Don't Ask for Just a Few!

Shalom friends,
I spent time in 2 Kings 4 this morning and my heart was greatly inspired all over again by the faith lessons given to us in these stories of Elisha the prophet. Oddly enough I seem to be even more moved by the story of the provision for the widow than by the miracle of raising a young boy from the dead! The Spirit spoke fresh revelation to me this morning about the widow's oil!
2 Kings 4:1-3:
The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
² Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
³ Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.

Don't ask for just a few! Isn't that what we do? If a man of God told me to go to my neighbors and ask for empty jars, I'm sure I would go collect five or six jars and return home, feeling I'd done what I was told. Oh, how we limit God! He knows what we need, and when we trust Him and think big like HE thinks, He is able to open His storehouse and provide ALL that we need and more!

But He had more to show me in this story - 2 Kings 4:5-6:
⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

The widow kept pouring and pouring and the oil kept flowing - until when? Until her son spoke out the words "There is not a jar left." Did he speak out a negative word that stopped the flow? Might there have been more jars appear and more oil miraculously flow if he had not spoken an end to it? I'm just pondering this thought that quickened in my heart.  The Scripture does go on to say that at this point the widow went back to the man of God (Elisha) and he told her, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left." Certainly this shows that God did provide for all they needed, as He always does when we pray and act by faith. But I'm just wondering...when her son said "there is not a jar left," did he limit the blessing? I felt the LORD was simply showing me once again the power of our spoken words. He is exhorting us to press forward with a faith we have not had before; to believe for more than enough, to trust Him for a great river when everything seems dried up, to believe for a flow of His oil that will fill our lamps and not cease!

Praise our Mighty King Yeshua! He has provided enough for us to purchase our four airline tickets to Kenya. Now we are believing Him for enough to take care of our expenses for food and also a generous gift for the orphanage where we will minister. Thank you for believing with us and being a part of this still-flowing provision. By faith there is going to be MORE than enough! 

Kelly Ferrari Mills
DoorKeeper Ministries

Donations online: Donate
Donations by check: make out to DoorKeeper Ministries and mail to PO Box 233 Eaton, CO 80615
  

The Mark of God

I was given the same scripture twice this past couple of weeks, and I know that in Hebraic understanding when God repeats Himself, it means, "Pay attention!"  I believe this is a Scripture we should be committing to our minds and hearts right now. Our nation is in chaos, and I believe the chaos is going to increase greatly as we come into these next weeks. In my spirit I sense a strong foreboding. John McTernan, who wrote the book As America Has Done to Israel, has an interesting take on it. He writes in his blog that he believes as America is pressuring the "two state solution" to divide Israel and Jerusalem, so this country is about to be divided also. In fact, we already ARE divided politically in what appears to be an impasse that could cause our economy to finally collapse. Is this how the God of Israel will judge this nation? It could be. America has turned her back on God and I cannot see how He can continue much longer to hold back His justice.

Yet, as we ponder these things the Scripture He gave me gives us reason to believe that the righteous - those who have the testimony of Yeshua (Jesus) and keep His commands - will be kept safe.
2 Peter 4:-9: For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) - if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials..."

HalleluYah! This is a good word, my friends, one that we can hold onto. The Father is looking for those who are "distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men," which we now see all around us, and even in our government. I am so moved by Ezekiel 9:4, which prophesies a time when those who grieve over the lawless people and their detestable acts will be marked with the mark of God: "Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, 'Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.' As I listened he said to the others, 'Follow him through the city and kill...but do not touch anyone who has the mark.'"

Interesting that Revelation 9:4 (notice the same chapter and verse!) has a similar prophecy: "They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads." In both these verses we are told that great harm is about to come upon the wicked, and they will be identified as "those who do not have the mark of God." Those who DO have the mark of God will be identified by their righteous lives, and their anguish over all the greed, hatred, violence, and evil they see in the world around them.

Praise God that we do have the accounts of Noah, Lot, and others who were kept safe in the midst of great trials and disasters. We should all be on our knees in these days, weeping over the sin of America, and of Israel, examining our own lives and making sure that we are living according to His commands, and praying that the Holy One of Israel will take note of our anguish and place HIS mark upon us! His mark is a mark of deliverance - even as the children of Israel were told to mark the doorposts of their houses with blood so that the Angel of Death would not harm them. So now, as things begin to collapse around us, we must be ready, as Peter tells us, "to give a reason for the hope that is in us." Yeshua is the reason - He is our hope - His is the blood marking the doorposts of our lives; and we will soon have an unprecedented opportunity to share Him with those over whom we've been weeping.

“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” Psalm 37:37

The Warrior Bride

Our Feast of Tabernacles celebration on a beautiful, secluded northern California ranch was truly a "season of our joy." Joined once again with the Beit Yeshua congregation from Reno, we experienced a week filled with lessons from Master Yeshua - and culminating in the unspeakable joy of the Wedding Feast. All week long the Spirit was showing each of us that as we rehearsed this feast, being made ready as a spotless Bride for the Lamb, we needed to get the lessons that the children of Israel learned as they spent time in the wilderness with him.

The first night of the week I had a terrible demonic dream. It was a frightening dream and when I awoke from it, I felt the Holy Spirit was showing me that as the worship leader of the camp, I needed to summon the troops for warfare against every foul spirit that would try to attack, distract, and destroy us as we sought to become the Bride of Messiah. About 40 in number, we gathered that morning for worship and I called each one from the youngest (two weeks old) to the oldest, to prepare for battle. We began to worship Adonai Tsava'ot (Lord of the Angel Armies) in song, prayer, dance, and Scripture. We closed this powerful time of worship by blowing the shofars and literally marching out into the camp, where we anointed all the doors, windows and walls, sealing off the enemy!

It was an important lesson to us all, that we not just gather to celebrate the Feasts of the Lord with a casual attitude. These are holy convocations for all generations, and we are seeking to be a people set-apart to God; we must not forget that that will always incur the wrath of the enemy!

An article by Francis Frangipane puts it this way:
The Central Issue in Tribulation: Worship
One does not have to penetrate deeply into the Revelation of John to discover that both God and the devil are seeking worshipers (see Rev. 7:11; 13:4; 14:7, 11). Time and time again the line is drawn between those who "worship the beast and his image" and those who worship God.
In the last great battle before Jesus returns, the outcome of every man's life shall be weighed upon a scale of worship: In the midst of warfare and conflict to whom will we bow, God or Satan?
Yet, while this warfare shall culminate in the establishment of the Lord's kingdom on earth (see Rev. 11:15), we must realize the essence of this battle is the central issue in our warfare today. Will we faithfully worship God during satanic assault and temptation? True worship must emerge in the context of our lives now. For no man will worship through the great battles of tomorrow who complains in the mere skirmishes of today."

Amen! We were reminded many times during the week that the Bride of Messiah is probably not going to be dressed in lace and white satin as these great battles are waged. Our dear friend Mike Clayton is often quoted as saying "The Bride will wear combat boots!" That is because the Bride of Messiah is a warrior bride - she is an overcomer - and she carries dual weapons: the testimony of Yeshua and the keeping of His commandments.

All throughout the week we were washed in the Word, and there was unity and the love of Messiah operating in the camp. Our joy truly was made complete when we each walked through the gate into the "Wedding Banquet" and heard our names announced! Yeshua gives a promise to His overcomers in his Word: "I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels."

We feasted on delicious food, enjoyed a magnificent wedding cake, danced before the Lord with all our might, and experienced unspeakable joy. The enemy had been vanquished! The "tribes" were reunited as our men joined together in the Dance of Reunification, the names of each of the 12 tribes written on their arms. 

As Frangipane further stated, "The Lord's purpose with Israel in the wilderness was to perfect true worship, which is based upon the reality of God, not circumstances. The Lord knows that the heart that will worship Him in the wilderness of affliction will continue to worship in the promised land of plenty."

Thank you, Father, for the lessons. Thank you for times in the wilderness, and opportunities for the Refiner's Fire to mold and shape us, no matter how painful. Thank you that our hearts remained steadfast in this Great Feast, and as we came into the Wedding Banquet, we worshiped in the promised land of plenty. Now keep us ever vigilant, still covered with Your armor, joyfully marching on, marching on till your return..