On January 15, 2013 I had a dream in which I was at home in the afternoon when a knock came at my front door. As I went to answer it, a person whom I don't know walked into our home and handed me a package. When I had opened it, I looked with wonder at what I found inside. As I lifted the object from the box I found that it was a medical instrument made of steel. As I held the box in my left hand and looked over the instrument rotating it with my right hand, I thought, "What in the world?" I asked the Father what this dream meant? He answered, "Examine yourself."
The interpretation of the dream was obvious to discern. The scriptural reference to the Father's words are found in 2 Corinthians 13:5. The ESV will be used for this post and renders this particular verse like this: "5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless you fail to meet the test."
The only honest questions had to be, "How do I go about this examination? What standard of evaluation should be used?"
We live in a time when truth is considered to be a relative thing. "What is true for you may not be true for me. So don't judge me.", is the mantra that has made its repetitious ways into every facet of our society. Every facet. If we are not fixed on locating and keeping the main thing the main thing, within a very short period of time we can find ourselves asking Pilate's question, "What is truth?" John 18:38
Given the times we live in, let's go ahead and ask the late governor's question. What is truth and how do we measure it? Well, in America, much of the populace seem to look at mainstream media and their friends on social networks for its cues on what is acceptable thought and behavior. News networks tell us on a daily basis what is and isn't true. The lives, music, books, television shows and movies of celebrities also play a big role in influencing the attitudes and belief systems of people. A vast number of the population apparently put their trust in this administration. Some put their dependence upon the church, looking to their priests or pastors as their only voice of authority. Sure, the words that come from these sources can change on a continual basis and are not necessarily based on fact, but isn't truth like that? Relative? For me the answer is No. I knew that this exam was critical. It was hand delivered to me. I was not going to mess around with public opinion. I needed The Source of Truth to be the basis and measurement of my evaluation.
John 17 is a favorite portion of the Scriptures for me. It is when Messiah is praying the night before His death. Starting in verse 14, He prays for His disciples, "14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."
He didn't pray that His Father would save them and let them live their lives as they saw fit; picking and choosing the commands and teachings from His Word that they thought were relevant to them. He asked His Father to sanctify them in the truth of His word. In chapter 15, He already told his disciples how to live a life that pleases YHVH (Yahuah) when He said, "7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoke to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." John 15:7-11
Sadly, for most of my years as a believer, I focused too much of my attention on verse eight of that passage, bearing fruit, while ignoring what fully encompasses obedience.
A careful examination of the text makes it clear what Messiah is saying here. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you ..."
In the first chapter of John, it states that, "1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1
Note how "word" is capitalized. John and the disciples were Hebrews and thought and taught as Hebrews, so when he wrote "the Word", he is speaking about The Son of Man that he called Yeshua (Jesus). "The Word" in Hebrew means, the Torah. What John is telling us here is that our Messiah was the embodiment of the Torah.
Matthew 5:17-19 states, "17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." The Hebrew word for "fulfill" is lekayem (le-KAI-yem), which means to uphold or establish, explain or interpret. In Greek, the word fulfill is pierro which means, "to obey as it was intended". It doesn't mean, as we have often been taught, that by fulfilling the law (Torah) Jesus was saying, in essence, "Okay! I've done all that for you, so if you can just keep the basic ten, (nine) commandments, we'll be cool." No where in the New (Re-newed) Covenant do I see that being taught. Paul's teachings have been misinterpreted and misrepresented, and truly speak of things like: eating with unwashed hands, and circumcision. He wrote letters to believers like the Colossians, (Colossae is in modern day Turkey. Far away from Jerusalem - especially by foot.) that encouraged them not to let any of their pagan family members, friends, and associates judge them because they were no longer drinking blood, but were instead are eating clean (Leviticus 11) and keeping Yahuah's Feast Days and Sabbaths (Leviticus 23), as HE commanded; while discouraging the new churches from following Jewish man-made laws and traditions.
"The Word" came to show us how to live out the word so that we could see how we are to treat our fellow man and how to live in obedience to His Father's commands and experience the fullness of His joy. Yes, Messiah, the High Priest's sacrifice on a hill called "The Skull", tore the veil of the temple in two so that we have access to the Throne of Yahuah because of the ultimate sacrifice of His precious shed blood, but it didn't give us the right as human beings to pick and choose which of His Father's commandments we would and would not live by. Especially when we realize that after He ascended to His Father, He sent His Spirit to encourage us, convict us, comfort us, teach us and give us the strength to do it.
As with all examinations that can reveal areas of weakness or sickness, mine revealed things as I stated in "Pulling Weeds and Pruning Branches" that I haven't liked. Some have literally scared me. Verses like 1 John 2:3-6, for example. "3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."
This examination revealed that I had made Yeshua into my image. I had removed His identity and had given Him mine; a Gentile - which means, out of covenant, stranger/foreigner, heathen, one who practices paganism. I had given Him a new name, ignored His Feast Days and Sabbaths and replaced them with my own sabbath (Sunday) and tried to make my pagan holidays, i.e. Easter and Christmas, somehow about Him when they're really not. Besides, He never asked me to remember His birthday (which isn't December 25th) or to commemorate His resurrection (which can be as much as a month apart from Easter Sunday). What He did ask me to do from His word was to love YHVH with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love others as myself: to remember the sacrifice of His death and the victory of His resurrection; to forgive; to see that He kept His Father's Feast Days and His Sabbaths; and that He kept all of His Father's commandments - not just nine of them. His disciples followed His teachings decades after His death and resurrection. So who in the world was I to think that I could do any differently?!
My examination caused me to take a very cold, hard look at myself and what I had believed without question. Things that I passed down to my children and grandchildren as fact. Those realizations caused me great sorrow! Only He knows how my heart was broken as I realized the things that I had done to Him and to them. The knowledge, the repentance, the giving up, the turning away from, the changes, the loss of standing among some of our friends and family members ...have not been fun, but His own dear presence and HIS JOY on every step of the journey has made it more than worthwhile! Thank goodness it has not been my first experience with removing false doctrine from my life so it made this passage easier in some ways. I learned a long time ago that someone who puts their hand to the plow in obedience to His call and then turns back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. When it comes to a choice between following Him and following people, no matter who they are, what real choice is there?
I come to you in all honesty of wanting all of us to make it through the days ahead and to arrive in our Bridegroom's presence clothed in white.1 There's no more time to mess around with doing what seems right in our own eyes.2 There are some who will call Him, "Lord! Lord!" on That Day and He will tell them that He never knew them.3 TRUTH is there if we will but take the time to search for it, then it is up to us. The Savior already made His choice. He was obedient unto death4 and now He reigns at the right hand of His Father5 as the soon coming King! In what condition will He find you?
Let the examination begin.
1-"9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.'
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where they have come?' 14 I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:9-14
2- "2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart." Proverbs 21:2
3- "21 Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" Matthew 7:21-23 Law is translated Torah
4- "5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Phillippians 2:5-8
5- "3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4
"9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phillippians 2:9-11
