I share with you an experience I had on [Saturday] 25 November 2005, seven years ago, at 0052 almost an hour after midnight. I was fully awake when I saw this open vision.

"I was lying in bed when suddenly a man dressed in the robes of the Mosaic High Priesthood, with turban on his head and the breastplate or Urim & Thummin on his chest, rapidly moved towards me. With his outstretched arm, he moved his hand with a seal on a ring towards me, as though about to imprint the seal on me. It all happened very fast, so that by the time it was over, all that was left on my mind was the name ABIATHAR, which in Hebrew means, 'Father of Excellency'."

Historically, Abiathar was the only one who escaped the massacre of the priesthood by King Saul and went on to serve David as Cohen Gadol (High Priest), bringing with him an ephod (1 Sam.22:20-33; 23:6,9). He helped him take the ark to Jerusalem, where he became one of David's counsellors (1 Chr.15:11; 27:34). He also acted as a spy for David when the king's son, Absalom, seized the throne (2 Sam.15:35ff.; 17:15).

Abraithar was senior to Zadok (1 Ki.2:35; cp. Mk.2:26), a descendant of Eleazar, the third son of Aaron, who served as a cohen (priest) at David's court along with Abiathar (2 Sam.8:17) and had charge of the Ark (2 Sam.15:24ff.). Zadok's descendants discharged their chief-priestly duties in Solomon's Temple until its destruction in 587 BC, holding this office right to the end because they were innocent of the apostacy under the monarchy (Ezek.44:15ff.). In the second temple the Zadokites retained the high priesthood continuously until 171 BC when it wasa forcibly transferred to Menelaus by Antiochus IV even though after that a Zadokite priesthood presided over the Judahite temple at Leontopolis in Egypt until Vespasian closed it soon after AD 70. The Qumran community remained loyal to the Zadokite priesthood and looked forward to a restoration but were overtaken by the first coming of Messiah who ended the Old Covenant Priesthood and replaced it with the higher Melchizedek Priesthood of which Yah'shua (Jesus) was, and is, its eternal Cohen Gadol (High Priest).

Earlier the same day (24 November 2005) my wife had seen a vision of the Council of Yah's elohim - those who are interested to learn more about this are directed to a sermon I gave on 28 October 2008, almost a year after the preceeding experience, entitled Authority and the Council of Yah's Elohim. I relate from part of the Postscript of the sermon the following experience:

"The day after this sermon was prepared, an incredible event occurred here at Kadesh-biyqah. Having witnessed the amazing transformation in an SRA survivor after the Council of Yahweh's elohim was admitted, I was praying together with her and asked her if she would like to meet my fathers (Yahweh's elohim). When she expressed keen interest, after her own amazing transformation, Yah'shua appeared to her in vision riding a horse, something she had never seen before. His countenance was different this time, that of a warrior. He asked her to follow Him, which she did. Seconds later a vast army of men dressed in white appeared before her, thousands and thousands of them, which she immediately knew were the Council of Yahweh's elohim. Though I did not see the vision, I sensed their presence powerfully and began to cry with joy as though this were a homecoming for me. I knew them as intimate Mishpachah or family and sensed the great loneliness of earthly mortality apart from them, and longed to be with them again in the echad union I had known before mortality."

Abiathar, whose name literally means 'Father of Excellency', is here a type of the Messiah who is the literal FATHER OF EXCELLENCY from whom every good gift proceeds and who is also our eternal Cohen Gadol (High Priest). A King's seal denotes toqef or authority that includes within its 'package' responsibility and assignment. Signet rings were used anciently to seal letters both to denote authority as well as to confirm the authenticity of the sender as only one such signet ring would be found in existence. Possessing a copy was a capital offence. The ring was worn by the king or ruler at all times. The seal on which the sign of the ruler was embossed could only be broken by the one to whom the letter was addressed. In the vision it is my person that is being 'sealed', the meaning of which Paul explains to the Corinthians:

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Messiah, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Ruach (Spirit) of the living Elohim (God), not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor.3:2-3, NIV).

This davar (word) is true for everyone claiming to be a spiritually regenerated follower of Messiah. While each of us have specific or unique tasks or missions to perform, authorised by Yah'shua (Jesus) who equips us to fulfil them (mine included, amongst other things, being a teacher and a revelator of the Davar/Word as well, of course, as being a husband and father), our whole lives are supposed to be a 'living letter' that bears witness of the character of the Messiah we claim to be talmidim (disciples) of - our behaviour and conduct incarnating the personality of Messiah and His Torah that I have been talking about the last two Sabbaths. And the heavenly Council of Yah's elohim is that body of men who have done that faithfully, the Chavurat Bekorot or Assembly of the Firstborn (Heb.12:23) and their faithful wives who themselves have been living letters of their husbands in Messiah in divine tavnith (pattern)!

Toqef or authority is given to us by the Master to do and be those personal and general things but we have no true toqef (authority) amongst people, to influence them for good and to lead souls to salvation, until that toqef (authority) is properly incarnated as a living principle and not mere dead words. Not until we become living messianic letters, having heavenly toqef (authority) in the realm of pure chayim (life) can we be of any earthly good. We too have to be fathers and mothers of excellence as our Master is.