City of the Great King

"I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves."  Zechariah 12:2-3

Ever since I spent those five life-changing months in Jerusalem, my eyes have been continually fixed on her, my heart beating with her own throbbing pulse.  People ask me continually why the world and the news media are so fixated upon Israel and Jerusalem - this tiny land, the size of Vermont!  The answer is so very simple: it is because the eyes and the heart of the Creator of the Universe are forever focused right there!

Jerusalem - the ONLY city where God chose to put His own Name; the place where He brought forth creation, the place where His Son shed His blood to reconcile Himself back to a sinful creation!  The nations and religions of the earth vie for control of this place. It is the most coveted piece of real estate in the Universe - and the navel of this land is the Temple Mount.

This week we feel the pulsating tension over the Temple Mount.  Gun shots, rioting, convulsions of rage fill the streets there, and blood is flowing in homes of the innocent. All these chaotic scenes of this past week cause my memory to flash back to 2005, when I was living up on the Mount of Olives and the Muslim Feast of Ramadan broke out in wild gun shots, drunken revelry and closed-off streets. At my window, overlooking all this chaos, I was praying for the peace of Jerusalem, when God gave me a vision.  I saw a great, radiant, flowing form seated on an enormous throne, and His feet were propped upon a footstool!  I was in awe at the scene and then the Spirit spoke to me: "I am not wringing My hands over this mess in Jerusalem. Do I look frightened and anxious to you? Am I not reclining, with my feet upon a footstool? Who does that if they are worried or afraid of what is happening? I tell you, Heaven is My throne and the earth is my footstool. (Isa 66:1) Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the City of the Great King." (Matt 5:35)

I remember being overwhelmed by this vision and these words from the Spirit, and I recall them now, as we begin to see the stage being set for Zechariah's prophecies. Satan is stirring up the nations of the earth against Jerusalem, only because it truly is the City of the Great King, the very location of the future Kingdom of Messiah Yeshua.

He said: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever. The people of Israel will never again defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings..."  (Ezekiel 43:7)

Hallelujah!

Jerusalem Day 2011

A Bearing Problem

We are holding much before the Lord right now for His discernment. He is teaching me once again to ask questions as I experience things in my normal, daily life. My car was making a loud noise in the front wheel so I took it in for repair. The mechanic told me, "You don't just need one new bearing, you need two. They are both worn out."  The car got two new bearings and then my dryer broke down, after a few weeks of loud squealing and moaning! The mechanic came out. "It's a bearing problem."

I sat in the Colorado sunshine and mused, "What is a bearing anyway, and what does it do?" Wikipedia offers this definition:  
A bearing is a machine element that constrains relative motion to only the desired motion, and reduces friction between moving parts.

Constrains motion to only the DESIRED motion.
Reduces friction.

Oh, how the Spirit speaks to me in these ways that are seemingly small and yet so profound!  This last season has been one filled with friction. Have you noticed? The enemy has been waging a total assault on the people of God, constraining their ability to move in HIS desired motion!  The friction manifests in discouragement and weariness.

I sat for a moment with that word: DIS-COURAGEMENT.  Yes. I see it more clearly that way. The enemy has stolen our courage. And it is courage and faith that allows us to move in God's desired motion.The Spirit led me to Hebrews 12:12-13: "Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled [discouraged], but rather healed!"

We went through a year of pain and illness and weariness. Friction! We were squealing and failing. Our forward motion - what God DESIRED for us - was disabled. We had a "BEARING PROBLEM!"

Does this resonate with anyone else out there? I have heard from several people who operate in prophetic ministry that this past season was an "all-out assault of the enemy to literally TAKE OUT the pastors, teachers, evangelists and called-ones of the LORD."  And it is not going to get easier; the friction is going to increase, constraining and disabling more and more people. But we have called the High Mechanic and He has shown us the problem. We will use His Word to strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees and make a level path to come against the friction!  We will move forward, by faith, in HIS desired motion, and we will prevail! 

I pray that this word speaks to others who are under much attack. It is a bearing problem!

Visit this link if you're interested in my podcast page on Hebrew Nation Radio, where you can listen to archived teachings at your leisure.  http://hebrewnationonline.com/?s=Doorkeeper&select-category=all&select-product_category=all&select-product_tag=all&select-product_attr_1=all

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God bless you - I love and appreciate each one of you!

I Have Kept the Faith

We've been on the road - my favorite thing!  We went to Missouri to minister in a congregation and then drove across the state to the eastern side to meet up with my sister and her husband on what is now called a "genealogy trip."  It was a marvelous, profound time of discovering many of our ancestors on my mother's side -- who they were and how they shaped who we are.  We had some letters and documents left by our mother, including a letter dictated by our great-great grandmother Catherine Herzinger, and written in our grandmother's hand.  She told of her life near the Mississippi River in the 1860s. Her story came alive to us in vivid color and we could imagine her terror on the night during the civil war when soldiers came and raided the house, taking all the food, clothing and valuables that they owned - except one $10 bill that her mother had sewn into a pillow!  She spoke of her husband, a shoemaker, who met some of the Indians coming across the river in mid-winter during the Trail of Tears, and got them shoes to keep feet warm and dry.

When we found Great-great grandmother Herzinger's grave and tombstone we wept, because we felt we had known her; and because only five words were written below her name and dates: "I have kept the faith."  That touched me deeply. Her family (whose names also included Stein and Halter) were immigrants from Germany, and most likely Jewish. So whether Jewish or Christian, it did not matter to me. She was brave and courageous and loved the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She and her husband showed mercy and kindness to the Native Americans. And I felt one step closer to knowing why every cell in my body jumps when I hear the shofar sound!

A few people told me that the bible says we should not spend time on genealogies. I think this is a misunderstanding of Titus 3:9, which cautions us not to argue and quarrel about the Torah.  If we stop and think about it, the Bible, especially the Torah, is a book of genealogies, a composite of records and stories of the family of God!  It seems to me that this is a cherished and important part of His heart, to record the people and the places of the Israelites and to tell their stories from generation to generation. They are part of who we are, and whom we have become, as God's own.

Just before we left on this trip, I had a very vivid dream. It was so powerfully strong that I pondered it for many days to seek the full meaning. The dream was brief and included two very opposing scenes. In the first, I was in a big room filled with people and there was a pastor in the front of the room. He was in deep travail, weeping and repenting, and eventually falling on his face, so deep was his sorrowful repentance. The Holy Spirit began moving all of us in the room to enter into this deep repentance, and I remember that I was moved to the core and weeping deeply myself.  Then I left that room and walked down the hall to enter another room. I remember that I thought this was the "restroom," but when I got inside, I realized it was another very large room and this time it was filled with people having a huge, raucous party.  Some had party hats on and they were all prancing around and celebrating. But what was really strange was that I saw donkeys in the room who were doing back-flips!  They too were laughing a strange laugh and then flipping over backwards.  Immediately I woke up, and at first I tried to remember if I'd had pizza for dinner!  I had not.  The dream began to sink in as I initially recognized the deeply divided world we live in.  One room was filled with deep worship of God and sincere repentance of sin; the other room filled with fleshly party-goers who don't care about God, feel no need to repent, and just want to have a good time with what the world has to offer.  A few days later, still pondering the dream, I told it to John and he remarked, "Kelly, don't you know that donkeys represent Democrats?"  I hadn't thought of that! I hadn't given it a political viewpoint. But undeniably, that schism is very real, and the two rooms told a very real story of this divided nation.

We remain in prayer. We repent and intercede for those who will not.  We stay in the Word and learn the lessons of those who went before us, and like my great-great grandmother we hope that one day on our tomb stone it will say, "I have kept the faith."