Everyone I know who was alive and old enough to understand the events of 9/11 remembers where they were on the day and time of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It is one of those moments in history that is indelibly etched on your heart and mind.
For me, it was a regular work day. Shortly after both of the World Trade Center towers were struck and co-worker came and brought me to an area in our office building where you could watch all the activity in a technology command center including an array of TVs. Multiple TVs were tuned to the live video of the towers burning. A growing group of us stood watching in horror. Within a few minutes, the surreal experience of watching the first tower fall occurred. It was so unbelievable that my mind couldn’t process what I was seeing at first. Even as I began to register what was happening, I still stood in disbelief.
I had no words or thoughts. Just watching in shock. Somewhere in the midst of the towers collapsing, in my mind I heard the Lord clearly say to me, “It Has Begun”.
Immediately, I was transported in my mind back to a memory from childhood. I had ask the Lord something when I was 9 or 10 years old. “It Has Begun” was the answer to my prayer. I had not thought about this prayer since I was a child. It was not something that I asked the Lord more than once. It was a key question to the Lord when I asked it, but I had long forgotten it until this happened and I was reminded of my childhood prayer.
At the age of 9 or 10 years old, I read my first book in the Bible. I didn’t do it because I was interested. I did it because I was being punished. I was a challenging child for my parents. They had difficulty figuring out how to discipline me effectively. My mother resorted to trying various types of discipline trying to find something that would be an effective discipline. This brings me to my first book in the Bible. My mother decided that I should write a book report of some length. This was one of her more unusual attempts to find an effective means of discipline. She gave me the choice of picking any book of a bookshelf, reading it and writing a book report and presenting it to her. I glanced over at the bookshelf and somewhat randomly selected a book. It was a commentary on the Book of Revelation. It was not a small book. It was approximately 2 inches thick.
I read it and the Book of Revelation to go with the commentary. I wrote my book report and presented it to my mother. My mother recounted to me later that she was surprised at the level of comprehension I attained from this exercise. She realized that I was understanding much of what I had read. I am not saying I understood the underlying meaning of the Book of Revelation, but I did understand its presentation and many aspects of this book in the Bible.
This brings me to the question that I asked God. Sometime during this process of reading and writing this book report, I asked God, “Please tell me when this starts”. At age 9-10, I had not heard the voice of the Lord in my life. I had an ongoing one-way discussion in my heart and an ongoing sense that God was always there and He was my friend. So, I talked to God. In time, I would begin to hear Him and we would converse.
So, during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, God answered a childhood prayer. He reminded me of my question (please tell me when the key events of the Book of Revelation start) and the answer was “It Has Begun”.
Yes, I know this is a big statement. I am only sharing my conversation with the Lord on that day. His speaking to my heart was a big deal. In fact, as I stood there, my mind began to consider what would happen next because of this attack. I lived in Texas during this time and I already knew about President George W. Bush and what he was like. I had learned about him before he became President. As the day of 9/11 progressed, I considered all of this and what I knew about George W. Bush. I knew on that day that we were going to war in the Middle East. I mentally analyzed and calculated a number of things that would occur. These were logical extrapolations (not speaking from the Lord).
The best picture I can share which explains what I was understanding on 9/11 is a line of dominoes setup to fall in a line. 9/11 was a key event that was like a first domino that would knock over the dominoes that followed. Once you knock down the first domino in a chain the rest will fall one by one in order until the last one.
This particular speaking from the Lord set me on a path to begin to uncover many things in the coming years. During the next year or so, 9/11 prompted me to begin to look into America and its founding. I began to identify troubling things related to the foundation of the US government and the founding fathers. I did not draw any conclusions at this time. I just identified things I could not reconcile with my understanding of God and His point of view. God’s speaking to me on 9/11 sparked this process and this began to prepare more for what was coming in the future when I moved to the Washington, D.C area.
— A. Layman