Every single human being allows him- or herself to be ruled by an elohim or a 'mighty one'. These are the people, principles or ideas that we submit to as a toqef or authority. And basically, if it's comething we like, we submit to it in some way or another. These likes or authorities we arrange in hierarchies in our mind and then yield our hearts to them, giving them our love. Some of these likes or authorities may, from a Scriptural point-of-view, be completely kosher or clean, but what makes them unkosher is the place they occupy in our hierarchy of values. The Bible calls this idolatry when they assume a ranking out of divine tavnith or pattern.
Some examples. Amongst many Messianics there are those who have a passion for Torah that exceeds their passion for Yahweh as a Person. And whilst the Torah is reflection of the Divine Being, it is not the Divine Being Himself. Amongst other believers there are those who have a passion for people that exceeds their passion for Yahweh as a Person also. Both worship the creation rather than the Creator...to varying degress. The Kongsberg Vision is a classical exposition of this pheneomenon in this ministry (also see Love of the World for the vision and a commentary). Our love of people becomes idolatry if we love them ahead of Yahweh. This does not mean we should diminish our love for people and thereby love Yahweh more, of course, but rather increase our love for our Creator and ask Him to show us how we may love Him with out whole beings, for this is not just a matter of 'altering the scales' - all love must go to Him first and then we are to love His people and the unsaved (in different ways) through Him. Anything that is loved apart from Him - without going through our love of Him is what actually consititutes idolatry. The same tavnith or pattern applies in a wife's love for her husband who occupies a position of toqef (authority) that parallels Yah'shua (Jesus) (Eph.5:22).
This morning I had to deal with an idolatry in my heart that took me by surprise even though in the past I have had dreams warning me about it. In my dream I had been selected to be the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and I was bewildered by the whole business. I did not know the rituals, I had never served in any capacity as a Catholic priest, and if the truth be known I didn't like many of the rituals. (Catholic theology, which I have long been exposing as anti-biblical, seemed to play no part of my awareness in the dream, meaning that it was not the issue). As the hour for my ordination approached my conscience was highly disturbed and in the end I went about writing a letter refusing to receive this ordination while a rather dour looking cleric followed me around. The moment I had done this, I found myself in a room with Satan present. Recognising him instantly I resisted him as he approached me, which caused him to bounce back as though he had hit some invisible energy field. A spiritual battle ensued that ended when I awoke.
Now upon awakening I was, of course, horrified at the thought of being the 'pope' let alone a Catholic, but it made me ask the question 'why' I had dreamed this at all. Have you ever dreamed dreams about things and been horrified when you awoke - things you wouldn't dream of being or doing in your awake state? We all do. The important thing to realise is that the choices we make in dreams are as important as the choices we make in an awake state. Our unconscious is a part of us - it's not 'something' else even though we may be so embarrassed by what we dream sometimes that we wish it was. We are baffled and appalled that there are such seeming contradictions in ourselves. This is why it is important to make further choices when you awake after such dreams, as I did, renouncing the whole false Catholic system. If we don't do that then the choices we make in our dreams stand as bona fide choices with all the rights we may give to the enemy in making anti-Torah decisions.
Now obviously the choices we make in dreams affect only the spirit, mind and heart - though we dream of 'actions' they are not physical actions per se, though they often appear to be while we are dreaming. That in itself tells us that the core of who or what we are is what is within, again showing the importance of recognising the four-fold levels of being within as represented by the four weeks of the creation month. In our dreams the first three of these are in operation and the decisions we make in our dreams do have a bearing on the actions we choose to make in the physical. Yahweh gave us the dream state precisely as a fail-safe mechanism so that we could monitor what is going on inside before making decisions in the outer world which we might come later to regret.
Though I know the Roman Catholic system is false (on many grounds) I have always had a fascination for the splendour of its rituals for their own sake (apart from any symbolic meaning), their music and the efficiency of their hierarchical system. When you acknowledge the head (rosh) of any system, you acknowledge the system, and vice versa. The second dream revealed who the head of the pope really is.
The fact that we exist in four different spheres can make life complicated when these four spheres are not in agreement. Is not our head often out of agreement with our heart? Our head says one thing and our heart another and until that contradiction is resolved we not only remain at civil war within ourselves but we allow the enemy to play one side off against the other. I did not want to be the 'pope', let alone a Catholic, but I was attracted by the art and music creating a dichotomy.
This is one of the dilemmas that believers have when it comes to music. When people come to Messiah (Christ) they often want to cling on to their old musical likes (and other unkosher facets of their old life which we are commanded to consider dead), not realising that every musical form has a toqef or authority behind it. Music that was written originally to glorify the devil cannot be used to glorfy Yahweh! Thus 'Christian Rock Music' is a contradiction in terms. Only that music written specifically for the glory of Yahweh (like Händel's Messiah, for example), is kosher, and that goes for both the lyrics and the musical form because music is not spiritually neutral. There is a toqef (authority) and an elohim (power, mighty one, god) behind every kind of music and if we fail to discern it, we will be divided within.
Obviously (it's common sense if you think about it) if you like a certain style of Christian or Messianic music that has borrowed from some worldly form, then when that type of music (without the Christian/Messianic) lyrics is played in a non-Christian/Messianic environment you will feel at home in that environment because you have already submitted to its toqef or authority in the form of the spirits that inspired it. As ever, clear discernment is required. And in my experience, there is little of that discernment in Christian or Messianic circles.
We are all looking for some sort of order or tavnith (pattern) in our lives because we know that without it we cannot feel safe, and safety is of paramount importance to the soul. Yahweh knew that when He created us, He made within us a need for such a system. Satan also knows this and has created thousands of different systems to lure us into so that we come under his toqef (authority) and power usually without us even knowing it and often even when we reject him personally. Yahweh's system is the tavnith of Torah in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus).
Of late I have been 'cleaning up' inside in a number of areas that I have been struggling with for years and years. This is a hard sphere of existence to live in because there are so many false tavniths and systems competing for our loyalty, offering us illusiory safety. What a blessing it is, then, to be raised in divine tavnith (pattern) and to know its shalom (peace) without having to search for it in the myriads of dark corridors in this world! For those of us who were not, there is much overcoming to do. It's a lifetime's work.
The other day a sister bewailed that something I taught was exactly the opposite she had learned as a new Messianic. I know exactly how she feels. When I became a Messianic in 1999 I thought, 'at last!' Little did I know how much cleaning up had to be done and 12 years later I am only just starting to find my true feet because Messianism is as rife with error as 'orthodox' Christianity is. This ministry not only charts our own journey and mistakes but shows, we hope, the Way (see our Vision) that Yahweh wants toe Body of Messiah (Christ) to go.
May you be blessed as you diligently seek out all emet (truth) and sift out all error just as you will be doing in Chag haMatazah this month. We all have much work to do - let us persist until we have finally overcome in Yah'shua our Messiah (Jesus Christ)!
Comments from Readers
"Much wisdom" (SW, Germany, 7 April 2011)
