"In that day Yahweh-Elohim of hosts called to weeping and mourning, to baldness and putting on sackcloth; but instead there was joy and festivity, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' Yahweh of hosts has revealed Himself in my ears: Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die, says Yahweh-Elohim of hosts" (Is.22:12-14, NRSV)

"Yahweh of hosts has sworn: As I have designed, so shall it be: and as I have planned, so shall it come to pass: I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on my mountain trample Him under foot; his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden from their shoulders. This is the plan that is planned concerning the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For Yahweh of hosts has planned, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?" (Is.14:24-27, NRSV).

What I am going to share with you now, you are probably not going to understand. Today, which is the world system's 'Grand Festival' made out to look as though it is all about the birth of the infant 'Jesus', has nothing whatsoever to do either with the birth of the Messiah or even of reality. And that is the issue. The world, including those who call themselves believers, has been utterly blinded.

I have not said anything for four days now as Yahweh has brought me to silence, motionlessness and stillness - "Be still before Yahweh and wait patiently for Him" (Ps 37:7, NIV). To see reality you have to stop what you are doing and suspend the activity of the psychic nature. And it is not nearly as easy or difficult as you may suppose.

This last night Yahweh took me in a prophetic dream to the land of Syria, and made me walk it from the bottom to the top, from Damascus to Aleppo, and then turn right around. I was moving, so I supposed, from north to south, but in reality I was moving from south to north. I walked through the destroyed cities and deserted highways of a ruined land. There was destruction everywhere.

As I entered Aleppo I met a group of Syrian Arab men carrying rocks and stones going in the opposite direction, toward Damascus. They had a grim purpose. They saw me and lifted their hands as if to stone me. I was entirely calm as I knew where I was going, knew my purpose, and the purpose of Yahweh, so I felt no fear, no concern. I spoke with one, a man in his 30's, and told him I was going to my family to bring them food. In my hand I held two small sachets, the size of tea bags, and in them was honey. They let me pass and went on their way in the opposite direction.

I passed through Aleppo and arrived at my home, still in Syria. The house was damaged from shell-fire but my family was all alive. I brought them the two sachets of honey and gave it to them, and they were revived.

Brethren and sisters, there is a great delusion in the world, and you are all caught up in it. So was I until about four of five days ago. What I thought was south, was north; and what I thought was north, was south. To see the illusion, to have the delusion broken, you have to walk its length and breadth, and only then you will see it.

The festival which is called 'Christmas', a twisted, paganised Roman Catholic carriacature of the birth of Messiah, is one of the false spiritual orientation centres of this illusion. Those who partake of it have the illusion reinforced. That is why the world loves this festival, even though they do not know, and have absolutely no love for, the real Messiah.

Now let me take you to the two Scriptures above. When Yahweh gave them to me they were a single, continuous passage, and when I looked them up I was confused, because the first passage was from the 22nd chapter of Isaiah and the second was from the 14th. Yet when He showed me these passages, out of order, they were a single passage for the purposes of the prophetic message I have for you today. Today ought to be a day of weeping and mourning for you do not know what is coming.

So I next went back to the 14th chapter, to the verses I had expected to find at the beginning of the segment of chapter 14, which is all about the fall of Heylel (Lucifer, Satan) and read them:

"I will rise up against them (the nations), says Yahweh of hosts (armies), and I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and prosperity, says Yahweh. And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Yahweh of hosts" (Is.14:22-23, NRSV).

The hedgehog, which is unkosher, represents uncleanness. That is the legacy of the destruction that is coming from the imminent Judgment. The outer court and beyond, alike, shall thus be wholly unclean and destroyed.

Next He took me to the 17th chapter, and led me to read:

"See, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins. Her towns (LXX, 'the cities of Aroer') will be deserted for ever; they will be places for flocks, which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram (Syria) will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says Yahweh of hosts" (Is.17:1-3, NRSV).

Yahweh has placed a great ahavah (love) in my heart for the remnant of Syria. The Church and the Messianic synagogues look at Isaiah 17 and all they see is the world as their carnal eyes view it. Evangelicals and Messianics are abuzz about the destruction of Damascus, almost relishing it, forgetting the souls in that city, and the Remnant of Aram-Syria that is beloved of Yahweh and equal to true Messianic Israel, being of the same spiritual glory. Forget about the modern Israeli Republic, forget about the Syrian Arab Republic, forget about the Republic of Iraq - none of these are 'Israel', 'Aram', 'Assyria-Babylon' in the prophetic sense.

If you try to read prophecy through the lens of the world, you will not understand it. Then you will be one of those wild Zionists champing at the bit to murder millions of people in Iran in their clamour to press the nuclear button and so 'save' Israel. Those who think in the flesh are reasoning like the "Day Star, son of Dawn", the one who is about to be "cut down to the ground" in the imminent Judgment who has done his destructive utmost and "laid the nations low" (Is.14:12, NRSV).

But I am getting ahead of the prophetic narrative and the key message. I said that the world sees everything upside down, and is feasting and making merry, when chaos and destruction are at the door. Yahweh has a message for the Remnant, so simple and yet so beautiful. It is the emet (truth) that will set the Remnant free from its delusion and participation in the world system. It does not come in the form of a massive banquet, of tables covered in the food of kings, but as two tiny sachets of honey, representing a double portion but concealed in open view.

I have watched with horror mingled with grief as so many once strong believers, as I supposed, have been, and are being, swallowed by the massive illusion around them, even to the point of denying Yah'shua (Jesus)! They are either turning away from Him completely or they are stripping Him of His glory - of His deity - or are associating with, flattering and submitting to, those spiritual thieves, deceivers and blasphemers who are doing so in exchange for a mess of pottage, a filthy bowl of intellectual and theological bait filled to the brim with the pride of life and the abominations of the Prince of Tyre. And these brethren and sisters would not be doing so were the Enemy of our souls not exceedingly clever.

Two sachets of honey, brethren and sisters, is the Meal of the Remnant - a double-portion, like that received by Elisha from Elijah, of the emet (truth) that genuinely sets people free. I see those claiming to be - or wanting to be - the Remnant struggling in defeat. How come there is so much defeat? How come there is so little emunah (faith)? How come there is despair and depression? Because people are trying to seek Yahweh in the flesh, through carnal knowledge, through teachings and wondrous revelations, as they suppose, instead of simply dying to self and allowing Yah'shua (Jesus) to really reign and transform.

O the great and terrible pride of the Law-keepers (messianics)! O the laziness and infantile contempt of the Law-haters (evangelicals)! They are no different. It is the same sin, just different sides of the coin. One is anti-Evangelical and one is anti-Messianic. One hates north and the other hates south, but both think north is south, south is north, up is down, and down is up. They are blind and wonder at their misery. They are blind, and will wonder how they were seduced by darkness so easily, all their Bible-knowledge or charismata notwithstanding. There is a massive blindness in the earth, in the community of believers, and even in the community saying it is the 'Remnant'.

Four days ago (21 December) was the shortest day and the night that followed was the longest this year! This is the season of darkness which is why Yahweh has ordained no festivals in honour Him at this time, not Christmas, not Hanukkah. This is the time when Yahweh stands back so that the Remnant, and the Body and the whole world, may discover that it has been BLINDED by false light, that it has missed the mark, that it has worshipped the Prince of Tyre when it thought it was worshipping either the true Creator or none at all. We all worship something or someone.

People are waking up to the fact that they have been lied to but it isn't joining the dots and concluding it must repent. When the world wakes up but does not repent, it casts off one tyrant and appoints another. The flesh appoints the flesh - it chooses between the two halves of the Tree of Death, one minute choosing the 'Knowledge of Evil' and the next the 'Knowledge of Good', not realising that these things are from the same Tree of the Prince of Tyre! The Dark Prince's 'good' is not the goodness of Yahweh!

The issue is not - at the first, most important (as far as salvation is concerned) and only level - about theology, but about DYING TO SELF and ARISING IN MESSIAH. And, yes, those who love theology-knowledge proclaim exactly the same thing but they often do so in death because they are not regenerated, because they are eating from the 'Good Knowledge' part of the Tree of Death instead of from the Tree of Chayim (Life).

Now I could share with you lots of things Yahweh has been showing me these last four days but it would be as water off a duck's back and useless to you. Theological revelation, revelation about the nations and what is going to happen prophetically, isn't what anybody needs right now. So long as you are viewing reality through the lenses of the flesh, north will still be south to you, and south, north, and you will head off into the desert in the wrong direction and arrive at the City of Refuse instead of the City of Refuge.

Honey, my friends, is what you need, but not artifically sweet theological platitudes and clichés. Anyone can write theology. Anyone can share knoweledge - goodness knows, the internet is so saturated in it you could drown in any one part of it and not realise you were dead. What you need - what I need, what all of us need - is not any old 'food' but real food indeed.

The promised land of the Ruach (Spirit) is flowing with "milk and honey" (Ex.3:8,17) which represent two different things. Milk comes from the mother's breast for those who are hungry and dependent, as babes are, and as we must be on Messiah. The heavenly variety does not come to those who are independent, self-sufficient and seeking for the emet (truth) about their condition, and reality, using the flesh. If you are depending on your cleverness or your knowledge or your pride as a 'survivor' you will miss it - entirely, no matter how much knowledge is crammed into your head, no matter what horrors or abuses you may have survived in your life.

Now the wild honey to be found in the Promised Land was not to be had in beehives but in hollow trees, cavities in rocks and the like (Dt.32:13; Judg.14:8; 1 Sam.14:25; Mt.3:4). John the Baptist did not eat honey from a jar from the local store or from a jug like Winnie the Pooh but "wild", just as he himself appeared 'wild' in his suit of exceedingly uncomfortable "camel's hair". The honey I speak of comes from the wild, not from the supermarket that is the churches and messianic assemblies. Are you prepared to go out there to get it? 'Yes', you will reply, but you will have no idea, most of you, where 'out there' is, even though you will believe you do.

It's not so complicated but neither is it a casual thing that costs nothing. It is in plain view but people miss it because they are looking up. So where is the honey?

"There was honey on the ground" (1 Sam.14:25).

It is to be found where the most ungainly, unattractive yet most useful parts of your body are to be found - on the ground (your feet) but to get it you have to bend down and get on your knees. And I don't mean that literally. I mean, you have got to die to yourself. completely. Totally. Wholly. You see, you can't "be filled to the measure of all the fullness of Elohim (God)" (Eph.3:19, NIV) until all of you has first been yielded and is gone. Only then can the heavenly transaction take place - eternal life in exchange for your Adamic nature. How can Yahweh the "Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph.4:6, NIV) be in you if any part of 'you' is still there?

This morning I walked the length of Syria and then turned round. Then I could offer the honey to my family. The two sachets were tiny but they were more than enough. This honey produces those fruits without which you are spiritually dead: "humility", "gentleness", "patience", "forebearance", "ahavah (love)", "echad (unity)" "shalom (peace)", "tiqveh (hope)", "emunah (faith)" and "grace (undeserved loving kindness)" (Eph.4:2-7).

Every evangelical Christian has heard this passage but for most it is simply an intellectual proposition. Now it has to be done for real:

"Put off (imperative) your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires [and] be made new (imperative) in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like Elohim (God) in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph.4:22-24, NIV).

You won't be deceived any longer when you do, and you will stop sinning. So do it, for real, remembering that what you put on you can also take off. When you have, you will be able to relate to Yah'shua (Jesus) and to one another - effortlessly - and will stop trying to find fulfilment in blind alleys and cul-de-sac's based on your experiences and acquired identities in and from the old Adamic mind- and heart-nature. You won't grind to a halt and stagnate nor accept the easiest ways out that appeal to your flesh. Dying to self is not easy. It costs you everything you have. If you want the "all" of Yahweh then the "all" of you has to go first, along with all those daily presents you send to your flesh to appease it, those daily 'Christmas' indulgences.

This is the time to "awake, sleeper. And arise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you" (Eph.5:14, NASB). My own impression is that some will be going through a season of darkness for a while and either be overwhelmed or cry out for deliverance at the realisation they have taken a false turning and are being buffetted in the courtyard.

Brethren and sisters, a long night is upon us in which we have the opportunity to come to the end of the road of self and realise we have been walking in the way of the flesh. The greater blessings we can accord for ourselves, our families, our congregations and our communities is, having realised the illusion of the flesh and the self, to finally allow Yah'shua (Jesus) to have our old nature, self, identity and habits and receive in their place His nature. The separation between the Remnant and the wider Body is not so much based on who is believing or doing what (though that is a secondary effect) but on what nature we are walking in. It is one of inner condition before all else. There will, sadly, be partings and separations as choices are made, one way or the other, and the two bodies move in opposite directions.

Inevitably, we will lose some and gain others - some temporarily and some for good - as we always have. For those who move away, there is always repentance, for new seekers there will be a new dawn and homecoming. Whoever you are, we will still be here and ready to receive you. So, please, "be careful how you walk" (Eph.5:15, NASB), because the things of this world, especially those clothed like the Besorah (Gospel), are not as they seem. Grace and shalom (peace) in Yah'shua (Jesus) be to you all! Amen.

Readers' Comments

[1] "Great devotional! May we indeed throw off the flesh so that he can then be found and begin to wake us up to His Spirit with eyes to see and ears to hear" (HH, USA, 25 December 2016)