The people of Sleepy Hollow

In the KJV, 2 Samuel 5:6-10 reads as follows:

"⁶And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. ⁷Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. ⁸And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. ⁹So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. ¹⁰And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him." (2 Samuel 5:6-10)

The word "gutter" in verse 8 (translated as "water tunnel" in the NASB version) was translated from the Hebrew word tsinnuwr, which can be translated as "pipe, spout, water conduit". This word is only used twice in the Old Testament, once in verse 8 above and the other time in verse 7 of the following passage, translated as "waterspouts":

"⁶O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. ⁷Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. ⁸Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. ⁹I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? ¹⁰As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? ¹¹Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." (Psalm 42:6-11)

Notice, therefore, that tsinnuwr is spiritually related to the moving of waters that run very deep. As we have studied before, Psalm 42 speaks of God's green-horse riders who are trapped in the desolation of Sheol and who cry out to God for redemption from the deepest parts of their soul. Thus, it is no coincidence that the word tsinnuwr is derived from a word that means "to be hollow". Only those who are willing to die a green-horse "death" and who descend to Sheol's hollowness can hear the "noise of God's waterspouts" (v7), the noise of God's tsinnuwrs. It is during the 5th-seal stage of your walk that your soul is prepared to interact with the depths of God's own soul. As you "sleep" in your bubble of 5th-seal hibernation, your soul is "hollowed out" and "deepened" to the point of becoming like a "bottomless abyss" (Revelation 9:1). That prepares you to house the fullness of God's Deity within you (Colossians 2:9, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 John 1:7).

As I wrote the words above, the Lord reminded me of the famous story called "The legend of Sleepy Hollow". If you read through it, you will recognise many spiritual elements that point to green-horse Death and Sheol. The name "Ichabod Crane", the phrase "enraptured Ichabod", the reference to his "green eyes" rolling over the "fat meadow lands", the name "Katrina", the name "Tarry Town", and the fact that Washington Irving (an American) wrote this story whilst living in England all point prophetically to how America rejected God's green-horse visitation in 2005, forcing His remnant spirit to take refuge in the spiritual meadowlands of Britannia, whilst America's latter-day awakening process was delayed for 4 years. Without knowing it, Washington Irving, a native of New York City, was laying out spiritual principles in his Sleepy Hollow story that would play out in America's spiritual atmosphere 185 years later.

{You can read the full story of the legend of Sleepy Hollow at amlit.com. You can read more about the writing of this story at wikipedia.org. You can also read more about the life of Washington Irving at wikipedia.org.}

Anti-lameness and anti-blindness waters

As we have studied before, flowing waters are a figure of emotions allowed to flow in the prophetic. Therefore, the tsinnuwr of moving waters mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:8 (and Psalm 42:7) points to the release of prophetic emotions that defy Jebusite oppression. As we have studied before, Jebusites are "slappers" who are quick to punish anyone who dares to challenge the human structures of Amorite kings. They are suppressors of any emotional outburst that may cause Amorite-defying chaos. As a result, Jebusites produce an atmosphere of spiritual "dryness" in which any prophetic flow that challenges Girgashite traditions is quickly beaten into silence. This atmosphere breeds nations of lame Perizzites who see themselves as small and insignificant and who never dare to be independent thinkers or to dream big dreams, since they are indoctrinated into thinking that the only ones who can be "great" are the Amorite giants that the Jebusites uphold. This is the spiritual reason why Psalm 42:6 (quoted above) mentions the "hill Mizar", since "Mizar" means "small" and is derived from the Hebrew word tsaar meaning "to grow insignificant, small". The word "hill" in "hill Mizar" was translated from the word har, which is the Hebrew word for "mountain" or "mount" (and is translated as such in the KJV 89% of the 546 times it appears in the Old Testament). Therefore, the word har points, in a negative sense, to the Amorite spirit, since the word "Amorite" means "mountain people". By contrast, when har is used in a positive sense, it points to the God-greatness potential inherent in all of God's people, even if they seem "small and insignificant" ("Mizar") in the eyes of natural man.

As we have studied before, Perizzites are people who have allowed their spiritual vision to become limited, which turns them into spiritually blind men and women enclosed within a limiting "village" where no one dreams anymore. Therefore, as the Jebusite suppression continues over a region, that region becomes enveloped in blinding darkness. As the spiritual oppression intensifies, geysers of Hivite self-indulgence begin to surface. Just like the Perizzite spirit, the Hivite spirit is a blinding "village" spirit that causes people to limit their vision to the simple pursuit of hedonistic pleasures. Thus, a strong Jebusite presence sets the stage for the pervasive blindness of the enclosing Perizzite and Hivite "village" spirits.

In order to escape the island of lameness and blindness forged by the Jebusites, you must be willing to operate in the deep prophetic waters of God. You must refuse the artificial dryness imposed by man and reject the soiled and blinding geysers that man will offer to provide artificial relief for that dryness. Your soul must continue to long for the deepness of God. You must be willing to wail in the Spirit and to cry out for the manifestation of God's fullness in your own flesh and in the flesh of all men. You must prevent satan quelling your longing for the full metamorphosis of all things (1 Thessalonians 5:17-24). The enemy will try to coerce you into a "conformity zone", a conformity village that blinds you to the greatness of God and cripples the God-potential in man. You must continue to lament and be willing to endure overwhelming sadness and depression in the "bottomless abyss" until the fullness of God's purposes are manifested. This implies a constant shedding of tears by your soul until the work is done and the harvest is reaped.

Pipe work

The Hebrew word tsinnuwr used in 2 Samuel 5:8 and Psalm 42:7 is related to the word tsantarah, which means "pipe" and is used only once in the Old Testament, in verse 12 of the following passage:

"¹¹Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? ¹²And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? ¹³And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. ¹⁴Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11-14)

As we have said before, gold, when used in a positive context, is a figure of God's Glory. Therefore, the "two golden pipes that empty the golden oil out of themselves" (v12) represent the believers under the 2-witness anointing who serve as conduits of God's Glory from Heaven into the Earth. In order to be such a conduit, you must be willing to believe that you can reach up to the presence of God Himself and affect the atmosphere of the entire Earth by acting as a "chariot of fire", a conveyer of God into the Earth. Therefore, those who have been spiritually crippled by the Jebusites cannot be these pipes, for they have been shamed into believing that they are not worthy of such a feat.

In the natural, pipes are often hidden underground, performing an invisible but essential work outside of natural man's view. As we have studied before, God's green-horse remnant are weaving a complex "root web" underground. To be a pipe of God, you must be willing to be a "weaving root", and you must be willing to weave underground, which implies dying and being banished to difficult spiritual places where you are to bear burdens that others will neither see nor be interested in enduring.

Led down

The Hebrew word tsinnuwr meaning "pipe" is related to the word tsaad meaning "step, pace". This word appears 14 times in the Old Testament, the 11th occurrence being the following:

"A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:9)

The word "directeth" was mistranslated from the word kuwn meaning "to establish, arrange, fix, make firm". Therefore, the word kuwn in the verse above has the connotation of someone making hard determinations for you, which points to the following passage:

"¹⁸Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. ¹⁹ This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me." (John 21:18-19)

As we have studied before, this passage points to the ride through Death and Sheol that God's green-horse riders must gallop through. By contrast, the green-horse riders' arch-nemesis, Korah, is a Hivite schemer who fights and claws his way through life in a desperate effort to prove to all that he is not naked and worthy of pity, even when he evidently is. This is the reason why the first part of Proverbs 16:9 above speaks of man's "devising" heart. In order to be a "pipe" (tsinnuwr) believer, therefore, you must be willing to allow the Lord to arrange a path for your steps (tsaad) that leads down to Sheol. Such are the believers who can go through the water channel (tsinnuwr) and defeat the blind and lame Perizzite and Hittite spirits during the 5th-seal period. Such are the believers who can draw God's vindicating vengeance upon those who uphold the pastoral matriarchy:

"¹⁹Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. ²²Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons. ²³O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. ²⁴O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate." (Jeremiah 10:19-25)

[The word "steps" at the end of verse 23 was translated from tsaad. The word "direct" towards the end of verse 23 was translated from the word kuwn used in Proverbs 16:9.]

The illogical chain gang across the valley of Baca

The Hebrew word tseadah, which means "marching" and can also mean "anklet, stepping chains", is derived from the word tsaad studied above. The word tseadah only appears 3 times in the Old Testament, the first time being in the verse 24 of the following passage, translated as "going":

"¹⁷But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. ¹⁸The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁹And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. ²⁰And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim. ²¹And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them. ²²And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. ²³And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. ²⁴And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines. ²⁵And David did so, as the LORD had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer." (2 Samuel 5:17-25)

Notice how the above passage speaks of a David whose will was totally surrendered to God's. Instead of "devising his own ways" to fight the Philistines, David would allow himself to be led by God's strategies (rather than his own). This correlates with what we have seen so far regarding the words tsinnuwr ("pipe, water channel") and tsaad. Notice also how David asked God twice about the way to fight the Philistines. Most believers live out their lives as if God did not exist, making decisions on their own the Girgashite way. Some believers do try to ask God what His will is regarding various issues, but they generally settle for the first answer they receive from God, never bothering to ask Him again; in other words, the first answer to any specific question becomes the permanent, immutable answer to that question. This is due to Canaanite laziness that prevents them going through the "extra effort" required to ask God again; it is also due to Girgashite conformity that makes them think that asking the first time around was "enough spirituality" for one issue. This turns them into semi-surrendered believers who never allow God to take full control of their lives. As you can see from the above passage, the Lord's second answer to David's same question was different from the first answer. Since David chose to ask again, he received a transformational answer that allowed him to crush the Philistines from Geba to Gazer.

Because David dared to "ask again", he was given access to a spiritual answer that was completely illogical to the natural mind. What did a "sound of marching on the tops of mulberry trees" have to do with the best military strategy to defeat the Philistines? To the natural mind, such an answer seems completely irrelevant and unrelated to the original question. Yet, to the green-horse "illogical" mind of fractal believers, these answers make spiritual sense because they understand that everything that is visible is a manifestation of things invisible (Hebrews 11:3). They understand that things on Earth are driven by spiritual infra-roots that lie deep in the underground, far beyond the view of the soul-centred mind. They are able to understand this because they are willing to weave through the underground, like "Tola" worms that perform God's mighty spiritual operations outside of man's view. As a result, they gain a firsthand view of these invisible roots, and they become aware of their undeniable reality and relevance in the affairs of men.

As we said above, the word tseadah (translated as "going" in 2 Samuel 5:24 and 1 Chronicles 14:15) can mean "anklet, stepping chain" and is translated as such in its only other appearance (Isaiah 3:20). Therefore, the word tseadah has the spiritual connotation of shackles placed around your ankles in order to take you to places you would rather not go to. To be a "pipe" (tsinnuwr) believer, you must be willing to allow the Lord to chain your ankles and make you part of His "chain gang".

The phrase "mulberry trees" in 2 Samuel 5:24 above was translated from the word baka, and it is a reference to a shrub that drips sap when it is cut. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the word baka also means "weeping" and is the name of the valley mentioned in the following passage:

"⁵Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. ⁶Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. ⁷They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." (Psalm 84:5-7)

Notice how this passage speaks of a man who shackles his will (i.e.- his heart) to the ways of God. Such believers are willing to go through the valley of weeping (i.e.- the valley of the shadow of Death) if that is what it takes to accomplish God's will. As indicated in verse 6, these people bring forth water from deep, underground wells as they pass through the valley of weeping, and they trigger latter rain from above. As indicated in verse 7, these believers are the ones who appear before God; they can do so because they have been willing to stand firm in an uncompromising righteousness that refuses to yield to the matriarchy of the soul, even if that means filling a bucket of many bitter tears that taste of death (Psalm 24:3-6). Out of such buckets, however, God shall pour forth rains from Heaven, rains of judgement against Hivite Agag and rains of redemption for the entire Earth (Numbers 24:7-9, Revelation 8:3-5).

Even though it may seem as if only God's green-horse remnant are the only ones shackled at the ankles, the truth is that those who uphold the matriarchy of the "female" soul are also shackled at the ankles, as shown by the 3rd and last passage in the Old Testament where the word tseadah is used:

"¹⁶Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: ¹⁷Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. ¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, ¹⁹The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, ²⁰The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, ²¹The rings, and nose jewels, ²²The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, ²³The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. ²⁴And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. ²⁵Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. ²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground." (Isaiah 3:16-26)

[The phrase "ornaments of the legs" in verse 20 was translated from the word tseadah]

Notice how this passage addresses the "daughters of Zion". Contrary to what simplistic, literally-minded "Bible scholars" might think, this is not because God had something against the Israelite women of those days per se. If that were the case, we would have to assume that literal children and women were placed in Israel's leadership roles in those days, since Isaiah declares a few verses earlier (in Isaiah 3:4 and 3:12) that God would "give children to be their princes" and that "children are their oppressors and women rule over them". Thus, the reference to the "daughters of Zion" is a reference to the domination of the "female" soul that works to stifle the manifestation of God's "male" spirit. Like a Jezebel or a Vashti, the matriarchal soul (which rules over the institutionalised Church) is an arrogant and defiant whore who likes to parade her ministerial grace and her hegemony over soul-bound men who have allowed their spiritual nature to be crippled into oblivion (v25). The matriarchal soul likes to flaunt her "freedom" from the Spirit, without realising that she is, in fact, a pathetic slave to sin, shackled at the ankles by the very anklets she loves to flaunt.

The decreeing remnant kings

The sign that David was to wait for before attacking the Philistines the second time was "the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees" (2 Samuel 5:24). The word "sound" was translated from the word qowl, which means "voice" and is derived from another word meaning "to call aloud"; the word "tops" was translated from the Hebrew word rosh, which literally means "head". In Scripture, the "head" is spiritually related to "kingship". Therefore, the "sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees" refers to the "loud exercise of kingly authority" by the chain-gang remnant who have traversed the valley of Baca. As they complete their journey, God's Spirit of Pergamos becomes more and more evident in them, and their kingly authority to decree fierce judgements intensifies all the more. That is the reason why the Lord says to David "thou shalt bestir thyself" (v24). The word "bestir" was translated from the Hebrew word charats, which literally means "to cut, sharpen, decree, be decisive". In other words, the Lord was telling to David to declare a decisive decree bent on mercilessly cutting down the enemy for good. That is what "water-channel" believers do; when time comes to move in a kingly and decisive way to cut down the proud spirit of Amorite kings on Earth, they do so, even when these dastardly kings will do everything in their power to deny the remnant's spiritual kingship in Christ.

Dear believer, as I asked the Lord what we were to post next, He brought to my mind the email asking about the "water channel", and He said, "Please do this one next". I was stunned by the word "Please", given that it was God speaking into my heart. He knows that I would have gladly worked on this "water channel" question without a need to hear Him say "Please" (for He is my Lord and my God, and I am His slave). But, somehow, I felt that the Lord was trying to drive home a point by saying "Please". As I meditated on this, I began to understand what the Lord was trying to say. Jebusites have a tendency to put "little" people down and to aggrandise the "big" people. Jebusites hate it when they see the "little" people thinking of themselves "more than they should". As people without the "first love", Jebusites are "caste enforcers" who fail to see the prophetic and evangelistic potential in others. They hate it when the "little people" dare to dream that they can be One with God. A shout of "Who do you think you are?", is their immediate reply to such "blasphemy" (John 8:53, John 10:30-33). God's reply to their question is the following:

They are My chosen people. They are My sons and My daughters. They are the ones I gave My life for and the ones who have given their life for Me. They are My beloved, the apple of My eyes. They are the ones My heart longs for and yearns for. They have My DNA. They have My spiritual makeup inside of them. Cursed is anyone who curses them, and blessed is anyone who blesses them. They are My Kings, for they have My nature coursing through their veins, and they seek after My will and My righteousness. By disrespecting their Kingship, you are disrespecting Mine. Without you realising it, I have placed your destiny in their hands, and they have the authority to decree life or death over you, redemption or destruction, prosperity or devastation. Just as I did with "little" David, your Jebusite city is in their hands. That is who they are. By publicly revealing that you do not know who they are, you are publicly revealing that you do not know who I AM, and, they, My people, will publicly shame you for it.

The "water-tunnel" (or "water-channel") Church is different from the "Ordinary Canal Church". It is a Church that believes that God's people are called to be Extraordinary. The Jebusites want an ordinary Church operating under ordinary human structures enforced by the Jebusite spirit (Matthew 20:25). God wants a Church operating under extraordinary paradigms propelled by the Spirit of God (Matthew 20:26). Such a Church is a Church filled with green-horse, Sleepy-Hollow people.