The following will be my talking points for the message I will be giving this afternoon to the brethren assembled in Wilsonville, Oregon for Hoshana Rabbah’s 2015 Shavuot NW regional gathering. Tomorrow is Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost), and this message is helping to prepare ourselves to meet YHVH on his festival.

Natan

Who May Ascend?

YHVH dwells in a high place (heaven), which is metaphorical represented as a mountain in the Scriptures. It’s high because it’s higher than man and this earth. Mount Sinai was where YHVH spoke to the Israelites from. Moses had to ascend the mountain to come into YHVH’s Presence. The temple in Jerusalem was YHVH’s abiding place among his people. One always went up to Jerusalem to meet with Elohim at this appointed times. When Yeshua returns, the righteous will go up to meet him — the king. In the Millennium, all nations will go up to Jerusalem to meet YHVH on his feast days.

David asks the question: Who may ascend and dwell in your holy hill or abide in your  tabernacle (Ps 15; 24)? What keeps us from the Presence of YHVH? It is obvious from this question that not everyone has the right to go up into YHVH’s Presence. YHVH as the Almighty Holy King of the universe has established the criteria for who may come up to meet him or not. Only those who meet his condition, will he allow to come up to meet him. Only those who have been taken prisoner by their own innate pride think that they can waltz into the King’s Presence anytime and any way. It doesn’t work this way. This is self-delusion. Only those who have died to their own pride and have humbly submitted themselves to do the will of Elohim will come into his Presence.

Do we really want to do the will of YHVH? Or are we listening to the lie of the serpent who tempted the first man to give in to the lust of his flesh and eyes and the pride of life when he questioned the word of Elohim and said, “Hath God [really] said?”

The older generation of carnal man Israelites couldn’t enter the Promised Land because of their stiff necks and hard hearts of rebellion and wilfulness. Like our ancient forefathers who died in the wilderness, we need to have the hard and fallow ground of our unrepentant and prideful hearts needs tilled up (Jer 4:3; Hos 10:12). Our hearts need to be circumcised. The filth of this world that has wrapped itself around us needs to be cut off. We need to be cut to the heart and find a heart of repentance (Acts 2:37). We need to put off our lukewarm, carnal Laodicean ways (Rev 3:15–20).

We must ask ourselves an important question: Is Yeshua really the Lord or Master of our lives, or only when it doesn’t get in the way of the things we’d rather do than obey his commands?

What does it really mean to follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Rev 14:4)?

What did Yeshua mean when he said, Lose your life (John 12:25), pick you cross and follow me (Matt 16:24)?

There is a group in the last days who will be walking righteously with Yeshua. They are the 144,000 king-priests of righteousness — this is the real bride of Yeshua! He’s not coming back to marry a phony, cold-hearted, lukewarm bride who is only halfheartedly committed to following him.

Who is the bride of Yeshua?

Revelation 19:7 says that the wife of Yeshua has made herself ready for him. Who will be the bride or wife of Yeshua?

In a general sense, all redeemed believers are the bride of Yeshua—or more correctly, have the potential to be the bride of Yeshua. Paul assumed this (2 Cor 11:2–3). All redeemed believers are presently betrothed to Yeshua. Yet not all believers will become the wife of Yeshua (Matt 25, the Parable of the 10 Virgins). Some will remain pure and undefiled by being faithful to YHVH’s Torah Word, and others will fornicate with the world by being faithful to some of YHVH’s Torah, but by also following foreign, pagan gods and lovers. Only virgins who have not defiled themselves with men will be eligible to be the bride of Yeshua. These are the 144,000 (Rev 14:4). These are the true saints — the set-apart or holy ones, who adhere to the Torah and to Yeshua the Messiah (Rev 14:12). The church of Yeshua is being tested or refined right now and the wheat and tares are being separated. Yeshua wants a pure bride.

Like the law of the jealous husband who suspects his wife of adultery (Num 5:11–31), the faithfulness of all believers will be tested. In the end times, all the saints will go through tribulation and the great tribulation, but only the betrothed bride who is guilty of adultery will go through the wrath of Elohim. Those saints who refuse to walk in Torah and who are guilty of Torahlessness will be rejected of Yeshua because they didn’t know him intimately (Matt 7:21–23). We know YHVH intimately by keeping his Torah-commands (1 John 2:6–7). The wrath of Elohim are the bitter waters that the adulterous bride of YHVH will have to swallow. Like the wife suspected of adultery, all must eat the words of Torah. For those who have been faithful to Torah, which is their marriage vows, Torah is sweet like honey. To those who have not been, the judgments Torah spells out for those not being faithful to the curses for Torah-disobedience will be like bitter waters in their belly. In Revelation 10 (cp. Ezek 2:8–10; 3:1–3), John eats a little book (the Torah? see Ps 119:103) that tastes like honey (Torah), but becomes bitter in his stomach (the judgments of Torah upon the Torahless). In conjunction with this, are the seven thunders, which are possibly YHVH’s wrath upon a Torahless bride and world. Leviticus speaks of four sets of seven judgments each that would come upon YHVH’s people who turned away from Torah (Lev 26:14ff). Similarly, the book of Revelation reveals that in the end days four series of judgments that will come upon the world. They are the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven thunders, and the seven bowl judgments.

In the last days, there is a remnant on earth who have remembered the Torah and whose hearts have turned back to the fathers of their faith in the end days before the day of YHVH’s wrath and who are remembering Torah (Mal 4:3–6).

Those who have turned back to the Hebraic faith their spiritual fathers have reconnected to root of Israel. They’ve rediscovered their tribal and spiritual identity as  grafted in or redeemed Israelites. These saints have chosen to begin living like Israelites. They understand the Jewishness of Yeshua and want to be Jewish like him and pleasing to him (John 14:15). They know YHVH and keep his commandments (1 John 2:3–6), and are putting on robes of righteousness, which is Torah-obedience (Rev 19:6–7)

These end time saints are part of the John the Baptist, Elijah forerunner generation of royal priests and kings in training who are helping to prepare the way for Yeshua.

They are the wise virgins who have awakened with oil in their lamps. Oil represents Torah and the anointing of YHVH’s Spirit. Without the Torah and the anointing of YHVH’s Spirit in our lives, there will be no Torah-light.

They have left off their lukewarm, deaf, naked and blind ways of a Torahless and Laodicean lukewarm church and have opened the door to the real Jewish Yeshua to come into their lives; they have exchanged a paganized, Greco-Roman Jesus for their the real Hebraic Yeshua. To be the bride of Yeshua, you must truly know him, not merely know about him through the eyes of a cultural Christianity, Christo-pagan paradigm.

The bride of Yeshua will fit the definition of the end time saints: They will be Torah observant and have the faith of Yeshua (Rev 12:17; 14:12).

Believers are likened to a virgin (2 Cor 11:2). Some are wise virgins, and some are foolish virgins (Matt 25). There will be different levels of rewards in the kingdom of Elohim; some of the virgins will be least in the kingdom and some will be the greatest in the kingdom depending on their Torah-obedience level (Matt 5:19). Which one are you? Now is the time to ask yourself this questions. Now is the time to judge yourself before the refining fires of YHVH’s judgment forcefully reveal what we’re made of: wood, hay and stubble, or gold, silver and precious stones (1 Cor 3:12–13)