to second guess anything. I'm not planning to pull the plug on the Web site. Perhaps there was a baptism and it's a matter of a little time passing before the event is known.

Back in 2001, seven years ago today, on the thirteenth day of the first month, I read an article linked from the Drudge Report to some Asian news service. There was a picture of Bill Clinton riding an elephant looking pretty royal, and there was a crowd of people around him looking like worshipers. The article said he had recently visited Mother Theresa's tomb and had just been involved in a ceremony that, if I recall correctly, was a baptism of sorts that ordained him into some priesthood, Hindu or Buddhist, maybe. The news article went away so fast, in hours or maybe minutes, and I've never seen another like it since. Today, Bill was on his Hillary's campaign trail, and last I saw had made it as far as Pennsylvania. Did he make it to NY for a little splash and go before the Pope took off in Shepherd One? If you find out, let me know, won't you.

If the Lord has cleaned you up and drawn you near, praise His holy name! Don't disparage His work, but draw nearer yet. This is a test, make no doubt about it. Hold fast. Keep watching and praying. More! Batten down the hatches, there's a storm coming.

John 13 - Interactive

The Shadow is My Friend - by Chris Anderson

Bob Schlenker
TheOpenScroll.com