November 2010 - Messianic Israel Alliance

Thanks for making this Year’s
Celebration and Boot Camp
Completely unforgettable!
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November 2010
The Messianic Israel Alliance
HERALD
“I will lift my eyes to the Maker
of the mountains I can’t climb.
I will lift my eyes to the Calmer
of the oceans raging wild.
I will lift my eyes to the Healer
Lebanon, TN 37088
United States of America
Phone:
+1(615) 735-5072
Email:
[email protected]
of the hurt I hold inside.
I will lift my eyes
lift my eyes to You.”
(Lyrics by Bebo Norman & Jason Ingram)
B y J a n e D i f f en d er f er
Just after the Messianic Israel Alliance’s 2010 “To a Thousand Generations” conference these lyrics radiated in my heart and mind. During the night I would wake up hearing
them. They are the lyrics to one of the dances our young ladies did in Maryville. It was
the one song we considered cutting from our list because we were not sure that it fit with
the theme of the event. It was the one song that, when I saw it presented, made me cry out
to the LORD for Him to heal me inside. Moreover, it is the one song that God has used to
confirm His will for our lives – individually and collectively.
Coincidentally, at the same time I heard this song go through my mind, I picked up the
Beth Moore Psalms of Ascent Bible study, titled “Stepping Up,” and flipped to the lesson
on Psalm 121. I read, “I raise my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come
from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Beth Moore explains in the intro of the book that every time “you see references to LORD (all caps), the
Hebrew YHWH emphasized His position as covenant maker and keeper.” As I continued
reading through the Psalm, I was struck with the knowledge that our covenant keeping
God/Elohim is protecting and keeping His covenant people - Israel.
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Covenant
Keeper
“ If our desire is f or His co venant of merc y to cont inue f or a thousand gener at ions,
then we must be a merciful people.”
In Psalm 121, the Hebrew word for protector or keeper is shamar
and it is used over and over again as though Yahweh is emphasizing
a point, drilling it in, so to speak. Your protector does not sleep…the
keeper of Israel does not slumber or sleep…Yahweh is your keeper…Yahweh protects you…He protects your life…Yahweh protects
your coming and going both now and forever. This is good news in
these uncertain times. This is good news when you are praying and
seeking Yahweh for His desire for the upcoming year, especially, in
these turbulent days.
As I was pondering, praying, and studying, I wondered what the
word, “help” means in the verse, “My help comes from Yahweh.”
Looking it up in the concordance I found the Hebrew word is ezer.
This word is found in Psalm 63:7, “Because thou hast been my help,
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice”. The Hebrew
word for “shadow” in this verse is the same word translated in Psalm
121 for “shade”. “Yahweh is your shade above your right hand.”
Yahweh is your shadow above. He is so close His shadow falls on
you when you are walking in a covenanted relationship with Him.
You are dwelling in the shadow of His wings or tallit/ prayer shawl.
Because He is that close He protects you from all harm. Because He
is the covenant KEEPER!
Next Abba led me to the theme verse for the 2010 “To a Thousand
Generations” conference. “Know therefore, that the LORD [Yahweh
– the Covenant Keeper] thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which
keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His
commandments to a thousand generations…” Deut.7:9. Yahweh then
confirmed to me that He desires us to keep His commandments so He
can keep the covenant and mercy He swore to our fathers. Yahweh
made it clear – it is His desire for the Thousand Generations theme
to continue on into next year and beyond as we raise up the next generation of faithful Israelites. He desires that we be merciful people
who teach our children and our children’s children about Him as our
covenant keeper. Oh people of Messianic Israel – do not let anyone
tell you that keeping the Sabbath is only for some Believers and not
essential for others. Abba does not want two peoples, one who obeys
and one who disobeys. Don’t let anyone rob you of your inheritance
purchased for you by the blood of Messiah. Through Messiah we
are brought into the covenant of our father Abraham. Keep His commandments because you love Him, because He has been merciful to
you.
Little did I know, that just after these revelations were given, I
would suffer a horrible accident. Within days I found myself stumbling off a mismatched sidewalk, falling off a retaining wall, and
landing on blacktop on my right side rib cage with 9 broken ribs;
some of them broken twice with a total of 15 fractures and a punctured lung. How did that all relate to what the Father had just shown
me? Riding to the hospital emergency room, I lifted my eyes to the
Maker of the mountains in Asheville, NC and cried for Him to put
His breath back in me and heal the hurt I was literally holding inside.
Prayers were immediately lifted up by our local family and fellowship and then by Believers all around the country as they learned the
news of my accident. The prayers of the saints were effective. When
the emergency doctors saw the X-ray they were shocked at the damage I had internally even though I did not have a bruise anywhere
on my body. Immediately, they sent me to ICU because people in
my condition did not usually breathe on their own. They expected
that I would need further emergency medical procedures through the
night to keep me alive. But God, in His mercy, kept His breath in me.
Thanks to everyone who prayed, because I know your loving prayers
helped sustain me in this trial.
After being sent home, I really struggled as to why God would allow this to happen to me. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was looking forward to a great day in Him when all this happened. I asked,
“Why did you let Satan do this to me?” How could He be my Protector and then let this terrible accident happen? Why? This was my
constant prayer for the first week.
Within a few days He began to answer my question. He sent two
precious sisters in the LORD to come and pray for me and anoint me
with healing oil. One sister had just begun receiving visions from
the Spirit and began drawing what she saw. This was after a 40 year
absence of drawing. At the time of my accident she began to see the
bride of Messiah as depicted in Song of Solomon 2:6 with Yeshua
embracing her. As the visions developed she saw them standing face
to face with His right arm embracing the bride and His left hand
under her head. The embrace was protective with His pierced right
hand defending His bride (His ezer) as though saying “leave her
alone, she is mine.” These visions brought tears of understanding to
my eyes. It was as though Yeshua showed me that He held my head
when I fell and protected me from disability or death. I fell is such a
way that I would recover. Satan was given permission to harm me,
but not kill me.
Because we serve an all knowing and wise God, He can take even
terrible situations that the Enemy means for harm and turn them
around to our benefit. As I was pondering all these things that had
befallen me I hear the words of Job, “Though He slay me, yet I will
trust in Him.” This led me to a deep and thorough study of the book
of Job. Since I was so wounded I couldn’t even hold the weight of
my Bible in my right hand, but thank goodness for technology and
a sweet son who had just given me an iPhone for my birthday the
month before with the Bible loaded on it. I read the book of Job,
forwards and backwards and realized that yes, Job was stricken,
and God allowed it to happen, but a greater good came in the end.
The saddest part is how misunderstood Job was by his friends. The
wounds of their words were deep and piercing to a man who was
struggling to keep his faith in his God through his trial. Job was falsely accused and treated as though he didn’t even know the Almighty.
He was constantly criticized by his friends and they added insult to
his pain. They did not comfort him; they judged him and, in doing
so, misjudged him.
As I began to see how Job was treated, it was as though I felt the
breeches in my ribs represented hurts that I had held inside because
of friends that have left me on the road to Zion. People that have
falsely accused me of being evil, or even worse, accused me of not
even knowing my Savior. Each broken rib was part of the hurt that
I needed Yahweh’s healing in. In my injury, He was answering my
prayer, “Please heal me of the hurt I hold inside.” The only way for
Him to do that was to get me alone, to spend time with Him, so I
could get my eyes on Him. It took an injury to provide that opportunity. I lifted my eyes to Him and He heard me and delivered me.
I remembered the conversations I had over the years with others in
this walk who were wounded along the way by those closest to them.
There are many out there who have had friends and family turn on
them due to their desire to walk as Israel. Perhaps you are one who
has had internal scars from situations with those who once claimed to
love you. I knew my injuries were somehow shared by others. I pray
that my internal healing will be as well. If you have been damaged
along this path, please pray for Abba to enable you to walk in merciful forgiveness towards the people who inflicted the wounds.
As I read the book of Job, I realized that the book is all about
forgiveness. Job’s friends were wrong in their assessment of Job, but
when they repented, Job and God forgave them. Job’s life was better off in the end – after his being stricken and then praying for his
friends – than it was in the beginning. May it be so for all of us who
have suffered from the wounds of our family and fellow Believers
as we have embraced our Bridegroom, Yeshua. May we sense Him
being out defender and saying, “Enough, leave her be.”
How many of us have been wounded by the words of our friends
and family since we have joined the covenant of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? How many breeches have we suffered at the
hands of Believers who have misjudged us and cast us out as evil?
Let us remember Job’s instructions to his friends, “If your soul were
in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake
my head at you. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the
moving of my lips should assuage [lessen and calm] your grief” (Job
16:4-5). Job told his friends that he would be merciful to them if they
were the ones suffering. May we have the strength to do the same in
the days to come.
Let us be keepers and multipliers of the mercy that Yahweh has
given us. May we strengthen the hurting with of the love of Yeshua.
May our words be compassionate and kind, not condemning and critical of others. If our desire is for His covenant of mercy to continue
for a thousand generations, then we must be a merciful people. Our
love for the Father and His people is the impetus for our obedience.
This obedience should be wrapped in mercy if we desire the next
generation to take hold of His covenant. May we be more like Yahweh who is faithful and keeps His covenant and mercy, even through
life’s trials, with those that love Him and keep His commandments…
To a Thousand Generations!