The TORAH
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice (Torahlessness) lawlessness!’
This scripture is very strong, especially because it is spoken to those who are believers and are even casting out demons. They know the power of God. We can’t just ignore it and “spiritualize” it. It is better to be “shocked out of complacency” than to receive this terrible “greeting” from the Lord when we arrive at Heaven’s Gates.
The word “law” is interchangeable with Torah. By saying “Torah” I mean only the five books of Moses and those regulations and instructions given to Israel by YHWH himself (nearly every chapter in Leviticus and Deuteronomy begins with: “and YHWH spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel…” I do not mean the Talmud, Kabbalah or other rabbinical writings).
I believe that this scripture in Matthew 7:23 can be interpreted correctly in the light of the Scriptures in
Matthew 5:17-20:
“Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill… for truly I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, not a smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law (Torah) until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and so teach others, shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
What the Lord is saying here is totally confirmed in Matthew 7:27 when He tells those who have been “doing things” in His name, even working miracles, to depart from Him because they have been without law or without Torah, which are God’s instructions in righteousness.
Verse 17 has been misinterpreted for many centuries to say that, because the Lord fulfilled the Law(from now on I will use Hebrew word, “Torah”), then we who believe in Him are now “free from the Torah”
That of course would pose a tremendous threat to the very definition of the New covenant as written in
Jeremiah 31:31,34(KJV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,[a] says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,
The very definition of the new covenant is “the time when the Torah is written in the heart rather than on tablets of stone”. Just as the first Covenant was made at the time the Torah was written by the finger of YHWH writes the Torah on the heart of a believer.
The question that remains is: what does the word “fulfill mean”?
This is normal that was often used two thousand years ago. It meant: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the prophet by misinterpretation but I came in order to interpret them to the full.” in other words: “I am the only one that can who can fully interpret and explain all laws and all the prophecies. Without Me, you can’t have the full understanding!” then of course, it it would make sense why the Lord continued to give His interpretation to the Torah in the following verses.
Look for example at the verses in
Matthew 5:21-22
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause[b] shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
It is not enough to have the correct external actions but our hearts need to be right as well.
In
Matthew 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old,[c] ‘You shall not commit adultery.’[d] 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Again it’s extremely clear and obvious that Yahshua is fully interpreting the Torah here by challenging us not only to keep the external action but also to have our hearts right and pure. An impure heart or actions carry the same weight in God’s eyes.
From all this we can understand a few things:
1. The Torah is not abolished.
2. The definition of the “new covenant” is having the Torah written in our hearts by the finger of God.
3. We need Yahshua in order to interpret the Torah and the prophets to the full. Since yahshua in Hebrew means “Salvation”, then it can be said we need to be saved in order to have the full interpretation of Torah and walk in it.
When we get saved we immediately receive the Holy Spirit who is the deposit or proof of our salvation:
1 Corinthians 3:16
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
1John 4:13
By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the finger of God who writes the Torah on our hearts.
Luke 11.20
20 But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Exodus 8:19
9 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said.
The same Spirit by which we cast out devils and heal the sick is the one who writes YHWH´s Torah in our hearts. So the only way for us as believers to walk in obedience to YHWH´s Torah is to walk by the Spirit.
Romans 8:1-8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
In Romans 8:7
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be
So the difference between those who walk according to the carnal, fleshly mind that is an enemy of God, and those who walk by the Spirit, is whether we are subject to YHWH´s law or we are not. Those who are not subject in their minds to YHWH´s Torah are carnal and those who are subject to YHWH´s Torah are spiritual or spirit led.
That, of course, makes sense in the light of the revelation that YHWH´s Holy Spirit both interprets and writes the Torah in our hearts. Since we can’t have the correct full interpretation without Yahshua, neither can we understand nor walk in the fullness of Torah without the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the Key for us to be able to understand and obey YHWH’s laws and instructions.
Since our growth in the Spirit is an ongoing process, so is our growth in the understanding and correct application of the Torah. We can´t just read the laws and try to fugure out with our own reason how to apply them to our lives. We need the Holy Spirit to to continually teach us and fully interpret those Laws to us. That is why the Holy Spirit is called our teacher(this was the usual term to the Rabbi who taught the Torah and its applications). Now the Spirit of God is our official, God- appointed Torah Teacher.
John 14:16-21,26
. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Indwelling of the Father and the Son
19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
The Lord calls the Holy Spirit the “comforter” who will teach us all things. Yahshua,
Goes on to say in john 14:21-26 that the one who loves him keeps His words; these which not His but are the words and commandments of the Father who sent Him. Since Yahshua and the YHWH of Israel have the exact set of commandments. And the proof that we love Yahshua is that we keep His commandments as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
I remember that for many years I sought God on how to keep and relate to the Shabbat. Since I fly a lot to minister in different countries, I have prayed for many hours during different flights for God to reveal this commandment to me: “thou shall keep the Sabbath holy.” Each time I have had more and more revelation and have been able to obey God, not under the letter of the law that kills but by the Spirit that gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit;[a] for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
I have been seeking the Holy Spirit’s interpretation to the different commandments as I want to walk in obedience to God’s word and not as a lawless or Torahless one. YHWH has been gracious and patient with me in my growth in understanding His Commandments I believe that as you seek Him for yourself with a genuine heart, he will do the same for you. I must warn you here against two extreme and incorrect to the Torah.
1. believers who hear the message on the Torah and fell guilty that they have not been obeying it, “put fig leaves on” and try try to “cover their guilt” by doing everything religiously without fully correct interpretation by the Holy Spirit. These believers miss it because they do not have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit who is the only one who can interpret the law to us. They fall into religiosity and “doing works” without the Spirit. This is how a cultic Spirit develops.
2. One the other hand, there are other believers especially among the theologically schooled who react violently to the message on Torah with deep fear that people will come under the law. They then fall prey to the trap of teaching people not to keep the Torah because it is all fulfilled and thus irrelevant for the believers in the New Covenant. The danger of that is pretty serious since the Lord says in
Matthew 5:19
19 Whoever therefore breaks(annuls) one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Both these reactions are incorrect, harmful and need repentance. Mat I suggest that you stop here and pray and seek your heart before you go any further?
“Dear Heavenly father, I would like to have a pure heart before you concerning the Torah. I pray that You give me the full interpretation of Your laws through the Holy Spirit. I purpose to seek Your face on this issue and humble myself to hear from You.”
One of the major outcomes of the divorce from the Jewish roots was the problem of dealing with the “Old Testament”. In an attempt to keep the Old Testament as a part of the bible, the church Fathers decided that the way to interpret it would be to “allegorize” and “spiritualize” it. Thus the law could be spiritualized, and all mention of Israel would mean the Church and Jerusalem would mean the New Jerusalem so on. The law, of course, was done away with at the cross-or so they were taught.
This problem continues to this day as we cannot reconcile Old Testament scripture to New Testament scriptures. Take, for example, scriptures that talk about all mankind coming to bow down before the Lord from Shabbat to Shabbat from new moon to new moon. Since the law was “obsolete” and Constantine had changed the Shabbat from Saturday to Saturday, this scripture in Isaiah 66:22-24 was interpreted to mean from Sunday to Sunday. “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another and from Shabbat to another , shall all flesh come to worship before me , saith the Lord” (Isaiah 66.23). It is quite clear that all people will worship God forever on the Shabbat (that is, the seventh day when God rested from all His works). Nothing in the scriptures even hints that God would change the Shabbat to Sunday.
I personally believe that we should worship God every day of the week. But from Friday night to Saturday night is Shabbat and it is the special day that God Himself chose to be worshiped for all eternity. It is also the fourth of the Ten Commandments, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
It is very interesting to note that in the last few years, many congregation started “prophetic meetings” or School of the Holy Spirit meetings on Friday nights. Those meetings are normally the most anointed ones and the Presence of the Holy Spirit is considerably stronger. That is no coincidence. On Friday night begins the Shabbat. Most Jewish homes are celebrating it and setting it apart with a festive family meal. At the same time Yahshua has come to celebrate His Shabbat with His redeemed ones who have been “grafted into the olive tree” (Romans 11) by sharing with them a special “festive meal” in His Presence.
I was leading a prayer meeting for woman at one time. As the Holy Spirit was moving greatly in our midst, many physical and emotional healings were happening. A young lady in her thirties came to the meeting for the first time. She asked me to pray for her. She was suffering from heart problems and was taking a lot of medication. I took one look at her and asked her one question: “Do you keep the Shabbat? (Shabbat actually means “to go to strike” and stop all regular work). To which she answered, “Of course I do not keep the Shabbat. I am student and I am in need of money for my studies. So I work seven days a week!” I just said to her: “Repent before God for breaking the Shabbat and you will be healed!”
Before I finished the sentence she was on the floor weeping and crying for violating his loving laws and instructions to us, his creation. She got thoroughly healed and did not have to take any more heart medication.
We need to continually remember that the Shabbat and the other entire Biblical, Jewish feast were already set at the time of creation. Therefore, they are still very relevant: “ and God said let their be light in the firmament of the heaven to divide the days and years”
(Genesis 1:14)
The same word used for the feast of YAWH or Holy convocations in Leviticus 23:2 is used in Genesis 1:14 for seasons. That word is “moadim”. It means “testimonial” or “rehearsals”. And indeed, as we celebrate the Shabbat and all the other Holy Biblical festivals we get to rehearse and give testimony of God as a creator and as a Redeemer.
Isaiah 56:6-8
6 “ Also the sons of the foreigner
Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him,
And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants—
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And holds fast My covenant—
7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
Concerning the dietary laws, we often misquote the scripture,
1 timothy 4:4,5
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; 5 for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
We often paraphrase it like this: “we are to eat anything as long as we pray over it.” We totally ignore that it needs to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. The only Word that Paul was referring to and that Timothy had available to him, was the Tanach (Old Testament). The New Testament had not been compiled yet.
The Word never sanctifies pigs or snakes or shellfish for human consumption and called them “unclean” (Leviticus 11). Noah, who lived before the law was given, knew about this. So he brought into the ark of the clean animals seven by seven (to eat and to sacrifice to the Lord) and of the unclean animals only two by two. (Genesis 7:2).
Also, many people interpret the vision that Peter had on the roof in the city of Jaffa to say that God was cleansing all animals; but that is not the interpretation the vision:
While he was wondering what the vision meant, “…the spirit said to him, “behold three men are looking for you, but arise, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings for I have sent them Myself” Acts 10:19-20.
When he arrived at Caesarea at the house of Cornelius, peter said to them: “you yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28). How did YHWH show him that? A sheet with clean and unclean animals descended three times and three Gentile men came to meet him as he was wondering what the vision meant.
If we do a scientific test on the animals we will find out that they are basically exactly the same as two thousand years ago. However, there is a very clear difference between born again people who have not yet received the blood atonement of Yeshua. The Lord cleanses people by His blood sacrifice, not by animals. Now both Jews and gentiles have access to God through the blood of the Messiah and by the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
Please understand what I’m saying. Your salvation does not depend on the animals you eat. But breaking the laws of the Lord (even if it is the animals you eat. But breaking the laws of the Lord (even if it is because of ignorance) harms us physically, mentally and spiritually.
The Lord fulfilled all of the requirements of the law (of death) to purchase our righteousness, so that we could obey Him, not by our own strength but by the the strength of the Spirit that he has given us. That the same Spirit that raised Yahshua from the dead dwells in us. He is our teacher and counselor. He writes God’s laws on our hearts. But how can he do that if we do not allow him to because our doctrines tell us that “we are free from the Law” and that the law is bondage and slavery”! It is far greater slavery to suffer the consequences of violating God’s law and principles, whether they are moral, social or dietary. He is just knocking on the door of our hearts to let him write His law on our hearts!!!
I still remember when we were in Florida and a ministry couple wanted to receive nutritional counseling from me. These were very busy and famous ministers of the Lord. Both of them were overweight and they traveled a bit. So they needed a radical change in nutrition. In the past, I used to be health consultant and nutritionist, which is why they thought it a good idea to take some counseling from me on how to eat. they made an appointment. But a few days later they canceled it because of a sudden ministry engagement. I was sorry because I felt that their health was in jeopardy.
A few days later we heard that they and their daughter who was with them were at the hospital due to a violent attack of food poisoning. They were very sick! On the way back from their ministry engagement, they stopped at an “all you can eat” shrimp place and they got violently sick from the shrimp they ate.
If they would have come to the nutritional counseling appointment, I would have told them about the dietary laws as written in Leviticus 11. I would have told them that there is difference between clean and unclean animals; that shellfish and shrimp have not been created for human consumption… that they are “the vacuum cleaners of the ocean” and , because of that, they are prone to cause many diseases. The same with pork. The pig has no sweat glands. Therefore, it rolls in the mud to cool itself down. It eats garbage and it cannot get rid of its poisons. People who know how to cook pork know not to boil pork for too long because all the poisons trapped within the pork and all its derivatives are harmful to the arteries because of their high fat content.
Once my husband and I were preaching in Colombia about the Torah and the dietary laws. A woman seemed to be so excited that she could not contain herself. As we asked her about it she said, “I am a doctor Microbiology and I have been doing autopsies on different populations. I have seen that Jewish people who keep the dietary laws have a far healthier intestinal environment and far less bacteria than normal Christians die from very virulent bacteria that have no cure and Jewish people don’t suffer from them. Also there is a horrible disease that looks like epilepsy but it is not. It’s a disease that happens to people who eat pork.”
Later on we ministered to the leadership and staff of that church and gave an altar call for people to repent from breaking God’s Torah.
Many people fell under the power of YHWH and rose up refreshed or healed. Among them was a woman who was crying profusely. She confessed that her child had this epileptic-like disease from eating pork because she had been feeding it to him since he was a baby, thinking it to be nutritious! The mother repented and we prayed for the healing of that child.
In another circumstance, we were ministering in the Far East to a pastor who moved very strongly in the power and anointing of YHWH. He confided in us that he could not sleep for more than three hours at night. I told him to stop eating shellfish and unclean seafood as they cause a toxin build-up in the body and they are not fit to human consumption. Since God had previously spoken to him about the pork being unclean, he decided to go further in obeying God’s Torah. Two months later we met again and he said to me, “Dominiquae, you are not going to believe this: I am sleeping seven hours a night.” He definitely looked a different person.
During the time when the black plague swept through Europe, people were dying like flies. The only ones that were still healthy were the Jews because they obeyed the “dietary laws” written in Leviticus 11. Of course, the Jews were blamed for the plague because they were the only ones to be protected from it. God has no shadow of turning in Him. But since the divorce from the biblical roots, it appears to be that God has changed His mind on many issues.
Yet the wisdom of God is all-encompassing. His word is indeed a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path. The Lord says in Hosea 4:6 that His people are perishing for lack of knowledge. We can see evidence of that everywhere, especially in the long lines for healing in the church! People come to get healed of the same conditions again and again. But if they would give heed to our manual of instruction, the Torah (Law), instead of their own understanding, they would be a healthier people.
Another law that is largely ignored: that in our “freedom” we constantly violate is the “Nida law”. It is written in Leviticus 15:19 not to have sex with your wife during the time of her monthly period and abstain from intercourse for seven days. I have heard that it is medically documented that Christian woman suffer from cancer of the cervix, while Jewish woman who keep the law don’t seem to have any cases of cervical cancer. Also many babies are miscarriage by Christians. Could it be that it is connected with having intercourse during the monthly period? It is well known that we should let the uterus and vagina rest at that time. Also God being such a wonderful Father knows that a period of necessary abstinence fuels the marriage with renewed desire and love.
In acts 15:29, there were four laws given to the gentiles to apply to their lives immediately after accepting the Messiah. One of these laws was to abstain from blood. That, of course, includes eating blood and having intercourse at the time of blood, which is menstrual period.
Many people also misinterpret Paul’s writings because they “think Gentile” instead of “thinking Jewish”. We cannot understand Paul’s writings without understanding his background as a student of the Torah. Paul would never have encouraged anyone to break the Torah. If he had done so, he would have contradicted the words of Yahshua Himself:
“whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teachers others, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven” Matthew 5:19
Which commandment was Yahshua talking about? He was obviously continuing the line of teaching of the previous two verses: “Do not think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets.” Was Yahshua confused? Was Paul in rebellion to the words of his Master? Not so! But the Gentelized church has interpreted Paul’s writings very wrongly.
Yes! Salvation is by grace through faith. Not one of the works of the law (commandment) can save us!
But when we receive the new birth a process begins; the Lord starts writing his laws in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This is the process of sanctification. (See Jeremiah 31:31-33). In Ephesians 5:26 Paul states about the church: “that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.” Which Word is Paul referring to? The “old testament”, of course. It was the only Word that all the disciples had available. For over three hundred years the church had only the Old Testament Scriptures (Tanakh) to guide them.
When Constantine comes to power, he and the church fathers canonized the New Testament in the fourth century. In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul says to Timothy: “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
“All scripture means the “Torah and the Prophets and the writings”.
the name is not “Old testament”; that is a later terminology used by the “divorced” Church. The name Tanakh- Torah (Law), Neviim(Prophets=, ketuvim(the writings as in Psalms, Ecclesiastes etc). the word Torah means “instruction” which is exactly the word that Paul uses in 2 Timothy 2:16. he calls it : “instruction in righteousness”, in other words, the Torah, also known as the law.
Dear friends, ignoring the law does not “make it go away”. There are consequences to our ignorance. It causes us to die for lack of knowledge. It can be likened to a person deciding to defy the Law of gravity (just like the story of Icharos who tried to fly). In order to prove the point, he went to the roof of a tall building and “jumped down by faith”. Guess the outcome? He would, of course, crash and most likely die. That is what the divorce from our Jewish/Biblical roots does: we are constantly defying the laws of the Lord because of ignorance and misinterpretation.
Our faith becomes presumption instead of solid faith based on His Word. When we are ignorant of God’s word, thinking that the Torah is abolished, we turn a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit and resist Him all the way! Our mindset stands as a block in our relationship with God.
I am a firm believer that the only way to please the Father is to be led by the Spirit, to be totally under the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit. That is the way Yahshua walked and that is the only way to live an abundant life. Trying to keep the Torah by our strength is futile. The opposite and correct response is of allowing the Holy to write that Torah in our hearts. Paul says: “… that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”(Romans 8:4)
I remember that before I married my husband, I had received numerous visions and words from YHWH about His will for me to marry Baruch. I was so wounded from previous relationships and so afraid of making a mistake that I “fought the devil” for three months, thinking that he was deceiving me into the wrong marriage. One day as I was resisting these visions in prayer, I become violently sick. Then I understood that I had been resisting the Holy Spirit. As I repented, I become well again.
In the same manner, our church doctrines and mindsets prevent us from yielding to the Holy Spirit. Let’s say the Holy Spirit will tell you to stop celebrating Christmas and instead to celebrate the Feasts of the Lord as written in the Bible (these are also called Jewish Feasts and Jesus celebrate them). Would you yield immediately to the leading of the Spirit? Or would you resist Him for quite a while? Or let’s say that you are a missionary and are trained to “eat everything that is set before you.” How ready would you be to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit if He would lead you to eat only “clean animal”? Would you fight against a “spirit of legalism” trying to possess you? Or would you recognize God’s own Spirit?
It is interesting to know that when people accept the Lord and have no teaching from prevailing Church doctrines, they often have a very wholesome understanding of the Law. Once we were preaching in the Philippines in a mountainous area to a new congregation. The people there are very simple. The new babes in the Lord did not have much contact with Church doctrine. As we taught a seminar on Covenant and on Roots, saying that the dietary laws were still for today. The people had no problem receiving it.
In fact, one old man by the name of Nicomedes, who had been bitten twice by poisonous snakes (cobras), just believed the Word in Luke 10:19 that God has given us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and that nothing would harm us. He just said, “God, your word is true; now heal me!” the man was instantly healed. In the same way, when he read that pork was an unclean animal, he took it literally and stopped eating pork. It was a simple thing for him as walked in “child-like faith”, obeying his loving father and His Torah. He was never taught that the Law was obsolete or that the “old testament” needs to be “spiritualized” and “allegorized”. He was walking in the Spirit, “not fulfilling the lust of the flesh”.
However, in other more “urbanized” areas of the Philippines, people had been exposed to a lot of “Gentilized Christian Doctrine”. They had a real tough time receiving the word of truth. For example, it is written in Acts 15:29 to abstain from blood. Many of these Philippine Christians were eaters of blood soup and other “local delicacies”. They left that if they prayed over it, it will be sanctified. God does not sanctify what his Word does not sanctify! Many of “the blood eaters” had trouble in the spiritual walk with the Lord. We had to pray and break the spirit of addiction to blood in them. In Leviticus 17:11 it is written: 2For the life of the soul is in the blood.” The life of the animal is in its blood and the Lord forbids us to touch it and to partake of the soul of the animal.
I still remember very vividly a magazine that we received a few years ago. It was the magazine of one the most flourishing churches in the Far East. One of the stories caught my attention. The head overseer of this church had gone to Africa to minister to a tribe. The chief of the tribe invited him to partake of their “sacred, covenant meal”. It was milk mixed with animal blood. This pastor wanted to win the chief to the YHWH. So he drank blood with him! Then he becomes violently sick! This meal was certainly no sanctified by the Word! But what shocked me is that the story was written in order to boast the courage of this pastor who was willing to become sick for the sake of the gospel!
This is the kind of ignorance that is killing us. We have forgotten the law of our YHWH and in Hosea 4:6, he says, “I also will forget your children”.
My husband and I used to lead an outreach on the streets of central Dallas, Texas. It was in an area called “Deep Ellum”. This area was plagued with witchcraft, occult, punk rock, new age, homosexuality, skinheads, bikers and Neo Nazi. The human scene there was terrible. For the most part these were young people 20 to 30 years of age. And many of them, if not most of them, were children of Christian families (Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian etc) cut off from their Jewish/biblical roots. These children were in deep distress. They were being killed by the ignorance in the Church and by their lack of identity.
When we cut ourselves off from the Jewish Roots of our faith we lose our identity in the same way that the 10 tribes of Israel lost their identity in the same way that the 10 tribes of Israel lost their identity when jeroboam cut them off from the roots and from temple Worship in Jerusalem.
1 king 12:25-33
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. 31 He made shrines[c] on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. 33 So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense
One of the most prevalent things we saw was a “repeat” of the German scene in the 30´s as Hitler started recruiting Nazi youth for his purposes. Many of these young people in the Deep Ellum scene in Dallas hated Jews. They believed that Jews could never receive God’s salvation and forgiveness. We preached the Gospel and loved them, and they accepted us. They could not believe that we were Jews and that we were saved!
In order for these children to be saved, their families needed to repent of anti-Semitism and for repudiating everything Jewish, including the Tanach. Proverbs 28:9 we read, “He who turns his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination.”
We need to learn to repent for our ancestors and break down before YHWH so that the curse is removed and we can have our children back from the dead!
Romans 11:15 gives us a promise:
“for if their (the Jews’) rejection be the reconciliation of the world what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Accepting the Jews and the Jewish Biblical Roots back is a matter of life and death!
Prayer of repentance
Please pray this prayer in order to start the cleansing process of your family tree:
Dear father in heaven, my ancestors and I have sinned against You and against Your people. We have lived disconnected from our Jewish roots. We have thought that the law is obsolete and we have not allowed you to write it on our hearts we have been afraid of being under the law, but instead we have gone into lawlessness. Our children are hurting because of our ignorance of our roots. We ask You to cleanse us from any ignorance of our roots. We ask you to cleanse us from any ignorance of our Jewish roots. We renounce any anti-Semitism in our family, and we bind any familiar spirit of Jewish hatred, of lawlessness, and of rebellion against the word of God in the Tanach. Lord, I ask You to write the Torah in my heart and to sanctify me by the Your Word. Please reconnect me and my family with the Jewish roots of our faith and save our children. Father, I accept the Jew and the biblical roots of our faith back into my heart. Thank you that you this will bring resurrection life to me and to my family.
In the name of Yahshua, I pray. Amen
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