Shabbat shalom chaverim, the annual Jericho March is over and we enter into the first sabbath of the second month and the third sabbath of the Omer Count to our next major calling to assemble together at Shavu'ot (Weeks, Ekatost, 'Pentecost') at the end of July. While nearly all Pentcostals, Baptists and others fret about being 'left behind' to go through the trials of the Great Tribulation in case they aren't whisked away in their make-believe 'rapture', those who "sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb" (Rev.15:3) are more concerned about being left behind on the west bank of the Red Sea (Yam Suf) or the east bank of the River Jordan, because we are on a journey to the Promised Land.

That Promised land is both a literal place - the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan - and a spiritual condition, for the wilderness or Journey of the children of Israel is also a picture of the journey out of sin and into salvation and glorification (see A Model for Deliverance: The Exodus). And whilst the latter is more important that the the fomer - our inner condition is always more important than our outward circumsstances - it is also true that our outward destination - the glorified earth - should be very much included in our hope of things to come, for we were not created to be permanently disembodied beings in some some non-physical 'heaven' but to one day return to earth to dwell in resurrected bodies and to live with Yah'shua (Jesus), the saved, and our loved ones, to enjoy this good earth in peace.

Having said that, the inner and the outer are both important. Our job is to prioretise. Those who prioretise the outer have missed the mark because the condition of our soul is what matters most of all as this will determine what kind of outer life we inherit in the future. But it would be wrong to suppose that we can neglect the outer while we are in this mortal probation. What we do in our physical plot, as it were, matters, and what happens generally in the world is also important if we are to both know our calling in it and the way we are supposed to interact with it, as we must to some extent. There has to be a right balance with clearly set priorities. In most cases we have families to take care of and they need food and shelter in this world amongst other physical necessities and Yahweh's Law is particular in that we rise to our responsibilities to ensure that these are met. Not many, I am glad to say, are called to be like John the Baptist to live in the wilderness eating locusts and honey though I have read of one person who tried to do this and managed. Needless to say John was single and nearly all the other nevi'im (prophets) one reads about in the Bible tended to have dwelling places and lived close by to some sort of settlement, and typically with an assistant if, as was true in most cases, they weren't married. Elijah had Elisha, Elisha had Gehazi, and Jeremiah had Baruch as servants.

I suppose what I am leading up to here is this: those who follow such events as the Jericho Marches, because they want to learn more of Yahweh's divine tavnith (pattern), do so not because they want to be entertained with stories or to acquire advanced theological knowledge for its own sake, but because they want to be equipped for what follows. There are journeys to be made for everyone, and I'm not just talking about the 'inside' journeys. Between the Red Sea and the River Jordan there were 40 years of living and dying, and between the River Jordan and the settlement of Canaan there is conquering or overcoming to be done. Our enemies both within and without never sleep, whether it be those who concretely oppose us or whether it simply be the forces of death and decay all around us demanding that we attend to our health and economic well-being in order to carry out our duties as parents and witnesses in the world. Indeed, simply physically surviving can, if we aren't living for Christ, take up all our time and resources, especially in times of recession such as we're in now. Many people I know are holding down two or three jobs just to make ends meet and have little or no time for anything else.

Those who do things Yahweh's way, surrendering to His divine tavnith (pattern), will soon find they are living in the miraculous. They will find they are freed to engage in the first or primary directive we have, which is always, as Yah'shua (jesus) taught, to put the Kingdom first in our lives. "...seek first the kingdom of Elohim (God)", He said, and all your basic necessities will be provided for you (Matt.6:33, NKJV). That doesn't mean get a salaried job as a pastor or priest. It means get a job, live simply, and build the Kingdom as a witness, minister, or whatever your calling is. For the last few years I have warned salaried minister whom I know in other churches and assemblies to get a job and pay their own way, not depending on their impoverished parishoners or upon a denominational organisation which may very well force you to compromise on the truth as most are now corrupt.

Last night I asked my wife for advice as to what I should talk to you about today as I was exhausted after a long day with her trying to sell some things in market and from writing and broadcasting a sermon-a-day for the 7 day-long Jericho assemblies. She made a-not-unreasonable suggestion and I went straight to bed as I was too tired to prepare anything. This morning after I awoke I got a surpring davar (word) from Elohim at about 8 a.m. just as I was about to get up after a long and painful argument with my muscles that ended in a painful muscle cramp that left me weakened. Then, as went to lie down to get a few more winks, a vision suddenly burst upon me that I want to share with you, as this is in part what today's message is out.

I found myself standing on sandy plain outside a building. It wasn't very large but it was built like a fortress. Directly ahead of me was an arched doorway in the brick- or stone-work and two very solid doors that were closed. Above was a window with wooden shutters, and though there were apparently other windows on either side, these were the two structures that had my total attention, the window above the door clearly having something to do with the door itself. Suddenly, the shutters of the window were flung open and a very old man with a white beard and hair and the unpretentious billowing robes of a working man dressed for the desert, leaned out, his arms resting over the sill. He beckoned me to come in. Very blunt and matter-of-fact. He then went back behind the shutters as dramatically as he had emerged. I knew instantly this was Elijah. As I faced the door to enter the vision ended (see leading image of this article).

I made fleeting reference to the Elijah Nevi'im (Prophets) yesterday in my last Jericho talk (for those of you who have taken the trouble to follow and be informed). I refer to them frequently because their rôle in the and Final Gathering will be critical. And contrary to what some, who love the dramatic, might suppose, their job wasn't only to call down fire from heaven, raise sunken ax heads from river-bottoms, bring the dead back to life, and disappear into the clouds flaimng chariots upon being called home - they were't only called to prophesy, foretell or forthtell (preach) the Davar Elohim, all of which require a tremendous amount of preparation and suffering if they are to be readied, but theirs was also the ministry or reconciliation which we sometimes call 'the Spirit of Elijah or the Ruach haEliyah'.

I have spoken so much on the Elijah Prophets and the Spirit of Elijah over the years that we have websites devoted to each of them. And the reason for that is that these two are to be defining characteristics of the Remnant. Where there are no Elijah Prophets and no Spirit of Elijah there is no Remnant. And though not many are called to be Elijah Prophets, every regenerated, Torah-obedient believer who sings "the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb", is called to administer the spirit of reconciliation in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus). Because I don't intend to cover all that old ground again today, I'd like to invite you to read over those two websites even if only to refresh yourselves with the two introductions to the many articles that are linked in them. You cannot understand this work and what we are called to do without a very clear and thorough understanding of what Elijah is all about.

So what is the Ruach haEliyah or Spirit of Elijah? And how does this fit into the equation of the Besorah (Gospel) Message that we are to proclaim and to the call to obey the Torah? I want you to notice from the passage I am about to read to you when this Ruach or Spirit is supposed to be sent:

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Yahweh.
And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse"
(Mal.4:5-6, NKJV).

Read any Protestant commentary on this passage and you will correctly be reminded how He appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mt.17:3) along with Moses when Yah'shua (Jesus) was glorified in front of His three chief apostles - Peter, James and John. Elijah sums up, as it were, all the nevi'im (prophets) just as Moses is the representative of the Torah or 'Song of Moses' that all believers must sing. Then your typical commentary will say something like, 'just as Elohim (God) promised to send His messenger as the forerunner of the Messiah (John the Baptist) so He promises to send Elijah before the coming of Messiah' and we are then reminded, correctly, that John the Baptist came "in the Spirit and power of Elijah" (Lk.1:17; Mt.17:10-11; Mk.9:11-12). What did John do? He courageously and uncompromisingly denounced sin and urged people to make teshuvah (repent) for which John was decapitated. or repent.

There is also an intimation in Scripture that Elijah will somehow 'return' before the Day of Yahweh or 'Day of the LORD' to restore all things. Jews take this literally and set a place for him at their Passover meals. Some commentators will tell you that this Elijah can be identified as one of the Two Witnesses described in Revelation 11:6. You'll remember that Elijah never died but was translated and it may well be that Elijah the person will physically be returned to the earth precisely for this missio, to be killed and then restored to life. Many believe this is a likely scenario because what these two witnesses also do because it is identical to Elijah's miracle in 1 Kings 17:1, which the apostle James reminds us of:

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months (3½ years)" (James 5:17, NKJV).

Now whether that is literally Elijah returned in the flesh - which is certainly possible - or someone operating in the fullness of the Ruach Eliyah or Spirit of Elijah, I will not say at this stage because I just want you to be aware of what Christians are saying and how they are interpreting these passages mostly correctly. But one thing is clear, and that's what I want to focus on: Elijah's ministry - the Spirit of Elijah that fills Yahweh's true servants - will prepare Elohim's (God's) people for the coming judgment just as they have been for the judgment we are going through now. Specifically - and I want you to notice this well - the Elijah nevi'im (prophets) will prepare the hearts of two generations - both the fathers and their sons. This heart-preparation has two equally important components, and again I want you to especially note this:

• 1. He will turn the hearts of the first or older generation part of the Remnant to Yahweh first of all; and then
• 2. He will then turn the hearts of their children to Yahweh, the second generation, and then - finally (note this well) - to one another.

What does this mean? It means that people need to be reconciled to Elohim (God) before they can become reconciled with one another. If you try to reconcile people without them first being reconciled to Yahweh, you are setting them up for failure, because their 'reconciliation' will not be founded on a sound and permanent basis. Put another way, the Spirit of Elijah will bring shalom (peace) and echad (unity) within families at the very deepest levels because families are very important to Heaven. And this was also a part of the ministry of John the Baptist (Lik.1:16-17).

This unity is so primary that Yahweh says without it the earth - the whole world - will be cursed. Therefore you know that any spirit that tries to sow disunity in families is directly from the devil. Families don't just spontaneously dissolve when children grow up and leave home. Families are an integral part of clans and clans are an integral part of tribes and specifically, The Twelve Tribes of Israel which is why they MUST be gathered! Families are forever, not in the way the Mormons means, but because Messianic Israel is forever because she is the Messiah's Bride!

I do want to add one more clarification about what Malachi writes. When Yahweh says He will send a 'curse' on the land, this is not in the sense that Hollywood or the occult mean. The word we translate to 'curse' refers to the Old Covenant practice of devoting certain things or people to Yahweh, often by means of total destruction as in Joshua 6:21 which reads:

"And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city [of Jericho], both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword" (Josh 6:21, NKJV).

Both Jericho and the cleansing of the land of Canaan as a whole are a prophetic picture of what happens at the Second Coming of Messiah, for He will completely destroy those who reject Him who have turned to idolatry because the world of the Millennium is the inheritance of the children of the First Resurrection because this world was dedicated or 'devoted' in the very beginning to Yahweh's children, not Satan's. Those who repent and accept Christ He will shower His blessings upon, as it is written by the Apostle John:

"He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of Elohim (God), to those who believe in His Name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of Elohim (God)" (John 1:10-13, NKJV).

Because this planet was created for, and given to Yahweh's children only, those who, through their choosing to reject Him, are not His and must be swept away, as they were in Noah's day in the Flood too, being transported elsewhere in a different (incorporeal) dimension. They're not 'dead' in the sense that they have ceased to exist or been annihilated, they merely removed from their bodies (from the divine perspective) - which we rightly prize so greatly because they are a wonder of creation - to become disembodied spirits to await the kind of resurrection they deserve based on the choices they made in mortality. It is all perfectly just and righteous when seen in terms of the whole picture.

We ourselves are no less prone to the same sins as the wicked heathen of Jericho or Canaan in general were or indeed the people in Malachi's day. But Yahweh's unchanging ahavah (love) still calls us to repentance and offers us salvation - first as individuals, then as families, and then as the whole Messianic Nation of Israel. Those who love and obey Yahweh will be usherred into His presence at death and then return to the earth as resurrected beings when everyone will be a part of a family - their own families, their parents' families, their clain, their tribe, and the National Family which is Israel. Family is central to the Eternal Kingdom of Yahweh. There are no singles in eternity, contrary to what Christians may have taught you, because marriage in Christ is eternal. And, no, I am not here preaching the false system of Mormonism with its counterfeit priesthood and gospel, but the plain truth of the teachings of Christ. Indeed, the Elohimhead (Godhead) is a Family.

The Spirit of Elijah is all about reconiliation - reconciliation with the Creator first of all, reconciliation with families whose members are saved and are Torah-obedient, and then reconciliation with the Messianic Bride as a whole. Any other Gospel is either a false or an incomplete one. All of this requires effort on our part - the effort to trust Yahweh at His word and effort of husbands and wives and their children to make things work. But always the first priority is getting right with Elohim (God) because any other priority will ultimately lead to failure because only the authentic Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) can make everything become one or echad. To be a spiritual orphan is not a good thing. It's disasterous. We were designed to be families and families of families.

So our calling as vehicles for the Spirit of Elijah is, as John MacArthur correctly points out, in a sense to do the very opposite of what occurred at Messiah's first coming, even as Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself witnessed:

"Do not think that I came to bring shalom (peace) on earth. I did not come to bring shalom (peace) but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household" (Matt.10:34-36, NKJV).

This is, of course, still true when family members reject the Gospel, as is common. Yah'shua (Jesus) was warning the people of His day to avert a national disaster. They did not listen and the national disaster happened - first the destruction of the Temple, then the City of Jerusalem, and then the entire nation of Israel was destroyed by the Romans, the inhabitants being expelled. All of this is to be reversed in our day, or at least in the day of the last generation, the one after mine, in the Final Gathering. Satan has sought to counterfeit this by establishing a counterfeit nation of Israel that has resulted in millions of deceived believers building up an anti-christ nation that hates them. Malachi tells us that the true Israel starts with each individual receiving Messiah and Torah - singing the Song of Moses and the Lamb - then of saved members of families being reconciled, and then of families being gathered into clans and tribes for the Final Gathering to the Holy Land that is yet to happen. And in the same way the illegal occupants were driven out of Canaan by Joshua (or whould have been had the job been done properly), so the illegal occupiers of the present Land will be driven out to enable Messianic Israel to return in proper 12-Tribed order with all their families.

That then, is the task that faces us, and Elijah Prophets will be needed every step of the way contrary to what you may have been told by your denomination that either prophecy like that has ceased altogether (cessationism) or that it has been transformed into something 'different' in the New Testament, representative of which is all the babbling we see in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. Neither is true. The Elijah Prophets are returning and the Spirit of Elijah is the urgent task of every true, spiritually regenerated and Torah-obedient believer.

That was the message I was given today. Bring souls to Christ and make shalom (peace) in your families. I don't know whether we are to return to the Book of Revelation study next week or not any more than I knew what Yahweh wanted me to share with you 5 hours ago. Sio there it is. I look forward to seeing you next week with whatever it is Yahweh wants! Blessings in Yah'shua (Jesus). Amen.

Acknowledgements

[1] Yollah Yilpet on Malachi 4:4-6 in Africa Bible Commentary (World Alive Publishers, Nairobi, Kenya: 2010), p.1124
[2] John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee: 2005), p.1087