Strong City

Sabbath, October 3, 2009 — 22 years since our separation from Babylon on the Day of Atonement, Sabbath, October 3, 1987

Dearest family,

This morning Father opened to me again His thoughts in regard to us. It always blesses me to hear His soft, sane thinking. As you know, we stand at the end of days, where people are warned to not take the mark of the beast. “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.” Revelation 14:9, 10.

Of course we are very familiar with the word “beast,” which in the Scriptures represents civil government. Here God warns that when a soul follows state law rather than the law of God, he worships the state. This person is identified then by a mark on his thinking, which always reverts to the interests of the state (beast) rather than to justice and truth. If these people with the mark of the beast on their forehead then put forth efforts to enforce the laws of the beast over the laws of God, they are pictured as having the mark of the beast upon their hands. In my own case, and in my own condemnation by the state, we could all see clearly that God’s commandments to our hearts were swept aside in favor of state policy and public perception. The facts were discarded and state fiction replaced them.

Hebrews 3 and 4 speak of the true Sabbath. “Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” The Sabbath is to hear God’s voice, harden not your heart, and obey Him. Sabbath keeping is why I went to prison. What I did with the girls was simply keep the Sabbath: I followed God’s instruction and did not let my heart become hardened against His word to me. He commanded me onto ground that seemed dangerous but I followed anyway; I kept the Sabbath, even though keeping the Sabbath seemed to have great risks. The beast came for me because I did not follow the ways of man and thereby keep a false sabbath. I was imprisoned for obeying the word of God spoken to my heart. If I would have hardened my heart and not allowed the girls to follow God’s instructions to their hearts in what they requested of me — as I was told at my sentencing hearing by the judge that I should have done — I would have broken God’s Sabbath rest, in order to keep man’s false sabbath. I would have taken the mark of the beast (state). The false sabbath is the false rest, or false security, that comes from obeying man’s law set up to replace God’s law. So when the Scriptures talk about the mark of the beast, it’s about reverting to man’s laws rather than God’s laws.

Can God’s people now actually expect justice from the beast (the state)? The Scriptures say no. The beast seeks to kill all who will not take its mark.

The courts are designed for one thing and that is to promote the interest of the beast. Rarely in all of history have the beasts of the past stepped forward to bring justice to the Sons of God. That is because the beast sees the law of God as in competition with its own interests. Jesus was crucified for this very reason. Jesus did not break the law, but he was made to look as though he had broken it. The beast of his day feared his liberty and power, and thought that by killing Jesus they would retain their hold on the minds of the people. This strategy didn’t work, however, and Jerusalem was reduced to ashes in the time of God’s wrath.

So this all takes us to our present things. The Holy Spirit has commanded me to abstain from eating the food offered to me by the state (beast), and not to drink its water. As you know, food and water in the Scriptures represent communion and life. To take the food from the state now would represent that I had bowed the knee to its image. Taking its water would represent that I received its life force into me. Through the water comes the acceptance of the beast’s teachings and way of viewing things, and through the food I would become one with its body.

When the Holy Spirit brought the fast to me, it seemed to have great risk. Everyone here was troubled over this “suicide attempt.” But they did not understand. I heard God’s voice and did not harden my heart. The true risk would have been to save my life and avoid a risky fast. For me to partake now, after so much light had been given, would constitute high crimes against the word of God to my soul. It would be blasphemous to the extreme. I would now have to consciously take the mark of the beast in order to take from its table to satisfy my appetites and to make my life better.

I have taken the water from the river of Life, and my food is the flesh of the Son of God. I cannot take the flesh of the beast into me or drink from its river, for its waters are bitter and lead only to spiritual death. I am going to remain true to myself, and I will not eat or drink at the table of vileness. I will not commune with the beast and his lie.

I have recently seen a great indicator of how far apart I am from the thinking of the natural world. As you know I have been in a suicide cell a few times. My fast sparked a multitude of fears and unleashed an army of psycho people all asking me if I was intent on hurting myself. They were afraid, and some even made up stories that I was going to kill myself, so they thrust me away in a padded cell, as if that would change things. But there is something they completely miss. Their minds seem vacant and useless when it comes to the real issues.

What is the real issue? The issue is that the Father in heaven put me on a fast from state food just as He put Daniel’s three friends on a fast from bending the knee to a false image. If Daniel’s three friends had bowed to the image they would have been blessed by the king but would have committed suicide in the spiritual realm. Do you remember the times in which God separated from me momentarily because I was unknowingly beginning to move in the direction of disobedience? It is utter spiritual suicide for me to turn from my instructions. Yet, so many people here find no problem in asking me to take the food tray so that all my problems would be solved. “Just eat and everything will be okay again, and you can get back to normal.” To me, they might as well be saying, “Just take this razor blade and kill yourself, and all your troubles will be over.” They continually ask me to kill myself by disobeying God while bowing the knee to the image. They make every precaution so that I will not kill my natural body, but they encourage me to kill my spirit. They entice me to spiritual suicide every single day, and think they do me a favor.

Why do they think this way? It is because God does not speak to them, so they believe I am deceiving myself. They have not had God separate from them, because He was never close to them in the first place. They believe I am deluded, but I must follow the Voice, and I do not believe in suicide to save me from my difficulties. I will not commit physical or spiritual suicide. I will not kill myself in either realm of existence. So, I must continue my fast from food offered by the state’s golden image. I cannot save myself by eating their offering that comes from the mind of the image. I cannot fall to appetite in order to please my tastes. I will not commit suicide for them. They desire that I get back to normal, but there are issues they must resolve. I have clearly stated them. I have not been hard to read, if they would just hear my words and believe that I mean them. None of this will ever go away until they make things right, and my deserting God’s instructions to me would never make things right.

I would wish that they quit enticing me to commit suicide in the realm of the spirit. It is not funny to me, nor is it helpful. They are wasting their time going in that direction. They will simply have to bring a righteous resolution to the situation for anything to change. I will not change in order to save myself discomfort or torture. God is too precious to me, and too valuable to me to trade Him for some worldly advantage or appetite. God is with me, and I want Him with me, no matter the hardships He puts me through. Life is not about my comforts, it is about His Presence with me. My life is hid in God, and I want it to stay there.

The Father has given me no intimation that my fast from state food will end. I do not conceive that He will ever change His mind until the state bends the knee to Him and confesses that God has a right to lead the soul in ways other than public policy. God’s people have always had to deal with men who have believed that they had a right to tell God how to behave. God is God, and He can do what He wills with whomever He likes. I have nothing to say in regard to my comforts — that is, if it means going against my heavenly instructions.

Cannot God require great sacrifices from me, since He gave me His own Life as my own? Did He give me His Life so that I might squander it in peace and safety? No, He gave me Himself and stays close to me so that I might sacrifice myself as He has sacrificed Himself over and over.

Last night Father showed me the weight of my fast. He pictured it as if I were a general commanding my troops, or even a king. I had legions of forces and twelve cities that I was defending from the attack of alien forces. He showed me that with the invaders came an image they worshipped. If I took from the image one single potato, or chip, my forces would all die and my cities fall. Even in the face of starvation, I must not yield to appetite or all would be lost. With Jesus, his forty-day fast at the beginning of his work gave him victory over appetite. My fast came at the end. Even while starving I could not reach over and taste one bean, or piece of potato. All the while everyone around me urged me to eat. If I had taken one bite of food, the mob would have rejoiced and mocked. They did not succeed.

I have wondered why I would try to get the prison to feed me. Why did I even bring up the argument in court? Does someone on a fast care about his tray? Since the beginning here, I have felt compelled to test the system. My complaint forms were stated as something I needed to do to get things right, so I tested the words of men. I did their paperwork, and it made no difference. I tested the case worker, I tested the wardens. I tested the hospital and the COs. I tested the legal system and the courts. I also tested the police and sheriff. They did not know that Someone was in their midst keeping record. Someone came in human flesh and tested their deeds. They all failed at keeping their word, and in the case of the prison, they found that I kept mine. They never expected to see me keep my word. Even after court they did not start feeding right away, because they had no supplies and did not know where to get them. They never thought that they would have to force feed me. I kept my word, but all men seem to easily cave in to appetite or convenience. They expected me to also. Now that I had tested them and found them untrue, I needed not to sustain myself any longer. They may keep their trays, I don’t need them.

This morning I contemplated the suffering I have endured and it is clear that God has taken pleasure in hurting me, just as it pleased Him to hurt Jesus. “It pleased the Lord to bruise him.” “He was perfected by the things he suffered.” “He learned obedience by the things that he suffered.” I have seen God work miracles that introduced me to waves of torture. And I have also seen Him work a few miracles the other way, so that I wasn’t hurt too much. The tube insertion was one of the most painful events of my life. The doctor told me that it should not have hurt that much, but said that my condition might have contributed to the painfulness, my condition of extreme dehydration and starvation. I have seen Father actually bring to nothing all of our efforts to free me. This is all in God’s design. His deliverance will be the same. It will be a miracle of His own direction.

My fast, nearly to death, corresponded to the death of Jesus. I did not die, but he did. His death was the 9th hour of the day, and my “fast unto death” was at the 9th hour in the final Day of Atonement we are in. Truly I came close to death. Kidney failure was hours away. My weight was 110 lbs. I have been rehydrated so my weight is now 120 lbs. I don’t drink water or eat the tray that comes three times a day, but I have been fed through IV and tube. Your food offering in court may have saved me, also. I had no problem keeping it down. I was very cold in court and did some shaking because of it.

Coming back from court one of the COs said to me, “I think you got a raw deal, but I don’t agree with your fast.” Everyone seems afraid that I will not eat. I still don’t know why. I cannot understand their world and they cannot understand mine. We are miles apart. Whenever I think of ten years in prison for this (actually life), waves of nausea sweep over me. It is unthinkable. But to them that seems so much like nothing. Ten years to them is like a week at the lake. It all mystifies me. Truly, I am not from here. The people feel that as long as they have consciousness and food they have it made. They have no “issues.” But my life is about issues, and mere consciousness is meaningless to me. Food is almost a curiosity.

I have been confirmed in all that I have done so far. Over and over Father has given me visions showing the necessity of the actions He has forced upon me. I know not the outcome, but only that it will be according to His plan. I live one day at a time — one hour at a time.

I am not sustaining myself now — just taking each day as it comes. I have nothing more to test or prove. I feel that my deliverance will come by some force from God. I will take up my life when Father forces me to take it up again. Otherwise I will lay here in my covenant not to bow to the king’s image. I must always be true to the Voice Who speaks to me and the One who hurts me or blesses me according to His will. There are things happening in the hearts of men that we know little of. I even see it here, as people have followed my cause. No one wanted me to die but several have told me that they thought I was wronged by the state. Everyone sees the issues and a work is being done by it. I am content that “Thy will be done.” “Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

You have heard that I have now been taking some fortified soy milk. This is true. This product was being used to force-feed me against my will by order of the court. A tube was inserted into my stomach and the liquid forced into me through that tube. The liquid was also very nauseous to me, and I could tolerate very little of it. I was still starving because this diet did not feed me. I thought that the tube would be used to put a meal from a plastic bag into me. I did not think that it would be used to pour “Ensure” down into my stomach. At one of these feeding times God instructed me to not resist their force but simply take the product through the mouth. It would be forced into my stomach anyway, so there was no difference. Also, this food was viewed by heaven as somehow different than the daily tray. It was viewed as extraordinary means to save life. It was medicinal, given in a hospital setting and not the setting of prison. At that very time also, God worked a miracle in me and I was given the power to tolerate this product. I could never take the product before this time without nausea. So this is what I am doing now. In a hospital setting I am not resisting their force in regard to this product manufactured on the outside. This also applies to the water that is processed for my IV. It is viewed differently by heaven than the water of incarceration. God has not given me to resist the IV.

But with the normal prison food offered by the state, and its water, I am commanded to abstain. I cannot take the faucet water. I saw a hand over the faucet in the beginning, and God was telling me, “Don’t drink from here.” If I were forced to take the ordinary water of incarceration, representing the acceptance of the status quo, I would take that as a most blasphemous act against the voice of God to my soul. The state would literally be giving God the finger in His face, for I have clearly stated that I was given commandment by God to not partake of it. It would be an extreme violation of all that is holy. I would rather be executed than drink from the cisterns of force and make-believe.

There is also another instruction that was previously unclear to me, that is now clear. God told me, “Do not sustain yourself.” This was first given me in the Clayton jail. Was I not to eat? Was I not to wash? I did not know what it meant. In Clayton it worked its way out by my beloved church sustaining me with food and water. I was sustained by outside forces of intervention. My manna came from heaven.

I see that now also. I am not to look for ways to buy food for myself. I am not to try and save myself. I will eat “that which comes of itself” but not that which comes from the forces of make-believe. The forces of the beast want to kill me. So, let them have my body, but they will never have my soul. Jesus said, “Those who believe in me never die.” So I am not sustaining myself. I will not buy food for myself and feed myself. I will not complain to get better this or better that. I will not play the mutual manipulation game of “If you do this, I will give you that.” No, I will just live one day at a time and be sustained only by the hand of God. “Think not what ye shall eat.” I will not take from the image of the beast to sustain myself, but only from the hand of God.

I do not know what I must face in the future, for God has not revealed that to me, but I do know my instructions and that is to not take the beast’s food or water. I can only take food and water from the source of love and truth — even from the hands of believers who value the mark of God above the mark of the beast. So I have two instructions that have been clearly revealed over time. I cannot take the state’s food offerings and I cannot sustain myself. At present, there are no other instructions. I will carry out my instructions as I have been brought to understand them. I have no sense of changing my mind and I get no intimations that God is frustrated and will now try plan “B.” No, God is on track.

I just visited with Mr. Garcia the warden. We had a good talk, I think. Nothing came of it except we did have a meeting of the minds. He is looking for options but he has none yet. I am not looking for options, but only instructions. I don’t have options, only service to the Father. I only have obedience rather than negotiations.

My love stays stronger than ever. My spirits are soft and light. I don’t feel that I have any war to fight. My life is not my problem. My life is only hid with Christ in God. My heart is with your heart and my prayers continually rise in your behalf.

So here we stand, beloved. We stand together, suffer together, sacrifice together and God is in us together. The love of God in you has connected with the love of God in me and a great Light results — the light of pure love. God must yield to sacrificial love. He cannot resist that over which nothing is greater. We pray for His deliverance and we look forward to it. He has forced His will with us as He has taken everything into His own hands. And I do not expect His purposes to stop now because men have made things “too hard” for Him.

So little children, this is what my Father awakened me with. Of course there is also that ever present love for you, that the Father feels for you within me. It never goes away. How my heart pours out for you all. I can barely contain it. My thoughts continually go over our recent events in court and afterward. I think of how Father has led in the past and I cannot see anything but perfection, no matter the outcome. I pray continually for Father’s name to be glorified. Soon the antitypical Day of Atonement will be over, and “that which is holy shall be vindicated.”

Much love,

Michael

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