Wise, Respected Leaders?

In Deuteronomy Chapter 1 Moses is giving the Israelites a "recap" of their wilderness journey as they are encamped east of the Jordan, preparing to finally enter their inheritance in the Promised Land. He reminds them of how the Lord instructed him to choose some men and appoint them to high leadership positions over the people.
Deuteronomy 1:13-15: "Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you. So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you - as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials."

Moses was told to find wise, understanding and respected men. What he apparently got was wise and respected men. I wondered, "What happened to the word understanding? It is left out of verse 15! Why?

When we need to go deeper, we must always go to the Hebrew. The Hebrew word used here for "understanding" is biyn, which means discerning, prudent, observant. Now we get some clarification about what was missing in these leaders. They were wise - meaning they had knowledge, common sense, and probably good leadership skills. And they were respected - men of notariety among the tribes, those whom the people looked up to. But they were apparently not discerning or observant. Does this ring a bell with you regarding our current leaders, not only of the U.S., but around the world? Oh, we have plenty of leaders in power who are respected and smart, well-versed in the ways of the world, crafty in how to maneuver the masses. But are they discerning? Do they seek the counsel and advice of the God of Israel as they lead us? Do they spend time in the Word of God to receive their wisdom and strength? Do they trust in Him to direct and guide their steps? And what about the leaders in the Church? Shouldn't we be asking the same questions about them?

It seems we are in the same predicament Moses was in! We have "wise and respected leaders" who have no discernment, and who observe with eyes of the flesh instead of the Eyes of the Spirit. Thus should WE be ever more discerning in this hour, brothers and sisters. We should be vigilant, hiding the Word in our hearts and testing every spirit and every teacher. We cannot enter our own inheritance in the Promised Land following after the false and negative reports of the ten spies! Listen to the Still, Small Voice that leads and guides you, and reject the rest.

Only Your Ship Will Be Destroyed

In my last blog I wrote about Paul and Silas reassuring their prison guard, "We are still here." It was a profound statement of faith in the One who would not only keep them, but bring the guard and his family to salvation as well, through their faithfulness. This week the Spirit spoke to me about Paul and the men in the ship that encountered a terrible storm at sea. Acts 27:14-22:

14Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the "northeaster," swept down from the island. 15The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. 17When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. 18We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. 20When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. 21After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: "Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed."

"Do you see?" the Holy Spirit asked me. "Only the ship will be destroyed. What does the ship represent?" I meditated upon the question. They threw their cargo overboard. This means they got rid of all their possessions on that ship, even the grain and food that was heavy. Now they were lighter, free of baggage. But that did not entirely solve the problem. The storm continued to rage and it got so bad that they "gave up all hope of being saved."

It was then that Paul brought his great word of encouragement: "I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed." Again, what does the ship represent? I believe it represents not only our material possessions and possibly even our homes, but our entire lifestyle of comfort and complacency. I believe that possibly very soon this will all be destroyed. The Lord warned me about this recently when I was sharing my home with a family of six for a month. When it began to feel "inconvenient" to me to be staying in my basement, Father whispered in my ear, "You DO realize you are living like most of the rest of the world don't you?" Indeed! We are some of the few people on earth who expect that each child in the family should have their own room, and everybody should have their own private space.

The Lord is preparing a people who are willing to give up these luxuries and comforts, and be willing to throw the cargo overboard. He is not going to destroy the faithful, who love Messiah Yeshua above all things. When neither sun nor stars have been seen for many days and the moon has turned to blood, some will have shed their baggage and all their extra food, trusting in the Holy One of Israel to keep them safe. To these He says, "Keep up your courage! Not one of you will be lost; only your ship will be destroyed."

Shabbat Shalom!

WE ARE STILL HERE

My beloved friend Rosemary sent a word to me this past week that spoke so profoundly to my spirit, I am hearing one phrase over and over every day, many times a day. The phrase is "We are still here."

Her word came from Acts 16:25-33. In this story Paul and Silas are in prison when suddenly a violent earthquake hits, the prison foundations are shaken and the doors fly open. The prison warden wakes up and finds that the doors are open and undoubtedly the prisoners have all escaped, and then he draws his sword to kill himself. But Paul shouts, "Don't harm yourself! We are still here!"

Something awesome happens because they are still there. The warden gets down on his knees and asks how he can be saved. Paul and Silas reply, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your household." Then they are given the opportunity to witness to all the people in the warden's household, and everyone there gets baptized in the Lord and comes to the faith. They even stop to attend to Paul and Silas' wounds in their new-found love and compassion! Verse 34 says, "The jailer brought them into his house and a meal was set before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God - he and his whole family."

All this because THEY WERE STILL THERE! This has had a great impact on me. I see and hear the Father speaking to us in this day about steadfastness. It is a time of the great falling away. People want to be in their comfort zones; we want instant gratification and results. If things don't happen fast enough, we just quit and get interested in something else. If things get too hard and we start feeling tired and worn out, we just quit and stay home. Where is the steadfastness of Paul and Silas? Where is the deep passion to bring in the harvest - a passion that overrides all our own comforts?

It would have been SO easy for Paul and Silas to run out that prison door and say, "Thank You, O God, for this miraculous escape! Thank you for getting us out of here! Whew, now we can find a friendly house with a nice bed and get some rest." But no...they were steadfast. They were focused. Most of all, they were obedient. All they said was, "We are still here." The obedience brings the blessing.

Does this speak to you? When you've been given something to do for God, will you persevere even when you don't understand what He's doing - and even when you're tired and bruised?

Learn From Each Man All He Has to Offer

This past Sunday I went with some friends to hear ex-Palestinian terrorist Walid Shoebat speak. Walid is a modern-day apostle Paul, if you will. Born in Bethlehem, raised as a Muslim and trained to hate and kill Jews and Christians, he was utterly transformed by Messiah Yeshua and now teaches and exhorts those whom he used to persecute and kill. He is a passionate follower of Yeshua (Jesus), who said to us on Sunday night, "I will fight for my faith in Yeshua until the day I die." But his mandate is not just sharing the Gospel. His mandate is, in his own words, "to wake up America!" He says America is sound asleep in front of our TVs and our computers, and he is right. And he says that while we are sleeping, the enemy of our God is infiltrating our country - not with weapons of mass destruction, but with subtle weapons of overtaking our government, our schools and universities, and our society.

In the few hours we listened to Walid in a packed church, our Bibles open on our laps, we heard about 1% of the Scriptures that concern Muslim nations. He told us there are approximately 1,352 Bible prophecies mentioning Muslim nations, and almost all of these prophecies are in reference to the end times. From his Middle-Eastern Muslim background he tried to open our Western-cultured eyes to understand about the Beast of Revelation. He made us question: "Why is the Antichrist often referred to as 'the Assyrian' in Isaiah? Why are all the nations that God judges at the end currently Muslim nations?" Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia. In the Bible they are mentioned in names we do not recognize, such as Persia, Edom, Elam, Cush, Put, Babylon, Meshach, Tubal, Dedan. Because these biblical names are unfamiliar to us, did we not understand? Or because our teachers and prophets all used the term "revived Roman Empire" to tell us about the Antichrist and the Beast system, did we fail to look at the ancient boundaries of the Roman Empire? Did we forget that in Yeshua's day even the areas of Israel, Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, etc. were under Roman Empire rule?

Walid convincingly opened my eyes to the truth of the prophecies in Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel and Jeremiah. Those prophecies tell of the fierce judgment and wrath of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob coming against modern-day nations that are ALL under Islamic rule - and in examining them more closely through the eyes of this Arabic man who has been transformed by the love of our Messiah, I could not deny the fact that the Bible does flow consistently and seamlessly from the tree of good and evil planted in the garden by the "bad seed" of Lucifer (the original ANTI-Christ), to the description of Mohammed in Isaiah 14:12-13, to the prophecy in Daniel 11:36-45, to the description of "the Assyrian" in Isaiah 10:5-13, to the final prophecy about the beast in Revelation 13:1-8.

Read these scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and understanding. I did not agree with everything Walid Shoebat taught - but I am grateful that we have such teachers among us who are on their knees in prayer and crying out in the wilderness of America's slumber. Just because we do not agree with everything a teacher teaches does not mean we should reject everything he says. My dear sister Theresa sent me a quote yesterday illustrating that none of us yet has perfect understanding or has it all right: "Therefore, do not reject any thing for the harm it may render, nor despise any man for the ugliness within him. Rather, use each thing towards the purpose God conceived it for, and learn from each man all he has to offer."

If you are interested in reading Walid Shoebat's fascinating book, God's War on Terror, you can order it from his website here: http://www.shoebat.com/. And as you read and study these things, remember always that Yeshua has told us all things ahead of time (Matthew 24:25) so that we will keep watch and not be in fear, but in His perfect shalom!

Precious Moments of the Best Kind

Last Tuesday evening my daughter, her husband, and their three children came to my home for dinner. You wouldn't think that would be a big deal - certainly not noteworthy enough to write a blog about! After all, my daughter lives only three blocks away from me! But it is a big deal to me. They are a young, busy family and we rarely get a chance to sit down and enjoy dinner together. And after we finished dinner on this gentle summer evening, we went out on my old-fashioned, covered front porch. My daughter and I sat in the porch swing. Her husband sat in the big wicker chair. The children played in the yard. We ate popsicles. We talked about our hopes and the things that matter to us. We didn't have to rush off anywhere. Nobody had an appointment or a music rehearsal or a sports practice. We made time to just be together all evening long, and it was, for me, a treasured and poignant time. I remember that when I prayed a blessing over the dinner I said, "Father, I thank you for the great joy of having family so near. I never, ever take for granted how blessed I am to be able to walk down the street to see them, and to put my arms around my grandchildren."

I really meant that prayer. But tonight I was even more touched by a post from the son of a good friend who was critically injured in a bicycle accident a few weeks ago. His spine was injured and he was paralyzed from the neck down. For the last few weeks he has been in ICU in Houston, and now in rehabilitation. The post from his son is too beautiful not to share - just as a reminder to us all how fleeting this life is - and how precious family is!

Ben (my friends' son) writes:
Yesterday evening, for the first time in what seems like a very long time, I had the pleasure of actually sitting down around a dinner table in his room with Dad, Mom, Gramma and Grampa. We blessed our meal, and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half telling stories, giving each other a hard time, and most importantly, laughing. I found it difficult not to think of the innumerable times in my life that I've taken something as simple as eating dinner with my family for granted -- and then to realize how truly precious each opportunity to look our loved ones in the eye is. In the midst of trials that at times seem too much to bear, it is the brief moments such as these that reinvigorate our spirits and give us the strength to press on. They provide the certainty that no matter how tenuous and frail the physicalities of this world may seem, God has seen fit to bestow upon us the ties that bind and hold infinitely more firm than sinew, bone, or steel -- and it is with that assurance of fortitude that we find the stamina to keep moving up the mountain. And not surprisingly, Dad is leading the charge.With much love, and eternal thanks,-Ben