Last night I was invited to a friends house for a Rosh Hashana dinner and celebration. During this time people eat lots of apples dipped in honey and dates to represent the sweetness of the new year. Apple cake is a great way to do that too! Anyway, at the end of the meal we took time to blow the shofar, read portions of the Torah readings (story of Abraham putting Isaac on the altar, as well as Hannah's song in I Sam 2) both of which had to do with shofars, or horns. When you blow the shofar during Rosh Hashana you are to begin with a long blast, then three shorter mournful blasts, then a number of staccato or very short blasts and finally end with another long blast. The first represents purity and wholeness, the second group represents the sin that is in each of us, the third section speaks of how God takes us apart to remove the sin - often we are put into a fragmented state, then the last represents how He then puts us back together in purity and wholeness (this is what I've been told, might not be what everyone would say). Listening to people blow their shofars at the Wall today I was reminded of how Yeshua was pure and whole, He then took on the sins of the world, was torn and beaten for us, and then rose from the dead to offer us the opportunity to be pure and whole with Him. We are now entering the 10 Days of Awe leading up to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) during which time Jewish people search their hearts for sins they need to repent of. As a symbol of their sins being atoned for, they also wear mostly white instead of their typical black.
As a Westerner it is very odd to celebrate the New Year in the middle of the year. Even though the Hebrew calendar states that we are beginning the 7th month, this was commanded by God to be observed as the beginning of the year. I find it interesting that God chose the time of Harvest to be the start of the year. He wants us to begin by harvesting!! When God placed Adam in the Garden it was already a fruitful place, He didn't say I'm putting you here, now make a fruitful garden. So with us God begins the year with abundance, food that is ready to be eaten! He has prepared a table before us, it is already there, waiting for us to partake of His goodness. We are also having faith that we will see an abundant harvest of souls! Recently a woman here had an encounter with God in which He asked her how many Muslim souls she wanted. She began to small and so He kept telling her to ask for more. Finally she said she wanted 1,000,000 Muslim souls to be saved. The other day some friends of mine were visiting a former Muslim woman and she said that's what they have been praying for, 1,000,000 Muslims to be saved. They are also God's precious jewels, sons of Abraham and He loves them tremendously! The Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain came down in an instant, it was a suddenly. God can do the same with this deception.
During Ramadan (which is just now ending) a strange thing happened. On the Temple Mount one of the huge brass doors of the Dome of the Rock was left open and women were sitting in it praying. It was like this for days. If non-Muslim women went to the open door they did not tell them to leave. Now, these doors are NEVER left open, and if you try to get a glimpse inside when a worker goes in or out they will holler at you and tell you to get away. But all week long it was this way, however, they would not let any non-Muslim men near the door. After praying into this, the group has felt that God is saying He is opening a new door, and it will be through the women. Muslim women are under tremendous oppression, and we feel that is part of why they will be the ones who begin this new wave of turning to the One True God! They are so ready to hear some good news, and they will be open and receptive to non-Muslim women who approach them. So we have been proclaiming that the doors are no longer shut!!! Also, due to Ramadan, the Temple Mount was supposed to be closed off to visitors today, but when we showed up this morning they were allowing groups to go up! We really feel that this is going to be a year of God opening doors that no man could open and that no man can shut once He has opened them.
Several leaders here have said they really feel that this will be the beginning of God taking His servants and speaking through them to the Kings and leaders of the nations. However, it will not be for the purpose of pride and personal gain. He will use the nobodies. He has called for a nameless, faceless tribe who seeks not their own glory but delights only in doing the will of their Beloved, the King of Kings. It is people with this type of heart that He will suddenly thrust into places of great influence, but only for a moment. They will go, speak what God tells them to speak and then they will return to being part of that nameless, faceless tribe. In II Kings 9 Elisha sends the son of a prophet to speak to Jehu and anoint him King over Israel. Elisha's instructions to this young man were go in, speak the words, anoint him and then run out of there as fast as you can. Why? It was not to be about this young man, or any man. He was sent in to do a task of great importance, but he was to gain nothing himself from doing it. This is how we are to operate! Instead so often God gives us a task, we do it, and then we proclaim to the whole world the great thing we have just done. That is not God's heart!!!
This nameless, faceless people will be able to function in tremendous unity since they won't be seeking their own gain, but the gain of Him they serve. If you read II Chronicles 5, when Solomon is dedicating the Temple the Glory of the Lord only fills the Temple when all the musicians and singers make a sound as ONE. The unity of believers, functioning as ONE body is what will bring the glory of God in the last days. During these 10 Days of Awe, maybe we should be searching our hearts for those things that keep us from being in unity with the rest of the Body of Yeshua. God make me a nameless, faceless follower of You, should be our cry.
Praise Report!
I was able to play the piano for an hour straight on Thursday without any noticeable increase in pain or tension in my elbow!
Prayer Requests:
1. Completion of the healing in my elbow
2. Continued increase in my ability to hear what He's saying to me
3. Grace for this stretching of my faith!
Blessings to you all!
~Lydia
Pictures:
1. Holding my friend's 4th baby (she was one of my room mates back in 2002).
2. Kody being Kody! He just turned 2 this week.
3. Running into a friend from the States
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