Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah. Thank you for joining us today for today's message.

Before that, my apologies for there being no Bible study last Sunday - as you know I have been iller than usual this last week and it was impossible for me to adequately prepare. Each of these lessons takes least 10 hours to get ready and I just did not have the energy or the necessary focus to properly immerse in the divine phronema without which all that tends to come out of the preachers mouth is a patchwork quilt of bits and pieces that don't properly connect and flow, something I have no intention of inflicting on you.

But there is another reason I did not give you a lesson last Sunday and it is what my message is principally about today. Yahweh has wanted me to give attention to some other urgent matters that won't wait because of prophetic events rapidly unfolding. So further apologies to those who have written in asking for answers to doctrinal questions which will have to be postponed further as they do require a lot of time. This is that reason: we are at a huge crossroads in world history and each day I sense that ever more strongly now that Yahweh is calling all His true servants to take time to stop what they are doing and to listen carefully to Him. Now I know that it is hard to bring a fast-moving battleship to a dead-stop in the water which is why you are being served this notice now. Various prophetic appointments with events we have been waiting to happen for many years are rushing towards us so we had better be prepared on all levels. It's a bit like the day before the Normandy invasion of 1944.

I am going to keep this as brief as possible but equally I have to cover this message thoroughly so bear with me. We have been immersed in the Gospel of Mark - which I hope you have been enjoying, incidentally - that represents the chronological beginning of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament). Three days ago, as I sat down to resume the 12th lesson which I was forced to postpone, and tried to find something - anything - in the Scriptures that represented where Yahweh wanted my undivided attention now, and found myself at the beginning of the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse as it's known in some tradition, meaning 'unveiling' or 'disclosure' in Greek and not, as most suppose, some great and destructive battle. I thought at first He wanted me to read it through, or perhaps some part of it, but no, I was just held captive at the first page and sensed I was just to wait and listen.

As you may know, the Book of Revelation is not unique as a genre of Hebrew religious literature. In other words, it's not the first of its kind - there were lots of so-called 'apocalypses' in the inter-testamental period. It is, many agree - and I agree - the strangest book in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament). I don't know how many interpretations of it I have read over the decades as a believer but what has struck me is how almost nobody agrees on how to interpret it, although many claim they have all the interpretive keys. And yet the interpreters all disagree. Like all prophecy, only the Ruach (Spirit) can draw the curtain of blindness aside which I'm not convinced has been fully done yet. Many other so called 'New Testament apocalypses', like the Apocalypses of 'Peter', 'Paul', 'Thomas', the 'Virgin Mary', and of 'Stephen' have been written since Yah'shua (Jesus), but these 'Catholic Apocalypses' were all composed much later and are unquestionably forgeries. Only the one written by John in our Bibles stands out uniquely and authentically in the correct, apostolic period of time [1].

The Israelites - and the modern Jews since them - in the course of their long history never forgot or ceased believing they were Yahweh's chosen people, and they never lost their faith and hope that some day this would be proved for all to see, and that they would become the masters of the world. The problem is by New Testament times, and even more since, they have tended to think that they were chosen for power and for glory rather than for service and responsibility. Today the run the banks and control the deep state.

At first they believed that they would become great where there emerged a king of David's line to lead them to conquest. This was the Messiah whom they expected, and they at first thought of Him in human terms. As time went on they began to think in terms of a supernatural instead of a human leader. But as time passed, and as they were subject in turn to the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, as they realised their own smallness and the world's vastness, they began to see that their greatness could never be achieved by human means at all. After all, Palestine - the Promised or Holy Land - was how big? 120 miles (~200 km) from north to south, and less than 50 miles (~65 km) wide from east to west. That's tiny. So they began to believe, not in any human leader, but in the direct intervention of Yahweh-Elohim Himself. The day would come, they concluded, when Elohim (God) Himself would come striding into history and lead them to greatness and glory.

So they came to believe that all time is divided into two æons or ages. There is the present æon or age, which is wholly bad, wholly under the dominion of Satan, and quite beyond cure and reformation. And then there is the "æon (age) to come" (Mt.12:32; Mk.10:30; Lk.18:30; Heb.6:5, NKJV), which was the golden age of Elohim (God) and of His people. The big question that was on their minds was: how is the one to turn into the other? The answer they gave - the revelation their nevi'im (prophets) received - was that it would happen on the Day of Yahweh (or the 'Day of the LORD' in orthodox Christian parlance), the great Day when Yahweh Himself would enter history. It would be a day of cosmic disintegration, when the sun would be turned to darkness and the moon into blood (Joel 2:31; cp, Ac.2:20; Rev.6:12), and the mountains would be hurled into the sea (Ps.46:2; Ezek.38:20), and when all order would become chaos. It would be a day of dreadful judgment; and then the new world - the New Creation - would be born, and all would be well. That's how the folks in the days of the Tanakh (Old Testament) basically saw it. It was really no more complicated than that.

Now these various 'apocalypses' I mentioned were the books in which the seers and visionaries set out what they believed would happen on that Day of Yahweh. Of course they got it wrong or were just plain guessing based on what they had read in the Tanakh (Old Testament) prophecies. So all of these apocalypses were pretty unintelligible - how do you describe the indescribable, how to you express the inexpressible, how do you put into signs and symbols the terrors and glories of the end time? How, indeed, would an ancient describe our modern world with his miniscule knowledge of science and technology, never mind whether these people were uninspired or inspired?

We, of course, believe that the Apocalypse of John or Book of Revelation was inspired, and that John wasn't fantacising or making things up, but was seeing and experiencing things beyond his natural comprehension. As an occasional seer myself, I can fully relate to this. All nevi'im (prophets) and seers struggle to write down things which are incomprehensible to them, as Ezekiel did in His extraordinary vision of the Throne of Elohim (God) (Ezek.1). How can we possibly understand the mechanics and systems that make up the presence of Elohim (God)? We are forced to use symbols, reducing complex things beyond our ken into simple, symbolic elements that can be understood on a basic level by the simple and learned alike, and by men and women in every æon or age.

Almost everything in the Book of Revelation is symbolic but in every generation students of Scripture have tried to read it literally and got it all wrong. It's why we have Christians who believe the Bible teaches the earth is flat because they don't understand how to use symbolic language poetry or don't understand the cultural mindset of each æon or age. They think two-dimensionally when our world is three-dimensional. Likewise, we tend to read the Book of Revelation three-dimensionally when other, additional dimensions are being described too. We're not going to study this book, either in part or as a whole, today, because we still have so much to learn about Hebraic thinking first as well as becoming more familiar with the messianic phronema. But basically, there are no literal beasts or monsters that are going to come up out of one of the physical oceans and no giant city is necessarily going to come out of the sky from another world or dimension, firing giant retro-rockets as it settles in the Holy Land, squishing the Judean Hills and everything around it and poking up into outer space (Rev.21:2), any more than there won't be any pet dogs in the Holy City once it's here (Rev.22:15 cp. Mt.7:6; Phil.3:2; Is.56:11).

The Book of Revelation was written at a time when believers had to choose between Caesar and Christ, when to be true to Christ meant risking certain death. That is why John's Apocalypse hates Rome and that's why it looks forward to the end of the present evil æon (age), and to the time when Christ's enemies will be vanquished and He will reign in the æon (age) to come. The Book of Revelation has a situational, historical context even though it truly looks into the distant future. Therefore when that future becomes present, as it has so done, albeit partially over the centuries, and as it is about to fully in our own time, Yahweh's people will once again have to choose between Caesar and Messiah. And preparation for that we are undergoing right now.

As the tribulation gets underway in the West and elsewhere, believers are going to be turning to their Bibles ever more earnestly for comfort and guidance and you can be sure, as in all previous times of tribulation - and there have been many, and there will be one more big one after the one that's arriving any moment now - they will in particular be searching the Book of Revelation for help. People will conclude, as they have done before, that this is the Great Tribulation when it is not, only this time they will be relying on a relatively new teaching for comfort and sustenance - the doctrine of the 'Rapture' - to materialise and whisk them away and be greatly distressed when it does not happen. Your sound knowledge of the Scriptures is going to be essential if you are to help realign them doctrinally into reality because without a solid rock of reality to stand on, people will get dangerously deceived and in many cases forfeit their lives because of foolish decisions based on faulty biblical exegesis.

How have things got this way and what can we in the West, and those nations who have chosen to imitate us, who desire to follow Christ according to the tavnith (pattern) of Scripture, do something about it, especially as time has now all but run out? Modern preachers, who are not following after "sound doctrine" (1 Tim.1:10; 2 Tim.4:3; Tit.1:9; 2:1), have turned the Besorah (Gospel) into an abomination. The Saviour said:

"For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of Elohim (God)" (Lk.16:15, NKJV).

And millions of unsuspecting Christians and Messianics have fallen prey to the many lies that are being preached out there in the religious market place. Just observe what believers focus their lives on and, if you know your Scriptures well, you will soon know what lies they have succumbed to. Should we then be surprised when these self same people complain that Yahweh is not answering their prayers? What kind of prayers are they praying? Usually, their complaint is that Yahweh is not giving them what they have asked for. The kind of things they are saying are like: "For years I have been praying for so-and-so and God has not answered my prayers. I have been fasting and praying constantly, I go to church every week, I seek counseling, I pay tithing, I search my Bible, but nothing seems to happen. God just ignores me. He won't grant me that marriage I want. He won't give me that job I need. He won't give me that position in the community I feel would suit me, or the car I want" or whatever. That is how your typical modernist, Prosperity Gospel-influenced Western Christian does things. Does anyone see what is wrong with that attitude?

I like Kim Keller's illustration in answer to that question. Imagine you learn that you are about to inherit a large sum of money that will make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. (Who, honestly, hasn't imagined or hoped for that at some time or another?!) Shortly afterwards you meet someone, fall in love. The wedding is set in a few month's time but then, just before the wedding, you discover the money you were supposed to inherit will not actually be given to you. (This has actually happened to me three times in my life when two wealthy uncles and one wealthy aunt all promised me things but forgot to include me in their wills or maybe changed their minds for some unknown reason. If they had followed through I would have inherited two valuable stamp collections and a herd of elephants in Thailand!) Anyway, when your fiancée in our imaginary story learns you are going to be penniless, she changes her mind and breaks off the engagement. How would you feel in such a situation? Might you feel used? Might you feel that your fiancée had in reality only agreed to marry you because of the money? (It doesn't have to be money - it can be other types of security, and then when they discover they can get 'better' security elsewhere, they dump you. I am sure you can think of similar scenarios).

The point is, if that happened to you, you'd feel used, wouldn't you? Many relationships are unfortunately like that these days. They're purely selfish, exploitative and utilitarian, based on what one partner can get out of the other. Most people, if you ask them, what they are seeking for in a marriage will give you a check list of all the qualities they expect their future partner to have, but rarely will they tell you of their plans to prepare to be the best husband or wife that they can be - the perfection has to come from the other side! So how do you imagine our Heavenly Father feels receiving such a prayer as the imaginary one I just mentioned? You have invested your time, said the right prayers, gone to church, read your Bible, given Him your life, but for some reason He won't give you what you want. There is this 'BBB' or 'Big Blessing Bank' account that He won't let you get your hands on! You've, as it were, 'married' Elohim (God) for His money, but not to be with Him for Himself.

You don't need me to tell you that this is a huge problem in the modern 'prosperity movement' being peddled by thousands of materialistically-, money-minded, salesman-like preachers today. We are constantly told by these men and women, who claim to represent Yahweh, that if we follow Christ, He will give us all the desires of our heart which, by the way, is nowhere spoken in the Bible in isolation. What the Scriptures actually say is:

"Delight yourself also in Yahweh, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to Yahweh, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass" (Ps.37:4-5, NKJV).

The divine formula first requires that we give ourselves to Yahweh and to commit ourselves to His ways - His Torah Way, His Derech (Way) - and to His plans for your life which may, or may not, include the things on our havenly shopping list. Only then - when we are submitted to Him, yielded to His will - then our desires are fulfilled, which will be the desires of those who are New Creatures in Christ, not those who are still tied to the image of the dead man of the flesh, of the 'old creation'. That's the whole point which the prosperity preachers completely miss by making out the flesh to be the Ruach (Spirit) when the flesh is supposed to be dead, crucified, and permanently buried. These false ministers are blowing life back into the sinful man with all its deadly, self-centred passions. They have forgotten the words of the apostle, who said:

"...you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify Elohim (God) in your body and in your spirit, which are Elohim's (God's)" (1 Cor 6:19-20, NKJV).

In other words, they aren't yours, not if you are truly a talmid (disciple). They don't belong to you. You don't belong to you, your marriage doesn't belong to you, your ambitions, hopes and dreams don't belong to you. But once you are aligned to the will of the Father, then your feelings and desires will be aligned with His. But the choice is yours. However, if you choose to re-align with the flesh, don't be surprised if your prayers aren't answered, or, if they are for a short while to chastise you, to teach you a lesson in obedience, to remind you as to Who owns who.

So here is the central question: do you delight in the ways of Yahweh? The key word here is 'delight', not 'reluctantly follow' as though under a heavy obligation you'd rather not be under. That 'reluctance' comes from the flesh, not the spirital man or woman.

So when preachers and teachers take the Bible out of context, we are left with a warped interpretation of what the Besorah (Gospel) is really about. The real Besorah (Gospel) is not that if we follow Elohim (God) we will get the desires of our heart. The real Besorah (Gospel) is that following Yah'shua (Jesus) is about changing the desires of your heart to desire Him above all else so that our desires can be willingly and submissively fine-tuned to His.

The Besorah (Gospel) is this: that Yah'shua (Jesus) loves us so much that He traded Heaven to have us - not that He traded Heaven for earthly power or glory or material possessions. Rather, that He traded everything to have a relationship with you, And when you come to Christ with the idea that Elohim (God) will give you 'things' if you worship Him, you are throwing everything in His face that He has done for you, and instead what you are really saying is that you desire something or someone else more than His ahavah (love). That is using Elohim (God) as a means to an end! Being a Christian or Messianic is realising that Yahweh is the end, goal, or purpose, the true desire of our heart, which nothing in this creation can ever fill. He is the one thing that we need and the only Being who will ever fulfil us.

The liturgy of the Anglican Church, in which I was raised, includes this beautiful prayer:

"O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy hunble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please Thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

But when preachers say that giving your life to Christ means that you will get the desires of your heart, what they are really doing is creating a picture in your mind that Elohim (God) is a 'Divine Dispensing Machine', a 'Magical Butler' or a 'Fairy Godmother', who is here to serve you and grant your every wish. And when people hear that, if they are desperate or gullible, they immediately sign on and send in the required donation or 'seed money' to 'activate God', as these false merchants and peddlers call it. They then wait in expectation for Elohim (God) to keep His end of the bargain. It doesn't work. But what have you really given your soul to? To Elohim (God) or to that flashy man on the TV in his expensive Armani suit, silk shirt and tie, and gold watch? What is your soul really worshipping when you do this? Man. Greed.

Now here is the sober emet (truth) of the matter. If you are sincere about bending your knee to Yahweh, don't do it unless you've already bent your heart to Him, because if you haven't, your knee is not really bent to Him at all, but to something else. Most people who abandon Elohim (God) do so because they had an expectation of who Elohim (God) was and what He was supposed to do for them. And when that expectation was not met, they abandoned Him, because He wan't being the Person He was supposed to be in their minds. But who was really Elohim (God) in that scenario? Who was setting the standard and trying to lead, expecting the other to fall in line and do precisely as they say? (This is exactly the same mistake that is made in marriage, incidentally).

It actually amazes me that many of these people who abandon Elohim (God) then turn on Him and call Him the tyrant who is just using us for His selfish ends, demanding with cruelty that we must follow, or else! It is almost as if these people have done that themselves and then in their anger created a psychological projection of themselves onto who they think Elohim (God) is when they have never actually taken the chance to get to know Him, His heart, or plan for us, but only a mirage of what they demand that He be for their own selfish gain, as if the desire which they demand Elohim (God) to fulfil will truly make them happy.

Now obviously I am not saying that it is wrong to ask Yahweh for something. We are commanded to ask (Mt.21:22; Jn.16:24) but equally we are to told to ask with right motives (Jas.4:3) and to make sure we are being obedient to the mitzvot (commandments) (1 Jn.3:22). The problem arises when ones entire relationship with Elohim (God) solely revolves around whether you get this one thing or not. It is one thing to pray to our Father for something we need or for good to happen in the world. It is another thing to tell Yahweh who He is supposed to be and that your love and service for Him is based on whether He gets you this one thing you think you so desperately need, when in fact He has already given us everything we already need to make it through this life. As Yahweh told Paul :

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor.12:9, NKJV).

As believers, all we need is the grace - the undeserved loving kindness - that Elohim (God) has already given us and if we don't realise this, then we have not put Elohim (God) first, but something else that we are truly living for. So the question before you is this: If Yahweh were to give you that thing you so desire and nothing else, and you would have it every day in an endless, infinite future, would it make you happy for all eternity? Would every moment be better than before? Would it continue to make you happy and fulfil you as you once thought? Or would it slowly, over the æons, get dull and annoying, and become a joke of what it once was?

What the Besorah (Gospel) tells us is that no matter what or who it is it will never fulfil you in the way you think - it will always lead you in an endless cycle of always chasing the next best thing in order to get the fulfilment you thought the previous thing would give you. If that is what Christ taught, then why do you think that following Him is about getting more things that will be about you, about fulfilling your immediate earthly happiness? If He came here to rescue you from this selfish cycle, why would you think that following Him would be more of that?

There's only one perfect Being that can give you the fulfillment you truly desire. Things will get boring, people will fail us by their imperfections and never love us as much as we need if we place our identity in them. There is only One Perfect Being made of Perfect Love who can fulfil you and give you what you truly need, what you have truly desired all along. And while you have been chasing earthly fulfilment, He has been right in front of you this whole time with open arms and only love to give. The hard emet (truth) we must learn is Elohim (God) cares more about you than your immediate happiness, and a lot of times that thing you think you need so much is not important in the long run. Trust Elohim (God). You may never get this thing you desire right now or Yahweh may be waiting until you are ready before He gives it to you but either way, if you realise that you have Elohim's (God') grace and love you have everything you'll ever need. And regardless of what happens, it will not destroy you or phase you. Through high water and low, love is the only thing that will last forever, and is the only thing that gets better with time. When you truly love someone it doesn't get old, it only gets better and better as the years progress. But people are still imperfect, and when we attempt to build our absolute identity on their imperfections will will always eventually be let down.

This is why Messiah called us to Him, not because He is insecure and selfish, but because He sees something deep in us that only He can fulfill.

"For Elohim (God) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16, NKJV).

He gave His Son to save us, not from Himself but from ourselves. When it says we will perish without Him that is not a threat but a plea for our own safety. Only He can give us the love we need to feel complete. There is no greater love than what Elohim (God) gave us on the cross. Christ calls us to live for Him not only because He is the only Being who can love us like we need but also because He gave everything just for us, not to use us as a means to an end, but simply just to be with us. On the cross He was shamed, exploited, mocked, and went through unimaginable suffering, all so you could know Him, not to fill your pockets with money or serve you as His butler in every way that you demand, but to know that He loves you and will take of death itself to save you.

Messiah asks for your heart because He gave you His, and He knows if you do not, your heart would continue to chase the next best thing until your soul disintegrates into chaos and madness. Only in His perfection can you find rest and fulfilment like no other, so why would you desire anything else? Why would you look upon Him and think He is not good enough and that real fulfilment is in something else? Instead, if you want to find true rest, and fulfilment that can get you through the best times and the worst, then turn your eyes upon Yah'shua (Jesus), know that He is the true desire that you need, and allow Him to change you from within. Everything else will lead you into insanity, just as the formerly Christian West is descending into cultural insanity, but His love will make you live and last forever.

So my prayer today, as we prepare to enter into global chaos, is that you would reassess your relationship with Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) in light of what I have been saying. A lot of people are going to completely lose their minds in what's coming because they have willfully chosen to abandon the spiritual foundations of Christian civilisation. They are standing inside a house and knocking down its walls with a sledgehammer. In the middle of this are false preachers offering a celestial vending machine of delights if you will send them money. They're deceived liars. Warn them, call them to repentance for the sake of their own souls, and then get out from amongst them if they refuse and into the true heart of Yah'shua (Jesus) is my prayer in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] The Book of Revelation is traditionally dated to 90-95 AD, but John A.T. Robinson, in Redating the New Testament (SCM Press, London: 1976), presents a convincing case for the book being completed much earlier in either late 68 or early 70 AD - Chapter VIII, The Book of Revelation, pp.221-253)

Acknowledgements