WHAT IS FAITH?

 Will Messiah find faith when He returns? (Luke 18:8) This passage of scripture was confusing to me for many years,  It seemed that so many people believe in the Messiah, especially here in America.  So, why does Messiah say this?

 "My People perish for lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6)  For a long time I also wondered what this meant and prayed about it.  I didn't want me or anyone else to perish for lack of knowledge.   Later on in that same verse it equates knowledge to Elohim's (God's) law.

 Then during this season in my life when wondering about these Scriptures, three days in a row I opened to John 14 where Messiah says that if we love Him then we need to keep His commands.

John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; 17Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you. …:21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them."…23 Y'Shua replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them… 15:10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love”…1 John 2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands…1 John 5:3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…2 John 1:6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. AS YOU HAVE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, His command is that you walk in love.

 It was July and I was sitting in my rocking chair reading about guideposts needing to be set up to get back on the highway.  When do you ever hear that word- guideposts?  Well, right after reading that passage in Jeremiah 31, I received a phone call from the VCR repair man.  (Do you remember VCRs?)  He said, "I don't know how this happened, but your guideposts are broken."  I thought, "I just read that in the Scripture.  The Holy Spirit just spoke this to me and now again.  What does this mean?"  

 That same month I was listening to a cassette tape.  I was playing it in my clock radio.  I went to turn the tape onto the other side and the radio came on.  A man said, "Teshuva.  The season is coming up for teshuva-repentance."  

 Wow!  What was Ruach HaKodesh teaching me?  What was I not understanding or doing right.  I want to have faith.  I want to have knowledge. I want to walk rightly and in repentance.  I want to be on the right path.

 Then He led me to Matthew 11 where the Messiah said to take His yoke that is easy and find rest for our souls.  This passage referred to Jeremiah 6:16 where it says to find rest for our souls we need to walk on the ancient paths.  I thought what does that mean?

 My daughter who was seven at the time had a dream wherein she saw a huge candle stick with many lights on it in heaven.  She said the middle light was suspended in the air and had a bell cup under it that God would push and everyone would bow to pray.  I went to the Bible to see if such a thing was in the Bible.  (Whenever we have dreams I refer to the Word to see what is said about it.  All the answers are in His Holy Word from the beginning.)  Sure enough the Menorah is mentioned in Zechariah and in the Torah.  I thought, we are taught that this the Menorah is Jewish.  But, here in Sarah's dream she saw it in heaven!  And it is detailed in scripture and represents Messiah!  With my young daughter being given a dream of something in heaven and then it being confirmed in Scripture I knew the Holy Spirit was wanting me to learn something.

I prayed and asked the Father what all this meant.  In the Word I was amazed to the meticulous detail He gives about Israel and all who join to Israel guarding His ways, His Holy Days like the Sabbath.  He also teaches us what is good food for us to eat and suitable materials for the clothing we wear.  His ways all point to the Messiah!  The food and materials have been proven medically to be what is actually best for us!  Our Creator Who made us knows best!  He is the One Who draws us to Him because He loves us.  He wants to meet with us at certain times and wants us to be healthy!

This was all new to me.  I was a leader in the church and was very involved all my life since my childhood.  I asked the Father that if it was Him that was showing me this truth.  After praying that He gave me a dream.  An older man with white hair sitting infront of a concrete house said to me, "You will know the truths I am teaching you are true.  I will tell you what your mother-in-law will bring back from Israel."  The next scene of the dream were the items He spoke about.  An angel (I could not see the angel, but I knew they were there standing.) woke me up from the dream and said (I didn't hear an audible voice, but rather the words were somehow etched boldly into my spirit-like a still small voice as the Scriptures speak of) to write it down.  I was so tired that I figured I would wait until morning since it was the middle of the night.  The angel woke me up two more times saying to write the dream down.  I did not listen due to being so tired.  It is hard to believe that I didn't listen to the messenger.  But, then I think about the disciples falling asleep when Y'Shua went to them three times when He had asked them to stay awake and pray, but they kept sleeping due to be tired.  So, like then, so are we today.  The next morning I knew I had a dream, but I could not remember it.  I felt terrible.  Later on that Friday Perry Stone said, "If you have a dream, then write it down."  Amazing that he said that on his show that day.  The next week my mother-in-law came back from her trip to Rome and Israel.  We had no communication during her trip.  She handed me some items she bought for us and I was speechless.  I knew I had seen the items before, but could not remember from where.  I prayed and asked the Father to forgive me for not listening to His messenger.  He reminded me of the dream.  Everything He showed me in advance so that I would know that the truths in His Word that He was showing me are for all His people and endure forever are TRUE!

HalleluYAH!  He gave me other dreams too.  A majority of this learning process happened over a little over a decade from the early 90's to around 2002.  He teaches us precept upon precept just as a little child learns.

 He was showing me that we show our love for Him by guarding His commandments and that when Y'Shua returns He wants us full of knowledge- His law.  He desires us to guard His law.  The Scriptures say His law is good, pure and holy and perfect for producing true soul conversion!  He wants us to walk in it as His Son did from a heart of love and compassion.  

Our faith is shown by our obedience to His eternal instructions.  So faith is believing and the way we show our belief is the same way Abraham and Noah and many others did- by listening to Abba and making what is so very important to Him to be also important to us!

Faith incorporates the hope of the promise and it extends to the walking out the faith through obedience to His Word.  The faith is brought to fullness when carried forth FROM HEARTS OF LOVE and COMPASSION.

The ancient paths are His ways of old.  I see now what the passages mean. The way we are to go is a narrow way (Matthew 7:14).  Now, I understand why.  He wants us to be on the narrow way, in the ancient paths, guarding His ways, His law, His instructions that are so very important to Him that He spent much time giving precise details about them again and again.  He wants us to repent and set up guideposts- His commandments- so that we can get back onto the ancient paths.

Wow!  It may all be new to you as it was to me.  That is okay.  He instructs us one step at a time.  He is calling us in the church today like He called Ephraim in Jeremiah 31 and in Hosea 4.  He wants us to return to Him. 

Faith is first accepting the promise of His Son as did the patriarchs of old, and then showing it by walking in obedience to His Word as His Son so perfectly from a loving heart did and showed for us an example.  With Great Love!

~Leslie Ann

  The first five books, The Torah, of the Bible

are for our daily walk in Messiah today!

May we not walk in Torahlessness, but rather

May we be full of Torah!

PS. 

'Messiah tells a crippled man his sins are forgiven and the religious leaders are outraged because only God can pardon sins.  So Messiah says, "So that you know the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins... Arise and walk', and the man walks. Amazing! Messiah asked which is harder, and the miracle was to prove a point.  The point isn't the healing, it's the forgiveness of sin. The miracle is just thrown in as an extra added throw-away bonus. The Hebrew word for 'something too hard' is 'pele' meaning wonderful or miracle. Messiah is called "Pele," in Isaiah 9:5.  He does things that are just too amazing. If you want to see miracles, the power of God, remember something:  You already have the greater miracle- greater than crossing the Red Sea, or fire coming down on Mt. Carmel.  You have the miracle of the forgiveness of your sins, the cleansing of your past, the erasing of your old life, the eradication of judgment in hell. So rejoice and be blessed today! Start your day everyday giving thanks that you're saved.  That's a miracle! It's the greatest of all.' -Rabbi Cahn

I was thinking about this devotion and thought how that someone who is unforgiven is crippled, but it takes a miracle, a pele, to be forgiven- to be made whole and to not be crippled anymore!  When one is forgiven he is told to exercise- to get up and walk.  He is to exercise his faith.  He is to walk in faith!  The miracle continues.  Walking in faith is a miracle for each of us to exercise for He has made us whole.  

So Get up and WALK your FAITH!