Remembering the Blessings
04/22/17 (01/25) Video Broadcast
And we will begin.
All right.
HalleluYah!
Blessed be the
Name of the Yahweh.
How many of you watching
or listening to the study
portion today are going
through some difficult
times?
I know we've had
our share of trials.
But I want to share today
something that you know
help us to keep things in perspective and to remember what we've been given, and to remember, absolutely remember the blessings. We have a tendency to forget the blessings that we are given as the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness forgot about the bondage of slavery and they longed for the leeks and onions and all those things. But think back to the time that you first humbled yourself, you first acknowledged that you were not wise enough to direct your own life and you put your life in Yahweh's wise in trustworthy hands, seeking his mercies and forgiveness for going your own way and finally obtaining his sense of peace and contentment in knowing that you're in good hands. Maybe when you first believed, you were going to a traditional church, calling upon Jesus. I might say that might have been a defining moment for you time of rejoicing your sins were forgiven, you were thankful for the abounding grace that was bestowed upon you and how Yahweh called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Well we can't forget the things that Yahweh has
done for us. Remember when Yahushua said in Luke chapter 15 verse 8 what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying "rejoice with me for I've found the piece which I lost". Likewise I say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels or Elohim over one sinner who repents, just one sinner who repents.
On the day we chose to repent and gave our lifeto the Messiah Yahushua, there was rejoicing. There was joy and there was rejoicing in the presence of Yahweh and in the presence of angels of Elohim there was joy. Not because we had sinned but because we have changed our attitude towards sin and because wechanged our attitude toward sin and we received Messiah Yahushua, we were recipients and are recipients ofmercy and grace from Yahweh and now he is looking to bless us.
And Yahushua went through so much suffering so that we can be given eternal life. And so when we choose to receive Him, He knows He did not die for us in vain. And for that, He rejoices. When we receive him, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew that's "ruach hakodesh" and we begin bearing the fruits of His Spirit which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law. So, His Spirit is in us. Guess what's in us? It's right here,joy. The joy of Yahweh is manifest in us. Isn't that what most people are looking for? Is happiness, peace, love.
His spirit gives us peace joy and love.
Have you received that? Many of us may have felt like we received that when we first became believers when we firstwere baptized.I remember when I first got baptized I couldn't take that smile off my face. It was a time of joyand rejoicing in Yahweh for abundance of His love and kindness and the grace that appeared to all of us.The souls who go down the water and come up a new creation.
For some of you that happened a long time ago.
And for those of you towhom that happened long time ago, for me, it was going 27 years ago.
Do you have any reason to be less joyful now than you were when you first believed? Did you forget maybe the goodness and mercy of Yahweh that brought you to repentance and salvation? You know it is the tendency of human nature to not remember the good that we are given and to dwell upon the negative things that we are going through. Remember when the children of Israel had crossed the the Sea of Reeds, the Red Sea, it says the horses of Pharoah went with his chariots and the hosemen into the sea and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea upon them but the children of Israel went on dry land and the midst of the sea. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them "sing to Yahweh for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider, he has thrown into the sea." But then, the very next verse, so Moshe
brought Israel from the Red Sea and then they went out into the wildernessof Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters waters of Marah for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moshe saying, "What shall we drink?"
So he cried out to Yahweh and Yahweh showed him a tree and when he had cast it into the water, the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them. And there he tested them and said "If you diligently heed the voice of Yahweh your Elohim and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on Egyptians for I am Yahweh Raphah. I am Yahweh who heals you. So, right after this time of getting the tambourine, rejoicing and just having a great old time and dancing around; there is no water over here,
there's no water. What are we going to drink? See, the people complained very quickly after they were baptized and for some reason the rejoicing stopped and here they realized they went over, went under the sea or through it or whatever and then here we are, and "there is no water to drink." How are we going to survive on this side of the sea. Why did Yahweh bring us over here? Everyone wondered, "Why did Yahweh bring me over here?" Have you ever felt like that, went through the time of rejoicing, you chose a new walk, and walked this new life, and you found out, "You know, this life in the wilderness isn't quite as glorious and problem free as we thought." Did someone sell you a bill of goods telling you that "once you come to Yahushua, your life will be void of any major problems and you will not have to suffer anymore and everything will be rosy and grand and you will just tiptoe through the tulips, never have a problem or care in the world ever again"? But then you find out life in Messiah isn't quite the better roses. Someone sold you a bill of goods that wasn't true, maybe some people are even bitter. You know whoever sold you that bill was probably sold the same bill. They probably didn't realize that our calling may sometimes even result in suffering. 1 Peter 2:21 says for this you were called because Messiah suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps.
So life in Messiah is not completely without suffering and in fact suffering is a part of our calling. As I shared earlier this past winner,you were callled to this. But the children of Israel went without water for three days and finding good water was you know frequently a problem in the dry and bare land of the Negev, the desert, why did Yahweh do that to them? Why did he allow them suffer and hunger and thirst in adversity? Why would he do that? Deuteronomy chapter 8 in verse 3 gives us the answer. You shall remember Yahweh your Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart. Whether you would keep His commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know what? That man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. That is how you live. I guess that makes the scriptures pretty important huh? You know it just seems like Yahweh wants to know if we're real. Are we just following Him because you know , the benefits. Do we only love him because of the the benefits? Are His promises enough? Do we believe in his promises? Do we really, really belive in his promises or is his salvation enough?
The mere fact he brought us out of bondage which was far worse than anything we're currently facing. Is the time of rejoicing for the salvation of Yahweh and our faith enough, and His promises for the future enough? Can we put enough faith in teh future tahat he will carry us through this land between, between Egypt and the promised land? I'm sorry but we're not in the promised land yet. And in this land between will we be thankful for what Yahweh has done and rejoice for the blessings that we do have, or we will murmur in our tents and long to go back to Egypt. As the people complained, it displeased Yahweh. His anger was aroused, so the fire of Yahweh burned among them and it consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. And the people cried out to Moshe and when Moshe prayed to Yahweh the fire was quenched so he called the the Taberah because the fire of Yahweh burned among them. Why is he doing this? The mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving so the children of Yahweh also wept again and "so who will give us meat to eat, we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic. But now, our whole being is dried up and there's nothing at all except these manna before our eyes". Having already forgotten the boundage they were in there, acting like life in the land of Egypt was a wonderful, grandois place to live. They even said in one place, they said, when Moshe sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab and they said "we will not come up is it a small thing you have brought us up out of land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you should keep acting like this prince over us? How disrespectful. Amazing how the rihors and bondage of Egypt were forgotten and the way of misery that they weere in was forgotten. And they only remember what good there may have been there.You know, we subject our lives to the harsh rule of the enemy, Satan the devil. We endure the slavery, the fear and the misery just
so that our flesh could enjoy the few leeks and onions and the garlic cloves. At some point you know we all realize it's not worth it. And really Yahweh's promises are far better than the hopeless end we are heading toward. And so now that we have turned toward Yahweh, we knew at some point what he has to offer was better and it seemed to me he wants to know whether we're going to give up those temporary pleasures and feed instead on His word, his promises and his goodness. Will we lift up up our eyes and see all the good things He really has done for us, and what He promises to do for us in the age to come. And are we thankful for those things to the extent that we say, "you know, that's enough. I'm thankful for what I have been given and what I have been promised and I'm really not worthy to demand anything more". When our souls feed on the good word of Yahweh, you know what happens? When you don't feed on the good word of Yahweh, and then you are going through trials, you get nothing to eat, nothing spiritually, nothing to grab a hold of and to feed you. And so its going to seem like it's better on the other side. Because your spirit is starving, your soul is not getting what it needs. And so, you have to continue to feed on the good word of the Yahweh and his promises knowing you are never going to find eternal life in the pursuit of temporary things.
And we only find life, abundant life, in every word that proceeds out of Yahweh's mouth. or Yahushua you know, Yahweh's word was enough.
After He was baptized, He was also led by the Spirit of Yahweh into the wilderness and caused to go without. So Yahushua being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit to the wilderness. He had to take Yahushsua into the wilderness experience as well, and being tempted for forty days by the devil and inthose days He ate nothing and afterwards when it ended He was hungry. Then the devil said to Him, "if you're the son of Elohim, command the stone to become bread." But Yahushua answered him saying, "It is written, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of Elohim". He remembered the thing that Yahweh had spoken back in Deuteremnomy. So Yahushua was tested, he did not falter because his focus was not on the temporary things. He willingly ate nothing, and said, "Man, I don't need no bread. I don't need no bread. Because I'm living by the word of Elohim. I don't need temporary things. I'm living by the word of Elohim. "And one time, when his disciples went back and they walked with him no more, not the twelve but others, Yahushau then said to the twelve, "do you also want to go away?" and Simon Peter said "Master to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we've come to believe and know that you are the Messiah, son of the living Elohim." So it was the word. It was the word that kept them going, it was the word that attached them and compelled them to follow Yahweh. It kept them from turning away. I've told the story before, but you know we raised sheep in the past. As soon as they would see me walking, they would follow me. It wasn't always that way. I used to try to corale them into pen by waving the shepherd's rod and try to scared them into the pen. So, they kind of saw me as an enemy. But when they see me they would want to follow me because I would usually have some food. And so, the sheep were motivated to follow me because of the food I provided. Well, isn't that why we follow the good Shepherd? Isn't that what Peter was saying here? You have the words of eternal life. Because of the food you give, the word, we follow you. To whom shall we go? Now, what is it about His word that keeps us going? What is it that we find that you know feeds us? L-O-V-E, love. In the scriptures Yahweh is teaching us how to love. He's teaching us how much He loves us. It's men's failure to love the creates all of the problems in the world today. It was men's failure to love Yahweh and the choice by Adam and Eve to put their own will, their own desires in the first place instead of the love of Elohim which created the condition we now live in today. We're not going to find the solution by repeating their mistakes. The solution was walk in loving obedience to Yahweh's word which truly brings life, true deep down joy and true blessing. So Yahweh created us, he knows what's going to ultimately bring us peace and joy and satisfaction. So will we pursue it? Will we chase after what appears to give peace, joy and satisfaction, but only satisfies the cravings of our flesh? Or are we going to trust Him knowing every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights. James 1:17. Some of us we kind of get stale on our spiritual walk and we look for things outside the word of Yahweh to bring the satisfaction. And we will find, that man--He just offers us this manufactured joy you know. But because, you know, only the mind is fed and not the spirit within us, Our heart was still bleed with sorrow and yearn for a solution, a full solution. Let me repeat that. Only the mind is fed, not the spirit within us, and so we yearn for a solution. Our heart is not truly content. Well, the enemy offers all kind of solutions that seem right. Proverbs 14:12 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.Even in laughter, the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. The backslider in the heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from
above.
Beautiful scripture. Don't go with what seems right. Seek satisfaction from what comes from above, from Yahweh. Because, whatever they think, whatever it looks like, they look like they are happy. They got comedians and their jokes and whatever they are doing, but the heart is not really content. You know I've heard said that America is going to hell and they're laughing all the way. It's a temporary menaceand does not heal the soul and resolve the yearnings that we have within us. The backslider will spend all his time pleasing himself, being fair with his own ways, but he will not find what he needs. You cannot get what you need from your own self. You can only find true and genuine satisfaction in the things that are eternal. The things which are above. Satisfaction does not come from self-seeking. Gaining something for yourself, thats not where joy is going to come. Thats not where we are going to be satisfied. In fact, if you want to be miserable, here's a recipe I read one time for misery. Here is a really good recipe. If you want to be a miserable person and really be unhappy, here is a perfect recipe you can put in the oven and bake it, okay? Here we go; #1 Always think and talk about yourself and use "I" as often as possible. Secondly, value yourself by what others say about you. Thirdly, always expect, always expect to be appreciated. Recipe for misery. Oh! And be suspicious and jealous of others. And 5th, only trust yourself and insist on being respected. Constantly be on the look out for a good time for yourself, doing as little as possible for others. Hmm, that's a recipe my friend for misery, misery. And what has our culture done? Our culture has glorified self-expression at the expense of self-control.
Human pleasure becomes the measure, because our culture has dethroned the Most High. And now man is his own deity, reigning in his own universe.
But the saviour is going to come like a thief in the night to remind us we did not create ourselves and the profane is never superior to whats pure and
lovely. And so we feed on Yahweh's word.
We learn Yahweh's word. It teaches us the eternal truth.
Instead of looking out for #1, yourself, as the world says, remember the words of Master Yahushua, he said, "it is more blessed to give than to receive. The
true way of love found in word of Yahweh teaches us that its only when we begin to serve and to give that we really obtain a blessing for ourselves. Whether we are serving Yahwehand we are giving to Yahweh, or we are giving to another person. It's more blessed to give than it is to receive. And what happens when you have a culture of people who are constantly giving to each other?
What happens when you have a culture of people who are constantly serving one another and building one another up? What happens? We all get blessed by others' services towards us and we all get served because we are serving others are serving us and we are in this beautiful cycle of love.
But the world is dog-eat-dog. Give what you can, gain what you get. But you know what? The more we are focused on others, the less we're focused on self and the less we are focused on self and what self gets.
The happier we're going to be. It takes our eyes of the vanity mirror and looks around to see the needs of the world around us. Both Joseph and Yahushua overcame the temptations because both of them had a love based, servant's heart. Remember Joseph couldn't fathom the idea of sinning against the very one he's focused on blessing. Look what he said here in Genesis 39 verse 8 through 9 it says, he refused and said to his master's wife, "Well, look, my master does not know what's with me in the house. He has committed all that he has to my hand. There's no one greater in this house than nor has he kept back anything from me. But you,because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness andsin against Elohim? How can I do it?
He couldn't fathom it, because he was working towards blessing his master, the one who owned him, the slave owner. He wouldn't think taking that from him. He was thinking about blessing him. And so he said, "how can I do this, and he's given me all this? And now I turn around, I can't do that?"
When you're focused on blessing other people, you're less likely to hurt other people. When you are focused on building up another person, its less likely you're going to sin against them. When you're focused on blessing Yahweh, when you're focused on serving Yahweh and glorifying Yahweh, you're less likely you're going to sin against Yahweh. There's a connection between two verses I want you to pay attention to this, two verses; Mathew 5:19, says, whoever therfore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Probably you've heard that verse before. So, if you do the least of these commandments, and you teach them you're doing and teaching, you'll be called great. Another verse: Mathew 20:verse 26 through 28, Yahshua said, whoever therefore desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as Yahushua, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many. You see the connection between the two verses is, the one who is focused on serving is the one who's less likely to be self-focused and, therefore, more likely to be actually doing the commandments, and encouraging others to do the same either by example, or by directly telling them about it. The connection is that, those who do the commandments are called great and whoever desires to be must be a servant of all and those who are least in the kingdom are those focused on self. And what self gets in the here and now, they find it hard to gain victory their sin because they are so self-focused. But, the ones who are focused on serving others and serving our heavenly Father are those who gain the most victory over trial and temptations and they can find joy in blessing others and pleasing Yahweh and they are too busy serving and blessing others to get caught up in the idleness of a self-seeking lifestyle that only breeds sin. Yahweh's word is our food that we live by and it is His word that teaches us how to love, how to serve Him and serve our the fellow men. That's why we're here on the earth. We're here for that purpose. So, where do we obtain strength to do things Yahweh calls us to do? How many times I get prayer requests: I need strength. It's awesome, we need to pray for strength. Where do we obtain it? What mechanism can we do? What steps can we take to obtain strength to overcome? Proverbs 24 verse 5 says, a wise man is strong, yes a man of knowledge increases strength. And so, the word of Yahweh gives you that wisdom. It says the law of Yahweh makes the wise the simple. It gives us, therefore, the strength. How's it give us strength? Well, there's many ways it gives us strength. We understand circumstances better. We understand what's going on in the spiritual realm. Just figuring out what's what's going on with us much better. And there's other ways. For example, here in the book of Nehemiah chapter 8 it says, now all the people gathered together as one man in the square that was in front of one of the gates and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which Yahweh had commended Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month (the feast of terbanacles and the feast of trumpets going on here). And then what? As the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding, the first day of the seventh month and he read from it in the open square that was in front of the water gate from morning till mid day, before the men women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. They cared. So, Ezra the scribe stood on the platform of wood which they had made for this purpose and beside him his right hand stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah and his left hand Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. For he was standing above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up. Oh, they valued Yahweh's word. We got these bibles on our shelves today, do we have
that kind of reverence and respect and appreciation for the word of Yahweh? We get our bibles on smart phones, our computers, our laptops, straight with a few keystrokes or taps on a little screen.
I wonder what excuse our generations are going to have for not seeking the word of the Yahweh. Many generations would've loved to have it, but we have it. And Ezra blessed Yahweh the great Elohim and all the people answered, Amein! Amein! while lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped Yahweh with their faces to the ground. I love it. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah and the Levites helped the people to understand the law. And the people stood in their place so they read distintly from the book and the law of Elohim. And they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. Hallelujah for people who can help us understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites who taught the people , said to all the people, "this day is holy to Yahweh the Mighty One. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Maybe you think it would be a good thing that they were so tender to Yahweh's word, that they'd weep knowing that they had transgressed it.
Then he said them, "go your way eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing has prepared for this day is holy to our master. Do not sorrow for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. I sing that song every week, "The joy of Yahweh is our strength. Interesting situation here, I was looking. And the people knew they'd greatly, greatly sinned.
They were very grieved that they had not kept Yahweh's law. They were grieving and mourning and weeping over the fact that they had failed Yahweh. You ever felt like that? I mean I think it's a good thing to have that contriteness.
You know and to not have joy at that moment, and seemingly it is. But how could they rejoice after they had done all these terrible things? What reason was there to rejoice? How can they just consciously just decide, "I'm just going to go to from weeping into rejoicing"? You almost have to force yourself, right? I mean you're sad about something and then all of a sudden he's telling you, "Rejoice! Rejoice!" How can I rejoice? I did all these terrible things. How can I rejoice? It's because of grace. Their sins were forgiven. Yahweh's word says there is forgiveness available, and if all of heaven is rejoicing over one sinner who repents. Then the spirit of Yahweh which is in us ought to compel us to rejoice. Indeed it is the joy of the Yahweh thats our strength. Can you find Him in your innermost being and rejoice that your sins are forgiven? And can that joy keep you strong in times of temptation when you're struggling and don't know what to do with this temptation that's been beating you up for years and you don't know how to overcome it? Maybe you need to go back to the scriptures and remember what He did for you. And then he says, "send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared". People who are poor, send portions. Send portions! Send portions! Go, serve other people now. Yahweh has blessed you. Now go out and bless other people. Send portions. So the Levites quieted all the paople saying, "be still for the day of Yahweh this day is holy. Don't be grieved, dont be grieved". And all the people went their way to eat and drink to send portions. Send portions. And rejoiced greatly because they understood the words that were declared to them. Brothers, listen to me. Do you understand that you can't even obtain a good understanding of Yahweh's word unless Yahweh reveals it to you? It's a blessing and a joy to understand the word especially when you understand things very few understand? How many of you have been blessed with that kind of understanding? When you found beautiful, wondrous things out of Yahweh's law you just rejoiced? Jeremiah did and he says "when your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by your name O Yahweh, Elohim of Hosts ". He found out that he was called by Yahweh's name and he just rejoiced. How many people know Yahweh's name? For Him to reveal to you His name is a reason to rejoice. We don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. We're blessed to be among the very few who have been revealed His awesome name, His awesome Torah, His wisdom. No small matter. For Him to have shown you Yahushua, the Messiah. There are 7.5 billion people in the world today. How many of them are serving Yahweh? How many of them know the things that you know and have eternal life abiding in them? Do you realize how blessed you are? Just to know what you know? Don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget it; how blessed you truly are. I don't care if you've got no bread there or no food for forty days or water for three days. You are blessed. Blessed beyond blessed.
And you should be rejoicing before Yahweh because Yahweh is good. And you should be singing praises to His name for Yahweh has chosen you to be Jacob, for Himself , Israel for his special treasure. To be the special treasure of the Creator and the most powerful being in the universe? You should be crying...If you're going to cry, you should be crying tears of joy... For the Creator of the universe to reveal Himself to you, flesh and blood did not to reveal to you.
But our Father in heaven will reveal to you and cause you to be His special treasure. He's chosen you for himself. He's revealed to you, and to me, to all repentant baptized believers in Yahushua the Messiah, wonderful awesome things out of his word.
You know what? Yahushua says "no one can come to me". "Sorry. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him to me." You can't even be a believer in Yahushua, unless our Father in heaven looked upon you and said, "I'm going to draw him toward me". I love Him. "I'm going to draw Him and I'm going to raise him up on the last day" Yahushua said.
You know there is enough blessing just in that. I'm sorry, just in that alone alone, nothing else if He never gave you anything else at all. There's enough blessing in that to fill you with an entire lifetime of singing praise to Him.
There is enough blessing that He the creator of the universe would open your eyes and show you what He's shown you and bring you to a place of hving eternal life abiding in you. So, he will raise you up like that. There's enough blessings just in that.
You should be ever praising him If He never gave you another blessing. The problem is we forget. It's a habit of men to forget. We tend to do that, forget. And Yahweh told Israel, He said, "All these curses he's written them out in the law, all these curses shall come upon you amd pursue you and overtake you until are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder and on your descendents forever because you did not serve Yahweh your Elohim with joy and
gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. See you done forgot what He gave you.
You forgot all about the good things he gave you. And you just exited your memory and you decide to think about the negative then, because you did not serve me with gladness and joy. Therefore you went in to sin and you went off and did your own things and you weren't connected to my spirit, which gives you joy. I should get our attention, I think, on the importance of remembering His blessings. We become like spoilt brats sometimes, especially us here in America. We're so lazy and spoiled we can't even roll down a car window. We have got to to push a button. It's almost sick, we are so spoiled, really. I mean it's like, Oh, you know, you read these ads: "we have the best paper towels. We have the best tissues, softest tissues. Oh we have the nicest car we have for you here, we have the nicest this and that. You know, we're always expecting the best. and we are just downright spoiled. And so, Oh, then we start serving Yahweh and we dont have evrything we want. We're like little brats. you know, we have temper tantrumas and we forget the blessings that we have been given. But you know lack of joyfulness and gladness of heart causes to lose strength. Because the joy of our Yahweh is our strength and where does joy comes from? It comes out of thanksgiving. When we lose our strength, then we lose obedience our ability to overcome temptations and that results in us losing out on many blessings and we find ourselves in a big mess. But, if we meditate on His goodness, His promises and His blessings in our lives; we're truly blessed with abundance of many things if we only open our eyes and see what Yahweh has done. Wow! Psalms 145:14 says, Yahweh upholds all who fall and raises up all are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them food in their due season, you open your hands and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Yahweh is righteous and in all His ways gracious in all His works.
And so He's providing constantly, all the time.
Someone sitting in a nice, warm cozy home, they got a car in the garage, they got the climate controlled homes and their Internet, just point annd click anmd find the weather and they are going "What has Yahweh done foe me?" They have never starved one time in their life.
They wonder what Yahweh's done for them. Look at it , I mean, He satisfies the desire of every living thing. Even if we're going through hard times. I mean, Yahushua, He wasn't exactly jumping up and down when he was bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. Just being in agony, He prayed more earnestly Luke 20:44 and sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Why was Yahushua in such agony? Maybe He committed wrong to cause Him to need refinement? He didn't. There's no dross to burn off, there is no refinement He needed, he had no rough edges that needed to be rounded off. But, yet, here He was suffering. When we enc ounter trials that may notbe through any fault of our own that we are suffering. And if that case is written, it says, what credit is it if you're beaten for your faults and you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer and you take it patiently. That's commendable for Elohim. For, too, this you were called because Messiah suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. So, Yahushau knew what He was going to have to go through. How did He endure all that? I mean how could he just endure all of that and survive it? The bible tells us how He was able to withstand the trials and overcome. The scriptures tells us, and here it is. Hebrews 12 verses 1 through 2, it says, therefore since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let's run with endurance this race that is have set before us. Looking to Yahushua, the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, for the joy that was set before him; endured the stauros, the cross, whatever you wnat to translate it. Despising the shame, "Okay I'll take it, I'lll bear it" and sat down at the right hand of the throne of Elohim. But the joy that was set before him--Yahushua endured for the joy that was set before him. It wasnt necessarily a joyful thing at that exact moment, but because of the joy that was sitting before him, the things that was sitting in front of him, he was able to endure it and stand it. So when you're not having the best time right now, at this moment, realize, if you endure this, the joy sitting before you is tremendously awesome. And you're learning obedience. Hebrews 8:5 says, though he was a son, He learned obedience by the things He suffered. And having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. You know, it's one thing, to be obedient to Yahweh in the context of being in Yahweh's presence and experiencing the fullness of Elohim and everything is going well and easy and light. But when things aren't going so well, life is throwing you a curved ball, and not all a bed of roses, it's a little tougher to walk in obedience in that context, right? When Yahushua always had the comforts of heaven, everything was awesome, it was easy to be obedient to the Father but now in the context was suffering for it. He had to be obedient and so He learned obedience, the fullness of being obedient through the things which he suffered. And I was going to say, we also. Even if we've seen purpose in our sufferings, it's just an awesome purpose in another itself to pursue and attain the patience and match the obedience of the Messiah when He was suffering, He did not choose sin. And so, just in the midst of suffering in and of itself to choose obedience, we're learning obedience to the things we suffered and it's okay. And we really can, as the scripture says, "count it all joy when you fall onto various trials, knowing that the testing in our faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work so you can be perfect and complete and lack nothing." So, just count it all joy. If you can't find joy at the present, know, this too shall pass. Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. Yes, I have had trials, you know, where the trial did not end. It just went on and on and on. It never ended until I thanked the Yahweh for it. And I said, "thank you for this trial. I know I needed this. I don't understand the reason for it right now, but I trust you felt I needed it". And when I realized, I thought "are you going to thank him for this? I don't know if I can thank him for this, what if he will ccontinue doing it?" You thank him for it and he is going to continue to do it, you know. That's kind of what you're thinking in the back of your mind. But, Okay, well I mean if he continues to do it, I mean that's all right. So, thank Yahweh, thank you, Yahweh, for the trial I'm going through. Appreciate it, praise Yahweh. All right. I have even done that you know, one time back in the late 90's I was going through a horrific trial and the song came up and it said...the song is; Teach me, Yahweh, to wait. Down on my knees, in your good time you answer my pleas. Teach me not to rely on what others do but wait patiently in prayer for answer from you. So I came upon that song. Well, I had gotten my guitar you know I was going through the song book, "Well, I don't want to sing that one. I have waited long enough," you know? And got convicted. "All right, all right I'll sing it." Well, I was in the middle of the song singing it with my heart in it and everything singing, and I got a phone call. It was a phone call that completely ended the trial. So the trial was over.So yeah, I mean, I'm not going to promise you that will going to happen to you, okay. It happened several times to me that it wasn't until I accepted my circumstances and I even thanked Yahweh for it. That I got past it. So what is said in the scripture is to rejoice in Yahweh always. Again I will say, rejoice. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are the called according to his purpose. If things aren't working out for you, you have got to ask yourself if you're really loving Elohim the way you should. And if you're not then don't expect things to work together for your good because you are not showing love to Elohim. So, you know everyone quotes that scripture and forgets that part of it for some reason. But we have got to remember that part. Yahweh does have our ultimate good in mind when we put Him first. Maybe we don't see how in the world could he possibly bring anything good out of this. So that's when we pray, and we ask Yahweh, "what are you hoping to accomplish with this trial? Will you please show me what you are hoping to accomplish?" When you'll start meditating on the good things that could come out of it. And in some cases, what he has already done with it. You could actually sit down. If you're going through a trial right now, start making a list, Seriously. Get your pen, get your paper out, your notebook or on your computer what not; start making a list. What benefits is Yahweh going to bring out of this? Maybe you can't give think of anything, let me help you out here a little bit. Well, most trials, we will give you the bare minimums here, they are probably going to teach you the frailty of man which you are too reliant upon men. Then they're going to teach you the temporal nature of earthly things and humility. Which you need humility, right, in order to see more grace? He gives grace to the humble, right? The proud he resists. Also, they teach you self-control because you've been tested and ypu're being stretched spiritually. And I'm sure Yahweh's probably pleased with all the attention He's getting now. So you're praying often and relying upon Him often, you're praying all the time now whereas before you weren't, maybe praying so much. Maybe if you give him that kind of attention all the time , he wont have to put you through a trial to get that kind attention. Trials teach to examine yourself. You know that you might be, find some area you need to work on, something you need to change. And so then you're going to be blessed if you correct yourself because the more you are like Yahushua the more blessed you're going to be. The more you're walking in love, the more blessed you're going to be, right? And then if you are faithful, then in your trial you are going to justify Yahweh rather than yourself. Just that alone, right there, just that right there. You know we're actually preaching repentance. When we're going through very difficult circumstances and people outside go, "man he's going through a real tough time over there" And yet you're there going, "HalleluYah! Yahweh's good. I'm thankful for the trials. I probably needed it." And they're going, the outsiders and the unbelievers or other people, might be going, "How can you be thanking Yahweh for what you're going through?"
"Because I trust that whatever situation I'm in; If I love Elohim and I'm the called according to his purpose , it's all for my good. Even if its difficult, even if it seems like impossible to get through". You know in my walk with Yahweh, often it amazes me the hindsight is always 20/20; foresight not so good . But Yahweh will take the worst of situations and cause some good thing to come out of it. I mean, Yahweh is ultimately in control of what evil He allows. He can put a red light to anything. And nothing happens unless He gives a green light to it. That doesn't mean he's the author of evil. That just means that He allows people to make choices within certain limits. But no man, no enemy, no demon, noone can do any evil thing unless Yahweh gave permission. I'm sorry if it's hard for you to accept that. Some times he intervenes and sometimes he doesnt That doesn't mean He wants to see evil occur. He is screaming in the conscience of anyone who is doing evil. But when evil does occur, Yahweh will use that very thing to torment His enemies.
He will. Maybe like a boomerang. Every time the enemy tries to throw soemthing at you it always turns around and hits them right in the gut. Maybe when Satan inspired men to kill the Messiah of Isarel, Yahushua probably one of the worst crimes ever committed in the earth; Yahweh used that to bring salvation to the whole world. And we are Yahushua's disciples because of that. His disciples were in despair when Messiah died but then out of that circumstance, the works of the devil were destroyed. because Yahweh can use the worst things that ever happened to anybody to even cause belessing to come out of it. Not because he is trying to do evil so that good may come. He's proving his superiority. That when the one does his evil, he causes good to come out of it anyway. And if we stop fighting against Him we'll realize that love always wins in the end and Yahweh always wins in the end. Sometimes man will even become bitter against Yahweh over difficult circumstances rather than looking for the blessing he's trying to bring out of it. If we want the blessing, we need to start thanking Him for the blessing that we know that He's going to bring out of it already. "I already know Yahweh, that you're going to bring a blessing out of this and I can't wait to see it. And I know when I see it, I'm going to rejoice in it. Thank you father." You know, sometimes the greatest blessings come in disguise and we will think its teh enemy. Now, it may not relly be the enemy, it may just be we assume it is the eenmy. Remember Jacob when he was in great fear of his brother Esau. I mean he was scared to death of Esau. And then he heard Esau was going to come at him with four hundred men. So, he said, like "Esau you can have everything that I have got. Here's all the donkeys and whatever I have got here you cabn have it". AS he sent all of his company ahead and he kind of stayed back you know. And then he rose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons, crossed over the ford of Jabbok he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Now, considering the context here, I'm wondering if Jacob's thought it was an enemy. Because he is expecting Esau you know, its dark out and maybe he thought he was an enemy trying to
attack him or something. Now when he saw he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him and he said "let me go before day breaks" And what did Jacob say? "I will not let you go until you have blessed me." So He said to him, "What's your name?" and he said, "Jacob." Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have struggled with Elohim and with man and prevailed." So Jacob may have thought, you know this is an adversary or some kind of enemy, maybe someone from Esau's camp, you know. And he thought he was alone but then there, in the middle of the night, this man shows up and starts wrestling with him. And then this so called man, touched Jacob's hip and he was out of joint and maybe it wasn't even till then that Jacob even realized, this was not just any man--it was an angel of Yahweh. And when he saw that, he was like, "oh, I want your blessing. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me". He got it. Became the prince of Elohim, Israel. And so, if you ever you find yourself as though you're wrestling with a situation and you thought it was an enemy, you're rebuking it and everything you know. And then suddenly you realize, "it's not an enemy that you're wrestling with. Surprise! It's Yahweh. Sometimes blessings don't come in the packages we expect. Sometimes our tough battles are not even with the enemy, its with Yahweh himself not realizing it's through adversity we receive the grace and blessings and so you're going through trial and you're not recognizing that's Yahweh's doing. The very thing you're seeking to get loose from is the very thing Yahweh is going to use to bless you. If you want to be children of Israel, the man Israel, his children; receive the blessings and promises given to Isreal we need to realize we have to go through some adversities, trials and tribulations and tests in Yahweh. He's trying to change us brothers. We need to be changed. But we need faith to accept and be thank him for the circumstances just as they are, rather than thinking "Oh, we need more faith and then we'll change it". It's not that you need more faith you change it. You need more faith to accept it. Yahweh's doing what He's doing it for a good reason. You know, when we share our faith with another person, he might think you're an adversary. He's going to wrestle against you. You're sharing your faith, the Sabbath or something, the Torah or whatever, you're sharing it and they think you're some enemy, you know. And they don't change you know we think they are an adversary then, we're going to wrestle against them. Maybe we need to realize that they are not our workmanship. They are Yahweh's workmanship and He's not ready to lead them into what you're trying to lead them to at that moment. He's got other things He's working on. So you find yourself battling really against Elohim because He's not ready to show them what you're trying to show them. And here you thought it was an enemy. Other times, Yahweh is trying to show us something but we find ourselves fighting against it. Sometimes we may just, you know maybe we just need to let people know. "Hey, look. I'm not your enemy, I'm not trying to share this to cause you harm but to impart to you a blessing. Because there are great blessings in our doing our fathers will and I have experienced many blessings in this walk. And I'm not your enemy, I'm just trying to encourage you, to take a look at it. Every commandment he gave us is a blessing for us." It's all about love. Sometimes we need to let people know we're not against them. We're for them. We care about them. We love them. Once Jacob was touched on the socket of his hip, he said he would not let him go until he gave him a blessing. You know in spite of what a lot of people say about Jacob's short comings. You know, I marvel at Jacob's pursuit of Yahweh's blessings and maybe he didn't always go about it the right way, but one thing is for sure; he valued the Blessing of Yahweh. Whereas, Esau didn't really care. And Jacob Yahweh loved and Esau he hated. So, let's be sure what we're valuing is the blessings of the Yahweh. Even if they're not in packagesd we want them to be. Let's learn to be thankful in everything and seek out blessing even pursue that blessing and not let Yahweh go till we have got it.
He wants to bless us, I know He does. We just open our eyes and and count them. As the old song says; count the blessings, name them one by one. So, just sit down and think about the different ways He's blessed you. If you're depressed, I tell you what, Just sit down and think about all the ways He's blessed you. Because the reality is the only thing we deserve is to be burning in a lake of fire and brimstone. That's all we deserve.
So, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Don't stop praying brothers and sisters and in everything give thanks. In everything give thanks. For this is the will of Elohim the Messiah Yahushua for you. And when you start giving thanks, the joy will come,
the happiness you're seeking will come. Therefore, Ephesians 5:17 therefore, do not be unwise. Seek wisdom, understand what the will of our master is. Don't be drunk with wine which is decipation. Don't pursue the earthly things to try to make you happy or make you forget your troubles or whatever. But be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melodies in your heart for Yahweh, giving thanks always, always for all things to the Elohim Father in the name of our master Yahushua Messiah. We will never be happy until we're thankful. We'll never be happy until we remember the blessings because it's out of that remembrance the fruit of joy joy will grow. Thanksgiving is the soil that the fruit of joy will grow from.
Let's pray. Father Yahweh we praise you. We praise you for your joyous and blessings.
And we've found it to be true Father Yahweh that your joy is our strength. We choose to remember the blessings that you've given us. All the way you've brought us to this however many years you've carried us. We praise you. We thank you. We know that we may come to you with the heart of thanksgiving and an attitude of appreciation for the abundance of all things, none of which we're deserving of.
Then you're going to send your joy to our hearts by the Holy Spirit which you have given to us. We thank you for your love. We thank you for the peace that we have in the Messiah Yahushua, the reconciliation that he has brought that we needed. And Father, we thank you for the trials too. We know we don't need to fear that you're going to send more trials because we're thankful and because even if you did, it'll be for our good anyway.
Knowing all things work out for our own good, teach us to love you. Teach us your love language and fill us with
your spirit. Let our mouth be filled with praise . For truly we know and we are sure that yours is the kingdom and power and glorty and majesty forever and evr. And truly Father Yahweh you're deserving of our worship, thanksgiving and praise for the abundance of all things, Through and by your son Yahushua Ha Mashiach we pray all of these things.
Amein and Amein. END
help us to keep things in perspective and to remember what we've been given, and to remember, absolutely remember the blessings. We have a tendency to forget the blessings that we are given as the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness forgot about the bondage of slavery and they longed for the leeks and onions and all those things. But think back to the time that you first humbled yourself, you first acknowledged that you were not wise enough to direct your own life and you put your life in Yahweh's wise in trustworthy hands, seeking his mercies and forgiveness for going your own way and finally obtaining his sense of peace and contentment in knowing that you're in good hands. Maybe when you first believed, you were going to a traditional church, calling upon Jesus. I might say that might have been a defining moment for you time of rejoicing your sins were forgiven, you were thankful for the abounding grace that was bestowed upon you and how Yahweh called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Well we can't forget the things that Yahweh has
done for us. Remember when Yahushua said in Luke chapter 15 verse 8 what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying "rejoice with me for I've found the piece which I lost". Likewise I say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels or Elohim over one sinner who repents, just one sinner who repents.
On the day we chose to repent and gave our lifeto the Messiah Yahushua, there was rejoicing. There was joy and there was rejoicing in the presence of Yahweh and in the presence of angels of Elohim there was joy. Not because we had sinned but because we have changed our attitude towards sin and because wechanged our attitude toward sin and we received Messiah Yahushua, we were recipients and are recipients ofmercy and grace from Yahweh and now he is looking to bless us.
And Yahushua went through so much suffering so that we can be given eternal life. And so when we choose to receive Him, He knows He did not die for us in vain. And for that, He rejoices. When we receive him, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew that's "ruach hakodesh" and we begin bearing the fruits of His Spirit which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law. So, His Spirit is in us. Guess what's in us? It's right here,joy. The joy of Yahweh is manifest in us. Isn't that what most people are looking for? Is happiness, peace, love.
His spirit gives us peace joy and love.
Have you received that? Many of us may have felt like we received that when we first became believers when we firstwere baptized.I remember when I first got baptized I couldn't take that smile off my face. It was a time of joyand rejoicing in Yahweh for abundance of His love and kindness and the grace that appeared to all of us.The souls who go down the water and come up a new creation.
For some of you that happened a long time ago.
And for those of you towhom that happened long time ago, for me, it was going 27 years ago.
Do you have any reason to be less joyful now than you were when you first believed? Did you forget maybe the goodness and mercy of Yahweh that brought you to repentance and salvation? You know it is the tendency of human nature to not remember the good that we are given and to dwell upon the negative things that we are going through. Remember when the children of Israel had crossed the the Sea of Reeds, the Red Sea, it says the horses of Pharoah went with his chariots and the hosemen into the sea and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea upon them but the children of Israel went on dry land and the midst of the sea. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them "sing to Yahweh for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider, he has thrown into the sea." But then, the very next verse, so Moshe
brought Israel from the Red Sea and then they went out into the wildernessof Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters waters of Marah for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moshe saying, "What shall we drink?"
So he cried out to Yahweh and Yahweh showed him a tree and when he had cast it into the water, the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them. And there he tested them and said "If you diligently heed the voice of Yahweh your Elohim and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on Egyptians for I am Yahweh Raphah. I am Yahweh who heals you. So, right after this time of getting the tambourine, rejoicing and just having a great old time and dancing around; there is no water over here,
there's no water. What are we going to drink? See, the people complained very quickly after they were baptized and for some reason the rejoicing stopped and here they realized they went over, went under the sea or through it or whatever and then here we are, and "there is no water to drink." How are we going to survive on this side of the sea. Why did Yahweh bring us over here? Everyone wondered, "Why did Yahweh bring me over here?" Have you ever felt like that, went through the time of rejoicing, you chose a new walk, and walked this new life, and you found out, "You know, this life in the wilderness isn't quite as glorious and problem free as we thought." Did someone sell you a bill of goods telling you that "once you come to Yahushua, your life will be void of any major problems and you will not have to suffer anymore and everything will be rosy and grand and you will just tiptoe through the tulips, never have a problem or care in the world ever again"? But then you find out life in Messiah isn't quite the better roses. Someone sold you a bill of goods that wasn't true, maybe some people are even bitter. You know whoever sold you that bill was probably sold the same bill. They probably didn't realize that our calling may sometimes even result in suffering. 1 Peter 2:21 says for this you were called because Messiah suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps.
So life in Messiah is not completely without suffering and in fact suffering is a part of our calling. As I shared earlier this past winner,you were callled to this. But the children of Israel went without water for three days and finding good water was you know frequently a problem in the dry and bare land of the Negev, the desert, why did Yahweh do that to them? Why did he allow them suffer and hunger and thirst in adversity? Why would he do that? Deuteronomy chapter 8 in verse 3 gives us the answer. You shall remember Yahweh your Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart. Whether you would keep His commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know what? That man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. That is how you live. I guess that makes the scriptures pretty important huh? You know it just seems like Yahweh wants to know if we're real. Are we just following Him because you know , the benefits. Do we only love him because of the the benefits? Are His promises enough? Do we believe in his promises? Do we really, really belive in his promises or is his salvation enough?
The mere fact he brought us out of bondage which was far worse than anything we're currently facing. Is the time of rejoicing for the salvation of Yahweh and our faith enough, and His promises for the future enough? Can we put enough faith in teh future tahat he will carry us through this land between, between Egypt and the promised land? I'm sorry but we're not in the promised land yet. And in this land between will we be thankful for what Yahweh has done and rejoice for the blessings that we do have, or we will murmur in our tents and long to go back to Egypt. As the people complained, it displeased Yahweh. His anger was aroused, so the fire of Yahweh burned among them and it consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. And the people cried out to Moshe and when Moshe prayed to Yahweh the fire was quenched so he called the the Taberah because the fire of Yahweh burned among them. Why is he doing this? The mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving so the children of Yahweh also wept again and "so who will give us meat to eat, we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic. But now, our whole being is dried up and there's nothing at all except these manna before our eyes". Having already forgotten the boundage they were in there, acting like life in the land of Egypt was a wonderful, grandois place to live. They even said in one place, they said, when Moshe sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab and they said "we will not come up is it a small thing you have brought us up out of land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you should keep acting like this prince over us? How disrespectful. Amazing how the rihors and bondage of Egypt were forgotten and the way of misery that they weere in was forgotten. And they only remember what good there may have been there.You know, we subject our lives to the harsh rule of the enemy, Satan the devil. We endure the slavery, the fear and the misery just
so that our flesh could enjoy the few leeks and onions and the garlic cloves. At some point you know we all realize it's not worth it. And really Yahweh's promises are far better than the hopeless end we are heading toward. And so now that we have turned toward Yahweh, we knew at some point what he has to offer was better and it seemed to me he wants to know whether we're going to give up those temporary pleasures and feed instead on His word, his promises and his goodness. Will we lift up up our eyes and see all the good things He really has done for us, and what He promises to do for us in the age to come. And are we thankful for those things to the extent that we say, "you know, that's enough. I'm thankful for what I have been given and what I have been promised and I'm really not worthy to demand anything more". When our souls feed on the good word of Yahweh, you know what happens? When you don't feed on the good word of Yahweh, and then you are going through trials, you get nothing to eat, nothing spiritually, nothing to grab a hold of and to feed you. And so its going to seem like it's better on the other side. Because your spirit is starving, your soul is not getting what it needs. And so, you have to continue to feed on the good word of the Yahweh and his promises knowing you are never going to find eternal life in the pursuit of temporary things.
And we only find life, abundant life, in every word that proceeds out of Yahweh's mouth. or Yahushua you know, Yahweh's word was enough.
After He was baptized, He was also led by the Spirit of Yahweh into the wilderness and caused to go without. So Yahushua being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit to the wilderness. He had to take Yahushsua into the wilderness experience as well, and being tempted for forty days by the devil and inthose days He ate nothing and afterwards when it ended He was hungry. Then the devil said to Him, "if you're the son of Elohim, command the stone to become bread." But Yahushua answered him saying, "It is written, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of Elohim". He remembered the thing that Yahweh had spoken back in Deuteremnomy. So Yahushua was tested, he did not falter because his focus was not on the temporary things. He willingly ate nothing, and said, "Man, I don't need no bread. I don't need no bread. Because I'm living by the word of Elohim. I don't need temporary things. I'm living by the word of Elohim. "And one time, when his disciples went back and they walked with him no more, not the twelve but others, Yahushau then said to the twelve, "do you also want to go away?" and Simon Peter said "Master to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we've come to believe and know that you are the Messiah, son of the living Elohim." So it was the word. It was the word that kept them going, it was the word that attached them and compelled them to follow Yahweh. It kept them from turning away. I've told the story before, but you know we raised sheep in the past. As soon as they would see me walking, they would follow me. It wasn't always that way. I used to try to corale them into pen by waving the shepherd's rod and try to scared them into the pen. So, they kind of saw me as an enemy. But when they see me they would want to follow me because I would usually have some food. And so, the sheep were motivated to follow me because of the food I provided. Well, isn't that why we follow the good Shepherd? Isn't that what Peter was saying here? You have the words of eternal life. Because of the food you give, the word, we follow you. To whom shall we go? Now, what is it about His word that keeps us going? What is it that we find that you know feeds us? L-O-V-E, love. In the scriptures Yahweh is teaching us how to love. He's teaching us how much He loves us. It's men's failure to love the creates all of the problems in the world today. It was men's failure to love Yahweh and the choice by Adam and Eve to put their own will, their own desires in the first place instead of the love of Elohim which created the condition we now live in today. We're not going to find the solution by repeating their mistakes. The solution was walk in loving obedience to Yahweh's word which truly brings life, true deep down joy and true blessing. So Yahweh created us, he knows what's going to ultimately bring us peace and joy and satisfaction. So will we pursue it? Will we chase after what appears to give peace, joy and satisfaction, but only satisfies the cravings of our flesh? Or are we going to trust Him knowing every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights. James 1:17. Some of us we kind of get stale on our spiritual walk and we look for things outside the word of Yahweh to bring the satisfaction. And we will find, that man--He just offers us this manufactured joy you know. But because, you know, only the mind is fed and not the spirit within us, Our heart was still bleed with sorrow and yearn for a solution, a full solution. Let me repeat that. Only the mind is fed, not the spirit within us, and so we yearn for a solution. Our heart is not truly content. Well, the enemy offers all kind of solutions that seem right. Proverbs 14:12 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.Even in laughter, the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. The backslider in the heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from
above.
Beautiful scripture. Don't go with what seems right. Seek satisfaction from what comes from above, from Yahweh. Because, whatever they think, whatever it looks like, they look like they are happy. They got comedians and their jokes and whatever they are doing, but the heart is not really content. You know I've heard said that America is going to hell and they're laughing all the way. It's a temporary menaceand does not heal the soul and resolve the yearnings that we have within us. The backslider will spend all his time pleasing himself, being fair with his own ways, but he will not find what he needs. You cannot get what you need from your own self. You can only find true and genuine satisfaction in the things that are eternal. The things which are above. Satisfaction does not come from self-seeking. Gaining something for yourself, thats not where joy is going to come. Thats not where we are going to be satisfied. In fact, if you want to be miserable, here's a recipe I read one time for misery. Here is a really good recipe. If you want to be a miserable person and really be unhappy, here is a perfect recipe you can put in the oven and bake it, okay? Here we go; #1 Always think and talk about yourself and use "I" as often as possible. Secondly, value yourself by what others say about you. Thirdly, always expect, always expect to be appreciated. Recipe for misery. Oh! And be suspicious and jealous of others. And 5th, only trust yourself and insist on being respected. Constantly be on the look out for a good time for yourself, doing as little as possible for others. Hmm, that's a recipe my friend for misery, misery. And what has our culture done? Our culture has glorified self-expression at the expense of self-control.
Human pleasure becomes the measure, because our culture has dethroned the Most High. And now man is his own deity, reigning in his own universe.
But the saviour is going to come like a thief in the night to remind us we did not create ourselves and the profane is never superior to whats pure and
lovely. And so we feed on Yahweh's word.
We learn Yahweh's word. It teaches us the eternal truth.
Instead of looking out for #1, yourself, as the world says, remember the words of Master Yahushua, he said, "it is more blessed to give than to receive. The
true way of love found in word of Yahweh teaches us that its only when we begin to serve and to give that we really obtain a blessing for ourselves. Whether we are serving Yahwehand we are giving to Yahweh, or we are giving to another person. It's more blessed to give than it is to receive. And what happens when you have a culture of people who are constantly giving to each other?
What happens when you have a culture of people who are constantly serving one another and building one another up? What happens? We all get blessed by others' services towards us and we all get served because we are serving others are serving us and we are in this beautiful cycle of love.
But the world is dog-eat-dog. Give what you can, gain what you get. But you know what? The more we are focused on others, the less we're focused on self and the less we are focused on self and what self gets.
The happier we're going to be. It takes our eyes of the vanity mirror and looks around to see the needs of the world around us. Both Joseph and Yahushua overcame the temptations because both of them had a love based, servant's heart. Remember Joseph couldn't fathom the idea of sinning against the very one he's focused on blessing. Look what he said here in Genesis 39 verse 8 through 9 it says, he refused and said to his master's wife, "Well, look, my master does not know what's with me in the house. He has committed all that he has to my hand. There's no one greater in this house than nor has he kept back anything from me. But you,because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness andsin against Elohim? How can I do it?
He couldn't fathom it, because he was working towards blessing his master, the one who owned him, the slave owner. He wouldn't think taking that from him. He was thinking about blessing him. And so he said, "how can I do this, and he's given me all this? And now I turn around, I can't do that?"
When you're focused on blessing other people, you're less likely to hurt other people. When you are focused on building up another person, its less likely you're going to sin against them. When you're focused on blessing Yahweh, when you're focused on serving Yahweh and glorifying Yahweh, you're less likely you're going to sin against Yahweh. There's a connection between two verses I want you to pay attention to this, two verses; Mathew 5:19, says, whoever therfore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Probably you've heard that verse before. So, if you do the least of these commandments, and you teach them you're doing and teaching, you'll be called great. Another verse: Mathew 20:verse 26 through 28, Yahshua said, whoever therefore desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as Yahushua, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many. You see the connection between the two verses is, the one who is focused on serving is the one who's less likely to be self-focused and, therefore, more likely to be actually doing the commandments, and encouraging others to do the same either by example, or by directly telling them about it. The connection is that, those who do the commandments are called great and whoever desires to be must be a servant of all and those who are least in the kingdom are those focused on self. And what self gets in the here and now, they find it hard to gain victory their sin because they are so self-focused. But, the ones who are focused on serving others and serving our heavenly Father are those who gain the most victory over trial and temptations and they can find joy in blessing others and pleasing Yahweh and they are too busy serving and blessing others to get caught up in the idleness of a self-seeking lifestyle that only breeds sin. Yahweh's word is our food that we live by and it is His word that teaches us how to love, how to serve Him and serve our the fellow men. That's why we're here on the earth. We're here for that purpose. So, where do we obtain strength to do things Yahweh calls us to do? How many times I get prayer requests: I need strength. It's awesome, we need to pray for strength. Where do we obtain it? What mechanism can we do? What steps can we take to obtain strength to overcome? Proverbs 24 verse 5 says, a wise man is strong, yes a man of knowledge increases strength. And so, the word of Yahweh gives you that wisdom. It says the law of Yahweh makes the wise the simple. It gives us, therefore, the strength. How's it give us strength? Well, there's many ways it gives us strength. We understand circumstances better. We understand what's going on in the spiritual realm. Just figuring out what's what's going on with us much better. And there's other ways. For example, here in the book of Nehemiah chapter 8 it says, now all the people gathered together as one man in the square that was in front of one of the gates and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which Yahweh had commended Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month (the feast of terbanacles and the feast of trumpets going on here). And then what? As the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding, the first day of the seventh month and he read from it in the open square that was in front of the water gate from morning till mid day, before the men women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. They cared. So, Ezra the scribe stood on the platform of wood which they had made for this purpose and beside him his right hand stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah and his left hand Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. For he was standing above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up. Oh, they valued Yahweh's word. We got these bibles on our shelves today, do we have
that kind of reverence and respect and appreciation for the word of Yahweh? We get our bibles on smart phones, our computers, our laptops, straight with a few keystrokes or taps on a little screen.
I wonder what excuse our generations are going to have for not seeking the word of the Yahweh. Many generations would've loved to have it, but we have it. And Ezra blessed Yahweh the great Elohim and all the people answered, Amein! Amein! while lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped Yahweh with their faces to the ground. I love it. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah and the Levites helped the people to understand the law. And the people stood in their place so they read distintly from the book and the law of Elohim. And they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. Hallelujah for people who can help us understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites who taught the people , said to all the people, "this day is holy to Yahweh the Mighty One. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Maybe you think it would be a good thing that they were so tender to Yahweh's word, that they'd weep knowing that they had transgressed it.
Then he said them, "go your way eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing has prepared for this day is holy to our master. Do not sorrow for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. I sing that song every week, "The joy of Yahweh is our strength. Interesting situation here, I was looking. And the people knew they'd greatly, greatly sinned.
They were very grieved that they had not kept Yahweh's law. They were grieving and mourning and weeping over the fact that they had failed Yahweh. You ever felt like that? I mean I think it's a good thing to have that contriteness.
You know and to not have joy at that moment, and seemingly it is. But how could they rejoice after they had done all these terrible things? What reason was there to rejoice? How can they just consciously just decide, "I'm just going to go to from weeping into rejoicing"? You almost have to force yourself, right? I mean you're sad about something and then all of a sudden he's telling you, "Rejoice! Rejoice!" How can I rejoice? I did all these terrible things. How can I rejoice? It's because of grace. Their sins were forgiven. Yahweh's word says there is forgiveness available, and if all of heaven is rejoicing over one sinner who repents. Then the spirit of Yahweh which is in us ought to compel us to rejoice. Indeed it is the joy of the Yahweh thats our strength. Can you find Him in your innermost being and rejoice that your sins are forgiven? And can that joy keep you strong in times of temptation when you're struggling and don't know what to do with this temptation that's been beating you up for years and you don't know how to overcome it? Maybe you need to go back to the scriptures and remember what He did for you. And then he says, "send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared". People who are poor, send portions. Send portions! Send portions! Go, serve other people now. Yahweh has blessed you. Now go out and bless other people. Send portions. So the Levites quieted all the paople saying, "be still for the day of Yahweh this day is holy. Don't be grieved, dont be grieved". And all the people went their way to eat and drink to send portions. Send portions. And rejoiced greatly because they understood the words that were declared to them. Brothers, listen to me. Do you understand that you can't even obtain a good understanding of Yahweh's word unless Yahweh reveals it to you? It's a blessing and a joy to understand the word especially when you understand things very few understand? How many of you have been blessed with that kind of understanding? When you found beautiful, wondrous things out of Yahweh's law you just rejoiced? Jeremiah did and he says "when your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by your name O Yahweh, Elohim of Hosts ". He found out that he was called by Yahweh's name and he just rejoiced. How many people know Yahweh's name? For Him to reveal to you His name is a reason to rejoice. We don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh. We're blessed to be among the very few who have been revealed His awesome name, His awesome Torah, His wisdom. No small matter. For Him to have shown you Yahushua, the Messiah. There are 7.5 billion people in the world today. How many of them are serving Yahweh? How many of them know the things that you know and have eternal life abiding in them? Do you realize how blessed you are? Just to know what you know? Don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget it; how blessed you truly are. I don't care if you've got no bread there or no food for forty days or water for three days. You are blessed. Blessed beyond blessed.
And you should be rejoicing before Yahweh because Yahweh is good. And you should be singing praises to His name for Yahweh has chosen you to be Jacob, for Himself , Israel for his special treasure. To be the special treasure of the Creator and the most powerful being in the universe? You should be crying...If you're going to cry, you should be crying tears of joy... For the Creator of the universe to reveal Himself to you, flesh and blood did not to reveal to you.
But our Father in heaven will reveal to you and cause you to be His special treasure. He's chosen you for himself. He's revealed to you, and to me, to all repentant baptized believers in Yahushua the Messiah, wonderful awesome things out of his word.
You know what? Yahushua says "no one can come to me". "Sorry. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him to me." You can't even be a believer in Yahushua, unless our Father in heaven looked upon you and said, "I'm going to draw him toward me". I love Him. "I'm going to draw Him and I'm going to raise him up on the last day" Yahushua said.
You know there is enough blessing just in that. I'm sorry, just in that alone alone, nothing else if He never gave you anything else at all. There's enough blessing in that to fill you with an entire lifetime of singing praise to Him.
There is enough blessing that He the creator of the universe would open your eyes and show you what He's shown you and bring you to a place of hving eternal life abiding in you. So, he will raise you up like that. There's enough blessings just in that.
You should be ever praising him If He never gave you another blessing. The problem is we forget. It's a habit of men to forget. We tend to do that, forget. And Yahweh told Israel, He said, "All these curses he's written them out in the law, all these curses shall come upon you amd pursue you and overtake you until are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder and on your descendents forever because you did not serve Yahweh your Elohim with joy and
gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. See you done forgot what He gave you.
You forgot all about the good things he gave you. And you just exited your memory and you decide to think about the negative then, because you did not serve me with gladness and joy. Therefore you went in to sin and you went off and did your own things and you weren't connected to my spirit, which gives you joy. I should get our attention, I think, on the importance of remembering His blessings. We become like spoilt brats sometimes, especially us here in America. We're so lazy and spoiled we can't even roll down a car window. We have got to to push a button. It's almost sick, we are so spoiled, really. I mean it's like, Oh, you know, you read these ads: "we have the best paper towels. We have the best tissues, softest tissues. Oh we have the nicest car we have for you here, we have the nicest this and that. You know, we're always expecting the best. and we are just downright spoiled. And so, Oh, then we start serving Yahweh and we dont have evrything we want. We're like little brats. you know, we have temper tantrumas and we forget the blessings that we have been given. But you know lack of joyfulness and gladness of heart causes to lose strength. Because the joy of our Yahweh is our strength and where does joy comes from? It comes out of thanksgiving. When we lose our strength, then we lose obedience our ability to overcome temptations and that results in us losing out on many blessings and we find ourselves in a big mess. But, if we meditate on His goodness, His promises and His blessings in our lives; we're truly blessed with abundance of many things if we only open our eyes and see what Yahweh has done. Wow! Psalms 145:14 says, Yahweh upholds all who fall and raises up all are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them food in their due season, you open your hands and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Yahweh is righteous and in all His ways gracious in all His works.
And so He's providing constantly, all the time.
Someone sitting in a nice, warm cozy home, they got a car in the garage, they got the climate controlled homes and their Internet, just point annd click anmd find the weather and they are going "What has Yahweh done foe me?" They have never starved one time in their life.
They wonder what Yahweh's done for them. Look at it , I mean, He satisfies the desire of every living thing. Even if we're going through hard times. I mean, Yahushua, He wasn't exactly jumping up and down when he was bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. Just being in agony, He prayed more earnestly Luke 20:44 and sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Why was Yahushua in such agony? Maybe He committed wrong to cause Him to need refinement? He didn't. There's no dross to burn off, there is no refinement He needed, he had no rough edges that needed to be rounded off. But, yet, here He was suffering. When we enc ounter trials that may notbe through any fault of our own that we are suffering. And if that case is written, it says, what credit is it if you're beaten for your faults and you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer and you take it patiently. That's commendable for Elohim. For, too, this you were called because Messiah suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. So, Yahushau knew what He was going to have to go through. How did He endure all that? I mean how could he just endure all of that and survive it? The bible tells us how He was able to withstand the trials and overcome. The scriptures tells us, and here it is. Hebrews 12 verses 1 through 2, it says, therefore since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let's run with endurance this race that is have set before us. Looking to Yahushua, the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, for the joy that was set before him; endured the stauros, the cross, whatever you wnat to translate it. Despising the shame, "Okay I'll take it, I'lll bear it" and sat down at the right hand of the throne of Elohim. But the joy that was set before him--Yahushua endured for the joy that was set before him. It wasnt necessarily a joyful thing at that exact moment, but because of the joy that was sitting before him, the things that was sitting in front of him, he was able to endure it and stand it. So when you're not having the best time right now, at this moment, realize, if you endure this, the joy sitting before you is tremendously awesome. And you're learning obedience. Hebrews 8:5 says, though he was a son, He learned obedience by the things He suffered. And having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. You know, it's one thing, to be obedient to Yahweh in the context of being in Yahweh's presence and experiencing the fullness of Elohim and everything is going well and easy and light. But when things aren't going so well, life is throwing you a curved ball, and not all a bed of roses, it's a little tougher to walk in obedience in that context, right? When Yahushua always had the comforts of heaven, everything was awesome, it was easy to be obedient to the Father but now in the context was suffering for it. He had to be obedient and so He learned obedience, the fullness of being obedient through the things which he suffered. And I was going to say, we also. Even if we've seen purpose in our sufferings, it's just an awesome purpose in another itself to pursue and attain the patience and match the obedience of the Messiah when He was suffering, He did not choose sin. And so, just in the midst of suffering in and of itself to choose obedience, we're learning obedience to the things we suffered and it's okay. And we really can, as the scripture says, "count it all joy when you fall onto various trials, knowing that the testing in our faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work so you can be perfect and complete and lack nothing." So, just count it all joy. If you can't find joy at the present, know, this too shall pass. Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. Yes, I have had trials, you know, where the trial did not end. It just went on and on and on. It never ended until I thanked the Yahweh for it. And I said, "thank you for this trial. I know I needed this. I don't understand the reason for it right now, but I trust you felt I needed it". And when I realized, I thought "are you going to thank him for this? I don't know if I can thank him for this, what if he will ccontinue doing it?" You thank him for it and he is going to continue to do it, you know. That's kind of what you're thinking in the back of your mind. But, Okay, well I mean if he continues to do it, I mean that's all right. So, thank Yahweh, thank you, Yahweh, for the trial I'm going through. Appreciate it, praise Yahweh. All right. I have even done that you know, one time back in the late 90's I was going through a horrific trial and the song came up and it said...the song is; Teach me, Yahweh, to wait. Down on my knees, in your good time you answer my pleas. Teach me not to rely on what others do but wait patiently in prayer for answer from you. So I came upon that song. Well, I had gotten my guitar you know I was going through the song book, "Well, I don't want to sing that one. I have waited long enough," you know? And got convicted. "All right, all right I'll sing it." Well, I was in the middle of the song singing it with my heart in it and everything singing, and I got a phone call. It was a phone call that completely ended the trial. So the trial was over.So yeah, I mean, I'm not going to promise you that will going to happen to you, okay. It happened several times to me that it wasn't until I accepted my circumstances and I even thanked Yahweh for it. That I got past it. So what is said in the scripture is to rejoice in Yahweh always. Again I will say, rejoice. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are the called according to his purpose. If things aren't working out for you, you have got to ask yourself if you're really loving Elohim the way you should. And if you're not then don't expect things to work together for your good because you are not showing love to Elohim. So, you know everyone quotes that scripture and forgets that part of it for some reason. But we have got to remember that part. Yahweh does have our ultimate good in mind when we put Him first. Maybe we don't see how in the world could he possibly bring anything good out of this. So that's when we pray, and we ask Yahweh, "what are you hoping to accomplish with this trial? Will you please show me what you are hoping to accomplish?" When you'll start meditating on the good things that could come out of it. And in some cases, what he has already done with it. You could actually sit down. If you're going through a trial right now, start making a list, Seriously. Get your pen, get your paper out, your notebook or on your computer what not; start making a list. What benefits is Yahweh going to bring out of this? Maybe you can't give think of anything, let me help you out here a little bit. Well, most trials, we will give you the bare minimums here, they are probably going to teach you the frailty of man which you are too reliant upon men. Then they're going to teach you the temporal nature of earthly things and humility. Which you need humility, right, in order to see more grace? He gives grace to the humble, right? The proud he resists. Also, they teach you self-control because you've been tested and ypu're being stretched spiritually. And I'm sure Yahweh's probably pleased with all the attention He's getting now. So you're praying often and relying upon Him often, you're praying all the time now whereas before you weren't, maybe praying so much. Maybe if you give him that kind of attention all the time , he wont have to put you through a trial to get that kind attention. Trials teach to examine yourself. You know that you might be, find some area you need to work on, something you need to change. And so then you're going to be blessed if you correct yourself because the more you are like Yahushua the more blessed you're going to be. The more you're walking in love, the more blessed you're going to be, right? And then if you are faithful, then in your trial you are going to justify Yahweh rather than yourself. Just that alone, right there, just that right there. You know we're actually preaching repentance. When we're going through very difficult circumstances and people outside go, "man he's going through a real tough time over there" And yet you're there going, "HalleluYah! Yahweh's good. I'm thankful for the trials. I probably needed it." And they're going, the outsiders and the unbelievers or other people, might be going, "How can you be thanking Yahweh for what you're going through?"
"Because I trust that whatever situation I'm in; If I love Elohim and I'm the called according to his purpose , it's all for my good. Even if its difficult, even if it seems like impossible to get through". You know in my walk with Yahweh, often it amazes me the hindsight is always 20/20; foresight not so good . But Yahweh will take the worst of situations and cause some good thing to come out of it. I mean, Yahweh is ultimately in control of what evil He allows. He can put a red light to anything. And nothing happens unless He gives a green light to it. That doesn't mean he's the author of evil. That just means that He allows people to make choices within certain limits. But no man, no enemy, no demon, noone can do any evil thing unless Yahweh gave permission. I'm sorry if it's hard for you to accept that. Some times he intervenes and sometimes he doesnt That doesn't mean He wants to see evil occur. He is screaming in the conscience of anyone who is doing evil. But when evil does occur, Yahweh will use that very thing to torment His enemies.
He will. Maybe like a boomerang. Every time the enemy tries to throw soemthing at you it always turns around and hits them right in the gut. Maybe when Satan inspired men to kill the Messiah of Isarel, Yahushua probably one of the worst crimes ever committed in the earth; Yahweh used that to bring salvation to the whole world. And we are Yahushua's disciples because of that. His disciples were in despair when Messiah died but then out of that circumstance, the works of the devil were destroyed. because Yahweh can use the worst things that ever happened to anybody to even cause belessing to come out of it. Not because he is trying to do evil so that good may come. He's proving his superiority. That when the one does his evil, he causes good to come out of it anyway. And if we stop fighting against Him we'll realize that love always wins in the end and Yahweh always wins in the end. Sometimes man will even become bitter against Yahweh over difficult circumstances rather than looking for the blessing he's trying to bring out of it. If we want the blessing, we need to start thanking Him for the blessing that we know that He's going to bring out of it already. "I already know Yahweh, that you're going to bring a blessing out of this and I can't wait to see it. And I know when I see it, I'm going to rejoice in it. Thank you father." You know, sometimes the greatest blessings come in disguise and we will think its teh enemy. Now, it may not relly be the enemy, it may just be we assume it is the eenmy. Remember Jacob when he was in great fear of his brother Esau. I mean he was scared to death of Esau. And then he heard Esau was going to come at him with four hundred men. So, he said, like "Esau you can have everything that I have got. Here's all the donkeys and whatever I have got here you cabn have it". AS he sent all of his company ahead and he kind of stayed back you know. And then he rose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons, crossed over the ford of Jabbok he took them and sent them over the brook and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Now, considering the context here, I'm wondering if Jacob's thought it was an enemy. Because he is expecting Esau you know, its dark out and maybe he thought he was an enemy trying to
attack him or something. Now when he saw he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him and he said "let me go before day breaks" And what did Jacob say? "I will not let you go until you have blessed me." So He said to him, "What's your name?" and he said, "Jacob." Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have struggled with Elohim and with man and prevailed." So Jacob may have thought, you know this is an adversary or some kind of enemy, maybe someone from Esau's camp, you know. And he thought he was alone but then there, in the middle of the night, this man shows up and starts wrestling with him. And then this so called man, touched Jacob's hip and he was out of joint and maybe it wasn't even till then that Jacob even realized, this was not just any man--it was an angel of Yahweh. And when he saw that, he was like, "oh, I want your blessing. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me". He got it. Became the prince of Elohim, Israel. And so, if you ever you find yourself as though you're wrestling with a situation and you thought it was an enemy, you're rebuking it and everything you know. And then suddenly you realize, "it's not an enemy that you're wrestling with. Surprise! It's Yahweh. Sometimes blessings don't come in the packages we expect. Sometimes our tough battles are not even with the enemy, its with Yahweh himself not realizing it's through adversity we receive the grace and blessings and so you're going through trial and you're not recognizing that's Yahweh's doing. The very thing you're seeking to get loose from is the very thing Yahweh is going to use to bless you. If you want to be children of Israel, the man Israel, his children; receive the blessings and promises given to Isreal we need to realize we have to go through some adversities, trials and tribulations and tests in Yahweh. He's trying to change us brothers. We need to be changed. But we need faith to accept and be thank him for the circumstances just as they are, rather than thinking "Oh, we need more faith and then we'll change it". It's not that you need more faith you change it. You need more faith to accept it. Yahweh's doing what He's doing it for a good reason. You know, when we share our faith with another person, he might think you're an adversary. He's going to wrestle against you. You're sharing your faith, the Sabbath or something, the Torah or whatever, you're sharing it and they think you're some enemy, you know. And they don't change you know we think they are an adversary then, we're going to wrestle against them. Maybe we need to realize that they are not our workmanship. They are Yahweh's workmanship and He's not ready to lead them into what you're trying to lead them to at that moment. He's got other things He's working on. So you find yourself battling really against Elohim because He's not ready to show them what you're trying to show them. And here you thought it was an enemy. Other times, Yahweh is trying to show us something but we find ourselves fighting against it. Sometimes we may just, you know maybe we just need to let people know. "Hey, look. I'm not your enemy, I'm not trying to share this to cause you harm but to impart to you a blessing. Because there are great blessings in our doing our fathers will and I have experienced many blessings in this walk. And I'm not your enemy, I'm just trying to encourage you, to take a look at it. Every commandment he gave us is a blessing for us." It's all about love. Sometimes we need to let people know we're not against them. We're for them. We care about them. We love them. Once Jacob was touched on the socket of his hip, he said he would not let him go until he gave him a blessing. You know in spite of what a lot of people say about Jacob's short comings. You know, I marvel at Jacob's pursuit of Yahweh's blessings and maybe he didn't always go about it the right way, but one thing is for sure; he valued the Blessing of Yahweh. Whereas, Esau didn't really care. And Jacob Yahweh loved and Esau he hated. So, let's be sure what we're valuing is the blessings of the Yahweh. Even if they're not in packagesd we want them to be. Let's learn to be thankful in everything and seek out blessing even pursue that blessing and not let Yahweh go till we have got it.
He wants to bless us, I know He does. We just open our eyes and and count them. As the old song says; count the blessings, name them one by one. So, just sit down and think about the different ways He's blessed you. If you're depressed, I tell you what, Just sit down and think about all the ways He's blessed you. Because the reality is the only thing we deserve is to be burning in a lake of fire and brimstone. That's all we deserve.
So, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Don't stop praying brothers and sisters and in everything give thanks. In everything give thanks. For this is the will of Elohim the Messiah Yahushua for you. And when you start giving thanks, the joy will come,
the happiness you're seeking will come. Therefore, Ephesians 5:17 therefore, do not be unwise. Seek wisdom, understand what the will of our master is. Don't be drunk with wine which is decipation. Don't pursue the earthly things to try to make you happy or make you forget your troubles or whatever. But be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melodies in your heart for Yahweh, giving thanks always, always for all things to the Elohim Father in the name of our master Yahushua Messiah. We will never be happy until we're thankful. We'll never be happy until we remember the blessings because it's out of that remembrance the fruit of joy joy will grow. Thanksgiving is the soil that the fruit of joy will grow from.
Let's pray. Father Yahweh we praise you. We praise you for your joyous and blessings.
And we've found it to be true Father Yahweh that your joy is our strength. We choose to remember the blessings that you've given us. All the way you've brought us to this however many years you've carried us. We praise you. We thank you. We know that we may come to you with the heart of thanksgiving and an attitude of appreciation for the abundance of all things, none of which we're deserving of.
Then you're going to send your joy to our hearts by the Holy Spirit which you have given to us. We thank you for your love. We thank you for the peace that we have in the Messiah Yahushua, the reconciliation that he has brought that we needed. And Father, we thank you for the trials too. We know we don't need to fear that you're going to send more trials because we're thankful and because even if you did, it'll be for our good anyway.
Knowing all things work out for our own good, teach us to love you. Teach us your love language and fill us with
your spirit. Let our mouth be filled with praise . For truly we know and we are sure that yours is the kingdom and power and glorty and majesty forever and evr. And truly Father Yahweh you're deserving of our worship, thanksgiving and praise for the abundance of all things, Through and by your son Yahushua Ha Mashiach we pray all of these things.
Amein and Amein. END