Leviticus 21-24; Ezekiel 44; Luke 11-12
We have been talking all about being a set-apart people onto Yahweh and that takes listening and also obeying what we hear, including all of Yahweh’s written commandments.
Shemote (Exodus) 19:5-6
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a set-apart nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
But some have written, some have asked, how do we do this? How can we hear Yahweh’s voice and how are we supposed to be able to abide 24/7 in Yeshua’s Spirit, 100 percent, all of the time?
And, you talk about if Yahweh is your co-pilot, switch seats, so how can we do that? We have lives, we have to hold down jobs, how can we let Him lead?
Well, to find out the answers to these questions and more, please join us for Parasha Emor 2022.
Emor 2022
In Hebrew the word Emor means, speak. And what we want to see is a special pattern in the speaking that repeats itself, even unto today.
Now, in Parasha Emor, Yahweh is speaking to His people, thus, Parasha Emor. And what Yahweh is doing in speaking to His people is He is teaching them what His standards truly are. He is teaching the people what He wants, how He wants us to do things. And then, Yahweh expects His priesthood to speak (or teach, in context) His standards to all the people. That is how it is supposed to work.
Melachim Aleph (1 Kings) 2:3
3 And keep the charge of Yahweh your Elohim: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Torah of Moshe, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn;
But one of the keys is, the priesthood was never supposed to make up their own standards and rules. And, rather, they were to pass along Yahweh’s standards and rules that they heard from the prophet, to the people. Are you listening brother Judah?
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:2
2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim which I command you.
Well, for example, in Vayiqra (or Leviticus) chapter 21 in verse 1 we read, Yahweh said to Moshe, speak to the priests, the sons of Aharon and say to them, (basically) if you want to make Me happy, then listen and do what I say. And then, in turn, Moshe speaks (or teaches) Yahweh’s words to Aharon and his sons, just like Yahweh says to do.
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 21:1
1 And Yahweh said to Moshe, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aharon, and say to them: ‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people,
What that means, though, and what we need to see here, is the principle behind this, the precept behind this. Which is that, the prophet is going to hear Yahweh’s words and then pass Yahweh’s words along to the priesthood.
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 1:9, 17
9 Then Yahweh put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
17 “Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them.
And then the priesthood, in turn, is going to teach Yahweh’s words to the people. The priesthood is not supposed to make up their own rules, okay?
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 17:9
9 And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.
But now, we are going to see a very special pattern here. When you take good note of this, tuck it away, because we are going to see this happen again, and again and again, throughout Scripture.
What we are going to see is that Yahweh is going to use the anointed prophet (or the anointed judge), in this case Moshe ha-Nasi, He is going to use the anointed Prophet to transmit the correct doctrine (or the correct Torah) to the priesthood.
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 6:25
25 “Speak to Aharon and to his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed, the sin offering shall be killed before Yahweh. It is most set-apart.
Do you understand what I am saying? The super saying is, the prophet who transmits the Torah to the priesthood, is effectively training the priesthood. And then, once the priesthood knows what to do, really, they should be able to take it from there.
Now, it sounds simple, but this is a very important pattern for us. We talk about it a little bit in our four-part mini-series on the “Tabernacle of David” which is located in Nazarene Scripture Studies, Volume Four. We hope to do a lot more with that study later; we could we could talk about that a long time.
But one of the most important things we see in that study is that the anointed Judge, King David, was used to establish the correct doctrine for the priesthood for the Melchizedekian Order, serving in the Tabernacle of David. And because David was a prophet, he could effectively serve as Melchizedekian priest.
Tehillim (Psalms) 119:44-45
44 So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever.
45 And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.
So, the pattern that we see all throughout Scripture is that the anointed judge (or the anointed prophet, because a judge is a prophet), he is the one who delivers the Torah, he is the one who delivers the instructions to the priesthood, okay?
So, we are going to see this pattern followed in King David’s day; the prophet that instructed the Melchizedekian Order.
Shemuel Bet (2 Samuel) 6:12
12 Now it was told King David, saying, “Yahweh has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of Elohim.” So David went and brought up the ark of Elohim from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness.
We also see it happening in Yeshua’s day. We know that Yeshua was a Prophet, and what did He do? He delivered the instructions to those who would purify themselves to become His bride.
So, it is the anointed judge (or the prophet), which in our case was Yeshua, who gives Yahweh’s instructions (or Yahweh’s Torah) to the priesthood. And then it is the priesthood’s job to take it from there.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 10:5-6
5 These twelve Yeshua sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.
6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Now, the priesthood has to instruct all the people and make sure the people know what they are supposed to do, and tell them what Yahweh says to do and not do, okay?
Hitgalut (Revelation) 22:18
18 For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, Elohim will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;
The priests were never ever, ever, supposed to make up their own rules. Are you listening brother Judah?
Okay, well, for their part, the people were to remain humble, we are all to remain humble, which means, remain teachable. We are supposed to do everything Yahweh says, okay?
But there has never been any commandment telling us we have to obey the Rabbis, okay? That is a fiction, that verse does not exist. And because the Rabbinical order is not commanded in Scripture, it is not part of Yahweh’s will. In fact, as we speak about in other places, He is planning to utterly destroy it. Are you listening brother Judah?
Well, this week we want to spend more time in our Haftera prophetic portion, and also in the Brit Chadasha (or the Renewed Covenant), but we are going to see the same pattern in the Haftera prophetic portion.
So, Yehezkel (or Ezekiel) chapter 44 and verse 23. Now, just for some perspective, this is timed in the future. Yahweh writes it as if it is already passed, but we know that it is in the future. It is past for Him because He lives outside of time, but for us, this is after the coming third temple, or what we call the anti-Yeshua (or the anti-Messiah) temple.
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 44:23
23 “And they shall teach My people the difference between the set-apart and the unset-apart, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
So, this is after the Tribulation and after Armageddon. We talk all about that in the Revelation study. Now, this fourth Temple this is the good Temple, the one in Ezekiel, we can trust that one. And the prophets have already taught the priesthood in this; in this context the prophets have already taught the priesthood what Yahweh’s standards are because the Torah still applies.
But in this passage in particular, the Renewed Levitical Priests (this is after Armageddon, okay) they have the job of teaching Yahweh’s people the difference between the set-apart and the profane.
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 44:23
23 “And they shall teach My people the difference between the set-apart and the unset-apart, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
Okay, now, brother Judah, excuse me, how are you going to do that if you change the Torah that Yahweh gave to Moshe? Okay, if you are not going to follow Yahweh’s words, how can you teach Yahweh’s words to the people? Because you believe you can follow the majority opinion of the Rabbis, because there are many of you and only one of Him, that you outvote Him (or something like that).
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 22:26
26 Her priests have violated My Torah and profaned My set-apart things; they have not distinguished between the set-apart and unset-apart, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
Well, if we change His standards, how can we expect to teach His standards to the people? How can we teach His standards when we do not even know what they are, because we thought we would change them?
Okay, well, we are not going to get on Judah, we have to be concerned about ourselves. Or, if we can serve for Ephraim, we need to clean up our own house. And, brothers and sisters, I have been in this movement since 1999, our own house is a mess, okay? And we need a teacher to help set us straight, we need a teacher to let us know what is going on. And this is precisely what Yeshua promises in His word; is a teacher who will teach us all what He likes, right? And that teacher is His Spirit.
Yochanan (John) 15:26
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
Now, we talk about that more in our study on the Ancient Hebrew Wedding model and talk about it all throughout, because that is what we are really doing. We are talking to Yeshua’s Best-friend, which is His Spirit, to learn what He likes, so we can purify ourselves.
Yochanan (John) 16:13
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
But we see, all through Scripture, we already know what He likes. It is just a question, now, do we want to do it or not? Oh, big choice. Let us see… Do we want to be obedient or disobedient?
Well, as we show in other places, the Spirit is a feminine, both in Hebrew, and in Aramaic. So, in Yochanan (or John) chapter 14 starting in verse 15, Yeshua is telling His disciples (basically) how to get the Spirit. They want to know what the Spirit is about. And notice what He says, because most people miss this completely, most people have no idea what Yeshua is really saying; because they have never just stopped long enough to sit with it until it sinks completely in and we become one with it (so to speak).
But in verse 15, Yeshua says something so simple, something any father would say to his children, He says, “If you love Me, then keep My commandments (do what I said)”. Then He will pray to the Father. First, we obey, we love Him enough to do what He says, find out what He wants. He wants us to keep His commandments; we are not going to get around that. No, Father forbid. We love Him, we want to please Him, we do not want to get around Him.
Yochanan (John) 14:15-16
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
This is our Husband we are talking about. If we will serve Him by obeying His commandments, we will become refined, we will show Him our sincerity, we will show Him our commitment. And then He will pray to the Father, and the Father will give us another Helper, that She may abide with us, forever.
She is called the Spirit of Truth. But it is the spirit of Torah, because if any man wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine.
Yochanan (John) 14:17
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.
Well, how does he know that he takes the correct Spirit? We know from the Psalms (Tehillim) and other places that Yahweh’s Torah is the truth. David says, “Your instruction is truth, Your Torah is truth (Your law is truth).”
Tehillim (Psalms) 119:142
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your Torah is truth.
Well, Yeshua seemed to agree completely with this. He seems to have believed exactly the same way. Oh, imagine that! He and His Father are One! He did not come to do away with His Father’s law, like He says in Matthew 5 in verse 17.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:17
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
But Yeshua calls Her, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because the world never made a commitment to Yahweh. Yes, the world, they do not have a clue, they are not interested in the spiritual realm, they do not want to know.
Yochanan (John) 14:17
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.
Babylon, they are interested in the spiritual realm, but they have other spirits in mind, instead of the Set-apart Spirit.
But Yeshua says we know Her because we have made a commitment. So, because of that, Lady Wisdom shows us Her face; Lady Wisdom shows us Her favor. She helps us, she makes things clear to us, she teaches us while we are walking along in the way; this is the path, turn and walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 30:21
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.
And it ought to be clear to all of us, Yahweh is the truth. How is He going to send His Son to tell His people to ignore Him? It does not make any sense at all. The entire Christian world goes running after this mythology.
The thing is, Yeshua is saying, if we love Him, do what He says. It is the same thing Yahweh says with the Spirit, “Hear My voice, do what I say, including everything that was written.” That is how He knows we love Him. That is how we know we love the truth. Because Yahweh is Truth, Yahweh is Love, Yahweh is Light.
So, are we truly changed? Have we become truly transformed? Because we love the truth, are we inviting Lady Wisdom in, moment by moment?
I mean, the thing about Lady Wisdom is, She is really a lady, we have to welcome Her in, or She is not going to come if you do not; she will not stay. But we have to welcome Her in. If we are not welcoming Her in, that is called ‘quenching the Spirit.’ You could have the Spirit, but you are not paying attention, not welcoming Her in. Bye! And that is where most of Ephraim goes, 99+ percent of them.
Thessaloniquim Aleph (1 Thessalonians) 5:19-20
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies.
The thing is, the more we focus on Yahweh, the closer we come to Him. There has got to be something in us that is always paying attention to Yahweh. Whether you are a visual person, or auditory, or whatever, your olfactory (perhaps), whatever you are doing, there needs to be some part of us constantly tuned on Yahweh, and some part that is constantly tuned on us and our behavior, because Yeshua tells us to take heed to ourselves.
So, this shows commitment. And if we do not show commitment, then, really, it is kind of the same thing as idolatry because we have got something coming in between us and Yeshua.
Well, what do you put in between you and Yeshua but an idol? This is your Husband, this is our Husband. Are we going to put something in between us and our Husband? What are you going to do, put something there? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So, let us notice something essential, alright?
We have eyes to read. Is Yeshua not (effectively) saying, “Okay, you say you want My Spirit, yes? Okay, I am saying, ‘Obey the Torah commandments, first.’” Let us understand what He is really saying here, okay?
“Show Me you love Me by obeying the Torah commandments, first. Yes, then, after you show Me some kind of commitment by starting to guard the whole of the Torah, meaning all the commandments, then, once you show Me some commitment, that is when I am going to pray to My Father for you, and that is when He is going to send you another Helper. Because when I say, ‘Oh! This one, he has shown some commitment, or she has shown commitment, they are showing some commitment.’”
Yochanan (John) 14:15-16
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
Well, after we begin by obeying, then we can hear the Torah spoken. And at some point, we need to make a decision that we are going to do like King Josiah, we are going to take charge of everything within our domain and make things right for Yahweh, everything under our roof (so to speak).
Melachim Bet (2 Kings) 23:24
24 Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the Torah which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh.
Now, we get a lot of questions when we get correspondence, and we get some very interesting emails and requests. Some people ask us, “How can I get Yeshua’s Spirit without tithing?”
So, basically, how can I get Yeshua’s Spirit and still enjoy my life in the world? And, basically, the simple answer to that is, you cannot, none of us can. We are not supposed to be able to do that, okay?
That is, by design, we are supposed to choose between Yahweh and the world, that is it. It is a binary decision. And we can fool ourselves, and most of Ephraim does, (you know) the drunkards of Ephraim.
But the thing is, Yahweh literally makes it so we have to choose between Him and the world, we have to. That is a decision we all have to make.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:15
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
That is what Joshua the son of Nun said, “As for me and my house, we shall choose to serve Yahweh.”
Yehoshua (Joshua) 24:15
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the elohim which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the elohim of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
And (you know) this is a binary choice. It is an either, or. Either we choose to serve Yahweh Elohim with everything we have, or He counts us traitors, treasonous, and worthy of death. To me that is fair.
So, He is going to send His Son to die for us and we are not going to respond after so many years?
Yochanan (John) 3:16
16 For Elohim so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We will talk next week about the fig tree that did not produce fruit, but we will talk about that then.
So, I think what we need to say, brothers, sisters, is that I think there are some of us who have never truly stopped and sat down and counted the cost.
Luqa (Luke) 14:28
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
If we have eyes to read, what we are looking at here in Scripture, does that not mean (paraphrasing) that, if we do not keep the whole of the Torah, He will not pray to the Father? Meaning, we will not get His Spirit?
I mean, if we are going to serve Yeshua as our King, or we are going to try for the bridehood, I mean, do you not think it makes sense that we better learn who He is and what He wants? And we better do what He says, we better give it to Him, and we better make Him happy if we want to be taken as His bride.
Well, the same theme is going to continue in the Brit Chadasha (or the Renewed Covenant) portion. So, we go to Yochanan (or John) chapter 11 and verse 21. And He says, “He who has My commandments and…” oh, there is that word, “…keeps them (shomer, guards) My commandments, it is He who loves Me.”
Yochanan (John) 14:21
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.”
Remember, Yeshua was the Angel (or the Messenger) that was sent before our forefathers, when we were exiting Egypt, after the first Pesach.
Shemote (Exodus) 23:21
21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
So, Yeshua was the One to give us the Torah, that is, our bridal Covenant, contract. Yeshua says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, who does My commandments, who keeps the bridal Covenant contract who keeps the plan for purification, it is he who loves Me, it is he who cares enough to become transformed so he can serve Me (or she can serve Me). And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I also will love him.” Oh! here is a special word, “And We will manifest Myself to him.”
Yochanan (John) 14:21
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.”
You know, a lot of people might think they have the Spirit, how many people think they can manifest Yeshua, or be open to be used as an empty vessel for Yeshua; to manifest His will through, not that we are Yeshua, but that we allow ourselves to manifest Yeshua’s will through us?
Okay, well this means Yeshua manifests in us, okay? That is the goal, that is the renewed creation we are headed for. Here at Armageddon, we know everything is going to change after Armageddon, yet this is what we are headed for, this is the goal, this is what we want to become, a renewed creature led by the Spirit and not of the flesh.
So, brothers, sisters, it is the Spirit of truth, okay? We depend upon the Spirit of truth to guide us into all truth, okay?
But notice, is Yeshua not telling us that It is only given to those who have already made the choice to keep the whole of the Torah? And does He not give It to those who lay down their lives in the world? Because that is what the Torah is talking about.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:4
4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
And by ignoring the things of the world, by ignoring the t-ball, and the Rotary clubs, and the camping vacations, and this party, that party, it makes more time to serve Him. Not just a “Check, I believe Yeshua, check, said a prayer, check.” No, it makes more time for us to volunteer and serve Him to show our love for Him by helping to build His kingdom.
So, He gives the Spirit to the people who have already made the choice to help Him build His kingdom. And He knows that His yardstick is, they are keeping all of His commandments. That is why He said, in Matthew 5 and verse 17, not to think that He came to do away with the bridal Covenant, contract, with the Ketubah.
Yochanan (John) 14:23
23 Yeshua answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
But the Spirit, in Scripture, it is only given to those who are already doing their best to further Elohim’s kingdom, or in our case, to help Yeshua build His kingdom. He does not just give the Spirit gratuitously.
I have seen all kinds of people take the bath (so to speak), but their hearts do not change, they do not seek Elohim, they do not seek to be filled by Him. So, you have got to start by asking, seeking and knocking.
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 55:6
6 Seek Yahweh while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
Well, we kind of have to remember who Yahweh is, right? So, He is a King, He is a war Elohim, right? So, what is a war Elohim like? You have got that kind of power. He wants us to humble ourselves and serve Him. What does that look like for us? What are we supposed to do?
Shemote (Exodus) 15:3
3 Yahweh is a man of war; Yahweh is His name.
So, is a war Elohim like that, is He going to pass out the Spirit gratuitously to people who not going to obey? He might pass out the Spirit, but do they have the proper witness; they are keeping the Torah?
Shemote (Exodus) 8:20
20 And Yahweh said to Moshe, “Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water. Then say to him, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
Remember, we have got to have both, we are going to have both the letter of the Torah and the Spirit. Because the goal is to hear and obey His voice, including all the written commandments; it is a two-part deal. These are two things that show us whether we truly have the Spirit, whether we are truly disciplining ourselves to walk according to it.
So, go figure, Yahweh is going to give the Spirit to those who want to serve Him according to the way He wants to be served. Not the way we want to serve Him, the way He says He wants to be served.
So, a lot of us receive the gift of the Spirit and we know it, we just do not use it for Him, we do not discipline ourselves to put Him first. Can we see how selfish that is?
Just talking between brothers, what we always need to be asking ourselves is, what would Yahweh get out of it? Would Yahweh like it if we ask that? Would that do anything for Yeshua? If Yahweh likes, it is a sure bet that Yeshua is going to like it also.
But still the question remains, what are we asking Him for? Why are we asking Him for it? Are we doing it for His purposes, or for our own? Well, are we truly dead to our flesh? Are we truly walking in His Spirit and not our own flesh?
Well, verse 26, Yeshua tells us that, “the Helper, the Ruach or the Set-apart Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, She will teach you all things…” And get this, “…bring to your remembrance, all things that I said to you.”
So, is the Spirit mentioning the fact that we are supposed to be ordered and organized a certain way? She is the one who teaches us all these things, if we are listening, if we remain teachable. She is the one who brings to mind all the things that Yeshua said to our forerunners, the apostles.
And in context, remembering that He is the One that Yahweh sent before our forefathers coming out of Egypt. He is also the One who gave the Torah to our forefathers in the wilderness.
So, these are all the things that the Spirit is going to bring to mind if we dedicate ourselves such that we begin doing everything that Scripture says to do. Once we begin doing what Scripture says to do, then we can receive the Spirit.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:27
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
But people say, “But I do not want to do everything Scripture says, cannot I get the gift of the Spirit without doing everything Scripture says to do, first?” Some amazing questions we get. Those are some amazing conversations. “How can I get the Set-apart Spirit without giving Him anything? How can I get the gift of the Spirit? I do not want to give, I do not want to volunteer, I do not want to give anything back to Him, I just want to take. Now, I want gifts and I want to pray for stuff, and I want Him to look out for me, I do not want to give anything to build His Son a kingdom, but how can I get the Spirit without really buying in?”
And the answer is, you cannot. There is no way, there is no possible way.
I mean, we want Yeshua’s Spirit, right? Okay, well, Yeshua tithed and volunteered, right?
Yochanan (John) 10:14-15
14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
He was as active as He could be. In fact, if we have Yeshua’s Spirit, then do we not also need to tithe and volunteer as much as we can? Do we get it? Do we know what Yeshua’s Spirit is?
Mattityahu (Matthew) 23:23
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
It is so easy, it is like people just do not think about it. I think people do not think it through, I guess, I do not really know. But one way or another, we all have to do what He says. And we have to want it, we have to be eager for it as a bride is eager to please her husband; just as the husband is eager to provide for his bride, and looks out for her, and these kind of things.
The bride also needs to be eager to serve her husband. And if she does not because she is not obeying the commandments, she is not refining herself according to the ketubah, he is under no obligation.
So, we are showing up, we are bags of dust and we want to become altar worthy, we have to be ready to change, we have to be ready to become altered. And the problem is, most of us do not really want to be spiritually transformed yet. I mean, I guess we are not ready, we are not willing to be changed 100 percent yet, I guess, I do not know; just from guessing, from surmising from people’s behavior.
But what Scripture says, is that, if we want the good gifts He has for those who love Him, first we must sign up (basically) for Yeshua’s program. We talk about that in Acts chapter 15 Order. We have to show our allegiance to Him as our King by obeying the things that are written in Scripture, because of the Set-apart Spirit, the real Ruach HaKodesh.
Once we show our willingness to obey all the things, once we are willing to obey all the do’s and do not’s, then He is going to send His Spirit to teach us all things. Once we show Him that dedication and love, He is going to pray to the Father and the Father is going to send the Spirit.
Yochanan (John) 14:16
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
He is not going to give the Spirit to people who are lukewarm, why should He do that? What benefit is it to Him? Is He going to cast His pearls before swine so that we can ignore His commandments in a spiritual way? “Oh, Father! Please give me Your Spirit, so I can ignore your commandments in a spiritual way. I want to be more spiritual, Father, but I do not really want to do everything your Word says.”
Some of the correspondence we get boils down to this. And the problem is, it is just so very simple. He wants a people who are attentive to Him, and are listening to Him, and want to speak and act according to His words. He wants to restore that relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden.
And He is breaking it down for us. We could not handle it when we first came out of Egypt, so, He is breaking it down for us. He gives us a whole list of things to do as a nation, with everyone involved. No one is allowed to sit on the sidelines, no one is allowed to sit on the benches. If you do that, you are out, and not in a good way.
So, if we will do everything that the Spirit says, plus all the written commandments, then the Father will love us, and He is going to take us as His Son’s bride. He is going to take extra special care of us. It means hard work, a lot of hard work, but He is going to take care of us.
Shemote (Exodus) 19:5
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
Here is the problem, and we have forgotten this since the days of kingships of Europe and before, if we do anything less than our utmost for our King, look out.
Luqa (Luke) 13:24
24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
So, it has been a long time since Ephraim’s lived under kingships, so we have forgotten what kingships are like. Well, Yeshua is a King, so what does our King want? Well, what our King, what our Husband wants, is the same thing it has always been, He wants us to hear, He wants to restore the relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden, He wants us to hear His voice and be diligent to do everything He says. And we are also responsible for His written word, because that is just when He spoke earlier and someone wrote it down.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 8:6
6 “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
So, we are accountable to the written word, and, additionally, to His Spirit. If we do not hear in the Spirit, then if we are not willing to make that effort, then the solution is you have to come into right relationship with someone that is hearing the Spirit.
And so, there really is no option (basically), when we understand what Scripture is saying, in truth. Yeshua has a program, and He wants us all to participate in it. And it costs us our life in the world, it costs us our life in Egypt. Plus, we are further told to come out of Babylon, the deception where you follow your desires and call that the anointing, or whatever they do.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 10:37
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
So, this is the question, brothers, sisters, are we diligently listening for His voice, and are we diligently doing what we hear, and are we diligently doing everything that is in the written word? That is the message we take from the Torah portion.
Well, now we come to our Haftara prophetic portion. And what we are going to see here is, if we want to set ourselves apart from the world, to set ourselves apart unto Yahweh, if we want to learn everything by His Spirit, then the very first thing that we need to realize, coming out of Egypt, is that our Focus needs to change.
So, in Egypt we are focused on the world and the things of the world, our desires in the world, the lusts of our eyes, the lusts of our flesh, and pride. Are these things all acceptable to chase after? Riches and the things the moth can destroy, things that the thief can break in and steal? Our focus needs to be different than that; we need to be different than the rest of the people in the world.
Yochanan Bet (2 John) 1:2
2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:
So, this is what Yahweh is trying to help our forefathers understand, was that we need to develop a spiritual focus. Of course, our forefathers did not do the best on that, or at least not with the spiritual focus. It is also being obedient to Yahweh, a spiritual focus. We need a spiritual focus that obeys all of the written commands.
Romim (Romans) 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim.
So, now in Yehezkel (or Ezekiel) chapter 44, we also see that the priest’s focus was to be on Yahweh and His service, 100 percent of the time. Or, rather, in the future, the renewed Levitical Priesthood’s focus is to be upon Yahweh and upon His service 100 percent of the time (or at least during the times that they are on duty).
Now, maybe they did not realize it, but their focus was always supposed to be on His Spirit. Too bad they did not figure that one out.
Now, verse 28 tells us the Levitical priests were not supposed to have any earthly inheritance, whatsoever. And that is because Yahweh wanted Him to be their inheritance, 100 percent. In the one hand you have the riches of the world, and in the other hand you have your relationship with Yahweh.
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 44:28
28 “It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession.
So, sure, the Levitical priesthood had to have the resources needed to do the job, it takes a lot of money to run a Temple the right way. The Levitical priesthood was around 8 percent of the population. And it is going to take all of us in the Melchizedekian Order, working together according to Yeshua’s instructions, in order to establish Yeshua’s kingdom the way He says He wants us to do it. It takes all of us to obey Yeshua the way He wants us to.
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 15:58
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Master, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Master.
So, but further, if anyone wants to join the priesthood one day, or perhaps serve as a congregational Elder, or serve as a congregational Deacon, we need to see something critical, and that is what we need to see, which is that we have the same focus as Yeshua had, which was the same focus as the Levites. We are supposed to have that.
So, in Ezekiel 44, what we see is that Yeshua did not care about any earthly thing. What Yeshua cared about was building His Father’s kingdom, that is Yeshua’s main focus.
Yochanan (John) 6:27
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because Elohim the Father has set His seal on Him.”
And since Yeshua is the prophet who established the Torah, or the operating instructions, for His renewed Melchizedekian Priesthood, it was completely correct of Him to have the same focus as His Father.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 18:15
15 “Yahweh your Elohim will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,
It was completely correct of Him to have the same focus of the Torah, considering He is the One who gave us the Torah as we were coming out of Egypt.
Yochanan (John) 12:49
49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.
But the focus on Him and His Spirit is critical. Like, they talk about how you cannot legislate morality. And if you are going to work in the priesthood, someone is going to handle a lot of money. If you are going to work in government service, someone is going to handle a lot of money. Anything you do in business; we need to keep our eyes on Him and upon the kingdom. That is what the transformation is all about.
And do not be part of the Mystery Babylon in disguise, in the Messianic movement, like some of the Messianic book salesmen, bringing home six figure plus incomes. “I am coming to my trailer,” said the wolf to the sheep.
We need to be doing things with the correct heart. And if we do not have the correct heart, then we cannot distinguish between, let us say, a narrow and afflicted path, versus a broad easy road where people do not really feel like they have to leave the world, do not really have to leave Babylon, do not really have to do like Yeshua did, they just have to worship Yeshua.
Tehillim (Psalms) 51:10
10 Create in me a clean heart, O Elohim, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
“I have become transformed, but just have to worship Yeshua.” That is the church right there. “I haven’t to change, I just have to worship Him, put some money in the bucket, then I go on about my life in the world.” That is Mystery Babylon.
Well, this all brings us to our Brit Chadasha (or our Renewed Covenant) portion. And here we are in Luqa (or Luke) chapters 11 and 12. And we are going to see through this what Yeshua is teaching us about the correct Spirit, by teaching us about the correct attitudes that we are supposed to have.
And basically, that is because an attitude is a spirit, it is the same thing. It is just that one is an English way of saying it, and one is the ancient Hebrew way of saying it. The ancient Hebrew way is better of course. But the question is, what attitude do we as His believers have, as His disciples (hopefully), what attitude or attitudes do we choose to take? What attitude or attitudes, what spirits do we choose to have? What do we take? Life is a blank slate sometimes, in certain respects. What are we giving place to?
So, in each moment of our lives, are we giving place to Yahweh, or are we giving place to Satan? Are we giving place to the light? Are giving place to darkness? What are we giving place to?
[Okay, maybe the grammar police will knock, knock… okay, to ‘whom’ are we giving place? Okay, well that kind of case logic distinction does not exist in Hebrew, so we are going to leave that one alone.]
But the point is, if we call ourselves His disciples, we need to be ready to make some real changes. If we are going to go up to His altar, then do we not need to be ready to become altered?
Now, there are things that we need to be doing on our own. We need to show some initiative. And it is really sad because most Christians, and even most Messianics and Ephraimites, are still in Mystery Babylon, they are still treating Yahweh like He is some kind of a genie in a bottle (or something). You just rub a little and you get whatever you want. Just say the right words and you get whatever you want. It never occurs to them to imagine what it must be like to literally be Yahweh’s slaves and everything that comes along with that.
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 7:22
22 For he who is called in the Master while a slave is the Master’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Messiah’s slave.
I mean, Yahweh wants His servants to suit up and show up for duty. You think, maybe, Yahweh might want His servants to ask Him what He wants done today? His will be done. It is like not, “Oh! Can I have this? And, oh! Can I have that? And, oh! Would You please bless me in this way? Can I have that over there? Would You please bless me in that way over there?” So, this is the bless me club, with your host, give me more….
So, I mean, what Yeshua is saying is, listen this is not that, if we want His Spirit, we need to start by remembering that we are slaves.
Qorintim Aleph (1 Corinthians) 6:20
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are Elohim’s.
We are slave princesses in training who need to obey all of the Ketubah. It is just, we were bought with a price. And in Scripture, Hebrew servants are always very attentive to their masters. Think about Eleazar. They are trustworthy, they can be sent on mission to do very important things and they are disciplined to do their masters instructions. Are we?
So, Yeshua is telling us that, when we pray, the goal is not to ask for what we want, right?
Luqa (Luke) 12:31
31 But seek the kingdom of Elohim, and all these things shall be added to you.
Give me, give me, give me more. That is not proper, that is Mystery Babylon. Instead, the goal is to ask Him what He wants. “Father, thank You for calling us to Your service. What would you like us to do today, Father?”
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 5:14
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
We are not trying to ask Him for more, we are trying to show Him that we want to please Him more. We ask Him, “Father, how can we become more pleasing to you?” It is just like any good employee should ask their boss, how can they do better. A good employee should ask that, are we asking Yahweh how we can do better every day?
Timotheus Bet (2 Timothy) 2:15
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to Elohim, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
And are we always listening for His response, we are always listening for His direction? And Scripture says, Yahweh speaks, but once, He sees no need for twice. So, we need to be listening at all times, especially when we are upset, that is especially when we need to listen.
So, Yaakov (or James) chapter 4 and verse 3 tells us that, the problem with most of us (He is talking to us, He is talking to Ephraim) is that we are not asking Yahweh to show us what He wants, but we are asking for what we want. In other words, we ask for blessings, so we can spend it on our lusts.
Ya’akov (James) 4:3
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
That is basically prosperity doctrine in a nutshell. “Give me this and give me that. I want to so I can give praise and worship to you.” Do you become conformed to Yeshua’s walk? They are basically disguising greed and vanity as the worship of the living Elohim, it is repugnant to Him.
But if we are asking Yahweh for what we want so we can spend it on ourselves, then who do we really have set on the throne really? Do we set Him on our throne, or are we still sitting on our thrones, and He is still washing our feet? We need to set Him on His throne, we need to go wash His feet, when you show up for service.
But 99 percent of the people walk abroad easy roads, seeking what they want. Elohim is looking to see those who want to be different, who understand. They have sat down, they have counted the cost, they know it is not going to be free. The disciples did not do everything in the first century so that now we do not have to do anything, that is not it. And I mean, that is what you can learn in the Messianic movement, that is not right.
So, there is a big job that He has given us to do, and it takes all of us to do it. But let us notice what Yeshua says here in His model prayer for those who consider themselves to be His disciples. And that is in Luke chapter 11 (or Luqa chapter 11).
Luqa (Luke) 11:2
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Set-apart be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
First, Yeshua says we should recognize that Yahweh is a Set-apart Elohim, He is our Set-apart Elohim, okay? The first commandment, okay? And what that means is, we need to treat Yahweh like He is Set-apart.
And there are a lot of stories we could get into. People (basically) in the world, when you are in the world, in the business world, it is, how much can you get for how little, and that is the game. How much can you get for how little?
There are so many people bringing that attitude toward the worship of Yahweh, and it is repugnant to Yahweh, it is offensive to Him. Because we value Him the same way as the world.
So, I mean, what does this all mean? What should it look like? Or what does it look like and what should it look like?
Well, if we can just imagine ourselves being transported back to King David’s time, or perhaps King David, if he is raised today, how are we going to treat the man who wins Yahweh’s wars? If he is the King, how are we going to treat him?
Shemote (Exodus) 22:28
28 “You shall not revile Elohim, nor curse a ruler of your people.
If King David told us to do something, would we not hasten, lickety-split, to do everything King David said, especially with regards to the Tabernacle of David? If we consider ourselves in any kind of a ministerial capacity, would we hasten to obey King David’s instructions?
Okay, well, if we would hasten to heed King David’s instructions, then what is with Ephraim today, that we as His people are not obeying His instructions? You know what I am saying? Why are we not all eagerly doing everything Scripture says to do? I am talking about right now, today. Where is the dedication? Where is the commitment?
And people say, “Well, how can I get the Spirit without making such kind of a commitment?” Brother, sister, why should Yahweh entrust us with what is basically the crown jewels, with His Spirit, His Son’s Spirit, if we are not showing Him any loyalty?
In the military, there is an old saying which is that familiarity breeds contempt. That is a true saying for most Ephraimites that I have met. For most Ephraimites I have seen once we get to know Yahweh, once we figure we have got a relationship with Yahweh, we basically take Him for granted, meaning we do not keep His commands because we are no longer really scared of Him; He is no longer truly a Set-apart Elohim in our eyes. There is no longer fire and thunder and sound of trumpet and lightning on the mountain, so we do not think about Yahweh being here among us like that, so we forget to be scared.
We figure, well, there is no problem. The problem is, Yahweh is looking to see who loves Him enough to take action, even when they are not being pushed. “Okay, well, we are not really scared, nothing is going on, it seems. Well, we do not really love Him either, so we do not fear Him. We do not love Him. Why do we need to do what He says?”
Mishle (Proverbs) 1:7
7 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
For, if we loved Him, we would do what He said. If we loved Him, we would do all that He said, eagerly and we would be happy to do it. We would be encouraging other people to do it. But if we do not really love Him, we do not really fear Him, why do what He says?
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 5:3
3 For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Luqa (Luke) 6:46
46 “But why do you call Me ‘Master, Master,’ and not do the things which I say?
So, I mean, if this applies to anyone, this is what taking heed to our spirit means. Today is the day to soften the neck. Today is the day to soften the heart. Today is the day of salvation.
Qorintim Bet (2 Corinthians) 6:2
2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Yochanan (or John) chapter 3 and verse 4 says, we are not supposed to pray for stuff that we want, just so we can have more good stuff here in the world, okay? This is not to pray for what we want, so we can spend it on our own lusts. Rather, we are supposed to pray for what He wants; His will be done. So, that we and our families can serve Him. That is what we are supposed to be praying for, that is the first part of the disciple’s prayer. Focus on Him. We are not focusing on ourselves anymore, our Focus becomes on Him.
Yochanan (John) 3:4
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
When the disciples focused on Yeshua, they keep a good walk on water. When we take our eyes off of Yeshua and put them on the wind and the waves of the world, down you go.
Second in the disciple’s prayer, Yeshua tells us to pray that we would become transformed, perhaps like Shaul talks about, by the renewing of our minds as it were. But we have to become transformed so that our wants begin to align more and more with what He wants.
Luqa (Luke) 11:2
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Romim (Romans) 12:2
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim.
Again, we are changing our focus. Now we are asking, how can we conform ourselves to His will, not how we can conform Him to our will; how can we conform ourselves to his will? If we are going to be His helper, then are we helping Him? Are we only asking Him to give us what we want, all the time? We never really think about what He wants? Maybe we like it that way, maybe we never thought about it. Hear the rod, Scripture says.
Well, third in Yeshua’s disciple’s prayer, His model prayer, He tells us that, our number one single priority, ‘numero uno’ priority, every day should be to make sure that Yahweh is getting what He wants.
Luqa (Luke) 11:2
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Is that what it says? I mean, think about it. If Yahweh is not happy, nobody is going to be happy; everybody is going to be very unhappy. Do you know what I am saying?
Okay, fourth, Yeshua’s disciple’s prayer shows us we are to seek to please Yahweh before anything else in life.
He is our King. In medieval Europe, in Christian Europe, you swore to protect your king with your life. You told your king, his life was more precious than yours, and that is how you behaved. And if you did not agree to that, if you did not want to do that, that was considered treason, possible by death. So, considering that Yeshua also is a King, how do we think Yeshua looks at that, if we do not want to do everything He said, like good citizens of His realm? Well, let us just take a giant step back together, let us just get a different perspective, okay?
So, if we are truly Yeshua’s servants in our hearts, then do we not need to have a care that our Husband is getting what He wants? Or, how about this, “Hey boss, I want You to help me get what I want. I do not really care about what You want; I do not want to hear about what You want. Or I will read about it, but do not expect me to do it.” How many of us, that is maybe not what we say, but that is maybe how we behave.
Hey, beloved bride crew. “You are so great. You are the love of my life. I love You so much. I love You more than life itself, that is why I do not need to volunteer, or get involved, or tithe, or support the ministry in any way. You will still marry me if I break all the wedding vows, right? You will still marry me if I break the Torah, right?” Anyone in Ephraim living here, after? Is the Ephraim-body home?
Hey this is some really powerful stuff in this passage, if people take the time to stop and think about what it truly says. What does Yeshua truly asking us to do for Him?
Fifth, Yeshua tells us to ask Yahweh for our daily needs, day by day. That is different than what goes on in prosperity gospel churches. And then, asking Him for our daily needs, then trust, as humble servants, that He will give us what we need to serve Him.
Luqa (Luke) 11:3
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
And notice what it says. And no this does not mean that we get out of volunteering and tithing because we bought a house and we have to pay the mortgage. No, it does not mean Yahweh is going to give us a pass on volunteering time and tithing, because we have to put our children through Masonic Lodge college (or something like that). No, it does not mean we are going to pray that you will win the lottery. We get asked questions like this. It is like, really? Seriously? Are you kidding?
So, we are not going to pray that you are going to win the lottery and then after you win the lottery and become rich then you can start to tithe. How many times do we get asked these things?
I mean, you think it is like, “Whoa!” We get letters like this. So, brothers, sisters, that is what is called praying for your own lusts, that is what is called, pranks. You can spend it on your own lusts, it is a sign of a completely wrong spirit, it is the sign of a completely wrong heart condition, when we spend our time to pray and ask Yahweh for what we want to then spend it on our own lusts. What does that do for Yahweh? What does that do for our King? What does that do for our Husband, Yeshua?
Okay, the problem with these prayer requests is they do not place the kingdom of Elohim first.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of Elohim and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
That means they are of a wrong spirit, or they are the flesh; one way or another, they are of the flesh or they are of a wrong spirit. Luke 16 and verse 10 is pretty clear is it not?
Luqa (Luke) 16:10
10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
Brothers, sisters, if we are not willing to give Elohim what is Elohim’s, what are we doing? We are not going to give Elohim what it says in Scripture to give Elohim; including dedication, service, our tithes, and our volunteer time? What are we doing?
We can lie to ourselves, change the channel, find another YouTube channel, to tell us something we like to hear.
Okay, we might think that, because the numbers are small – we are not making this particular – some of the individuals that ask this are millionaires. They are buying airplanes, spending $1,250,000 on an airplane. You did not have any money to tithe, no money for Yahweh, no money to build His kingdom.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 19:23
23 Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
This issue has grown. I mean, I met some amazing people saying, “Well, please pray for me that I will win the lotto. If I win the lottery, then I will start tithing.” I mean, okay, so, wait a minute, okay? Where is our focus? Who are we trying to serve with this, okay? And what makes us think we are going to be faithful all of a sudden, when the numbers get big? Okay, if we cannot be faithful in little things like money…
Luqa (Luke) 16:10
10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
And, anyway, but Martin Luther made a joke, he said, “The last part of a man to be converted is his wallet, okay?” We have a love-hate relationship with Martin Luther because he was anti-Semitic later in life. But if we cannot be faithful in little things like money, how are we going to claim to be faithful in big things, like saving souls, like bringing people to Yeshua, like bringing people back to their Husband? Because the ministry is starving for funding.
If you tell me again, how this is loving Yeshua or loving Yahweh with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength? But not with our money, and not with our time, how does that work? Tell me again how that works. Because I do not understand that. If we are not willing to change for Yeshua, then how did we change for Yeshua? It does not make sense.
Sixth, Yeshua tells us not to doubt and not to worry over our daily needs. He says that Yahweh already knows what we need before we even ask Him, okay? So, why do we worry?
Luqa (Luke) 11:3
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:8
8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Why not rather just give thanks for what Yahweh provides and save the asking for when we truly need something that is needed to advance the Great Commission.
Whereas our focus, that is what this prayer helps us to do, is to refocus, not on the things of the world, but upon the things of the spirit. If we trust Him, why do we worry? There is an old saying, if you pray, do not worry, and if you are still worrying, you are not done praying yet.
Okay, seventh, Yeshua tells us to pray that we will forgive one another as we also want to be forgiven. Maybe He is saving the hardest one for last.
Luqa (Luke) 11:3-5
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. and do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.”
We have a study on forgiveness on the Nazarene Israel website in Covenant Relationships. If anyone has problems with forgiveness, I recommend reading that. Because the old saying is true, the err is human, and to hold grudges is of the devil. That you forgive your neighbors and also your enemies, that cannot be done under human power, so that is divine.
Thessaloniquim Aleph (1 Thessalonians) 5:15
15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:44
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
So, we cannot do that without His Spirit, that is divine. No way, we cannot do that alone.
So, that is why, in verse 9, Yeshua tells us to ask, seek, knock, because He tells us that the Ephraim-body who asks, receives and Ephraim-body who seeks, He finds. And the Ephraim-body who knocks, it shall be opened, okay?
Luqa (Luke) 11:9
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
But do not just stop with calling, okay? Keep knocking until you get the election. Most people, they stop at the calling, they have received the Spirit, are they walking in it? Not yet. Ouch. Not saying you will not make it to the land, but if you do not correct that attitude, you are not going to like the ride, okay? Just a word to the wise is sufficient.
We know we have the election because we eagerly want to do all we can for our Husband whom we love. We want to do what we can for Him, we want to be His Proverbs 31 bride. We want to serve Him to the utmost of our abilities, thinking of ourselves only as servants, that is it.
Like, “Father, please take me back as one of Your hired workers, as one of Your servants.” And we do not stop for anything less than that. Because if we do, it is not the right Spirit.
So, that is what Yeshua was trying to help us learn was, how to walk in the correct Spirit. What does that look like? What does it look like to walk in the correct Spirit?
So then, a certain woman shouts out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and blessed are the breasts which nursed you!” But Yeshua said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of Elohim and keep it,” meaning to shomer it (or to guard it), like a good shomeranim (good guardians) of the Torah.
Luqa (Luke) 11:27-28
27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”
28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of Elohim and keep it!”
Cannot we tell Yeshua still expects us to hear and obey Yahweh’s voice through our connection with Him; us in Him and Him in us; Him in the Father and the Father in Him? That is supposed to be our connection, it is supposed to be our lifeline, supposed to be our Helper, so we can learn to walk in the Spirit, so we can learn how to help build Yeshua’s true kingdom, so we can get a reward when Yeshua comes.
Yochanan (John) 14:16
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
Because He tells us, His reward is with Him, to give to everyone according to his work.
People are like, “Well, how do I get the Spirit? Really? I got to do all the stuff it says?” How do you solve a problem like Ephraim?
Brothers, sisters, we are to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered for everyone, for all. It is a specific format. We need to do it. Yeshua says, when the Son of Man returns, will He find the faith on the earth?
So, there is lots of people who are believers, but the rewards are to the disciples, enough said. I mean, the point is, like, I do not understand these questions; they blank my mind.
Because it is like, if we are not going to build, if we do not want Yeshua’s Spirit so we can use it to do the same things He is doing, it does not compute. It is like we are asking for Yeshua’s Spirit, so if we have Yeshua’s Spirit we are going to do the same things Yeshua’s Spirit is doing, which is building His kingdom.
He is a Prince, He is going to be a King. He has gone off to receive a kingdom for Himself and return, and He wants His servants to be busy with their minas while He is gone.
Well, what do we want the Spirit for? We want it to build His kingdom, or we want to have the Spirit so we have the power of the Spirit, so we can hear things in the Spirit and use them for ourselves, so we know how to pray more effectively and be able to spend things on our own lusts; to get around keeping his commandments?
What do we want the Spirit for? What do we want it for? Because if we truly love Him, we shall know concerning the doctrine. And His Spirit will be given to us, and we will use it to build Yeshua’s kingdom like He tells us to do.
Thessaloniquim Aleph (1 Thessalonians) 1:6
6 And you became followers of us and of the Master, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Set-apart Spirit,
We explain in our study on Acts chapter 15 Order, and also in our study on Torah Government, if you want a top level approach.
But what if we do not want to build His kingdom; we do not want to give anything back to Yahweh, our time and our money?
What do you need Yeshua’s Spirit for? You do not want to build Yeshua’s kingdom, what do you need His Spirit for? You do not want to make a contribution like Yeshua did. What do you need Yeshua’s Spirit for?
Yochanan (John) 15:5
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Because Yeshua’s Spirit, by definition, is going to lead us to build His kingdom. We have already established in the conversation that certain people do not really want to do that. What reward do they have?
It is true that, if we do not have His Spirit, we are not going to be part of the bride. I mean, that much is, that is pretty clear, right? Do we understand? We have already covered that earlier in this series that we probably will not survive the Tribulation without His Spirit, without doing the things His Spirit will lead us to do.
Tehillim (Psalms) 91:3
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
But if we do not want to help build His kingdom, then what do we want the Spirit for? He did not just hand out His Son’s Spirit to anyone who wants to survive the Tribulation. He only gives His Son Spirit out to those who really want to love His Son and want to help Him build the kingdom that He, Himself sent His Son to build.
Luqa (Luke) 12:11-12
11 “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say.
12 For the Set-apart Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
So, Yahweh commanded Yeshua, gave us instructions, and He has gone off to receive the kingdom for Himself. And when He returns, He wants to know who did what with the money, what we do with the mina.
Well, okay, so when we read Luqa (or Luke) chapter 12, Yeshua continues to train His disciples to focus on Elohim and His kingdom, not on the things of the world. We are going to set ourselves apart from the things of the world, and the lusts of it, and our desires in the flesh, the pride of our lives. We are not going to focus on those, we are going to immerse ourselves, wash ourselves clean, daily, if we have to, to get it to stick.
Okay, yes, I will leave you to read it, but let us take a look at Luke chapter 12 in the context that Yeshua warns us about covetousness in verse 15.
Luqa (Luke) 12:15
15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
And then, in verse 31, He says to seek first our Husband, Yeshua, okay? Seek first our relationship with our Husband, Yeshua. What is He saying? He is saying, seek first the kingdom of Elohim and His righteousness.
Luqa (Luke) 12:31
31 But seek the kingdom of Elohim, and all these things shall be added to you.
In context, that means, seek His level of Torah obedience. How obedient was Yeshua to the Torah? Completely.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of Elohim and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Okay, we are to seek His righteousness, we are going to seek His level of Torah obedience. And if we will do that out of love for Him and a genuine desire to serve Him, then everything else is going to follow.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:20
20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Verse 33, Yeshua tells us not to be greedy, okay? And not to be stupid. Yes, if we want His Spirit, why do we not quit thinking about all the good things that money can buy us, okay?
Luqa (Luke) 12:33
33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
When we enlisted in Yeshua’s spiritual army, in Yahweh’s, His Father, Yahweh’s, spiritual army, the things of the world are not ours anymore, those things belong to the world.
Just like the Levitical Priesthood was to set itself apart from any inheritance in the world. So, we too, in the Melchizedekian Order, are to set ourselves apart from the desires and the defilements of the flesh and of the world.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:16
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Yes, we still need to handle money in the kingdom, but the thing is, the focus is different. It is like, the difference between a good natural medical doctor who loves and cares about his clients, is trying to do his best for them, on the one hand, and a bad natural medical doctor who is just trying to make a lot of money, on the other. That kind of a thing.
I mean, a lot more money changes hands in a marriage than ever changes hands in called normal prostitution. Anyway, we are not talking about the Sabbatean Frankists and their trafficking rings. In time, all wounds heal; those people, they will get theirs. But even those, a lot of money changes hands in a marriage.
The thing is, the marriage is nonetheless set-apart. Because there is supposed to be a commitment and love between the parties before they become intimate. So, if you want to establish a global spiritual government, it takes some operating funds. You cannot run the Levitical Order with nothing; it does not run on air. It cannot be helped.
But if we are hard-hearted towards our Elohim, we are hard-hearted towards our Husband who was the one who gave His Father’s instructions to us, Him as the Prophet, then we do not want to do anything with our time and our money, how are we going to please Elohim when we are still thinking about ourselves as independent, sovereign individuals; sovereign people?
This is a concept for democracy. In the democracy you have power sharing between independent sovereigns and everyone agrees to concede a little bit of power toward the joint goal, but there is no surrendering to Yahweh’s Spirit, there is no surrendering to Yeshua’s Spirit. Democracy is the completely wrong spirit. Mystery Babylon tolerates it; it is compatible with Mystery Babylon, but is not compatible with Yahweh’s word.
So, if we are still thinking about our money, our time, our lives, how are we His slaves? How are we His dedicated servants who were bought with a price?
In verse 34, our husband tells us that, where we put our treasure, that is where our heart is. What that means is, we spend our money on the things we love, right? So, how much of our time and how much of our money are we spending on building Yeshua’s kingdom like He asks?
Luqa (Luke) 12:34
34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
You can tell a lot about a person’s faith by looking at their calendar and by looking at their wallet, okay? Find out where they freely spend their time and find out where they freely spend their money. This can tell you all sorts of things about what kind of person they really are.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 16:26
26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Verse 35, we are supposed to keep our lamps burning for Him, continually, just like the wise virgins.
Luqa (Luke) 12:35
35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
Verse 42, we are told to be ready when our Master comes, just like the wise virgins. I do not know about you, I do not feel ready, I need to prepare.
Luqa (Luke) 12:42
42 And the Master said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?
Okay, verse 48, Yeshua tells us that those who have been given much, they are going to have to account for what they did with it.
Luqa (Luke) 12:48
48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
So, brothers, sisters, what are we doing for Him? What are we doing with our minas? Are we spending them on ourselves? Are we spending them on Yeshua? What are we doing with our lives? What are we doing with our saved lives? That is the meaning behind the mina.
When we get to the judgment, Yahweh is going to take a look at our lives and He is going to ask us what we did with our time and our money, right? Oh, no. Excuse me, He is going to ask us what we did with His time and His money, right? Because we are bought with a price. So, what are our priorities?
Romim (Romans) 2:5-7
5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of Elohim,
6 who “will render to each one according to his deeds”:
7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
We are wanting His Spirit, but are we remembering, always, the day of judgment? Are we remembering that we are going to be held accountable to what everything we have done and everything we have failed to do for Him?
Well, if the Torah is a codification of Yahweh’s, Spirit then is there codification also of what Yeshua is saying, okay? What is the Spirit Yeshua says we need to have?
Yochanan (John) 6:63
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
If we take a look here, Yeshua is teaching us to place Yahweh’s priorities first; first commandment. Place Yahweh-Yeshua’s kingdom, first. First commandment, trust Yahweh for all of our needs and to keep our focus on Him.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of Elohim and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Second commandment, (and people miss this one all the time, okay) He wants us to place our treasures in Him, especially if we consider ourselves part of the priesthood, okay? We are not to have an inheritance in the world, He wants us to place all of our treasures in Him. He wants us not to place our treasures on worldly desires. He does not like it when we are double-minded.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 2:17
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of Elohim abides forever.
We are trying to be set-apart from the world. And we are trying to, but at the same time we are living our lives in the world, and we are trying to be set-apart unto Him, but we are still going off and doing our own thing.
Ya’akov (James) 1:8
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Oh! We are going to the hot springs for fun. Oh! We are going to the beach, going to the coast. What are we doing for Him with our saved lives? That is what the parable of the minas is all about.
And I do not mean to be judgmental, but from what I have seen, most of our brothers and sisters in Ephraim are completely washed up on this point.
I do not mean to sit in judgment of anyone, but when we take a look at dedication, it is like, you can see that the workers are few and the harvest is enormous. Therefore, pray to the Master of the harvest that They send out workers into the harvest.
Luqa (Luke) 10:2
2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Master of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
But if we have eyes to read, is Yeshua not saying that we need to make hearing and obeying Yahweh’s voice, His voice, our tip-top priority in life? Is He not telling us to dwell in Him, abide in Him and Him in us, that should be our number one thing in life; never to be separated from Him?
Yochanan (John) 17:21
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
She tells us to do the whole will of Yahweh and not only parts and pieces, right? He tells us to pray, and ask, and knock, until it is this way with us, until this becomes our second nature.
So, at least to us, the lesson of Parasha and more, is that Yahweh is the same yesterday, today and forever, and Yeshua is the same yesterday, today, and forever, just like His Father is.
Ivrim (Hebrews) 13:8
8 Yeshua Messiah is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So, just as Yahweh was speaking to our forefathers in the past, if He is the same, He is still speaking with us today.
Maybe some of us are a little hard of hearing, we got peanut butter in our ears, maybe? Because we do not value it enough. We are listening to music more than we are listening to the voice of Elohim. We are listening to our own thoughts more than we are listening to the voice of Elohim. Maybe we are listening to the serpent tell us we do not need to obey everything Elohim says. As a case, do we value Him enough?
Because He tells us that this Word is our very life, this is what keeps us alive, is to obey every Word that comes from the mouth of Elohim. What if we do not want to do it?
How are we more Set-apart than our fathers, who were so displeasing that they dropped dead in the wilderness and did not make it into the land? Brothers and sisters, if we want to survive the Tribulation that is coming up, if we want to survive Armageddon, if we want Him to commit to us, do we not need to commit to Him?
Sometime we can talk about the Torah. Scripture (basically) is a program designed to weed out the 99 percent who do not truly make a commitment to Him, who do not truly learn to want to do things His way. I mean, He needs a bride that does not want to do things His way? How do we figure that?
If we are willing, if we have ears to receive it, the Torah is effectively one gigantic bozo filter, okay? His job is to filter out those who do not truly love Him and behave accordingly, okay?
Brothers, if we do not love Him enough to find out what He truly likes, and if we do not love Him enough to change, so that we begin doing what He likes – Hello? – then how do we believe He is going to take us as His bride?
Tehillim (Psalms) 40:8
8 I delight to do Your will, O my Elohim, and Your Torah is within my heart.”
We are not doing the Torah, we are not keeping the Ketubah, we are not obeying the bridal Covenant, because we do not love Him enough or because we do not fear Him enough?
Yochanan (John) 14:15
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Why is He going to take a bride who does not truly love Him enough to do the things He wants her to do? Why would He do that? When you are the King of the universe, you want the wise bride, you do not want the foolish ones.
So, one more thing we should say on this, is that, if we want Yeshua’s Spirit, then do we not need to not quench it?
Thessaloniquim Aleph (1 Thessalonians) 5:19-20
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies.
Well, in Galatim (or Galatians) chapter 5 verse 17, Shaul actually warns us that the flesh and the Spirit are opposites, okay? They are loggerheads, the flesh and the Spirit, that is two opposite things; they are contrary to one another. So, basically, we have to choose one and not the other. So, basically, we need to choose the Spirit and not the flesh.
Galatim (Galatians) 5:17
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
So, we do not get to be double-minded, hopping between two opinions. We do not get to hop back and forth between Set-apart, and living our lives in the world. We do not get to choose between being set-apart, and then we do whatever we want, okay?
There are plenty of Messianic Rabbis, Saturday Night Live book salesmen, prosperity doctrine preachers, passion for whatever percent of the truth teachers, fakers and other ministers. They are going to be happy to steal our crowns, brothers. And most of the Messianic world looks to them like they are heroes. They are not heroes. Are they preaching what Yeshua preached? Are they walking as Yeshua walked? Or are they providing a stumbling block for others?
Well, let us ask ourselves because we hear from people all the time, we get a lot of emails from people saying that we no longer need to set ourselves apart by keeping the commandments of Yahweh. That is not connected to righteousness. In Hebraic thought, righteousness is keeping the commandments of Yahweh.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:25
25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before Yahweh our Elohim, as He has commanded us.’
In Matthew chapter 5 verse 20, righteousness is Torah obedience.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:20
20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Yeshua was Torah obedient unto the death, and this is the example that He, Himself, set for us, as His disciples to strive for. But if there is no longer any need to walk set-apart according to the Spirit, to obey the earlier words of the Spirit, and then you do not understand why you cannot hear the Torah. You are not putting Yahweh first, you are not focusing on Him without fail. You are not turning away from the things of the world. You do not think you need to obey all the points of the Torah, okay?
So, what do you need the Set-apart Spirit for if you are not going to set yourself apart from the world? What do you need the Set-apart Spirit for? It does not make sense, okay?
And, if we do not need to set ourselves apart from the world, then why does Shaul speak about the differences between the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. Or perhaps are some people thinking that it is possible to have Yeshua’s Spirit, but not to have to help contribute toward His kingdom by tithing and volunteering? Because we get this question a lot.
Galatim (Galatians) 5:19, 22-23
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no Torah.
And it is not possible at all, because as we saw back in Yochanan (or John) chapter 14 and verse 15, Yeshua says that first we love Him so much that we willingly keep His commandments. That means we are eager, eager, to keep His commandments, then He will pray to the Father and then that is when the Father will give us Yeshua’s Spirit, which will eventually lead us into all truth.
But the point is, we have to get to that point, we have to bring ourselves to that point where we love, and we decide. Yeshua says right there in the Great Commission, He says that we are to immerse disciples who keep everything Yeshua said to keep. It is like, why is that rare?
Mattityahu (Matthew) 28:19-20
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing [immersing] them in My name,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amein.
Brothers, sisters, why are we, talking less than one percent of Ephraim, want to do what is written in Scripture? What does that say? That speaks to me, it speaks the same thing about what is going to happen to the majority of Ephraim. They do not want to do it. They know what it says, but they do not want to do it. What is Yahweh going to say?
Well, Thessaloniquim Aleph (or First Thessalonians) chapter 4 starting in verse 7, Shaul reminds us that Elohim does not call us to worldliness, He does not call us to uncleanness, He calls us to be in set-apartness, He calls us to be in righteousness.
Thessaloniquim Aleph (1 Thessalonians) 4:7
7 For Elohim did not call us to uncleanness, but in set-apartness.
Verse 8, therefore, he who rejects Yeshua’s kind of set-apartness does not reject man, he rejects Elohim. He is the one who gave us the Set-apart Spirit.
Thessaloniquim Aleph (1 Thessalonians) 4:8
8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but Elohim, who has also given us His Set-apart Spirit.
Are we going to reject the Set-apart Spirit because Yahweh is asking too much; Yeshua is asking too much? That we keep the whole of the Torah, that is asking too much? Even though that is the example Yeshua set? That is asking too much? Are you kidding me?
So, what He is saying here, is the Set-apart Spirit, which we get if we are obedient, is supposed to lead us to live lives of righteousness. Again, in context, righteousness means keeping the commandments, keeping the bridal contract, becoming a righteous bride, obeying our Ketubah that our forefathers swore to at Sinai.
But the thing is, we only get His Spirit by making a 100 percent commitment to Yeshua. We have to impress Him, we have to show Him we are not just talking about it anymore, we are really trying as hard as we can.
So, brothers and sisters, what are we going to choose? If we know this is what Yeshua wants, what are we going to do; what are we, ourselves, going to choose? We need to receive the Spirit so we can focus on Elohim. And Yeshua tells us how to do it, we have to walk in it and not quench it.
So, whatever we have to do, let us read Scripture, not to see what heroes we are, let us read Scripture to see what are the things that we, ourselves, are supposed to be doing to prepare for Yeshua’s soon coming arrival.
Today is the day of salvation.
Shabbat Shalom.