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Sermons Series 3:40c, 27 May 2006
The Spirit of Elijah
Part 3: Flight of Faith
Main Themes:
Minor Themes:
Click here for Part 2
Brethren and sisters, we return today for our third study of the prophet Elijah and the Spirit of Elijah. Last week we were witensses to the great victory of Yahweh over Satan, and of Elijah over the satanic Baalists. And we understood that the same principles of personal deliverance apply to us as they did to the nation of Israel on Mount Carmel. We saw that we cannot hover between two positions or two points-of-view, that we cannot both follow Yahweh and Satan, or spirituality and worldliness, but that we must make a choice. We understood that Yahweh is willing to send fire from heaven to consume our sacrifice and destroy the demonic that harrass us if we are willing to let Him demonstrate His love for us by trusting in Him.
You will especially notice that throughout this contest Elijah's attention was not on himself, or his potential vulnerability, but solely on Yahweh. He was not thinking, "Oh my gosh, what if nothing happens? What will happen to me?" He was single-minded in his purpose and became as Elohim Himself. He was an elohim, in echad union with Yahweh, because He trusted in Him fully and without doubt of any sort. He knew he was in a life-and-death situation and threw his whole being into the task at hand. He taunted the enemy and had his eye on the altar of sacrifice - his heart was consumed not, I suspect, so much with the miracle that was about to happen, and which he believed was about to happen, but on the fact that He was performing the obligations of Torah to offer the evening sacrifice, presumably as a Levite since only Levites were permitted to do so.
What does this translate into in our situation? What is our sacrifice in the midst of a grand contest between heaven and hell when the stakes are one's very life? Many of you are fighting life-and-death spiritual battles right now as Satan claims full possession of your souls and tries to encourage you to let go and simply give up. Yahweh has told at least one of you that if you don't resist the enemy that you will spiritually die in your sleep. Even so, Yahweh has promised you that He will set up shop in the middle of the battle - that He will prepare a table of fellowship with you in the midst of your enemies. He has said this - and will do so if you ask Him. Elijah knew that the victory would be Yahweh's and his, provided He had an eye single to the task, not doubting but trusting, and provided the spiritual goal was always in sight. As far as the nation of Israel was concerned, the 'target', as it were, was the contest. But as far as he - Elijah- was concerned, that was not the target at all!
Now this may surprise you to hear, and it's because people get the target or goal all wrong, that their deliverance often fails spectacularly. The goal is not deliverance - the goal is the 'evening sacrifice'!! I repeat, the goal is not getting yourself delivered, the goal is the freedom and blessing to worship Yahweh in truth and love, which is the 'evening sacrifice', and delivereance from the enemy is only incidental to that (Ps.141:2; Dan.9:20-21; Ezra 9:4-5).
I suspect that the reason the vast majority of people come to me for help in getting deliverance is all wrong. Many come because their goal is not the 'evening sacrifice' but so that they can then go and live their 'own life' in the world. Many come fully expecting that they can return to their old and often wrong ways of serving Yah'shua. Many come thinking that they can return to their old demonised and lawless ways of being.
Brethren and Sisters, why is it that Elijah was commanded by Yahweh to have this contest on Mount Carmel? Was it just to destroy the prophets of Baal and Asherah? No! It was so that those claiming to be the descendants of Abraham, Issac and Jacob could become Israelites again. And what is an Israelite? An Israelite is one who obtains the surname 'Israel' which means become an 'overcomer' - one who overcomes Satan and the flesh so that he can partake in the 'evening sacrifice'. And by 'evening sacrifice' I mean worship. Our whole PURPOSE is that we should worship Yahweh in spirit and in truth, is it not? Is that not why we exist? Is that not what it is all about, and not some personal agenda or motive? If you are seeking deliverance so that you can get out of a satanic coven, get healed from schizophrenia, so that you can hide from satanists or escape the world, get New Age elementals out of you, to get married, get a better job, get out of the clutches of demonised friends, or whatever your motive is - then you have not understood. Yahweh will do all of these things for you if your motive - the fullest desire of your mind, might, strength and being - is to love, serve and worship Him, and in so doing serve your fellow Israelites.
Yahweh, in the grand vision of eternity that He has, permits our trials and tribulations to enable us to get the right focus and return home. Home is not self. Home for Israel is Yahweh. Home for the father or husband is Yah'shua and the wider fellowship of Messianic Israel, and home for the unmarried son or daughter is father, and for the married woman her husband in Yah'shua. The world hates this, the majority of the churches hate it and accuse us of much evil because of it, but Satan knows that this is where safety lies and that the final goal of deliverance must always be these things. They can call it male chauvanism, religious fanaticism, or whatever they like, but the fact remains that our safety and happiness depends on these things. And if they are honest with themselves, those who have not found home are spiritual orphans. Deep dow they know this, and feel the loneliness, but fear or pride prevents them from doing what is right.
Elijah's purpose in being Yahweh's instrument in the redemption of the subjects of King Ahab was not to exterminate the satanic prophets but to bring the people back into a spirit of worship and therefore intimate fellowship with Elohim as Israel - His overcoming, set-apart people. The purpose of deliverance today is exactly the same. The purpose of deliverance from spiritual bondage is not so that you can go off and do your own thing; and if you're coming here to be helped to do that, you will fail. That may sound mean-hearted or even cruel but it's the truth. Yahweh did not create you to become a 'third force' in the universe - Yahweh, Satan and man. There is no third force, there is no third way. There is no such thing as the 'Independent Kingdom of Mankind' - you're either a subject of Yahweh's Kingdom or Satan's. By all means go and try the humanistic formula, which is the logical extreme of human independence - a universe supposedly without God or the Devil - but you will discover it to be an illusion. Men can pretend to be their own sovereigns, or woman co-sovereigns with men or even independent of them altogether, but they are living a powerful delusion. There is no such thing. Believe it if you want - live that way if you want - but please don't come to Carmel if you do, because the contest will not be resolved in your favour. You can only come to your inner Carmel if your goal is to make yourself fully and properly subjected and submitted to your Creator, Yahweh-Elohim. Don't come unles your passionate and all-consuming desire is to parkae in the evening sacrifice.
To offer sacrifice and to worship are one and the same thing. We may offer many things outwardly as tokens of inner offerings, like our time, service, material goods and wealth, but it is the inner offering or sacrifice that counts ultimately. In actual fact, Yahweh never particularly liked the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Covenant. It was necessary because the people were hard-hearted and stubborn. Thus King David said:
"O Yahweh, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O Elohim, you will not despise" (Ps.51:15-17, NIV).
Now you have heard me quote this passage hundreds of times but I dare say that there are many who do not understand it. I am quite sure that many still believe that Yahweh wants us to be miserable. Others probably think He wants us to be mindless zombies with no personality of our own. And yet others, who do not believe in Yahweh, doubtless think that such passages as these are simply the excuse by unscrupulous and wicked men like myself to manipulate people into some sort of cultic control. People will believe what they want, miss the mark, and wonder why peace and happiness elude them. So I am going to tell you what this passage means.
Why does Yahweh want something that is 'broken'? Why does He wants a 'broken heart', a 'broken spirit'? Is it because He has some sadistic pleasure in seeing us smashed to pieces? Is it because He has some giant ego that can only be satisfied when all wholeness, self-worth, and joy is crushed? I know there are some people who believe this, and not just atheists. There are some 'Christians' who think that Yahweh wants His people as crushed and helpless vessels and think they have a mandate to oppress. However, such a postulate makes no sense at all. Why would Yahweh create something beautiful and glorious in His own image and then want to smash it?
For one thing, it is wrong to take one scripture out of the context of the whole. You must read this passage - the only one of its kind - in the context of the whole revelation of the Bible. When Yahweh knocks something down it is always to build something better. And it is actually Satan who smashes and grinds down, leaving mankind in misery. And of course he would like you to believe that Yahweh is like himself and that he is the benificent one with a 'better way', a hedonistic, liberalistic and anarchistic way. Thus Yahweh reveals His purpose in breaking down in these words to his prophet Jeremiah, namely, "to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jer.1:10, NIV).
It is easy to attribute malicious intent to something outwardly apparently 'negative'. I butcher weeds in my garden every summer but I do that to make a nice lawns and cultivated flower beds. When Yahweh 'uproots', 'tears down', 'destroys' and 'overthrows', it is always with the intent of 'building' and 'planting' afterwards. The intent is never malicious but always loving. When He destroys something in your life, or allows enemies to do it, or calls a prophet (who then becomes a universal hate-object to the unrepentant) to do it, it is for your own good. When He sent Joshua into Canaan to slaughter the inhabitants it was not because he was creating, fascist-style, an Israelite Master Race and exterminating innocents, but because the people concerned were utterly and totally depraved. It was a satanist society. They were sacrificing their children to Molech in the same way that the prophets of Baal were making the Israelites sacrifice their children to their own deities. It was because prostitution was not only a way of life but also a religious duty. That territory had so ripened in inquity that it was past redemption, and it was becoming a centre of utter depravity to the nations round about. These people would not have repented. And when Israel failed to clear these people out they were to not only become a permanent thorn in their sides but lead them into apostacy, depravity and destruction themselves. The liberals would have you preserve the satanic status quo.
The revelations Yahweh has given us stress how important it is to be broken hearted and contrite:
"Verily, verily, I say to you; when you have put to death your pride and stubbornness on My Cross, and are broken-hearted and contrite, neither resisting nor fighting Me in any degree, [the issue you have] will be taken away" (OB 45:11).
"I, Yahweh, am near to the broken-hearted, and save the crushed in spirit after the long night of repentance" (OB 151:19).
Finally, Yahweh gives this important key in the revelations - and mark it well:
"I, Yahweh, require a broken heart and a contrite spirit, the spirit of praise and worship, meekness and humility, and overflowing love in all you do; and if you did these things you would never know disbelief, not cast a stony heart at Yahweh's anointed, neither would you secretly revile the prophets not sink into gloom and depression" (OB 357:18-19).
I wonder if you have heard the expression: "Oh, she has a heart of gold!" Yahweh wants us to have 'hearts of gold' but pure gold does not come ready made out of the earth. As New Covenant Christians we are called to be a 'royal priesthood' - every single one of us - and for what purpose?
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to Yahweh, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light" (1 Pet.2:9-10, NIV)
Why are we called to be a chosen people? Why are we called to be a holy nation - Messianic Israel - why does He wants us to belong to Him? So that we can "declare the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness and into His wonderful light!" You see? The whole purpose is so that we can praise Him - worship Him - and declare to those yet in darkness how they may enter into His wonderful light. Do we have a reward? Do we get total satisfaction? Yes! Our fulfulment comes by dwelling in His Light and when we are in it, the result is spontaneous praises from our heart - worship! It is to the 'evening sacrifice' that we are called.
Now it sounds jolly nice that we are a 'royal priesthood' - a 'kingly priesthood', if you will. It all sounds very grand. But He is not saying that we are to become like worldly monarchies with all their pomp and ceremony. And He certainly doesn't want us to be murderous Ahabs or apostate Solomons for that matter. He wants the men to be servant-kings, like the judges and patriarchs of old, and he wants the women to be their servant-queens. He wants kings who aren't going to lord it over their brethren but to rule and judge righteously under Yahweh and Torah. In short, He wants men who are willing to fall on their knees in humble adoration at the 'evening sacrifice' and cast their crowns before Him, saying:
"You are worthy, our Yahweh and Elohim, to receive glory and honour and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being" (Rev.4:10-11, NIV).
I doubt you'll find a secular monarch alive today who would do this, let alone a President or a Prime Minister. They don't exist because they don't serve or worship Yahweh. They serve the world system and their own interests. And that is because they don't have broken hearts and contrite spirits.
To be a royal priest in the Kingdom of Yahweh you have to have a heart of gold. But to get that heart of gold you have to be purified by fire. And that is why under the Old Covenant Yahweh wanted a Priesthood of this nature:
"[Yahweh] will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites (the Priesthood) and refine them like gold and silver. Then Yahweh will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to Yahweh, as in days gone by, as in former years" (Mal.3:3-4, NIV).
A few verses later the Old Testament ends. Yahweh is still waiting for His royal priesthood to be purged like the Levites of old. To do that, as in the purification of gold and silver, He applies intense heat which forces the dross up to the surface. And that is why He permits you to suffer. But why to the extent of having a broken or smashed heart?
The reason is very simple. When you believe in lies, you admit demons into your heart and they integrate with your feeling system. You begin to feel not only your own feelings but theirs too. That is why people suddenly get all these inexplicable urges to sulk, hate, get revenge, mock, blaspheme, accuse, destroy, and even kill. These murderous feelings are not from us - they are not from our real self - but from the demonic. And the only way to get the demonic out is by exposing the lies that led to demonisation in the first place and by letting Yahweh reduce your heart to its basic elements in the waters of His love. Like the greedy, destructive caterpillar whose entire body system dissolves completely in the pupa and is reassembled into a graceful butterfly during metamorphosis, Yahweh must reduce your heart elements so that the demonic can be separated out from the real you. That reduction, which is always painful, though not necessarily long, is what He means by having a broken heart.
The pain of separating a parasite from its host is not small. Only the other day I was taking a parasitic insect off our cat and she was trying to scratch me in protest at the pain because the beast had buried its head into her flesh and I had to grab its revolting body with a pair of tweezers and twist it round to dislodge it. We do this not only with our pets but with ourselves too in summer. They remind me so much of the demonic.
There is a terrible price to pay in believing lies and there is price to pay in getting those demons out of your heart. They will not be dislodged so long as you are proud and stubborn because demons are the source of pride and stubbornness. You have to be humbled first - have a contrite, submissive and teachable attitude - your heart has to be broken so that the demons can be washed out and then Yahweh will not only rebuild your heart but fill it with the Ruach haQodesh too. He will fill you with His glory!
Now you would be forgiven for thinking that after the great contest at Carmel that Elijah had reached the pinnacle of his spiritual perfection. But you'd be wrong. He was being prepared for an even greater challenge in some ways. The prophets of Baal and Asherah are all gone but not the evil king and queen who sponsored them and who have vengeance in their hearts. The religious leaders were out the way but not the secular ones who had promoted them and who held temporal power. The first contest was a spiritual one, but the next involved the political too.
When Satan fails in the religious realm he invariably turns to the political. And the political system was so structured in Elijah's day that justice was not to be found in the land of Israel. The leaders of the country were criminals and apostates. Nevertheless, as we shall see, the solution to political evil for the servants of Yahweh is still spiritual warfare. Elijah does not go and recruit a guerilla army to topple Ahab and Jezebel. He does not subscribe to modern-day communist-influenced 'Liberation Theology' as has been used to justify Christians participating in bloody revolution in Central America and Africa together with communists, to give two examples. He does not find or join some zealous, religious, nationalistic partisan group as Judas did in Yah'shua's day in order to assassinate corrupt Israelite officials or Roman soldiers. Elijah continued to use the tools which Yahweh gave Him which operated in the invisible still. Let's take a look and see what happened next.
We ended last week with the people confessing, "Yahweh - He is Elohim!" two times. The moment the people confessed Yah'shua as their Master and Saviour, the curse which Elijah was told to place on the land to bring a drout and famine was soon lifted. But if Elijah had hoped that this display of Yahweh's supernatural power on Carmel would change Ahab's heart and lead to repentance at the Court, he was to be disappointed. For one thing he had Ahab's pagan wife, Jezebel, to reckon with. For far from being converted by Yahweh's undoubted superior power, and Baal's helplessness, she took the defeat as not only a personal affront but an affront to her country and home town, whose patron deity Baal was. And so, even though Elijah sent the king home to celebrate and informed him that the drout was about to end (1 Ki.18:41-42), it was not long before Ahab was under the murderous sway of his wife again.
There follows a remarkable incident which I know one of our atheletic people here finds fascinating. As the clouds got thicker and a terrific storm threatened to engulf the land, so Elijah informed Ahab to hitch his chariot and to set off as fast as he could back to Jezreel. At this point another miracle takes place in which the Ruach haQodesh descends so mightily upon the prophet that he is endowed with such physical strength that he is able to outrun on foot Ahab with his chariot and horses. What, you might ask, is the point of this? Why did Yahweh endow the prophet so? Well, I think there are at least two reasons. Firstly, Yahweh has demonstrated that Elijah's Elohim is all-powerful and now He wants to show Ahab that His servant can be given powers beyond the king's best chariot and horses. He wants Ahab to know that anything is possible for Yahweh. He can do what He pleases. Secondly, he wants to demonstrate once and for all that Baal's symbols of power mean nothing to him. Satan, disguised as Baal, claimed to ride the thunderstorm as the divine chariot. Baal claimed that thunder was his voice also and lightening his weapon. And here is Ahab, following pagan imagery, riding his own 'thunderstorn chariot' like Baal. However, all Satan is doing here is copying Yahweh, for Yahweh also is said to ride the thunderstorm as Creator of all nature (Ps.104:3). Yahweh says that His voice is like thunder (Ps.29:3-9) and lightening is an agent of His destructive power (Ps.18:14). And as Ahab dashes to finds cover at Jezreel in a 'thundercloud chariot' so Elijah demonstrates, by outrunning this symbol of the power of Baal, that Yahweh is indeed supreme. This was Yahweh's challenge to Ahab to break the power of pagan influence in Israel once and for all before threatening to break his own back and dynasty. However, Ahab was not his own master - he had a mistress who just entrenched him more in his foolishness, a warning to everybody to obey Torah and not to go marrying unbelievers, let alone satanists like Jezebel, whose name has become a hiss and a byword throughout the generations as a spiritual whore.
The moment Ahab arrived at Jezreel and was reunited with his wife, a death-threat was issued against Elijah:
"Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, 'May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them'" (1 Kings 19:1-2, NIV).
Now you would have thought that after such a spectacular victory such as had been won at Carmel Elijah would have been as derisive of Jezebel's curse and threat as he had been of the prophets of Baal. Here was the man whom Israel regarded subsequently as a model of the ideal prophet was to fast for 40 days and nights fast in the desert which became a prophetic foreshadowing of Yah'shua's own fast in the widlerness of Judea - a man held in such high esteem by the Hebrews that some even went as far as to erroneously believe a pagan doctrine that Yah'shua was Elijah reincarnated (1 Ki.19:8; Mt.4:2; 16:14). And yet a threat from a pagan woman, whose false gods he had just defeated and whose prophets he had hours before slaughtered, suddenly made him snap and break down:
"Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, Yahweh,' he said. 'Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.' Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep" (1 Kings 19:3-5, NIV).
What has happened here to Elijah? Why has his faith suddenly crumbled? What is it about this wicked woman that makes him panic and take flight? Or was he simply worn out and couldn't take any more? If the latter I can understand him - we all get worn out sometimes and just want to quit. I know I have, many times, when the pressure of the enemy has seemed unrelenting. But it does not take me long to rally again.
Perhaps a clue is to be found in the words that Jezebel sent viâ her messenger to Elijah, for she had said: "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them". Now the prophet Elijah would have been well acquainted with Israelite history. He would have known that similar words had once been spoken by the Cohen Gadol or High Priest of Israel to another prophet which I here recall:
"Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of Yahweh. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, 'Samuel, my son.' Samuel answered, 'Here I am.' 'What was it He said to you?' Eli asked. 'Do not hide it from me. May Elohim deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He told you.' So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, 'He is Yahweh; let him do what is good in his eyes.'" (1 Sam.3:15-18, NIV).
You will recall that that Samuel prophesied against the High Priest for having failed to control his sons who had turned the House of Yahweh into a pagan whore-house. Samuel prophesied that his family line would be utterly exterminated, as it indeed was after the Battle of Aphek when the two sons were killed in battle, the Ark of the Covenant captured by the Philistines, followed by Eli dying of a heart attack when he heard the news. You see, Yahweh did deal very severely with Eli even though Samuel fulfilled his request to hear the vision. One can only guess what happened inside Elijah's heart when he heard Jezebel repeat the same curse but in the the name of her own demon deities. I am guessing here, but I suspect somehow that Elijah believed the force of the curse in spite of the fact that it was done in the name of demons, swallowed the lie, and broke down. He will have remembered the hundreds of Yahweh's prophets who had been killed by her and for some reason had been unprotected from her. Why had they all perished? Why hadn't Yahweh dealt with them as He had with him on Mount Carmel? Had he done something wrong? Might that protective covering have been removed for some reason? Did his believing the lie of Jezebel's threat actually remove his covering, and make him vulnerable like those slaughtered brethren? And perhaps, as I originally suggested, could this be coupled to the fact that he was also so worn out and felt he couldn't manage any more? At any rate, he ran for a whole day, collapsed and wished he would die there and then. What a contrast to Elijah the supernaturally-endowed athelete who was demonstrating the power of the true Elohim to Ahab! However, Yahweh is not finished with him, even for this lapse of faith, and can and will mightily use him still but only after he has learned another important lesson. This man of Yahweh has collapsed after running for a day and has fallen asleep under a tree.
"All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.' He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of Yahweh came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.' So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of Elohim. There he went into a cave and spent the night" (1 Kings 19:5-9, NIV).
This reminds me of the breakfast the resurrected Yah'shua prepared for His disciples after they had been fishing all night (Jn.21:11-14). They too had more or less 'given up' and returned to their worldly professions. Elijah wants to give up but Yahweh sends an angel to prepare a meal for him. For all we know it might even have been the pre-incarnate Yah'shua. The parallels are at any rate significant. Notice that the angel would not let Elijah sleep but rather gave him nourishment. Many a time those undergoing deliverance at my direction feel like quitting and 'sleeping'. And by 'sleeping' here I mean disconnecting mentally and emotionally - in effect, spiritually hiding and no longer taking responsibility. And there are demons more than willing to aid you in that if you let them. Elijah was not allowed by the angel to feel sorry for himself very long or fuflil his self-vow to die, which is what spiritual sleeping does to you. The angel is in effect annulling the self-vow and telling the prophet to buck-up. Please also notice that the angel had no etiquette - he was brusque, even rude: "Get up and eat!" Not, "I wonder if you would be so kind as to arouse yourself?" It's an order.
I am often accused by my deliverance clients of being rude and uncaring because I do not mince my words and tell them bluntly what Yahweh expects of them. However, we must deliver the messages we have been given by Yahweh and not alter them to massage an offended ego propped up by pride. And though we should not seek to be deliberately rude, neither should we water-down His message with sugary words.
Exhausted spiritually, psychically and physically, Elijah is fortified enough by two meals to undertake a 40 day-long journey to Mt.Sinai in an obvious replay of the Israelite desert wandering generations before. Like his ancestors, he has to have some wrong ideas burned out of him, wrong ideas triggered by Jezebel's forceful threat to extinguish his life within 24 hours. Now he is in a cave in the middle of nowhere, totally alone without any kind of human support or comfort. And as we look at this sad picture of one of Yahweh's most loyal of servants, we are reminded of the words Paul said about them to the Hebrews:
"I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, uenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground" (Heb.11:32-38, NIV).
Now this is not the kind of job description that your ordinary man seeking spiritual employment with Yahweh would eagerly accept. However, Yahweh does have His men who agreed to this kind of work before they were born. They entered into covenants with the Most High to do it with the promise of a great reward if they carried it out successfully. Most did. We remember the sad ending of Jonah who didn't quite get everything figured out and ended his days a very disappointed and unhappy man. But what we must not forget is that it is quite wrong to compare our lives with the lives of others, because you can't compare. You don't know what was agreed to before mortality. We don't know if we agreed to be taken into satanic covens to get some unhealthy spiritual dispositions burned out of us, or whether it was to be kind of 'incarnation into an evil world' so as to be an inspiration for others trapped therein, in the same way that Elohim incarnated as Yah'shua into this evil world to become one of us and inspire us to follow Him, He who conquered death. We don't know why some people go through unspeakable horror and why some do not. However, we can safely surmise that either these things are the consequences of sin or because Yahweh has a greater purpose that we may not at first be aware of - or perhaps even both. But it is not until you are older, and have experienced something of the ways of Yahweh, that you start getting glimpses of understanding and receive comfort from them. Whatever our situation, if we will trust the Almighty and surrender to Him and to the fathers placed over us, then He may yet use us for mighty things and become a blessing to many.
Elijah's problem now is that He can't apparently hear Yahweh anymore. When he snapped inside, for whatever reason, He lost that sacred communion that enabled Him to walk and breathe Yahweh's every word. And, yes, that can happen to all of us, no matter who we are. We all have that possibility, and you can be quite sure that Satan is most interested in, and diligently working at, getting you to lose faith and close down inside so that Yahweh can't use you for a while ... or even permanently. I can't begin to tell you how many brethren and sisters I have seen overcome by the enemy in this way. It is is a matter for weeping. I pray for their souls daily. And yes we can all say 'No' if we want to, and go our separate ways, to be picked off in the wilderness of our wanderings, as easy prey. Thank goodness Elijah persisted and did not let his discouragement make him give up. He accepted the angel's food, refused to sleep, and went to his rendez-vous with the Almighty in the desert - to the very Mountain where Torah had been received by Moses. And what does this tells us? It tells us that when mental, spiritual, psychic and emotional processes have closed down, for whatever reason, that we must return to source - to the place most of us met Yahweh in the first place - to Scripture. Our foundation is Torah - it's what we invisibly inscribe on our foreheads and on our hands. We reconnect with the Word until it becoems alive again.
"And the word of Yahweh came to him: 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' He replied, 'I have been very zealous for Yahweh-Elohim Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.' Yahweh said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of Yahweh, for Yahweh is about to pass by'" (1 Kings 19:9-11, NIV).
Elijah's fear is that the Sinai Covenant is about to come to nothing. True Yahweh-worship has been all but eliminated. He is afraid that Yahweh's efforts of the centuries have failed. Oh, I wonder how often we have concluded that Yahweh has failed? I wonder how often we have looked around at the state of Christendom and wondered: 'Has it all been in vain?' I know I have looked at my ministry on occasion and wondered it it has been in vain. Often I have thought someone was a hopeless case and then, suddenly, in steps Yah'shua and a mightly miracle is wrought. Yahweh takes nations, churches, prophets and ordinary folks like you and me to the end of ourselves, making us believe that all is lost and has been in vain, and then, suddenly, turns everything around and makes is flourish, so that we may be left in no doubt that He was, is, and always will be in control.
The covenant at Sinai has not been a failure and neither has Elijah. He has slipped up in a moment of weakness, but after a forty day ordeal and purification of his soul, he comes out cleansed and ready once more for battle, his faith even stronger than it was before. Do not, then, suppose that all is lost or all has been in vain because Yahweh has brought you to the end of yourself, for when Yahweh does this, it is always redemptive, and not just for your benefit.
Next week we shall shall see how Elijah dealt with the Jezebel threat and how Yahweh reigned triumphant over both His spiritual and political adversaries. In the meantime, be encouraged - Yahweh is not finished with you yet. Amen.
Click here for Part 4
Author: Lev-Tsiyon
Glossary of MLT Hebraic, Greek and English Terms For other terms and full details please see the Micropedia
A
Adon(ai) = Master, a pagan fertility god, Adonis; used by many Messianics but not MLT
(a)eon(ian) = 7 dispensation- or age-long time periods, not forever (see le-olam-va-ed)
Alef-Tav = Alpha-Omega, A-Z, first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet = Yah'shua
Amen = truly, let it be so, written Amein by some Messianics
Apocrypha = Hebraic Scriptures not a part of the Protestant canon (e.g. Baruch)
Anti-Messiah = Hebraic term for the end-time Antichrist or anyone opposed to the Messiah
antinomian = lawless Christian who disregards all or part of Torah/commandments
Ashkenazi Jew = East European Jew descended from the Turkic-Japhethite Khazars
Assembly = church, congregation, ekklesia, community, fellowship, koinonia, gathering
Azazel = the Yom Kippur scapegoat
B
Baal, Ba'al = any other master than Yahweh, usually demonic in MLT terminology
Bachor(im) = firstborn son(s)
Bar/Bat Mitzvah = Son/Daughter of Commandment, covenant to obey Torah at age 12
being = soul, the whole person (spirit and body), e.g. "my whole being"
Beit, bet, beth = house, e.g. Beit Yisrael (House of Israel), Beth Lechem (House of Bread)
Beit haMikdash = Yahweh's Temple in Yerushalayim
B'rit Chadashah = the New Covenant; B'rit Chadashah Scriptures = New Testament
B'rit Milah = circumcision - abolished in the B'rit Chadashah, replaced by Mikvah
C
canon = authoritative Scripture (Heb. qaneh, Gk. kanôn = measuring instrument)
Catechumen = a serious, covenanted investigator seeking Mikvah or Baptism in MLT
Chag haMatzah = Feast of Unleavened Bread, second of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Chavurat Bekorot = MLT's Priesthood Order, Holy Order and Assembly of the Firstborn
Cohen = priest; Cohen Gadol = High Priest (also spelled Kohen)
Council of Yah's elohim = the heavenly Assembly of the Firstborn or Chavurat Bekorot
D
demon = fallen malek or angel in rebellion against Yahweh (Heb. shad; see Êl-Shaddai)
derech = the Way, Path or Road - Yah'shua and the Gospel are the Way
Drash = moral or homiletic interpretation of Scripture - see PaRDeS
E
Echad = One, Union of two or more in one (as opposed to Yachid) - see Elohim
Echad Godhead Doctrine = Father Yahweh, Son Yah'shua and Sevenfold Ruach (Mother)
Êl, Eloah, Elah = God the Father, Yahweh
Êl-Elyon = Most High God, Yahweh
Êl-Shaddai = Master/Lord over all shads or demons
Elohim = God, the Godhead (Father, Son & Holy Spirit), lit. 'Mighty One(s)', 'Ruler(s)'
elohim = Israelite judges, rulers, angels or gods (false deities, idols, demons)
emunah = faith, actively trusting, clinging or adhering to (especially Yahweh or Yah'shua)
emet = truth, Yah'shua is the Emet
Ephraimite = descendant of the patriarch Ephraim and head of Messsianic Israel
F
Feasts of Yahweh = the 7 annual Moedim (Pesach, Chag haMatzah, Yom haBikkurim, Shavu'ot, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot)
G
Gan-Eden = Garden of Eden, Paradise and state of the purified heart in Messiah
goy(im) = nation(s), Israelites or gentiles not born in or converted to the Covenant
H
hallelu-Yah = praise Yah(weh)!
Heylel = proper name of Satan or haSatan = the Adversary, the devil
Sabbath = Yom Shabbat (Friday to Saturday sunset, add 1 day in IDL Zone)
Hochmah = Wisdom, title of the 7-fold Ruach haQodesh
I
IDL = International Date Line, false man-made time division in Pacific Ocean
IDL Zone = Area between the true Divine Date Line (Lake Van/Eden) and the false one
Israeli = citizen of the modern Edomite-Khazar Republic of Israel (not Biblical Israel)
Israelite = citizen of biblical state of Israel or a modern follower of the Messiah
J
Jew = post-biblical term describing descendants of Edomite and Khazar converts to Judaism
Johannine = pertaining to the Apostle Yochanan (e.g. Gospel of John)
Josephite = descendant of the patriarch Joseph, the head of Messianic Israel
Judahite = a person in direct descent from the patriarch Judah, forefather of the Messiah
Judaism = a Talmudic-based religion rejecting Yah'shua the Messiah
Judean = a citizen of the Kingdom or Province of Judah until the 2nd Century diaspora
K
Kadosh la Yahweh = set-apart or dedicated to Yahweh, 'Holiness to the Lord', MLT motto
Karaites = Jews (from 700 AD) who reject the Talmud and accept only the Tanakh
kashrut = keeping kosher, food laws of Yahweh and correspinding lifestyle
Ketuvim = Writings or Hagiographa of the Tanakh
Khazar = a Turkic convert to Judaism ~700 AD forming the Ashkenazi Jewish community
kosher = clean foods authorised by Yahweh for human consumption
L
Lashon Hara = evil-speaking, gossip or slander
legalism = false route to salvation through works (self-salvation)
le-olam-va-ed = dispensation- or age-long, aeonian, not eternal, forever or for eternity
Lev = heart, as in Lev-Tsiyon = heart of Zion
Lev-Tsiyon = Heart of the Fortress [of Yahweh], Hebrew name of MLT's founder
M
Master = Lord, Sir, Adon(ai) - (one in authority, a ruler - a king, husband, prophet, judge)
Malak(im) = Angel(s), heavenly supernatural messenger(s)
manna = wafers of honey, bread from heaven (lit. 'what is this?')
matzah = unleavened bread, see Chag haMatzah
Menorah = 7-armed candlearbra = the 7 annual Moedim and 7-fold Ruach haQodesh
Messiah = Christ; Anti-Messiah = Antichrist
Messianic Community = Body of Christ, sum total of all true believers; all true fellowships
Messianic Israel = all who worship Yahweh, trust in Yah'shua, obey Torah and overcome
Messianic Jew = Messianic convert from Judaism still clinging to Talmudic traditions
Midrash = aggadic interpretation of scripture viâ Drash, a scriptural discussion
Mikvah = baptism by immersion of convert into Yah'shua or of wife into husband
Mishpachah = family: nuclear, congregational, tribal or the whole of Messianic Israel
MLT = Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon = family of the heart of the fortress [of Yahweh]
Mishpat = right-ruling or judgement
mitzvah/mitzvot = commandment(s)
moed(im) = appointment(s) of Yahweh, 7 Annual Feasts, Sabbath and Rosh Chodesh
N
Nefilim, Nephilim = giant offspring of materialised demons and human women
Nevi'im = prophetic writings of the Old Testament or Tanakh
New Birth = spiritual conversion in the Ruach haRishon, being 'born again' with new heart
Nidah = a woman's menstruation period during which no intercourse is permitted
O
Olive Branch = collection of revelations, prophecies and visions published by MLT
P
Paraclete = Comforter, Advocate (NEB), Counsellor, Ruach haQodesh (Gk. paraklêtos)
PaRDeS = method of textual interpretation (homiletics) - see P'shat, Remez, Drash, Sod
Patriarch = a father who is head of his family, clan or tribe (lit. 'father-ruler')
Pentateuch = first five books of the Tanakh (Genesis-Deuteronomy), also called Torah
peribolaion = headcovering worn by daughters/wives in submission to fathers/husbands
Pesach = Passover, first of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Peshitta = an Aramaic version of the Bible
Prototrinitarianism = early, simplified MLT formulation of the Echad Godhead Doctrine
Prush(im) = Pharisee(s)
Pseudepigrapha = Non-canonical Hebrew writings additional to the Apocrypha
P'shat = literal, contextual, philological, exoteric, outer meaning of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Q
Qadosh Qadoshim = Holy of Holies, most sacred set-apart room of the Beit haMikdash
Qodesh, Kodesh = set-apart, holy (see Ruach haQodesh)
R
Rabbi = Teacher, term used by Messianic Jews and some Messianic Israelites = Pastor
Refuge, the 12 Cities of = divinely protected MLT fortresses during the 7-year Tribulation
Remez = hint or allegorical level of Hebraic understanding of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Rosh Chodesh = monthly New Moon appointment of Yahweh
ruach = spirit of a person (lit.'breath')
Ruach Elohim = Spirit of God (the Spirit of the collective Godhead or Elohim)
Ruach haChamashee = 5th Ruach presides over Yom Teruah and Yom Chamashee
Ruach haQodesh = the Sevenfold Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost (lit. 'Set-Apart Breath')
Ruach haRevee = 4th Ruach presides over Shavu'ot, Yom Revee and Bar Mitzvah
Ruach haRishon = 1st Ruach presides over Pesach, Yom Rishon and the New Birth
Ruach haShanee = 2nd Ruach presides over Chag haMatzah and Yom Shanee
Ruach haSheshi = 6th Ruach presides over Yom Kippur and Yom Sheshi
Ruach haShleshi = 3rd Ruach presides over Yom haBikkurim, Yom Shleshi and Mikvah
S
Sabbath = Yom Shabbat (Friday to Saturday sunset, add 1 day in IDL Zone)
Satan = rebel archangel Heylel, father of lies, devil, chief demon (lit.'Adversary')
Sephardic Jew = West European Jew of mixed blood containing many Judahites
Septuagint = Greek translation of the Tanakh, LXX
Shegal haShabbat = 7th Ruach (Sabbath Queen) presides over Sukkot and Yom Shabbat
Shekinah = Divine Presence and Glory of Yahweh-Elohim
Set-apart = holy, sanctified, consecrated, dedicated, separated (to and by Yahweh)
Shabbat-Shabbaton = High Sabbath (e.g. Yom Kippur)
Shalom = heavenly peace, standard Hebraic greeting invoking Yahweh's peace
Shamash(im) = servant(s), deacon(s), attendant(s)
Shavu'ot = Pentecost or Weeks, fourth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Sheol = grave or pit, euphamism for Hades or hell - also see Tartarus
shofar = ram's horn, blown during Yahweh's Moedim
simcha = joy, keynote of Sukkot
Sod = mystical, anagogic, inner or esoteric understanding of Scripture - see PaRDeS
Sukkot = Tabernacles or Booths, seventh of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Synagogue = Greek word used by Jews and Messianics (but not MLT) for a meeting house
T
talmid(a) = male/female disciple or student
Talmud = scriptures, teachings and commentaries belonging to non-Messianic Judaism
Tanakh = acronym for Old Testament Scriptures - Torah, Nevi'im & Ketuvim
Tartarus = place of imprisonment under the earth for rebellious angels and Nephilim
teshuvah = repentance, remorse and contrition leading back to Torah obedience
Torah = Yahweh's teachings or Law; New Covenant Torah includes Yah'shua's teachings
Tribulation, the Great = the final 7 years of the present aeon when Anti-Messiah rules
Trinity = Catholic Godhead formula - see Echad Godhead Doctrine and Prototrinitarianism
Tsiyon = Zion, a fortress, a name of Jerusalem and a prominent hill
Tzitzit/Tizitziyot = tassel(s) worn by men in remembrance of Torah
U
Universalism = salvation of all at the cosmic Yovel, with different rewards and punishments
Y
Yachid = one, single person or item, as opposed to Echad (many in one, unity)
Yah'shua the Messiah = Jesus Christ (the Son)
Yahudah = Judah - see Judahite
Yahweh, Yah, YHWH = the true Name of our Heavenly Father, also carried by Yah'shua
Yahweh-Elohim = LORD God (the Father, Yahweh as Head of the Godhead or Elohim)
Yahweh haQatan = the sent Yahweh = Yah(weh)'shua, Malak of Yahweh's Presence
Yam Suf = Sea of Reeds, the true Israelite Exodus water crossing, not the Red Sea
Yarden = Jordan River (lit. 'meanderer')
Yerushalayim = Jerusalem
Yisrael = Israel (lit. 'ruling with Êl') = true believers under the New Covenant
Yom Chamashee = 5th day of the week (Thursday, Friday in IDL Zone)
Yom Din, Yom haDin = (the) Day of Judgement
Yom haBikkurim = Feast of Firstfruits, third of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yom Revee = 4th day of the week (Wednesday, Thursday in IDL Zone)
Yom Rishon = 1st day of the week (Sunday, Monday in IDL Zone)
Yom Kippur = Day of Atonement, sixth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yom Shabbat = 7th day of the week and Sabbath Rest (Saturday, Sunday in IDL Zone)
Yom Shanee = 2nd day of the week (Monday, Tuesday in IDL Zone)
Yom Sheshi = 6th day of the week (Friday, Saturday in IDL Zone)
Yom Shleshi = 3rd day of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday in IDL Zone)
Yom Teruah = Day of Trumpets, fifth of the annual feasts of Yahweh
Yosef = Joseph - see Josephite
Yovel = Jubilee or Year of Jubilee
Z
Zaqen(im) = elder(s) of an assembly or congregation, or senior members of a community
Zoë Life = Greek term for spiritual life in the Messiah
Commonly Used MLT Abbreviations
For additional abbreviations and explanations, please see the Micropedia
A
Amp.V(er). = Amplified Version of the Bible
Aram. = Aramaic
AV = Authorised Version of the Bible - see KJV
B
BCAY = B'rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh - see NCCG
BoA = Books of Abraham (e.g. 1Abr., 2Abr., etc.)
C
cp, cf = compare with
CB(Q) = Chavurat Bekorot
CEV = Contemporary English Version of the Bible
ch. = chapter
CJB = Complete Jewish Bible
CLNT = Concordant Literal New Testament
CYe = Council of Yah's elohim
E
Eng. = English
F
ff. = and onwards/forwards
fn = footnote
G
Gk. = Greek
GNB = Good News Bible - see TEV
H
Heb. = Hebrew, Hebraic
HEM = Holy Echad Marriage, eternal marriage
HO = Holy Order - see Chavurat Bekorot
HOC = Holy Order Collection of revelations - see OB
HRV = Hebraic-Roots Version of the Bible
I
ibid. = ibidem (lit. 'in the same place'), referring to a book previously cited
ICJC = Independent Church of Jesus Christ, earlier name of NCCF
ISRV = Institute for Scripture Research Version of the Bible
J
JB = Jerusalem Bible
JBP/Phillips = J.B.Phillips translation of the New Testament
JNT = Jewish New Testament
K
KJV = King James Version of the Bible - see AV
L
LB = Living Bible
lit. = literally or literature
LXX = Septuagint, Greek translation of the OT
M
MLT = Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon
Moff. = Moffatt translation of the Bible
MRC = Messianic Renewed Covenant Version of the NT
MS(S) = Manuscript(s)
N
NASB, NASV = New American Standard Bible/Version
NC&C = New Covenants & Commandments - see OB
NCCF = New Covenant Christian Fellowship, earlier name of NCCG
NCCG = New Covenant Church of God, earlier name of MLT - see BCAY
NCP = New Covenant Press, publishing arm of MLT
NCW = New Covenant Witness, MLT magazine
NEB = New English Bible
NIV = New International Version of the Bible
NKJV = New King James Version of the Bible
Nor. = Norwegian
NT = New Testament, B'rit Chadashah
NWT = New World Translation of the Bible, unreliable Jehovah's Witness version
O
OB = Olive Branch - see NC&C
op.cit. = opere citato (lit. in the work cited)
OT = Old Testament, Tanakh
P
p(p). = page(s)
pl. = plural - see s.
PWNC = Prophetic Words of the New Covenant, revelation cataloging system - see OB
Q
QED = quod erat demonstrandum (lit. which was shown to be proved)
R
RCF = Restoration Christian Fellowship, earlier name of ICJC
RhQ = Ruach haQodesh, Holy Spirit
RSTNE = Restoration Scriptures True Name Edition of the Bible
RSV = Revised Standard Version of the Bible
RV = Revised Version of the Bible
S
s. = singular - see pl.
S&G = Smith & Goodspeed Version of the Bible
T
TEV = Today's English Version of the Bible - see GNB
V
Vulg. = Biblia Vulgata, Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible
W
WEB = World English Bible
Glossary Copyright ©2007 Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon (MLT) - All Rights Reserved
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This page was first created on 7 March 2007
Last updated on 7 March 2007
Copyright ©2006 Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon (MLT) - All Rights Reserved
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