OBEDIENCE
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Foremostly YHWH desires cheerful obedience from the hearts.
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YHWH desires for each of us to experience the blessings & the freedom that comes from obeying Him. He gives clear guidelines on how to follow his commands & laws in His Torah.
We understand how to apply them by studying how the great patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, as well as, the apostles & most importantly how his only begotten Son applied the Torah. Yahshua obeyed Torah from his heart of love & became the living Torah, our foremost example of how to apply the Torah to our lives today.
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The enemy, HaSatan, has tried from the beginning to deceive YHWH’s people so that we don’t experience the freedom YHWH intends for us to know through obedience to His commands & laws. The enemy deceived Eve in the garden & he still wants to deceive us today. What deception does he use? The enemy wants us to question YHWH and say that we find freedom in not obeying YHWH by not guarding His commands that He set forth from the very beginning that are for all mankind and came way before the Jewish people were even a nation, long before Moses lived. Let us stop falling for the same old deception and realize that freedom of life is found only through obedience to YHWH’s laws.
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One day after moving to Florida, I was sitting at my dining room table underneath the ceiling light that cast a Star of David shadow upon the ceiling; I heard a still small voice say to me, “You are Jewish.” I thought to myself that I had not been raised that way; I needed to find out. I called my mom on the phone; she said she didn’t know but to call her older siblings. I called them; they said we were Jewish & that their dad John Mailach & his brother Henry escaped the persecution leading up to the Holocaust near the Austria/Hungary border. He changed his name to Miller on the boat coming to America. He married my grandmother May Olive who is also Hebraic in Origin. I called my mother back & told her.
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I started having dreams in abundance, seeing precepts in the Scriptures that the church was not teaching. I asked the Father about this & He showed me that His Word is infallible; it does not change. He showed me how the 4th empire according to Daniel did indeed through the Church change His calendar & His seasons. The church through the generations since the Council of Nicaea in 346 AD has accepted the inherited lies of their fathers. He showed me that YahShua fervently guarded His Father’s commands. He showed me how Paul said the law is good, holy & just. He showed me how David said the law was perfect to the converting of the soul. He showed me how in Revelation we are told we will observe His feast days in the future. He showed me that they are His Feast Days, His Holy Days instituted by Him since the beginning before the Jewish people existed. We regard them as Jewish days because they were specially chosen to continue and preserve them, but so are we. I asked Him why I wasn’t raised to know my Jewish heritage until now. He answered me saying, “So you would accept the Messiah.” Many Jewish people have yet to accept that the Messiah has come for the first time as the suffering servant of Joseph. They are still waiting for Him to come. We who believe He has come are looking for His return as Son of David as a conquering King!
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I was told, "You will bring your family back full circle." That was before I understood that YHWH works circularly & not linearly. All that to say: We are called to be obedient. Obedient to what? To the laws He gave us. Faith in YahShua is to be shown by our works. We work out our salvation. I used to ask in prayer, “Why did you say “Yet will I find faith in the earth?’”
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The answer is that many are taught in the church that they are set free from needing to live a life of obedience to the Father’s Commands. So, they don’t live in faith because they are not doing the works. Being set free in grace and truth means being set free from the law of sin, death & the grave and being made alive to the law of liberty in righteousness in YAHSHUA.
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It is imperative that we understand that there are different laws. We must know which law is being referred to when we study the Renewed Covenant. I have heard people argue that we are not under the law anymore. I look at them in disbelief and ask, “Why then are you keeping the Ten Commandments if you are not under the law?” We are under the law.
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However keeping the law is not what saves us and this is what Paul was teaching. False teachers were saying salvation came from keeping the law. That is false. Salvation is through faith in the Messiah. After faith comes obedience wherein we are admonished to ‘work out our salvation’.
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When the future Feast of Tabernacles comes may we ever tabernacle with the Holy One of Israel. Yahshua honored his Father by being zealous for his Abba’s Temple and keeping it a house of prayer. He cast out the money changers on the day that Leaven was cast out of the house before Passover. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He knows what we go through; He understands our pain. He bore our sin when He was crucified to the tree & pierced for our transgressions. It pained the Father so much He had to look away. YahShua’s heart was broken, full of compassion as He asked the Father to forgive those who caused His crucifixion; He said that they didn’t know really what they were doing.
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YahShua kept & honored the customs & commands set forth in the Scriptures. He differentiated between YHWH’s instruction & man’s instruction from the Talmud (Oral doctrines of men). YahShua knew the Tanach (Old Testament). He taught His disciples from the Scriptures, the Tanach. YahShua said that He came to fulfill, to establish the law of YHWH. He stated emphatically that He did not come to destroy it for it would not be destroyed in any way until heaven & earth pass away; that has not happened. In fact, He stood for righteousness which is following the Father’s instructions set forth in the Law. He understood that sin was defined as lawlessness. He showed us by His example on earth how to guard the Father’s law from our hearts not just in word or deed.
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For if we keep it to look good but not with the right intention it means nothing. Remember of the day when YahShua returns He said, “Yet, will I find faith on the earth”. I have often thought of that statement and thought about what He meant. There seem to be lots of Christians who believe in Him. When Abraham believed he showed his belief or his faith by action. I think this is what YahShua was referring to. See, faith is belief in action. Abraham showed his belief by circumcision. We too must show our belief by obeying the Heavenly Father’s commands from a pure heart as YahShua His beloved Son did. May our hearts be circumcised, uncovered before YHWH.
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We are also told in Hosea 4, “My people perish for lack of knowledge…they have forgotten the LAW of YHWH” I again thought what that means and came to understand that we must dig into His Word which is the Tanach the Scriptures that YahShua studied from- what we call the ‘old’ testament.
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May it revive in our hearts today as we come to the understanding that it is not to be done away. John 5:39 YahShua said to search the scriptures- He was referring to the Tanach. In 2 Timothy 3:15 Paul admonished Timothy that ‘the Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Yahshua!! 1 John 5:2-4, 3, 22-24 show YahShua saying that if we love YHWH we will keep HIS commands.
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We find rest for our souls when we observe His commands and feast days according to Jeremiah 6:16; 50 & Matthew 11:29 . Jer 50 & Acts 20:28-31 say that the Shepherds (pastors) have led the sheep astray-no rest for them since not observing YHWH’s commands.
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Paul taught the gentiles the Sabbath on the 7th day in Acts 16:13, 13:42-46, 17:2, 18:4. Acts 24:14 Paul believes the Law - believe means faith accompanied by works. Paul relied on the law & so are we to. Acts 26:22; 28:23.
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The WORD of YHWH endures Forever according to 1 Peter 2:23-25. Hebrews 4 says that YHWH is our example to follow- He rested on the 7th day. YahShua shows us how to live the law in John 14:31 and Matthew 5:17. A Sabbath rest remains for us Hebrews 4:9-11, Isaiah 66:23. Ezekiel 22:26 says that we make no difference between the holy & the profane & hide our eyes from Sabbath- let that not be us!
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The law is spiritual according to Romans 7:14 and we are to worship YHWH in Spirit and in Truth! The law is holy & the commandment is holy, just & good. Romans 7:12 and 8:4.
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Yahshua left us an example to follow. 1 Peter 2:21 The Word of YHWH is the Absolute authority, not the church or Christendom. Yahshua was obedient to YHWH. May our Faith blaze forth through our obedience to YHWH also! Yahshua says that we do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of YHWH. Mark 12:24; Matthew 22:29.
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How sadly true this has been. Matthew 23:24 says that spiritual matters such as love and mercy are also of the law & are weightier but to continue keeping the other matters.
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We are set free from the law of sin & death. The law is not a curse. The curse is our inability to keep it; that is where YahShua comes in – He was able to live a pure life & be the mediator for us & provide atonement!
Law=Word=Yahshua=Truth!
Grace means being able to ask forgiveness!
That is what it is all about!
We are able to ask for Forgiveness because of His grace!
Romans 8:2 says that we are set free from the law of sin and death and made alive to the law of the spirit of life in YahShua HaMashiach. Romans 8:4 says we still must fulfill the righteousness of the law. Romans 9:30 says that the righteousness of faith is believing that we are forgiven instead of proving our cleansing by performing sacrifices. Galatians 6:2 calls us to fulfill the law of YahShua.
Faith is shown by Obedience. (Romans 16:25, 26)
Deuteronomy 7:9 YHWH keeps covenant and Mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a 1000 Generations-still today and ongoing! Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith, YHWH forbid, yea rather we establish it!
Through faith we establish the law!
Remember the enemy has tried from the beginning to deceive YHWH’s people into thinking that we don’t have to guard His commands & that freedom comes from not keeping them. He lied to Eve in the garden and he lies today.
Let us stop falling for that old lie and realize that freedom of life is found through obedience to YHWH’s commands.
SHALOM!
With Great Love,
Leslie Ann