ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH
"All scripture is Yah-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." From the beginning of Yah’s dealing the literal physical Israel was foreshadowed as the church. "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages have come." Now, when it says, “these” it is understood from pervious verses "the these" speaks of literal Israel. "For I would not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea." Then it goes on to say, "Nevertheless, Yah was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert."
Yah, by his foreknowledge, saw the beginning from the end. What has happened to the physical Israel has happened to the spiritual Israel. The Old Covenant was religious with physical ordinances, laws and rituals. The New Covenant is spiritual, with spiritual birth by grace, faith and spiritual experiences of which the Old was a type. The physical Israel was Yah’s people under the physical covenant and the church is Yah’s people under the spiritual covenant.
Let’s take a look a physical Israel and see how it predicted what would happen to the Spiritual Israel.
Abram and Isaac
Abram, the descendant of Adam was a dead body, but by supernatural means he had a son and called his name Isaac. Isaac is a type of YahShua from the dead body of the Adamic race. Yah, through personal intervention, brought into existence His Holy Son, made of a woman, made after the flesh, but of divine birth. The Adamic race is a dead order, a dead man, "for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiyah shall all be made alive". Right now you are either a walking dead man or a living spiritual man. YahShua was called the Second Adam because He was a new creation of Yah; the second time Yah injected some of Himself into mankind. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." Isaac was the shadow of the Son of Yah.
Isaac’s father sent his servant to His own people to bring back a bride for Isaac, a beautiful type of our Father Yah sending the Holy Spirit to bring a people to Messiyah. "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." Thus, enters the Spirit of Yah, called the “Holy Spirit”, and He is busy day and night doing His office work, wooing and drawing us into an personal relationship with Messiyah. And, from this union comes the revelation of Yah the Father. Other sons of Yah are being birthed now in our time. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiyah shall all be made alive." Once again Yah has intervened in the affairs of man, but this time it is not for Him to come down to us in our realm, but to bring us up into the realm of Yah through divine birth. Yah has a wonderful plan, "for it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Messiyah, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him." What a plan!
Esau, the Fundamentalist
Isaac produced two sons, Esau and Jacob, the two movements of the church, fundamentalism and Pentecostalism. Jacob is the type of those of divine spiritual birth. "YahShua answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water, natural birth, and of the Spirit, spiritual birth, he cannot enter into the kingdom of Yah. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
Though Esau was the firstborn and should have the inheritance, he sold his birthright to Jacob for temporal satisfaction. The Bible says, “thus Esau despised his birthright”. So, the birthright fell to Jacob who took it from his brother. Esau represents those of fundamental doctrine who have entered into salvation. Esau became many and filled the world with his children. There is enmity between him and Jacob, now, just as there was when they struggled in the womb. The “Esau Company” embraces salvation, but sees nothing more for them. The thirty-fold blessing it seems is all that they are interested in and nothing more. They have settled for being saved from their sins and count their inheritance a despised thing.
Jacob, the Pentecostals
Jacob was on his way to the promise land and he had a supernatural encounter with Yah. He was given a vision of a ladder extending from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. Yah was showing us that from this beginning here in the earth realm that the church would ascend and descend into the heavenlies through many spiritual experiences like rungs on a ladder. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Those who embrace and experience the Pentecostal blessing with it gifts and visions were foreshadowed by Jacob. Something else spectacular happened at that time to Jacob. Jacob wrestled with Elohim there at the place of vision and had a life changing experience. Because Jacob prevailed with Yah, his name was changed. His name was then called, “Israel”. Changing a person’s name was Yah’s way through out the Bible to express a changed nature. In the Hebrew Dictionary the word, “name” speaks of ones nature or persona. This is called among the Pentecostals the baptism of the Holy Spirit with its gifts and life changing experiences.
Though Israel prevailed with Yah and had a life changing experience he was also left with a limp where Elohim touched him. Although the Pentecostal movement was great with all of it’s gifts and ministries it was still unable to “walk perfectly” before Elohim. They had only the first fruit of the Spirit and did not move on into the fullness of the Spirit, nor their full inheritance.
The Children
Israel dwelt in tents in the land of Promise. Tents speak of a temporary dwelling. It was only the first rung on the ladder that would take us into our full inheritance. Jacob did not attempt to climb the ladder he had seen in his dream; he just looked upon it. Yah has birthed in His realm sons of Yah just as Israel. Israel had twelve sons while he dwelt there looking upon the promise land, but he did not possess the land. Now twelve is the number of Yah’s government. That government had it beginning with these twelve sons of Israel. It was through them Yah dealt with the world. Then it passed on to the twelve disciples and in the church age they evolved to become the twelve Apostles. Yah’s authority is represented by the New Jerusalem in the Kingdom Age with its twelve gates and twelve walls. It shall eventual rests upon the shoulders of the sons of Yah and we will rule and reign with Him upon the earth. At His trial YahShua said, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." Notice the word “now”. He said, “NOW” is my kingdom not from hence. While saying it is not “now” of this earth did not mean that it never would be of this earth. In the coming age the Kingdom of Yah will come and His will shall be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Through YahShua the church came into existence, and with it the new government of Yah with the foundation of the “Twelve Apostles”. Spiritual Jerusalem had the foundation, but as in the story of Israel under Zerubbabel the temple of the Lord’s house lay in disrepair with only a foundation for nearly two thousand years. I could go into this in great detail on how the people built their own houses with finery. I could parallel this to the churches and great cathedrals of today, while the house of people’s spiritual lives lie in ruins with only the salvation foundation. I could show how religious groups of people hindered its building for many years and explain how it speaks to us today of the denominations. But I will not deal with that now.
Prophecy
Some say, based upon the information given in the book of Revelation as to the time of the prophecies, the Battle of Armageddon was an event that took place 1900 years ago when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD.
That was the literal fulfillment of it, but there remains a spiritual fulfillment, for Yah’s plan for man has always been to bring him into His own realm, that is from the literal, outward form, to inner fulfillment and spiritual form. This is where people go wrong. All they see is the sign, not the things the sign points to. The outward “Old” religious order was the sign that pointed to the “New” spiritual order of reality. YahShua spoke in parables and used natural thing to speak to us of spiritual things. The ministry has not changed. Yah still uses that today. We are not to take spiritual things, the meaning of these parables, and bring them into our realm of existence. We are to allow the parables told to us in literal things and happenings to bring us into spiritual understanding and challenge us to abide in the spiritual realm. Tangible is only a shadow of the intangible and the spiritual is the real thing because it is eternal and will not pass away as will the tangible or temporal. Like our shadow on a sunny day, we remain, but the shadow passes with the day. That which is of the five senses can never fulfill the spiritual any more than a word can give adequate expression of deep emotion.
Beyond the Bible
Even the things that happened to the physical Israel, the Jews, that are not written between the covers of the Bible is a reflection of what is happening in the church. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD the people that were left alive were scattered through the known world.
The Jewish people were prosperous even in the lands where they were scattered. They were wealthy and influential, but envied and hated. Yah, even in exile, blessed the work of their hands and shown His favor upon them. But things were set to change. After the First World War it was determined that the Jews should have their homeland again. It was time for them to go home, but they had grown comfortable in the blessing Yah poured out upon them. Yah knew they would never leave their businesses, nice homes and important positions in the countries where they settled. Because they refused to go back to Jerusalem, another War began and the wealth of Yah’s physical people was taken from them as they fell pray to the beastly nature of the German regime.
What Hitler did to the Jews was an atrocity, but without their wealth and position to hold them they were willing to go back to Jerusalem. It is a sad thing, but this has happened to the Church just as it did to them. Scattered in many churches they were blessed of Yah even though they had left their first love, they became religious. They formed religious organizations and it prospered in their hand. Then their organizing became denominations, domination, and it took control of their lives.
During the holocaust the Jews were imprisoned behind barbwire walls. They were made to starve to death, made to burn in the fire in mass numbers under the watchful eye of Hitler and his cohorts. Today Yah’s people are imprisoned behind religious walls. Like the murder camps of Hitler, in the religious camps you can find Yah’s people starving to spiritual death for a fresh Word of Yah. They are sacrificed to the furnaces of man oriented religious services under the watchful eye of the denomination and their ministers. Yah’s people find their only hope depends on Yah’s mercy just as the physical Jews did.
The physical Jews were delivered by the Allied Army and spiritual Israel will be delivered by Joel's army.
"Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. He takes away the first to establish the second."
I would remind you that YahShua said, "The words that I speak are SPIRIT and LIFE". Now we know YahShua is the Word of Yah and that He is the spirit of prophecy. If this is the case, how do we get off with literal rendering of Bible prophecy? I submit that these prophecies are spiritual in nature and happen in the realms of Messianic experience. I further submit that the Battle of Armageddon is a spiritual battle that is about to take place in the life of every man, woman and child that lives upon the face of the earth. Already, if you have eyes to see, you can see even the secular world is beginning to seek out serenity for the troubled soul. Listen closely to your TV and notice how much now is being said about finding inner peace and about god. I use the little "g" here because most don't seek the Yah the Father, but they seek to find serenity in little self-made gods. Surrounding themselves with religious artifacts, totems and monuments of nature, man is searching in all the wrong places for the meaning of life. The church has become the sanctuary for those who are Yah's people. Yah should be their sanctuary. Their fellowship is with ministers and religious folks while their fellowship with Yah is forgotten. They look in a genetic lab tube for life instead of to the life giver. They revel in meaninglessly religious rituals and pious acts of worship, squandering their resources in permissive life styles under the false assumption that Yah does not care as long as church is attended and tithes paid.
We are coming into the millennium of spiritual awakening and people are going to be shocked at what man congers up to give them what they call inner peace. We know that YahShua is the Prince of Peace, but most do not. Graven images and idol worship has become wide spread once again even here in the Americas. Decieved people in the visible church pray to pagan deities and are not even aware of it. See the article, "What's In A Name".
It will take another Moses to lead the people out of bondage to these things. And, it will take another Elijah to challenge the idols of man. Yah will triumph through His sons and things will finally be brought back into line with the true Word of Yah.
YahShua is seated at the right hand of Yah, but He is not on the throne of His glory. We are His throne of glory. Only when we shine forth as spirit beings without measure, in His image, will He set upon His throne of glory. His glory is still hidden for the last enemy has not been put under His feet as of yet. We know this because heaven must retain Him until all things are summed up in Yah. The last enemy to be put under His feet is death. There is a feet ministry chosen to carry the body of believers into their inheritance, for we have not seen the time when death is swallowed up in victory. Now, I know those who fall asleep in Him are not dead, but neither can we sing, "O death where is thy sting? O grave where is they victory?" It is not manifest that death is done away with and that John 3:16 has been fulfilled. However, Rom. 8:15-25 tells us it will soon be and who these feet really are. It tells what they will do. They will experimentally walk in immortality and through them Yah will do away with death and decay. We are on the brink of the Jordan for the church of Yah. The Church’s religion is over, at least for those who hear the voice of the Spirit. Have you heard the call? He is calling them out of that abomination to meet with Him in the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. All that was lost by the fall will be restored once again and we will live the last two chapters of Revelation.
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from Yah out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of Yah is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and Yah himself shall be with them, and be their God. And Yah shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
Yah, himself, will be our inheritance and we will dwell in His presence night and day for His kingdom has come, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is our inheritance, the Promise Land of the Spirit.
Though He is bringing mankind back to the Garden of purity from where they fell, He is also bringing many sons into His own glory. Mankind will once again walk in everlasting life and fill the whole creation, all the planets in outer space, with their children. The sons of the Father will walk in heaven and with mankind in immortal bodies just as YahShua did after His resurrection. The first is the inheritance of Esau, the second is the inheritance of “the first born” taken from Esau by Jacob. Many will settle for the Esau inheritance, but the sons of Yah will take “the first born” inheritance. Where are you? Are you satisfied where you are with the temporal, or are there longings deep within to be conformed into the image of His dear Son? If you long for the full inheritance, then you must embrace the cross life and leave behind all that is religious. You must go into the wilderness of purging where the old man of the earth dies off and the new man is brought to maturity. It is there that you meet with Yah at the “Tent of Meeting” outside the camp. When we come once again to the Jordan, separating the natural from the Spiritual, will you be in the number that will cross over and possess our inheritance? I am always available to answer the questions of a hungry heart. It is Yah's will that we help one another up the hill to transfiguration. However, keep in mind that it is not revelation knowledge that we should seek, but "HIM". Spiritual understand will automatically come as we become more aware of "HIM" and become more like "HIM". Many fall short of full sonship by becoming too caught up in the revelation, and not caught up "IN HIM". "HE" must have preeminence in our life even in our getting of revelation knowledge. I can not stress this enough.