Showing posts with label Shabbath. Show all posts

Monday, November 2, 2015

COMMENTARY: Did the New Covenant Nullify the Sabbath? - ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: Did the New Covenant Nullify the Sabbath?

Monday, November 02, 2015 | Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

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As more and more Christians recover their stolen Hebraic heritage and begin to draw near to their Jewish brethren again, the question arises - “how do we keep holy the Sabbath day?” Surely this commandment is central to being part of God’s Israel – “for it shall be a sign between Me and you throughout your generations” (Ex. 31:12).

For centuries we thought as Christians we were keeping the Sabbath by going to church on Sunday. Then we discovered the Sunday Sabbath was an unauthorized change to God’s Law instituted by the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. But does that mean God’s official day of rest is still Saturday? Or is there some other way to understand the fourth commandment in light of God’s New Covenant (NC) with Israel? I believe there is.

To begin, Jesus was quite clear about the purpose of his coming regarding the Mosaic Law: “I did not come to abolish [it] but to fulfill [it]” (Matt. 5:17). So none of the commandments and ordinances given on Mount Sinai were ever abolished by Yeshua. The key is understanding what Yeshua meant by “fulfilled.” For surely things were not the same in Israel after he left.

As the inspired New Testament writers revealed, the original Mosaic commands were only “a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb. 10:1). They all pointed to a future spiritual fulfillment in Yeshua. So once the New Covenant (NC) fulfilled the first covenant, Israel’s understanding of how God wanted His people to serve Him also had to change.

The command for physical circumcision became the required circumcised heart. The Levitical priesthood was replaced by the priesthood of believers. The temple building by the body of Messiah. Passover was now the remembrance of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the bread and wine. And the Sabbath became a command to rest, not just one day a week, but 24-7 in the finished work of Yeshua.

No one explains this NC truth concerning the Sabbath better than Watchman Nee. In his little book, Sit, Walk, Stand, a study of the Book of Ephesians, he reminds us the Sabbath law was based on God resting on the seventh day of creation. We were to see that while God worked six days and rested on the seventh, man, who was created on the sixth day, began his work on God’s day of rest. This showed us man must first enter God’s rest in Yeshua before he could work. “For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own works, just as God did from his” (Heb. 4:10).

To keep the Sabbath now we must sit down with Yeshua in heavenly places each day and cease from all our striving and unrest. We can rest from trying to stay saved, from trying to provide for ourselves and family, from trying to serve God – and just receive it all by faith, knowing God has already met all our needs and accomplished all our work for us in him. All we do now will be done in the Spirit.

Ironically, that means the Sabbath is the only time we should work! All other times of labor for God, even if deemed a “good work,” will have no lasting value in God’s Kingdom. Do you realize how much religious busy-work would end if we were all truly keeping His Sabbath?

That doesn’t mean someone can’t designate one day to be a personal sabbath rest to honor God if he so chooses. It just means he won’t be stoned if he fails to keep it.

The bottom line: “Let no one act as your judge with regard to food or drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Messiah” (Col. 2:16,17).

Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples, available at:ketchpublishing/BrianHennessyBooks.htm

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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Paulette Reed: Jewish New Year Almost Here - "The Year of The Window"

Paulette Reed:

2015 - The Year of the Window:

A Year of Watching and Revelation

The Elijah List

As we approach Rosh Hashanah, we'll transition from the year of the door to the year of the window. For 2015 the Jewish calendar shows the year 5775 as HEY (a window, looking, hands lifted, beholding something great, reveal.) (See HEY photo below)

Two Thousand and Fifteen will be a year of seeing: a year of watching and tremendous revelation.

We will need to stand strong in our identity in Christ as we speak to the mountains that are revealed. As we take authority in Christ we are going to see huge advancements in the Kingdom of God, but not without a battle.

We're also going to hear sounds of Jubilee like we've never heard before. We're going to hear sounds of victory and new music coming to the earth.

New worship teams and worship leaders will emerge and lead us into the presence of the Lord like never before. We're entering a season of harvest and reward following hard work – a year of Jubilee.

• This will be a year that Believers will be blessed so they can bless others.

Debt Cancellation

At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled—God says so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off. Deuteronomy 15:1-2, MSG

• This will be a year of canceling debts and releasing money.

Sabbatical for the Land

God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai: "Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When you enter the land which I am going to give you, the land will observe a Sabbath to God. Sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and take in your harvests for six years. But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.

Don't reap what grows of itself; don't harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land gets a year of complete and total rest. But you can eat from what the land volunteers during the Sabbath year—you and your men and women servants, your hired hands, and the foreigners who live in the country, and, of course, also your livestock and the wild animals in the land can eat from it. Whatever the land volunteers of itself can be eaten." Leviticus 25:3-7, MSG

During a year of rest, residents of the land do not plow their fields. They also give up ownership of their land, and if some produce grows on its own, it is for anyone's taking.

• This will be a year of releasing the land.

Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus

When we take a break from constant work and focus on Jesus and His window of revelation, our faith and trust are stretched, and consequently they grow. For those who put total trust in God there will be a rich reward.

"Keep My decrees and observe My laws and you will live secure in the land. The land will yield its fruit; you will have all you can eat and will live safe and secure. Do I hear you ask, 'What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we don't plant or harvest?' I assure you, I will send such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant in the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and continue until the harvest of the ninth year comes in." Leviticus 25:21-22 MSG

Throughout history, during a time of rest for and from the land, people packed the synagogues. We too will see churches and ministries filling up. Even if people don't understand that it's a year of rest, they will be drawn in by the anointing.

• This will be a year of serving from a place of rest.

Increased Faith upon the Earth

Believers will receive a renewing of faith and focus more on faith in God and less on faith in their own talents and skills.

• This will be a year of increased faith.

Paulette Reed
Prophetic Arrow Ministries

Email: info@propheticarrow.org
Website: propheticarrow.org

Paulette Reed is a powerful preacher, prophetic minister, encourager, and author. She is a full-time revivalist/evangelist. Her passion is to share the love of Christ and unite people to the inexplicable love of our Heavenly Father, exhorting them to arise and shine! She is an extremely accurate prophetess who has been raised up to bring hope and healing to the Body of Christ. Without a vision the people perish, so the Lord is using this handmaiden as His mouthpiece to speak forth individual and corporate vision, catapulting people into their destinies.

Paulette loves to see God's people awakened and proclaim the active extension of the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. She ministers in the revival anointing accompanied by revelatory ministry, healing, miracles, signs and wonders.

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