A Spiritual Vision for the 2012 Messianic Israel Alliance Gathering in Orlando, Florida  (Aug 30 – Sept 2)

Natan and Sandi Lawrence with Angus and Batya Wootten, the co-founders of the Messianic Israel Alliance in Orlando, FL at the thirteenth annual MIA Gathering.

I read the following message on the opening evening of the gathering on Friday, August 31, 2012 to those gathered at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida. 

Where there is no spiritual/prophetic vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the Torah, happy is he. (Prov 29:18)

The Context

During this very week and at this time, Hurricane Isaac was taking aim at the west coast of Florida, then veered westward into the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall at and stalled over New Orleans before moving north and east over the midsection of the U.S. All this occurred prior to and during the Republican Convention to nominate a presidential candidate for the fall elections. At the same time, another convention was convening at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida—the Messianic Israel Alliance’s thirteenth annual international gathering.

Word Definitions

• Orlando means “famed or renowned land or land of the famous or renowned.”
• Rosen means “rose (of European Jewish origins).” Perhaps the most notable usage of rose in the Bible is the famous rose of sharon passage in the Song of Solomon, which is a taken by many to be a prophetic reference to Yeshua.
• Plaza means “place where people gather.”
• Tampa means “sticks of fire or place to gather sticks (that will be struck by lightening).” Interestingly, the Spaniards originally called Tampa Bay the Bay of the Holy Spirit. This name was dropped when the US acquired Florida from Spain in 1819.
• Isaac means “laughter or he laughs (see Ps 2:2-4).”

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.(emphasis added)

Analysis

YHVH seems to be laughing (through Hurricane Isaac) at men (the Republicans at their Tampa convention) as they are plotting and planning their strategies for national revival without taking him into consideration. This occurred as Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac brushed the Republican Convention in Tampa causing the convention to delay one day and casting a somber tone over the proceedings, and which should have caused them to pause and to reflect on higher spiritual matters. At the Republican convention, men are gathering their ideological sticks (a reference to the meaning of the name Tampa) as they establish their party’s planks to build their political platform, which YHVH laughs at (through Hurricane Isaac) and threatens to strike with the lightening of his judgment because this nation and its leaders are failing to make proper, true biblical teshuvah by returning to the Messiah, the roots and branches of our faith that are grounded in the Torah.

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