Edition 374

This ministry has a distinct kingdom, Messianic vision, identifying with God’s call and plan for the Jewish people and the church. My position is pre-trib! Personally: I was saved in 1976 while working as a war correspondent, journalist, photographer, artist and environmentalist. My calling is to share these great end-time dramas, to stand as a watchman and above all, to glorify my God.

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●Iran says it can reach all of Israel through its proxy, Hezbollah.

●Muslims try to "plant" another mosque on the Temple Mount.

Assimilation is the opposite of separation. Islam wants world assimilation into Sharia law. Socialism wants assimilation into a borderless world and economic control. The devil wants assimilation into his evil system. The Bible forbids Jews from assimilating into the nations when they were scattered. (Ezekiel 11:16) The Bible demands that Christians don’t assimilate into the world and remain separate. (2 Corinthians 6:17)

Zechariah 10:9 “I will sow them (Israel) among the peoples, and they shall remember Me in the far countries. They shall live together with their children, and they shall return.”

Shabbat (Sabbath) begins on Fridays at 6pm and ends on Saturdays at 6pm. The purpose is to help the church and Israel become reconciled in Messiah and to identify the rift, and the needed restoration. There is much in the church that needs to change before it can be fully reconciled with the Jew. Likewise, changes in Jewish thinking are also needed.

15^th March 2019

Shabbat Shalom to all:

Your Progress:

The Bible reveals a controversy in the heart of the born-again believer. We are dead to self and sin, yet we keep arising, like dead men, to sin. (Romans 7:19) The work of the flesh wants to keep resurrecting sin in our lives, but when we see and understand the depth and power of the cross, self and sin stay dead.

You can’t beat sin’s power! That is a great revelation. You can only die to it.

Trying not to sin is the way of useless religion. It is the way of defeat and makes people subservient to the power of self / flesh.

Sin is a law, which always wins, just like gravity. You will be defeated and demoralised by trying to overcome it! It can only be overcome by a superior law – the law of life.

Romans 6:7 “He who has died has been freed from sin.”

Yes it’s all done for us in the spirit. But in the soul is the sneaky, sin-loving swine that needs to be defeated as we go forward.

The great exchange of our life for His life through the cross is only found in the New Covenant epistles. When it is at work, God’s way, it yields peace and many other glorious, good fruits.

A good measure of your progress in the Lord is seen in how often you say “thank you”, “please” and how often you yield, apologise and forgive others. It is also seen in how immovable you are on basic Bible truth. It is also seen in who your friends are and are not.

Getting slapped in the face is good for your progress. Actually, the slap is God’s doing, but turning the other cheek after being slapped, is our business. Turning the other cheek is our great opportunity for progress and service. It yields results.

The works of the law are about doing and not doing things. The law of life is all about being!

Many believers remain defeated at the foot of the cross. They believe in and apply the blood, which forgives sin, but they do not apply the cross, or their own daily cross, which strikes at the very root of sin. So they end up forgiven and burnt out from always trying to be holy.

The tragedy of superficiality today, is that many have tasted, received and applied some truth, but have not progressed far enough. Be careful out there, because not going far enough with our Lord is the first giant step to going backwards!

I love the Latin term, “Quo Vadis,” which means: “Where are you off to?” This was what our Lord said to Peter, who had basically given up following Him.

John 6:67 “Then Yeshua said to the twelve, do you also want to go away? Then Simon Peter said, ‘Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’”

We all need to progress beyond this devastating situation and the sooner the better! We have nowhere else to go, but to the devil and his world of perpetual, worsening evil. No way, no way! We must reach out always to our Lord, looking back with great thankfulness for His saving grace, and forward to the glory that lies before us.

►To the unsaved: Your time to reach out to our Lord for salvation is running out fast. What terrible regret there will be for those who miss their true golden opportunity! If God would allow you to come back and be saved after death, that would make the cross a mockery! Now is the time!

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►To the backslider: Be careful...you are on very thin ice. Yes, the Lord loves the backslider, but He loves them to return. There are many big, hidden dangers for the backslider, especially in these days.

2 Peter 2:21 “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from it.”

For the pilgrim’s progress, many times our will must be crushed because we are not weak enough in and of our own strength. “O wretched man that I am” (Romans 7:24) and “I must decrease” (John 3:30) are powerful biblical proclamations! Out of that comes: “I am more than a conqueror in Him.” (Romans 8:37)

The essence of the Christian life is not a changed life, but an exchanged life.

Our end is God’s beginning, for us, and for His kingdom, and for the eternal universe!

When you effectively die to self, you are free to progress fast, motivated by the approval of God alone and not man.

Psalm 62:5 (Amp) “My soul, wait only upon God and silently submit to Him; for my hope and expectation is from Him.”

When you get your doctrine right, with a right heart, and the leading of the Spirit, it will fast-track and streamline your progress to perfection and victory, which will even be evident in your own thought life, which leads to your words and actions.

There is great importance in being tested. Every academic student gets tested. God tests the faith of His own. The end result of the test is pass or fail.

God sent Israel into the wilderness to “test them to humble them, to see what was in their heart, to do them good in the end. But they tested God in the wilderness, so He gave them their desires but sent leanness into their soul!” (Deuteronomy 8:2, 16, Psalm 106: 14-15)

2+2 = anything you want it to, if there is no truth. If there is, it is dogmatically: 2+2=4!

We must be especially on guard now in these times against the spirit of error within the church. It is becoming a fast moving plague in many churches. Just as the Bible predicts, there is also a great many progressing well and flying high with the Lord.

If you follow false teachers for any amount of time you will become a false Christian and you will soon become incapable of knowing the truth. Evil spirits of error will distort you.

It is most important who you receive from and who’s teaching you must reject. The spirit of error is very powerful, don’t underestimate it. Even its “truth” is pride-filled error.

Be careful of those who repeatedly come up with “private interpretations” which is condemned, or those who always go for fringe doctrines. (2 Peter 1:20)

Beloved brethren, you have arrived already and are arriving daily as you progress to soon coming glory!

† Shalom...Joel.

Edition 374: July 18^th 2017.

Suddenly – the King!

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Introduction:

Our Lord and Saviour, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Prince of peace and Lord of glory, will arrive suddenly! The rapture of the true church of the living God, will take place suddenly. The tribulation will begin suddenly. The veil of blindness upon the Jews will be lifted suddenly!

Sudden destruction will come to this world - off guard and unaware.

Suddenly:

If we put the root meanings together of the word “suddenly” in both Hebrew and Greek we come up with: Surprising, straightaway, instantly, unexpectedly.

The meanings can be extended into the resulting actions or emotions as well. For example, “sudden” as used here in the Bible often produces shock, awe, confusion, regret, hysteria and the like.

The sudden rapture:

The biblical rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:17) or “catching up of we who are alive,” is an event which is exclusive. It’s only for the born-again, true church. It will take place in an “atomic moment.” This is the meaning of the original word “moment,” used in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. It means the smallest division of time possible.

The rapture is also seen as occurring in a “twinkling of an eye.” This is also an incredibly short space of time. This term has other wonderful meanings. Let’s have a brief look at it:

One of the Feast of Trumpets rituals is called the “Tashikh” symbolising the casting off of sins and the beginning of all things new. It is to be performed in the late afternoon at dusk, just as the sun sets and just before the night begins. This very short transition period is known as the “twinkling of an eye.”

The ritual is still performed today, at any body of water by the practise of casting stones, representing the sins of Israel, into the water while quoting Micah 7:19-20 “God will again have compassion on us, you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”

A previous verse in the same discourse (verse9) says that “God will bring them (Jews) forth into the light and they will see His righteousness.”

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:52 in describing the rapture of the church, compares it with the “twinkling of an eye” ritual at Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets)

Do you see what I see?

The rapture will happen very fast. It will happen on a Feast of Trumpets, which is the next to find prophetic fulfilment, and it will signal the mass salvation of the Jews, as they go into the tribulation period, which will begin immediately, suddenly, at the same time.

The big thing to bear in mind here is that there will be no time to prepare. Those who think they can wait till the last moment before getting saved or getting ready will be “suddenly” shocked! The suddenness of the event will catch the world totally off-guard!

For those in the sudden rapture, it will be instant transformation into incorruptible, eternal glory!

The rapture is sudden, exclusive, selective and spectacular and is very closely associated with the start of the tribulation.

Enoch is a type of the sudden rapture. Imagine walking along with someone and suddenly “he was not, because God took him!” (Genesis 5:24) No wonder people think we’re crazy!

Will it be world peace or world war?

Will the rapture leave behind a world of temporary peace?

No it won’t. The peace treaty or covenant that starts the tribulation and reveals the antichrist peace-maker is the only “peace” the world will see. The “peace treaty” will be a gigantic lie and deception.

The only “peace” the world will see is the word “peace” written on a piece of paper!

Some believe that the first half of the tribulation will be peaceful and only the second half will be the “wrath of God.”

Not so! The entire tribulation will see natural and social upheavals. Yes, the second half will be far worse, but far worse than the devastation of the first half!

1 Thessalonians 5:3 “When they (unsaved) say ‘peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them like labour pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.”

Isaiah 47:11 “...Desolation shall come upon you (Babylon) suddenly, which you shall not know.”

Jeremiah 6:26 Impending destruction: “O daughter of my people...the plunderer shall come upon us suddenly.”

Jeremiah 51:8 “Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed...”

“Babylon” in these verses above is not the literal city, but the end-time world-system in type.

So now we see that the true church will suddenly meet our King and so be with Him forever in everlasting peace. We see that the world will suddenly meet their lord – the antichrist, in massive tribulation and everything but peace!

Mental anguish and turmoil of the time:

Very few people are aware of how much the Bible has to say about the sudden deterioration of the mental condition of people in the tribulation period!

The tribulation period and a fair amount of the preceding forerunner times will be a time of great conflict in the spiritual realm, which will have ramifications and consequences in the natural, specifically in the hearts and minds of people.

Be aware that the whole world will suddenly be engulfed in spiritual conflict with no restraint, which will instantly transfer to the minds of the masses.

►For more on dealing with these issues personally, see Edition 372 “God’s psychology for today.”

The tribulation period is the final end of God’s patience with sinful, evil, wicked mankind. It is the end of His grace, which has warned about over and over again.

These tragic, but powerful verses below all relate to the stressed out minds of the masses in the time period called the tribulation:

Deuteronomy 28:28 “The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.”

Jeremiah 20:4 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies and your eyes shall see it...”

Jeremiah 15:8 “...I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.”

Isaiah 13:6-9 “Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty, therefore all hands will be limp, every man’s heart will melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them...Behold the day of the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and He will destroy its sinners from it.”

The key words and phrases from these verses above are:

●Madness ●blindness ●confusion of heart ●A terror to yourself ●Sudden anguish ●terror ●fear ●sorrow ●Limp hands,melting hearts.

Note that these words above all relate to one’s psychological state!

The tragedy today is that sin is worshipped and accepted. Holiness is rejected, refused and condemned. This is all a total reversal. God’s word said it would be this way. The reason is simple:

Satan is the god of sin. Our Lord is the God of holiness. Satan gave birth to sin in the Garden. Our Lord was the sacrifice for sin in the new birth, of which holiness is the result. But you can only reach it by being born-again!

The one and only remedy for sin and the way to holiness and peace is the way of the cross. Outside of the new-birth mankind is doomed to a fallen deteriorating life now and in eternity.

The heart of man is desperately wicked says the Bible. (Jeremiah 17:9) People love the darkness and sin. (John 3:19)

The term “born-again” is vitally important. It is key and foundational to true, pure, biblical Christianity. It is NOT to be changed, renamed or interfered with in any way, by anyone. Being born-again means being born-again, NOT conceived.

Isn’t it interesting that we are in a time where “knowledge will increase.” (Daniel 12:4) But at the same time deception is increasing. (Matthew 24:4) Both travel along the same highway!

Truth and holiness and error and sin are growing further and further apart these days, making it very easy to identify which is which. Then why are these days characterised by great deception and delusion? It’s because at the same time, spirits are putting out the spiritual eyes of the hard-hearted!

The messages of Joseph:

Joseph was a type of Yeshua. He was a Jew, but also has a close affinity with the Gentiles.

Both Yeshua and Joseph were rejected by their brothers. Both went to Egypt. Both were stripped of their robe / coats. Both overcame temptation and both were falsely accused. Both were unrecognised by their brothers at first. Both provided salvation.

Joseph landed up as a chief in the chief of the Gentile world – Egypt. He married a Gentile bride.

Now let’s have a look at some incredible facts!

In the Amplified Bible and in the Jewish, Hebrew Bibles, Psalm 81:5 contains a great mystery. In this one verse Joseph’s name has an extra “h” inserted. The ancient Rabbis believed that because Joseph sanctified his divine name by resisting Potiphar’s wife, he deserved having this extra letter from the divine name “Yahweh” added to his name.

Joseph (in Hebrew) now had part of the name of the Messiah in his name.

►Another powerful explanation for the added letter “h” is found in the same story. Before Joseph was about to be appointed Viceroy by Pharaoh, he was required to be able to speak all seventy languages of the then world. He could not, so the angel Gabriel came to him in the night and supernaturally gave them all to him, but added the extra letter to indicate that Joseph’s future ministry would be of God and to every nation, tribe and tongue on the earth.

When Joseph became Viceroy he had all the Egyptians circumcised. This is a type of his passion to have the whole world converted. This passion is also seen in Moses taking the bones of Joseph with him out of Egypt.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him symbolising this desire to convert the world.

Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name on his release from prison, on the day which became the Feast of Trumpets (Psalm 81:3-6). The new name was: Zaphnath-Paaneah, meaning “The revealer of secrets.” (Genesis 41:45) Bear in mind that the children of Israel were released from Egypt also on the Feast of Trumpets. (Isaiah 27:13)

Will the Jews begin to have the great secret revealed of the Messiah’s identity on a Feast of Trumpets? – You bet!

Joseph was released from prison to become the kings king. Pharaoh did this by giving him the royal ring and clothing him with new garments of fine linen and put a golden medallion around his neck. Then Pharaoh gave Joseph his own chariot to ride out to all the people.

As he rode out, the people all called him by the name “Avrech”. (Genesis 41:42-43) The Hebrew sages interpret this name as, “The one to whom we all kneel”.

Do you see what I see?

Joseph is a type of our Lord. He is the revealer of the great secret that Yeshua is the Jewish God of the Jews. This revelation will hit the Jews suddenly, with the great drama beginning on a soon-coming Feast of Trumpets.

Joseph revealed himself to his brothers “suddenly.” It was a sudden revelation.

The Jews, with their new found, long-lost “Brother” will be the great “light to the nations” – to every tribe and tongue and nation!

Joseph is also called by the sages, “The splendour of Adam.”

My friend, our Lord and glorious Saviour is the final and complete “splendour of Adam!” My Jewish friends, you will soon become the “splendour of Adam” as your eyes look to Joseph and see not him but your great King of kings and Lord of lords! My friends, we as true believers in our Lord, at the rapture, will soon become the final “splendour of Adam, too!

The drama to end all dramas:

walls-of-jerusalem

Well, my friends it is already a spectacular drama of monumental proportions as we have seen so far. The main subject of this edition is the suddenness of it all. Have a look now at some verses relating to our theme.

Psalm 6:10 “Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly!”

Malachi 3:1 “Behold I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. The Lord whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger in who you delight, behold He is coming, says the Lord of hosts (armies.)”

Isaiah 29:5 “The multitude of your foes shall be like fine dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away; It shall be in an instant, suddenly!”

Leviticus 26:15-16 “If you despise My judgements, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will appoint (sudden) terror over you...”

Zechariah 3:9 “...I will remove the iniquity of that land (Israel) in one day.”

Habakkuk 3:4 “His brightness was like the light; He has rays flashing from His hand, and there His power was hidden.”

The word “light” in the verse above is the same word used for: “The breaking of the dawn, awakening, light of life, light of face.”

There is a great awakening coming to Israel from the hand of our Lord. They will suddenly see His face, in a new light – the light of life. It will be a new dawn that will have been birthed in the twinkling of an eye!

Suddenly, the future!

We’ve seen that many things will happen very suddenly. There are other things that will also happen suddenly, but from a wider prophetic point of view. These things we will see taking shape.

It is the issues surrounding Jerusalem, the Jewish people and even the Temple Mount that are now in the prophetic mixer.

Watch for Syria to fall. Watch for Jordan to turn against Israel. Watch for Lebanon to become a lot more hostile with Israel. Watch for Iran to explode onto the stage. Watch for the King of the North and of the South to appear. Watch for the Psalm 83 war to start. Watch for a new Temple. Above all watch your own heart.

Imagine that one day you will be sitting right there where you are now, just like normal, and in a blinding flash you will suddenly be in heaven! What a thought! But the funny thing is; it will soon be very true!

My friends we are about to go into the most astonishing, amazing, dramatic and fantastic times. Staggering, stunning and splendid are words that come to mind when considering the future for the true believer!

Finally:

2 Peter3:14 “Be diligent that you be found in peace.”

When you move forward in the truth, you move into holiness and ever -expanding peace.

The world promotes and celebrates the destruction of restraint in society and the advance of sin and evil. They deplore the advance of holiness and purity.

My friends, “diamonds are forever!” (1 Joel 1:1) You have the potential to be a diamond in the pillar of God’s eternal temple. You were created to shine like a bright jewel forever.

Did you know that the purity of a diamond determines its value? Diamonds full of flaws can still be used, but only as industrial stones. A pure flawless diamond goes into a valuable ring or crown for all to see and admire.

A diamond is a pure and true “rock of the ages”!

The purity of a diamond speaks of the beauty of holiness! The purity of you is just the same.

Will you be an eternal dazzler? I hope you are. (1 Corinthians 15:41)

This is one the pictures I took of a magnificent Baobab tree at Kubu Island in the Makgadikgadi Desert, Botswana. I’ve superimposed it over an art work. Kubu is an island of vertical rock and ancient baobab trees rising out of the 20,000sq km salt pan.

baobab-sun-art

Shalom and grow in His Grace!

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