Beloved Family… I don’t know if any of us who are part of this current generation have even begun to fathom and experience the meaning of the New Covenant God said that He would make with Israel. And that being the case, it’s clear that we’re a long way from being able to fathom the meaning and significance of what changes will take place at the New Covenant’s Ultimate Last Days Fulfillment!
Obviously, much more has to happen before Creation sees the awesome Fullness of what the New Covenant promises. At this point of its development, I doubt if anyone who is alive today can even begin to imagine what the awesome Reality will be like, when God causes it to emerge and develop in our hearts and in our midst! But we need to hang onto our Master with everything that is in us, because this is going to be a very wild ride!
I have a strong sense of intuition that tells me it won’t be much longer before God will begin to show the world more and more of the wonders that are contained within His New Covenant. So I offer the following texts for our prayerful consideration:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not like the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My Covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord.
“‘But this is the Covenant which I will make with the House of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My Law (Torah) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I WILL BE their God, and THEY SHALL BE My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ FOR THEY WILL ALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM TO THE GREATEST OF THEM,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more!’ (Emphasis added.)
Ezekiel 36:22-23
“Therefore say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O House of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations (Gentiles) where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great Name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I PROVE MYSELF HOLY AMONG YOU IN THEIR SIGHT!(Amplification and emphasis added.)
Wow, beloved, can you sense the unprecedented intimacy and personal bonding God promises He will create within the hearts of His people? He’s telling Israel, and the world:
‘You haven’t seen anything yet! I can hardly wait until you actually can begin to experience Me at the depths that I’ve had My heart set on enjoying with you ever since the Beginning! And that day will come… but at present… you have no idea about how wonderful that is going to be!’
Ezekiel 36:23b-28
“Then the nations (Gentiles) will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God!”
God is telling us that when it’s time for that Fulfillment to take place, His New Covenant people will be so Spirit-filled, such supernatural people, that the Houses of Judah and Israel will finally enter into the Fullness of the promises He was describing since the beginning of their existence! Through Isaiah, He told the world that His beloved Israel would be ‘A Light to the Gentiles!’ And she has been a light for this world… but when the Fullness of her Restoration finally comes, the Light of God Himself, blazing out from within her will be so bright that the powers of Darkness will not be able to stand it!
Our awesome God is telling us that this New Covenant is going to ‘work’ to Perfection. And that is why it tops off and consummates every other Covenant that preceded it. And, as we already mentioned, this Covenant will not depend on us, and our efforts. This is not something that we, by our will power will accomplish ‘for God’… by our personal religious striving. Nothing that fallen flesh will ever try to do, regardless of how ‘religious and spiritual’ it tries to appear, will ever even come close to being able to meet our Perfect God’s awesome Standards of Righteousness and Truth and Justice! So, no, we will not be the ones that will cause the New Covenant to succeed. It will begin, develop and be completed and fulfilled to Perfection… by Almighty God Himself!
Isaiah 66:1-2
“Thus says the Lord, “Heaven is My Throne and the Earth is My Footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord.
“But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at MY WORD!”
God directs everyone’s attention to His Living creative Word… the one responsible for creating, sustaining, redeeming, fulfilling and restoring all of Creation! And we know that the Word became flesh and is now resurrected from the dead and abiding and waiting with His Father… in anticipation of the moment when Father’s Eternal Plan has determined the precise time for Him to return to Earth to finalize the Total Consummation and Fulfillment of all of God’s claims, commandments and promises!
This restorative Fulfillment has been part of God’s plan from the very beginning… even before the fall of our first parents took place in space and time! From all of Eternity, God planned to send His Living Word (who is endowed with all Authority in Heaven and on Earth) to be the Initiator and Completer and the Fulfiller and Finisher of everything that God would ever require of His human image and likeness! This is at the heart of the intent of the true Gospel of Salvation (See Matthew 28:18-20). In that context, God sent His Living Word to cover our nakedness and to serve as our Perfect Atoning Substitute Sacrifice, Redeemer and Blood Covenant Champion! God has covered the human race completely, to Perfection, by His Living Word who was made flesh:
Isaiah 55:3-11
“Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to (the Son of) David (who is also My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased). Behold, I have made Him a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and Commander for the peoples.
“Behold (Israel), you will call a nation you do not know, and, a nation, which knows you not, will run to you, because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you! Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his (radically independent) way and the unrighteous man his (self-assertive) thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Many Israelites meant well. Many wanted to serve and please God and obey His commandments. And God promised to bless them for that. BUT… no matter how hard they tried, no matter how any human being may try… none of that will work! None of that will ever be able to save anyone. Our self-driven efforts are dead products, flowing from dead sources. And that is why none of that will ever be able to redeem, deliver, regenerate, cleanse or restore any of God’s Creation that had been mutilated by the ravages of Sin and Death.
So, in the Era of God’s New Covenant Fulfillment… YESHUA WILL BE PREEMINENT ON A WORLDWIDE BASIS! Everyone will know who He really and truly IS, and be amazed at the awesome wonders of His Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption!
Ephesians 1:18-23
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the Riches of the Glory of His Inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His Power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the Strength of His Might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as Head over all things, to the Church, which is His Body, the Fullness of Him who fills all in all!” (Emphasis added.)
Even King David, who God said was ‘a man after My own heart,’ was in the same boat with the rest of us (See Acts 13:22). David also had that fallen flesh condition we all share. He yearned to be able to build a fitting Temple for God’s Earthly Presence. But he too did not understand the depths of his own bankruptcy, emptiness and inability… until God sent Nathan, one of His prophets, who made it eminently clear to him. Nathan exposed David’s hidden sins and through him, the Holy Spirit pierced, penetrated and impregnated David’s heart and brought him to true repentance. And He also let David know that it was not up to him to build a House for God. God now promised to build a House for Himself, on David’s behalf… in our midst! God promised that this House would last for all of Eternity! And that promise was what the New Covenant would one day fulfill in Israel, and throughout the rest of the world!
2 Samuel 7:8-17
“Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth.
“I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies.
“The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a House for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant (Solomon) after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My Name, and I will establish the Throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
“Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; and (through Israel’s Messiah, who is My Living Word) your Throne shall be established forever.”’” In accordance with all these words AND ALL THIS VISION, so Nathan spoke to David.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, David had great intentions… but his fallen, mortal, Sin-corrupted flesh would never have been able to fulfill what he felt led to promise to God and choose to do on His behalf. And it was also obvious that David’s natural son, Solomon, did not have what it would take either. God allowed Solomon to build a magnificent temple… but it did not last. Eventually, the Babylonians leveled it!
And all that time, Israel was under the Covenant of Sinai. And any Israelites that did choose to love and serve God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength had an enormous handicap. They all had Sin-corrupted Adamic human nature and faculties. So the fallen motives and intentions, by which they tried to believe, trust, obey and minister to God, were, in great part, mostly soul-driven. And that was also true of all of the Israelites that Yeshua chided in the first century. It had been true since the fall of Adam, and it was true of all Israelites, since the days of Abram!
Jeremiah 17:5-6
“Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant!”
John 2:23-25
“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many (Israelites) believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, FOR HE KNEW ALL MEN, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So, no matter how sincerely and desperately the Sinai Covenant Israelites may have wished to be ‘good Israelites,’ and no matter what noble aspirations they pursued or what wonderful results they may have desired to strive to achieve… because Sin and Death were always at work within them… all of their efforts were doomed to fall far, far short of God’s Perfect Standards. As long as they tried to do it by virtue of the Covenant of Sinai, they didn’t have a chance of pulling off the monumental Task of serving God at the Perfect Image and Likeness of God level for which the human race had originally been designed and created. This is what Yeshua drove home to Nicodemas, who was a member of the ruling Sanhedrin:
John 3:1-3
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (Emphasis added.)
So we can see what the Holy Spirit was revealing through David when he wrote Psalm 51, among many others. David sang that psalm to God in a deep spirit of remorse and repentance over his many sins, blunders, faults and failings over the years. But he knew that, despite all of his God-directed desires and good intentions, in himself, he was utterly bankrupt, helpless and unworthy. And thus he turned to God in order to receive from Him everything he knew he would never be able to provide for himself, or for anyone else.
Nevertheless, even before David reached that stage of spiritual insight and maturity, in the midst of His glory days, he saw the need for God to have His own Temple Residence on Earth. And that is why he felt led to try to take on the task of doing whatever it would take to get that job done. David had great intentions, but he did not yet fully grasp the depths of our human corporate and individual inability, unworthiness, and spiritual bankruptcy. We may have expensive spiritual tastes and desires, but we are desperately lacking in the spiritual funds that it will take to undertake the cost it will take to satisfy them.
The Covenant of Sinai that requires and focuses on first class human performance was doomed to fail from its very beginning. But that didn’t take God by surprise! He knew the truth about us. He didn’t initiate that Covenant and give it to Israel because He actually expected humanity to be able to do what His Standards required! He did it because Israel and the rest of the fallen human race didn’t know how bankrupt they were and how far short of God’s Mark they actually fell. They didn’t have a clue about their true spiritual standing and state. And to this day, most of the people of the world who wallow in the humanism of their false philosophies and religions remain just as ignorant and spiritually obtuse as humanity has always been!
So the purpose of the Covenant of Sinai and its commandments was to expose our true spiritual state of bankruptcy and Death for our benefit… and also to pave and open the way for the coming of the one and only Perfect Human… Messiah Yeshua… God’s Living Creative Word made flesh! And through all of this we can see that God is the one that HAS to do all of the work. Only He can meet and fulfill His own standards and requirements! And that’s why He must first make us aware of our true spiritually dead, bankrupt state before we are able to finally understand what His Living Word had to do in order to cover our nakedness and stand with us as our Blood Covenant Champion, Representative, and High Priest!
Beloved, until we know ourselves as we truly are… we will never be able to know and appreciate and thank God for His beloved Son, as He truly IS!
Galatians 3:21-29
“Is the Law (the Torah of the Sinai Covenant) then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under Sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law, being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed.
“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith (just as Abraham was saved by faith). But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus!
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is (therefore) neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So in one way or another, all of these ‘Old Testament’ issues, stories and struggles were revealing our personal bankruptcy to us, while at the same time, revealing the wonderful news of our Messiah. In the fullness of time, He would be sent to Earth to do, in the Name of His Father, what only Almighty God could do through His Living Word… to us, in us, for us and through us… to fulfill His original promises to Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
Genesis 1:26-31a
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
“God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good!”
None of God’s awesome original Blessing and Covenant promises will ever be fulfilled by the efforts of fallen, Sin-corrupted, Death-ridden human beings… no matter how religious we might try to become! That is the revelation that God always has the most trouble driving home to our proud, arrogant, shame-based humanistic hearts that wallow in gross radical independence and denial concerning our true state and our desperate need for God to come and save and restore us.
So there has always been a need for another New Covenant, a Covenant that would transcend the typical fallen altitude level of our human endeavors… and surpass by far anything we could ever accomplish for ourselves. And that is exactly what God’s Living Word came to Earth to institute and launch:
Luke 22:19-20
“And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in My blood!” (Emphasis added.)
The New Covenant will most definitely succeed because Almighty God Himself is the one that has done all of the necessary work to make it real… in us… and through us. He has done it… by the Absolute Authority and Obedient Love of His Living Word’s Finished Works of Creation and Redemption (See Genesis 2:1-3; John 19:30). And the fruits and benefits of the Perfect Finished Work that God’s Word has already accomplished is what the Holy Spirit will be transmitting into God’s New Covenant disciples… as He continues to take us through our firm, rigorous ‘Last Days Boot Camp Training and Discipline Regimen’ in the days to come.
The Omnipotent Power of God’s Holy Spirit will continually work into us, all of the Fullness that is in Yeshua, our Resurrected Messiah! And because God will be working in us, ‘both to will and to do’ according to Father’s good purpose and pleasure (See Philippians 2:13), we can rest assured that we have been fully and beautifully and completely filled, consummated and covered to total Redemption and Restoration, by the Lovingkindness of our awesome God!
Matthew 11:25-30
“At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him!
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and (through the New Covenant My Father has made with Israel) I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls! For My (New Covenant) yoke is easy and My burden is light!”
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; FOR IT IS GOD WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU, both to will and to work for His good pleasure!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, this is what the Lord is working into the innermost being of Yeshua’s disciples… right now! As He takes us through the paces that are required by our Boot Camp Discipline and Training, He is actually restoring to Himself His own image and likeness! And He is refashioning and refitting our Sin-mutilated human nature… not by our self-managed self improvement gimmicks… but by the utterly thorough, perfect, all-sufficient, finished measures of our share in our Messiah’s Death. That is what opens the way for us to partake of His total and utterly supernatural, Heavenly Resurrection Life!
That’s right… because of our Messiah’s Lovingkindness to us, we have a full share in His Resurrection Glory! At this point of the Journey, only Israel’s Messiah enjoys all of that in its Fullness. But God has told us in writing that the day is coming soon… when we all will also personally share in His Fullness!
Revelation 21:3-7
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
“And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to the one who thirsts from the Spring of the Water of Life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son (full eternal heir)!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
God is gearing and equipping us to develop and grow in Wisdom, Knowledge and Authoritative Power. He is preparing us to become Heavenly Invincible Warrior-Priests… a Divinely empowered Host of God’s regenerated New Covenant sons… that will ultimately be equipped to embody the Lord of Glory Himself… and embody and reflect Him upon all of Creation… for all of Eternity!
Thanks to what God has revealed to us in His written Word, through the examples contained in the struggles and issues that Israel has always had to face and endure… and thanks to the Holy Spirit’s work of exposing the darkness and death that still lurk within our fallen natural hearts and bodies… we can see that we are on an Exodus Journey. Our Lord is showing us what, and where, we really are, despite all of our false political aspirations and our false gods, false religions, false prophets and false Humanistic aspirations.
Ecclesiastes 1:2-9
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
“What advantage does man have in all his work, which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; and hastening to its place, it rises there again. Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.
“All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.”
Worldly humans continue to insist on trusting in themselves and their own striving… and they also trust in others… false prophets, temporal leaders and cultural superstars… that are just as empty and spiritually bankrupt as they are! False religions and temporary political regimes arise and fall like waves in the ocean. Countries and empires arise, thrive, decline and implode, only to be succeeded by others that are just as frail and just as temporary. And in the course of all that, each new spiritually naive generation of people emerges and begins to pursue its own versions of vain, empty worldly goals. And they also continue to pursue their vain, empty dreams of stardom and supremacy that can never last. And so, generation-by-generation, they spend their lives and fortunes in futile efforts to satisfy their insatiable burning passions, and chase after their own arrogant aspirations and ill-advised presumptions. Vanity of vanities… All is vanity!
Beloved, let us remain focused on the business at hand… the business of our Boot Camp Training. The Lord is with us. The Lord is our Master, Trainer, Disciplinarian and Commander. He is the only one who knows the Mind of His Father and the depths of His Holy Spirit. Only He knows, and is able to fulfill the awesome Plan of God’s Creation and its Total Restoration. And He is here… to live and work from within us and to be the Eternal Destiny that awaits us! So He continues to change and transform our hearts, minds and wills into His image and likeness. And very soon He will transform our bodies also into utterly righteous, holy and pure Resurrection wonders that will make our humanity just like His!
He has already totally overcome the Serpent and his powers of Darkness! And He is here to supply everything that He has already done to cover the needs of our past, and to meet every care, concern and need that we have now and will have in the future. He has us totally covered, past, present and future! And that is why we can afford to Rest and Rejoice in Him. His Work is Perfect and completely Finished and has already been attributed to our credit! And He is here with us to lovingly and faithfully apply all of the benefits that flow out of His Finished Work… to make sure that everything will be covered and supplied and handled BY HIM… as we bear His Presence with us, wherever Almighty God deploys us.
Joshua 6:15-20
“Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
“But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban, and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”
“So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and (without the Israelites having to do anything to destroy it) the wall (by the Authority of God’s Living Word) fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)