Showing posts with label Brian Hennessy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Hennessy. Show all posts

Friday, June 2, 2017

Conclusion Of the Parable Of Two Trains - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Conclusion Of the Parable Of Two Trains

Friday, June 02, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
As I shared in the two previous articles, I see this “parable” unfolding right before our eyes today. I said the Scriptures revealed that God’s ultimate plan was to unite passengers from the two trains, the Jewish Train and the Gospel Train, when both pulled into the Jerusalem station after their centuries-long journey. Which I believe they have. And that Yeshua was about to get off here and we are to follow.
Sadly, Scripture also reveals that many on the Gospel Train won’t get off. They will remain seated and then suddenly find themselves heading off into the outer darkness… where “there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:5). Which will show they never were his followers to begin with. Or if they were, they have been deceived.
How could this happen?
Over the centuries, conductors had arisen on the Gospel Train who began to spiritualize the train’s purpose. The passengers were not told of the Jewish roots of their faith. Nor encouraged to believe “they were Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). Nor told of the glorious reunion in the promised land at journey’s end. But instead were taught the train ride itself was a new religion for Gentile believers, and that our final destination was Heaven. Even the gospel message was altered. And soon many were allowed to board the train who did not even know Yeshua.
Yet God’s spirit was still drawing those who were His to Messiah in every generation. And the train traveled on.
Things on the Jewish Train, however, were quite different. Those passengers never lost sight of their identity or their train’s ultimate destination. They never stopped hoping that “next year” it would arrive again in their beloved Jerusalem. They just couldn’t see how it was possible. So when it miraculously arrived in 1948 they were as amazed as the rest of the world. But the idea they would one day merge with the passengers on the other train was inconceivable. They remembered all too well previous encounters with what had become called “the Christian Train.” And those memories were painful.
But this is a new day. God has been hard at work in the hearts of many of Yeshua’s true followers to love and support Israel. And to repent of the times we did not intercede to help those on the Jewish Train when we could have. As a result, this recent unsolicited outpouring of Christian love has caused many Jews to have a change of heart about the people on the Gospel Train. And a new foundation of trust and good will has been laid to prepare us all for the coming reunion.
Although many lovers of Zion on the Gospel Train are now ready to disembark, the doors haven’t officially opened. God is giving all his regathered sheep time to awaken and realize this is our last stop. And to “come out of her My people” (Rev. 18:4). So, until the doors open we must wait. When they do, I believe it will be a divinely orchestrated event (Isa. 52:10-12) that will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who Messiah is. And who Israel is.
But until then we are instructed to “take up the full armor of God, so that we will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13). But above all, be ready!
The doors will open right on time.
Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples
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Sunday, May 7, 2017

COMMENTARY: A Parable About Two Trains - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: A Parable About Two Trains

Sunday, May 07, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
I would like to tell you a parable of two trains that have traveled across the pages of history for nearly two millennium.
Back in the First Century, both trains were parked across the station from each other in Jerusalem. One was an express that I will call the Jewish Train. The other train, which had just pulled into the station, was a local and had many more cars. I’ll call it the Gospel Train.  
Now the Jewish Train had already traveled some 2000 dusty years and was just waiting to pick up one more passenger, known only as the Messiah, before continuing on. What the conductors didn’t realize, however, was that the Messiah had already come on board but was not recognized. When Yeshua finally identified himself as the one they were waiting for, neither the people nor the conductors believed him, and threw him off .
Broken-hearted over their rejection, Messiah shook the dust from his sandals and said to the Jewish train, “From now on you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 24:39). He then turned and boarded the local Gospel Train followed by a goodly number of Jews who had believed in him. 
Then both trains pulled out of the station.
For the next two thousand years the trains hurtled through history on completely different tracks, experiencing totally different realities. The Jewish Train, once so filled with hope and promise, entered a long dark tunnel that was often terrifying. And the people cried out, when will it end?
The Gospel Train with the Messiah on board, although under constant trial and tribulation, was full of light and joy and promise. This train made thousands of local stops around the world, picking up more and more passengers.
Then, after twenty centuries, the Jewish Train suddenly found itself back in the Jerusalem station again.  A new hope and excitement filled the hearts of the passengers as they sensed their long nightmare ride was over. 
Soon after, the Gospel Train, now called the Christian Train, also pulled into the Jerusalem station. And Messiah made a startling announcement. He told all aboard he was getting off here and advised all who loved him to do likewise. He’d brought home the “fullness of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:25). It was now time to favor Zion.  If we didn’t get off the train with him we would find ourselves plunged into the “outer darkness.”   
And that’s where I believe we are today, folks. 
Those who have ears to hear have already begun to pile out of the Christian train onto the Jerusalem station, realizing God’s ultimate intention was not to bring about a “Christianized world” – but a restored Israel. And that the Jews on the other train, who we could not relate to for so long, were actually our long-lost brethren. 
Finally, we are starting to see this whole 2000-year church age was God’s way of rounding up all His chosen ones scattered around the world to fulfill the promises to Abraham. Did not Abraham hope against hope “that he might become the father of many nations [Gentiles]?” (Rom. 4:18)
Of those saved, some would be those circumcised in the flesh. But others would not be. That’s why our inclusion had to be by faith, “in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to ALL the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Rom. 4:16)
In the days ahead, I believe an amazing miracle will take place the likes of which the world has never seen. A huge remnant of believers from among the nations (and perhaps many Jews still in the Diaspora) will arrive in Israel in a supernatural way that will exceed even the exodus from Egypt (see Jer. 23:5-8, Isa. 11:11-16). 
That’s when, I believe, those on the Jewish train will suddenly be given eyes to see. And they will say to us, “Blessed are you who come in the name of the Lord.” Indeed, many have already started to do so. And just as Yeshua prophesied so long ago, they will see him again.
Equally as exciting, they will begin to recognize who we “Christians” truly are and they will hear themselves fulfilling the words of Isaiah: “You will say in your heart, who has begotten these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am barren, an exile and a wanderer? Who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone. From where did these come?” (Isa 49:21). What a day that shall be!
This whole end-time event, I believe, has long been prophesied in the story of Joseph. Unrecognizable beneath his Gentile garb, Joseph (a picture of Messiah in his body) finally revealed himself in tears to his brothers in one of the most poignant moments recorded in the Bible. But unlike Messiah’s weeping over Jerusalem, Joseph’s tears were tears of joy.
And what did Joseph then tell his brothers? “Do not grieve (that you rejected me so long ago) or be angry with yourselves…for God has sent me before you to preserve a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive for a great deliverance” (Gen. 45:5,7). Without Messiah, Israel cannot survive the coming Tribulation. And without Israel, neither can we.  It’s a marriage made in Heaven.
Clearly, many tumultuous end-time events still lie ahead. But first things first. And the first thing, I believe, is for the true followers of Messiah to start disembarking from the Christian train. It’s headed for the scrap yard. 
It’s time to get ready for a great reunion in the Kingdom of God.
Brian Hennessy, is the author of Valley of the Steeples
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

COMMENTARY: Should the Church Be Called “Spiritual Israel”? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: Should the Church Be Called “Spiritual Israel”?

Tuesday, April 18, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
I’d wager the overwhelming response to that question by Christians who love and support the State of Israel would be, “yes!” And if pressed to differentiate between a “spiritual Israel” and a “physical Israel,” I feel certain most would say the physical one is Jewish and the other is not. 
Such is the state of confusion that abounds in the body of Messiah today regarding this important issue. Because if that popular understanding is true then it robs the Jewish people of ever becoming spiritual Israel, the Messianic community of God. And it robs non-Jewish Christians, aka the “church,” of ever being revealed as the “wild olive branches” grafted into that very same Messianic community. Are not non-Jewish believers also physical beings promised an equal share in Israel’s inheritance through faith in Messiah? “For if you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).
So let’s take a look at this spiritual/physical thing that I believe has been the root cause of so much confusion over the centuries. The Biblical passage that addresses the issue most directly is found in First Corinthians. It reads: “The spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven... And just as we have borne the image of the earthy (man), we will also bear the image of the heavenly (man) (1 Cor. 15:46-48).
What these verses teach is that the physical man and the spiritual man, like love and marriage, go together as a horse and carriage. From God’s point of view, we need both if we want to be part of the Israel of God. By necessity, the physical must come first. We must first be born of physical seed into this world. But then we must also be birthed again by a spiritual seed – i.e. God’s Spirit – to be counted among His chosen people. That can only happen when God through His mercy removes our sinful heart of flesh through faith in Yeshua and we receive “a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezek. 36:26). 
However, the church has traditionally separated God’s spiritually regenerated people – the “Christians” – from those deemed to be his physical people, the Jews. This is due to the influence of Greek philosophy on early Christian thought.  To the Greeks, physical earthly matter was evil, something to escape by severe bodily discipline or death. While the spiritual was the ideal state that we all hoped to attain in the afterlife. 
But the truth is the spiritual and the physical should be viewed simply as two progressive stages of human life on earth that is now possible, thanks to Yeshua’s sacrificial death. Before Messiah came we were all just carnal beings void of spiritual life due to Adam’s sin. But now that “earthy man,” whether born Jewish or German, has the potential of growing into the fullness of the “heavenly man,” who is Messiah. 
However, because we’ve been taught for so long that the physical and the spiritual are  incompatible realities, it is now distorting how Christians view our relationship to the Jewish State of Israel today.  
This teaching, which inspired Replacement Theology, erred when it pushed the legitimate fulfillment of Old Testament types and shadows in Messiah too far (a favorite tactic of the Enemy). It over-spiritualized the New Covenant. It taught that the Jews also were a type and shadow that had been replaced by Christians as God’s new chosen people.  And that the land promised to Abraham’s seed was just a metaphor for life in heaven – now identified as the Kingdom Of God. 
As more and more Christians have awakened to see God never rejected the Jewish people, nor abandoned His land promise, a great skepticism has arisen about all things said to have been fulfilled in Messiah. So that even those things that were truly fulfilled in Yeshua are being abandoned. And there is a rush to embrace many of the commandments of the Old Covenant as a way to retrieve the Hebraic roots of our faith. 
The Lord’s Supper, the New Covenant fulfillment of the Passover memorial, is being ignored in favor of the Jewish Seder meal. Our total spiritual rest in Yeshua has given way to resting again from manual labor on the Saturday Sabbath. And the understanding that the body of Messiah is now God’s new temple on earth is being replaced by a longing to see a third Jewish temple arise with animal sacrifice and a reinstitution of the Levitical priesthood. 
We need to clean out that corruptive piece of Greek leaven from our understanding and see the spiritual and physical are not mutually exclusive. But that both are required by God as He brings forth a new holy race on this earth, a new Adam. A place where our holy God can literally dwell in our midst by His Spirit through Messiah.
It’s true that right now only those in Messiah are experiencing this new abiding spiritual relationship with God. But unbelieving Judah’s time to receive her spiritual inheritance is rapidly approaching. When that happens there will be a corporate unveiling of “the one new man” (Eph. 2:15).  Both the physical Jew and physical non-Jew will graduate to become one people in the glorified body of Messiah. No longer to be thought of as two different kinds of Israels with different inheritances. But one Israel of God.
And then “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26) – both physically and spiritually.
Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples
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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Where’s the Temple? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Where’s the Temple?

Thursday, March 30, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
If there’s one thing most Christians and Jews agree on is that Israel’s restoration cannot be complete without the third temple. “For I shall return to Jerusalem with compassion; and My house shall be built in it, declares the Lord” (Zech. 1:16). Well, if the coming of Messiah is as near as many of us believe, then you have to ask – where’s the temple?
Would you be shocked to learn the temple is well along in its construction and nearing completion? If so, then you probably have been looking for it with natural eyes, not eyes of faith. Natural eyes are focused on the Temple Mount, hoping and praying for some divine intervention to remove the Dome of the Rock so construction can finally begin. But that is not the kind of temple God has in mind.
Like Israel’s God-given Feast Days, the Mosaic temple complex was just one more type and shadow pointing to a spiritual fulfillment in Messiah. Weren’t we told that - “The Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands?” (Acts 7:48) And that - “Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool for My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?” (Isa. 66:1). Why then would we look for a temple that men can build?
If we want to see God’s eternal place of residence today we must look at what God has been doing to restore the church. And by “church” I mean the body of Messiah, not the worldly institutional corporate entity which is the fruit of the fourth-century apostasy. For we are the living stones of the New Covenant temple - “having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Messiah Yeshua himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:20-22).
In two previous articles I tried to show how each stage of God’s restoration of Messiah’s congregation could be seen as a restoration of the fulfillments of Israel’s major Feasts. But that isn’t the only thing being revealed in the stages of our restoration. We can also track the rebuilding of the temple.
As most know, the Mosaic tabernacle/temple complex was divided into three separate sections: the Outer Court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The last two sections were under one roof separated (in Moses’ day) by a thin veil. Each section roughly corresponds to the three major Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.
Now throughout the temple were seven carefully placed pieces of “furniture.” Each one speaking volumes of spiritual truth concerning our salvation, taking us from justification to sanctification to glorification.
In the Outer Court were the Brazen Altar and the Laver. Within the Holy Place were the Menorah, the Table of Showbread and the Golden Altar of Incense. And in the Holy of Holies, where God’s Presence dwelt, we find the last two: the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat.
In 1517, when Martin Luther discovered that Yeshua’s sacrifice was the only sacrifice by which we could be justified before God, the Brazen Altar experience was restored to the body. In the ensuing Reformation, when Believer’s Baptism was restored by the Anabaptists, the Laver was again set in place. That completed the Outer Court.
Then, in the early 1900’s, Pentecost broke out and the Menorah, the seven-branched lamp which is symbolic of the Holy Spirit, was brought back from Rome. Christians could now minister in the light and power of the Spirit. Then came June 7, 1967, and the Israeli military victory that birthed a new repentance and fellowship between Jews and Christians. And the Table of Showbread with its twelve loaves, which speaks of the One New Man and the Lord’s commitment to save all Israel, was restored.
That only leaves the Golden Altar of Incense, which lay directly in front of the veil, to complete the Holy Place. Incense, we are told, represents “the prayers of the saints” (Rev.8:4). Could that altar have been restored over the last four decades when the Charismatic Movement burst on to the scene with its emphasis on restoring our spiritual prayer language? Perhaps. It was at that time, also, that Jews began to believe in Yeshua again in numbers not seen since the first century. Both these awakenings then filled the tabernacle with spirit-filled songs of praise and worship.
But this altar plays a central role on the Feast of Atonement also, when the High Priest goes through the veil into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the people and to purify the whole temple (us). That Day speaks of the final perfection of God’s people – our complete deliverance from sin and carnality.
But before that Day can come we must first cross through what the Jews call “the Days of Awe.” They are the ten days between Trumpets and Atonement when the people would repent of their transgressions against God and their fellow man.
It is very possible these ten days will manifest as the Great Tribulation. “You shall have tribulation ten days; be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev. 2:10) God would use that time to strip us of all dependence on self and this world system before our great salvation appears. It would prepare us, like the five virgins, to go through the door (veil of flesh) with Yeshua, our High Priest, into the Holy of Holies and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in its season. Which is also, no doubt, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Once God’s eternal dwelling is completed the world will witness a sight far more spectacular than Solomon’s Temple. It will be the glorified body of Messiah clothed in God’s righteousness. As Haggai so famously understated: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” (Hag. 2:9).
Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples
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Thursday, March 16, 2017

Are the Restorations of Israel and the Church Converging? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Are the Restorations of Israel and the Church Converging?

Thursday, March 16, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
I believe God is doing an amazing thing in our day that has flown largely under the radar. It appears He is merging His restoration of the church with His restoration of Israel.
In my previous article I discussed how the Feasts of Israel were actually dress rehearsals intended to point to a spiritual fulfillment in Messiah. Passover, of course, was fulfilled in Yeshua on Passover when he died and was resurrected. And Pentecost on Pentecost when he sent the Holy Spirit to the early church. Only the third Feast of Tabernacles remained without a New Covenant fulfillment.
However, as I said, I now believe the first of the three Tabernacle feasts, the Feast of Trumpets, received its spiritual fulfillment on June 7, 1967 when Jerusalem was liberated in the Six-Day War. But as some commented, it didn’t happen on the exact date of the feast. Didn’t that disqualify it?
That puzzled me at first also, until I saw it in the context of the restoration of the church. Let me explain.
To begin, it’s important to understand that the church was taken captive in the fourth century when Constantine married the church to the state. He did so with the help of many church leaders whose Biblical understanding had been corrupted by Greek philosophy.
Convening at Nicea in 325 AD, the Emperor Constantine established Christianity as a new Gentile religion that would have its own feast days (Easter, a Sunday Sabbath), rituals and priesthood. His goal was to separate Christianity from Judaism. To quote the words of Constantine: “Nothing should be held in common with that nation of liars and Christ-killers.”
In doing so, Constantine severed the church from its Hebraic roots and established the Roman Catholic Church as the official expression of Christianity. His actions plunged the church and Europe into spiritual darkness for centuries. A period appropriately termed The Dark Ages.
But God in His mercy did not leave us there. In time He began to restore our stolen heritage and the spiritual truths connected to the seven Biblical Feasts of Israel. As it played out in history, His restoration came as extended seasons which didn’t necessarily start on the Biblical Feast dates.
It officially began when Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis in October of 1517 and the Protestant Reformation was launched. In his awakening to the truth that “the just shall live by faith,” and not by religious works, he discovered he’d been born-again. And the spiritual fulfillment of Passover was restored to the church.
Soon afterwards, the Bible was translated into the common language of the people, first by Luther in Germany, and then by Tyndale in England. As a result, more and more false teachings of the Roman Church were uncovered and discarded and slowly replaced with the correct Biblical understandings. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was restored.
In the process, many believers began to see God required more than just a true knowledge of salvation. He wanted us to put on the new man and live godly lives from then on. The first to switch obedience from the traditions of the Catholic/Protestant Church-state systems to the teaching of Scripture were called Anabaptists. They simply wanted to practice believer’s baptism, not the Church’s infant baptism. And for that they were cruelly persecuted. God soon raised up gifted teachers, men like John Calvin, the Wesley brothers, George Whitfield, George Mueller to build up the body of Messiah. And a new wave offering of faithful believers began to serve the Lord, restoring the Feast of First Fruits.
Then at the start of the Twentieth Century a small group of believers in Kansas sought for, and experienced, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with its spiritual gifts. That led to the Azusa Street revival, which spread around the world. And the power of Pentecost was back.
Then came June 7, 1967 when Israel miraculously recaptured Jerusalem and precipitated several historic awakenings in both the Jewish and Christian communities.
For Christians, it was the trumpet call that awakened us to the Hebraic roots of our faith. And to discover the enormity of the crime that had taken place at Nicea so long ago.
So even though the event itself didn’t happen on the exact date of Trumpets, it did happen in Jerusalem. And led to tens of thousands of Christians coming up to Jerusalem to bless the nation and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. But this restoration, which resulted in such a huge spiritual victory in the hearts and minds of so many Christians, was significantly different from all the rest. Instead of being initiated from within Christianity, it was instead triggered by a Jewish military victory in Israel.
Doesn’t that suggest a spiritual convergence of our two communities not seen since the first century?
If I am correct in this discernment, it means we are coming into the unity that Yeshua prayed for just before his death (John 17:21). Because the next feast to be fulfilled in both our restorations from “Babylon” will be the Feast of Atonement. If that feast results in a large scale Jewish/Israeli awakening to Yeshua, and a cleansing of the body of Messiah - as many anticipate - wouldn’t that bring about a complete spiritual merger of the church and Israel in Messiah? Wouldn’t that truly make us “one flock with one shepherd”? (John 10:16)
After Atonement, of course, comes the Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Ingathering. That convocation speaks loudly of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him” (2 Thess.2:1) But before all that happens there must come the Day of the Lord with the apostasy and revealing of antichrist.
Surely we live in prophetic times.
Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples
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