FAST FROM YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING

As I pulled into the Office Depot parking lot today, something came on the radio that took me captive and I simply could not turn it off. I sat in the parking lot for many minutes listening to Bible teacher Dr. Tom of Beit Shu'va. He initially caught my interest because he was speaking about what he feels is happening in the spiritual realm in this time between Purim and Passover. Both these festivals recall times when the children of Israel were chased and threatened with slavery and/or annhilation. Like Dr. Tom, I too have been feeling the intensity in the Spirit, knowing the enemy is stirring up his warfare against all God's people. But the reason I couldn't turn off the program was that the speaker took me completely by surprise with what the Spirit spoke to him. He said he had been feeling called to fast during this time period - and expected the Lord would direct him (as usual) to a fast from certain foods or meals, or to a juice fast. However, the Spirit said to Dr. Tom, "I call you to fast from your own understanding." Then the Lord led him to Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."

I turned off the radio, but sat there a long time, pondering this word: "Fast from your own understanding." Surely the Lord is saying to us, "You're trying to figure out what is happening in the world and how I will respond, and how it's all going to turn out, and what you should do about it. Be still and know that I am Yahweh - I AM. Acknowledge me in all your ways, and I will direct your paths."

As I meditated on this, I realized that trying to figure things out in our own finite, limited understanding has done nothing but cause us to fear. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real!

These days between Purim and Passover are days to do spiritual warfare by fasting from our own understanding and rejoicing in the One who led Israel out of bondage in Egypt and kept them safe from the plagues! These are days to rejoice in the blessings of the God of Israel who hung the traitor Haman on the gallows, and saved the Jewish people. These are days to keep our eyes on Y'shua, the author and FINISHER of our faith! We cannot fully understand what is happening as Cheney and Rice meet with Israeli leaders, and Moscow demands to hold a peace summit, and Syria holds "secret talks" with Israel to get back the Golan Heights. Our minds reel with all the political ads and jargon, and we feel the tension as nations like Pakistan and Kenya erupt into horrific violence because of election results. Good grief, we can barely understand what's happening with our friends and neighbors who are losing their homes to the mortgage meltdown, and the families who cannot afford to pay $3.00 for a loaf of bread!

And the Voice of the Shepherd says, "Fast from your own understanding."

It will be a good fast - as I turn it all over to the LORD - and trust Him with all my heart!

DOING IT GOD'S WAY

In the Torah portion we are reading from Leviticus, and in chapter 10 there is a story that always "sparks" (no pun intended) my interest:Leviticus 10:1-5: "Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, 'This is what the LORD spoke of when He said: "Among those who approach Me I will show Myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored." Aaron remained silent. Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, 'Come here, carry your cousins outside the camp away from the front of the sanctuary.' So they came forward and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp as Moses had ordered."

These two sons of Aaron stepped outside the boundaries and commands Yahweh had given them and offered something other than what the LORD had commanded (spoken of here as "unauthorized fire.") The story carries the same lesson as poor Uzzah in 2nd Samuel 6, when he touched the ark of the covenant, being carried on a CART instead of on poles carried over the shoulders of the Levites!Does it matter to Yahweh whether we do things HIS way or OUR way? I believe it does. I believe that has not changed, because HE has not changed. To those who approach Him, He will still show Himself as holy, and He must still be honored. Note that the Scripture says fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed Nadab and Abihu - and yet, their cousins carried them away from the camp still in their tunics! Would a consuming fire not have completely burned up their bodies, let alone their tunics? What manner of fire was this? I believe it was the glory of God - manifested in the manner of lightning (as best we can describe it in our human terms). The Glory of God is so holy and all-consuming that no sinful flesh can stand in His presence and live! Like lightning He strikes that which is sinful and contrary to His holiness. That very same lightning-bolt power is, "like the working of his mighty strongth, which He exerted in Messiah when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion" (Eph. 1:20).

It is for this reason, beloved, that I no longer want to appear before Yahweh with the "unauthorized fire" of colored easter eggs and other pagan traditions of the "Easter festival." This feast was never commanded by God. It was created by the Roman Church to appease all the pagans who were worshiping Ishtar, or Ashtarte, the Goddess of Fertility, by dying eggs in the blood of their own children they had sacrificed in the fire. How many churches this weekend unknowingly mixed the holiness of God, and of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ with pagan sex traditions? It is time for the Church to grow up, and begin to ask our God, "What are YOUR ways, O LORD? What are YOUR feasts? How do YOU want to be worshiped?" Yahweh commanded us to keep the Passover - for all generations - forever! (Please see Exodus 12:14).

I led a Passover Seder in two churches last week, and we had such great joy and fellowship in the feast! All the children participated and had just as much fun running to look for Elijah as they did hunting for plastic eggs - except this time we were teaching them to do it GOD's way. And the best part is - within the Passover celebration every facet of the Gospel story is beautifully, incredibly brought forth and illustrated. Messiah's death, burial and resurrection are all celebrated in the Passover; our baptism is celebrated in the passage through the waters of the Red Sea, and our salvation is fully understood in the Blood of the Passover Lamb that is now on the doorposts of our hearts, our lives.

If your answer to all this is, "Well, it's okay, God knows our American holiday traditions and He knows my heart" - then I beg you to ponder this: It's not about our holidays or our hearts. It's all about Him - and His feasts, and His heart. Because His feasts and His heart are all about YESHUA, the King of the Jews, who gave His life as a ransom for many.

MORDECAI THE INDIVIDUAL

We are in the midst of the three-day celebration of Purim. This is the festival celebrating the deliverance of the whole Jewish race from Haman's evil plot to annihilate them in the book of Esther. It is a fascinating story - one that has been repeated through the ages by several other "Hamans" who sought to destroy the Jewish race. After all, that is Satan's primary, #1 goal always, to destroy the race through which the Seed of the Messiah comes, hoping to ultimately destroy Jesus Himself. From Hitler to the present-day leader of Iran, Ahmadinejad, the plot continues - but the Jewish people are still many in number across the globe, and this weekend they are celebrating a young Jewish girl named Hadassah (Esther) who risked her very life to expose the evil man Haman's plot, thanks to some quiet, behind-the-scenes work on the part of her Jewish uncle, Mordecai.

Mordecai wasn't anyone special. He was a Jewish man of the tribe of Benjamin who had been carried from Jerusalem into exile in Babylon. Now he just happened to work in the palace of the Persian King Xerxes, and he was privy to communications in the palace. Because his little cousin Esther, whom he had raised, had been made the Persian queen, he was able to get word to her about the plot to destroy the Jews.


Rabbi Richman, leader of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, has written a most interesting article this week about Mordecai. He points out that our scriptures refer to him in the book of Esther as "Mordecai the Jew," - but that the Hebrew understanding of this description is actually "Mordecai the individual." I like this! It was Mordecai's individuality; his character, his quick, forward thinking, and his devotion to God and his people that mattered here.

Furthermore, as we follow the story, we see that Mordecai did not have a TV news station to consult with, he did not keep company with the local politicians, and he did not compromise his faith by taking up the customs and idols of the Persian Empire. He kept the Torah, and He listened only to the counsel of his God.


This has had an impact on me this week. I listen to too many other voices in the media discussing the upcoming economic collapse, nuclear holocaust, and times of tribulation. I don't need to listen to these "talking heads!" There is enough wisdom and counsel in the Word of God to guide me through these times. Scripture tells us these times are coming and our Lord gives us ample instruction on how to be ready. Mordecai was a good example. Here is what Rabbi Richman wrote this week:

"Mordechai the Jew," (Esther 2:5) or, invoking the word play of our sages, Mordechai the individual. Not Mordechai the prophet or Mordechai the man of G-d: just Mordechai the individual. We all have the potential to be individuals if we so desire. The moment we drop our pretenses, strip off our masks, push aside what the mass media has to serve us, step away from the banquet table of lies, and remove ourselves from the conformity of the palace walls, we too can regain our eyes and our ears, revive our hearts and regain our conscience.
Let's be honest: We don't need a Minister of Justice to tell us what is right and what is wrong. Nor do we need a Secretary of Defense to show us who we need to wage war against. We certainly do not need a Commissioner of Police to know what is permissible and what is not. No one needs a CNN special report to know what the enemies of Israel are plotting against her, nor do we require a network weather caster to tell us what we ourselves can hear being whispered in the wind. Just as "the nations are compassed about [us]," (Psalms 118:10) so too, does God stand with us.

WHO LET THE WILD DONKEY GO FREE?

"...Jesus went forward to go up to Jerusalem. And when He arrived at Beth-Phage and Beit-Anyah, near the mountain that is called Olivet, He sent two of His disciples. And He said to them, 'Go to the village that is opposite us, and when you enter it, behold, you will find a foal that is bound upon, which no man has ever ridden; loose and bring him. And if anyone asks you, Why are you loosing him, thus say to him, 'our Lord has need of him.'" Luke 19:28-31

In my five-month prayer watch in Jerusalem I lived on the mountain called Olivet (Mount of Olives) and I could look down the steep hill behind our house and see Beit-Phage. In fact, I took this picture of a donkey by the roadside very near there! But we might wonder...why did Jesus choose a donkey on which to make His "trumphal entry" into Jerusalem? Why, indeed, the foal (colt) of a donkey?

In Hebraic understanding, the donkey represented VICTORY. A great warrior rode out to battle on a fine stallion, a horse of great strength. But when the battle was won, it is said that he rode back on a donkey, signifying that he brought back the victory and there would be peace. Isn't this a beautiful picture? Our Lord rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, making the statement to all generations that the battle is won through His death and resurrection, and He alone brings shalom.

But wait! There's more! When we dig deeper, there is another astonishing prophetic picture in this little donkey. We know that Ephraim, representing the 10 scattered tribes, or the nations, is symbolized in Scripture as "a wild donkey." And we, the nations, are also referred to in Romans 11 as a "wild olive shoot" that is grafted back into the natural olive tree (Israel). So, what picture do we see here as Yeshua is speaking to His Jewish disciples about this little donkey tied up at Beit-Phage?

In Job Chapter 39 we hear Yahweh, King of the Universe, putting us in our rightful places as His subjects. He says, "Do you know when the mountains give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn? Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they give birth? Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied his ropes?"

Yeshua (Jesus) the Jewish Messiah gave His Jewish disciples very specific instructions: "When you enter the village, you will find a foal that is bound upon which man has never ridden; loose and bring him. And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing him, thus say to him, our Lord nas need of him.'"

This is a little donkey that has never been ridden. He is fresh and pure. He is wild. He is a picture of Ephraim, the Gentiles, we who were "separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope or without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). The Lord didn't need us, did He? He rode into Jerusalem, hailed as King of the Jews! He is the Holy One of Israel! The Jewish people cried "Hosannah to the Son of David!" and they laid their garments down before Him on the path.

But then at the end of that journey He was crucified. And the rest of the Ephesians 2:12 passage says, "But now you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Messiah." Romans 11:25 says, "For I want you to know this mystery, my brothers...that blindness of the heart in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Goyim (Gentiles) has come."

How humbled I am at this verse! A partial blinding of the Jewish people was given, so that every possible believing soul throughout all nations could be reached and saved by the Messiah.

Who let the wild donkey go free?

Who untied his ropes?

It was Jesus. He has need of us.

CANKER-WORMS AND CATERPILLARS

It felt like a crisis. It wasn't really a crisis at all, when I later put it into its proper perspective. But trust me, earlier today, it felt like a crisis.

I work one or two days a week in a chiropractor's office to help pay my bills. The chiropractors are two young women in their twenties, and it is their first year in practice. I just go in to keep up on all the insurance claim filing.

Today, I accidentally deleted a year's worth of claims files. One wrong click, and poof! They vanished into thin air. (What is "thin air" I sometimes wonder?) I spent the rest of the day and into the evening tonight trying to restore those files, but to no avail. And I spent a lot of time fretting about the many, many hours I would be spending in the near future to try to restore all that data by typing in all those claims again. You know the kind of day I had. You have them too. Computers are often our friends, but sometimes become the bane of our existence! And instead of helping my precious bosses today, I set them back.

By 7:00 pm, when I realized I had lost the battle to restore the files, I came home. "It is the Shabbat," I told myself, "no more work! No more worry! No more fretting!" And so I gave it over to Abba. In the light of the two Shabbat candles, I gave Him those lost files - and all of my frustration. In my e-mail was the news that a Denver radio station has begun broadcasting my Bible teachings. And then there was a story from Channel 7 News in Florida about a man that was "raised from the dead" - returning to life after being dead over one hour of a massive heart attack - because his doctor felt led to return to his dead body and pray! And then there was news from the 2 families in Maui where I ministered last fall. They are getting ready to go into a recording studio to record the Messianic songs the Lord has given to them, and they learned that the producer who will be helping them with their music is Jewish - and seemed greatly blessed and interested to know about what they believe!

I guess losing the files wasn't such a crisis. I guess I don't need to feel so ashamed of my mistake. What was lost will either be restored, or the Lord will give me the memory and stamina to re-create it. And just as I shared with the women in Kansas last weekend, God spoke through His prophet Joel and made us a promise about these days:

"And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, My great army which I sent among you. and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Yahweh, your Elohim, that has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be ashamed."

Darn canker-worms and caterpillars, anyway!

"

From the Elbow to the Heart

The Lord worked powerfully at Crossroads Community Church in Arkansas City, KS this past weekend. I was there to lead a women's retreat. As I drove across the long stretches of prairie to get there last Thursday, I asked the Spirit to give me any words of knowledge He wanted to impart regarding the women who would be attending. Suddenly I saw a picture of an elbow.

"An elbow, Lord?" I exclaimed! I've received many words/visions of knowledge when God wanted to heal, but I confess I've never seen an elbow before! He went on and spoke to me about a severe ear infection, a painful hip, and the word "hepatitis." I wrote them all down on a piece of paper stuck in my purse at a Kansas rest stop.

The Lord was, of course, true to His word. A woman with osteo-arthritis felt the pain in her hip leave at the beginning of the retreat, and it never returned. Another woman who has been battling ear infections for about six months experienced a healing also. One woman there has two adopted children whose birth mother has heptatitis, and she has been on her knees praying against this disease in her two little ones! Together we prayed with the mama and rejoiced that the Father brought her this word of assurance that the babies are healed of this disease.

But what of the elbow? It turns out a lovely blonde woman had been suffering with severe tendonitis in her elbow for many months. She had not told anyone. She was sobbing as I prayed for her on Saturday, and the pain in her elbow began to subside. But I couldn't help but wonder why she seemed so disturbed emotionally about this elbow.

In a prayer and praise service I led on Sunday evening, I found out why. The reason she had not told anyone about her elbow was that this painful condition had commenced after she had been most unkind to a person in her church, and had eventually (she felt) "driven her out of their church." As her guilt and shame grew worse over this person she had wronged, so did the pain in her elbow.

On Saturday the Lord let her know, through the word given to me, that He knew about the pain in her elbow and was going to heal it. Then on Sunday morning, with no communication whatsoever between them for many months, the woman she had wronged showed up in church! There was repentance - there was forgiveness - and God brought a full-circle healing, from the elbow to the heart! He reached into my car on a sunlit Kansas road and showed me a picture of an elbow - and that began a chain of events that healed a woman from the inside out - and restored a friendship.

A heart at peace gives live to the body; but envy rots the bones (Proverbs 14:30)

Our Mouths Filled With Laughter

Laughter!

The Spirit of God woke me quite early this morning and I heard laughter. Then He took me to Scripture and began to speak to me about laughter. I had been plauged with a strange "veil of sadness" for the past few days. I knew it was an attack of the enemy, and after talking with some sisters in the faith, I came to know that I wasn't the only one under this specific attack. Perhaps you have been feeling it too. Then this morning's word will speak to your heart.

Yahweh, King of the Universe, said to me this morning: "I LAUGH at My enemies. I look at the stock market and I laugh. I own the cattle on a thousand hills! The storehouse belongs to Me. In Me you have hidden treasures that have not yet been revealed.

"I look at the news and I laugh. 'The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One. Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters.' [I hear the President of Venezuela spewing forth his obscenities. I see the U.N. Security Council meeting and plotting against My land and My people, Israel. I hear the president of Iran threatening to wipe My chosen ones from the face of the earth]. The One enthroned in heaven laughs! The LORD scoffs at them. Then He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath saying, 'I HAVE INSTALLED MY KING ON ZION, MY HOLY HILL.'" (Psalm 2:2-6)

Then the Lord began to speak to me about exiles. He took me to Jeremiah 29 to read the letter He sent to the Jews (through the prophet Jeremiah) while they were in exile in Babylon. They had been tortured, many had lost their families, and they had been forced out of their homes into exile in a foreign land by the wicked king Nebudchanezzar. It is surprising to read what the Lord wrote to them in this letter: "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem into Babylon: 'Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

Is this word not for us, today? ARE WE NOT EXILES IN A FOREIGN LAND? Truly I tell you, we are Ephraim, scattered to other nations, and apart from Israel, our true home. And we are in exile. Those who are bearing the costly marks of the great struggle to leave the apostate Episcopal Church and stand firm under the banner of the True Messiah, Yeshua, and keep His commands, are in exile. And we all must listen to the verses above from Jeremiah. While we wait for the Lord's "whistle" to make aliyah back to our homeland, where our King WILL be installed on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, His holy hill, to rule and reign for a thousand years, we are to be at peace - and pray for the nation and the town we occupy. We are to make good homes for our families and plant gardens and be a blessing to others. We are to LAUGH at the tactics of the enemy. Our Deliverer is coming! And then we shall sing, as the Israelites sang:

"When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with LAUGHTER, our tongues with songs of joy!
Then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!
Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev.
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him." (Psalm 126)

You and I have been weeping, carrying seed to sow.
Soon we, the exiles, will return, our mouths filled with laughter!