For weeks the Lord had been talking to me about Ezekiel’s wheels being relevant to the prayerwalk around Essex. He’d been pulling me towards exploring going ‘farther up and farther in’ but I became frustrated at my lack of perception and understanding about the wheels. I could not see what he was trying to show me. I felt the two concepts were linked but could not make the connection. So, he sent me Andy!
When God pinged it for me (pinging is a bit like sonar – I get a resonating sound in my spirit that tells me to seek deeper because there’s something there) I sought him out…and he downloaded the following so quickly I could hardly keep up writing it down.
Of course, the living creatures were seraphs (sarap (Heb.) = to burn) and the plural is sarapyim (seraphim) – beings around God’s throne. The seraphim move around the earth, creating portals into heaven (they did this for Jacob in his dream if you remember) and we can call on heaven to open up. If this is true and a wheel has been walked around the borders of Essex, which was my original vision, the wheel can become a portal for God’s people to access heaven. Has he given us an open heaven over the county? (I ask because I don't want to be presumptuous.)
We cranked the wheel’s handle by walking a path from Waltham Abbey through Leaden Roding, along Stane Street (the ancient trackway and Roman road) to Braintree (Branuch’s Tree in Anglo-Saxon) and we turned the wheel with this handle. The wheel was also struck a glancing blow by Kath Garda's team. If this cranking and striking caused the wheel to move and opened up a portal, it must be occupied, held and stewarded for the kingdom of God.
As we go farther up and farther in, we’ll gain more understanding of how to occupy, hold and steward. The earthly gateways (the gateway towns such as Clacton and Harlow) become even more important to hold because from the earth there is now access to heaven. We are beginning to understand our mandate to live from the heavenly places down to earth and release the heavenly and redemptive 'Essex' down to earth. Much more needs to be revealed about this…but are we not a people hungry for this understanding?
The portal moves so it doesn’t matter any longer where the geographical centre of Essex is. This moving portal will allow us to access heaven wherever prayer is going up, wherever worship is going up (such as on 24th October in Thurrock with Godfrey Birtill (see www.transformationthurrock.com ) – the true centre for Essex is Jesus and the throne room.
The wheels are the doorway to further up and further in – they come in response to hunger and by revelation. Later the seraph came to Ezekiel and picked him up and he flew – he was taken up to see things going on in Israel. The eyes could represent what we’ll see as we appropriate and hold the ‘between’ places in heaven and see from there – the eyes were in the wheels, so we need to see from heaven to earth.
We had already seen something going on in Essex both on the earth and by revelation – the five giant chairs at Cressing Temple (photo below) next to the lake. They spoke to us of demonic council (possibly even suggesting the nephilim (Gen 6.4)) – creating a counterfeit gateway for enemy activity. The location is that of one of the most significant Knights Templar sites in the UK. This gateway must be taken, occupied and held for the Kingdom of God.
Five giant chairs at Cressing Temple 2009
In Ezekiel 10, the wheels are again called whirling wheels (Heb. = galgal vs 13 meaning ‘chariot wheels’) and Ezekiel recognises them as those he saw earlier. They seem to be the wheels of God’s chariot, confirming that they are part of a moving portal to the throne room. (Interestingly, this word galgal also doubles up to mean whirlwind!)
A confirmation of the presence of God’s throne in the whirling portal came from Daniel 7.9 where there is mention of how the throne of the Ancient of Days was flaming with fire and had wheels (galgal) which were all ablaze.
So, what now? Well, a week later in the prayer room I was praying again about the wheels as I had the same question. I drew the whirlwind in my notebook under the influence of the Holy Spirit and put Ezekiel in the picture. As I did so, I realised afresh that it was Ezekiel’s presence by the Kebar River that caused God to grace the earth with his presence – Ezekiel was in prayer and the heavens opened (Ezek 1.1 & 2) and the word of the Lord came to him.
I saw that the Lord will move his portals around the earth dependent upon where the worship and prayer is going up – we, then, in the Spirit, are the ladders of heaven as Jesus was (John 1.51). Not only can unbelievers access heaven through Christ in us (the hope of glory) but we need to learn to live in the heavenly places (Eph 2.6). As we do this, heaven breaks through and the kingdom is advanced. We can carry his great love for us and his presence wherever we go, releasing it on the earth. (I am grateful to both Justin Abraham and Jamie Galloway for giving me greater understanding of this truth.)
It is what and where we were always meant to be. Hallelujah! As Godfrey has so recently sung, in a resonance of this, “We are the people we’ve been waiting for…”
And, just so you don’t think walking Essex was not a joy – here is a photo of one of the most beautiful parts.
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