1 Corinthians 1:10 says, “I appeal to you brothers in the name of our Adonai Yeshua the Messiah, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no schisms among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same opinion.
Notice what this passage is saying, that we are to be one, with no schisms. That our words are to be the same and that being the same (one/echad) in mind and opinion makes us complete. Therefore, we are not complete as long as as we are not one/echad, as long as there are schisms between us.
I have heard others over the years speak of unity not meaning uniformity, and in terms of our gifts and talents they would be correct, however this verse seems to be saying that in terms of our faith they are not. Then there is this verse, Ephesians 4:13, that speaks of the Messiah giving different gifts so that His body may be built up “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God and become complete (echad), attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Messiah.” The oneness of the body seems to be the final step to the bride of Messiah making herself ready (Revelation 10:7).
Also, the body of Messiah keeping Torah, in other words, obeying the commandments is also definitely coupled with belief in Yeshua before His return (Revelation 12:17 – “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her seed—those who keep Elohim’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Yeshua.”).
So the question is are we there? No we are not. So what does that mean? It means we still have a ways to go. The prayer and hope is that we are on the road and not resisting the work of the Spirit in our lives and the life of the body. Remember the work of the Spirit according to Ezekiel 36:27 is to help us obey the decrees and laws of Elohim and do them. Also, according to Jeremiah 31:33 the New Covenant is the placing of the Law/Torah of God on our minds and hearts.
Therefore, the Reformation is not yet complete until these things are true of us. God is still working among His people and He is preparing us for His Kingdom. So we pray, “Your Kingdom come Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
So why is it important that even the Gentile believer obeys the Law of God/Torah. It is not only our obligation of living in the power of the Spirit (Romans 8), not only how we express our love for our Messiah (John14), but it is also how we make Judah jealous (Romans 11).
We are called to make the Jews jealous and even angry that we have something that they understand is theirs (Romans 10:19 and Deuteronomy 32:21). When we practice the Torah/Law of Moses/Law of God, when they see us practicing Torah it arouses in them a jealousy and in some cases even anger because they think we are hijacking what is theirs. However, Scripture itself tells us that the same law is for the foreigner and the native born (Exodus 12:49; Numbers 15:15-16, 29;Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 9:14 and Deuteronomy 1:16). It is for all those who choose to follow Elohim and be a part of His Kingdom.
At this point it is not just about our Discipleship in the Kingdom but it also becomes about Evangelism of the Jews. Paul in Romans 11:13b-14 puts it like this, “I make much of my ministry (to the Gentiles) in the hope that I can somehow arouse my own people (the Jews) to jealousy and save some of them. This jealousy is in the hope of their salvation.
So when we live out the Kingdom life it is as if we are Joseph saying to his brother Judah, “I am Joseph (Ephraim) a son of Israel and I bring you my brother good news of life, the Messiah, the true bread of Heaven, has come and He is Yeshua of Nazareth, Yeshua the Netser, Yeshua the Branch.”
Couple these two things, belief in Yeshua our Messiah and obedience to the commands of His Father and we have God’s recipe for His people becoming one/echad. Whether Jew or Gentile, we are called to be one/echad in Messiah and all those who follow Yeshua the Messiah and love Him will obey Him. We willingly become the bondservant of our Master to serve Him faithfully all our days.
What would the body look like if we did this instead of causing division and strife in the House He is building? Things would all come into place and the tabernacle of David would be echad! It would be ready for the glory of Elohim.
Today I want to look at some passages from Isaiah and to look at some of the things God says to His people in preparing them for the last days and the great harvest.
In Isaiah 51 He begins by telling His people to listen to Him and for those who seek Him and His righteousness to look from the rock from which they were cut namely Abraham and Sarah who obeyed Torah (Genesis 26:4-5). We are to listen and hear Him, we are to shema for His Law comes out from Him and is a light to the nations.
Now that we are listening He calls His people to Awake, Awake three time in chapters 51 and 52. Awake, Awake to clothe with strength and be awake as in days of old. Awake, Awake to why the God sends His wrath on His people and that He is the only One who can comfort and place His wrath on their tormentors. Awake, Awake to clothe with strength again and put on the garments of splendor as God raises you up, you who were redeemed. He gives the place of honor.
God/Elohim wants His people to be awake in these day and how many times have we heard comments about the body of Yeshua being asleep. He does not want us to be asleep, but awake. We will have to be awake if we are to truly seek Him and spread His message of peace, good tidings, and salvation.
So let us awaken and remember where we come from, remember our fathers and those who went before us. Remember what our Father has called us to, to Himself. He wants a people who can be His ambassadors and send forth the message of His Kingdom. However, that is a job for those who are awake, not for those who are asleep.
Awake, Awake people of God and see His righteousness, justice, and salvation go forth to the nations! Awake, Awake to see revival among His people!
But what does true revival look like? If revival begins with the people of Elohim and the job of the Holy Spirit is to transform us into the image of the Son (Romans 8:29), as well as, to help us obey the commands of God (Ezekiel 36:27) then what kind of life is He leading us, the redeemed, to live?
In 1 John 2:4-6 Scripture says, “Whoever says ‘I know Him’ but does not obey His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever obeys His word, in him truly the love of God is made perfect. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way that He/Yeshua walked.
So if we are to walk as Yeshua walked and the Spirit’s job is to transform us to be like Yeshua and the means by which He does that is to help us obey the commands of God, then the question still stands, what does that look like?
To most of the body of Christ/Messiah you might say that looks quite Jewish. Why? Because Yeshua was a Jew and when He returns He will be a Jew, in fact He is the King of the Jews, King of Israel! Therefore, He lived as a Jew and was obedient to the Law/Torah of God, His Father. So if we are to be like Him won’t our life look like His and won’t we do what He did? Yes!
It is interesting to note, that while to Gentile believers it may appear Jewish, to a Jew it may, at first, seem quite Gentile. Just in accepting Yeshua/Jesus as their Savior to begin with could appear Gentile to their fellow Jews, not to mention leaving behind some or many of the Rabbinical teachings (the tradition of the elders/oral law).
So let’s keep in mind the truth of this life is not to be more Jewish or to be more Gentile, depending on your perspective, but to be more Biblical.
As Paul said at the end of chapter 3 of Romans we do not annul the Law/Torah of God by grace, rather we uphold that same Law/Torah. We obey the commands of Elohim/God. We obey the Bible!
Therefore, true revival is one being redeemed by the Lamb and then living obedient to the Law/Torah of God (living as Jesus/Yeshua lived) by the power of the Spirit (Romans 8). It is about a transformed life!
Yeshua said in John 14:6, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” We need to keep in mind that loving God has always been tied to obeying Him. This was not a new concept that Yeshua gave.
If we love the God who redeemed us. Than the natural thing to do is obey the One who redeemed us. We are saved by grace, but His grace and obedience to His commands are not opposites. Remember, we are saved unto good works. We are saved with the understanding that obedience comes next.
We have an obligation to the One we love. Our obligation is to live as He says live and to love Him the way He says to love Him. He gets to decide what that love looks like, not us.
It does not matter what is natural to us, what is convenient for us, what is traditional for us. What matters is what He says pleases Him. After all, we do want to please our Father. We do want what we do to be pleasing in His eyes.
Take a chance and try loving Him His way and see what He will do. Be a man or woman after the heart of the One you love. Love Him the way He says He wants to be loved. Don’t get tangled up in the way man says to love Him, the way we have always done it, but search the Scriptures and see what He says.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yeshua (the Living Word) is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So will His ways ever change? No! Let us love Him by His standards, not our own.
So “make the most of every opportunity”. Let’s look at that phrase and what surrounds it. It comes from Ephesians 5:16.
The word for ‘opportunity’ is ‘kairos’ in the Greek, which is the same word used for ‘moed’/feast days in the Septuagint. Let that sink in for a minute. Let’s replace ‘opportunity’ with ‘moed’/feast days in the phrase, “making the most of every moed/feast day.
These set times are opportunities for Elohim’s people to awake from our sleep to do the will of Him who called us. What is that will? If we look earlier in Ephesians 4 we see in verses 23 and 24 that Paul says, that we are “to be made new in our attitude of (our) minds and we are to put on our new selves, which is created to be like Elohim in true righteousness and holiness.” Then at the beginning of chapter 5 he tells us to be “imitators of Elohim”.
We are created in the image of God so we are to imitate Him in all holiness and righteousness by loving as Messiah loved us and became an offering and sacrifice to God (5:2). So the will of God is for us to love in true purity of heart.
We find more of this idea in Romans 13:11-14 that begins by bidding us to understand the present time in which we live because it is time for us to wake up from our slumber because our salvation is near. Then in chapter 15 verses 4-7 we find this, “For everything that was written in the past was written to instruct us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures (the Old Testament whose foundation is the Torah) we might have hope. May the Elohim who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Yeshua the Messiah, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the Elohim and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Accept one another just as Messiah accepted you, in order to bring praise to Elohim.”
So we see that Elohim’s appointed times, His moed, His feast days, are opportunities for us to love one another and come together in unity of heart and word. To have occasion to speak psalms, hymns and spiritual songs together with one heart.
We are called to love Him with all we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves (to love one another in the body). We are to know the times in which we live and truly the times are evil so let us make the most of the opportunities Elohim gives us in His appointed times to come together and love Him and one another for our salvation, His return and Kingdom, is near.
I wanted to post some articles I wrote recently for our congregation. These articles speak to what I believe is the Heart of God, for His people to be one!
We must turn our ears toward Him and Shema. To Shema means not only to hear but to also be ready and willing to obey. To be like a child who loves for a parent or teacher to pick them for a task, ready and willing to do the will of that parent. That is how we are to be with our Heavenly Father. Before Elohim spoke to the people at Mount Sinai He told them to consecrate themselves. He wanted them set apart for His Word and His ways. He wanted to be able to meet with them. Yeshua prayed in John 17 that we would be set apart, consecrated/sanctified, as He is set set apart. Let us truly be set apart to our Father and ready and willing to Shema to His every Word.
Let us remember what sin is: the breaking of the Law according to 1 John 3:4. Let us set our minds and all our hearts on the will of God by being obedient to the Word of God. As Yeshua said in John 14, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” Let us not just speak of our love, but also show our love so we will not be like those of whom God spoke when He said, “they speak of me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Let us draw near to Him with the love of obedience. After all, as James said, “faith without works is dead.”
We have all prayed for revival to come to God’s people, but what really brings revival? We desire to see a true move of God. We want to see people get saved and yet we are all aware that true revival must happen with His people first. We have heard sermons on 2 Chronicles 7:14 perhaps many times where it says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.” We want the forgiveness, we want the healing of the land, we believe we are humbling ourselves and praying and seeking His face, but what about that other one – turn from their wicked ways? But if you notice the humbling, praying, seeking His face, and turning from our wicked ways is all one move. In other words, we can’t really do the first three without doing the fourth too. That is giving God lip service and not all of us. True revival does begin with His people. Let us seek after Him with all that we are and continue to turn from our wicked ways while humbling ourselves, praying and seeking His face!
Interestingly enough the definition for sin is to miss the mark. We don’t need someone to teach us how to miss the mark, we are already good at that, we need someone to teach us how to hit the mark. Yes, the definition for the word “sin” is an archery term meaning to miss the mark. While the definition of the root word for Torah/First Five Books of the Bible/The Books of Moses, of which Yeshua said spoke of Him, is also an archery term meaning to hit the mark. The word Torah itself means instructions. So the Torah is God’s instructions for hitting the mark, the mark of righteousness, which is the opposite of our wicked ways. In Psalms 19:7 it says, “The law (the Torah) is perfect and it revives the soul.” What revives? The law of God/the Torah for it is perfect and as Paul says in Romans 7:12 that the law/Torah is holy. Let us live by the holy and righteous ways of God, His instructions, not by our evil, wicked and lawless ways which are the ways of the evil/lawless one. As Paul also said at the very end of Romans 3, we are to uphold/establish the Law of God.
In Isaiah 32:17 it says, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace, the result of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” That is the effect and fruit of righteousness, but what is righteousness? We find that in Psalms 119 in verse 137 it states, “Righteous are you, YHWH (LORD), and your laws are right.” In verse 160 we see this, “All Your Words are true; all Your Righteous Laws are eternal.” So it is the Law of God that is righteous and eternal, just as He is righteous and eternal. So it would make sense that in the first part of verse 165 of that same chapter we find this, “Great shalom/peace have they who love your Torah/Law”.
We wait for Him who is righteous and while we wait we obey His righteous decrees and in this there is peace.
We will continue these tomorrow! Please stay with me I am leading to a very important climax!
Esther's Legacy 