Mark Huey of Outreach Israel Ministries delivers the following message, “Rehearsing the Truths,” as we discuss some of the significant restorations that have been occurring in our day, via the emergence of the Messianic movement.
There is something awesome about God’s infallible Word that is sharper than a two-edged sword, possessing the ability to Divinely separate condemnation from truth, at the deepest soul and spirit level (Hebrews 4:12). Additionally, because the Spirit of God resides in human hearts, when the Word is heard or read, it can confirm the faith of the recipient and inspire greater trust (Romans 10:17). Such was my reaction, a number of years ago, when preparing to teach the new members class at our local Messianic congregation, after reading a series of Scripture passages found in the Messianic Judaism Class workbook (Copenhagen, NY: Olive Press, 2011). The arrangement of Bible verses, confirmed in my heart that what the authors of Holy Writ had compiled millennia ago, has been taking place during the past century, and will continue up until the consummation of the age:
“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4, NASU).
“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21, NASU).
In a profound way, by reading and meditating upon the Scriptural case presented, my faith was not only confirmed and expanded, but I was uniquely reminded of an exercise that I employed years ago labeled, “rehearsing the truths,” because this practice recommended letting the Word of God literally speak for itself! At that time, nearly a quarter of a century ago, after I had been born from above for thirteen years, I was facing some personal challenges. I remember writing this notation in my daily journal:
“Heavenly Father, I have come to know You because of my belief in the atoning blood of Jesus for my sin. Now if I was a Jewish boy, I would be preparing to become ‘bar-mitzvahed’ and ready to become a son of the commandments. But instead of walking in the Spirit and exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), I am despondent over my circumstances. Therefore, please ‘flush my flesh’ in order to draw me closer to you.”
It was a simple, prayerful request, that had profound consequences—because the Father saw my heart, as I gave Him permission to do whatever it took to cleanse and restore my soul. After a few months of sifting with life challenges spinning out of control, the Spirit led me to a Christian friend who counseled me to affirm my identity in the Messiah, by simply “rehearsing the truths.” It was a matter of memorizing a number of verses, primarily in the Apostolic Writings, that described just who I was as a new creature in the blessed Savior, according to His infallible Word. Candidly, it was spiritual warfare, but I was finally using the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), to defend myself from the lies of the enemy of our souls. In a matter of time, as I fought the voices of the Accuser of the brethren with the truth of what God had said about me in the Holy Bible, I overcame the lies by the blood of the Lamb, my testimony, and a love of the Messiah that was superior to the power of death (Revelation 12:11).
The power of the Word of God to reveal the Creator’s plan for His Creation is something to behold, as the truth is read, contemplated, meditated upon, reread, and discerned. In my current preparations to teach the course, I had to review Jewish and Christian history over the past two thousand years. This reevaluation of what has taken place since the resurrection of Yeshua, coupled with the Scriptural justification for the emergence of the Messianic Jewish movement over the past century or so—especially with what has transpired since the 1960s and 1970s—is a compelling argument. In many regards, the Holy One of Israel is simply doing what He said He would do, according to the testimony of many Scriptural references. Our understanding of what God is doing at this point in human history, as I have found, is in complete alignment with His Word.
In addition, I have been moved to write this article about the importance of “rehearsing the truths,” because of an anonymous quotation I read in the early 1990s found in a preface of a book written in 1956 about revival, In the Day of Thy Power by Arthur Wallis. There was this simple statement about the concept of “success” for followers of the Messiah:
Success: If you would make the greatest success of your life, try to discover what God is doing in your time, and fling yourself into the accomplishment of His purpose and will.
For whatever reason, this quotation, in contrast to many of the prosperity gospel messages en vogue during the 1980s and 1990s—which described a different kind of success—had a definite impact on my pursuit of the Holy One. When Margaret and I were ultimately led into the Messianic community of faith twenty years ago, we believe we discovered one of the primary things—the Messianic movement—that God was doing during our lifetimes. Hence, in God’s mysterious way, teaching this class is confirming that the decision we made years ago to devote our lives to the growth and maturation of the Messianic community of faith, was God’s blessing to our family.
The following verses, with some minimal commentary and observations, are, in essence, a way to rehearse some of the truths gleaned from the Holy Scriptures that affirm that the Lord God is in the process of fulfilling His plan for the Creation. A part of that plan, as evidenced by various moves of the Spirit down through the ages, like the Protestant Reformation and various revivals, are summarized in this passage found in the Book of Acts. The Apostle Peter details what is known today as the “restoration of all things,” an essential component of what we see taking place within the Messianic movement at this point in time:
“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (Acts 3:19-21, NASU).
But before these words were shared after the Ascension of the Messiah, Moses had proclaimed these words which forecast not only the scattering of Israel to the nations, but also their return:
“Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the LORD your God. It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life” (Deuteronomy 28:62-66, NASU).
“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:1-6, NASU).
From those prophecies, and many others found in the Tanakh, in the workbook Messianic Judaism Class, its authors then present their argument for today’s Messianic Jewish movement. They first address not only the need for a vision, but that it be reduced to writing so that followers of God’s Spirit can agree to walk together in unity:
“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained [perish, KJV]” (Proverbs 29:18a, NASU).
“Then the LORD answered me and said, ‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:2-3, NASU).
“Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3, NKJV).
So, a vision for the Messianic movement is discerned, written, and agreed upon by those who have been called to walk in it. Much of the vision’s validity and veracity comes from a promise made to Abraham and his seed, which places the fulfillment of the promises upon the Holy One of Israel, and not upon human beings:
“And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3, NASU).
These promises are further affirmed in this passage, which recalls the covenants made to the forefathers of the faith:
“But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them. If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 26:38-45, NASU).
This promise was not only affirmed by the ancient Prophets of Israel, but also the Apostles, given how Paul would assert to the Believers in Rome,
“For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the nations has come in; and in this way all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. AND THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM [Isaiah 59:20-21], WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS’ [Isaiah 27:9; Jeremiah 31:33-34]. As regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but as regards God’s choice, they are beloved for the sake of the patriarchs; for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-29, PME).
Of course, among other places like 2 Corinthians 3:6 and Hebrews 8:8-12, Messiah followers are referenced allusions and quotations from the famed words of Jeremiah, who foretold of a New Covenant, which would offer a permanent forgiveness from sins, and supernaturally transcribe God’s Instruction onto the hearts and minds of His people:
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NASU).
The testimony of the Apostle Peter, at the Jerusalem Council, would affirm how both Jewish Believers and those from the nations, are both redeemed the same way, by the same grace of God: that affirms that both Jew and non-Jew are a part of the New Covenant that Jeremiah refers to earlier:
“And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9, NASU).
There is to be not only an individual witness of Jew and non-Jew believing in Yeshua the Messiah, but also a corporate witness by the formation of unique Messianic assemblies of faith, which will serve as a testimony to the Jewish community and the Christian community of what God is doing:
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:19-25, NASU).
In searching the Scriptures, one discovers that the First Century Jewish Believers, were especially committed to observing the Torah. The Apostle Paul paid for the completion of four Messianic Jewish Believers’ Nazirite vow (cf. Numbers 6:1-21). This would demonstrate that the rumor about him teaching Torah non-observance to Jewish Believers in the Diaspora was false, because introduction of non-Jewish Believers into the assembly did not mean an introduction of pagan idolatry, with Paul being faithful to the Apostolic decree (Acts 15:19-21, 29):
“And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us gladly. And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And after he had greeted them, he was explaining one by one the things which God had done among the nations through his ministry. And when they heard it, they were glorifying God; and they said to him, ‘You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Torah; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the nations apostasy from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore do this that we tell you: We have four men who have a vow upon themselves; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Torah. And concerning those from the nations who have believed, we wrote, giving judgment that they should abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication’” (Acts 21:17-25, NASU).
The Apostle Paul told his disciple Timothy that the then-existing Scriptures, the Tanakh (Old Testament), were God’s words for growing in faith:
“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Messiah Yeshua. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:14-17, NASU).
In the Book of Acts, one discovers that when Paul was given his commission to be apostle to the nations, and the testimony from the Book of Revelation, it is apparent that Yeshua spoke Hebrew (some think Aramaic) and was the Jewish Lamb of God:
“And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me’” (Acts 26:14-18, NASU).
“Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.’ And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne” (Revelation 5:4-7).
The great mystery of the Messiah is that both Jewish people, and those from the nations, are intended to be fellow or joint heirs, members, and partakers of the Messianic promise:
“By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Yeshua through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power” (Ephesians 3:4-7, NASU).
This is a critical component of the Messianic movement, because according to the Apostle Peter, the God of Israel has been building together a spiritual house that consists of all of these “precious living stones,” in order to consolidate His family of faith from a wide variety of human beings from different tribes, tongues, and nations:
“You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua the Messiah. For this is contained in Scripture: ‘BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED’ [Isaiah 28:16]. This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone’ [Psalm 118:22], and, ‘A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE’ [Isaiah 8:14]; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are A CHOSEN RACE [Isaiah 43:20, LXX; Deuteronomy 7:6; 10:15], A royal PRIESTHOOD [Exodus 19:6; Isaiah 61:6], A HOLY NATION [Exodus 19:6], A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION [Isaiah 43:21, LXX; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 4:20; 7:6; 14:2], so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE [Isaiah 43:21], but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY [Hosea 2:23]” (1 Peter 2:5-10, NASU).
This unique chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, is to accomplish God’s tasks for Planet Earth. Non-Jewish Believers in Israel’s Messiah, who are citizens of His Kingdom, have the specific responsibility to provoke Jewish people to jealousy for Messiah faith:
“What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, ‘GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY’ [Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10]. And David says, ‘LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER’ [Psalms 69:22-23; 35:8]. I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous” (Romans 11:7-11, NASU).
There will ultimately be a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, which contends how people from the nations will bring sons and daughters of Israel back to the Promised Land on their shoulders:
“The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; make room for me that I may live here.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am barren, an exile and a wanderer? And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone; from where did these come?’ Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders” (Isaiah 49:20-22, NASU).
However, because some people in the Judeo-Christian spectrum hold to a theology where rigid distinctions need to be maintained, between what God is thought to require of the Jewish people versus what He requires of the nations, for salvation—the Messianic Jewish movement constantly endeavors to dispel those misperceptions. Instead, it is absolutely clear that the only way to the Father is through Yeshua of Nazareth and His completed work. Yeshua Himself declared it to be so:
“‘Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’ Yeshua said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’” (John 14:1-6, NASU).
“For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:34-36, NASU).
Is also abundantly clear, that part of the proclamation of the gospel or good news, is that it must go to the Jewish people, and then to those of the nations:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH [Habakkuk 2:4]’” (Romans 1:16-17, NASU).
The Apostle Paul elaborated to the Romans how ultimately, through the jealousy of Jewish people who recognize that the nations have been receiving the salvation of the Lord and benefitting from the promises originally made to them—there will be a point in time when the Jewish acceptance of Yeshua will evidence literally “life from the dead!”
“But I am speaking to you, the nations. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of nations, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy those who are my own flesh and save some of them. For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:13-15, PME).
Salvation history is steadily moving toward a point when the objective “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26) will be completed, including a massive salvation of Jewish people, the return of Yeshua, and the culmination of the Messianic Age!
Finally, this rehearsal of truths from the Holy Scriptures comes to a conclusion with a recitation of some profound statements made by the Prophet Zechariah, who had a vision of what the end-times are going to entail. This includes not only battles to take place in Israel and in Jerusalem, but that the Lord will destroy all of those which come against Jerusalem:
“The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, ‘Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. In that day,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, “A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the LORD of hosts, their God.” In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem. The LORD also will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah. In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them. And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem’” (Zechariah 12:1-9, NASU).
Ultimately, the horror of war and destruction at the End of this Age will be overcome when the inhabitants of Jerusalem look upon Yeshua the Messiah, whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. It will widely be at this moment, when the promised salvation of all Israel comes to pass:
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity” (Zechariah 12:10-13:1, NASU).
We are eagerly awaiting the future moment, when God’s great mercy in Messiah is poured out upon the house of David, and cleanses it of corporate sin and impurity! What a glorious day that will be!
To have read, to read, and to reread these passages from the Holy Scriptures is one way to rehearse the truths, and be reassured that the path the Holy Spirit has placed you upon is from our Heavenly Father. It is my prayer that as you have read, reread, contemplated, and meditated upon these truths from God’s Word, that you will be inspired to once again fling yourself into the accomplishment of the Holy One’s purposes and will for His people, as the End of the Age approaches. It is a great blessing to know what the Scriptures indicate, and that we of all people have been chosen to become a part of the remnant of saints, those who will exhibit both a faith in or testimony of Yeshua, and obey His commandments (cf. Revelation 12:17; 14:12). Prophetically, such end-time followers of the Messiah will be reminiscent of the First Century Believers, as the “restoration of all things” that the Prophets foresaw comes full circle. In many regards, today’s Messianic movement, a definite move of the Holy Spirit, represents such a group of end-time Believers.
May it be our steadfast aim to see the Messianic community of faith that has emerged in the past fifty years or so, be strengthened and grow mature in its walk of faith, and the awesome responsibility the Holy One has entrusted in us to prepare the people of God for the promised return of Yeshua the Messiah. This can be achieved by rehearsing the truths, through memory and recollection of certain understandings, while also recognizing how the Almighty is accomplishing His will through individual people, who are to be equipping the saints for work of service:
“And He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, to the building up of the body of Messiah; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Messiah, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human trickery, in craftiness with deceitful scheming; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all ways into Him, who is the source, the Messiah, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body to the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16, PME).
May we attain the unity of the faith, by a saving knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature people, aiming toward the fullness of Messiah! After all, this mortal life is merely a dress rehearsal for the future Eternal State, and the time when we all desire to hear from the Lord, “well done, good and faithful servant!”
Advancing His Kingdom through love, until the restoration of all things…
