The Reconciliation And The Revival

Until the foundational rift between the Jewish and non-Jewish part of the church is healed, there will be NO revival. We must have reconciliation between the two. While articulating this message may be one the hardest things to share with people, I stand ready to defend the merits of this message with my life. It is the heart of God for this hour. The One New Man is not a movement, a doctrine, a formula. It's the ministry of unity, biblical roots and prayer. What greater message could there be? What greater call could we have than to have the heartbeat of Jesus for the people the heart of Jesus beats for the most - His chosen race - the Jewish people? Why do Gentiles take so much offense when they're challenged to honor the feasts of the Lord yet honor pagan celebrations without giving any thought to what the do or raising one objection whatsoever? We cry for revival, but revival is not coming until the reconciling of the branches takes place. When that occurs - it will be life from the dead!

By Chris McDonald

TEXT: Exodus 20:12  - Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives thee.

Romans 9:5  - Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Malachi 4:6  - And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

        The Fifth Commandment says, "Honor your father and your mother."  Scripture calls Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the "fathers" of our faith. The church owes a debt of gratitude to the Jewish people. But if the church denies its Jewish heritage it is dishonoring its spiritual "fathers" and violating the commandment of God.

        Malachi was the last book of the "Bible" the early church read. The New Covenant was not added to the canon of Scripture for nearly 500 years after Messiah was resurrected. The last prophecy in the Old Covenant describes how important this matter is to God:

Malachi 4:6  - And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse

        If the "fathers" are the Jewish people, who are the 'children?'  The children are the Christians because they have received a spiritual heritage from the Jewish fathers of the faith. God says if the hearts of the Jewish people are not turned to the Christians and the hearts of the Christians to the Jewish people, He will strike the earth with a curse.

        The devil has worked hard to keep the two groups apart. With cunning like a master chess player, he has placed a barrier that seems insurmountable between believers in Jesus and the Jewish people. Jesus came to break down the wall between Jew and Gentile. Ephesians 2:14 says Jesus has made "the two (Jew and Gentile) one." Jesus prayed in John 17:21 "that they all may be ONE - that the world might believe. Whom does "all" refer to? I can tell you know it does NOT refer to the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists and Pentecostals as some try to teach this verse urging unity among denominations. We need unity among denominations but denominations did not exist in Jesus' day. Jesus was not praying for denominations. He was praying for His followers, who were Jewish, and for those who will believe from their words - the Gentiles. The stakes are high. Jesus says when Jewish and Gentile believers are one -THE WORLD WILL BELIEVE. When this happens, the same degree of glory that is on Jesus will be released on the church as stated in John 17:22:

John 17:20-22  - Neither pray I for these alone, (His followers who were Jewish)  but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;  (the Gentiles) [21] That they (Jewish and Gentile believers) all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (When the church sees the unity between the Gentile Church and the Jewish believers- HARVEST!) [22] And the glory which thou gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
 

Not only will God's glory to be released to bring in THE harvest but we will receive that same love that Father God has for Jesus the Son. Messiah Jesus said:

John 17:26  - And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
 

God wants to use the Gentile world to bring the Jewish people BACK into the Body of Messiah. This is true unity!

Romans 11:11  - I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

        God wants us as Gentiles to be so on fire for Jesus that when the Jews see us they will be jealous of the fact we are rejoicing and being blessed by the covenant they once forsook. Somehow this truth has gotten lost. More tragically the church's bitter fight against spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit is a symptom of a far more sinister problem - Bigotry! You see one way the Jew is provoked to jealousy for the gospel of Jesus is through a SIGN. The Jews require a SIGN to believe, the Greeks require wisdom. Think about it. Most of the problems the American church has in reaching the lost Gentile world is the fact most in America are so "intellectual" in their own eyes they are offended when we tell them they are sinners and must repent before a Holy God.

         For the Jew it is different. The greatest stumbling block to the Jew are signs and wonders. The Jewish mind has always required a sign. It's what got the Jewish religious leaders so angry at Jesus when they were demanding He show proof He was the Son of God. When He told them the only sign they'd be given was the CROSS,  it enraged them! The Jewish mind still requires a sign today:

1 Cor. 1:22-25  - For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: [23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; [24] But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. [25] Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

        Instead of driving the Jewish people to jealousy the church has simply driven them away as we have really Gentiles too. We offer a LIFELESS GOSPEL! We offer "words" instead of demonstrations of the power of God and a connection between the heart of God and man. We want people to adhere to our tenants of faith to be members of our church while we criticize and condemn the Jewish rabbis for all their tradition. Give me a break. At least the Jewish rabbinical tradition is an effort to understand GOD. Both systems are flawed and both will produce death. Our tenants of faith will NOT provoke anyone to jealousy - Jew or Gentile - and it will choke out the life and power we will need in these last days to bring in the harvest for the Lord Jesus.

        Although there have been many in the Christian faith who gave their lives in trying to stand up for the Jewish Race (Germany's Dietrich Bonhoeffer comes to mind) some of the most anti-Jewish people in the last 2,000 years have been those who have called themselves "Christian." Through the centuries, accusations and statements by the church and its leaders against the Jews have led to a form of vicious "Christian" anti-Semitism:

·         Justin Martyr (A.D. 167) was one of the first to accuse the Jews of inciting to kill Christians

·         Origen (AD 254) accused the Jews of plotting in their meetings to murder Christians

·         Eusebius (AD 300) alleged that Jews, each year at the holiday of Purim, engaged in ceremonial killing of Christian children

·         St. Hilary of Poitiers (AD 367) said that the Jews were a perverse people, forever accursed by God

·         St. Ephraem (AD 373) wrote many of the early church hymns, some of which maligned Jews, even to the point of calling Jewish synagogues "whorehouses."

·         St. John Chrysostom (AD 344-407) said that there could never be expiation for the Jews and that God had always hated them. He said it was "incumbent" upon all Christians to hate the Jews; they were assassins of Christ, and worshippers of the devil; In one of his writings, Chrysostom wrote, 'their synagogues are worse than brothel...they are a den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts...the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults...the refuge of brigands and debauches, and the cavern of devils.'

·         St. Cyril (AD 444) gave the Jews within his jurisdiction the choice of conversion, exile or stoning.

·         St. Jerome (AD 420), translator of the Latin Vulgate, "proved" that Jews are incapable of understanding the Scriptures and said they should be severely persecuted until they confess "the true faith."

·         St. Augustine (AD 430) said the true image of the Jew was Judas Iscariot, forever guilty and ignorant spiritually. St. Augustine decided that Jews, for their own good and the good of society, must be relegated to the position of slaves. This theme was later picked up by:

·         St. Thomas Aquinas (AD 1274) who demanded that the Jews be called to perpetual servitude. According to Professor F.E. Talmage, St. Augustine believed that "because of their sin against Christ, the Jews rightly deserved death. Yet, as with Cain who murdered the "just Abel, they are not to die...for they are doomed to wander the earth...the witnesses of their iniquity and of our truth' the living proof of Christianity.

·      The Crusaders (AD 1099) herded Jews into the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. When they were securely inside the locked doors, the synagogue was set on fire. And the misguided Crusaders, with the lies of the perverted sermons fresh in their ears, sang as they marched around the blaze, "Christ, we adore Thee."

·     Martin Luther (1544) said the Jews should not merely be slaved, but slaves of slaves, that they might not even come into contact with Christians. In his "Schem Hamphoras," he said the Jews were ritual murderers and poisoners of the wells. He called for all Talmud and synagogues to be destroyed.

       Martin Luther said quite a few derogatory things actually about the Jews. In his Von den Juden und Iren Luegen treatise of 1543 he wrote, "What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we cannot tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy...We must prayerfully and reverently practice a merciful severity."

        Encyclopedia Judaica comments on Luther's statements: "Short of the Auschwitz over and extermination, the whole Nazi Holocaust is pre-outlined here." In another tirade against the Jews, Luther said, quoting, "those rulers who have Jewish subjects need to exercise a sharp mercy toward these wretched people...They must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone and marrow...burn down their synagogues...If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs." (From Luther Works, Vol. 47: The Christian In Society IV)

        Indeed Luther's words were prophetic because in 1933 in Adolph Hitler's infamous book, Mien Kempt he wrote, "hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." And in the name of "Christianity" and "God" Adolph Hitler used the nation of Germany to slaughter six million Jewish people through genocide. We are going to take an in-depth look at Hitler's' holocaust of the Jewish people in our next lesson. What makes the holocaust so horrible was the role the church in Germany (AND AROUND THE WORLD INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES) played in this demonic demented act of humanity.

        All Israel Shall Be Saved

        Speaking as part of the church - we need a miracle to remove this wound. Only God can restore the damage between the church and the Jewish people. Repentance is the first step. Maybe none of us reading this are Anti-Semitic, but as members of His Body, we must and need to repent for the sins of the whole church. Daniel did not rebel against God, but he repented on behalf of Israel. Some feel we should not talk of this sad history but I believe its what's holding back God's total glory and blessing on the 21rst Century Church. The church must get rid of this horrible SIN!  Repentance will prepare the way for a great Jewish revival. As the Gentiles who believe in Jesus repent and mature in Jesus, the Jewish people will become more open to the Gospel. Step one toward maturity is REPENTANCE! It's the Passover Lamb - YESHUAH - who takes away the sins of the world.

Romans 11:25-26  - For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. [26] And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

That They May Be One

                The early believers “were together and had everything in common” – Acts 2:44. They were “one in heart and mind,” Acts 4:32. In the Garden, Jesus prayed that all of us “may be one so ‘that the world may believe that you have sent me.’”

Acts 4:32

    And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Acts 2:44 - And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

John 17:21

    That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

                But we are not one! There are now over 160 different ecclesiastical traditions with 23,300 separate and distinct denominations within the larger Body – and that number is growing each day with each church split, each break off  “movement,” “fellowship,” and work. By breaking from those who birthed us, the CHURCH has produced one division after another. Every new movement has resulted in a new church; each reformation a new denomination.

                We have reproduced according to our kind – DIVISON!

Genesis 1:11 - And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

                A mutilation has entered the bloodstream and now we have Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic; Anglican and Protestant; Calvinism and Arminianism; Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene and Pentecostal; denominationalism and nondenominationally.

                It all began with the first break when the Gentile church said, “we are superior to the Jewish people and we now have a right to take over their role and calling.”

                The firstborn son of God is ISRAEL, not the CHURCH.

Exodus 4:22  - And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

All other wounds of division stem from this original wound. According to Marty Wildman:

"Because the Church had grown to believe that it superseded Israel and Messianic Judaism, the spirit of supersessionsim has plagued Christianity through the ages. The Orthodox Church believes that the Roman Catholic Church is in rebellion. The Roman Catholic Church has always viewed the Protestants as religious rebels. The many denominations and divisions in the Protestant church are primarily the result of one group of Christians superseding an existing group because they have found a "more pure way." Supersessionism essentially nullifies the promise of God to the previous group."

       Paul tied this theme into his writings to the Romans in relating Israel's calling and her place with God:

Romans 11:29  - For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Hands Stained With Blood

        Too often our prayers have come from hate-filled hearts and bloodstained hands.  This is graphically illustrated in the famine in the time of David after his ascent to the throne. God told David, "it is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." This goes deep so follow me here. Saul was dead. The Gibeonites were a group of people that were in existence LONG before David came to power. Why would God send a famine on the land because of a past generation. Why hold David and his kingdom accountable for that?

        Yesterday's sins cause today's famine! Let that sink in Church! As Israel entered into the land, their leader Joshua made a covenant with the Gibeonites. Four hundred years later, Saul, the first king of Israel, broke that covenant. The famine that blighted the land during David's reign came because Saul had dishonored and killed a covenant people. This godless dead, committed centuries later, now rested on the head of the present ruler, and God expected an appropriate act of contrition and confession - NATIONALLY AND CORPORATELY.

        The Church finds itself in the same place today. Past generations of leaders have dishonored and even killed this special people God marked for blessing. A good friend of mine told me recently that the number of years America turned her back on the Jewish people (and a lot of that can be laid at the foot of the American church!) is the exact number of years we fought Vietnam. We are the descendants both physically and spiritually, of those generations! Authority has now passed to us just as it did David. From us in the 21rst Century Church God is expecting repentance over our Anti-Jewish stances and past bloodshed at His chosen people's expense. If this does not happen we will continue to be under a curse:

Malachi 4:5-6  - Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: [6] And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

        We can brag and boast about our numbers and the "hoopla" so many call “revival” but friend America is not changing. All our services, all our activity and all our churches have not brought the power of God to America to the point she has repented. The reason? Because the church hasn't repented. And until we repent there is going to be a famine. Revival is not a series of meetings. Revival is change. It's a change in our hearts. It's a change in our homes. It's a change in our lives. It's a change in our jobs. It's a change in our schools. It's a change in our government. It's a change in our financial institutions. It's a change in the entertainment industry.

Revival CHANGES EVERYTHING! And it's not changing hearts and lives then it's not revival. We may feel God's presence, we may feel goose bumps, we may even shout and sing a little, but friend God wants to open ALL OF HEAVEN to come down and saturate this ungodly nation with HIS GLORY! The church basks in the presence but it's GODS GLORY that He wants to reveal to us! And when He reveals His glory - NO FLESH CAN GLORY IN THAT! NO FLESH can stand and boast in the presence of the GLORY OF GOD! I hear it all the time in churches all over America "God is here," "God is here," - friend, if God was there no one would be standing. We wouldn't be bragging, we'd be prostrate on the ground DEAD! Hear me America. Hear me Gentile world. There is BLOOD ON OUR HANDS! And it's Jewish blood. And the Lord Jesus (YESHUAH) is not happy right now at how we have treated His fellow brethren and kinsman! We can either repent of this evil wickedness or remove the curse or we can rebel and harden our hearts and see judgment hit America in such a way they won't be able to find Texas on a map after God 's through with us!

        The Church in some parts of the world is coming to grips with it sins. Reconciliation groups are meeting in every nation. Germans are confessing to Europeans, Japanese to Asians, descendants of European conquerors to indigenous people groups, sons and daughters of former slaveholders and slave traders to sons and daughters of former slaves. The Jewish issues are no longer and cannot any longer be ignored. You may not care about any of this - BUT YOU BETTER START CARING! This is the move of God that is ahead in the earth before Jesus comes!

        And if the church of Yeshua wants to see TRUE BIBLICAL UNITY we must first be set free by territorial and denominational spirits and only have devotion to the KING! But the family can only come together when we tear down the wall between the Gentile and the Jewish people. And the Gentile world needs to be rebuked for trying to make the Jewish people become Gentiles! They don't have to lose their Jewish heritage to be part of YESHUAH! He was JEWISH!!!!

        When we cleanse our hands and hearts then we will see the promise of Psalms 133 come to pass upon us!

Psalm 133:1-3  - A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren (JEW AND GENTILE) to dwell together in unity! [2] It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; [3] As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

The Revival

John 17:20-23 - Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; [21] That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. [22] And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: [23] I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. [24] Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Romans 11:11-26 - I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. [12] Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: [14] If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. [15] For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? [16] For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. [17] And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree; [18] Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. [19] Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. [20] Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou stands by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: [21] For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. [22] Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. [23] And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. [24] For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? [25] For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. [26] And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

A man used a great deal in prophetic gifts was once asked why there were so few true miracles here in the American church as compared to other parts of the world. The prophet didn't hesitate and said, "the REAL miracle is that ANY miracles occur here in America with the idolatry, distractions and just plain out lack of intimacy with God in the American church." WHEW. What a statement but one that is true.

        The glory that existed under Moses in the Old Covenant was so great men had to put his face under a veil because it shined so brightly. Can we honestly say we have that type glory in the church? We brag that we do but friend we have not experienced the glory of God yet. We have experienced some miracles and certainly there are anointed men of God who have been used greatly in healing and deliverance. But the corporate church as a whole lacks GOD! What do I mean when I say we lack God? Because:

·         There is so little compassion for the souls of men and for the poor, hurting and needy

·         The same sins that pervade society pervade the church (its actually worse in the church in some cases)

·         We grieve the Holy Spirit through our willful ignorance, compromise and tradition

·         We fear man more than we fear God

        This generation of believers has a choice before it unlike any other in our past. We can follow the cloud of God's presence and GLORY just as Israel did so long ago in the wilderness or we can remain stuck in our old ways. God gave Israel a specific plan to enter into the Promised Land AND to enter into His glory. He brought Moses into the Mount and gave him a PATTERN. That pattern was a bridge to intimacy with GOD! When the pattern is right, the glory explodes.

Hebrews 8:5  - Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, said he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to you in the mount.

        This pattern is not a FORMULA. Man wants to place God in a box. That is why there are so many different theologies and views of God through various denominations and movements. Biblical patterns always lead to intimacy. Church-birthed formulas lead to death. This is what happened with doctrines such as healing and prosperity.

        Although there is a great truth in both of these teachings, sometimes not everyone who is prayed for is healed and not everyone in the Body of Christ experiences financial (monetary) prosperity. Those who knew God through these teachings by the formulas we presented them were quickly offended and lost their faith in God altogether. But those who had a pure faith in God used those disappointments to draw CLOSER to HIM, not run from HIM.

        This same pattern also will lead to a tremendous end-time UNITY between JEW AND GENTILE. This is a "new thing" to many in the church because of our past traditional teachings and views on the Jewish people. God is about to scale back the devil's deception over us and when that happens - LOOK OUT!

Isaiah 43:19  - Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

        When Jew and Gentiles come together in JESUS - there will be rivers in the desert and a "way" will be made plain in the wilderness. That is the call to us as the Church as it relates to Israel as well. When we bless her as a nation and stand with her (not fanatically but through intercession) we will see great blessings. The WAY that will be made plain is JESUS. That speaks to us of HARVEST. When the pattern gets right the greatest outpouring of the Holy Ghost YET will be unleashed upon this earth.

First Israel The Natural, Then Blessings On The Church, The Spiritual

1 Cor. 15:46  - Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

 

                First, God acts with His natural "witness" in the earth, ISRAEL, then He acts with His spiritual people, the CHURCH. His true church is made up of those who genuinely believe in Jesus and Saviour and Lord. The church and Israel are "mishpochah" or Hebrew for "family." Whatever happens to the natural witness of Israel dramatically affects the restoration of the church. Both salvation and judgment are tied into this pattern as well in scripture. Salvation is given to the Jew first, but the Jewish person also faces the judgment of God first! They are the pattern for us here in the Church:

Romans 1:16 -  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. [17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Romans 2:2-25  - But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. [3] And do you think this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shall escape the judgment of God? [4] Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? [5] But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; [6] Who will render to every man according to his deeds: [7] To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: [8] But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, [9] Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; [10] But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: [11] For there is no respect of persons with God.

        The following are some dates in history that have seen major things take place concerning National Israel. During these same time frames major explosions of power and grace were unleashed upon the church of the Lord Jesus:

·         In 1897, Theodore Hertzl convened the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland to investigate the formation of  a Jewish homeland. The beginning of the restoration of the Holy Spirit followed the beginning of the restoration of the Land back to the church. On New Years' Eve, 1900, at a Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, a 30-year-old student named Agnes Ozman, began to speak in tongues - the start of the Pentecostal revival. Some days later, Charles Parham and other students also received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the gift of speaking with other tongues. After William Seymour sat under Parham's teaching, he took the fire to a home prayer meeting in Los Angeles and birthed the now famous Azusa Street Revival!

·         In 1948 when Israel became a nation, God responded by bringing the healing revival and movement throughout the entire world - but especially to the United States. The United States played a pivotal road in the U.N. vote for Israel to declare herself a nation. Interestingly enough the president at that time was Harry S. Truman who was from Independence, Missouri just outside Kansas City. It is here in Kansas City where the Lord has seemed to center many PROPHETIC ministries that have sprung forth to touch the world - Smithton Outpouring, Paul Cain, Mike Bickle, Dan Bohlen, and others just to name a few. John Wimber's Vineyard movement got a jump-start from those in the Kansas City area.  Over 100 evangelists like Oral Roberts, Kathryn Kuhlman, T.L. Osborn and Kenneth Hagin became tremendous men of God used in healing during this time.

·         In 1967 Israel regained possession of Jerusalem for the first time since the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. That same year, the Catholic Charismatic movement started. It went on to impact Christians from all denominations. The late 1960s also gave birth to the "word of faith," and "Jesus movements," by which we learned to have true faith in God through men like Ken Copeland and others. The Jesus movement brought in thousands of hippies through the evangelism of many the Lord raised up at the time in the midst of total anarchy here in America.

·         In 1973 around the time of Yom Kippur War there was a revival among Jewish people resulting in the modern-day Messianic Jewish movement that began during that time. It was also during the early 1970s that the Charismatic movement experienced great revival.

·         In recent years we have seen God tie in blessings on the church with times when Israel was at peace with her enemies. In 1994 Israel signed an agreement with JORDAN and the PLO the following year for peace. About the same time, revival broke out and exploded at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola (1995), Toronto Airport Church in Canada (1994) and the Holy Trinity Brompton Church in England.

·         2002-2003 - ?

Israel Is The Pattern For Glory

        What will be the next move of God in the church? Watch Israel! Because of sin, the Lord scattered the Jewish people to the four corners of the earth. But in the last days He promises to restore them back to Israel. In the Old Covenant, the nation of Israel was a "divided" land. The Northern Kingdom was called "Israel," and the Southern Kingdom was called, "Judah." Judah and Israel fought with each other. God promises to restore these two Kingdoms and return them to their land. They will be "one nation under one King."

Ezekiel 37:21-22  - And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of

Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: [22] And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:


 

Israel is a nation again and the Jewish people are returning home in record numbers. A sign of the hastening of the prophetic time clock is when the Jews from the "north" of Israel (former Soviet Union) return to the land. Jeremiah prophesied this would come and says once this happens, Jews from the entire world will return to Israel:

 Jeremiah 16:14-16  - Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; [15] But, The Lord lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.  [16] Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
 

        The two covenant peoples of God - Jews and Christians, who have fought with each other, will unite under One King - JESUS. This will cause a spiritual explosion in the church and usher in I believe the final harvest before judgment. Judgment is coming friend. There is no escaping that unless man makes a 180-degree turn and quickly. The hardness of man's heart and Satan's demonic deception over the masses will prevent that from happening. I wish that were not true but the scriptures bear it out that during the Great Tribulation men will not turn to God even when the sky is literally falling upon them through catastrophe after catastrophe. It will only harden man's heart more and make him curse God.

        The One New Man in Messiah is the devil's worst nightmare! The underlying purpose for the current outpourings of the Holy Spirit is to equip believers with power to evangelize the JEW FIRST, then the Greek. When the Jewish believers join the Gentile American to form the One New Man it will trigger a major release of power to usher in the coming harvest. But before the church can enter into this glorious future we must over our anti-Semitic past and have the ignorance of our hearts removed. That's the purpose and call of this ministry. For better or worse, we will stand with our lives to defend the merit of this message. There is no other Biblical mandate than to take the gospel to the Jewish people first and preach Christ Crucified to a lost and dying world. Our standing with Israel as Gentiles does not require us to become Jews to do so, but I believe the Lord is raising up a generation of people with a unique heart for God's chosen people. This is the message we must proclaim at all costs. Shalom.

One New Man In Messiah - One In The Olive Tree