B.E.S.T. Shabbat

"… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Eph 6:17 (NASB) To listen to the audio-only version click below  Meditations of the heart are where we wage the true warfare of the spirit. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." Eph 6:10 (NASB) How do we “be strong in the Lord”? We do that by aligning the faith in our heart with the truth of His Word. "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called , and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 1Ti 6:12 (NASB) The “fight” of faith is an internal war. Paul tells Timothy that he needs to take hold of the eternal life to which he was called. Can you hear the effort suggested? Think of things you take hold of that have power in your life. If you ride horses, you take hold of the reins. If you ride motorcycles, you take hold of the handlebars. Taking hold of something of power means a conscious effort ...

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:8-9 NASB) Meditation is hard work. This is the work of entering rest. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that it requires diligence to enter rest: Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. (Heb 4:11 NASB). Typically, we think of rest as a surrender from effort. While there is some truth to that principle, I believe the scriptures are indicating a different kind of rest. An analogy that might help us see behind the curtain of rest that is sometimes obscured by the flesh and its tendency towards indolence, is to think of rest as the c...

23 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  24 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.  25 ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.’” (Leviticus 23:23-25 (NASB)) Click here to listen to “ Yom Teruah and Justice ” In these unjust times, God  has made time in His schedule to  connect with us and allow us to activate His kingdom reality.  We are entering into the  Fall Feasts of the Lord, beginning today with the first Yom Teruah.    What I want to explore beyond the basic  understanding that the Feasts of the Lord are His feasts and His events  and  to  access them as  a  breakthrough in justice in these admittedly unjust times . I know that on the surface, blowing a shofar or raising a shout to the Lord may seem disconnected from ju...

So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. (Heb 4:9) Click here to listen to " Hope and Shabbat " Hope is one of the 3 treasures of the spirit realm. Along with faith and love, hope activates what Yeshua called the Abiding Life. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Co 13:13) There are 2 ways of interpreting this verse. First, we could interpret faith, hope, and love as qualities of the abiding life. In this way, they become fruits of abiding. When we abide in the Lord, our life contains more faith, more hope, and more love. The second perspective is to think of these as doorways into the abiding life, or access portals, In the same way that Yeshua is the door into the Kingdom and also the substance of the kingdom, these can serve both as fruits and as ways into the abiding life. So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. "All who came before Me...

The last few weeks we have been looking at Divine Alignment with respect to the issue of how we perceive our self-worth.  Last week it was about purpose and destiny.  The analogy of a GPS – God Purposing System – recalibrates direction in accordance with your willful chosen routes toward the destiny entered into the GPS. Question: Have you ever used a GPS system and found yourself at a dead end or roadblock keeping you from your destination? In your life, think about that obstacle in your walk or your life right now hindering you from moving forward.  14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. - Mat 5:14-16 NASB Now it’s time to let YOUR light shine! We a...