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Homeward-Bound - Steps into Torah and Kingdom Citizenship
Posted by Lev/Christopher on November 14, 2008 at 12:40am
in Forum
I felt moved to share with everyone a sermon I gave last year as a reminder of where we are headed and the importance to get out of the Western mindset.
Enjoy!
Sermons Series 3:106, 11 August 2007
We continue this morning with last week's theme of the work of the Ruach haRishon on the heart that has been born again by Yahweh. Earlier we looked at the events surrounding the 'Gentile Pentecost' at Caesarea which were every bit as dramatic as the ones which had taken place amongst the Judahites in Jerusalem. We have seen how the heart that is truly born again speaks supernaturally in tongues of praise, whether in one's native language or another one, which is very different from its psychic counterpart. Because the heart is so much lifted up into a higher dimension of awareness I suppose one could call it 'ecstatic' to begin with simply because it is so 'unknown' - hence there is a sense in which our praises may be said to be an 'unknown tongue' (since it's so unfamiliar to us) much as a foreign language that we don't understand is.
I remember the first time I heard Ukrainian and Russian being spoken when I visited the Ukraine in 1992. There wasn't a word I could understand except maybe 'da' and 'niet' - 'Yes' and 'No' and a few place names. I had two guides there - one couldn't speak a word of English and we had to struggle in broken German - and another on whom I became totally dependent who could speak English well. It was a very 'strange' experience, not at all 'comfortable', and yet I knew I was there because Yahweh had sent me. Indeed, He had prophetically shown me in vision some events that would happen and a woman I would meet, all of which was fulfilled exactly (OB 350). Had I not had a translator I am sure I would have needed the gift of tongues. Most of the people I met did not speak English at all because under Soviet times English was not considered an important language - naturally, the Soviets wanted to Russify the world. Most of the time I was not with my translator, who had a job at the polytechnic and had to work, so I was with the family of my host who spoke Ukrainian the whole time and had to gesture to me to be understood. However, I was where Yahweh wanted me to be for those two weeks and so my personal 'comfort' was not an issue. My being in His will was. When I needed to witness, translators were always provided.
Having immersed myself in Acts 10-11 for three days the Ruach took me back to the Judahite version of the 'Caesarea New Birth' which we commonly call the 'Pentecost Experience'. This occurred on Yom Shleshi (Tuesday) in the evening and following morning. I knew that He wanted me to revisit my rebirthing experience back in 1977 before I took the disastrous wrong turning into Mormonism and got deflected off my main calling in life. In particular I was led to Peter's long sermon beginning at Acts 2:14. These, unlike the gentiles of Cornelius' house, were Torah-observant Judahites who were in bondage to Talmudism. The Council at Jerusalem would later begin the process of introducing the new gentile converts to the Torah so that they could demonstrate their love for Yah'shua by obeying the commandments and live the perfect lifestyle (Jn.14:15). After prayerful consideration, given their circumstances in a very pagan culture where idolatry was rampant, the apostolic council, under the leadership of James, was led by the Ruach haQodesh to start the gentiles off by requiring them to obey some basic mitzvot:
"It is my judgement, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to Elohim. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath" (Acts 15:19-21, NIV).
The first gentile converts were already converts to Judaism and were attending synagogue and hearing Moses preached and taught to them. When Paul and the other apostles were thrown out of the synagogues, they had to teach gentiles who had had no exposure to Moses or the Torah at all. So where were the apostles to start? What were they to teach them? Interestingly enough, of the four 'starters', three were connected with the kashrut laws of eating kosher food. And it frankly amazes me that even in these basics modern Christians are not taught to obey! How many Christians abstain from eating blood the way it is taught in Torah? Apart from Messianics, I have never met one who obeys this instruction of the Jerusalem Council. And yet it was revealed by the Ruach and placed in Sacred Scripture for us to obey. The forth concerns "sexual immorality". For these Greeks this would have meant obeying the 6th Commandment not to commit adultery and fornication - being true to one's marriage partner, being celibate as a single - stopping pedophiliac and homosexual activity (which were common in that culture as it sadly is in ours) and following all the other mitzvot on sexual cleanliness. Then, as today, the Ruach pointed out the two most important areas for new converts to get working on after conversion of the heart to Yah'shua:
1. Dietary practice; and
2. Sexual behaviour
Following kashrut and living chaste lives were THE major concerns of Yahweh after conversion. Why? Now, most of us with common sense know how important sexual purity is - we know how devastating adultery and breaking up marriages are and how much Yahweh hates these things, but why such emphasis on food?! What about the Seven Festivals or the Sabbath? Well, from what Peter says in v.21, it would seem that assembling on the Sabbath was taken for granted:
"For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath".
One of the first things new converts did was to gather every Sabbath for fellowship, worship and instructions so it would be fair to say that the fifth requirement of the Council was Sabbath observance, though they did not underline it because evidently these new believers were already observing that particular mitzvah. And it's quite possible that they were observing other ones too even though these are not mentioned.
James' concern was that Torah-observant believers should "not make it difficult for the Gentiles", not because observing the Torah is unimportant or too hard, but because remaining alive in the Ruach was the most important thing of all. He did not want the Ruach quenched (1 Thes.5:19). One of the great dangers is to so overwhelm new believers with Torah that they end up believing that in order to be saved from sin they must be obedient. Staying linked to the Source of Eternal Life through trust is the most important thing - without it, Torah-observance can become mere ritual without life, and what then happens is that new believers start trying to earn their salvation and forget that it is a free gift.
Michael Wells in his brilliant book, Sidetracked in the Wilderness, relates a true story that illustrates this problem:
"One day while I was sharing with a woman, the [Ruach haQodesh] brought her to the certainty that she wanted to receive [Yah'shua] into her life. After she prayed and asked [Him] to enter in, I suggested that she bow her head, shut everything out, look within where [Yah'shua] was now dwelling, listen for His voice, and then tell me what He told her. Before long there was this wide smile on her face; He had told her that she was acceptable to Him and that he loved her. No sooner had she gotten the words out of her mouth than her countenance changed and she began to cry. I told her to stop right there. I said, 'This is what you just heard: I must work to please [Yahweh], but I know that I will fail Him, and soon he will be displeased with me'. She looked astonished and affirmed my statement. I then told her that it was not so! The truth was that she was pleasing top [Yahweh] already, and she was to work not for His favour, but because she already had it. I explained about the voice of the Shepherd that she first heard and the voice of the Butcher (Satan); she could readily tell the difference between the two. I was happy that she had only been a believer for a few minutes and had distinguished between the two, something that many who have been believers for years have yet to discern." 1
The typical reaction of new Messianics is to try to please Yahweh by obeying Torah for fear of losing His favour or not being loved anymore. This is fatal. We must obey Torah because we know that we are loved and accepted, and want to please Him in that love and acceptance, not in order to retain it.
Counterbalanced against this error is the danger of assuming that since we are saved by faith that we don't need to be obedient anymore and we can treat the commandments as a moment-for-moment taste rather than an absolute requirement of the Most High. We must neither be legalistic - trying to be saved through obedience to law - nor antinomian - rejecting the commandments to suit ourselves. Both positions are dangerous and lead to a breakdown in our relationship with Yahweh and to apostasy from the truth.
One of the problems we have with the New Testament is that it does not give us the full picture of what was going on 'behind the scenes'. It mostly concerns itself with the main message of salvation - trusting in the resurrected and risen Messiah - and in correcting heresy caused by the influence of pagan thought and religion. It is not concerned about testifying to the truth of Torah-obedience because that was already 'taken'. The New Testament relates the constant battles to be fought and won when discipling new converts in a pagan or neo-pagan society like our own. That is one reason the believers met together every day to counter this negative, demonic influence. Learning the apostolic doctrine (teaching), fellowshipping, eating together and praying together were the four main defining principles of their lives (Ac.2:42). These are essential if we live and work in a society whose spiritual influence will continually be drawing us away from the truth. When new believers forsake gathering with fellow believers they soon grow cold and apostatise. Paul saw the dangers and wrote:
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another" (Heb.10:22-25, NIV).
This is particularly important for new converts but no less important for maturer ones either. We need each other. It is so easy to drift and be leavened by those who are not born again and who follow false philosophies. By fellowshipping with true believers who love Yah'shua and Torah, we partake of the Tree of Life because we all share in the same baptism of the Ruach - but when we fellowship with unregenerated believers or unbelievers we become leavened by them and start eating of the Tree of Death - the Tree of the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Because their hearts are unregenerated, their life is in their brains - their thoughts are not "fixed on Yah'shua" (Heb.3:1), they are not praising Him but are His enemies viewing Him through dead intellectualism with its maze of contradictory and confusing teachings, whose hearts do not seek to obey the Master but to break - and encourage others to experiment with - His commandments. They may seem 'wise' but as it is written:
"Yahweh knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile" (1 Cor 3:20, NIV; cp. Ps.94:11).
Who is currently counselling you? To whom do you turn for advice? Are they regenerated believers who have been baptised in the Ruach and whose hearts are full of spontaneous praise? Do they love and obey the commandments, talking about and rejoicing in them daily, or are they lawless? Or are they of the world? If they are not born again, if they are lawless, or if they are enemies of the cross, and you turn to them, you will be destroyed by them by gradual osmosis or leavening. You will become like them, forsaking the truth, and drift into darkness.
I really do feel for new converts but I feel much the same for even mature believers who decide to venture out into the world to 'explore' as Eve did when she decided to forsake the Tree of Life, yield to her curiosity at what she might be 'missing' in her life, and inspect the Tree of Death a little more closely. Curiosity not only killed the cat but it ruined the human race as well. What often happens is that, first of all, Paul is twisted because, as Peter noted, he was not always easy to understand:
"[Paul's] letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16, NIV).
These people, moreover, will not tell you the whole counsel of Yahweh as the apostles did and as true ministers today do:
"For I (Paul) have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of Elohim" (Acts 20:27, NKJV).
They pick and choose scriptures, taking them out of context in order to support their perverse anti-biblical doctrines and teachings. Beware of anyone who does not adhere to the whole Bible and seek to obey it. There are Christians who reject everything written before the Day of Pentecost, including the Gospels, though they'll not be as direct about saying it as I am. There are those who only accept the Book of Acts. There are those Ebionites who reject Paul's writings. And, of course, there are those who reject the Old Testament. I know one family which believes that they alone have the truth and that all other Christians are wrong. They're a one-family cult. There are others like them. Their 'church' is their family. Unfortunately for them, to be a true, complete believer, you not only have to be born again but you have to be grafted into Israel. You have to become a Messianic Israelite, obeying Torah and abiding Yahweh's lifestyle. He doesn't expect new converts to do this all at once, as He revealed through James, but that is the goal; and anyone who would teach another Gospel is anathema - cursed:
"If anyone does not love Yahweh, let him be accursed" (1 Cor.16:22, NASB).
I bet that scripture sits uncomfortably with some of you. What do you suppose Paul is doing? Going around cursing all unbelievers? Is that understanding consistent with his message over all? No it isn't. Paul had so much love for people, like his Master Yah'shua, that he was willing to be imprisoned, beaten, tortured and finally beheaded to get the message of redemption out to them. So what are we to do? Consider the context. Paul is not speaking to unbelievers but to the believers at the rebellious congregation called Corinth where, amongst other things, all the false tongues and most of the other heresies originated that have led to charismatic churchianity. So what does he mean about "not loving Yahweh"? Simple:
"If you love Me (Yah'shua), you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever - the Ruach (Spirit) of truth" (John 14:15-17, NIV).
Listen! Learn this vital lesson! If you say you love Yah'shua - if you feel you love Yah'shua, but disobey His commandments, what does He say He will do? He won't send you the spirit of truth - you will, rather, because you choose to be lawless, receive a very different spirit which will lead you into more and more lawlessness. You will be deceived and Yahweh will permit it because you made a choice not to obey the mitzvot. It doesn't matter what you have experienced up until the point you choose not to obey any longer. It doesn't matter that you were born again and were regenerated in your heart. It doesn't matter that you are praising someone called 'Yahweh', 'Yah'shua', 'God', 'the Lord', 'Jehovah' or 'Jesus' if you refuse to obey, because if that is the choice you have made, then you will be led into error. Guaranteed, because He says so. Paul said:
"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause Elohim shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess.2:9-12, KJV).
Is it possible to be a Christian and have "pleasure in unrighteousness"? Of course! Every time we reject a commandment and choose to live in a way that is contrary to it, and get some sort of perverse pleasure from it, we are taking pleasure in evil. There are millions of Christians who do this! But it doesn't make them very 'Christian', does it? Just look at the rules established by the Council of Jerusalem for the first gentile believers: "abstain from ... sexual immorality". How many Christians do you know who are fornicating and committing adultery? Are they "abstaining from sexual immorality"? Of course not!
You cannot be filled with the Ruach haQodesh and be speaking the true language of praise AND BE WILFULLY BREAKING THE COMMANDMENTS. It is one thing to be ignorant but when you know the truth, and you deliberately rebel, then your praises - if you are still praising Yahweh - will be of a false spirit. Most stop praising altogether and slip back into their former spiritually lifeless paganism or atheism. You can't separate true faith in Yah'shua - and the anointing of the Ruach that accompanies it - from obeying the Torah. Impossible. And if you think you can, you are deceived.
There are, of course, some favourite scriptures that lawless believers love to quote. One of them, which used to baffle me for many years, was this one:
"Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial" (1 Cor.6:12, NIV).
The way lawless and rebellious believers twist this scripture is as follows: they say that "we are not under law and rules anymore and so we can do whatever we like. But obviously not everything is beneficial, so we mustn't do anything that would harm us or others." The trouble with this wicked lie is that it then makes what is "not harmful for others" a totally subjective thing. In fact, this doctrine is OCCULTISM - it's the creed of WICCA known as the Rede- the nature religion - which says:
"An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will"
Or put into modern English: "Do what you will, so long as it harms no-one". It sounds very noble but it's so vague that it can be used to promote almost any religion you like because ultimately it's you who decides what is harmful or not. To see the fallacy of this teaching, just ask 50 people on the street what they consider to be harmful and you will get some agreement in some very general areas, but when it comes to specifics - like sexual morality, for example - you will find considerable disagreement. Gardner, who popularised Wicca in the 1950's, ended up writing 161 laws to 'clarify' the Rede. Inevitably. What Wiccans won't tell you, though, is that he made up the Rede himself which he adapted from devil-worshipper, sexual pervert and murderer Aleister Crowley which he attempted to 'tame'. Cowley's motto was: "Do what you want shall be the whole law". The late Anton LeVey, who founded the Church of Satan, would have agreed with him. Wicca is just sanitised Satanism just as antinomianism (lawlessness) is satanised Messianism. Antinomianism is existentialism - 'what you experience is the truth' - your experiences can't be measured against any law because it's 'your truth'. Let's get real - it's Satanism in one of its thousands of guises.
When Yahweh summed up the commandments into the Two Great Commandments, He wasn't dismissing His laws and giving every believer the authority to just "follow his heart" because He says the heart is desperately deceptive and wicked and is not a reliable guide:
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I Yahweh search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve" (Jer.17:9-10, NIV).
Instead, He predicted that when the New Covenant came the Torah would be written on the believer's heart so that he would obey the written Torah naturally and spontaneously because it would be an integral part of his new or regenerated nature in Messiah (Jer.31:33). He was summarising, not replacing. Paul knew this. So what did he mean when he said: "Everything is permissible for me"? It is best we examine this a bit closer. But before I quote the rest of this passage, think back on what James told the first gentile converts to do in respect of Torah - and you will find this very interesting:
"'Everything is permissible for me' - but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me'- but I will not be mastered by anything. 'Food for the stomach and the stomach for food' - but Elohim will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Master, and the Master for the body" (1 Cor.6:12-13, NIV).
Do you see? Paul is teaching the first principles of Torah to the gentiles as revealed by the Ruach haQodesh through the presiding apostle, James. But this is not all. Did you know that Paul singles out two particular things which false believers abuse and called them "doctrines of demons"? Do you know what they are? Have a guess!
"Now the Ruach expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which Elohim created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of Elohim is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of Elohim and prayer" (1 Tim.4:1-5, NKJV).
So here we have again issues of food and of sexual immorality - same themes but new variations. It seems Satan is fond of messing in these two areas. In the first, men and women influenced by lying demons, start forbidding people to marry, saying either marriage itself is somehow 'dirty' or 'sinful' or declaring Yahweh's servants like Abraham or David to be 'adulterers' for having had more than wife. Then there is another kind of deceiver who says that some kosher foods are forbidden, included in which are the 'vegetarian-only' people who declare that eating meat is sinful. Since Yahweh seems to lay such emphasis on food and sexual morality, and since Satan seems to deliberately target them, then obviously they're important. Get these two doctrines wrong and we would appear to be in serious trouble.
To get them right, we need to precisely know Yahweh's kashrut and marriage laws and it is for this reason that in this ministry we have gone to a lot of trouble to examine them. Needless to say, examining the plain biblical truth about them excites a lot of hostility not only from pagans and atheists but also from lawless believers. What the pagans and atheists do is up to them - Yahweh says in His Word that judging them is not my responsibility, but His. If they want to be sexually immoral and eat unkosher food, it's none of my concern unless they start trying to force it on me, my family, or on fellow born-again Bible-true believers under my watch care. Then, as far as I am concerned, they might as well have started a nuclear holocaust because Yahweh has commissioned me and every true believer to GUARD His Torah. Why is that important? Because if I don't, then demons will write lawlessness into my heart and I will end up desiring and cleaving to that which is unlawful, antichrist, and satanic, and that I refuse to do.
"'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible' - but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others" (1 Cor.10:23-24, NIV).
Thus Paul repeats himself a few chapters on, adding that the goal is not seeking our own good but the good of others. So why does he say, "Everything is permissible" when clearly it is not?
Well, we can look at this in two ways. First, we can look at it in terms of free agency. Yahweh gives us free will. We are free to obey or disobey. It is permissible to sin but it will not bless us or others. That's certainly a possibility though I can see how wording himself this way could lead to misunderstanding. Even the Amplified Version struggles with this passage:
"All things are legitimate - permissible, and we are free to do anything we please; but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life]" (1 Cor.10:23-24, AmpV).
The latter expansion is sound but the first part does not rest well - it certainly doesn't harmonise with what Moses and Yah'shua said. The translator is in effect making Paul say that lawlessness is fine provided you don't harm anyone! That's Wiccan doctrine! In the 6th chapter, where Paul first talks about this, and a few verses up, Paul is specifically warning against lawlessness:
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of Elohim? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of Elohim" (1 Cor.6:9-10, NIV).
Then he reminds the former Corinthian pagans that they were originally in this category but that they were now
"washed ... you are now kadosh (holy, set-apart) ... you are declared to be a tzadik (a righteous, justified one) in the Name of the Master Yah'shua, and by the Ruach of our Elohim" (v.11, RSTNE).
And before this Paul is complaining because these Corinthian brethren were quarrelling with each other and even going to court over these squabbles instead of fixing matters internally. They were going to unbelievers to get disputes resolved - in secular courts of law! (vv.1-8). Indeed, they were cheating each other just like they were before they were converted. In other words, between the time they were regenerated and born again - between the time they were filled with the Ruach haQodesh and were speaking in tongues of genuine praise - something had happened such that Torah was no longer written on their hearts. Somehow they had started abandoning the faith and reverting to their old psychic way of life again.
It has been suggested by some that the "all things are permitted to me" are the grey areas not forbidden in Torah which, though not forbidden, are not profitable either. If so, why does Paul say "all things" instead of "some things"? I don't believe this is the correct explanation. Rather, I prefer the Aramaic rendering which says:
"Everything is empowered to me, but everything is not profitable to me. Everything is empowered to me, but no man will have power over me ... Everything is empowered to me, but not everything is profitable; everything is empowered to me, but not everything edifies" (1 Cor.6:9-10; 10:23, HRV).
In other words, I have power - by virtue of the life force within me - to choose to be lawful or lawless. Those things which are lawful will not only benefit me but my neighbour as well because they are within Yahweh's fence of safety and blessing. I have the power to abuse, commit adultery, steal, and profane, but none of those things edifies or builds up either me or others. Paul is saying that I have the power to do anything I want to but such will not make me a tzadik - it will not make me righteous. Indeed, it will exclude me from the Kingdom of Elohim and pave my passage to hell.
When you are filled with the Ruach haRishon - when you are born again - your whole world changes. Like young people who think that the whole world is laying out there waiting for them to take it, when the Ruach fills and animates you, everything and anything seems possible. But the Ruach haRishon - wonderful though She is - is not our only Teacher. Wisdom has seven pillars (Prov.9:1) and each of the Seven Ruachs (Spirits) of Elohim (Rev.3:1) has different functions. It is wonderful to be filled with Life but there is disciplining and maturing to follow. We soon discover that it isn't "my life" but His - and that the 'infinite possibilities' that we were shown in our New Birth are not, in reality, all ours. Yahweh has one way mapped for us - a very finite way indeed, one which we are not inclined to like or appreciate at first but which - because of the divine imposition of self-limitation - teaches us the patience needed to mature into the fullness of our potential. Thus after asking Peter three times whether he loved Him or not, Yah'shua said:
"I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go" (John 21:18, NIV).
Was this bad? Was this 'thing' that would happen to him when he would be older be detrimental to his interests? To the worldly man or woman, yes - apparently very detrimental - but then the worldly person does not have the mind of Elohim. But then we are blinded by the prince of this world still (2 Cor.4:4; Jn.12:31), to one degree or another, and fail to understand that Yahweh always knows what is best for us, and not the beggarly wisdom of man (Gal.4:9):
"Yah'shua said this to him to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify Elohim. Then he said to him, 'Follow me!'" (John 21:19, NIV).
You see, the question really is this: are you living your life to glorify yourself or to glorify Him? Who or what are you living for? Are you prepared to accept that glorifying Him may lead to some or even considerable discomfort in the sort term or even most of your life? Do you think the apostle Paul had a 'comfortable' life? And if this happens, will you accept and believe that in the long term that this will bring you blessings incomparable? To an unbeliever, such a notion is insanity because they do not have the bigger vision; and even though our vision is minuscule compared to Yahweh's, it is bigger than theirs.
I have wasted a lot of time in my life and I don't want to do it any more. I have hurt people and I don't want to hurt anyone else. I have made many mistakes that I don't want to repeat. I am in search of the Valley of Achor. I am more or less reconciled to trial and tribulation in the world around me - I don't expect to find a haven of peace in this world until the Master comes back - but I do now insist on finding the haven within. It is written:
"I (Yahweh) will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess My mountains; My chosen people will inherit them, and there will My servants live. Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek Me" (Isa.65:9-10, NIV).
Though this is a literal valley in the Promised Land, it is also the state of being of those who trust in El Elyon and His Son Yah'shua and love to do His Torah. I would be insane not to follow the King of Love, wouldn't I? Why should I let vanity and passion lead me by the nose into disaster? Why should I allow a desire for creature comforts and desire lead me away from Yahweh and into spiritual sleep? Yahweh warns:
"But as for you who forsake Yahweh, and forget My holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in My sight and chose what displeases Me" (Isa.65:11-12, NIV - also see vv.13-15).
What does it mean to "spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny"? Trusting in luck? Believing in fate? Taking a long shot? Playing a lone hand? That's what you do when you get into 'party mode' as Israel did in the Wilderness when they forsook Moses and Yahweh. Remember? The fools! And yet those who call themselves 'Christians' are doing it in ever greater gay abandon. And it is abandonment - not to Yahweh and the safety of His Law, but to Fate in the name of a bogus 'freedom' which promises everything and gives nothing. It results in a sword through the heart (Jer.4:10; Lk.2:35). Wake up! Don't fall for that old lie, don't hand Satan your life on a platter - don't make your body, your mind and your heart a meal for him. Let Yahweh prepare His table for you instead and bless you! (Ps.23:5) Why let yourself be raped and ravaged by Satan the Devourer? Don't gamble your eternity away!
"'I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewellery, and went after her lovers, but Me she forgot,' declares Yahweh" (Hos.2:13, NIV).
Why turn to the enemies of your soul when the Lover of Your Soul promises you this:
"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. 'In that day,' declares Yahweh, 'you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call Me 'My master'" (Hos.2:14-16, NIV).
Are you willing to be taken into the desert for this blessing? For if you are seeking a fertile and green plain in order to hear the tenderness of Yahweh's words to you, you will not hear them. If you're going to run as Elijah did from Jezebel, at least go to Mount Sinai and hear what the Master has to say. At least don't go back to the world. Then Yahweh can return you home and use you, and bless you and your household.
The easy way, the short-cut, another door into the sheepfold, does not exist:
"Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on Yahweh out of a pure heart. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And Yahweh's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that Elohim will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will" (2 Tim.2:22-26, NIV).
These words I share not just for young people but for those older people who are young of heart too. There are many temptations to lure the youthful heart that listens to the lie of Satan that Yahweh has somehow denied them something good. That's what the serpent said to Eve. Don't be deceived.
Many of us have had some big shocks this last year, some real and some imaginary. Not only have I seen pillars of the faith tumble and fall along with the weaker ones but I myself came to the very edge of the pit leading to hell. Every now and then I get its whiff and recoil. The dimensions of the Third Wave were far, far greater than I ever dreamed. I have witnessed Yahweh's hand reaching into the very depths of the soul. This, I believe, is in preparation for a major move of the Ruach which is imminent world-wide which will result in an even more pronounced separation of the wheat from the tares as the tares are more starkly revealed. In my overconfidence I never dreamed how much I would be shaken. Like the famous missionary, Hudson Taylor, who served faithfully as a doctor and evangelist in China in the 19th century, founding the England-China Inland Mission, I discovered that despite the fact that I had consecrated my whole life to Yahweh that my own heart was far darker than I could ever have imagined. Like Taylor, my request from all of you is simple: pray for me!
continued in Part 2...
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on November 14, 2008 at 12:41am
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on November 14, 2008 at 12:41am
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Updated on 3 January 2011
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