Inevitably, you will experience the pain of separation as your
relationship with Y'shua deepens. As you learn to love Him by
physically obeying His Commandments, your life will be forever changed.
As you mark the doorposts of your house with His
Name, this mark will cause you to be separated for His purposes.
The tzitzit you now wear will be a sign of the oath you took to follow
after Y'shua by following in His footsteps. As you guard the
Sabbath by resting on His Appointed Day of rest, you will be a
Testimony, a Witness, and a Light to the world that you belong to
Him. As you remember your coming out of Egypt by keeping the Passover
and Spring Feasts - with the Torah being written upon
your heart at Shavuot, your light will shine out to the whole earth. As
you rehearse the yet to be fulfilled Fall Feasts, you will
come under the Chuppah of Messiah and draw close to your Bridegroom whom
you love with your whole heart, mind, and soul.
Walking in the Commandments of YHWH will cause you to grow in maturity.
Your life will exhibit an unearthly wisdom, and you will
experience the hardship and sufferings of the Messiah. You will truly be
set apart, and who you are will be revealed to you. But,
the most glorious reward is that you will find Him, and He will KNOW
you. (Compare with Luke 13:22-30)
As a "Christian", you could get away with being obnoxious in the pursuit
of Evangelism by being labelled the all too familiar, "on
fire for God". Even though you perhaps were a pain in some people's
necks, your stand for "Jesus" was at least respected.
Perhaps people laughed at you because you sported the most Christian
bumper stickers on your car. If you pounced on people
with moral standards or railed against ungodly behaviour, perhaps you
were even called a "Bible-Thumping Evangelical
Fundie". Maybe you were even spit on for preaching the gospel on a
street corner. However, these assaults to your person will
seem but mild for what you will experience as you begin your journey of
walking in the Way (Torah) of YHWH, because now
you are a true foe and adversary to the one who prowls the earth looking
for those he may devour. Mediocre Christianity is a
threat, but a child of the Holy One who keeps the Commandments of YHWH,
and has the testimony of Y'shua is a force
to be reckoned with. (See Revelation 12:17, 14:12, 22:14)
In obedience you will find peace, acceptance into the commonwealth of
Israel, restored health, freedom to live your
life by understanding what is expected of you, joy of celebrating the
Feasts of YHWH, have the Fear of YHWH, understand truly
what it means to LOVE YHWH with your whole heart, mind, and soul, how to
LOVE your neighbour as yourself in real, tangible
and practical ways, and how to stand firm when the prevailing winds of
the Adversary come against you when you stand alone.
You begin to step out and walk in faith by what YHWH has revealed to
you. Your life will become a quiet witness. YHWH will
lead you to keep His Shabbat, to follow the Instructions of life that
apply to you and yours, and draw you to other children of
Israel to meet on those specific times of year that YHWH has set before
us in His Word.
You begin the process of tearing down the idols in your life, and
turning away from as much paganism as the Ruach HaKodesh
reveals to you and grants you mercy to accomplish, for this is indeed
difficult. The process of perfection is two-fold. The Father
draws, and you respond in obedience. You walk not in the paths of men,
but in the works that YHWH created before the
foundations of the earth for you to walk in.
In our initial zeal of Torah observance we may speak boldly to our loved
ones, friends, church friends, and alienate them from
our lives. As the Word opens up to us and we see what is in store for
those still caught up in the Church, we warn with fervour. You
are learning to take YHWH at His Word. You may lack humility in the
beginning, however, YHWH will bend your will to meet His. In
other words, as you preach the prophetic call of Elijah in reconciling
the children of YHWH to Torah, the fire of purification
will touch you first.
Whilst we may have had the luxury of our loved one's grace and
forgiveness before, we may find that our lifestyle change is so
unfamiliar to them that they cannot afford to extend the same tolerances
any longer. Relationships are strained; perhaps you
will be or have been altogether cut off. Friendships dwindle, and for
the first time you find that you are alone. Perhaps your
marriage is on shaky ground because you are confronted as a wife with
"whom do you obey?" Is your husband your Ba'al, or is
YHWH seated on the throne of your heart?
There will arise many difficult issues that bring us to question many of
our former beliefs, attitudes, doctrines. and practices.
There are NO easy answers. You will have to rely on the Ruach HaKodesh
who dwells in you to answer your questions on life.
You must earnestly seek His face, and train yourself to hear His voice
in the midst of many. At this realization, YHWH leads
you into the great Wilderness. This Wilderness time will set you apart.
It is a time of acute loneliness and heart-wrenching
realizations. But, as you choose LIFE, YHWH will reveal His secrets to
you. These secrets are not found through any type
of occult means, but through the diligent study of His Word, through
prayer, obedience to His Instructions, and humility
that comes through trials and tribulations. They are not revealed to the
arrogant, or to the foolish (those who do not
walk in the Way of YHWH). The Scriptures will come to life and nourish
your spirit and restore your soul.
However, these secrets will come with a price in that you must first
undergo the revealing of sin and searching out the leaven of
your life through the refining fire, which comes by the mouth of Y'shua
HaMashiach.
As you draw close to YHWH-
*You will be scorched so deeply that you may feel like death, only to
have a restored heart imprinted with the Law of YHWH written
upon it. The scales will fall from your eyes, your ears will be opened,
and the wax will melt from your heart. Then you will be
able to Hear and Do!
*You will learn of the Master; humility, and you will learn meekness.
The refining fire will perfect you to a fully mature and
complete man or woman of YHWH. When the Wilderness journey is finished,
you will be released to serve YHWH as He has created
you to serve Him.
*You will be a priest of the order of Melketsedek; ministering in the
reconciliation and restoring of the children of Israel to their Elohim.
*You will grow in long-suffering, patience, love, kindness, gentleness,
self-control, goodness, etc.
What began as "Waving your freak flag for Y'shua" will end with a life
that has been so beautifully refined that you will truly be the
image of the One who bought you.You will be like Y'shua the Messiah;
Your Master and Bridegroom.
These few pages are examples of my life. I have at times been arrogant,
stupid, foolish, and horribly naïve. I have slaughtered
myself with blame, guilt, and remorse in the way that I have tried to
witness to members of my family who are Christians. I have
pleaded with them, begged them, sometimes with tears because now I KNOW
what it means to choose LIFE. But they do not
listen. They mock and ridicule me, which I have taken quite personally
to the point of depression and despair. I thought I had
been cut off from my family because of something I had said wrong, or
had spoken arrogantly. I realize now, this is all part of
YHWH's plan.
It wasn't until I reread a Scripture that forced me to realize that YHWH
was aligning my heart with His. I was taught in the Church
that if you LOVE, then people would come to the Gospel. I was admonished
continually not to "judge", but to cover over sin with
forgiveness. This is where my guilt interfered with speaking truth.
However, Y'shua gives a far different admonishment. And this is what we
must grasp, or we will be eaten alive by the falsehood
and accusations that will fly from the mind of our Adversary and out of
the mouths of our loved ones. Y'shua said in Luke 14:26 "...If anyone
comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My
disciple..." and also, "Matthew 10:34-37 "Do not think that I came to
bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I
have come to alienate a man from his father, a daughter against her
mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And a
man's foes will be those of his own household. 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."
The closer I drew to YHWH, the more I wanted to obey Him out of my
intense desire to please Him. My faith was no longer one of
constantly searching for "new" ways to pray, meditate, or follow yet
another formula to bring heaven down for another spiritual
experience. I didn't need to attend a "deliverance" meeting, pay anyone
for YHWH's blessing, or seek out some celebrity guru to
give me a spiritual purpose for my life. How we are to approach YHWH,
pray, and seek Him has always been hidden in plain view.
Kept back from religious man, but there for the humble child who comes
to the throne of YHWH on His terms!
I realize now that He has used (and is using this very moment), the pain
and agony of my family, including my own children, who I
prayed over for 20+ years and homeschooled, as a catalyst to draw me out
and separated unto Him. My life has become one of
clinging (trusting) to YHWH every moment of every day. (And I am not
great at consistently doing this!!!) I am separated 7,000
miles from my family as a physical picture of how my life has
transformed spiritually.
My desire is to encourage you, if you are suffering with the pain of
separation to know that you also are being Called Out, to be
SEPARATE. We can find joy in the midst of our afflictions! If that means
physically separated, then so be it. If alienated from
extended family, friends, church friends, etc., then so be it. It may
only be for a time. This time of affliction isn't so much about
them, but about YOU and your walk with your Beloved.
But know this: that you are greatly loved and were chosen for such a
time as this because troubling times are coming. Those
whom we love will need us at some future time, and we will be prepared
to comfort, to nurture, to instruct, to guide, to
encourage, to admonish, to love, to teach, to heal, to restore.all of
those "one another's" that the Brit Chadasha speak of in order
to bring them into the Ark of Protection when the great Tribulation
comes upon us so that we may endure to the end and
see Y'shua, Our Messiah coming in the clouds. The tears you weep now
will salt the pallet of those who will come to
drink of Messiah's Living Water; because through your pain, you will
shine forth the image of Y'shua.
Be strong, I love you my brethren, and I stand with you!
AUTHOR UNKNOWN!
