I hope that your days of spiritual preparation have been as productive and satisfying as mine. Yahweh has shown me all sorts of 'dark corners' of my soul I didn't know even existed which has enabled me to make teshuvah (repent), get more cleaned out and enjoy greater spiritual sensitivity and heart liberation than ever before.

One thing I have realised is that the Enemy can be in plain view and yet we can be utterly blind to him nonetheless. How is this possible? Because once you give the Enemy grounds for being inside you through Torah-disobedience and believing in lies, he can really mess around with the way your thoughts and feelings are set up [1] and draw veils over your inner seeing. People shake their heads over the insanity that has taken over the world and this is the very simple yet true explanation of it. It's why people by and large are so dumbed down today.

A really interesting experience I had this morning which I have never had before was knowing what spirit-spirit contact is in terms of touch. I saw someone and touched them with my own spirtit and was astonished as the texture and sensation. Really words don't exist to describe it but the nearest I can get to it is that it is like a combination of elasticity, smoothness and fluidity. The spirit body of a person is nothing like the physical body. It is like an energy field that is botyh very soft and very strong simultaneously and a very beautiful experience. I could feel this with both hands and arms and was absolutely delighted. I mention this as one of the fruits I have been enjoying as a result of spotting and expelling enemy spirits.

My main message to you this morning though is about toqef or authority, a subject I have gone into in great depth in the past because of its importance. This morning, though, I saw a vision of several people and I was surprised because they were all wearing what looked like US marshal badges. I thought to myself, 'This is strange - how can there be so many marshals?'. Then I saw a vision of a sad woman and she was shaking her head very slightly with tears coming down her cheeks. When I asked what this meant the Ruach (Spirit) said that nearly everybody was taking authority to him- or herself which they were not entitled to, and that this was why Yahweh was angry and why judgment now had to happen, as it did at the end of the reigns of the judges:

"In those days...each one was doing what was right in his own eyes" (Judg.21:25, NWT 2e).

There is hardly an authority structure in the home, church, assembly, community or nation that isn't out of alignment with Yahweh's tavnith (pattern). The world is submitted to the flesh and therefore to self-will. Biblical toqef or authority is the unimpeded power to act, or to possess, control, use or dispose of something or somebody that is based on Yahweh's Law or Torah. The only rightful power or authority in the Cosmos is ultimately the Creator's which He has designated to Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and through Him to His elohim or rulers, heavenly (malakim/angels) and earthly (Israelite judges) [2]. Most of this authority and power has been idolatrously abrogated by, and transferred gradually in two stages to, formerly Christian states as counterfeit elohims 'god' or powers:

Those who have not been fooled by globalism very often still remain in the humanism trap which unilaterally transfers divine authority to self. The Remnant absolutely has to return to the 'old paradigm' now or come under the judgment of misappropriated authority which is idolatry (and therefore blasphemy).

Authority is not a very popular word with modern Christians and Messianics who, in reaction of abusive authority clearly out of alignment with Scripture, are easily tempted away into the humanism [3] paradign to one degree or another. Part of the problem is that apostolic authority is very, very rare to find except in its counterfeit form in the 'one-and-only' cults. And the reason it's rare is that Yahweh has given very little of it out yet. Most Protestants have transferred it to the Bible as though it were a kind of papery 'apostle'. Though every spiritually-regenerated believer possesses some kind of authority, it is:

• 1. Constrained by such bounadries as spiritual maturity, office, gifting and anointing; and/or
• 2. Perverted by counterfeit anointings.

Of the latter I will not speak because I have said so much about it over the years, exposing it and warning believers of all the harm it has done to the Body of Messiah. However, the fact that the apostolic gifting and anointing has been perverted does not mean it is invalid, anymore than authority and hierarchy are 'overthrown' because of their abuse by the ungodly. Apostolic authority is a complex species because it is both possessed by the individual believer and not - apostolic authority, like domestic authority, is delegated authority.

In the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) we find apostles giving orders and prescribing discipline in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name as His spokesmen and with His toqef (authority) (1 Cor.5:4; 2 Thes.3:6). They were given this authority as special witnesses, emissaries and representatives largely because they faithfully walked with Him and were taught by Him face-to-face but also because they were especially anointed at the first Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost'). Since Yah'shua (Jesus) will not be returning physically to walk with His end-time apostles unil right at the very end, obviously any such apostles that are raised cannot have quite the same kind of toqef (authority) - and we know that it is the first twelve apostles whose names are memorialised forever and who judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

This being indisputably true, those first apostles always possessing a rank above any who may come subsequently, it is important to add that the latter-day apostles are not simply 'pastors' or 'evangelists' - indeed the title 'apostle' is so common in certain pentecostal churches that were you to add them all up you would find that the earth had tens of thousands of them. However, these are not New Testament apostles but 'emmissaries' or 'witnesses' in a lesser sense. The apostles that are to be raised - only 12 at any one moment in time - amongst the Remant will not only have a special Sukkot anointing (which the New Testament community never enjoyed) but will have the responsibility of ruling as princes over the restored Twelve Tribes as they are gathered (only Judah and Benjamin were around then). So the apostles-to-come, whilst similar in some respects to the former New Testament ones, will also be radically different. Whereas the first apostles were the result of the First Coming, the last apostles will be the forerunners of the Second Coming, assuming a kind of John-the-Baptist rôle.

There are many power-hungry and ambitious men in the messianic movement and elsewhere already calling themselves 'apostle', not because of any anointing (which is so obviously not there) but because they, like the ancient Scribes, view themselves as superior teachers. Intellect tops everything in their ranking system. And whilst apostles are certainly (and importantly) competent teachers too, that is not their only calling. They are men clearly favoured of Yahweh with both correct doctrine and spiritual power with all the signs promised in Scripture. Problem: there are false signs and power all around too. Not only does the remnant need discernment to located the emerging apostles but there must be a marriage between knowledge and spiritual power, not to mention the spirit of evangelism.

Twelve apostles will emerge in the last generation along with a small handful here and there with apostolic authority in the prenultimate generation, though they will lack the fullness. There are no 'full-blooded' apostles currently but there will be.

More important right now is the realisation and acceptance that husbands have toqef (authority) over wives (1 Cor.11:3; 1 Tim.2:12) [4] - hence wives must obey their husbands in all Torah-compliant things (Eph.5:22; 1 Pet.3:1-6) and children their parents likewise (Eph.6:1ff.) - fathers (and mothers by delegation from the fathers) have toqef (authority) over their own children and wards (1 Tim.33:4,12) and pastors have limited Torah-compliant toqef (authority) [5] over the patriarchs (father-husbands) in their congregations [6] who have been led by the Ruach (Spirit) to enter into congregational covenants of 'membership'. This is Yahweh's Order and those who refuse to obey it cannot come up to the Remnant. Until such a time that the tribes become visible and apostles are needed to govern them visibly, direct the final gathering and evangelism generally [7]

For now individuals and families must go where Yahweh directs them to go to learn the communal ways of the Body. When the collapse happens there will be isolated families and small groups of families joining together for fellowship and protection. The proper authority structures must be up and running both for righteousness' sake (to please Yahweh), for family and congregational harmony, and for safety. The Enemy must not be given the slightest chink or wedge. So engage in some radical teshuvah (repentance) and get your mind and heart right before the Creator and the elohim He has placed over you.

Endnotes

[1] See, for example, Spanners in the Thinking Processes: How Demons Create Mental Bottlenecks
[2] See the very important exegesis, The Elohim Principle (sections 7-12)
[3] Not to be confused with Christian/Messianic Humanism
[4] There is no Torah rule that says men have gender authority over women
[5] But not their wives and children
[6] This authority does not extend to the Patriarch's home which is the Patriarch's stewardship - if wives or children are out of order, or if there is conflict between members, it is the Pastor's responsibility to inform the Patriarch of his duty and to direct and encourage him in putting matters straight. Failing that, the Patriarch must be disciplined, not the offending wife or child. The Pastor's sphere of authority concerns the propagation and maintainance of Yahweh's teachings in Scripture and in the Congregation's Constitution.
[7] One of the duties per pro the New Testament model is that pastors are to raise congregations (along with evangelists) and to appoint pastors (solely an apostolic function). In the absence of apostles or an apostolic rule in a congregation, pastors must be selected by other means either by a presiding pastor over many congregations assuming an apostolic rôle (the NCAY system) or, more usually in Protestant churches, by the election of the congregations or designated bodies of elders and deacons.