Jose
THANK YOU!!! Dearest, dearest friend and sister in God’s great family, and fan of God’s GREAT WORK and PURPOSES. It’s time. Last night we had a minister’s meeting. We have one every four months; three times a year. Our next one is on the Monday that precedes December 31st, New Year’s Eve! LOL And the next one is the day before Tax Day (April 15th, 2014), which will be April 14th, 2014, then one on August 31st, 2014, etc…
We write our reports and submit them to our district leaders, and attend the meetings at 7:30PM. We worship and sing praises onto the Lord. It is a wonderful time of gathering aside from service in God’s presence. Then Rabbi Jonathan gives a word of encouragement from God’s Word to the minister’s present. Last night we worshipped and sang God’s praises, and the presence and anointing of God was present. As we sang and worshipped, our names were called out, and we each received our minister’s card for the following year. Our names were called out, and my better half, soul mate, and high school sweetheart – Vivian and my names were called out, and we went up along with our fellow commissioned ministers to receive our cards. This identifies us commissioned ministers of Beth Israel and allows us to visit hospitals and prisons as ministers of God to be with and comfort the sick, elderly, and imprisoned. While we were up there, Rabbi Jonathan laid hands on us to pray over each one of us for God’s Great Commission and service.
Later Rabbi Jonathan gave a stirring message of encouragement to the commissioned ministers, deacons, Levites, and elders gathered. It dealt with Exodus 29 which deals with the ordination of the priests of God for service. It reads as follows:
“Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them to minister as priests to Me: take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil; you shall make them of fine wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket, and present them in the basket along with the bull and the two rams. Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. You shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the tunic and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod; and you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. You shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. You shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.”
(Exodus 29:1-9)
As Rabbi Jonathan spoke, I felt myself as though I were out of myself as I listened to every word, but I was also observing myself while listening to each and every word. It was hard for me to concentrate at times because of this strange feeling, as he spoke, but I couldn’t help but feel that every word disclosed who I am and how God wants to make me.
I’ll share with you the gist of what he said, because it was a lot, and it was very heavy on me, because we are all weighed down by our own sins (1Kings 8:46a, 2Chronicles 6:36, Proverbs 20:9, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23) and the guilt we are not meant to carry (1John 1:9, Romans 8:1, 5:1), if we but sincerely come to Christ with our confession that we have messed up, and that we need His grace, aware that He imparts it. The more grace is needed, the more He imparts of it (Romans 5:20, 6:1, 1John 2:1-2), but we must remember that to whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). Like Paul I cry out, I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25) How often we’ve said this?
Well, Rabbi Jonathan touched on this last night as we gathered to listen to the Word of God. The Holy Scriptures were considered so sacred, and God’s names so holy; that before a scribe would write God’s name, he would first immerse in fresh clean water. Before they ministered to the Lord, they would bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then they would take the garments, and put on Aaron the tunic and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod; and they would set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. Then they would take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Afterwards, they would bring his sons and put tunics on them. Then they would gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute.” So Aaron and his sons were ordained to serve as priests of God throughout their generations. (Exodus 29:4-9)
The children of Israel were always meant to bring God’s holiness and His redemption to the nations. As such they had amongst them those who served at the altar, who were born for this service, whose DNA carried the special chromosome marker that evidenced their special calling. They were born to serve at the altar of God’s service. In the New Testament, we are called a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1Peter 2:9) as such, God brings us near to Himself, removes from us our filthy garments, and washes us with clean water, then puts on us royal vestments for His service, and anoints us with precious oil. Then He sprinkles on us the blood of His sacrifice – the Lord Jesus Christ – and we minister in His Holy Spirit.
But to be of service to God, we must cast off the sin which so easily besets us (Hebrews 12:1), fixing our eyes on Him; as it says better than I can ever put to words:
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:1-2)
And so we came last night to beseech the Lord of all mercy to impart to us this grace we need to run the race, to serve and minister at the altar of His calling, and to fulfill it unencumbered or weighed down by secret sins, keeping ourselves pure and chaste as a bride for her Husband, as we await His return for us. I felt each word applied directly to me and to my life. The amazing thing about God is that when He speaks of these things, His Spirit does not condemn, but consoles us, and compels us to do better, to allow God to work His work, and not get ourselves in the way. Of course this requires for us to continually walk with humility, understanding that we must trust Him implicitly so that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
This minister’s meeting was so apropos since it preceded the release of my book, The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message and brought our need to be holy, dedicated, and sanctified for service to the Lord, especially as God wants to take us further in our walk and service for Him.
Rabbi Jonathan used the analogy that when we were children, our parents used to get us clothing that was just a little too big for us, and we grew into them. So it is with our heavenly Father who removes our old clothes, and puts on us raiment that appear at first glance too big for us to wear, but in His grace and time, we grow in Him to fill it. So it is in God’s service. We are moving to higher ground in the Lord by His grace. But before we do, He must increase while we must decrease (John 3:30). We are not clean, but cleansed by Him. We are not perfect, but perfected in Him. We are not just born, but born again in Him. And this is the gist of what the message was all about – though I must confess that my retelling it with my own “embellishment” does not do it service. As Rabbi Jonathan spoke, I felt that every word applied directly to me, as I sat there transfixed by each word, in full realization that God was speaking to me that evening and I best listen and do so without distraction. It is not always that a sermon has this kind of an effect on me, but this one did. Very powerful, very anointed, and the Spirit of Our Lord filled the place, and everyone who was there.
Thought I’d share this with you, and I pray it speak and blesses you. Yes, today The Truth about The Harbinger: Addressing the Controversy and Discovering the Facts About This Prophetic Message is finally released and in bookstores all across this great land of ours. I pray it will be used by God to speak as The Harbinger speaks to a wayward and lost people, and bring our nation out of the brink of annihilation and judgment, and transfer it to God and His favor.
Blessings,
No comments:
Post a Comment