In March of this year, I took a trip to Israel, the 2nd time I’ve been. My desire this time was to get a better feel for the lay of the land and Abba was good to do that. It is my hope to eventually go back to work for or minister in some way to the people there. 
 
One of the places on our itinerary was Mt. Carmel. It wasn’t part of the tour my first time. I took the time to pray about the places we would be visiting wanting to hear if there was something specific the Father wanted me to know or understand. All I got about Mt. Carmel was that it was really important. I was to pay attention and focus on what had happened there during Elijah’s lifetime.

 It wasn’t an especially noteworthy day the day we visited Mt. Carmel. There was a serious haze over the land for the first few days of the tour due to major dust storms in Lebanon and it prevented me from getting nice clear pictures. More on that later. I am not impressed with all the ‘religious’ trappings and hype surrounding many of the places tourists go to in Israel. Mostly, I am overwhelmed that serious God stuff happened where I am standing and I was waiting to hear or see what Abba wanted to show me about Mt. Carmel. 

Nothing came while we were there, but in the bus traveling to our next destination, this is what I got: The original battle at Mt. Carmel - Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal - was not between believers and non-believers. It was between those who believed in the One True Living God, YHVH Elohim, and those who believed in another god. 

The battle that is going to be fought again will not be a battle between believers and unbelievers, but this is the scenario that is played out for the religious in teachings and sermons and media. We are led to believe it is the ultimate battle between good and evil, the churchers and the atheists, the religious and the non-religious. No.

It will be like before, a battle between believers. There are believers who walk (halak) in the way (derech) of YHVH and there are those who SAY they do but worship only a god of their own making, a god that the Jews of history do not recognize as the God of the Tenakh. The Jesus of christianity has been so far removed from His Jewish roots in mainstream churches that he is literally ‘another Jesus’. This Jesus offers easy grace without repentance or he is the mean guy that will send you to hell for questioning the leaders. Many Jesuses. Many Baals. Just like before, there is going to be a showdown between the prophets of the false gods and those who walk (halak) in the Way (derech) of the One True Living Elohim. This is jihad - holy war - a war of gods fought by believers in those gods. 

We see it all around us. I look at what is going on in the world and I feel as if a lead weight has been laid on my chest. Who doesn’t believe in something? Christians are tortured and murdered because they do not accept another belief. Hundreds of young girls are kidnapped in Nigeria because “western education is a sin” (translation of boko haram) and one can only imagine what they are being subjected to for the purpose of programming them into another belief system. Three young Israeli men are kidnapped because they are Jewish and can be used as bargaining chips for the other religion. We are no talking about prisoners of war, we are talking about innocent people being used and abused for the sake of advancing belief systems.

The earthly New World Order is not a secular movement. It is the religion of intellectual enlightenment of the few working to control the rest of the world. The programs and techniques that have been put into place to coerce and force compliance to their agenda are terrible and unimaginable to those of us who have been fortunate enough to have escaped the worst. There are survivors who have tried to tell their stories but they are so horrific our minds can’t get around the facts and so they are labeled lunatics not only by the very people who perpetrated the horrors, but also by us - who simply cannot believe human beings capable of such things. Is that because we have also been programmed at some level? Interesting question. Remember - the deception will be so good that even the very elect could be deceived if that were possible.

Let’s go back to the haze in Israel that prevented me from taking clear pictures. In my previous post, I mentioned that there is often an obvious correlation between the physical and the spiritual. The picture that I have included with this post is one I took of the sun over the Sea of Galilee, however, because of the haze, it actually looks more like the moon. Was this an indication of how the deception works? I certainly have more questions than answers today.

My heart is full. Full of joy at the opportunity to have been privileged to visit the land of Israel. Full of gratitude for being brought face to face with people and places I would not have known otherwise. And full of grief for what is coming. 


What Can Be Shaken Will Be Shaken

Scripture speaks of major shakings. We remember the quaking of Mt. Sanai when the Word was given, how the giving of that Word not only caused the mountain to shake, but brought a spiritual shaking throughout the world. Again the earth shook when the only begotten son of the Living El took on the sins of the world and again caused a spiritual shaking unparalleled even to this day.

The passage in Hebrews 12 talks about an end times shaking. Most of the time we interpret this to mean the days just before the return of Yeshua, however, the author of Hebrews identifies these days as the time between His first coming and His second coming. So, in essence we have been living in the end times for around two thousand years. From what I can gather, this means ongoing shakings; times when everything will become disoriented and turned upside down. YHVH Himself says He does this shaking. Do you suppose that the shakings are intended to get our attention so we return to the right path?

There are many things we could point to which are being shaken today. Probably the one we would all identify with is government, as well as banking, education, medicine, science. And these are serious problems, but I want to discuss the shaking of faith. 

I recently returned from spending 10 glorious days in eretz Israel - the land of Israel! In spite of the issues there, I have experienced a sense of “being home” both times I have been. Spiritual awareness is heightened, an alertness that can only be explained by the special attention of YHVH for this piece of real estate. 

Factions that exist in Israel exist everywhere. Even within Judaism there are factions. How do we know what is right? How do we secure righteousness? How do we maintain it? How do you know that you know that you know? Questions are everywhere. Interpretations are everywhere. Who is God? Who is Messiah? 

YHVH is Spirit. The spiritual is spiritually discerned. The mind can only go so far without the Spirit. Since the first disobedience, the need to know has trumped the need to obey. Scripture is clear that knowledge without discernment is folly.

•   Knowledge is information gained from your senses, observation, instruction, experience. Knowledge alone is amoral, that is without inherent goodness or badness.

•   Wisdom is insight regarding knowledge that allows you to apply or put into practice the knowledge for a purpose, which can be either benevolent or malevolent.

•   Discernment/understanding is spiritual perception to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, to use knowledge and wisdom for the advancement of YHVH’s kingdom.

Consider Solomon, believed to be the wisest man who ever lived, and yet with all his getting of knowledge and wisdom, his soul was vexed. Emptiness and despair are echoed in his words, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Also taken to mean, futile, pointless, meaningless. Why?

See Ecc. chapter 1. In chapter 2, Solomon is consumed with himself - I, I, I, I. In the end, he speaks:  

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecc. 12:13)

When Yeshua haMashiach comes, will He find faith in the earth? Faith without works is dead. Works without faith is meaningless. Knowing about YHVH and knowing Him are two separate things. Knowing stuff and keeping rules, or being able to debate someone into the ground does not necessarily connect you to the Creator of the Universe. What you know about YHVH must become who you are if it is to bring honor to YHVH. Love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your muchness, and your neighbor as yourself. Do I live the Scripture I know? That is the biggest question of all.

Hebrews 12:25-27: See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Cognitive dissonance is a term used to explain the attempt to reconcile two opposing ideas or beliefs. It is what happens when you come face to face with reality that isn’t what you thought it was. For most people, living in a perception of what should be rather than what is, becomes a form of self preservation. Take an abused child, for instance. Often they will formulate fantasies about themselves or their abuser or both in order to deal with the horror of their reality. 

At some point, the truth must be faced, a choice must be made. You can accept the truth and let go of the lie/fantasy about yourself or your perpetrators or you will become the lie. This is the ultimate goal of Hegelian dialectic - to pit two opposites against each other and somehow bring them into harmony. For this to happen, each opposite must give up something to look more like the other. On one side you have lie, on the other you have truth and when they meet somewhere in the middle, you have compromise. 

Compromise takes off some of the edge, but it never brings peace. These poems came out of my struggle with cognitive dissonance. They lent voice to what I was being shown about who and what I really was versus what I had believed I was because of what I had been told or taught. 

WALLS   by Sherri Rogers   (1997)
 
Way down inside, protected inside, down in the innermost part
        Strange how it’s shattered and beaten and battered
                 This thing called the human heart.

 “I love you,” they say, 
         but their actions betray
                  the words their lips have spoken.

In the pain rushes, 
        it sears and it crushes
                  and the tender heart is broken.

The hardening starts to protect from the hurt
          and the walls are methodically erected.
                  The fortress is grand, it’s built to withstand
                                and it keeps the heart protected.

 But the toughness that’s gained is only feigned
           because the hurt remains
                     Locked up inside, sheltered inside, protected inside
                                 the walls made to keep out the pain.

 So it builds and grows and no one knows
            Because of the mask you wear
                       Until once again the pain takes its toll 
                                 And becomes too much to bear.

The only way out is to cry out
              To the One who created the heart
                         He’ll answer your call and tear down the walls
                                   And cause the healing to start.

Only He can mend the terrible rend
               caused by the destructive voices
                          Of those that can’t feel, can only steal
                                     your peace and trust by their choices.

They will continue, they do what they do.
                No doubt they’ll hurt you again
                            But the One who has mended forever has ended  
                                       the destruction caused by their sin.

 The heart of flesh that was turned to stone
                has been to flesh restored
                            And it still feels pain, but can also retain
                                         the love and squeeze of the Lord.

"In the day you eat of it, you shall become as God deciding for yourself what is right and wrong." Genesis 3:4 paraphrase

While this is typical of anyone disregarding YHVH's instruction, it becomes especially grotesque when power is used to establish personal agenda at any cost. Law is subject to the whims of the person who then becomes his/her own law, ever changing to suit the flavor of the day. Under this form of government, either self or national, destruction and deterioration are the only result.

I am not a political activist. I am a watchman on the wall. I follow trends and watch with expectation as current events mirror Scriptural prophecy. I realize that legally I am a citizen of the United States of America, but spiritually I belong to a kingdom not of this world. This kingdom has absolute and unchanging authority that can be trusted because it is absolute and unchanging. Think about it. How much confidence is it possible to have in something that is ever changing? Today, you can do this or that, but tomorrow it will get you arrested. With YHVH there is no variableness nor shadow of change. He is ever faithful! Who ya gonna trust? Government? Yourself? Or the One who by definition cannot fail? 

1 Timothy 3:3-8

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,5 holding to a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 7[They are] always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 As those who resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith.

The following quote is from the article linked below:

“We now know that PDD [25] sanctioned American armed force participation in U.N. multilateral peacekeeping operations without any regard to whether the Clinton administration’s new policy complied with UNPA requirements limiting U.S. participation in either U.N. peace enforcement or peace keeping operations,” a support brief said.

“Indeed, there is strong evidence in the classified versions of PDD 25 and PRD 13 to support a claim that the Clinton administration viewed UNPA (read - existing law) as an obstacle to be avoided, rather than a law to be obeyed.”

The brief continued, “Now that PDD 25 has been declassified, obtained, and reviewed, the executive order can be seen as little more than camouflage for a presidential administration to do what it wanted to do, irrespective of the law.”

Full article - http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/u-s-soliders-forced-to-wear-u-n-logo/?cat_orig=world

There are many questions about what is going on with politics in the world. The U.S. presidential election is set to take place in November. Our choice options are six of one and half a dozen of another, or in other words, no choice at all. The only difference between party lines is the spelling of their respective names. It is not my intention to be negative or bitter. It just is what it is. I pray for my leaders and my government. It is a commandment.

YHVH appoints the governments and leaders according to the faith or lack thereof of the people. In other words, we get what we deserve. I am not saying as believers we deserve it, but we will witness and be exposed to it.

Here is a quote you might find interesting:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. ” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville

With the national economy approaching auto destruct for this very reason and everything in place to secure a dictatorship, I am not sure there will even be another presidential election, if you can call the current electoral process an election. Scripture speaks of this One World everything and we are privileged to have been selected to witness prophecy fulfilling itself! We are also told not to be anxious because of it. Prepare your hearts, and establish His Truth deep within. That is the warfare. That is the security we have in and through Messiah! He is our provision, our protection, our healing, our righteousness and our peace, not government. 

YHVH keeps track of His own and does not forget their deeds. When times get rough, we will not bow to another, and when the shelves are stripped bare, we will not go hungry. When we are weak, HE is strong. He is our portion, He is our help, He is ALL in ALL!