Matthew 24:6-8 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must occur; but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in different places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
With everything happening in Israel, I’m often asked what I think will happen with the latest political situation in the holy land. Right now, we're getting ready to have the 5th election in the past 4 years. And, it may very well turn out to be another stalemate, as there appears to be no way to form a coalition according to the latest polls.
But the situation in Israel is typical of what’s happening all across the world. Within many nations around the world – Great Britain, France, China, India, Iran, Chile, Bolivia, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and even the United States, internal crises are either brewing or have already exploded into varying degrees of violence, armed conflict and/or civil war.
In the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Yeshua prophesied that "... nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." The word "nation" in Greek is the word "ethnos", from which we get the English word "ethnic". All of this polarization and ethnic warfare which the media feed upon and incite is the work of the enemy as he stirs up the sinful nature of men.
Israeli politics are as vulnerable to this as any other nation since we are not yet under the loving and just authority of our true King. Yet, of course, we do need a government; but just maybe, the Lord is speaking to our nation through this political impasse; maybe He wants to remind us that, on our own, we are hopelessly doomed to conflicts and strife, and that we need to look to Heaven for His prophesied reign.
So, of course, we pray for the Lord's will in our political situation; but as we remember who we are, sons and daughters of the Most High from every tribe, nation and tongue we must resolve NOT to participate in the spirit of division, conflict, strife, violence, and hatred that is proliferating across the globe.
Our mandate as a kingdom of priests is to pray and let the world be blown away by our love. Crisis is everywhere, but the Chinese character for this word "crisis" also means "opportunity". Our opportunity in all this crisis is to stand out, stand apart and demonstrate faith, hope, and love which the Holy Spirit gives us through Yeshua. Amen?
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]The children of Israel were delivered into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years for doing evil in the sight of YHVH. Then a wonderful event takes place: an announcement to a barren and childless woman that she will conceive and bear a son. The announcement is given by one who is called “malach-YHVH”, literally “Angel (of) YHVH. This messenger, in two separate appearances, reveals God’s commandments concerning the boy to be born. At the angel’s behest, the couple offers a sacrifice to YHVH, then they ask to be told his name.
This interesting passage speaks of a time when Israel had no blacksmiths to make weapons and was without any armament to defend themselves. The enemy had succeeded to disarm Israel by removing their weapons, and those who forged them! He’s attempting the same tactic today.
From the moment we were conceived we began aging, growing older by the day. We may slow down the physical aging process by exercising, eating right and other natural techniques – but we cannot ultimately stop it. This mortal flesh, our outer man, is “wasting away” and moving toward decay as we await the immortal bodies promised us in the Resurrection.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul reveals the prophetic nature of Shabbat and the Biblical Feasts as “shadows of things to come”, whose substance is the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). My study of the feasts therefore seeks to discover their relevance to the Lord, His identity, work, and purpose for my life in relationship to Him.
A few years ago, I was in a debate with an atheist who had a legal background, and the Lord gave me a revelation about the tactics of the enemy. At Yeshua’s first coming, his tactic was to destroy the infant before He could grow up; [Revelation 12:4-5]. After the Lord’s death and resurrection, Satan continued his direct assault by attacking the church through persecution, which lasted through the first three centuries. The tactics of the enemy were to destroy any “eyewitnesses” of God’s goodness.
An interesting parallel exists between these two passages of scripture: Isaiah 53:9 and Acts 3:15. Isaiah renders the “death” of the messiah in the plural form, “deaths” (“motav”). Acts renders the life of the Prince of Life as “lives” (“chaim”). Some scholars suggest that the plurality of the word death indicates a violent death this servant would suffer, and that making the noun plural is a way of emphasizing the terrible intensity of his experience. Jewish counter-missionaries suggest that the “death” in plural shows that the suffering servant is not an individual man, but a group of people, specifically the nation of Israel, thus denying that the passage refers to an individual messianic figure.
Proverbs says the “highway of the upright is to depart from evil”. It’s a highway — a way of life so to speak. And this proverb coincides with the central teaching of Yeshua (Jesus) — “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” What does it mean to repent? The Greek Word is “metanoia” which simply means to change your mind about sin or to depart from evil.