Hard Pressed but Not Crushed

 

Hard Pressed but Not Crushed
by Donna Diorio

One of the things that presses on my heart so strongly is seeing the great need of the Israeli ministries for financial support from the believers outside of Israel. They need our help to keep their ministries and outreaches functioning.  This is the very beginning of what God planted in my spirit at the beginning of the 1990's about the Israeli ministries, and He has continued to reveal new things in His Word relating to it ever since.    
     That is why I write so much about how and when the Apostle Paul had his sudden awakening about how important the donations from around the churches would be critical to the body of Messiah in Israel. I believe Paul saw how it would necessary to the end. Even though he had been a persecutor of the believers himself, God had to open Paul’s eyes to how the persecution was going to impact Israeli believers always. God first opened Paul’s eyes in Acts 12 and from that day forward Paul set about teaching the churches they needed to give material support to the body of believers in Israel for the advancing of the faith among Jews in Israel. He urged all the churches in his oversight to keep taking up donations over several years. It was a collection that he would carry to Jerusalem accompanied by representatives from each church so they would get the message: it was to be laid at the feet of the apostolic leadership in Jerusalem.  
     The collection Paul delivered to Jerusalem in Acts 21 was not meant to end there.  It was not for “famine relief” like Acts 12. It was not a one-off donation. I believe the churches continued to make donations to the body of Messiah in Israel after the first generation of apostolic leadership but that did not last for very long. It was officially cut off in Necea so now most of the nearly 2,000 years of the Christian era phase of God's plan, no support of Jewish believers in Yeshua has existed.
     Despite the clear wording of Paul in Romans 9-11, the result is that now Christians don't even know it is what they are supposed to do. Some Christians understand they are to support Israel but it is unclear to them how God wants them specifically to support the witness-bearing body of Messiah in Israel.  It seems most Christians assume that supporting Israel is enough to do on their part. It isn't. 
     The intention of Paul’s collection for Israel among the churches is for the same reason as ours: this donation is to assist in the GOSPEL to go forth in Israel. This is where the resistance to Jewish faith in Yeshua is the most demonically-opposed environment in the world.

     I don't know why Paul did not spell out more clearly when he spoke to the Christians about how they were spiritually in debt to the Israeli body of Messiah and the debt was not going to be over with the end of the first century of faith. It baffles me that Paul even spoke of the collection among the churches so subtly in his letters to the churches. To realize what he is speaking to is like following a bread crumb trail. I followed that bread trail in my Bible and God opened my eyes from the book of Acts all the way through Paul’s letters written to the churches after the events of Acts 12.

     What Paul did in Acts 21 was based on what he saw in Acts 12! The persecution would require financial help from the churches if the believers in Israel were going to be able to fulfill their mandate from God to provide the witness to the nation are called and anointed by God to do. This is essential to the “one new man” purposes of God. Our one new man unity is not so we can sing “Kum ba Yah” together, but so we Christians can come alongside the body of Messiah in Israel in the last and final push of birthing salvation in Israel, spiritually and in the practicalities of having the funding to do so!

     That is why every time I read these ministry letters and I see one of ministries speaking straightforwardly of the need they face to continue, it not only touches my heart but it sets my heart on fire anew. I have to tell you my heart has been renewed in flames weekly over the past several months by reading statements like one this week from the leaders of the HaCarmel congregation:
     "In one of our ladies' meetings recently, almost every Bible verse that was shared was about one thing:  'Do not fear. Our God is in control.'
     “I know that our pressures are nothing like the apostle Paul's, but still these verses from 2 Corinthians 4 bring so much comfort. "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed....therefore, we do not lose heart... even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (v.8-9,16-18).

     I totally do not agree with her statement, "I know that our pressures are nothing like the apostle Paul's" because YES indeed they are.

     Paul laid down his life not only to bring the Gospel to the nations, and to the Jews, but his last act of a free man was to carry a collection from the churches to Jerusalem for the apostles to distribute to the need. He knew he would lose his freedom but he was on a mission assignment from God to deliver the churches donations for the apostles to distribute to the needs of the body of believers in Israel. Paul was not ONLY laying down his life for the Israeli Messianic ministries BACK THEN, but it was the EXAMPLE he was demonstrating for the churches to follow TODAY. 
     Paul was knowingly setting the example at the prophetically certain cost of his freedom, so we in the nations today could get the message:  This is how we repay our debt to Israel for being partakers in their spiritual things. We must repay by supplying the material need - not to Israel indiscriminately, but with specificity to the apostolic leadership of ministries in the body of Messiah in Israel.

     Who are the apostolic leadership in Israel today? I am sharing their prayer requests in this elist every week for the past 22 years. That is how strongly it has grabbed my spirit. 
     Support Messianic ministries everywhere, but understand this:  it is the Israeli Messianic ministries that face the greatest demonic opposition. They are at ground zero of God’s purposes to spiritually restore the Jewish people to Himself. As Israel continues to come to faith in Yeshua in great numbers, it is going to release a international harvest of souls that belong to God who have not come in yet —your family members and mine.
     Just like Paul said in Romans 11:11-12 I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring (the nations)!

* Addition: I got a revelation the day after I sent this out to my elists. It is about what Paul said about what riches to the nations would come to them as more and more Jews became excepted by faith in the Yeshua: 

First Paul spoke in Romans 11 of his mighty motivation in ministering to the Gentiles was to make his 'family' - the Jewish people jealous enough to come to faith themselves. 

Romans 11:13-14 I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. 

And right after that he sends a similar MIGHTY motivational revelation to the Christians saying, "For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?"

But who is Paul talking about receiving "life from the dead"? All of the Christians whose passion is to see their own family members come to faith - all those that haven't come to faith over decades of prayers - that's who!

This is NOT a statement ONLY about unknown peoples all over the earth!

Catch this! This is the powerful Divine motivation for Christians assist in every meaningful way for Israel's restoration to God through Yeshua.  As that happens, so also our family members going to start coming to faith too - life from the dead.

Romans 15 is not just about people we don't know it is going to be about our very own families! And our families with also be as coming to life from the dead, as Jews come to faith in Yeshua. This is the spiritual redemption clause God has built into the "one new man" of Jew and Gentile coming together: it is for the good of us both, and neither of this last spiritual harvest in the world can be released without us becoming single minded to God's purposes in our unity.