Shabbat shalom mishpachah. I pray that Yahweh will meet you today as you reach out to Him in supplication in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. I sense that Yahweh is working in a big way in many of you as you start yielding full sovereignty of your lives to Him. Even at this late hour He is most actively at work, bringing salvation to places in men's hearts that He has not been granted access to before, and often through much suffering, because this is the only way we will surrender. In this we may take comfort and draw hope.

My task today is to deliver two prophetic devarim (words). The first is to the Remnant to bring encouragement on the eve of much tribulation, especially to those of you in parts of the world where tribulation has not yet come. It concerns a dream I had exactly a week ago, last sabbath, which I wanted to present to the brethren for their input before sharing it with you.

I was trekking through a fiercely hot and arid desert across never ending sand dunes. I knew I was in Saudi Arabia which, as some of you know, is where the actual Mount Sinai was almost certainly located, and not the traditional location in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula with its famous monastry at St.Cartherine's. I cannot say for sure that the scene in the dream was in this western part of Saudi Arabia and my impression - though I cannot be absolutely sure - was that I was somewhere near Saudi Arabia's northern coast facing Iran (Persia) though I did not actually see any sea, be it the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Aqaba.

As I trekked through the swealtering desert I came across an extraordinary sight - a lake in the middle of this wilderness! And in the lake was an ocean-going passenger liner at anchor. The decks were covered with people and as I approached they all began to excitedly wave to me, as though they had been anxiously expecting me and were now releasing their concerns with undisguised enthusiasm. It was shortly after that that I was somehow transported to the ship, by what means I do not know (a launch, I suppose) and was together with them onboard.

To give you some idea of the size of the lake it was no more than about 1½ times the length of the ship in either direction, so it could not possible move any more than a few yards aft or stern without presumably getting beached. The water was sufficiently deep to keep it comfortably afloat.

One of the brethren, Brother François, gave this as his considered interpretation of the dream:

"Your dream about the ocean liner...is [about] the gathering of the Remnant in a place of comfort and safety, protected for what is coming. The people and the vessel have been prepared, ready to be taken into the sea at Yahweh's appointed time."

I believe this interpretation to be accurate and it accords well with my own understanding. The true Remnant will be preserved in contrast to the counterfeits who will suddenly discover that they have no protection or safety when the judgments and tribulations come to them. By this and other means the Remnant will be identified.

As I have said many times, while the world comes under judgment, the Remnant will prosper, unlikely though that may seem, and all as a testimony of the power and toqef (authority) of our Heavenly Father. Such identifying signs of the Remnant will multiply in the months and years ahead, so that there may be absolutely no doubt where Yahweh's Hand is, for no counterfeit will be able to duplicate these identifying markers.

Two important characteristics of the Remnant are revealed in this prophetic dream:

• 1. None may come up to it without passing through the purging and suffering of the desert; and
• 2. The Remmant, though limited at first in movement, is nonetheless safe and prospering while it awaits its time.

The fact that the dream was situated in 'Saudi Arabia' reflects an important symbolism we must not miss. The Saudi government, in spite of its opulence and power (being one of the largest of the Moslem nations) is also one of the most repressive and anti-Christian régimes in the world where even owning a Bible can get you beheaded. It is therefore a type of a manifestation of the Babylonian world system at this time, being one of its key players and a major exporter of terrorism and suffering.

In order to come up to the Remnant, located within its symbolic borders, you must pass through desolate areas to arrive at the divinely appointed place of safety. This is a picture of how Yahweh works, again to display His Omnipotence, in that He causes His people to not only wander in the very midst of the Enemy's territory, as it were, in their search for safety, but locates the actual places of safety in the midst of the Enemy's 'land' too, in mockery of Satan's pretended claim to absolute power over humanity and in particular, Yahweh's own people.

The place of safety is only temporary, though, and it is clear that at the appointed time, Yahweh will cause the lake to be connected to the ocean (giving complete freedom of movement for the ship) by flooding, supernaturally digging out a channel or by some other means.

So it does not really matter where in the world you are - and we are all metaphorically in the bowels of Babylon - provided you are at the appointed place(s). You will not know the appointed place as being one that has an 'obvious' geography or content, meaning it might not have all the survival 'facilities' that you associate with a place of safety, but it will be 'safe' only by virtue of the fact that Yahweh has appointed it and you have yourself have made all the necessary preparations you could in advance. However (and this is important) there is no way you can know where your appointed place of refuge is for the coming tribulation save by personal revelation. No one else can get that revelation for you.

And the reason that is necessary is because every man and woman must come up to the Remnant alone. You can't 'attach' yourself to someone you believe is 'spiritual' or 'close to Yahweh', expecting them to get all the necessary revelation for you. That is the thinking of the Old Covenant. It was what the children of Israel demanded of Moses. They wanted Him to hear from Yahweh for them and to lead. They were more than happy to abbrogate their own responsibility to converse with Yahweh face-to-face, as one man converses with another, so that all the responsibility-taking, surrendering, suffering and sanctification might be done by a proxy, as Moses became the cowardly and lazy Israelites. And as we know - and as I have shared with you in the past - that system never works because those who abrogate the responsibility for their own life choices and growth always turn on the leader they thought would do the work for them when the going gets tough. Always. The children of Israel complained and rebelled again and again and this Final Exodus cannot be like that. You too must travel the 'Saudi desert' alone, facing its problems and challenges, if you are serious about coming up to this work, and learn to cast yourself and all your cares at the feet of the Master.

I speak both of individuals and families as well as congregations and groups of congregations wanting to be a part of this work. Time and time again they try to return to the 'old' ways of ancient Israel. It cannot be like that. No individual, family, congregation or group of congregations that is not willing to stand alone can ever be a part of this work. Their dependency must be on Yahweh, and on Yahweh alone, so that when they all come together - as they shall and must - it will be on the basis of the New Covenant Melchizedek Order, not the dead Levitical, Aaronic or Mosaic Order. This has to be understood. This is why the chicks must be kicked out the Old Covenant nest and why the new Covenant cannot be, is not, and never will be, a so-called 'Renewed' Covenant, which is a recent invention of Messianics off the Derech (Way).

If you, as an adult, are sitting around waiting for someone to take care of you and take responsibility for your life, you are waiting in vain. You cannot come up to this work with that attitude. It is impossible. You have to grow up into spiritually mature men and women. All of you. No one said it would be easy or even pleasant but it is totally and absolutely necessary. If you don't know what your calling is or where you are supposed to be or with which qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) you are supposed to be joined to by covenant and by sacrifice (yes, you must sacrifice), then you still have not made the choice to unconditionally surrender to Yah'shua (Jesus) - you are still protecting the deadly 'self-life'. Thus it is written:

"Our Elohim (God) comes and will not be silent;
a fire devours before Him,
and around Him a tempest rages.
He summons the heavens above,
and the earth, that He may judge His people:
'Gather to me My consecrated ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.'
And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
for Elohim (God) Himself is Judge"
(Ps.50:3-6, NIV).

If you waiting for me or anyone else in this work to carry you after you have entered your Bar/Bat-Mitzvah Covenant at Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') and have come of age (20), then you are operating in a grand delusion. Alternatively - and even more perniciously - if you are not willing to shoulder your own responsibilities and yet still claim the high privileges of those who have taken these steps, then your heart is corrupt and evil and you will pay a terrible price for your presumptuous and devilish spirit of self-entitlement. The Fire which we seek to enter would in any case burn you up like stubble to a crisp. Do not play games with the King and the Kingdom! This is not religion we pursue - the pretense of spirituality - but the real thing. This is where heaven and earth meet and if you have not prepared yourself as you must and should, you will be cast out - not by us (Yah forbid) but by a Power you know nothing of whilst pretending you do by going through the religious motions.

This, then, is the message of the prophetic dream I received a week ago.

Three days later, prior to retiring to bed, The Ruach (Spirit) powerfully prompted me to go to the 15th chapter of Jeremiah. The last part of the 15th verse flew out of the text at me:

"For Your sake I (Jeremiah) bear reproach" (Jer.15:15d, ESV).

The desert wandering requires not only that we bear the reproaches of Babylon and those 'Christians' and 'Messianics' whose hearts are still of Babylon (though they deny it vigorously) but also that we understand that it is "for YOUR (Yahweh's) SAKE". We're doing this for Him. We endure the ridicule, scorn and persecution for our Master's sake, not our own. And yet, also, there is a harvest of righteousness and blessing for those willing to do this, as we become "an example of patience in the face of suffering" (James 5:10, NIV). We suffer both to be spiritually matured and to win the hearts of the Remnant by example - those who have still not come up to Tsiyon - as they see our patience. And it is by this means that we both mature and come to resemble our Master:

"You, O Yahweh, are an Elohim (God) full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and emet (truth)" (Ps.86:15, NKJV).

This "when He appears, we shall be like him" (1 John 3:2, NIV) because we have suffered for Him and thus become transformed to resemble Him.

It is by such means that we learn what true ahavah (love) is:

"Ahavah (Agapé-love) suffers long (is patient, NIV) and is kind; Ahavah (Agapé-love) does not envy; Ahavah (Agapé-love) does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Ahavah (Agapé-love) never fails" (1 Cor.13:4-8, NKJV).

You learn Ahavah or Agapé-love only by spiritually, emotionally and mentally growing up which is why we were sent to this unpleasant sphere in the first place. In the face of adversity we have only two choices to make - Ahavah (Agapé-love) or Hatred, Anger, Impatience, Envy, Selfishness, Self-Glory, Arrogance, Pride, Irritability, Rage, Lashon-hara, Slander, Persecution, Rudeness, Cowardice, Faithlessness, Self-Pity, Hopelessness and Self-Entitlement, to name but a few. This is the choice, and it is the difference between these two that determines whether you are of the Remnant or Babylon, religious or unreligious.

The Ruach (Spirit) told me to carry on reading after the last part of verse 15:

"Your (Yahweh's) devarim (words) were found, and I ate them, and Your Devarim (Words) became to me a simcha (joy) and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your Name, O Yahweh Elohim of Armies. I did not sit in the company of revelers (party-goers), nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because Your Hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignatioon. Why is my pain unceasing, my pain incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

"Therefore thus says Yahweh: If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before Me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as My Mouth. THEY SHALL TURN TO YOU BUT YOU SHALL NOT TURN TO THEM. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says Yahweh. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless" (Jer.15:16-21, ESV).

As Ezekiel was told by Yahweh, "I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house" (Ezek.3:8-9, NIV), so also like Jeremiah we are to become "a fortified wall of bronze" toward those who will not repent and who seek - because Satan has blinded them and hardened their hearts - the destruction of the Remnant. That is not to say we are to be without compassion but neither must we be foolish enough to open to them and so "turn to them". This is a time of chosing, not playing the lukewarm ecumenical.

THIS IS YAHWEH'S DAVAR (WORD) TO THE REMNANT TODAY. You may rest confidently in it for the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) has born powerful witness of it to me. For me peronally, when I have never had so much continuous physical pain as I do now, when it seems like the walk in the wilderness is endless, leading to deth, these words were a strange but welcome comfort at this time. But they were not just for me - they were for all of you, as Yahweh refines, purges and perfects you in His Ahavah-Love, as He equips you with ever deeper and higher anointings of the Sukkot Endowment. Your sufferings are most definitely for a purpose.

Yes, we have all done some wrong things, yes, we have all taken some unwise turnings, yes we have all acted a little preumptuously now and then, claiming to have or be something we so much want when we are not yet purged enough to receive it. Indeed some of you have turned away from the true Remnant and briefly to those who seemed to be of the Remnant but were not. You were deceived but Yahweh rescued - and is rescuing you now - you because He is long-suffering and kind. But do not go back to that vomit again. If your are not as bronze (the metal of the Outer Court) when the judgments and tribulation hits your area, you will not be able to withstand the fiery blast. So get properly aligned...quickly.

So, yes, the Enemy has been tempting you 'big time' in your dreams, has He not, offering you gifts of spiritual power and self-protection, or whatever your weakness may be? He has been doing it. I know it. He has been trying to persuade you to doubt and to join the masses headed for destruction whilst lying to you and claiming that they, the majority, were right and you were deluded for doing something as crazy as heading off into a bone-dry Saudi wilderness! Do not tell me that he has not been tempting you because I know otherwise.

Whatever doubt, unhealed spiritual wounds or unresolved sin areas you may have, the Enemy has been homing in on those and magnifying them to such an extent that you despair that you ever even knew the King of Ahavah (Love), causing you to even doubt your salvation! Yes, the Adversary has been doing this, for he is anxious to destroy you on the very borders of your full and complete deliverance and equipping! Therefore Yahweh said to Jeremiah, and says to you now, "you shall not turn to them"! You shall not turn to these lawless, rebellious ones, who have chosen the devil as their comforter because they refuse to accept their chastisements. You shall not turn to these devils in human form, even if they wear the faces of loved ones whom you believe you may yet save in your own timing and power, scared they will be cut down in the coming tribulations, and as a result you may postpone your appointments with Him in the wilderness with disasterous consequences, thereby risking never finding that ship awaiting you. Please don't be so naïve and foolish! Don't doubt Yahweh's provision!

You cannot carry others who refuse to be carried by Yahweh. You have not been called like Moses - you have been called like Messiah and must let the self-sufficient rich young rulers go their way (Lk.18:18-30) until tribulation brings them to their senses or carries them over the line of no returning. Whatever they may choose, you cannot control it, and must not try to control it, else you will find that you are turning to them and to their disasterous choices, instead of remaining turned toward Yahweh and His salvation. And if you do that, then you have no promise. We cannot forced to be saved those who do not want to be saved, and sacrificing our salvation in that vain attempt - after you have given your necessary witness - is spiritual suicide. That is not the Jeremiah way. It is not the Remnant's way.

We are all tempted in our woundedness to become irrational and foolish at moments of crisis. We need, at all times, to remember to Whom we belong and Whose agenda we are following. Vain confidence, spurred by self-sacrificial love that that produces no fruit, will be one of the Enemy's last gambits at the critical hour. Beware. Nothing would please Satan more than you sacrifice yourself in vain because in your pride you thought your love could save somebody. We all go through that temptation. It is a double dead-end both for the one wanting to make the heroic sacrifice as well as for the ones you want to fruitlessly sacrificing for. Yah'shua (Jesus) did not chase after the rich young ruler, begging him to change his mind, and just surrender that idolatrous wealth. He let him go because He knew pursuing Him would be of no avail. It is a hard thing to "let the dead bury their own dead" (Lk.9:60, NIV) but it is not our calling to do it. If we do, we will end up in the grave like them.

Difficult choices that stretch the heart to its utmost bounds is what mature men and women in Messiah are called to make. Satan knows how to guilt us, accusing us of being 'unloving', 'selfish' or simply 'lacking faith' when what we are doing is walking in obedience. We can only do what we are called to do and are able to do in Him. That ship in the desert is the sole destination of the Remnant. It is both a physical location for you and your family as well as a collective state of mind, heart-bearing and spiritual locus. Right now, on the eve of judgments and tribulation, Yah'shua (Jesus) is pointing the Remnant in one direction, and one direction only. Now is the time to be ready to go your shelter at a moment's notice before the storm so that you do not perish in the conflagration. You have to be in prophetic mode now or you will not see the Derech (Way) that has been marked out for you. Do not change course to save a straggler, as you suppose, but learn the lesson of the incident between the "man of Elohim (God) from Judah" and "the old navi (prophet) living in Bethel". Go and read 1 Kings 13 again and re-acquaint yourself with the importance of being strictly obedient to Yahweh's mitzvah (commandment) to you not to stop to socialise with anyone when you are on mission. Remember, remember, as Yah said to Jeremiah, "you shall not turn to them" for it could cost you your life. Today is the day when you must learn the lesson of "the strictness of the Way" or perish on on a false one.

May the Elohim (God) of all grace bless and equip you as you learn to respond now with quick and unwavering obedience to whatever He tells you to do, however apparently meaningless or crazy, because His ways are not as your ways, and He knows His way in the clay and the iron. You do not. The Sh'mittah or Sabbatical Year is soon over and then we will be moving into something very important indeed - the Yovel (Jubillee Year)! I will speak more of that nearer the time. Shalom (peace)!

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