Beloved Family… if we look at a person through our natural, carnal eyes only… we naturally spot, and zero in, on all of the faults, failings, shortcomings and inadequacies that abide in every fallen child of Adam. And we may also see traits in them that we admire, which, in reality, are actually working against God’s will and plan! And so either way, our natural way of seeing is unable to see and know all there is to see and know about people, because it doesn’t allow us to see them as God sees them!
Take Saul of Tarsus for example. At the beginning of Acts (chapters 7, 8, and 9) the elite Pharisee spiritual leaders of Israel saw Saul as a rising superstar Israelite within their ranks. But many of the Lord’s disciples saw him as a sinful religious thug intent on exterminating them all. And both perspectives were actually off target! To see as our God sees, we must be truly submitted and bonded to His indwelling Holy Spirit. Only He can enable us to be able to see as God sees. He sees people not only as they have been or currently are, but also as they will finally turn out to be, throughout Eternity!
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of realities not seen. For by it the elders received commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen did not come from anything visible.” (Hebrews 11:1-3 TLV, Emphasis added.)
We know by the revelation of Scripture (e.g. Psalm 139) that God endows each person He creates with an awesome identity, purpose and destiny that equips them to be ‘sons of God’ and members of His Royal Priesthood, full-fledged members of His Personal Family Circle, and co-heirs with His only-begotten risen Son! At certain points in time and space, that outcome may seem to be utterly unreachable; so we must remember that God sees everything as it was and is, but He also sees what it will be after it reaches its completed state! And that’s why we must have the full impartation of the Holy Spirit to lead and direct us.
So the Word tells us that our Creator has done beautiful and perfect ‘work’. He doesn’t make human ‘mistakes’ or ‘rejects’. Each one is made to become His image and likeness, and to reflect and reveal His Glory in some unique way. So, if we believe and submit to God’s Word, He will take us all the way into the intended fulfillment, leading to our ultimate perfection.
We disciples-in-training must be taught by the Holy Spirit to see what our Father sees, the way He sees it, as soon as possible! Along with an awesome God given identity, purpose and destiny, all people, even those we may personally abhor and disrespect, have received a God-given commission to eventually serve as a member of the earthly Body of God’s Son! We are all intended to reveal, embody, and serve God’s Word according to His eternal Plan and Purpose.
“He Himself gave some to be emissaries, some as prophets, some as proclaimers of the Good News, and some as shepherds and teachers—to equip the kedoshim (saints) for the work of service, for building up the Body of Messiah. This will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Ben-Elohim (the Son of God)—to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of Messiah’s Fullness.
In the beginning, right after the risen Lord confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, Barnabas was somehow able to sense the enormous calling and great potential that God had put into Saul. But many of the other believers only saw him for the deadly threat that he had formerly been to them. So Barnabas obviously had the Holy Spirit insight to guide him in forming his judgements, opinions and future agenda. (See Acts 9:27)
“As a result, we are no longer to be like children, tossed around by the waves and blown all over by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men with cunning in deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the Truth in Love, we are to grow up in all ways into Messiah, who is the Head. From Him the whole Body is fitted and held together by every supporting ligament. The proper working of each individual part produces the body’s growth, for building itself up in love.
“So I tell you this, indeed I insist on it in the Lord—walk no longer as the pagans do, stumbling around in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the Life of God because of the ignorance in them due to the hardness of their heart. Since they are past feeling, they have turned themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of immorality, with greed for more.
“However, you did not learn Messiah in this way—if indeed you have heard Him and were taught in Him, as THE TRUTH IS IN YESHUA. With respect to your former lifestyle, you are to lay aside the old self, corrupted by its deceitful desires, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self—created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
“So lay aside lying and “each one of you speak Truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun go down on your anger, nor give the devil a foothold. The one who steals must steal no longer—instead he must work, doing something useful with his own hands, so he may have something to share with the one who has need.
“Let no harmful word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for building others up according to the need, so that it gives grace to those who hear it. Do not grieve the Ruach ha-Kodesh of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness and rage and anger and quarreling and slander, along with all malice. Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other just as God in Messiah also forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:11-32 TLV, Emphasis added.)
So because at present all disciples are ‘current works in progress’, it’s not enough just to be chosen and called by God. At first, we still lack the needed spirit-sensitivity, maturity, and practical skill sets required to be effectively fruitful in critical and sensitive levels of authentic fruitful ministry. Everything that springs naturally out of our fallen flesh must first be thoroughly and rigorously dealt with… as we all agonize and endure and benefit from our Spirit-given boot camp combat-preparation training. So for true disciples, BOOT CAMP NEVER ENDS as long as we’re still in this earthly life. Our disciple training and purification and wisdom-imparting transformation process must never be seen as ‘already having been successfully completed’… No, because in this life… there is always more to learn and more growing for us to undergo!
There is always more for the Holy Spirit to continue to teach us… and more discipline for Him to impart. We never ARRIVE as long as we still abide within our fallen flesh. In that state, we NEVER HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS. We never ‘arrive’. There is still more new territory for God to show us and for us to experientially explore. And there’ll always be more in our flesh that will need to be eliminated. If you ponder the following text, you’ll see what I mean. Saul of Tarsus, as he was immediately after the Lord invaded his space and revealed Himself to him, serves as a great example for us:
“All those hearing him were amazed. They were saying, “Isn’t this the one who made havoc in Jerusalem for all those who call on this Name? And hasn’t he come here to bring them as prisoners before the ruling kohanim?” But Saul kept growing stronger, and he was confounding the Jewish people living in Damascus by PROVING that Yeshua is the Messiah. When many days had passed, these Jewish people plotted to kill him—but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night, to kill him. But the disciples took Saul by night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket.
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he made attempts to join up with the disciples—but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him in and brought him to the emissaries. He described to them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road and the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had spoken boldly in the name of Yeshua.
So Saul was with them, going in and out in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the Name of the Lord. He was speaking and ARGUING with the Hellenists, but they were trying to kill him. When the brothers found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.” (Acts 9:22-30 TLV, Emphasis added.)
Was Saul truly loved, chosen and called by God? Of course he was! And did he have an important part to play in God’s New Covenant plans? Yes, absolutely! So… wasn’t he, by that very fact, automatically ‘ready to roll’ and go out and begin to do his God-appointed job? ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT’! He most certainly was not ready at that point. It wasn’t just about Saul as an individual, it was about preparing him to gradually be woven into the fabric of the corporate Body of Messiah! It would take some time before he would sufficiently realize the enormous changes that his spiritual regeneration had made in him and how the Holy Spirit would have to make him aware of his new identity and New Covenant purpose, so Saul could gradually learn to follow His leading and be led to his rightful place and function within that Body!
Our Flesh Must Be Crucified!
There was still a lot of fallen Israelite ‘flesh’ in Saul that needed to be crucified and totally removed. Like the rest of us, he had to be emptied of himself… to make room for the Life of the Risen Lord to come in and take over in him completely. Saul had to ‘decrease’ so Yeshua could ‘increase’ in him. So the first order of business was for him to go to Holy Spirit Boot Camp and receive his basic training. That’s why God’s Spirit moved the first apostles to send him home to Tarsus. (And notice that some commentators estimate that Saul spent at least 14-18 years there!) It took that long before the Holy Spirit had him ready to join Barnabas in Antioch to begin to build up the Body of the Lord and help in the launching of the vast New Covenant changes that God intended to make at that time within the Remnant of Israel.
Saul needed direct Holy Spirit revelation concerning the enormous personal changes that His recent encounter with the risen Lord now actually required him to undergo! He still had to be made aware of the depths of the New Covenant that Father had made with Israel through her Messiah! This New Covenant wasn’t going to nullify, cancel out, or replace what God had already revealed and given to Israel. It was going to unpack, unfold, fully reveal, and properly interpret everything that had been given before in seed form in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures of the Tanach! (The Older Testament)
So at the very beginning of his disciple journey, Saul hadn’t had time to update and rewire his brain with New Covenant information. So he had to reprogram his ‘onboard computer’ with what it means to be guided, corrected and trained by the Spirit of God, rather than slavishly following the traditions of fallen, mortal, Sin-corrupted men! And he needed time to digest, absorb and process the fact that he had been chosen by God to be part of the ‘spear tip’ that would inject massive new growth, development and change, not only into God’s Israelite people, but also into the entire Gentile world! Throughout the previous ages, those two worlds had considered themselves to be mutually exclusive and totally separated from each other. But now God had to get the disciples ready to usher in, and demonstrate, what God’s people will be and look and sound like, AFTER those two formerly separated groups have been completely brought together and merged by the Spirit of God to actually transform into One New Man, under the Headship of their mutual Messiah! (See Romans 11 and Ephesians 2.)
“I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their false step salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke Israel to jealousy. Now if their (Israel’s) transgression leads to riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles, then how much more their fullness! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Insofar as I am an emissary to the Gentiles, I spotlight my ministry if somehow I might provoke to jealousy my own flesh and blood and save some of them. For if their rejection leads to the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:11-15 TLV, Emphasis added.)
So Saul needed to have time in Tarsus to receive the ‘downloads’ that the Spirit of God needed to put into his heart, mind, will, and affections. Only then would he be ready to get into action. Immediately after the Lord revealed Himself to him, Saul was devastated at the thought of all the damage he had so unwittingly inflicted on the reputation of His Lord and His Israelite followers. A violent, widespread persecution had been set off as a result of what he had helped to do to Stephen! So he felt compelled to ‘fix’ the situation as soon as possible. BUT… was that what the Holy Spirit wanted him to do? Obviously not. In fact, the Spirit was using that persecution to get the disciples to finally move out and begin to spread the Gospel far and wide… so that Father’s promise to Abraham could begin its course to final Fulfillment!
So… although Saul had an authentic calling from God, and was truly anointed to serve in the capacity of an apostolic emissary, he was nowhere near ready to engage in such action at first. He was too ‘wet behind the ears’… too raw, untrained, and undisciplined. In fact, he was, CLUELESS regarding the enormous New Covenant quantum leap in thrust, attitude and direction that the Holy Spirit intended to introduce to Israel and the Gentile world! We can sense this from the following text:
“When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, HE MADE ATTEMPTS to join up with the disciples—BUT THEY WERE ALL AFRAID OF HIM, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him in and brought him to the emissaries. He described to them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road and the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had spoken boldly in the name of Yeshua. So Saul was with them, going in and out in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the Name of the Lord. He was speaking and ARGUING with the Hellenists, BUT THEY WERE TRYING TO KILL HIM!
Does this mean that Saul was not beloved and chosen by God? Of course not! But it does mean he was not properly prepared! He was ‘unbaked’. He desperately needed to receive the proper amount of Holy Spirit ‘oven time’ so that he could be properly ‘updated’ and recalibrated and prepared for the new departure the New Covenant was just beginning to introduce to the world. And that would have to be done solely and entirely ON GOD’S TERMS… ACCORDING TO HIS WISDOM, METHODS AND TIMING, and not according to Saul’s personal natural opinions and urges, past history, and sense of propriety:
“Let kindness and truth never leave you—bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will gain favor and a good name in the eyes of God and man.
“Trust in Adonai with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear Adonai and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:3-8 TLV, Emphasis added.)
As long as Saul, or any of us, keep trusting in our own understanding, feelings, urges, and circumstances, we’ll keep getting ahead of the Holy Spirit, or we’ll lag fearfully behind. And, either way, that will actually impede His progress! After the Lord appeared to Saul and restored his sight and filled him with the Holy Spirit through Ananias, Saul was naturally still ‘hardwired’ to rely on his former Pharisee identity, mindset, attitudes and expectations. He assumed that now that he knew for sure that the Messiah had actually arrived, he finally knew what it meant to be a ‘first class Pharisee’! He assumed he had finally ‘arrived’ and now he had ‘all the answers’! But in truth, he had no clue about the brand new territory into which God intended to lead him, and all the others, in the days to come! So as long as he kept identifying with all that former religious ‘stuff’ that moved him to do as he had done in the past, he would continue to assume that his place would be in Jerusalem. And he would continue to live out from his old ‘Pharisee of Pharisees’ identity posture that he had gotten so used to assuming.
Thus it was psychologically and emotionally impossible for him to have a warm tender place in his heart for those ‘pig-eating’, unclean, idolatrous, outsiders known as ‘Gentiles’! Yet – they were the people God commissioned him to begin to reach out to, and become one with, in the future! God’s people had never done that before. But God intended for them to begin to do it now! So Saul couldn’t have known or guessed what God really had in mind. God would have to reveal it to him… personally… through the Holy Spirit! And this was to be the hallmark of this New Covenant Era that was now being launched!
The New Covenant Era Begins to Emerge
Saul was actually destined to take Israel’s understanding of God’s Plan far beyond its present, centuries old limitations. He would have to follow His Lord into brand new, uncharted territory and reach out to… and to learn to live and work with, and identify himself with… the very Gentile peoples that his Jewish brethren had been taught to studiously avoid until the present time! So his God-intended future was going to be light years removed from what he had spent his previous life learning to identify with and believe. That’s why he was not prepared and plowed up enough to be able to realize this immediately after he repented and ‘changed sides’. He needed intensive ‘boot camp training’! God had to have time to sow the unprecedented New Covenant ‘Seed’ into him… And it would take time for that Seed to grow and mature. And only after that happened, would he develop the totally new ways of thinking, acting, reacting, and interacting, that God now required him to learn, absorb, develop, and… teach to others so it could be passed along to all of the coming future generations!
As long as Saul remained mentally and emotionally stuck at the point he had so proudly and stoutly occupied throughout his pre-Yeshua days… he wouldn’t come close to being ready to go out and do his actual God-given job! So all the years he had to spend in Tarsus were ‘The Oven’ that God had prepared for his apostolic formation. He had to be taken back to ‘square one’ in his understanding of what a true Israelite was actually meant to be and to do in this world. He had to have God’s Promise to Abraham, that through him, all the families of the world would be blessed… ‘baked’ into his heart and soul, through and through. The Cross had to be applied to his fallen, Sin-corrupted soul so that his brain, mind, will, and affections could be updated with the profoundly essential new revelation and information that would now allow ‘all the families of the world’ to be included in the awesome Atonement that God had accomplished in and through His Living Word made flesh! So only after he acquired this new information was sufficiently brought ‘up to date’ and ‘in step with’ what God was actually ready to begin to fulfill. And only then did the Holy Spirit move Barnabas to go to Tarsus to search for Saul and bring him back into the fray.
“Now those scattered because of the persecution that happened in connection with Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Judeans. However, there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Hellenists (Jews and Gentiles) also, proclaiming the Lord Yeshua. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number (of those Hellenist Jews AND Gentiles) who believed turned to the Lord!
“News about these things reached the ears of the community in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was thrilled. He encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with heartfelt devotion. For Barnabas was a good man, full of the Ruach ha-Kodesh and faith. And a large number (including many non-Jews) was added to the Lord.
THEN, Barnabas (being moved by the Holy Spirit) left for Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met together with Messiah’s (mixed) community and taught a large number.” (Acts 11:19-26a TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
Each new disciple that receives the Lord’s call to service faces the same challenges Saul did, when the Lord first calls them to become one of His disciples. At first, only God knows the full purpose for which He calls them into His service. So, yes, we may be chosen and anointed by God. But it’s also true that we must realize that God intends to commission us in a way and at a level we could have never before imagined possible! So it’s not enough to simply be chosen and called. That won’t qualify us to fulfill the commissions the Lord has in mind for us.
The Lord’s calling is like receiving a promotion and being given a new rank and a higher level of command and responsibility in the military. Starting from the very beginning of a raw recruit’s career… leading all the way to the ‘top brass’ ranks of leadership… each new stage and level of duty requires a corresponding course of training and preparation. So as soon as they are promoted, whatever the newly appointed officer candidates learned in the past, and the ways in which they were accustomed to think, act, react and interact with others, will be outdated. They will not be at all ready to understand what they will now have to learn to be and to do in the future! So, in that sense, boot camp never ends… and they must go through newer, ever-higher levels of training and preparation!
So too is it for us Last Days disciples. Our Lord will be leading us into brand new territory from this point forward! And, like Saul, who had no way of knowing in the beginning what this new territory would require of him, we too will be venturing into the Great Unknown. While Saul had been rising to prominence among his Pharisee brethren, he naturally learned to view himself according to the time-honored Pharisee traditions and mindsets. So he was thoroughly programmed to assume that he had already reached the top of the spiritual mountain. He had ‘arrived’ and so he naturally looked and sounded like a man who had ‘all the answers’. And especially now that he had finally received the revelation concerning who the Real Messiah of Israel was, he assumed he was primed and ready for action!
But, because he had been a Pharisee in such good standing, at first he would not have been open and willing to learn anything new FROM ANYBODY! Nevertheless, he was now going to be taken into ‘Gentile Territory’ of which he had formerly taken a very dim view. And so the Lord stopped him dead in his tracks! And every new Last Days disciple will be in the same situation, especially those of us who are called to serve in the Era of the chaotic Final Climax! Where the Lord will be taking us… we will find no one who will be able to ‘show us the ropes’, since every human in existence will be in the process of being whisked into brand new, end of the age territory. So everyone will be forced to deal with new totally bewildering and unprecedented and overwhelming situations!
Last Days Disciple Training is, of Necessity, Intensive
“When you read this, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah—WHICH WAS NOT MADE KNOWN TO THE SONS OF MEN IN OTHER GENERATIONS, as it has now been revealed by the Ruach to His holy (New Covenant) emissaries and prophets. This mystery is that the Gentiles are joint heirs and fellow members of the same Body and co-sharers of the Promise in Messiah Yeshua through the Good News. I became a servant of this Good News by the gift of God’s favor given to me through the exercise of His Power.
This favor was given to me, the very least of His kedoshim, to proclaim to the Gentiles the endless riches of the Messiah and to bring to light the plan of the mystery—WHICH FOR AGES WAS HIDDEN IN GOD, who created all things. THE PURPOSE (for which God created the physical universe) IS THAT THROUGH MESSIAH’S COMMUNITY THE MULTI-FACETED WISDOM OF GOD MIGHT BE MADE KNOWN TO THE (demonic) RULERS AND AUTHORITIES IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES, which is in keeping with the eternal purpose (that God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3) that He carried out in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:4-11 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
God intends to bring ALL ISRAELITES (Jewish and non-Jewish) into the New Covenant Era! And at present, it’s obvious that is still a long way from being accomplished! So, from now on, God Himself will have to be guiding and leading us all, every step of the way! No longer will venerable human teachers and sages be capable of leading and instructing us according to what they learned in former ages. From now on, the Spirit of God is the only One Father will commission to fulfill this monumental task of teaching and equipping us to learn and follow new ways that will allow Him to form the risen Messiah within us all, in Spirit and in Truth!
So, beginning with the first century pioneers, the New Covenant disciples can no longer rely on and be dependent on, past pre-Yeshua traditions that were devised by purely human wisdom and leadership. Now, we must all learn to be taught, trained, corrected, disciplined, and led by our risen Messiah, who will be dwelling within us by the Power of the Spirit of God! And this is brand new territory for everyone! The Lord will be leading all of us into totally new, Virgin Territory that prior generations have never seen or explored before!
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on 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.
“For this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one 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 wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember!” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 NASB, Emphasis added.)
“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Good News proclaimed by me is not man-made. I did not receive it from any human, nor was I taught it, but it came through a (personal Spirit-given) revelation of Yeshua the Messiah!
“For you have heard of my earlier behavior in Judaism—how I persecuted God’s community beyond measure and tried to destroy it. I was even advancing within Judaism beyond many my own age among my people, being a more extreme observer of my fathers’ traditions. But when God—who set me apart from birth and called me through His grace—WAS PLEASED TO REVEAL HIS SON TO (IN) ME SO I WOULD PROCLAIM HIM AMONG THE GENTILES, I DID NOT IMMEDIATELY CONSULT WITH ANY HUMAN! I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were emissaries before me, either. Instead I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus.” (Galatians 1:11-17 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
The disciples were now being led into the era in which the Jewish and non-Jewish Remnant of Israel would be required to start learning to ‘become as one’ in the Blood Covenant sense of Scripture. The time had come for Israel to begin to embrace and include AS MANY PEOPLE FROM THE GENTILE WORLD AS POSSIBLE! So this was totally unprecedented new territory for everyone! So now there would be no human ‘experts’ or ‘big shots’ or ‘leaders’ or ‘guides’ among them to consult! Now it was time for everyone to be reduced to the level of little children. Now everyone, regardless of origin and background, Jew and Gentile alike, would be reduced to silence and forced to admit that they were not able to do anything except to marvel at the unspeakable Greatness of God… and worship Him in total silence and adoration… and be led by His Spirit and His Word… together… as one!
“In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed. Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons?
“My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai or lose heart when you are corrected by Him, because Adonai disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He accepts.”
“It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline? But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons. Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in HIS HOLINESS! Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of (God’s own) Righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble! And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed. Pursue Shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it, many be defiled.” (Hebrews 12:4-15 TLV, Emphasis added.)
“I will raise up for them a Prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I WILL PUT MY WORDS IN HIS MOUTH, and HE SHALL SPEAK TO THEM EVERYTHING THAT I COMMAND HIM. And it shall come about that WHOEVER DOES NOT LISTEN TO MY WORDS WHICH HE SPEAKS IN MY NAME, I Myself will require it of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19 NASB, Amplification and emphasis added.)
So everything Saul had gotten so used to was, in great part, something that he, and many other Israelites, had begun to idolize because they assumed they had already ‘arrived’ and had no need of Yeshua! And that deeply ingrained mindset got in the way of their ability to recognize, and submit to, the long-awaited arrival of the Living Word of God made flesh… and the infilling of the Spirit of God, who had been sent to fill all of Israel with God’s Personal New Covenant Oneness! Yes, what they were clinging to from past tradition may have actually come originally from revelation given to them from God’s written Word… but if they were going to misunderstand and misuse what God gave to them, to justify their rejection and condemnation of Messiah Yeshua… HIS LIVING WORD… what good did it do for them? If that was how they were going to use their study of the Torah and the lore of the sages of Israel, then everything God gave to them would be twisted and deformed by their own hardened hearts into something grossly wrong and unintended!
“I have come in My Father’s Name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you accept glory from one another and you do not seek the Glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; FOR HE WROTE ABOUT ME! But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:43-47 NASB, Emphasis added.)
If we no longer use what God gave us for the purpose He meant for it to play in our lives, we’ll twist it into something alien that will no longer be truly God-sent. So God must reject what we make of it and force us to let go of whatever we have that did not actually originate with Him! Such alien man-injected additions are temporary because they will not withstand the consuming Fire of God’s Judgment!
“For no one can lay any other foundation than what is already laid—which is Yeshua the Messiah. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear. For the Day will show it, because it is to be revealed by fire; and the fire itself will test each one’s work—what sort it is.” 1 Corinthians 3:11-13.)
This is why we must all be prepared, predisposed, and reconfigured to be ready to embrace and become one with God’s own Spirit, so He can safely impart into us what IS ETERNALLY TRUE… which is God’s own Perfect Living Word… the resurrected Messiah, Yeshua. He is Almighty God Himself who has truly become forever one of us, and one with us! And, because God Himself is our Way, and our Truth, and our Life from now on… we must learn to follow Him, and heed His Voice alone, every step of the way!
So because Saul had to get used to utterly new territory, he had to learn new things, new ways, and to develop the new attitudes that would empower him to fathom previously unexplored levels of depth! And beloved, that is the same situation we’re facing in this Last Days Era! The first century Jewish and Gentile disciples of our Lord had to learn to serve as Pioneer New Covenant ‘Path Makers’! God was in the process of launching the era of the Grand Fulfillment of His original Covenant with Abraham! That is what the term ‘New Covenant’ actually means! The first century disciples were part of the launching phase of this; but now, we who live in the Last Days Era, will be called upon to take God’s Promise into its Ultimate Fulfillment! This is why those post-Ascension disciples could not rely upon the guidance of elders from the written Word of God pre-Yeshua days. They HAD to learn to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance at ever-deepening levels of interaction with God’s LIVING WORD! And so do we!
Traditions from our pre-Yeshua past can no longer be the sole guiding beacon for any of us! We can learn much from them about our Messiah, but we must never settle for being led by anything short of being able to personally interact with our Risen Messiah Himself! Now nothing short of Him will be able to lead us into the unique depth levels of the Ultimate New Covenant Fulfillment that we will have to learn to follow and demonstrate! Only our Father knows what lies ahead of us! And this is why He has provided the incredibly overwhelming omnipotent Power of His own Holy Spirit to serve as our Guide:
“But when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you INTO ALL THE TRUTH! He will not speak on His own; but WHATEVER HE HEARS, HE WILL TELL YOU. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. HE WILL GLORIFY ME, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has IS MINE! For this reason I said THE RUACH WILL TAKE FROM WHAT IS MINE AND DECLARE IT TO YOU! A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, YOU WILL SEE ME!” (John 16:13-16 TLV, Emphasis added.)
The times for which we’re being deployed will introduce realities we could have never imagined in the past! We’ll be taken into territory with which not even Peter, James, John, Paul, and the other first century disciples had to contend! So we must also serve as ‘Pioneer Pathfinders’ learning to faithfully follow the lead of our indwelling Lord, as the Holy Spirit makes Him to be real, and alive, and fruitfully effective from within us! Matthew 24 & 25 and the various epistles, and the book of Revelation warn us about the unspeakable unimaginable events that lie ahead. So we too must surrender unconditionally to the Holy Spirit… so that He can be free to do to us, in us, and through us everything that only Almighty God knows has yet to be done in us, and for us, and through us!
How willing are we to allow the Holy Spirit to take us all the way in knowing our God? How far will we dare to trust our risen Lord? How much does He deserve our attentive and interactive affection, devotion and commitment? How far will we follow Him before we feel forced to ‘draw the line’ on how much more we can trust Him? Will there ever be a ‘right time and place’ to draw that line? Will we EVER have just cause to stop trusting and following the Living Word of the Living God?
To be true sons, priests, prophets and kings of Almighty God… we ourselves must always be ready to receive personal reproof, correction and direction from our Supreme Commander who will always be abiding in us to guide our every step. And those to whom we are to deliver what He is imparting to us will eventually have to learn to embrace the Cross and allow themselves to be reduced to the zero level, just the way they see us doing it. So, before we can show them what that’s like, we must be willing to do it first, and demonstrate personally, how it is to be done. We must take the lead in humbling ourselves before our God, allowing Him to put a right heart and spirit into us, so that proper preparations can be made at both ends of the transaction. Thus Holy Spirit can ‘plow up the soil of everyone’s heart’ and predispose us all to receive, embrace, and ingest the Precious Seed of Messiah’s Resurrection Life that He has been sent to sow into us all.
This is what Paul learned. After the Holy Spirit cleansed, purified, instructed and prepared him, Saul transformed into Paul… the awesome emissary of the Messiah of Israel to the Gentile world. Now he could be entrusted with the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom of God. And just as he had seen Stephen lay down his temporary earthly life, so was he prepared to do the same when his time to do it was at hand!
“When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery of God. For I decided not to know about anything among you except Yeshua the Messiah—and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power—so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men BUT IN THE POWER OF GOD!” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5 TLV, Emphasis added.