Come out! Be free!

I have been astonished before by the LORD's powerful confirmations in my life, but never more than this morning!

Our contacts in Hungary informed us that a new door has opened for us to minister in a Pentecostal Church there; but our contact in Bulgaria wrote and asked for fervent prayer because it seems the door to minister in the church in Bucarest, Romania was closing.

We wrapped ourselves in a tallit early this morning and went before the LORD. We prayed powerful, mighty proclamations and prophecies over the nations of Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary where we will soon minister the love of Yeshua and teach His Truth to the churches. As we moved into the flow of the Holy Spirit, I began speaking these words over our ministry there: "Father, You have had us hidden for several years now; we have been abiding in Your Word and hiding it in our hearts. Now You have called us to go and so with joy we go to wrap Your arms of love around the people of Eastern Europe. O God, we pray that scales would fall from their eyes and their ears would open to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. We call down the strongholds of anti-Semitism and we go to teach the people to learn of their inheritance in the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and celebrate their grafting into the olive tree of Israel. Remove the stones! Raise up the highways!

Father, I believe you called John from his mother's womb and then caused him to spend all these years filling his heart and mind with your Word. Now make your Word to be like an arrow in our hands, that we can shoot into the hearts of Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian people! We know you have a great destiny for these nations, and You are calling out a remnant. Abba, make us to be the Light of Yeshua, dispelling darkness in these nations, beckoning the tribes of Israel to learn of their Messiah and return to worship You on Your Holy mountain!"

Then I began to sing in the Spirit and in my vision I saw John and me putting our arms around children and elderly people; and I saw some being healed and others receiving salvation for the first time. When my singing stopped and we sat in the stillness, I heard the Spirit say three times: "Now read Isaiah 49 as I AM speaking this over you for this trip." Although we know these words were originally written as prophecy about Yeshua the Messiah, God's words from this chapter echoed the words of our prayer in such exact detail that our hearts were moved to tears!

Isaiah 49:1-2, 5-6, 8-9

"Listen to me, you islands, and hear this you, distant nations: before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth He has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver....And now the LORD says - he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength. He says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth'...This is what the LORD says: 'In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, 'Come out,' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!' I will turn all my mountains into roads and my highways will be raised up."

What thrilling confirmation of all He is planning to do as we journey now through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Israel! We covet your prayers - and believe that they will form a shield of protection over us. Pray that the doors for ministry in Romania will fling back open and all hindrances be removed. When next you hear from me, it will be of great testimonies of restoration and salvation!

Spring Cleaning

The fact that John and I seem to continue tracking with the feasts of the LORD in our everyday lives has not ceased to amaze me! Last week he went down to his house in Farmington, New Mexico and spent four days going through all his stuff and cleaning out. It was an exhausting process of throwing out all the old, unwanted items from his past life, but holding onto that which still matters, such as childhood and family photos, books, and bibles.

In addition to getting rid of all the junk in his house, he was dealing with the damage from a swamp cooler that had busted last summer, leaving cracks in the ceiling and possibly some mildew damage.

What a picture that was of our preparation for the Passover, and the Torah portion we read this past week! It just seems like we keeping walking out in the physical what God is desiring to do within our hearts in the spiritual.

Leviticus 14:33-42: "The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in that land, the owner of the house must go and tell the priest, 'I have seen something that looks like mildew in my house.' The priest is to order the house to be emptied before he goes in to examine the mildew, so that nothing in the house will be pronounced unclean. After this the priest is to go in and inspect the house. He is to examine the mildew on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall, the priest shall go out the doorway of the house and close it up for seven days. On the seventh day the priest shall return to inspect the house. If the mildew has spread on the walls, he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town. He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town. Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and plaster the house."

The house in these verses most certainly represents ourselves; more specifically, our hearts. As we clean out our physical houses prior to Passover, we ask the LORD to get rid of those old, unwanted things we are holding onto, such as unforgiveness and resentment against those who have hurt us, or bitterness over old wounds. These things can look like mildew in our lives, rotting away at our spirits and even bringing illness into our lives. Perhaps the "greenish or reddish depressions" upon the house with mildew is a picture of us and those places in our hearts that still harbor unforgiveness, guilt, or anger.

God says we are to get rid of all these things and ask the Priest to come in and inspect the house. Who is our High Priest? Of course, He is Yeshua (Jesus), and we are to call upon Him to send His Holy Spirit to inspect every dark corner of our hearts and do a cleansing work in us, scraping off all the walls of our hearts and dumping back into the unclean place from which it came! Only then can He rebuild us with new stones and plaster, as we see in 1 Peter 1:4-5: "As you come to Him, the Living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood..."

As we move closer to the Passover, our Redemption from bondage and darkness into the glorious Light, from slavery into freedom in Messiah, let us all be about the work of cleaning our houses from mildew and leaven. "And therefore let us keep the [Passover] Feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5:8).