Saturday, September 19, 2015

THE DAYS OF AWE (Part II): WHAT TO DO

John Paul Jackson, before his death once wrote that the Church should:

... declare sacred and solemn assemblies of repentance and corporate fasting in many parts of this nation — a time set aside for rending our hearts before God.

“Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him — A grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD.” — Joel 2:12–17

During these uncertain days 

(i.e. wars and rumors of wars with China; rumored alliance between China and Russia, rumored alliance between Russia and Iran; rumored intention of ISIS or Russia to invade the US, and what does that mean for us as the Philippines is seen not only as a former colony and once upon a time a very member of the United States, and now still an ally of the US and an opponent of China in the clash for territories; warnings of earthquakes in our country; stock market slump; growing ranks among those who do not believe in God and who promote immorality and perversions etc)

 when we are surrounded by the enemies of God who seem to grow in power and influence, corporate fasting and prayer is a must.

The above verse in Joel resonates so loudly in the current season we are in that I was moved to post something about it. Blowing the shofar trumpet seems to point at Yom Teruah (Rosh HaShanah) or the Feast of Trumpets,wherein the trumpet blasts are sounded. This was very recently on the 13th of September and may have concluded on the 16th because of the delayed sighting of the new moon.

After this sacred assembly is the ten days of AWE (currently now) wherein we are taught by the ancients that this is the time to repent and mend our ways in preparation for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), a day many Messianic scholars believe to point to the day when Jesus returns to earth and sets foot on the Mount of Olives, a day when all the nations mourn because it is a time of judgment.

We also learn that scriptures seem to point to Rosh Hashanah as the day of "opening of the books" - where God looks over the accounts of the people. This is the court in session. After ten days, on the Day of Atonement, this is judgment day and the sentences shall be meted out. We shall see these prophetic events come to pass soon enough. Note that the Day of Atonement (the tenth of the  month of Tishri) is the only day where fasting is required of the assembly.

In the meantime what are we to do? Right now I am doing my own fast and praying for God's mercy on the Philippines. That we may be shielded for what is coming and that God "may count us worthy to escape." My prayer and desire is to see the Church in the Philippines come together in unity to do what God bids us during the Lord's set times and appointments. Can we fast and pray anytime? Of course! But to deliberately ignore the Lord during the seasons where He has expressly commanded us to come before Him is questionable. How can we justify it when God commands it in scripture? What possible consequences will there be?

My desire is to see the Church in my country recognize God's set times that we may come together in unity and synergy. I believe when this happens we shall be able to tap into the Lord's Glory Zone where revival, miracles and outbursts of power can happen.

This is my prayer!!!

FOR SALE: BLOOD SPATTERED ISRAELI FLAG



Images from IsraellyCool and the Times of Israel
(Note: Amazon has recently taken down the products due to public outrage)

Since when was it acceptable for an e-commerce site to market blood spattered flags of a nation?

Given the issues that Israel has endured for decades, if not centuries, it's obvious that these products deliver a straightforward antisemitic message.

These are the signs of the times, people. The world is closing in on their enemies so much so that one Jewish survivor of the Holocaust recently remarked to a tele-evangelist that the current times "seem like 1938."

If you're sitting their clucking your tongues and feeling sorry for Israel, then I hate to say it that we're in the same boat too. As an active participant in social media, I have felt the frenzy and hatred of the secular world directed not just Israel, but at Christians too.

I've been on the receiving end of verbal persecution the moment I say anything that disagrees with an atheist or homosexual worldview. Their vitriol and anger is almost mind blowing. When I was right in that verbal conflict it was hard for me not to imagine being physically ripped to shreds had I been present with this baying mob. It's hard to understand until you've been in such an exchange yourself.

I had a recent argument with someone I had hoped was my friend. Unfortunately we got into a misunderstanding. I said something that offended this man concerning a matter that involved him and his ex-Filipina girlfriend (he is a British national and a self proclaimed "freethinker" i.e. atheist) and he blew up in my face, accusing me of all sorts of things.

What did I say that offended him? I said something like, "don't feel too bad about your ex..." And he lost his temper, even if he did acknowledge I might have been well-meaning. Unbelievable? But it didn't stop there. As soon as he started working up a rant directed towards me and my country, he started mouthing a diatribe of how hypocrites hide behind religion and that God and the cross was [expletive].

Jesus said, if the world hates Him, they will hate us too. You will start to see who's who when you follow where Satan's anger is directed. (hint: Israel and anything connected with the body of believers). Satan doesn't waste his energy. He only has a third of the angels at his disposal and so he only ever directs his efforts at the real enemy. As they will treat Israel, so will they also treat us, the church.

The sad thing is even now, the church is divided amongst itself. The church and Israel are also divided. I know many Bible believing christians who surprisingly still believe that the current nation of Israel is the synagogue of Satan! I kid you not. This is the enemy's doing. He wants to prevent us from banding together in unity and power.

The moment we stand together under the Messiah who can stop us? But this is not the case. The church doesn't agree, some people in the church reject Israel, and Israel still has a body of people who have yet to receive and believe in their Messiah, Jesus. And yes there are many Jewish people today - some I know personally! who relentlessly blaspheme the cross.

Is it any wonder then that John the Apostle saw in his vision that the Antichrist was given the power to overcome the saints? 


THE DAYS OF AWE

As I am writing this, we have just concluded the Jewish new year, Rosh Ha Shanah, or the Feast of Trumpets, and the world is now right smack in the DAYS OF AWE, the ten days leading up to the holiest day of the year: Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement.

If you have been a believer all your life and you don't know what this is about and are ready to dismiss it - don't. Your very future may depend on it.

Jonathan Cahn blowing the shofar. Image from Shofarcall.com

After watching the stock market drama in my country and all the other events here and around the world from the beginning of 2015 up to the present, I have been struck with awe. In a few short months since January, I have learned so many things that have turned my whole belief system around.This changes everything that I'm bound to do in my life from now on. I will try to summarize what I have found:

1. God has a CALENDAR and He wants us to use it. (Or rather 2 calendars, depending on how you look at it) It's not our Gregorian calendar, but it's the Jewish calendar that starts and ends around  April/May (the start of the sacred calendar year or the season of the spring festivals in Israel) or Sept/Oct. (the start of the civil calendar year and the season of the fall festivals in Israel). Why should God follow the Jewish calendar? In the first place, is God not Jewish? Did He not dictate the culture, laws and government of Israel? Didn't He choose Abraham's seed and dictate to Moses how the nation should be run? The thing is: He also decreed specific dates and set times in a calendar year.

God has always set Israel as a light over the world and the keeper of His word, and until we realize and accept this we will not be able to understand the mysteries that are spilling out right now from the Holy Spirit. Most of the mysteries in the Bible remain a mystery to the gentile church because they fail to realize that the Bible was written in the Hebraic mindset, using plenty of Hebraic idioms, context in terms of Hebraic history. A lot is lost in translation.

When you hear Christians say "In God's own time" or "things will happen in His time" most of the time people say this at face value but don't really know what it means. Here's what it really means:

The shocking thing is God really does have a set, precise period. He has a start date and cut off, appointed days and hours and even seasons within the year or appointed years in a cycle of years wherein He opens the heavens and visits the people. These are the set times to bring in either blessing or judgment both to individuals and to the nations. And these are set times you can actually plot in your own calendar!

We Christians who have been living in the dark about the ancient ways and paths need to learn these and realize that God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is coming back soon. This is why He has released all these things for our awareness at the present time for our subsequent preparation.

So why doesn't my church or pastor or D-Group leader know anything about this? Why didn't my mom tell me about this? One reason is that few churches give enough importance to the Old Testament and believe that the Old Testament is "FINISHED (i.e. could mean unnecessary)." However few people really understand this other than the Messianic Jews because we are living in a world that is under the spirit of the Anti-Christ. And that spirit:

"... shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws." - Daniel 7:25
Sometimes we don't even think of how crafty and really smart our enemy is. We forget that Satan was a citizen of heaven and understands the things of God more than we do. If someone like that hates you with his very spirit, don't you think he will hide knowledge from us to cause us to stumble?

This isn't even a secret knowledge. It's all in the Bible. But for the most part the church has chosen to ignore it.

The other argument that one frequently hears about this topic is: THAT'S NOT FOR US. ALL THAT TALK IS FOR ISRAEL.

We are grafted into Israel. (Romans 11:24) In the millenial kingdom we see that the Lord will require the nations to follow the set times and divine appointments. God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. (Numbers 23:19)

John MacArthur set an eloquently worded argument why we should accept the things of Israel are only for Israel. He might be right or partially right or wrong. I'll post his quote - which I also find personally persuasive - when I find it and you be the judge.

However at this juncture my sentiments lean towards believing that this Biblical calendar is crucial for us gentiles and not just for the nation of Israel. We may not fully understand it or how to follow it or utilize it now but still we need to hold it in high regard and keep trying until we come to greater understanding.

Why is this important to us? Because there is a time and a season for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1). We do certain things according to their season, and if we don't know what season it is, we will not be able to do what God intends for us to do.

Furthermore, the most awesome thing is that this calendar charts the holy Sabbaths of the Old Testament. Now we have seen how the spring festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost all fulfill the life and death of the Messiah down to the specific day and hour (I'll post links later, thanks to Pastor Mark Biltz).

I am very inclined to agree with many scholars that the fall feasts of Trumpets, Atonement an Tabernacles are prophetic of Jesus' second coming. To celebrate them would be to go through the drill of the rapture, the second coming, the judgment seat and the establishment of the millennial kingdom. Such strong reasons to uphold them!

If this is truly the case, we have no excuse of not celebrating these high holy days - these holy convocations unto the Lord. To say that they are fulfilled in Jesus and have lost their use is somewhat problematic. Why do we keep baptizing people in water and eating a flat piece of bread to remember the last supper then if all these things are finished in Jesus?

"They are finished in Jesus" is a highly problematic argument, and I don't know its origins. But one thing's for sure: it serves to dissuade us from celebrating the Lord at his appointed times - times that He has declared that the heavens open for special blessing!

I'll talk more about this calendar at length and what I personally discovered (besides what you might have already heard and read from its advocates) it in another post.

2. Now is the time to understand RHEMA and LOGOS and to heed both.

This is another one of those things that our English Bibles have lost in translation.

Very quickly: "There are two primary Greek words that describe Scripture which are translated “word” in the New Testament. The first, logos, refers principally to the total inspired Word of God and to Jesus, who is the living Word. Logos is found in John 1:1; Luke 8:11; Philippians 2:16; Hebrews 4:12; and other verses. The second Greek word translated “word” is rhema, which refers to the spoken word. Rhema literally means an utterance (individually, collectively or specifically). Examples are found in Luke 1:38; 3:2; 5:5; and Acts 11:16." Read more here.

A lot of arguments have  been made over Logos and Rhema. Based on my understanding, Logos is scripture (the written Word of God) and Rhema is the personal word uttered to people by God Himself.

Examples of Rhema are dreams, visions, prophetic words spoken by the Holy Spirit to people with prophetic gifts, and so on. This is not as dubious as it sounds. Most Christians are familiar with the 700 Club. Do you recall that part when the TV hosts pray over the viewers and they receive a word of knowledge about who is getting healed of what and so on?That's one example of Rhema.

Joel 2: 28 (and repeated in Acts 2:17) says:

“And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

Do you believe we are in the last days? I certainly do. If you do then the above quote refers to us! If you don't then that's another argument and you can stop reading here.

I have been taking note and writing down my dreams which have proven prophetic. I may write entries about those next time. And I know I'm not the only one, neither is this mode of communication available to Christians alone! Muslims like ex-Muslim and Christian convert Nabeel Qureshi report the same phenomena among Muslims, and if you recall, Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar - both pagans - had prophetic dreams as well, but they required the help of someone who had the gift of dream interpretation.

There are good ministries out there that help in the understanding and interpretation of dreams. One of those is Streams Ministries International. God still speaks to people in dreams. There is nothing in scripture that says God has stopped using this mode of communication to us. If we disregard our dreams, we are neglecting a very crucial source of Rhema.

I also believe in listening to God's prophets. God had prophets speaking to the people in ancient times - and guess what. He still uses them to talk to us now!

The weird thing is a lot of churches don't believe in the prophetic voice because many believe in cessationism or the belief that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ended when the Bible was completed.

I have yet to find a verse that supports that but in my 4 decades of exposure to Christianity, I have never seen such a verse.

However I have seen:

Romans 12:6-8New King James Version (NKJV)
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

1 Corinthians 12:8-10New King James Version (NKJV)
8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same[a] Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 

From these verses it is very clear that prophecy is not the same as teaching or preaching the Word from the pulpit. They are two different things.

There are some people I hold in high regard, such as Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church, who believes in cessationism. I don't agree with him. That doesn't mean I don't respect him and haven't learned anything from him. I credit him as my spiritual mentor in my teens and early 20s.

But in the body of Christ, people are gifted in one thing or the other. God didn't pour all the gifts on one individual. He has made us interdependent with one another. I remember John Macarthur arguing for a pre-trib rapture because he says that otherwise, why would God not tell us how to prepare for this period of trouble in His Word?

If MacArthur believed that prophecies have not ceased and God is the same now and forever, he would notice that God has put Rhema in the mouths of many godly men and women alive in the world today who has talked a lot about PREPARATION.

Frankly, I don't doubt these people are any different from the Old Testament prophets. Many of the words of these modern day prophets have come true, some have not. Does it make them false prophets? I don't think so. Ezekiel and Daniel have written a lot of things that have yet to be fulfilled. The funny thing is these modern day prophets are also enduring the same kind of scoffing and persecution the Old Testament prophets themselves have endured.

It is history repeating itself.

I'm not going to make sweeping statements. I hope to come up soon with a table of prophecies some prophetic voices have proclaimed in our era, how they resonate with scripture and how they have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled.

Can the enemy use dreams as well? Can there be false prophets? Of course! We need to be vigilant and test everything against the Logos or the holy scriptures, but that doesn't mean we should throw the baby out with the bath water. God will speak in any of the avenues He has chosen and the sheep will hear His voice.

3. Most of us are ignorant of the Old Testament. We should stop being ignorant.

I'm one of those people. Most of the time if you start off with a part of a verse from the New Testament or the proverbs or the popular books like Genesis and so on, chances are I can easily finish that sentence in one beat. But the Old Testament? Do you want me to recite a verse from Habbakuk or Isaiah or Jeremiah, or Malachi? GOOD LUCK  na lang.

I read through the Bible once from start to finish but I never did it again. I admit. I know squat about the Old Testament.

And so are many Christians. This may prove to be our undoing: God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Many times I hear a quote from the Old Testament, and something hits me through my gut when the verse suddenly comes alive and speaks to my current situation. Then I say: Why have I never heard of that verse before???

When Paul said

2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

and

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. 

 ....he was not referring to his own letters written to the  churches. He was referring to what we call the Old Testament.

One of the most popular proponents of the Torah Code was Chuck Missler. He was not of course the founder and author of this discovery but he has studied it deeply and shared it to my church one occasion when he came as a visiting speaker. The Torah codes for me are proof that we must take the OT more seriously than we have, even if it is very difficult to understand.

I believe that God has allowed the Torah and the prophets to be difficult to understand because we can only come to this understanding when the gentile church returns to its roots - the Hebraic way of understanding scripture which we can learn from the believers in Israel, especially the Messianic Jews. God wants us to be united to our Judeo origins and to our brothers and sisters in Israel. This union is what God desires:

Ephesians 2:14
He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.

 I believe that there is so much power that the Church has yet to tap and yet we cannot do it because we are still in the dark. We don't know God's word. Sure we may know a PART of it. But for the most part we have ignored the revealed, supernatural and powerful word of God spoken to the ancients.