Cathy Hargett, Founder - Highway To Zion
The Land and Me
What is it about the Land – I’m speaking of the Land of Israel – that has totally merged into my being? It’s a question, a mystery, a reality, that for years has been all but impossible to articulate, but I must try to speak it.
Israel is more than a nation, more than a Scripture, more than a promise…..it’s the expression of His great love, a type of Yeshua Himself, a type of us who believe, and a type of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and it is a natural Land with earth and stones, a Land destined for eternity, just like you – He sets this Land apart as the ultimate place of His dwelling, and in that way this Land is the place of your identity, for He dwells in you, too.
Israel – Like you, it’s the Land that marries God. (Isa. 62:4)
Israel – It’s a place where His Jewish people dwell like jewels decorating the Land, jewels in His crown. (Isa. 49:18; Zech. 9:16)
Israel – It’s earthly and it’s heavenly. (Gen. 17; Rev. 22)
Israel – Like Yeshua, it’s a banner and a sign. (Isa. 11:10, 12)
Israel – It’s God’s choice for His dwelling. (Zech. 8:3; Ps. 135:21)
Israel – It’s the consummation point of His promise – the destiny and the destination of the people who belong to Him (Ps. 37:3, 9, 11, 22, 27, 29, 34)
Israel – Like Yeshua, like you, it’s been tormented and lashed by storms. (Isa. 54:11)
Israel – It’s the Land He calls Hephzibah – my delight is in her. (Isa. 62:4)
Israel – It’s the Land He calls Beulah – married. (Isa. 62:4)
Israel – It’s the Land He promised to His people, the physical, tangible evidence of His covenant. (Gen. 15:7)
Israel – It’s His portion. (Zech. 2:12)
Israel – Like you, it’s the Land destined for total restoration. (Dan. 2:44)
Yeshua has made me One with Him in Spirit and with His Land. I embrace it. I am part of it. I understand it somewhere deep in my inmost being – its trials and torments, its ravages, its pain, its grief, its suffering, its times of separation – its joy when possessed by Him, its destiny, its future, its final restoration. God loves this Land – it is a picture of His great love, a type of who He is – this is the expression of His highest promise to His people – to receive the Land of His covenant, His promise – “my highest joy”. (Ps. 137:6).
Through the revelation of His Land covenant, He expresses our destiny, to possess the Promise – and this is why the Land is a type of Yeshua ha Mashiach, a resurrected Land, one that was smitten and destroyed but returned, and it is also why we as His people are also a type of this Land. We are One with the Land, as Yeshua identifies with the Land, because our eternal destiny is to be One with the Lord. All of this about the Land that He has revealed throughout the Word has to do with this one thing – to be One with Him, totally restored to Him, totally One with Him in Spirit.
It’s why loving the Land is like loving Him. It’s why we can’t separate our Zionist hearts from our marriage and intimacy with God. It’s because the spiritual and the natural are becoming one. We will no longer walk in a natural realm – we are destined to be like Him.
The Jerusalem that is coming, the very heart of God, merges into the Land that represents the revived and restored soul of the one totally given over and abandoned to God, and the natural earth/world, being a type of the body, becomes totally renewed and also One with Him.
This physical picture of the earth being restored is a type of all that He is doing – Spirit, Soul, and Body – Jerusalem (Spirit), Israel (Soul), the World (Body) – all One with Him….we are His possession. And we are One – with Him and with His Land. The Land matters – it’s the way He has revealed all of the most indescribable treasure that He has for us. Possessing the Land of His promise is the goal God placed before Abraham. It really matters.
“When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass….”
(Isa. 66:14)
“…..I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach says to the churches.” (Rev. 3:12)
As believers, this mystery is being revealed to us as we walk steadily onward seeking His face. You cannot be separated from this Land any more than you can be separated from the Lord. This is the place He has set His Name, His seal. You are like her. You are very much identified with her in ways only the Ruach can explain. You also wear His Name. You also wear His seal. You also are His portion. You also are His choice.
Yet, this Land is both physical and eternal, just like you are. You are drawn there because on the horizon of this promised Land is dawning eternity. And the glory of the Lord is rising upon Israel, and it is also rising upon you! The Light is Yeshua Himself!
“See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you.” (Isa. 60:2)
“Nations will come to your Light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Isa. 60:3)
You live in two worlds now – a natural one and a spiritual one – and so does this Land. This Land is being restored and so are you. When we watch the natural Land of Israel being exploited it grieves the soul in a very personal way, in the same way we experience when we know the enemy is clawing his way into our hearts to keep us from our God. The desire to take a stand, to put on the garments for war, to do whatever it takes to defend the Land, a type of our own souls and the souls of the ones we love, to guard our hearts, as we seek to spiritually guard Jerusalem becomes so compelling, and the crossover and merging of earthly and spiritual becomes almost seamless even as we live now in the era of time, soon to be living in the fullness of eternity. This intricate weaving in and out of who we are and with the Land creates a spiritual tapestry only the Ruach can reveal.
This identification with the Land has penetrated my soul for many years now, and I struggle to explain it, but I know that it is a supernatural mystery that is being revealed in these days.
“…No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.”
(I Cor. 2:9-10)
Both Jew and Gentile are inextricably drawn to this Land – now, today – because we are living “in that day” as our Messiah draws near. This is a day like no other, and the sense of oneness – with God, our Yeshua, the Ruach, the Land, and with each other as believers, has taken on such a supernatural, almost surreal, reality, that sometimes I wonder if I am in the heavens or on earth.
This concept of “first the earthly and then the spiritual”, is not a new one (I Cor. 15:45-58), but what is happening is the merging of the two in our conscious spiritual awareness.
In the Land, we see types and shadows – of ourselves as believers, of Yeshua, of God’s expressed love, of the Jewish people – the picture of Yeshua and the relationship with the Land so totally compels me ~ the Jewish people and those grafted in cannot be separated from the Land – the Land won’t bloom without them and neither can the people be separated from Yeshua - the people won’t live without Him.
I know that my soul longs for the Land and that it is totally and vitally connected with Yeshua, my King. It is a supernatural drawing for my soul. I love it in a way that is beyond this world, and I recognize that the way I feel about it so reminds me of how I love the God of Israel and how He loves me.
The connection with this Land connects me with the Lord, with His Covenant, with His highest gift, with Yeshua, with the marriage to the Lion and the Lamb, with the return of the Jews to Israel, with the restoration of all things, with the total ultimate hope and promise and truth of Yeshua’s return to this planet.
“…the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isa. 35:10)
The revelation of God’s covenant of the Land is a key to walking with Him in deeper intimacy, in deeper faith, in deeper devotion, in greater love.
“…go in and take possession of the Land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.” (Josh. 1:11)
He gives us this hope that is sure – He will come – and He will dwell with us in the Land ~
“Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our Land.” (Song of Songs 2:13)
May He fill your heart with His revelation of the Land where you will dwell with Him forever!
Love in Messiah Yeshua,
Cathy
Cathy Hargett
Highway to Zion Ministries, Inc.
