Working Dates: Tuesday, August 15, 2017 to Sunday, August 20, 2017
[27 pages]
Traci Blackmon: The story matters. And choosing to work toward liberation of any kind requires a commitment to support the narrative of the ones who own the story. The role of the ally is not to lead or to fix. The ally holds the story and amplifies the voice of the storyteller.
Brat: Holy God! Thank You for the encouragement and the reminder that the story matters. I needed to hear that today. I am an ally and I do my best to try and amplify Your voice in the words of our story. And yet every day there is so little engagement from Your people. I love what Traci Blackmon said, “The role of the ally is not to lead or to fix.” Sanctuary, God! Please!
Kaji Douša: Prayer
Maybe we think, O God, that you are sleeping away our salvation. Thank you for sending Jesus to show us better. Amen.
Anna Blake: Dreamhorse.com. To our kind, it’s like a shameless social group where they don’t check your income or marital status.
Yisroel Susskind, Ph.D.: I advise clients to take the time to actively engage in positive daydreams about their marriage. Certainly, it is helpful for my clients to tell me about the positive (and not only the negative) aspects of their marriage. I think that anyone who is helping a couple should ask each spouse to talk about the good things in the marriage, whether from the distant past, or the present. Nonetheless, it is even more powerful for them to create visual images. For clients who have a good marriage, this activity should only enhance the marriage.
Brat prayer (in “Recovering” 13 Aug 17): Help me to lay down what images are not of You. The Funny Bunnies assume the Church I imagine is all made up of religious Pharisees. But my heart sees a whole Church that is beautiful and still has her stained glass windows. She’s cleaned up her insides, which are now reflected on the outsides. It’s probably not here yet, but that’s what I see. Matthew 23 and the Woes to the Pharisees are cleaned up in the version I see in my heart. I don’t think it’s a fantasy. I think that’s the Church You first showed me before they revealed themselves and tried to cover up their shame.
Helen Calder: The seer gift is a prophetic gift and its main focus is on seeing and declaring God’s intended outcome.
Wanda Alger: Through a dream, the Lord is issuing a call to intercessors to stand in the gap for PASTORS in this hour. For there is confusion in the air and an attempt to derail those who have been called and set apart to lead the Body of Christ. It is a time of decision and a time of advance and believers are being called upon to pray for those with the Father’s heart.
Foursquare Church: God Raised the Dead Through Prayer
Yisroel Susskind, Ph.D.: So, in therapy I encourage them to do so, much as a physical therapist encourages a patient to move a painful, damaged limb. “What would you like your marriage to look like?” If you can at least imagine or remember a positive interaction with your spouse, you can generate a longing for improvement, a desire to create good will, and a possible plan of action that might convey a positive feeling to your spouse. Once a couple are so swallowed up by conflict that they cannot experience mutual good will, even in fantasy, there is no energy for positive movement.
Yehezkel Laing: How Are Sistine Chapel and Jewish Temple Connected? You’ll Be Shocked
Brat (in “Missing You” 12 Aug 17): I miss the beauty. I miss getting lost in staring at Your Eternal Flame. I miss the sun coming through the stained glass windows. I miss the sacred embroidery on the kneeling cushions around the communion rail. My head knows that You are not confined to a building, so why this trip down memory lane?
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: (An entire school of psychology – Gestalt therapy – is based on what we perceive as “foreground” and “background.” Sometimes by shifting our perception, we become aware of very important things that were previously only in the “background,” and that can change our lives.)
Anna Blake: No, I’m not looking for a horse. None of my clients are either. Still, I leer. I ogle, tilting my head to the side as my eyes devour photos of sleek horses for sale in other states. And then I pour over the descriptions. Some sound as if they were written by a used-car salesman and some by horse-crazy girls. They are equally reliable. I know better than to take the words literally: Bombproof. Sixteen hands. Schooling fourth level. And the one that makes me go mushy… Needs experienced rider.
Mark D. White: The words He shared with me were about the seasons that will defy logic. That people will experience the undeniable, the undefiable, the unrestrainable and the unexplainable power of God. He spoke these words to me: “The spontaneous move of God is coming.” This will happen even though there is not enough consistent corporate prayer, not enough hunger yet throughout the Church!
Lana Vawser: There is a whole new realm of revelation and supernatural insight opening up to the prophets and they are leading My people into this new level of revelation, strategy and insight of the words of My heart, but the fire must fall upon the prophets before it can be released into the Church. This is a groundbreaking season. This is a season where I am doing something completely new, My Spirit is going to be poured out in ways that no eye has ever seen, nor has ear ever heard, and in preparation for what I am pouring out, room must be made for the new. In My fire that has been released upon the prophets and the prophetic movement, I am RESTORING the revelation and manifestation of living in awe of Me upon the prophets and the Church. Like Isaiah when he had an encounter with Me in My Glory, and he was face down before Me as He saw Me in reverence and awe, I am bringing My prophets into greater encounters like Isaiah, to restore the awe and reverence in places where it has been lost.
Anna Blake: Writing a horse ad is only a temporary silly distraction but who doesn’t need that? Some of us tell the brutal truth and some of us flatter ourselves. (You wouldn’t be the first filly to fudge your stats.) How would your Dreamhorse ad read? At the very least, tell us your registered name.
Monk: But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” (Gen 32:29)
Brat (17 Aug 17): Help Wanted: Holy God, just as You sent Michael to help out Gabriel, so I ask for help, too. We are not in competition with each other. Make room. Make mercy. Thank You in advance for what You will do. I worship You, Jesus.
Susan Michael, ICEJ US Director: Esteem for the Jews, however, can sometimes go too far, putting them on a pedestal and expecting them to be more holy, righteous, or superior than the rest of us. Some Christians have such a romanticized view of Israel they almost expect to see angels on every street corner!
Rabbi YY Jacobson: The answer, said Reb Refael, is this. If G-d wants to tell you not to touch a Jewish child, sending an angel will suffice. But if He wants you to “slaughter” another Jew, an angel can’t suffice! G-d Himself needs to come and tell you to do it. If you are going to “slaughter” another Jew, make sure you hear it from G-d Himself.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: He still loves you and knows you love him so don’t feel guilty.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: May it be that one result will be that as we fulfill G‑d’s dream of our living in marital harmony, He will fulfill our dream, and bring the Redemption, where we are promised that we will see “the world filled with the knowledge of G‑d.”
Rabbi YY Jacobson: To let Isaac live, the instruction could be communicated via an angel. To let Isaac die, G-d needed to show up Himself.
Mark DeJesus: It’s easy to cover up mistakes or insecurities with “God told me.”
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Those sisters with rulers certainly got it into the heads of the young Catholics that missing Mass was a mortal sin.
Mark DeJesus: The concept of spiritual fathering can become distorted in this. Leadership is driven to use force, intimidation or manipulation to make things happen.
Anna Blake: Registered name: Shez Gotta Doit Herway Barn Name: Anna
Lori Suiter: We need to be open to moving in different ways, because what comes naturally is not going to be the way we need to move in this season.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: If it is valid to say that doctrine develops through debate, then the critics of innovation should have their say. They should do so from a position of expertise and authority and should do so respectfully, but if sometimes those critics are media loudmouths, naive newbies or conservative converts, well that’s part of the hurly burly too.
Mark DeJesus: There is little emphasis on working through issues, so people either quietly leave or sit in silent submission with no personal engagement. Instead of empowering the people, they become conditioned to just go with whatever is happening.
Wanda Alger: I believe this is a tool for us personally, as well as corporately. As we are being confronted with a spirit of MOCKERY in this nation, the sound of our JOY and our PRAISES can be powerful in dismantling the attempts of the Accuser to defeat us. Regardless of the mocking voices in media, news, and print, we can lift up a sound of joy and victory knowing that the battle has already been won. When we respond in the spirit like this, the enemy cannot touch us nor can he ever defeat us. Maybe THIS is that SOUND that is being prophesied over the body of Christ in recent days. It is the sound of Joy, Victory, and Praise from sons and daughters who know their King. It is the sound of laughter from his kids who are caught up in His presence rather than the enemy’s pressure.
Yehezkel Laing: According to Rabbi Blech, the changes were motivated by a desire to co-opt Jewish concepts.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: Or to put it more poignantly and humorously, the sages, it seems, by imposing this second meaning are “violating” the very injunction they are trying to convey. They take a simple word in the verse and they “splinter” its meaning to connote divergent interpretations that seem to lack any common streak?
Wanda Alger: I had been processing a situation with a spiritual advisor who began to prod me for further information as to my intentions and motives within a certain relationship. Though he was simply asking for clarity, I began to feel a pressure come upon me as I started to feel cornered and trapped. I began to doubt myself and wonder if maybe I had done something wrong. It was a familiar feeling to me as I had similar experiences in my past where I felt hemmed in and caught in a trap that sought to disqualify me with accusations of wrong-doing. I began to feel those same fears of being caught in doing something displeasing to the Lord. I was so preoccupied by this sudden onslaught of confusion I couldn’t even hear what my advisor was saying until I heard him ask, “So, what do you think the Lord would say about that?”
Kaji Douša: But the Gospel tells us that Jesus slept.
Nate Johnston: There is a sound of awakening that is echoing throughout the earth that is hard to ignore. Like the days of John the Baptist the church are in discovery of their inheritance and are leaving the milk behind and hungrily taking it by force. Heaven is being accessed by sons and daughters that have awoken to the rumbling and shaking of an earth that is crying out for them to be revealed and step into their rightful place. No more will we be the powerless, the defenseless, the broken and battered, the confused and conflicted, the apathetic and complacent, the disunited and scattered. NO! We are sons and daughters of a loving Father, a pure and healthy bride, and we are powerful, and in this hour we arise from the ruins of the wilderness saying “WE ARE HERE, AND THIS IS OUR TIME!” The earth will never be the same because the Kingdom of Heaven is here in US! Revival has come! We are the movement, we are the gates and doors and we say KING OF GLORY COME!!
Lana Vawser: In My fire that I am releasing upon the prophetic movement, those that embrace the fire will move to a whole new level of divine strategy, revelation, insight, wisdom and weightiness in the words that I entrust them with to release and equip My Church with and the nations of the world. A complacency has entered many hearts regarding the words of My heart. There has been a loss of value of the weightiness of My Word that I am releasing to the prophets in this season as the enemy attempts to cause them to fall into these areas of striving and competition. I am shifting gears in the prophetic movement. I am changing the guards.
Christy Johnston: The enemy’s intentions were to silence these daughters, but God has used satan’s very weapons against him. The Father is turning their season of anguish and lies into a FIERCE SOUND of His power and truth surging through them. The enemy’s attempts to silence them have only made their voices LOUDER. Their voices proclaim the name of Jesus as they lift up their battle cries and decree JUSTICE to injustice, TRUTH to lies and FREEDOM to the captives. These daughters are arising with a voice of awakening and they are calling countless others out of the trenches of darkness.
Yehezkel Laing: Another feature matching that of the Jewish Temple is the double level construction. The Western half of the Sistine Chapel, containing the altar and the private area for the Pope and his court, is some six inches higher than the Eastern half. This elevated section corresponds to the Jewish Temple’s Kodesh HaKodashim, the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest could enter, only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: This is a prohibition against the Jewish people becoming divided. Practically, this is a prohibition against one Jewish court dividing into two and guiding the community in a conflicting fashion, [3] [1] creating division and conflict. [4] [2]
Mark DeJesus: You can see this when there is little appreciation for other churches or ministries. There is a sense that “we have the revelation on this and no one else does. We are the ones who get this.”
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Then once they take responsibility for themselves they might start taking responsibility for the happiness of others.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: When we do this, i.e. when we pass the test, the test disappears – its purpose having been served – and our formerly deep, hidden connection with G‑d becomes our normative consciousness.
Richard L. Floyd: And this dynamic is something that I firmly believe is an important part of what the church is, a kind of laboratory of love. Too often we betray this aspect when we look for our congregations to be homogeneous enclaves of the like-minded.
Mark DeJesus: Because the emphasis is often on how things look, there can be a legalistic pressure on sin, sanctification and holiness. People are taught in such a way that they always feel they have to do better, perform better or work to be good enough.
Yehezkel Laing: “The motive for basing elements of the Sistine Chapel on Solomon’s Temple is the Replacement Theory which is basic Catholic doctrine,” the rabbi told Breaking Israel News.
Revelation 17: 18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”
Rick Joyner: This was not just about attacking a ritual of communion, but the doctrine behind this ritual changed from what was originally intended. In the doctrine of the sacrifice of the mass, Jesus only died for Adam’s sin. For the remission of personal sin, a believer had to go to a priest who would “offer Christ again” for their personal sins. This is why they taught that the bread and wine of communion was miraculously changed into the literal body and blood of the Lord. This made a human priest the mediator, even though Scripture says that there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (see I Timothy 2:5). As we are also told in Hebrews 9:28, Christ was “offered once for all….”
Fr Dwight Longenecker: However, one of the troublesome things about hearing confessions is how many older Catholics seem to think this is the only sin, and they do not seem able or willing to make the distinction between missing Mass and skipping Mass.
Joyce Meyer: Now, when I say “religion,” I’m not talking about going to church; it’s important for us to go to good churches where the Word of God is taught and we can grow spiritually. I’m talking about a performance mentality that says it’s what we do that determines whether God approves of us or not.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: Do You Ever “Slaughter” Another Jew?
BIN Promotions: They Slaughter. We Must Affirm Life!
Rabbi Refael Hakohen Katz: There is a famous question on the story of the Akeida, the binding of Isaac, in Genesis. G-d instructs Abraham to bring up his son Isaac as an offering. Abraham complies. At the last moment, as he is about to slaughter Isaac, The Torah states: “And a heavenly angel of G-d called out to him, and said: Abraham! Abraham!… And he said: ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, nor do anything to him.” At the last moment, Isaac is saved.
Richard L. Floyd: Try a little experiment. Next time you are in coffee hour don’t migrate to a person you love and delight in. Pick out someone who rubs you the wrong way and start a conversation. It might be “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Joyce Meyer: A religious attitude says, “If I just pray more or read the Bible more or do more good things or go to church on a regular basis, then God will be happy with me.” It gets us on a treadmill of feeling obligated to do certain things to please God.
Rick Joyner: As we covered, the Reformers saw any attack on the cross, or any dilution of the message of the cross, as being the work of the antichrist. This was because of the centrality of the cross in the doctrine of salvation through the cross of Jesus alone. Most Reformers viewed “the sacrifice of the mass” as “the abomination of desolation”—or “the abomination that desolates”—because it was the most fundamental attack on the cross of Jesus in the life of the church and individual believers.
Yehezkel Laing: “They believe they are the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that after Jesus, God rejected the Jews and chose them.
Brat: Today the Church is silent.
Mark DeJesus: There is either no accountability structure, or the one that is in place is a small huddle where there is no collaboration or council on issues. There is little room for healthy debate and reasonable discussion over issues.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: He says converts are often troubled by the development of doctrine, and shrewdly points out that the way doctrine develops is not only through quiet, scholarly discussion and prayerful times of discernment, but through theological brawling, the fisticuffs of the faith. I agree.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): It is also possible that he will be sent to one of the nations of the world, or to the inhabitants of a particular city or kingdom, to prepare them and to inform them what they should do or to prevent them [from continuing] the evil which they are doing.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Catholics should be able to get to another Mass somewhere in town though. Very few people have to work from mid afternoon on Saturday right through to early evening on Sunday. But if you do get into that situation your pastor should be able to give you a dispensation from your Mass obligation, and if you want to be with the Lord but just can’t get there for reasons beyond your control.
Yehezkel Laing: “As part of this theory, they wanted to replace Jerusalem with Rome and so they ‘sanctified’ Rome by appropriating elements from Jerusalem.”
Fr Dwight Longenecker: He [David Mills] makes a good point that it is one thing to convert to Catholicism and another thing to really see the world as Catholics see it.
Yehezkel Laing: Aug. 16 Editor’s Note: Replacement Theology, while present in some Catholic teachings, is not part of the Church’s official views. In 1965, Pope Paul VI published the Nostra Aetae, a seminal document disavowing many anti-Jewish aspects of Catholic doctrine.
ICEJ USA: Have you sent Jerusalem congratulations?
Brat: Congratulations, O Jerusalem!
Revelation 15:4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Pastor John Tolle: To get along with people the King has to be in charge. You can claim Christ and your righteousness all you want, but too many remain silent. For evil to triumph, it takes men to do nothing. Be gracious, not growling. Confront injustice in a just way. We tend to justify our behavior even when it’s not right.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: Sometimes we get in to fights with people over idealistic reasons. We “slaughter” people-with our words or actions-and we feel that we are acting on behalf of an angel. We feel angelic about our actions.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): Instead, his mind should constantly be directed upward, bound beneath [G‑d’s] throne [of Glory, striving] to comprehend the holy and pure forms and gazing at the wisdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, in its entirety, [in its manifold manifestations] from the most elevated [spiritual] form until the navel of the earth, appreciating His greatness from them.
Richard L. Floyd: Prayer
We pray, O God, for your unifying Spirit, that we may all flourish in your great laboratory of love, the church.
Pastor Mike Storti: It is written – “Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” – (Is.66:1). The Lord is the King of heaven and the earth that He created. Heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool of His throne and His Son will rule over the whole earth forever and ever – (Rev.11:15). Solomon’s throne was a type of God’s throne – “And there were six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold…” – (2 Chr.9:18). When Christ shall “sit upon the throne of his glory” – (Mt.25:31), then we which have been saved by Him will have the great privilege of climbing those steps to bow down before Him and kiss His ‘feet’ that were pierced for our salvation. “…How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace…” – (Rom.10:15). We have believed His words – “Order my steps in thy Word…” – (Ps.119:133). “…because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” – (I Pet.2:21). We have followed His steps and we shall share in His glory and be kings and priests on the earth. Christ’s throne at the top of six steps show Him as “the high and lofty One” whom God has “highly exalted.” World peace started with the ‘feet’ of Christ – peace with God.[3]
Splintered
Kaji Douša: So if rest is so holy and if God has rested since the dawn of Creation, then why do I have such a hard time letting Jesus sleep?
Lori Suiter: That’s more than just for me, that’s for everybody right now…
Rabbi YY Jacobson: But that is exactly what we are doing when we allow our people to become splintered. The entire Jewish nation is essentially one single organism. [11] [4] We may number 15 million people, and come from different walks of life, profess extremely different opinions, and behave in opposite ways, but we are essentially like one “super organism.” When I cut off a certain Jew from my life, when I cut myself off from a certain Jewish community, I am in truth cutting off part of my own flesh.
Mark DeJesus: I find that the majority of Christians who have served God for a long enough time have, at some point, been a part of a spiritually toxic environment. Yet I rarely see people walking through any kind of process to heal from those harmful situations. The best that is offered is “the past is the past” or “get over it.” Meanwhile, believers left and right are walking around with spiritual and emotional lacerations that they don’t know how to heal.
Lana Vawser: God is about to shock His people in the most glorious ways about how He speaks in this season. The falsities are falling off. The false ties are being broken. A whole new world of experiencing the way He speaks and the supernatural language of God is going to be awakened, understood in greater ways, and activated in the Body of Christ in ways we have never seen before.
Yisroel Susskind, Ph.D.: Gottman presents a second way in which a couple’s dreams and daydreams enrich and stabilize the marriage. “The happy couple understands that helping each other realize their dreams in one of the goals of marriage.”(Ibid, p.220) That is, a marriage can go deeper than even one in which the couple love each other and are successful at their joint tasks (such as childrearing and livelihood). This profound level is attained when they know and support each other’s dreams, each other’s sense of the meaning of their life.
Brat (in “Recovering” 13 Aug 17): I suppose that every marriage goes through this. We can’t ever go back. But You, God, can bring the fullness of Your kingdom into our relationship now, and make it even moreso than it was. Would You come please? I long and yearn for You so deeply that it hurts. My soul aches for You. And it’s not like we don’t talk everyday. I think our relationship is sound and grounded. It’s just that back then I saw a fuller version of You before all hell broke loose. I saw the best of You even though I was in a dark and tormented church.
Yisroel Susskind, Ph.D.: I suggest you take the time to engage in such positive “daydreams”; enjoy immersing yourself in them and watch for results. This simple act does not suddenly wash away all of the pain in the relationship, but it does “give peace a chance.”
Elijah List: Dreams are Crucial, but so are the Watchmen
Anna Blake: First, I get a glass of wine –a thick Cabernet that practically stains my teeth. And some chocolate with almonds because I know where this is going and I’ll need some energy in a while. Then I push back in my reclining office chair, put my feet up, and pull the hood of my sweatshirt forward until it nearly covers my eyes. In the dim light, the glow of my computer is as welcoming as a campfire.
John A. Nelson: I wonder if a conversation with the people Isaiah dismissed might have gone like the conversation between a priest and a friend’s teenaged daughter. He questioned whether she had a sufficient understanding of communion. She thought for a moment, then pointed to a crucifix. “That looks like Jesus, but it isn’t,” she said. Then pointing to the bread and cup she said, “That doesn’t look like Jesus, but it is.”
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: Similarly, says Shem miShmuel, we know that the date of the coming of the Mashiach is plainly written in the Torah, and yet we can’t find it. According to the Zohar, in the future we will see it clearly in the Torah, even though presently it is hidden from our eyesight. It seems that if we don’t want something badly enough, even though it might be in front of our eyes, we can’t see it.
Martin B. Copenhaver: I suppose it is handy to have a minister in the family when a frog needs a funeral, but in this case I was more member of the congregation than officiant. And I was struck by how wonderful it is to be part of a family, the church, that shows us from the earliest age how to respond to the awesome presence of death.
Revelation 16:13 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
[From “Anchored in Christ” 14 Aug 2010]: The sixth angel pours out his bowl on the great river Euphrates [the birthplace of creation], and its water [figuratively] dries up to prepare the way for the kings of the East (Rev 16:12). Negotiations began in the Middle East. This did start happening in the 1970’s. John sees three evil spirits [lies, deception, and illusion] that look like frogs. They come out of the mouth of the dragon [Satan], out of the mouth of the beast [obsession, arrogance, fear, anxiety], and the false prophet [mass media] (v 13) perpetuating the lies, deception and illusions, and feeding the obsessions, arrogance, fears, and anxieties. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty (v 14). 15“Behold, I come like a thief! [Surprise!] Blessed is he who stays awake [alert] and keeps his clothes with him [faithful], so that he may not go naked [discovered] and be shamefully exposed [embarrassed].”
Mark DeJesus: A church is safe when it knows how to deal with problems effectively with love, grace and truth all in play. In a spiritually abusive environment, people are often demonized in embarrassing ways. Relationships are not protected and betrayal takes place.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman: Rabbi Adler explained that how a Jewish person looks, behaves and carries himself in front of non-Jews can push the nations closer or farther from Hashem (God) and his teachings.
John A. Nelson: The priest, to his credit, rapidly adjusted his assessment of the young woman and invited her to receive the sacrament.
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: Community of His friendship: We are the community of the Spirit, friends of notorious sinners like the one who sent us. The Community of the Spirit that brings the shalom of God, the kingdom of God. Because the kingdom is not meat or drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Our presence convicts (convinces) the world of righteousness, sin and judgment. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen 2 Cor. 13:14 NKJV
Mark D. White: Spontaneous prayer will take place in public places, the power of prayer will hit those of the blood-bought Church, and the overwhelming presence of God will move and the people will plead for knowledge of the living God! The power display is not what we RELEASE, but what we EXPERIENCE.
Nathan Shaw: Don’t underestimate the power of one strategic connection. Strategic connections can open unexpected doors of opportunity. The residents of Jericho, Samaria and Decapolis were all beyond Israel’s direct influence. In each case, one strategic connection impacted many lives. Strategic connections can bring protection, just ask Rahab and the two spies. Strategic connections can also meet deep heart needs. The Samaritan woman had had five husbands. Her story was one of brokenness and pain. She had a need to be seen, heard and acknowledged.
Quinn G. Caldwell (in “Go Get Her” 10 Aug 17): You could claim that it connects nothing, serves no purpose, helps no one. But it’s hard to look at it without being reminded forcefully of how weird humans are, how feckless and fickle not only we, but our institutions are, too. So while Jacob’s ladder connects heaven and earth, and your ladder connects the front yard to the porch roof, maybe The Immovable Ladder is there to connect us to our own brokenness. Maybe it’s there to remind you of just how foolish you can be, and how trapped you can become.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): For example, the ladder with the angels ascending and descending envisioned by the patriarch Jacob was an allegory for the empires and their subjugation [of his descendants]. Similarly, the creatures Ezekiel saw, the boiling pot and the rod from an almond tree envisioned by Jeremiah, the scroll Ezekiel saw, and the measure seen by Zechariah [were all metaphoric images].
Ezekiel 24:24 Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.’
Yehezkel Laing: As detailed in the Book of Kings, the measurements of the Heichal, the inner sanctuary of the Temple, are 40.9 meters (134 ft) long, by 13.4 meters (44 ft) wide and 20.7 meters (68 ft) high. These are the exact dimensions of the Sistine Chapel.
Rick Joyner: What does it mean to measure [Revelation 11:1-2] the cross, the temple, or the people who worship in it? Measuring in biblical prophecies is usually more than just getting the dimensions—it is also an evaluation of quality and success in relation to its purpose. This implies that the leadership of the church, which John represents here, were given a rod, or authority, for measuring the church, those who worship in it, and the cross. How would this be fulfilled?
[In “Anchored in Christ” 14 Aug 2010]: In Revelation 11 the message shifts again from a societal perspective in Chapters 8 and 9 back to the Church. On the surface, this chapter appears to make a random switch to measuring God’s temple and His people. It’s actually not random. He’s “sizing up” His people—His children, not those in the “outer court,” those who are the unbelievers. This is a spiritual assessment of His own kids. “Go and measure the temple of God [the Church] and the altar [the heart], and count the worshipers there. 2But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles [the unbelievers]. They will trample on the holy city [the heart where believers live] for 42 months [a relatively short period of time].”
Patheos Catholic: The Ugliness of Charlottesville Exposed
Rick Joyner: Next week we will address what it means to “measure the temple.”
Brat: As Pastor John Tolle quoted: “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.”
Mark DeJesus: I have also found that when a church does nothing about a problem it should address, that passivity can be incredibly damaging to the church culture.
Kaji Douša: Could it be because there’s always a storm raging somewhere? Could it be that I worry that God will sleep through my own storms and ignore my pleas for help? Might it be all well and good that God rests, but what about when the “waves sweep over” my boat and I fear it will pitch over and take me under? God can rest except when I need my rescue, I feel.
MAGEN DAVID ADOM, Israel’s national Red Cross society: Israel must be prepared for an impending attack while there is still time. Bullets and rockets are already being fired — WE CANNOT DELAY!
Yehezkel Laing: In the Jewish Temple, the Paroket was the curtain separating the rest of the Temple from the Holy of Holies. Correspondingly, the Sistine Chapel features a huge white marble partition grill in a parallel location with seven marble flames on top, mirroring to the seven-branched menorah (which ancient legend suggests is hidden in the Vatican today), or candelabra, that glorified the Jewish sanctuary in Biblical times.
Revelation 1: 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: If doctrine develops through theological pie fights, conservative converts have pies to throw too.
They’ll probably have bad aim, so you’d better duck!
Anna Blake: Comes with two donkeys. And a goat. Some ducks that quit laying. A few dogs and some useless cats. And a small herd of horses, all more uneven than her.
Billy Kangas: The Rage That Got Us Here: Reflections on Charlottesville
Fr Dwight Longenecker: This is also a dimension to some of the convert’s criticisms of certain strands of Catholicism. They’re hard wired to have an enemy and will find one even if there isn’t one.
Helen Calder: Likewise, someone who has a gift of discernment needs the encouragement and perspective that the prophetic ministry and gift brings. When we perceive the enemy at work, for example, the prophetic gift sees past what is currently going on, to God’s intended outcome. And that is a game-changer!
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: What do you do with a message like this? How do you hear it? Consider listening to it again and allowing the Holy Spirit to show you what He is working on in your life. With our world filled with so much anger and hate there is a deep need for followers of God to represent who God is and how He acts. “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8 NIV). The love of God will wreck us to the point we are rinsed of the hatred and bias views that continue to separate us. Our differences were never intended to divide us; our differences were intended to show the creativity of God and the diversity of His nature. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to do a deeper work in our heart in order to fill our world with the character and ministry of Jesus.
Traci Blackmon: The invitation to the ally is always to follow the leadership of those who are at the center of the pain.
MAGEN DAVID ADOM: For three consecutive days, Israelis in the north dealt with gunfire from Syria that landed within Israel’s borders and explosions were reported. At the same time Hamas, in the south, launched rockets into southern Israel. The danger is very real!
Rick Joyner: From the first century, there were continuous assaults and false teachings directed at diluting or even nullifying the power of the cross in the life of the church and that of the individual Christian. It is written that the message of the cross is the power of God (see I Corinthians 1:18), and all the grace, mercy, and power of God are released to His people through the cross of Jesus. The application of the cross is fundamental to the life and health of the church and the individual believer. Certainly this is something that every Christian in a leadership position should constantly measure in order to discern the health of those in their care.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Charlottesville has revealed to all of us what it means to be an unredeemed human being.
Brat: As Pastor John Tolle quoted: “Evil happens when good men do nothing.” I experienced the same thing with Laodicea. Her strongest time of glory in history was in the Revolutionary War. She fought for an ideal. She was shown mercy by God. Now the tables have been flipped. The current mess could be an opportunity that God is laying before all of us to fulfill St Paul’s words from
Romans 11:30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
11:31 so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.
11:32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Anna Blake: Classically trained, boss mare skills, and still sits a wicked reining spin. Veteran of all kinds of freestyle; loves to dance. Will tell you how to do it correctly and then stand around breathing until you take her cue. But no exceptions; she won’t let you on without a helmet.
Susan Michael, ICEJ US Director: Bible-believing Christians across America naturally tend to view Israel and the Jewish people through the prism of the Scriptures. The Jews are the “Chosen People” and are to be honored and appreciated as such according to the apostle Paul in Romans 9–11.
Anna Blake: It’s cool enough for a sweatshirt for the night barn check and the season change means mice are starting to move to the house like snowbirds to Tucson. Turns out the cats have all gone vegan or something. Living on a farm isn’t what it used to be.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): The Rambam is implying that it is impossible for man ever to know the absolute truth about a situation. Therefore, the Torah gives us criteria with which to govern our decisions. Though they may not be totally foolproof, they are, nevertheless, applicable to our circumstances. If we follow these criteria and an error does occur, G‑d does not hold man responsible.
Brat: The Church did nothing.
Mark DeJesus: There becomes a spiritual answer for everything that manipulates situations and keeps leaders from saying, “We got it wrong. We thought we heard from God, and we’re processing through what that means now. We’re sorry, and we take full responsibility for it.”
Rick Joyner: Because we have access to God through the blood of Jesus and His propitiation offering on the cross, the ability of the people to apply the cross to their lives is a primary factor determining their ability to worship God with their lives. This is fundamental to the quality of our worship. Worship under the New Covenant is not about devotion to rituals as much as it is a life lived in obedience and abiding in the Lord. In doing so, we glorify the Lord. Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. We must know Him as all three to walk with Him as we are called to.
Brat: And when the Church does NOTHING?
Pastor John Tolle: At least when you’re arguing with God you’re talking. So many people give no response. Many aren’t awake and God wants to take them to another realm.
Wanda Alger: For those who have been truly called to pastor, they carry the love of a spiritual FATHER and spiritual MOTHER. It is THESE pastors and church leaders whom the Lord is calling forth with great power and authority because of the call on His sons and daughters. It is these who carry the love for the next generation who have been willing to lead the way.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman: The rabbi noted that God places greater importance on how Jews behave toward one another than on ritual.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: This has been my experience too. We have been Catholics now for 22 years and it has only been within the last few years that my love and appreciation for Mary as Mother has completed the long journey from head to heart. Of course, this journey is made by saying the rosary, and celebrating the Marian feasts with attention and devotion.
Brat: Since Jesus is my Husband, then that makes Mary my Mother-in-Law.
Anna Blake: Even more despondent, I give in and do that thing that a certain sort of person does late at night on the internet. I’m not proud of it. It shows a lack of character and if my mother was alive, she would slap my hand away…
Fr Dwight Longenecker: I’ll tell you what’s happened in Charlottesville this weekend.[5]
It is human beings revealing what lies within. It’s real simple and its been happening since Cain killed his brother Abel.
Rick Joyner: The fundamental truth that our salvation and the grace, mercy, and power of God is dependent on the cross alone is worthy to be measured regularly by church leaders. Under the New Covenant there is not a special class of priests that mediate between God and men—rather, every believer is a priest. These were the most important New Covenant truths recovered by the Reformation. These were based on the truth that all church doctrine must be based on Scripture, not church dogma that had developed so many varied and unbiblical teachings that separated the people from God and elevated an institution to take His place.
Mark DeJesus: A culture of exclusive spirituality: “We have the monopoly on God.”
Fr Dwight Longenecker: There is something else, however, I think we often overlook the fact that Protestantism was born in conflict and it continues to have conflict as part of its genetic code in a way Catholicism does not. I can’t remember any group I belonged to as a Protestant in which the preaching, ethos and atmosphere was not conflict oriented. There was always an enemy. The Catholics were the enemy. The liberals were the enemy. The neo Evangelicals were the enemy. The Muslims were the enemy. You name it–the Protestant is always protesting.
Anna Blake: Breed: Grade, DNA test shows some of everything.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: Inasmuch as attaining Divine consciousness, thereby making the world more of a home for G‑d, is the purpose of creation, it follows that moral tests serve a crucial function in bringing creation to its completion and fulfilling the purpose of the soul’s descent into the physical world.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Overall, I like Mills’ analysis, and I agree that conservative critics, for the most part, should have the good manners to listen and learn in their new home.
Anna Blake: Loves trailers, will stand for the right farrier. Will also kick when required but her intolerance for bad manners shouldn’t be confused with stubbornness. Prefers body work and a dirt bath to “a cookie.” No plans to retire. Dreams of hock injections.
Nathan Shaw: Rahab was a prostitute in the Canaanite city of Jericho. Two Israelite men were sent to spy out the land of Canaan. They lodged the night at Rahab’s house. Word got out that the spies were in the city. Rahab hid them in her roof and then aided them to escape undetected. Rahab was a strategic connection for the spies. If it wasn’t for her, they would have been killed. But the spies were also a strategic connection for Rahab. The spies promised protection for Rahab’s family. When Israel attacked Jericho, Rahab and her family were the only inhabitants who were spared. They became part of the nation of Israel.
Brat: I know a little bit about Rahab. We are not saved by what we know. Even Rahab got rescued when the two spies went back for her. My Two Witnesses just circle in their orbit. The rope I threw over the wall is now old and frayed.
Anna Blake: First schooled in Pleasure, Reining, and Trail. Currently a dressage schoolmaster with remarkably poor gaits. Not lame really. Just a bit uneven. Big hooves, good teeth, easy keeper. Not exactly uphill.
Brat: Thank you. See? Just like Rahab!
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): Considering these matters and the like, the Torah states: “The hidden matters are for G‑d, our Lord, but what is revealed is for us and our children” (Deut. 29:28), and “Man sees what is revealed to the eyes, but G‑d sees into the heart” (Samuel I 16:7).
Mark DeJesus: Abusive church environments make it difficult to leave or move on. People are often shunned. Communication gets shut down. They get treated as outcasts. Leaving a church is very difficult to begin with, but abusive environments make it painfully worse.
Anna Blake: A big slow exhale with no need to rush. I’m alone, except for the old dog snoring like someone’s weird uncle. I decide to call it ambiance. One finger goes to one key- D -and the address line auto-fills. It isn’t my first time on this salacious site…
Steve Shultz: If you think about it, it’s nearly impossible to have a divine appointment between you and another person without YOU and THEM hearing God’s voice. Because that is how you both ended up at the right place, standing in the right spot, and at the right time. It felt like your thoughts but in reality…you heard God’s voice tell you to stand right here.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: I would only add this: if development of doctrine emerges from a tug of war, then you need people on both ends of the rope.
Brat: The Church could soooo get a bonus out of this!
Breaking Israel News: Jews Must Be Role Models to Bring Light of Messiah to World: Rabbi
Brat: Church pastors? Jewish rabbis? Either way it could be a win-win, but the only experience I’ve had with Fr Dwight’s rope is the one that’s been hanging down Jericho’s wall for ten years.
Joshua 2: 15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.
Brat: You know the hymn: “A Mighty Fortress is our god.”
Joshua 2: 14 “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): This is the nature of [the Torah’s] commandment. [To give an example of a parallel:] We are commanded to render a [legal] judgment based on the testimony of two witnesses. Even though they may testify falsely, since we know them to be acceptable [as witnesses], we presume that they [are telling the truth].
Fr Dwight Longenecker: The Samaritans were despised by the proper Jews–the scribes (of whom the teacher of the law was one) the respectable Sadducees and the Puritanical and legalistic Pharisees. The Samaritans were the grubby peasants who were left behind when all the good people were hauled off to Babylon. They claimed Jewish descent, but the Jews looked down on them as heretics and they looked down on the Jews as followers of a new religion. Think of the clash between Irish Catholics and Northern Irish Protestants. Both Christians, but filled with hatred and suspicion of one another.
Christy Johnston: He has used the voices of those around them as a continual gunfire of doubt, fear, and lies targeted directly at their identity and worth. Many of these daughters have come to believe these lying assaults. They have endured countless blasts and strikes, all in an attempt to keep them silent and in a powerless holding place away from the battleground. These daughters have been the target of the enemy, for within them is a fierce warrior that satan greatly fears, and his strategy has been to withhold them from the battle through his lies.
Mark DeJesus: It exhausts people and leaves them disillusioned. Unfortunately, in a high performance based environment, people become commodities in the goal of growth, success, status and achievement.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Only repentance can solve this problem for repentance is, at its very heart, the simple act of a person taking responsibility for themselves–for their own happiness and by God’s help, the solution to their problems.
Israel 365: The Loss of a Special Soul ✡ “I Will Grant Triumph In Tzion To Yisrael”
Rabbi YY Jacobson: The Ohr Hachaim explains that the Torah is teaching us that death has another dimension to it. It can be compared to a person who sent his son to a faraway land in order to start a business there. The son settled in that place and over time became very close to many fine people there. After many years, the father summoned the son to return home and the son acceded to his wishes. The son is not lost. Those who had grown to know and love him are no longer able to see him, but the son is not lost. On the contrary, the son is returning home to his father. The thought of those friends going ahead and gouging themselves over the agony of the son’s departure is unjust. Sadness and a melancholy feeling are in order. Gouging is definitely out. Because “Banim a’tem laHashem Elokaichem,” You are children of Hashem your G-d.” At death, the person is returning to the Father. The duration of that person’s visit to this transient world has come to a close. The time has come to return home. Therefore, “Lo tisgo’d’du,” do not cut yourself over a death. Reacting in such a way really contradicts our beliefs.
Anna Blake: It’s been a melancholy week at Infinity Farm. I’d call it the dog days of summer but truth is that it’s been feeling like fall for a few weeks already. It’s getting dark earlier but some days it feels like the sun isn’t even up by noon.
Christy Johnston: I see the breath of life blowing away their fears and suddenly, the war around them becomes small. These daughters begin to rise to their feet, energized with the authority of their Father; they shake off the disorientation and refocus their sights on the true battle at hand. Standing up, their eyes are filled with fire and zeal to take down and overpower the schemes of darkness that have been warring against their lives, their family, and their nations.
Susan Michael, ICEJ US Director: Some Christian supporters are shocked to learn that there are prostitutes, drug addicts, and victims of human trafficking living on the streets of some neighborhoods in Tel Aviv. The Israeli government has clamped down on the “Johns” and the “traffickers” which is helping, but a serious problem remains.
Wanda Alger: I saw in a dream a pastor who was about to lose his mind. He was in a struggle between sanity and insanity, desperate to cling to his life and purpose. I was in a bathroom while I was watching this and my heart began to cry out on his behalf. I felt the Father’s love towards this one whom He had called and my groaning was great. I knew he could not do this alone and his own desperation was coming to a critical point of no return.
Mark DeJesus: You can see this when there is little appreciation for other churches or ministries. There is a sense that “we have the revelation on this and no one else does. We are the ones who get this.”
Joyce Meyer: Having new life in Christ is so amazing because through it, we become the home of God. His Spirit comes to live in us and work with us, bringing restoration and wholeness to every area of our lives. Then, as we learn to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we can receive everything God has for us and take back what belongs to us!
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): When the spirit rests upon him, his soul becomes intermingled with the angels called “ishim“, and he will be transformed into a different person and will understand with a knowledge different from what it was previously. He will rise above the level of other wise men, as the prophet, Samuel told Saul: “[The spirit of G‑d will descend upon you] and you shall prophecy with them. And you will be transformed into a different person.” (Samuel I 10:6)
Bobby Haaby: Some hear, some know, some feel, and some see. If it’s a 5000-year-old voice you are waiting to hear, remember that God’s voice to the Prophet Samuel first sounded like his mentor, Eli. God is not limited in how He speaks to us, or who or what He may use to speak to us. If you are stuck in the thought that God’s voice to you is only expressed one way, you may be missing out on discovering new and exciting aspects of the sound of His voice.
Brat: (In “Missing You” 12 Aug 17): It bothers me that Pastor John was planting seeds (again) about a publisher. To me, a publisher without a church just feels like a job. “You gotta sell yourself,” as a patron told a ‘tween’ at the library today. That’s not the You that You showed me when You were courting me, Jesus.
Mark DeJesus: Hovering over personal decisions in a person’s life.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Its a sin because you are choosing to put something else before God on the one day he commands you to keep reserved for him. That would be the third commandment.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: “I knew Rabbi Chaim as a miracle worker from many other incidents so I decided to follow him and see how he would find ‘some livelihood’. The family lived in the Misgav Ladach neighborhood of Old Jerusalem, a network of small houses and narrow alleyways and steps. I watched quietly from behind as Rabbi Chaim went up the steps and through the gate, walked down one street, came to a larger street and turned left. I did not take my eyes off of him for an instant. As he made the second turn, I saw him bend over and lift something from the ground. I ran over and was amazed to see that he had found two Napoleons, (gold coins valued today at about $180 each, a literal fortune then). He then noticed me, turned to me peacefully and said ’Nu, we can go home now, I found some livelihood’.” (Translated from Lekach Tov).
Lana Vawser: In the midst of this fierce feeling of love and Father’s heart of vindication and protection of His children, I could feel such a SIGNIFICANT weighty shift in the atmosphere and it was the shift that was declaring the FIERCE REPAYMENT of God.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): When he is sent [on such a mission], he is given a sign or a wonder [to perform], so that the people will know that G‑d has truly sent him. Not everyone who performs signs or wonders should be accepted as a prophet: only a person who is known to be fit for prophecy beforehand; i.e. his wisdom and his [good] deeds surpass those of all his contemporaries. If he follows the paths of prophecy in holiness, separating himself from worldly matters, and afterwards performs a sign or wonder and states that he was sent by G‑d, it is a mitzvah to listen to him, as the verse states: “Listen to him” (Deut. 18:15).
Brat: And how would just a publisher unite the Churches?
Patheos – WestBow Press: Your Story Could Become Your Published Book
Brat (in “Go Get Her” 10 Aug 17): And when I get no readers now on my blog stats counter? Zero. Not even one, where for a long time at least one person read me? And what about the silence from emails? It’s hard to feel heard when I give my best and there is … NOTHING. Yes, I write to give God the glory. No, I don’t write just for myself. I go out of my way to present the conversation fairly as it unfolds while including my own voice, too, because I am also part of this divine conversation. So, where’s the partnership? This divine conversation is a form of prayer, too!
Revelation 1: 19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Should Converts Shut Up?
Brat (in “Go Get Her” 10 Aug 17): Thank you for the invitation, but are you listening? I am still asking for actual sanctuary. I am grateful that God has sustained me in my car these last ten years, but the Church has canon law to provide for her Anchorites. I’m holding out for the people to honor that.
Christy Johnston: I see a company of daughters who have been stuck and beaten down in the trenches of battle. They have been held back, pushed down and told to stay quiet. They have been overlooked, deemed unworthy and judged. They have been caught in the middle of the crossfire, seemingly trapped in the ditches and constrained by the enemy. The battle has been long and fierce, with the enemy throwing his best at them, and with every strike he has been lying to them and telling them they are worthless and weak – luring them into giving up completely.
Anna Blake: So, I’m sitting in my writing studio with a mouse staring at me from my bookshelf. I wonder if I have fought his ancestors, which makes me spend just a bit too much time considering the big questions: Politics. Religion. Who else would eat the poison before the mouse? Is he too big for a fly swatter? Must I always fumble the Tupperware?
Fr Dwight Longenecker: The parable is about racial and religious prejudice. First we have to look at the context. A teacher of the law asked Jesus what he must do. Jesus answers, “Love Your Neighbor.” Being one of those trolls who loves to pick a fight and pick a nit, the teacher of the law says, “Ah, yes, but who is my neighbor?”
Wanda Alger: What King Saul lacked was a love for his own family and children. He lacked the heart of David that was SOLD OUT TO LOVE. The Father’s heart for these is to pray for them to turn back to their First Love. Even as there IS and will CONTINUE TO BE a SEPARATION between those who carry the authority of heaven and those who don’t, we must pray for those who are at this point of decision – for the sake of THEIR CHILDREN. Even these leaders who are wrongly holding on to power for selfish gain, it is their own family that will reap the consequences of sin and disobedience. If so, the sin will perpetuate for another generation. We can limit this through prayer!
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: Holiness is often called the “head” or intellect. The person who meditates on the greatness of G‑d is bound to arrive at conclusions that boost his faith and understanding of G‑d. However, it is unusual to find a heart that is fully occupied by G‑dliness. We are born with a yetzer hara, an “evil inclination” that resides in the heart, and it is rare for the heart to completely rid itself of the evil and turn to G‑d, choosing the spiritual over the physical.
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: Of course, our day-to-day involvement with the physical world – elevating it into holiness by resisting its tendency to drag us into materiality on the one hand and using it as a means toward spiritual ends on the other – also increases and enhances Divine consciousness in the world. The difference however, is that while our routine refinement of reality requires us to summon our spiritual strength and so battle with our animal nature, convincing and cajoling it into Divine service, tests cannot be approached in this way. Rather, they require us to access far deeper powers, those of self-sacrifice and incontestable commitment to G‑d. Essentially, this means tapping the previously mentioned inner sight-consciousness of G‑d that each of us possesses in the merit of Moses’ prayer.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: The truth is, that the two interpretations are not only not divergent, they are actually one and the same. They both represent the same truth-one on a concrete, physical level; the other on a deeper, spiritual level.
Brat: Are you saying it’s okay that the Church has left me in my car for ten years to do my ministry?
Mark DeJesus: This is a tough one, especially because the church still has a very poverty driven mentality on a lot of financial perspectives. Many still think its okay for people who are in ministry position and give full time hours to it, to live in lack and poverty circumstances.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Catholicism is like a big old country mansion with many rooms, galleries, stables and outhouses. We converts should take a bit more time to wander around and wonder around.
Brat (in “Recovering” 13 Aug 17): Jo has often said that our souls need beauty to survive. St Patrick’s was physically beautiful.
Lord, I met a side of Your beautiful Self there. I miss that You.
I have no desire to go back to St Pat’s. I long for the You that I met there.
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself (reconciled us) through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
Brat: What was Fr Dwight saying about that you need people on both ends of the rope? There’s no relationship if the other party does not respond.
Kaji Douša: The story of Creation tells us that on the seventh day, God rested and Shabbat, or sabbath, was introduced. The Decalogue made it a commandment: Remember the sabbath and keep it holy.
Shmuel-Simcha Treister: The Talmud says that “rest” refers to Shiloh, while “inheritance” refers to Jerusalem. Moses, as directed by G‑d, told the Jews that the Tabernacle was only now about to arrive at its appointed destination. The Tabernacle was the center of spiritual life for the Jews, and where it was located determined how and where they would serve G‑d. Only when it had reached its “inheritance” – Jerusalem – would the ultimate service be performed. In the meantime, an interesting progression took place.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: There is something strange about this story. The instruction to bring Isaac as an offering came directly from G-d. [13] G-d Himself told Abraham to offer his son to Him. Why did the reverse stop-order come from an angel and not from G-d?
Exodus 3: 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
Rabbi YY Jacobson: In words of the Maharal: [7] [6] “Every man of wisdom and understanding will be amazed at the relationship of their [the sages] words with the simple meaning of the text, at a depth that is truly awesome. Yet, the man who is a stranger to this wisdom, will wonder at their unlikely reading of the verse, their words seeming implausible to him.”
Anna Blake: After the wine is gone and many pages have been viewed, I doze off to that world where I’m not quite a horse and not quite human.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: So the soul coming downs asks the soul coming up, what is the big deal that they are taking me from all the revelations of heaven? What can a soul accomplish below that cannot be accomplished above? The rising soul explains that in heaven you can only advance through Yosher (a straight line), but below you can advance through Igulim (circles). The descending soul is excited about the extra potential for growth in this world. But what does it find? A world of spiritual darkness where it searches for these Igulim (circles). People chasing after money to make their livelihood, running after the coins that are shaped like circles. And so even this G-dly soul begins to believe that the coins are in fact the Igulim. And then it loses out on all of the particular potential that this world provides for spiritual growth.
Brat: Are you saying “Don’t give up on your day job?”
Mark DeJesus: It shocked me how much this happens, but it does in growing amounts. The thought of being this controlling sounds exhausting, but it is how many leaders attempt to feel safe. They control people.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: There is no clearly defined measurement of how much or how little effort we should expend on making a livelihood. That is a decision each one has to make for themselves. What we do have to etch in our souls is the truth that all our effort and struggle will not help increase our wealth even a dime more than what has been decreed for us from Above.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman: If the Jewish people behave well, they can bring the Messianic era quicker, according to Rabbi Elan Adler. But when Jews shame God’s name or even treat each other poorly, they push the Messiah further away.
Mark DeJesus: There is a time where dangerous and toxic people have to be dealt with. But many times, there are just honest disagreements or new paths opening up for people that churches need to recognize. Healthy churches know when its time for someone to move on and honor that transition.
Kaji Douša: Jesus’ words to the anxious disciples in their own “furious storm” are instructively salvific. Rest matters so much that even God does it. But faith means knowing that when we need to be saved: God will calm the lake.
Revelation 15: 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: 2 Cor. 5:14-21 “Christ’s love controls (compels, urges us on). Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter: What is the bottom line? G-d asks us to exert ourselves to provide an honest living and make a sincere effort, without worry, but with faith in G-d’s guarantee that that we will be blessed by Him and succeed. “Yagasi – matzasi – ta’amin” (Talmud Megila 6b) – “If you expend effort, believe that you will have success”.
Anna Blake: Price: Private treaty, of course.
Mark DeJesus: You cannot have an abusive environment without this because the abusive culture pushes people to give, serve, do and live in performance-based Christianity. As long as people are busy and doing things that serve the success agenda, things are okay. Any emphasis outside of that is frowned upon and given the cold shoulder.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): It is possible that a person will perform a sign or wonder even though he is not a prophet – rather, the wonder will have [another cause] behind it. [This is because signs and wonders and even divining the future can be performed by sorcery and the like, as explained in ch. 8-10]. It is, nevertheless, a mitzvah to listen to him. Since he is a wise man of stature and fit for prophecy, we accept [his prophecy as true].
Pastor John Tolle: Let me reiterate a very important point that I am not addressing during this series and that is, there is a “future” dynamic to the Kingdom of God when Jesus will establish his kingdom on earth, once and for all…and forever. At that time we will be completely under the rulership of God with no competing powers – world, flesh or devil. But for our purposes right now, Jesus was clear that His Kingdom could be established in our midst as we await His future Kingdom.
Brat: Who said anything about there being competition going on here!? I’ve been asking for sanctuary!
Pastor John Tolle: If you play for fun why keep score?
Rabbi YY Jacobson: Be wary, says the Torah! If you are going to cut someone off from your life, you want to hear it from G-d Himself. If not, let it go.
Pastor John Tolle read: Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the Sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.] This is where Pastor John stopped reading.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: To make a long story short, the Samaritan was the one person Jesus knew the teacher of the law would be bigoted against. That’s why he made the Samaritan the hero of the story. To rub salt in the wounds remember too, a priest and a Levite–two members of the Jewish religious establishment–(and the lawyer’s buddies) passed by and didn’t help the wounded man. The Samaritan did.
Brat: Where is he?
Mark DeJesus: In this setting, there is a heavy emphasis on how things look. It becomes more important that things look OK, rather than authentically doing life as a body with effective vulnerability. We lose value for a healthy heart life.
Lana Vawser: Prophets who continue to tickle ears with words not flowing from My heart will be brought low in this season. Those prophets who steward My heart and what I speak, allowing My fire of conviction, purification and all consuming fire to purge their hearts and their lips, will be exalted into high places to proclaim the pure word of My heart. My fire as it is embraced is birthing a fire of resolve and conviction within them to come deeper into the place of stewardship of My Word.
Rabbi YY Jacobson: But there is something strange here, and the question was first pointed out by the 16th century Jewish sage and leader, Rabbi Yehuda Leow (1512-1607), known as the Maharal, [6] [7] chief Rabbi of Prague (who one of the most influential Jewish personalities of his time, and author of major works on Jewish thought.) The Talmud and the Midrash often present various interpretations for one biblical term or verse; but nowhere do we find two interpretations that are completely disconnected. On the simple level, “sisgodedu” means scraping off your skin. Now the Talmud tells us that it also means, “don’t split up into separate groups.” How do these two divergent instructions come together in a single word? Why would the Torah communicate such two disparate ideas in one word-lacerating your body and dividing a community?
Christy Johnston: Hosts of angels march behind and around them as these daughters deflect the bombs of lies, terror, and manipulation and they walk through the battle unharmed – overpowering and disabling the enemy’s weapons of destruction. They are beauty and strength, courage and grace – both fierce and gentle. They have become a force on the earth that is untouchable and unstoppable and they are functioning in the anointing of Esther that is arising and sweeping across the globe right now.
Bill Yount: They have now been divinely positioned to become a firebrand in God’s hand to ignite and explode like dynamite inside the camp of the enemy! This is why the enemy forever has fought against marriages. He feared concerning the godly seed that was about to come upon the earth to do him in. And here they come!
Anna Blake: Oh, my heart. Shouldn’t horse ads have a literary category of their own, something between Crime Fiction and Romance?
Fr Dwight Longenecker: So the message is not so much, “Try to be nice to people who are down on their luck.” Instead the message is, “Love and accept the person you hate the most.”
Brat: That doesn’t mean I have to go back into his lair. Dragon’s nests are hot even when they are sleeping on their troves. They snore fire as they exhale and you watch their ribcage rhythmically go up and down. After Jesus’ resurrection He did not go back to the Pharisees to comfort them. He went back to Peter and the disciples. That doesn’t mean Jesus stopped loving the Pharisees. They just weren’t receptive to receiving Him.
Mark DeJesus: One of the most unhealthy patterns that can envelop is a “don’t say anything negative” kind of environment, where there becomes a militant reaction to problems, pain and disappointment. People then don’t learn how to go through pain in an effective way.
John A. Nelson: Prayer
God, help me avoid putting my trust in idols that cannot lead to wholeness — money, worldly success, shiny objects of all kinds. But anyone or anything you can use to invite me into your life-giving presence — for those, keep a wide open welcome in me. Amen.
Richard L. Floyd: A pastor friend of mine is known to have told his congregation, “If there isn’t somebody here who rubs you the wrong way you need to come around more often.”
Mark DeJesus: People are often punished in shameful and often public ways that crush them.
Wanda Alger: At the same time, there are also pastors and leaders who are at the point of going the way of KING SAUL. They were once called by the Father and graced with gifts to lead. However, due to disappointment, insecurity, fear of man, and pride, these same leaders are now at the brink of no return if they do not turn back and REPENT. Seeing the plight of these leaders in my dream while standing in a bathroom indicated the need for CLEANSING in this hour – a cleansing of hearts and a cleansing of TOXIC WASTE from the past. They must get free! The Lord is cleaning up His church and He is starting with leaders, especially those who have given themselves over to selfish gain.
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: Filled with all the fullness of God
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
o Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
o How measureless and strong!
o It shall forevermore endure—
o The saints’ and angels’ song.
Mark D. White: This year of 2017 is the starting of altars being full of people seeking God. From Catholic, Church of Christ, Baptist, Pentecostal etc., spontaneously God is coming uninvited and people will come and see the results of God’s presence. The answers are in the overwhelming presence of a living God. Even in the hymnals-only-churches, repentance will take place and the public display of the glory of God will be seen! In the streets, in the bars, in court rooms, in public schools, and in colleges – the glory of God will, and I say WILL, get people’s attention!
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” We are…. Carriers of His grace: We approach those who live, think, and talk differently than we do with grace seeing them as ones created in the image of God who need reconciliation. Conduits of His love: We love unconditionally, without judgment as God is love and we are being transformed in his image, it’s his kindness that leads us to repentance, it’s love that opens hearts to truth, speaking truth in love.
Wanda Alger: Because the enemy has no access to the true joy of the Lord, this is a powerful weapon to defeat his attacks. The only thing the enemy can do is MOCK, which is a counterfeit of God’s JOY. When the enemy tries to make fun of you and even curse you, your response can to be LAUGH at his feeble attempts to make you a victim, when in fact, you are a VICTOR!
Mark DeJesus: In these kind of toxic settings, the leadership can become sucked into a “I am right, you are wrong” mentality. People lack the maturity to take a step back and see how to work through issues in a more healthy way. If we win an argument and lose a genuine opportunity to preserve a relationship, we lose.
Lana Vawser: “I am cleansing the prophetic movement. I am cleansing where there has been mixture. I am cleansing where there has been impurity in prophetic words released. I am cleansing where there has been a mixture of striving, flesh and competition contaminating My flow. I am guarding My flock and I am guarding My Bride, and the enemy is attempting in various ways in this season to hinder the prophets, to lure the prophets into temptations, compromises, fleshly feasts and competition, jealousy and striving in order to hinder what I want to release.
Brat: Do you think the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11 could be the priestly/pastor camp and the prophetic camp? Just a thought. Or maybe it is the Jews on one side and the prophets pulling the strings on the other side? Or the Catholics and the Rabbis? The bitch of it is that the Two Witnesses are untouchable, because they can do whatever they want, because if you touch them you get even more than what you dish out. Take the adage, “What comes around, goes around” and amplify it by seven.
Matthew 18: 21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Mark D. White: Then I heard a roar and behind me was another tornado coming my way. I was in the same situation of nowhere to hide or seek shelter. But still, the tornado hovered and did no damage to me or the ripe wheat fields. Then a third tornado came and then a fourth, fifth, sixth and a seventh tornado came. Behind the seventh tornado came a blazing raging fire, with a smoke that was easy to see through, and the fire was encompassing. A blazing overwhelming never-ending fire was seen as far as the eye could see. Then, I came to consciousness from being out in the spirit.
Pastor Steve Dittmar: Who knows what may come of the journey we are on?
Mark D. White: Pastors that should not be pastoring will find their calling and destiny. People that should be pastoring or teaching will find their place in the callings of God. This included evangelists, prophets and apostles. The government of God will increase as the winds of God move amongst the earth. What the first wind does not accomplish, the second wind will, and what the second does not accomplish, the third will, and so shall it be with the fourth to the seventh.
Breaking Israel News: Where Is Israel?
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman: When Will Messiah Come? It Depends on the Jews
Mark D. White: With each transcending wind there will be changes to the Church, His Body, and His representations. The miraculous will become “common place” with the increase of each wind; so much miraculous will take place that by the seventh wind, He said “raising the dead” will be common place. The glorious triumphant Church will arise!
Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky: A test –- whether of a person’s commitment to Judaism or of his faith in G‑d’s goodness – is a temporary concealment of the Divine favor that we assume should be shown to those who follow G‑d’s will. Voices from both within and without may mock the sufferer’s naive belief. However, the fact that G‑d’s presence is hidden in these situations simply indicates that He wishes to grace us with a closer, more intense relationship with Him than we are presently able to sustain. In order to preserve our faith in G‑d in the face of situations that test this faith, we have to draw upon deeper levels of commitment than we normally do.
Pastor Gary Dunahoo: Paul’s letters…Dear So and So…Sincerely. Pay attention to the beginning and endings…the greetings and salutations. This passage we are going to look at is to the Corinthians and after all of Paul’s correction he says this…
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Amen. 2 Cor. 13:14 NKJV
Mark D. White: As the fire takes place from this encounter, the Spirit of God told me He will drive people into His presence or out of His presence, or consume them by His presence. The fire had smoke yet it was possible to see through it. This fire is dimensions of His presence that the pure in heart could only see and experience. What we are about to see, not many men have seen, what we are about to hear not many men have heard, but what we are about to experience is of the Lord! The invitation will be to all! (See Joel 2:15-18, 28-32.)
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”): Therefore, the prophets’ disciples would always have a harp, drum, flute, and lyre [before them when] they were seeking prophecy. This is what is meant by the expression I Samuel 10:5): “They were prophesying” – i.e. following the path of prophecy until they would actually prophecy – as one might say, “So and so aspires to greatness.”
Brat: Pastor John Tolle said that at least when we argue with God then there’s engagement, but with the majority of the Church, there is silence. There is no response!
Traci Blackmon: Did we come all this way to meet no one but ourselves?
Mark DeJesus: The leader’s sins and weaknesses are minimized while the people’s sins and weaknesses are maximized.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman: Rabbi Adler, who discusses the notion of Jewish unity, sanctifying and defaming God in his new Yeshiva for the Nations course, “Introduction to Judaism for Non-Jews,” told Breaking Israel News, “It is our job to please God and to be a light unto the world. If we make God look bad, this is a huge worry.”
Wanda Alger: There are many pastors who have been answering the call to lead their flock with integrity of heart and biblical truth. They have been willing to endure the tests and not shrink back. As a result, the enemy is going after them because of the potential to CHANGE THE GENERATIONS.
Fr Dwight Longenecker: Mills goes on to say that converts (especially if they have been wounded by the wars in their previous denominations) will be suspicious of change and worried that the Catholic Church will capitulate to the same trouble the mainline churches have fallen into.
Mark DeJesus: Spiritual abuse can begin to shift when the church leadership is willing to admit mistakes and authentically share their own personal journey in redemptive ways.
Mark D. White: John 6:44 says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; then I will raise him to life on the last day.” It is not a change of culture that is the answer, but a passion of purpose to reach this generation. The only change really required is for us to be more like Jesus in love and power. 1 Corinthians 2:5 says, “…so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.”
Mark DeJesus: This is the biggest factor when spiritual abuse is taking place. Instead of a culture of honor and respect that is given from both leadership and followers, an authoritarianism exists. Over time, leaders lose their ability to be approachable. There can become a misuse of the verse “touch not God’s anointed,” and the body loses its ability to come and reason together.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman: “We have it in our behavior repertoire to create big applause for God or go the other say and shame God by the way we behave,” said Rabbi Adler.
Richard L. Floyd: In my long ministry I tried to love everybody in the church, but I never entirely succeeded. I knew God loved them even if I couldn’t. But one thing I learned over time was that if I kept trying sometimes, just sometimes, I did learn to love the seemingly unlovable. If, just as Paul admonished, I had patience and could bear with another member for a while, then something in our relationship changed.
Yisroel Susskind, Ph.D.: One of the most respected researchers and writers about marriage is Dr. John Gottman. He says that a couple’s ability to remember the positive moments in their relationship is a primary predictor of whether the marriage will survive. “In a happy marriage, couples tend to look back on their early days fondly…But when a marriage is not going well, history gets rewritten for the worse.”[8]
Susan Michael, ICEJ US Director: Truly, the history of the Jewish people is extraordinary and they have paid a heavy price for this unique calling, but it has also made them a resilient people who have exhibited great courage and strength. There is much to admire in their story.
Mark DeJesus: But this shouldn’t give us carte blanche to use offerings, giving projects and building campaigns in manipulative ways. In some churches, you cannot have a Sunday go by without a majority of talking time being spent on how people need to give more to the latest project.
Brat: [Cough.]
Mark D. White: Around the world, the glory shall cause some to fear and even manifest demons in resistance. But the angels of the Most High God will be seen, and in the next couple of years people will experience the glory of God as unprecedented in history. The lightnings of God will be seen as many miraculous testimonies are shared. In some areas, there will be drought, in other areas rain without explanation. As stated in Romans 8:22, “All of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God.”
Richard L. Floyd: I am convinced that this change in the relationship was by grace. Perhaps that is what Paul meant when he wrote about “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” That somehow if we hang in there with another member of the body of Christ, even someone we seem to have no natural affinity for, God’s Spirit brings a change of heart in both parties.
Mark D. White: These are exciting days! We are in the days of Elijah! We are in the time to experience Ezekiel 12:23-25, where everything God says will happen and not be delayed. Yes, there will be false teachers, false prophets, and some pastors that will try to lord over God’s heritage. But you have not seen what God has planned for this outpouring of the river of God on this earth. Angels will be seen as history has never recorded; miracles will be documented as hospitals will almost be emptied because of teenagers going from room to room with the Word and power of God healing the sick.
Brat: In the End it’s about God.
[1] [3] רמב”ם הלכות עבודה זרה יב, יג-יד: גדידה ושריטה, אחת היא… על המת, בין שרט בידו בין שרט בכלי, לוקה… ובכלל אזהרה זו, שלא יהו שני בתי דינין בעיר אחת, זה נוהג במנהג, וזה נוהג במנהג אחר, שדבר זה גורם למחלוקת גדולה, וכתוב לא תתגודדו, לא תיעשו אגודות אגודות.
[2] [4] The Talmud in Yevamos 13b and 14a discusses the nature of this prohibition. Abayei maintains that Lo Sisgodedu applies when two different batei dinim (courts) in one city issue conflicting rulings. This makes the one Torah that was received at Sinai appear as “two Torahs” (Rashi ibid.) and causes confusion and discord (Rambam). Rava, however, does not object to different batei denim, even in the same city, issuing contradictory rulings, since it is within the very nature of the Torah that different rulings will be rendered by different schools of thought, as Beis Shamai and Beis Hillel did for many years. In Rava’s opinion, the prohibition of Lo Sisgodedu is meant to discourage one beis din from rendering a split decision.
[3] Reference note: http://www.biblewatchman.com/footstool.htm
[4] [11] See Talmud Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:4. Cf. Tanya chapter 32. Derech Mitzvosecha Mitzvas Ahavas Yisroel and references noted there.
[5] Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2017/08/what-happened-in-charlottesville.html#hbHobXFKcetd1uJL.99
[7] [6] In his commentary of Gur Aryeh to this verse Deut. 14:1
[8] John Gottman and Nan Silver, The seven principles for making marriage work. P.42
truthinus 