Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el!

I want to begin today by testifying to you all how much I love the Sabbath and Rosh Chodesh and it is not, as you might suppose, just because it is a day of rest and a time to assemble with brethren. The main reason I love these days is because Yahweh keeps His promise to give a prophetic word as He did anciently through the prophets to those who will follow His tavnith or pattern in trusting and obedience to the mitzvot (commandments). And since we have started observing the Creation Calendar, Yahweh has not failed once to deliver an important revelation to us on either the Sabbath or New Moon.

The last few days the revelatory channels have, as you might say, been 'blocked up' by a flood of enemy interference. Yesterday we had to make a very important decision for our family and ministry and there was a deadline to be met yesterday evening on very short notice. Once the sabbath began and we had eaten our sabbath meal, we assembled, as is our custom, for worship. As I sat down waiting to teach I went into prayer to ask for a clear word from Him concerning the important matter. Immediately, instantly, I heard His voice say: "Do nothing". This was not what I had expected or wanted necessarily, but it was clear enough. This morning, when I awoke, without asking a single question, I heard Him say to me: "Don't worry".

Isn't that so much like our Heavenly Father? He is direct, brief, to the point, and always on time! And time and time again He proves that He is the Elohim (God) of the last moment, trying our faith, inviting us to be more and more dependent on Him, and learning that that He is totally dependent and reliable. But that is not what I want to talk about today, for after He spoke those two words to me this morning, He opened up a whole new field of understanding that I have been struggling to find for decades. And it follows on smoothly from what I have been talking about for the last two days.

The catalyst for bringing up this subject came at the dinner table last night while we were discussing a tragedy involving love, stupid choices, betrayal, suicide and a recent funeral. A chain of events beginning with a young man falling in love with someone who cheated on him and played around with his feelings and leading to a violent suicide that has deeply impacted the lives of many, to organ donations and a heart transplant that has already saved the life of one person, and finally with a funeral service in which the presiding minister led seven mourners to salvation in Yah'shua (Jesus), depict the strange, bewildering and often apparently contradictory tapestry that is life. One thing that is certain is that our lives are closely intertwined in the lives of others and that even in the midst of horrible experiences leading to needless death, physical lives and spiritual lives are being simultaneously saved because of that death. We try, in vain, to connect the different events together as we try to make sense of it all, and about all we can say is that Elohim (God) is at work and that He never slumbers.

Then, at the dinner table, as we were discussing this, one of my children asked why this young man fell in love with a woman who played some part in the tragic sequence of events that led to his untimely death, to which my wife replied: "Love is blind". I knew what she meant and was trying to say but at the same time I knew that the answer was inadequate. It must have sat in my subconscious that evening and last night for in the morning Yahweh explained some very, very important things about what is inaccurately called, "falling in love".

Firstly, let me say right off that true love - true biblical ahavah (Hebrew) or agapé (Greek) - is never blind. It is the most conscious form of love there is. But PASSION WITHOUT AHAVAH IS MOST DEFINITELY BLIND...AND DANGEROUS.

One of the curious things about 'falling in love' is that it can be, and usually is, both intensely joyful as well as intensely painful. It takes only the flip of a switch within us to change it from being one to the other. It has been described LIKE a disease, an obsession, even paranoia. It can dismiss all reason and lead the soul into all kinds of dangerous paths. When it is not reciprocated it is hell. When it is, it is bliss. But even in reciprosity, there can be much pain and suffering because of it. Terrible decisions are made because of it and some of the mismatches engaged because of it have led to tragedy. It can override not just common sense but morality and ethics. People have murdered for it, committed adultery for it, smashed up families because of it, and driven themselves and others to suicide. Cleopatra and Mark Antony are a classic historical tale. Wars have been fought because of it and thousands have died for it. King David, in a moment of weakness, succumbed to it. And some of you may have read recently about a terrible case of passion in Syria, of a boy who fell in love with a girl, was rejected, and so as to prevent her falling into the hands of another, threw acid in her face, permanently blinding her and disfiguring her face. As his punishment, this young man, overwhelmed by passion, is to be punished by having five drops of acid put into each eye to blind him too.

What is this mysterious force that drives us, exalts us and sometimes destroys us? More important, perhaps, than even that, is how are we supposed to use it to the glory of Yahweh? How can we control it?

This Yahweh showed me a vision today and I engaged in a dialogue with Him whose substance I will do my best to reproduce here, because I feel it is very important. You may never have had this subject presented to you in this way before, and there will be a certain advantage to be gained if you have followed what Yahweh has been showing us over the months and years in this ministry, for in many ways what is now presented naturally follows on from all of that.

A word of explanation to show you how Yahweh had been preparing me for this. Over the last few weeks I have been reading over and over again materials on the Three Gorges Dam in China in an old 1997 National Geographic magazine printed 14 years ago. At the time it was still under construction. Not until this morning, after the revelation, did I look it up online to discover that whilst this mammoth project was completed in 2008, when the 26th turbine commenced commercial operation, it was not until now - May 2011 - that six additional turbines in the underground power plant became fully operational, putting everything online. Now is that a coincidence or what?

As I said, I have read this old article many, many times, not knowing why I was so fascinated, other than the fact that I have a very special place in my heart for China. The construction of this, the largest dam in the world has displaced 1,300,000 people for whom new cities had to be built prior to the flooding of the Yangtsze, the third longest river in the world.

But now to the vision and understanding. I saw a vision of a large dam and I saw water gushing and thundering through some turbine vent into a pre-cut rocky channel beneath it. As I watched this scene, associations began forming in my mind. The vast body of water above the dam was like the accumulated passions of the soul, a huge reservoir of potential energy, released periodically to ease the pressure on the dam wall. This energy is used for divers creative activities in life. The dam represents the covenants we make in Yah'shua (Jesus) which enable us to control our passions in His strength rather than in our own will. Since Yah'shua (Jesus) is the controlling power of the covenants, He not only manages our 'reservoir' for us but provides constructive and creative channels for release. In the pre-marital period of celibacy, the sexual urges in particular are transformed into other impulses until they can be safely released following the covenant of marriage that enables Yah'shua (Jesus) to regulate them lawfully.

'Falling in love' is the sudden, explosive release of a cocktail of energies that are spiritual, psychic and physical. Not only are pure urges of the soul suddenly released but all the impure, unredeemed and fleshy urges too. Without the proper cutting of channels below the covenant-dam wall, which occurs through a combination of self-will and the supernatural activity of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in the pre-marital years, haphazzard, confused and violent emotional 'flooding' results - often described as 'torture' - that buffets the soul in all directions.

It was then that Yahweh showed me something interesting and as far as I can put it into words it runs something like this: when He is on controll of the surrendered soul walking in covenant and therefore divine tavnith or pattern, all that is within a soul is both released and mixed in a controlled spiritual environment within. As this 'water' shoots out of the dam sluices, it passes through the 'air' (representing the Ruach/Spirit) and is purified. It's churning even after impact and joining in the river flow continues the spiritual 'aeration' that purifies and enriches the mix. All that is impure and 'heavy' eventually falls to the bottom and is separated from the water as the water/passion slows down and finds its rest, like river silt that is washed into the great sea beyond.

Is 'love blind'? Only if it is not mediated by Messiah and disciplined by a covenantal walk in tavnith. There is, then, no mystery in the chaos and blindness. It is undirected and undirectable because the soul stills owns itself instead of being owned by Messiah. There does not need to be the breaking of any dam made by human constructs (such as self-will) that results in a life without Messiah being in 100% control. Then this love can be released, along with all its associated passions, in safety and in an orderly and kosher way, without all the pitfalls and agonies of passion run amok.

True ahavah IN Yah'shua (Jesus) is not blind! It then becomes a tremendous force for good, a force that requires three to make it work. Then Yah'shua (Jesus) can be both in control of the match-making of couples as well as the energies and passions that are released through them and for each other and for Him. ¨Being 'in love', so called, need not, then, be this terrible game of Russian roulette but something glorious. Moreover, it will be - and is - nothing like the Hollywood variety that is upheld up and idolised by believers and unbelievers alike. When believers mimick this false tavnith they are separating out this great explosion of vitality that Yahweh has hard-wired into us from His influence and control and instead take personal possession of it apart from Him. In so many ways it can, if not submitted to Him (the choice for our marriage partners) become the greatest idolatry of all, opening a Pandora's Box of destructive sin all the while mesmerising the soul because of its enormous power which, when released, is exhilarating.

There is no biblical concept of 'being in love' because in the world is it usually viewed as being separate from Elohim (God), an irresistable force which He supposedly cannot even control. Certainly, when a dam wall breaks, the torrent that is violently released must expend it self - it cannot be stopped, and must either find some 'place' or die out. And that is just the point - that which is of and from Yah'shua (Jesus) can not 'die out' since Yah'shua (Jesus) is immortal and whatsoever comes from Him and is mediated by Him is immortal.

Biblical ahavah is not, then, 'falling in love', and never can be. That potent energy, placed in the soul by Yahweh for the intense bonding of souls united in divine matrimony in tavnith, should only be released by Yahweh for a man or woman's pre-ordained partner in covenant in Yahweh's own time and in His own way. We cannot claim to be Christians and believe otherwise, for then we are creating something outside the walls of Yahweh's Kingdom. The alternative is to declare all of this as being entirely 'of the flesh' and advocate celibacy as the highest ideal, as Catholics and others do. This, however, would not be the emet or truth, for the Bible teaches no such doctrine or 'ideal', even if faulty Bible translations about "eunuchs" (it should read "believers" or "faithful ones") appear to support Catholic doctrines. As far as I know, only one modern translation gets this right, a translation based on the receptor Aramaic/Hebrew and not the later Greek translation:

"For there are faithful ones (anmyhm), which were so born from their mother's womb, and there are faithful ones (anmyhm) which were made of man, and there are faithful ones (anmyhm) which are self-made faithful-ones (anmyhm) for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake" (Mt.19:12, HRV).

"He who is emasculated (castrated, made a eunuch) by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the congregation of Yahweh" (Deut.23:1, NKJV).

Therefore there is no emet (truth) in the claim that castration is ever acceptable and no emet (truth) in the claim that celibacy is equal to or superior to marriage - it is only for those on special missions like that of the prophet Jeremiah for whom marriage in this life would have been impossible. Therefore, the few exceptions aside, it is every man's and woman's purpose to link his or her passion to Yah'shua (Jesus) by covenant and by sacrifice, living Torah in correct tavnith (pattern) so that this amazing power can be released at the right time and in the right way for the right partners by Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself and be mediated by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) living within the surrendered soul. With the faithful man yielded fully to His Head and the faithful woman yielded to her husband-head, then a union of ahavah-esh or love-fire can be made that is strong, passionate and eternal. But without this tavnith, all 'love' (so-called) is doomed to die out. You can't 'fall out of love' that was made by Yah'shua (Jesus) without rejecting Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself.

For those who are single, for whatever reason, yield your soul to Yah'shua (Jesus) that He may manage your 'dam' and release your esh (fire) in other ways, as only He can do, and be productive and fruitful in that way. For those who are married, abandon all the world's concepts of 'romance' and 'falling in love' and get yourself in proper tavnith (pattern). Then you can live by authentic emunah (faith), the emunah (faith) that is never in vain. Amen.

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