I have a prophetic davar (word) for me and for you today - for everyone who claims to own the Name of Messiah in his or her identity. There are no exceptions. King David testified:

"Your statutes (testimonies) stand firm;
holiness adorns your house
for endless days, O Yahweh" (Ps.3:5, NIV).

The Jericho story is a picture of many things but one of the most important ones concerns holiness or a lack thereof. The city of Jericho is a picture of the sin of unregenerated mankind. It is also a picture of each unregenerated soul. It is a blot on the landscape, a cataract in the eye, a boil on the skin which has to be lanced before a qadosh (holy, set-apart) people, as Israel was and was commanded to remain, can be triumphant.

Nobody likes to be told that they are unholy or sinful. It offends our sense of superiority and especially our sense of self-generated and -entitled righteousness, were that even possible. When we sin and don't repent, we erect walls of self-protection - protection against cleansing, protection against Yahweh coming in. The only wall we are permitted to have around us is that hedge called the Torah, the Law, the mitzvot (commandments), the teachings of Yahweh, which is the boundary of holiness because it's His character or nature. Go to any nation's boundary and you will find signposts at border crossings indicating where one country ends and another begins. Jericho was one such border-crossing.

When we here in Sweden cross over into Norway, signs in Swedish and Norwegian tell you such things as 'You are leaving Sweden' and 'You are entering Norway'. And though Norway and Sweden are very similar nations, you can tell immediately when you have crossed. The colours on signposts change from yellow to white. The language changes. And if you are a train traveler, as I was for many years, commuting between the two countries to work, you know when you have crossed the boundary just from the sensations and sounds made by the wheels on the rails, because the rail tracks are different. The same is true of the roads. One is smoother and the other rougher.

The boundary between sin and holiness is exactly like that too. There is a noticeable change. When you cross from sin to purity, the journey becomes smoother, more pleasant. Commuting between Sweden and Norway, I would often catch up with sleep on the train as I had to get up really early. When I was coming home from work at the weekends I would not only know when I had crossed into Sweden, even when I was asleep, because the journey suddenly became smoother and quieter. I would feel a sense of joy because I knew I would soon be home.

Jericho is an image not just of sin, not just of big sin but of terrible sin. The Bible does not tell us what the inhabitants of Jericho got up to but based on what we know about the Canaanites, we have a pretty good idea of the kind of wickedness the inhabitants and their king were up to. Amongst its worst sins was child sacrifice. Live infants were roasted to death to appease the ruling demons styled as 'gods' (like Moloch). In the general sense, Jericho was idolatrous and Yahweh hates idolatry, because as Creator and Benefactor all good things come from him.

Idolatry is anything - lawful as well as unlawful - which comes between you and the Creator. If you enjoy idolatry - and everyone does who is an idolater, you build up a wall of separation between you and your Elohim (God). Once you permit a wall to be erected, you will sin more and the wall will get thicker. Typically it occurs so imperceptably that you are not even aware of what's going on and before you know it, you are cut off from the Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart) One. Your prayers are met with silence. Blessings you perhaps once knew stop flowing, even if He permits the necessities as an act of grace in the hope that you will repent. But the more and longer you resist, the thicker those walls get until you have a veritable demonic fortress right in the middle of your heart. The heart goes cold.

When you deliberately rebel against Yahweh, for whatever reason, employing whatever sin or set of sins that you refuse to let go of, your heart either goes numb or angry. Two sets of very expert demons are involved in this process, under the overall direction of either Lilith or Hecate, respectively, and almost invariably both. Indeed, in all my years as a deliverance minister I have never know anyone who had only one of them. Between them, they create the illusion of life - of being 'alive' - when you are in fact dead...spiritually dead. And in the mix there is a hefty dollop of fear to keep you enslaved.

Israel's historical journey out of Egypt was a spiritual picture of deliverance from slavery. It's so important for you to realise that this is a process:

• 1. First, there is departure from the scene of slavery;
• 2. Second, there is a long and painful process of purging in the wilderness; and
• 3. Third, there is an equally challenging conquest.

The flesh is expert at hiding and it is particularly sneaky in making us think we are 'saved' and 'holy' by getting us to commit idolatry with lawful things. Jericho's can be built purely (though rarely) by putting lawful things ahead of submission to Yahweh such as:

• 1. Eating
• 2. Sex
• 3. Music
• 4. Playing
• 5. Working
• 6. Being religious

You can eat kosher or unkosher food and be committing idolatry doing either. You can have lawful sex with a spouse or unlawful sex with someone your not committed to for life or who's already married to someone else, and be committing idolatry (not to mention adultery) with both. You can enjoy good music or bad music and be committing idolatry with both. You can be playing wholesome games or unwholesome games and be committing idolatry with both. You can be doing honourable work or dishonourable work and be committing idolatry with both. And you can be very religious by following the practices of the Bible or the practices of some pagan religion and be committing idolatry with both. Whatever you put ahead of your relationship with Elohim (God) is idolatry because the First Commandment is that we love Him above all else.

That often surprises people who don't understand the difference between living a life of dependence on Yahweh and a life of doing what's right in the strength of the flesh. They can appear outwardly to be very similar but the long-term fruits are very different. The fruit of righteousness - of living in complete dependence on, and obedience to, Yahweh - is shalom (peace) and simcha (joy) but the fruit of idolatry, even when you are 'doing' the things the Scriptures expect, is uneasiness, agitation, and a cycling between numbness and anger.

We will invent all kinds of excuses for taking up residence behind the thick walls of defiance in our personalised Jericho's. We usually know something isn't right because internal Jericho structures in the mind and heart are the construction-work of demons. They are the ones who supply the 'numbness' and 'anger', the mental tools of self-justification and the convenient excuse of blame-shifting...making others responsible for our self-generated misery.

I find this one of the hardest messages to get across to professing believers and it's no accident that Yahweh leaves a 'Jericho' right at the end of Israel's journey. You've been through so much, you say to yourself, that there can't be anything else that needs doing. But think about it. If it were so easy, conversion would be a piece of cake, wouldn't it? People who are born again and who have accepted Christ wouldn't continue to struggle over personal issues. Yet people typically have massive problems even after conversion and they wonder why. False theology, such as 'Once Saved, Always Saved', keeps people in bondage and either on the right bank of the metaphorical River Jordan in the land of Bashaan, or on the left bank, in paradise, as they hope, while their 'Jericho's' remain standing, and they find themselves continually harrassed in the rear by besetting sins. Be honest. Some of the trite salvation formulas being circulated by churches don't always match reality.

One of my jobs is to serve unpleasant blasts of reality. You can believe false doctrine all you want. You can follow cheap, watered-down and false versions of the gospel if that's your desire. I'm not your problem, nor anyone else who brings you such messages as these. There's more to be done than fighting and winning a battle against 'Pharaoh' (not that you actually did any fighting - your part was simply to trust and obey the Creator). There's more to having your carnal habits stripped away by inwardly and outwardly 'dying' to them in the 'desert'...and grumbling and complaining from start to finish. And there's more to be done than fighting and winning against 'Canaanites' with their Jericho-like fortifications blocking your way - and this time you do have to actually 'fight'. BUT...I'm sorry to disappoint snowflake believers who want religious safe spaces, but salvation is not just one 'exiting Egypt' event. It's all there in the Bible but the flesh will want to over-simplify for the simple reason it is lazy.

Salvation has three major phases:

• 1. Leaving Egypt with Moses;
• 2. Journeying through Sinai with Moses; and
• 3. Conquering Canaan with Joshua.

Yah'shua (Jesus) never said it would be easy, but He did promise it would be worth it. And in all three phases, you can't win in your own strength. That's utterly impossible. If you try to overcome with anything other than the resurrection power of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) you will fail miserably. Self has no part in this other than to choose to yield to the cross.

We're talking the 'big picture' here but let's focus on Jericho. I'm sure you will agree that the Israelites leaving Egypt weren't 'holy'. I'm also sure you will agree that the Israelites wandering around the desert weren't 'holy'. Indeed, the very first hint of 'holiness' does not come into the picture until after the River Jordan crossing (which was done by means of a miracle...a smaller version of the Red Sea crossing). When that next generation was on the other side of the River, they celebrated Pesach (Passover) and then they all got circumcised. Circumcision is a picture of removing unholiness and uncleanliness, it's primary meaning being that of cleansing or 'circumcising' the heart - its only meaning in the New Covenant.

Suffering in the wilderness of any person's life is no fun, but necessary. Casting off old behaviours and lifestyles is not something we humans do enthusiastically as a rule. It takes time, for most, to put the flesh to death. The imagery used in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) can appear tough and harsh:

"Put off the old man with his deeds" (Col.3:9, NKJV)

"[I] have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live" (Gal.2:20, NIV)

The second generation that crossed into Canaan were not snow-white little lambs, spiritually-speaking. They still had their Aachan's willing to loot Jericho and bring condemnation upon the whole nation. Oh yes, remember, the nation was in a communal covenant. That's what they entered into at Mount Sinai. This isn't just about your personal one-to-one salvation in Messiah. Messianic Israel is a nation. There's a collective, national salvation too, which starts at the level of your local congregation. So if you're part of a church or assembly where flagrant, uncorrected sinning is going on, and if that congregation has been warned but does not repent, then you need to get out of it.

That was the message of the Battle of Ai, was it not? Isn't that why Israel was humiliatingly defeated when it attacked a piddly little Canaanite village, because of the unrepented sin of Aachan the Looter? And if you don't much like the idea of communal salvation or communal responsibility, then I'm sorry, you have come no further than Mount Sinai in your spiritual journey. Two-thirds of our salvation journey is with others. If you prefer living a solo gospel then, again, I'm sorry, but you have chosen to go no further than the spring festivals and what they represent. You're not coming anywhere near the Promised Land and what that signifies in Eternity, if you willfully decided you would do it alone because you don't like being around other believers or the way they do things.

The true Besorah (Gospel) is a family affair - it's not just about you and your personal salvation. Don't be so selfish. And whilst salvation has to start personally (on a one-to-one basis between you and Messiah), and whilst the root and foundation of salvational life will always be personal, that's the milk of the Besorah (Gospel), and if you stay there any length of time, you will spiritually die of malnutrition. The next phase is the meaty gospel - solid food - the communal life entailed in being a part of Messiah's Family (Heb.5:12-14). You get the picture.

I had not planned giving you such a long message today but this revelation is so burning in my heart I can't not give it to you. This message is critical and for many hearing it, it will be a junction - a crossroads - in their life. You can't stay alone indefinitely and 'live' in the biblical sense of the word. That's why congregational life and marriage are so important. Marriage is a picture of this family stage. Family is eternal. It's what 'happens' in Heaven and in the Millennium and throughout aeons-future. And that, too, is not liked or taught by so many Christian and Messianic traditions which teach, wrongly, that Heaven is a place of millions of de-married and de-familied singles who have no other object than praising Elohim (God), disconnected from all their former relationships and united solely by some new speculative bond that excludes them. That's wrong tavnith (pattern). That's the oversimplified, watered-down snowflake gospel. It's so much bigger - so much more grown-up - than that.

I'll tell you, in concluding, what Yahweh showed me this morning, as best I can. You all know how ill I am and have been for a very long time, and how it has been getting worse. Yet I am beginning to finally see this illness as providential, as all tribulation that is permitted by Yahweh ultimately is, so long as we choose to respond to it correctly. We can choose not to respond to difficulties at all, or to respond in the wrong way, in which case the difficulties can bear no spiritual fruit. Do not assume that you are going through trial, suffering and tribulation because you are someone 'special'. Don't fall for the demonic 'martyrdom' complex which is just another form of self-pity, of wanting people to say, 'Oh look at me! Look how I have suffered!'

The children of Israel weren't pushed into the Sinai Desert because they were wonderful or had any holiness to boast of. Yahweh did not say of them, 'My spotless cherubs!' They were there to be stripped naked of their sinful, carnal, pagan, Egyptian self-identification and behaviour. You know what happened at Mount Sinai. Their golden-calf rebellion soon revealed who they still were at heart, no matter that they had trusted Moses to leave their servitude, no matter that they had witnessed so many miracles en route. They were not Yahweh's qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), not the 'king's kids' in any inward sense, even though He had chosen them for a task. They were wicked, and they paid for it. You're not necessarily someone 'special' just because you're going through the fire of affliction, and if you think you are, then you in all likelihood have a mountain of pride that either needs to be dismantled rock by stubborn rock or you're in need of a volcanic explosion...for those able to cope with the quicker, more violent and painful method.

This morning I found myself in a desert and my companions were a dog and an eagle. To cut a long story short, the dog went sniffing around unearthing snakes, sometimes dozens of them all rolled up in balls. As the dog exposed these serpents the eagle swooped down and killed them. Sometimes they were solitary snakes, sometimes in groups. This went on for some considerable time and those snakes did not give up without a fight, but they were no match for the divine eagle. Cutting a long story short, Yahweh was showing me what He was accomplishing in my long desert wandering which no man can escape. This was my cleansing journey.

I expect that you, like me, like the ancient Israelites, have complained a lot, but until we have reached the point where we can be thankful for His providential care in permitting these trials so that we can be purified, we're going to miss the mark time and time again. Remember what the apostle James admonished:

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your emunah (faith) produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (Jas.1:2-4, NKJV).

Be under no illusion, the reasons Yahweh has to take us through these painful trials and tribulations are for our benefit. It's not because He is negligent or a monster, as some view Him, because without these hindrances we would neither repent nor finally become complete. If we claim to be His talmidim (disciples), and in so doing give Him permission to 'do what is necessary' for us to be delivered and happy, then He will not allow you to get away with sin and He will provide for you the best possible path for your deliverance. It would be cruel and unkind of Him not to.

When I saw all those snakes, which symbolised demons, and when I saw how vile they were, I knew at once that having them gone was all I wanted. I wanted my relationship with Elohim (God) to be unimpaired, clean and whole. Who wants the companionship of snakes? What sane person wants to live with the misery that these hostile, malevolent beings bring and who desperately want to wreck our chances for happiness in the eternities? Again, make no mistake, you can - and people do - lose their salvation. If Yahweh had wanted to convey a Calvinistic type of salvation, He would have taken the children of Israel straight out of Israel and directly to the Promised Land without any desert trials and without the need for any kind of conquest.

Now I know some people hearing this are going to accuse me of preaching a gospel of salvation by works, but I'm not. I said earlier that none of us can do this in our own strength. Our salvation was purchased for us free, and it is received by grace through emunah (faith) alone (Eph.2:8) but a response is demanded, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because a forensic salvation is simply the equipping. There's a race to be run too (1 Cor.9:24). We have to take that salvation fully on board in every part of our being. If just believing were the end of the matter, there would be no mitzvah (commandment) in the Scriptures telling us to be overcomers (e.g Rev.21:17).

People do, of course, exercise emunah (faith) in different ways. Some do it in degrees, some take great leaps, which accounts for the difference in the quality of believers' spiritual lives. Of course, there may be other reasons and I wouldn't want to over-simplify what can be, and is, a complex life that is mortality. Basically, all I'm saying, is understand that Yahweh has been directing your course all along and there is no ground for resentment or bitterness or self-pity. But we won't come to that place of perfect shalom (peace) until those snakes/demons are gone because until they are, we're either blind or partially blind to our reality.

There are many pay-offs to submitting to Yahweh's will and in seeing desert journeys as grand opportunities to adequately prepare for Eternity. We only get to do this once, there is no reincarantion to come back for another go, so let's not make excuses by pretending we're not the problem. Life is not a picnic, was never designed to be a picnic, and never will be a picnic. When you signed up to come down here it was with the clear understanding that you were both training and serving as a spiritual marine in a war zone. This place is not the final goal, at least, not until Yah'shua (Jesus) is Sovereign and places all rulers under His feet (1 Cor.15:25).

Life is not properly understood, and simcha (joy) not permanently retained, until we deal with these realities. We are promised simcha (joy) in tribulation if we will do things Yahweh's way. Stop whining, stop complaining, stop living in your past miseries and making them a part of your permanent identity. Understand that you're not a special or unique case of woe. Understand that everyone is going through trials and sufferings. If you are trusting in Yah'shua (Jesus) in the here-and-now, you have been delivered from all that. He's already taken care of it at Calvary.

Do you want to hear my list of woes? Would it make you feel any better? Would my 30 year-long illness make you feel any better? Would the fact that I can relate directly with the Samaritan woman who lost six husbands help you get fixed? Would all the betrayals in my life make give you hope? No. You're not the only victim of abuse. I'm not being unsympathetic to your pain and suffering, because empathy is vitally important, but we cannot it let it continue to define our reality if we claim to be blood-bought servants of Messiah. We are supposed to have died to all of that. We're supposed to be living His identity, not ours, now! Do you understand? And it's not that hard. We've just been told that it's way too complicated and that we're special cases desrving special attention, that we're the exception to the rule, which means we can protract our sense of victimhood for ever which gives us a perverse psychic boost. We are not victims in Messiah. We are set free in Him.

Here's another problem. When we choose to live out our victimhood instead of living in victory in Messiah, we are apt to twist the Besorah (Gospel) in such a way, making it reinforce our victimhood instead of doing what it's supposed to do - overcoming it and saying goodbye to it forever. So many people are living in defeat because they prefer the pennies of sympathy that come from people trying to help us (that's the impossible gospel of salvation-by-sympathy). They prefer those copper pennies of human sympathy to the spiritual gold bars that come when we release everything to Yah'shua (Jesus) and receive our new identity in Him. He gave us that identity when we were born-again! It was always there. It's always been for the taking but we've just tried to make it more complicated. Instead of working through every microscopic issue Yah'shua (Jesus) says, 'Give it all to Me. See! Here's a fresh indentity ready made for you!'

Do you believe in salvation by grace through emunah (good)? Yes? Good. That's what the Bible teaches. Then believe in your new identity by grace through emunah (faith) too. It's ready for you to take on-board now. That's what it means to crucify the flesh - not to flagellate or punish yourself or drown in self-inflicted misery but to exchange a pseudo-life for the real heavenly chayim (life). The flesh will want to fight back and it's that which you must resist - it's that which you must overcome - it's that which you must daily pronounce dead...crucified in Christ. Don't let it suck you back in. Overcoming is not wading through pain and sin waving your little spiritual cardboad sword and defiantly taking on the dark side of the universe. And unfortunately, so many computer games re-inforce this false route of deliverance by turning you into a pagan warrior. That is vanity. That is futility. Overcoming is not done this way.

We are not Jack Russel terriers! This pagan way is the equivalent of the children of Israel attacking the walls of Jericho with swords and spears instead of doing things the supernatural way - Yahweh's way. Overcoming is resisting the temptation to deliver yourself and to allow Yah'shua (Jesus) to do it for you. This is the only way our lives can be filled with holy melody. Until tomorrow, Yahweh bless you and give you shalom (peace).

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