Loss...

In the last few days I have two friends who lost a parent, and just found out that someone from my Fellowship in Houston lost her battle with cancer. That's three people in about three days!

This last one was young, had decided to keep her baby when she was first diagnosed while pregnant a few years ago. She was told to "terminate" her pregnancy to spare her life, but refused. She was fine for sometime and that little girl is now a healthy, beautiful 2 year old. Then about 6 months ago the cancer returned.

This is especially hitting me since my Mom has not been doing well recently. I did a teaching last Saturday on how to minister to and pray for the critically ill, sharing out of my experiences. This opened up some old wounds, and I've been pondering and praying through this since.

The first prophetic word that I remember receiving was that I would be used for healing. For many years that has mostly been in the area of wounded souls and inner healing. There have been a few physical healings, but not like I long to see.

During my time in YWAM there were three ladies on our base fighting cancer around the same time. I was involved in praying for all of them. Around this same time, one of my closest friends had a terminal illness who I was also praying for. Within about 1 1/2 years, all four died! It was so devastating for me that I gave up on the whole subject. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies.....

However, Papa wouldn't leave me alone about it. After working through the pain and grief of losing all four, I decided to open myself up to be used again in this way. I've not seen a whole lot of healings yet, but enough to keep the fire burning.

Now with Mom struggling with her health, it's especially a sensitive subject for me. I often times really do not know how to pray as I ought, so I go into praying in the Spirit.

Romans 8:26-27 says,
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

So I pray in the Spirit. I have to trust that He knows much better how to pray through me than I do in my own understanding. Paul speaks of this in

1 Cor. 14:14-15
For if I pray in a tongue,
my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
So what shall I do?
I will pray with my spirit,
but I will also pray with my mind;
I will sing with my spirit,
but I will also sing with
my mind.

I keep asking the Lord for the answers to receiving the anointing
necessary to see healing come forth. I want to see people whose
time has come to be with Him, be able to do so by quietly slipping into eternity with Him. It's the pain and suffering that is so difficult for me to watch and understand.

I know the Christian cliches and have used them. I'm not satisfied!
The Word says that without faith it is impossible to please God. So I must stir up my faith by praying in the Holy Spirit according to Jude 1:20.

I recently heard a teaching that ministered to me. I've been processing through it and want to share it with you.
The story is from Matthew 15:22-28:
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.

26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Notice in this story, that Jesus doesn't appear to be very nice! At least according to how we normally think of Him.

1. He ignores this woman, and if that weren't bad enough - His disciples wanted Him to get rid of her! If we don't get an answer when we first approach Him, what is our response to that? This is perhaps where some doctrines were formed. "Well, we prayed and nothing happened, so it must not be His will to heal!" Or the fear of man or rejection sets in and we give up!

2. He says that He came only for the lost sheep of Israel. Boom! If we wouldn't have given up by the first one, this one would surely have lost most of us! "So ~ it's not His will to heal me or so and so". "I'm not special enough"....

3. She doesn't give up, but kneels before Him and begs for her daughter's life. He then basically calls her a dog!!! That would have MOST CERTAINLY done it for the rest of us who may still be hanging in there! A DOG? You called me a DOG? Which by the way in that culture was considered unclean.

4. Yet, her response is one of humility and desperation. "Yes, but even the dogs eat the crumbs from under the table." Wow! Jesus was impressed with her great faith and tenacity and her daughter was healed!

What can we learn from this?

For me, I've decided to be like this woman and I'm going after God with all I have to see His Kingdom come to the earth as it is in heaven. I've already been misunderstood and discouraged from going forth in this way by others. I look at it this way, what have I got to lose? Even if it doesn't turn out like I hope and want, it won't be for lack of me trying all that I know to do. That still doesn't mean that God is at fault. It just means I have more to learn and more anointing to receive.

I'm like Jacob, wrestling with God and won't let go until He blesses me!!

So it is with both a heavy heart and a deeper determination that I press on that I may fight the good fight of faith.

I want to please Him, and without faith, that is impossible to do! Remembering however, that it only needs to be the size of a mustard seed, and He has given each one of us a measure of faith. Thankfully, I don't have to squeeze it out but only act on what's already there and trust Him for the rest.

But today, I weep with those who weep.

More Changes Coming...

This is definitely a season of change. Life seems to be on fast-forward these days for many of us. I feel like things have only in the last few weeks slowed down enough for me to start focusing on 2009, and here it's nearly over! This was not only a year of leaning on the Lord like never before, but being stretched beyond what I ever thought I could endure. Yet, I live. Yet, I praise Him. Yet, He is still on His throne. Yet - He is I AM!

At Jesus-Haus we tend to begin our new year in the Fall, and this year that is this month. We are rearranging some things, looking where we can improve, and get rid of some others. Some of these changes have been difficult as it's meant good friends leaving us to move on. Besides that, it's an exciting time for someone like me who loves change! I have to rely on the Lord to help me understand those who struggle with change. Most people do. So I'm trying to prepare for that.

The following is a word from Chuck Pierce that I read today. It spoke to me.

Take your limits off of yourself! This is a time of enlargement and fulfillment. Your testings have produced new boundaries of authority in your life. Break old judgments that you have levied against yourself and others. See yourself and describe yourself the way God sees and describes you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made! Yes, times have been difficult, but in the midst of your testings the Lord has done a great work in you. You are not the same this season as you were last season.

Resist legalistic tactics that prevent you from worshiping in a new way. Robert Heidler says this: "We must learn to discern between the wheat of grace and the tares of legalism. They look alike. They grow together. Grace is based in faith working through love. Legalism is based in fear and control which are workings of witchcraft. Religion and legalism will morph together to form witchcraft. Legalism 'bewitches' people into believing that after beginning by grace they can advance through legalism."

Do you ever have times that it seems the storm is all around and there is no outlet? That is what this year has felt like to me. I saw this photo on a friends website, and though I've seen it before, it really spoke to where I think many of us have been this year.

I had at least two dreams this past year of Tsunami's. The first one I was rescuing my Mom and a baby. It wasn't long after this dream that Mom was diagnosed with cancer. I feel the baby represents the "new" things that I'm birthing right now.

When change comes or things are difficult, the temptation comes to try and control things because deep down we don't want to have to trust God. Sure, He was there last time, but what if He isn't this time? It takes a lot of energy to try to trust but also to try and control things. This is a season that I often refer to as "who is this coming out of the wilderness leaning on her Beloved?"

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

Explanation of Succoth for non-Jews to better understand

Succa's were all over Jerusalem, this is one built for a restaurant. They are built from palms, branches, etc. according to Leviticus 23:39-43

'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.

40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,

43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.' "


Since all of this is new to me about us as Christians and Gentiles to reconnect with our Jewish roots I thought this might be helpful for some to better understand the meaning and importance of the Feast of Tabernacles.

I just discovered through Robert Heidler's book, " The Messianic Church Arising - Restoring the Church to Our Covenant Roots", that until the time of Constantine, the entire church celebrated the Jewish feasts and also went to Synagogue. So for the first 300 years the Church was in continuous revival. The early Christians were all Jews until the Gentiles were grafted in.

There are some cultures that were unaffected by the changes made by Constantine and continued to worship God according to how the Jews did. Some of those include the Ethiopians who claim the gospel came to them by the Ethiopian eunuch that Phillip ministered to. For centuries they were isolated from the influence of the European Church. Some don't know if they're Christian or Jew as they worship like the Jews but believe Jesus is the Messiah.

Zechariah 14:16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Succoth: Our Protective Fortress
Written by Rabbi Chanan Morrison

The sukkah booth that we live in during the Succoth holiday is by definition a temporary dwelling. A structure over twenty cubits (ten meters) tall is a permanent structure and thus invalid as a sukkah. An exposed hut with only two walls and a handbreadth for the third, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable.
And yet, this rickety booth is our protective fortress. As King David said, "You protect them in a sukkah from the strife of tongues" [Ps. 31:21].

How can such a flimsy structure be a paradigm of protection and safety?

The Sukkot of the Great Assembly
To better understand the metaphor of the sukkah, we should examine a remarkable Talmudic passage. The book of Nehemiah [8:17] records that, from the days of Joshua, the Jewish people had not dwelt in sukkot until the mitzvah was reinstated after their return from Babylonian exile. Is it possible that all those centuries this mitzvah was neglected?

The Talmud in Arachin 32b explains that the Jewish people always performed the mitzvah of dwelling in sukkot. However, the sukkot erected by the Great Assembly in Nehemia's time were very special. They provided a protective quality that had not existed since the days of Joshua bin Nun.

In fact, these were not even physical sukkot, but rather a unique spiritual act of the Great Assembly. "They prayed and abolished the evil inclination for idolatry - and this merit protected them like a sukkah."

The Ultimate Fortress
Clearly, the protective value of the sukkah is of a spiritual nature. The eternal truth is that the sukkah - purposely defined as a structure so flimsy that it cannot even be called a proper dwelling - is a fortress protecting us from all adversaries and foes. What is it that transforms the open and exposed sukkah into a home and stronghold? Certainly not any of its external physical characteristics. Rather, its source of strength is none other than God's word. The sukkah protects us by virtue of the Torah law declaring that this structure be our shelter during the holiday of Succoth.

This is an important message for all times, and especially for our generation. We need courage and strength to return to the land of our fathers and rebuild our national home. Where do we find the moral and spiritual resources to withstand the challenges of those who oppose our return and deny our right to a homeland in Eretz Yisrael? Like the sukkah dwelling, our national home is based on the spiritual strength of God's eternal word. The most advanced weapons may be able to pierce the thickest armor, but they cannot overcome the stronghold of God's word.

This is our eternal fortress and refuge. Our ultimate shelter of security is God's word and promise that the Jewish people will return to their land and the House of Israel will be rebuilt.

The protective sukkah of the Great Assembly was their abolition of all forms of idolatrous inclinations, both old and new. Our moral right is similarly based on the spiritual merit and protection of God's word, through the Torah's eternal mitzvot.

Beautifying the Law
However, we should not be satisfied with following only the minimum requirements of Torah law. Jerusalem was destroyed, the Sages taught, because they judged according to Torah law. What is wrong with that? The Talmud [Baba Metzi'ah 30b] explains: the judges would rule according to the strict letter of the law. They failed to take into account the spirit of the law and pursue a ruling both just and compassionate - lifnim mishurat hadin.

The mitzvah of sukkah is based on God's law, but there is an ancient custom to adorn the sukkah with decorated cloths, fruits and grains [Sukkah 10a]. We should similarly 'adorn' the Torah law. We should go beyond the minimum requirements of the Law, and aspire to the highest level of God's word, in its purest ethical form. Then we will merit that the "fallen sukkah of David" will rise once again, speedily in our days.

[Adapted from Ma'amarei HaRe'iyah vol. I, pp. 149-150]

Copyright © 2006 by Chanan Morrison

Rabbi Chanan Morrison, of Mitzpeh Yericho, runs RavKook.n3.net, a website dedicated to presenting the Torah commentary of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, to the English-speaking community. He is also the author of Gold from the Land of Israel.

Being a Cracked Pot

Earlier this week while in prayer I had an impression of an ancient water pot or vessel. At the top of this were cracks coming down about 1/4 of the way down. I saw water seeping out like small little waterfalls. My impression was that this represents the brokenness in our lives. That as we allow the Lord to "break" us, that His Spirit will come pouring out of us onto others.

I then saw a large flow of water coming from a large water spout being poured into it. He said this represents being filled with His Spirit. That as we continue to get filled with His Spirit, that His Spirit will then be poured out of those broken places in our lives onto others. That the things that have brought this brokenness in us is being used for His Kingdom's sake. Humility and openness with brokenness is key for this along with being continuously filled with His Spirit.

So no matter what kind of brokenness we've experienced on this journey, that none of it is wasted. This gives another meaning to the verse, "precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of His Saints". It's the death to self, it's allowing the death of Christ to work its purpose within us. That the life that He poured out on our behalf may be poured into and then through us onto others.

Brokenness is like a badge of honor in the Kingdom of God.