I was giving a riding lesson to one of my older students the other day and noticed her spirit was seemingly downcast. Typically, she is an enthusiastic person. I didn’t say anything until the end of her lesson, at which time I asked, “Are you doing ok?” That’s when the tears started to flow.
The family medical history on her husband’s side is filled with heart disease and heart defects. Last year, she almost lost her husband. This year she is facing the very real possibility of losing her 16 year old son. With work piling on, bills to pay, stress in the marriage, and a possible loss of her boy, she was ready to just step away. I listened.
Have you ever reached the end of your rope? Maybe you too have wanted to tell someone, but have bottled it up until you just can’t hold it in any longer. You aren’t alone. There are many who are ready to enter a new life. Israel was at this point years ago and they “cried out to YHWH.”
Our study this week is Ki Tavo, or “When you Enter In.” A natural question might be, “Enter into what?” We also might ask, why enter or what am I even leaving?
When Moses gave his address in the book of Deverim, he reminded Israel about the harshness of Egypt and all the affliction they had suffered. (Duet 26:7). And in the same breath, he recounted how Israel had cried out to Yahweh—calling on His mighty outstretched arm.
Many of us are beginning to see a harsh reality taking shape in America. Satan is working hard to eliminate our freedoms. He is taking a land that was built on dialogue and discussion to a land based on bondage, deception, and lies. We are all becoming burdened with fear, knowing that the current administration is intent on silencing anyone who disagrees with them. Soon we will become a nation of chains rather than a nation built on a foundation of freedom. Is there an answer? I believe there is. The answer is found in the Kingdom of Yah.
To remain in sorrow or fear is wrong. Taking on a spirit of victimhood and offense is also wrong. When we “take on” these types of vows our spirit ceases to live. As sons of the Most High, we need to look forward instead and state, “Our Lord is drawing near.”
Do you have faith? In Luke 21:1-4, Yeshua brings attention to a rather distraught woman and compares her to those who seem to have it all together. Luke writes, “And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you this poor widow put in more than all of them for they all out of their surplus put into the offering but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”
Did you know that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Messiah (Eph. 1:3). Are you ready to claim spiritual blessings, even when things look dark? Are you this poor woman who made her proclamation of faith? If so, consider again what Moses asked Israel to do when they were to enter the new land. “Bring the first of you produce to the priest to be offered up to YHWH in order to establish His Name”
(Duet. 26:1-4). Moses then asks them to recall their journey to the Land in order to not forget their victories.
I wonder what would happen in our lives, if we started to practice this method of thankfulness right now. Are we thanking Him with everything we have?
Yes, we have not entered the land of the New Kingdom yet. But through the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah we have been offered a new life through Him. So let us offer our first fruits and declare Yah’s Name in the new landscape of our spirit who has found love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control.
In just a couple of weeks, we will be experiencing the Feast of Trumpets. What is this exactly, and what comparison does it have to “entering into the land?”
In the Feast of Trumpets, the trumpets are blown to gather God’s people to a new year. It is to rouse us to repentance and prepare us to coronate King Yeshua, who will be accompanied by the sound of trumpets upon His return. (Zechariah 9:14)
The blowing of the trumpets on first day of the month heralded a solemn time of preparation for the Day of Atonement; this preparation time was called “Ten Days of Repentance” or the “Days of Awe.” The trumpet sound was an alarm of sorts and can be understood as a call to introspection and repentance. Are there things we need to repent from? Our Torah section talks about the curses we bring upon ourselves when we make vows to other gods and their way of working. It’s time to cut these ties before the King arrives.
The prophets linked the blowing of trumpets to the future Day of Judgment: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand” (Joel 2:1; see also Zephaniah 1:14, 16).
In the New Testament, we see that the Lord’s Second Coming will be accompanied by the sound of a trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Each of the judgments in Revelation 8-9 is also signaled by a trumpet. Just as the shofar called the Jewish nation to turn their attention to the Lord and ready themselves for the Day of Atonement, so will the “trump of God” call us to heaven and warn the world of coming judgment. Are we ready? Are you ready?
I believe that if we claim our “Sonship” in Yah, cover ourselves in the mantle of the Messiah, repent of our sins, and start walking in His revelation—recalling our journey of victory over bondage, that we will have faith to handle the times ahead of us. Yes, we will cry out at times but, He will listen.
Be Blessed this Sabbath,
Rollyn