Do not embitter your children

When we think of bitterness forming in a person, generally we think of it in adults. Truth is childhood is often the place where bitterness begins to form and grow, so by the time the child has reached adulthood that is when the bitterness has become a major issue in the life of an adult. 

If you are a person of faith, make sure that your children understand the ultimate consequences of bitterness, and that you do all in your power to clear up bitterness before it hardens in their hearts.

As Colossians 3:21 advises, Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. That word, discouraged is athyméo and it means to be disheartened, dispirited, broken in spirit. Once this happens, bitterness can form in the place of those open wounds.

I know this to be true because I was one who developed bitterness as a child over a parent with mental illness. My parent also had developed bitterness as a child and by the time it had become full grown in her, mental illness took over.

The Scripture says that the root of bitterness defiles many. That is because we are not islands. The bitterness developing in our lives not only limits or destroys our capacity to love ourselves and others in our lives, it also defiles the others who are around us. Those we are embittered against and those we are so sure we will do better to than was done to us.

Life is messy. Especially lives that are not devoted to the Lord and to becoming like Him. So many of us have traveled through many years of our lives before finding the Lord which means we have traveled many years stumbling and blundering along...perhaps making people bitter against us along the way and not having any inkling how to deal with it.

It is quite a shock to the system to suddenly see how our own mistakes of the past have led to great bitterness in others - a bitterness that to this day is a spoiler of relationships for that person. We are rarely in it alone, and truth be known, every person ultimately has to own their own bitterness. No one made them choose bitterness, we just do.

Fortunately, whom the Son sets free is free indeed. There is a way out of bitterness for every single person and it is not dependent upon what anyone else involved does or does not do. It is forgive. Not just a one time forgiveness, but a dedication to walking in forgiveness for the rest of your life.

Regardless of how easy it might be just to renew our bitter feelings, we can CHOOSE to forgive and keep walking in it towards those who are bitter. And we can pray that God will give them grace to recover themselves from this most powerful trap of the enemy used to destroy those who hold onto their bitterness.

Guest Post: Arni Klein of Emmaus Way in Israel 7/18/2017

Arni Klein
of Emmaus Way

As some of you know, last month a delegation of five from our congregation in Tiberias were ten days in the Far East taking part in six days of worship on a 19-story cruise ship along with 3000 believers and a crew of 2000. It was an unprecedented complex experience with ramifications at personal, corporate and global levels. Shortly before the trip began, I was reminded of how deeply the world was impacted by what took place in that region fifty years earlier and was impressed that this company of worshipers had been called and commissioned by the Lord to do something in the spirit realm designed to have a significant and far-reaching effect.

People’s perceptions and beliefs about the Vietnam War varied from one end of the spectrum to the other.  Many were convinced that our involvement was wrong and immoral.  Others believed it was a righteous cause justifying the high price paid in human lives.  There are many stories of how individual lives were saved by the US involvement in the region.  It is not our intention here to take a position on the motives, methods or morals of those making the decisions, or the ultimate effect it had on those directly involved in the conflict.  Regardless of the truths about underlying elements and individual ramifications, the war divided the US like no other single event of our day. The civil rights struggle, the exposed corruption in the government, and the string of high-level assassinations were all factors that also affected the spiritual atmosphere of the nation.  But none polarized and mobilized the population, as did the war in Vietnam.

The resultant societal breakdown was a primary factor in opening the way for a spiritual revolution that brought a mass of young people into the Kingdom of God.  Alongside the positive aspects of the spiritual awakening, many ungodly spiritual forces found expression that caused or enabled a generation to set aside long-accepted Biblical principles and beliefs.  ...

The sheer magnitude of the cruise, the likes of which has probably never taken place anywhere on the open seas, and surely not in the place we were, is something not to be considered lightly.  To coordinate something like this out of purely human desire, not to mention getting visas for some 1700 Mainland Chinese, would be unlikely if not practically impossible.  There were some challenges and difficulties along the way, but we can testify that the Presence of God manifest throughout the entire journey took us to places where words and sounds and any manner of human expression fell short of being able to adequately respond to His beauty and glory. In the light of it all, we are constrained to believe that something of global significance took place.  ...  For two weeks I was unable to connect with daily life or focus on anything except to mull over the cruise.  I was aware that my spirit was reaching out to lay hold of what this was from God’s perspective.  I had no choice but to be still.  My time was not my own.

Some days into this waiting period, a friend forwarded me a word delivered by someone known as a prophet spoken over a particular nation.  The word declared that over the next three years God was going to pour out untold blessings and wonders over this people, and that they would become the very platform for worldwide revival.  In all that was related, there was nothing about the people needing to do anything. There was no call to repentance, change, or any manner of preparation.  As the “prophecy” stood, it was solely a matter of God deciding that on a certain date, by a sovereign act, for no apparent outward reason, heaven was going to open.  It left me feeling grieved in the spirit. 

Words such as these have become normal and common within the Charismatic body, at least in the West.  Remembering back forty years, in the movement’s early days, it was not so.  But as time progressed, the focus on self, our identity, our calling, our portion, our anointing, our authority, etc. etc. grew and grew to where the person of God effectively ceased to be the central focus of the life of the Church.  Rather it was about what He does and will do…in particular for us.  As these thoughts ran though my mind, the spiritual fog that had engulfed me began to lift.

I got an email in response to a question I posed to someone about where they stood concerning the revelation they received about the central place of Israel in God’s heart and global strategic plan.  The lack of visible response was in stark contrast to the dramatic way God had spoken to them of their need to wake up to Israel.  A line from the mail jumped off the page.  It read, “I can't speak up in un-lived truth but will always speak up as prompted and led by Him.” 

The words un-lived truth...were the key to unlock the understanding my spirit was reaching for.  The scriptural discussion of faith and works immediately came to mind.  As faith without works is dead, so truth un-lived is dead. ... How does God view our seeing and knowing something as truth that is not part of our life that does not produce in us a contending…a pressing in…a battling through into full light?  ....There is no middle ground.  The existence of a sit-upon-fence is an illusion…or moreover, a deception.  To hear His voice and not respond immediately is to harden our heart and reject Him who is the living Word.  To lightly esteem what God values brings a bitter curse.  (See the literal Hebrew for Genesis 12:3)....Regardless of where we think we are and what we think we know, to not take into our heart what we recognize as God’s very truth is to reject it.  Actually, we are not rejecting an “it”.  It’s Him, Yeshua…the Truth… we are turning from. 

For some 25 years, we have traveled to the nations speaking about Israel.  Out of multiplied hundreds of meetings, we can recall only one where there was an outright rejection of the word we brought.  In well over half there was a clear acknowledgment of the message as truth.  However, in most of these situations, we have seen little if any follow-up to what was revealed.  

How can followers of the Lord not feel the need to battle and struggle until our hearts beat in sync with what our minds know to be true?  How can we know Him and love Him and not be moved by what moves Him? 
Perhaps the answer partly lies in the fact that the modern Western Church has generally grown up without understanding the fear of the Lord.  We emphasize that God is love and proclaim His grace, but somehow miss the fact that in the very chapter (Heb.12) that follows the great discourse on faith and of our coming to Mount Zion we are sternly warned, “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks” (vs.25). The chapter ends with…“our God is a consuming fire.”  

We would suggest that to understand the true nature of un-lived truth and how this unacceptable denial of life has gone virtually unnoticed will have a revolutionary effect on the Body of Messiah.  Most professing born-again believers have read the Scriptures and consequently know what is written about the significance of Israel, yet seemingly remain as yet unmoved.   Though this dynamic of non-response to truth extends beyond things concerning Israel, the place of Israel, both in Scripture and the daily news, makes it something of a universal “acid test”. 

Let’s connect a few dots to hopefully get the fullness of this picture.

Un-lived truth is un-loved truth.  In 2 Thess.2:9-10 we are told that to whomever does not receive the love of the truth, God will send a strong delusion, that they will believe a lie and perish.  It does not get more serious than this.  God asks, “Will you walk with me?  Will you go where I go?  Will you love what I love?”  He opens our eyes.  He shows us His heart.  We see how Israel is the key to His plan.  Will we cling to what is true?  Will we press in to lay hold of that for which we have been laid hold of?  Will we change our direction?  Will we change our thinking?  Will we align ourselves with His heart?  Will we cry out for Him to quicken us to be passionate for what He loves?  Will we wrestle in the spirit until His truth is alive in us?  Can the love of the truth be anything but a consuming fire?  This question hearkens back to the prophecy over a nation to which I referred earlier in this letter. 

We mark as a trend that began in the late 1960’s with the Charismatic movement, that personal experience became a primary measure of spiritual reality. Individuals with unique and dramatic gifts came to the foreground and were lifted up.  Ministry after ministry was named after the “anointed person of God”.  As the issue of gifts became more central, believers looked to people and spiritual experiences for motivation.  This has produced a spiritually-weak, emotionally-driven, blessing-oriented, man-centered church that is able to abide with un-lived truth.  The water has been slowly heating for fifty years.  Our frog is now quite cooked. 

The understanding to which we have come concerning the place of the worship cruise is that the Lord sent 3000 people to release His Presence in a region out of which came a literal revolution.  It awoke a whole generation to jump out of the pot.  (The fact that most climbed back in is another matter).  It may seem somewhat remote and subjective, but given all what we have experienced before, during, and after, we are constrained to present our sense that something has been released that will have a global effect.

When we arrived in Danang Harbor in Vietnam, which had been a main landing point for the US troops, something dramatic happened. The Israeli team was ministering in the main hall with about 1000 worshipers present.  The Spirit of the Lord brought us to nearly complete silence for about 30 minutes.  Not a small thing!  As far as we know, that was the only time anything like that happened during the cruise.  There was no doubt that God was doing something of significance in that place in that moment.  It felt like a repeat of a history -- that somehow something was released into the spirit realm destined to shift the focus and course of the present-day Church. 

This long awaited radical breakthrough is connected to an intimacy with the Lord beyond what we have corporately known to date.  In the Song of Solomon, there is a moment when the bridegroom comes calling and the bride is not immediately moved to respond. After what seems like a brief moment’s hesitation, she gets up only to find that her lover is already gone. Running out to look for Him she gets beaten in the streets. What a picture.  Are we ready to grasp this result of a mere momentary hesitation?  Is God really that sensitive?  The word of God is a two-edged sword.  On the one hand, while taking those living in truth deeper into God, it simultaneously releases a spirit of deception upon those who have not valued what they’ve been given.

Here then is a short-form attempt to connect the three dots that brought me out of my two-week fog.  The worship cruise was about a global spiritual release unto a radical shift.  The “God-is-going-to” prophecy highlighted the Cross-less bless-me “gospel” that has enveloped the Body in a lethal passivity.  The lack of conviction and discomfort in the face of perceived un-lived truth is a sign that the great deception has already begun. As a not-so-side note, following the election of Donald Trump a spirit of rebellion and division has manifested in the US, polarizing the nation in a way we have not seen since the days of the war in Vietnam.

If we have understood this moment correctly, to put it rather directly, those who do not contend for God’s passion for Israel will be consumed in the not-so-slowly-warming pot.  As it is written…they will believe a lie and perish.  To live as one out of time is to be established in eternal truth.

Familiar Spirits & the Python

I believe in miracles but I am somewhere between those who deny miracles are for today and those with a spirit of divination who promote supernatural miraculous signs that are not from God.

Even to say such a thing I know I risk being called a heresy hunter. I'm not, but I do have an aversion to all the craziness that has been accepted in prophetic circles over the past several decades.

Last week while doing Israelprayer I had a strong urge to find out what the original Hebrew definition was of the translated term "familiar spirits". In it's biblical usage and definition it is a spirit of divination. I would say that means calling something a prophecy that is obtained through sources other than from the Spirit of God, whether it is from evil spirits or from our own intuition or knowledge.

It seems to me that many traffic in this today - and let me tell you right off the bat that I repented yesterday myself for this very thing.

Being a prophet is a thing many of us desire, but without the acute appreciation for fear of the Lord, it is an extremely dangerous thing to make people think you are operating in the prophetic when it is coming out of your own gifts, or even worse, when you have made such a habit of doing that, that even a true prophetic gift has been tainted with false prophecy.

I believe like any other sin, when you do something knowing it is wrong but you choose to do it anyway, doing it repeatedly becomes easier and easier. In the end you no longer have a conscience toward God in your sin, and you become ensnared by it.

Many years ago Asher Intrater conveyed a prophetic dream he had about Drinking the Cup of the Harlot. It is about the very thing I am talking about here, and how it is a warning to get ourselves out of that sin with fear and trembling before the Lord.

Last week he again wrote about the prophetic in Israel, and how:

"If apostolic-prophetic ministry in Israel will have a humble and servant heart, it could be a source of blessing, revival, and unity. If it has integrity and authenticity, it could be an instrument of kingdom strategy as we prepare for the coming of Yeshua."

I am focused on the part about integrity and authenticity. It is my belief that this is the missing ingredient in a majority of the American prophets who have lacked the necessary "fear of the Lord" to keep them honest and genuine in their prophetic gift.

Sincerely, I do not want to be a heresy hunter, but if anything is selling your soul, it is prophesying by a spirit of divination - whether from familiar spirits or your own intuition or knowledge, yet claiming it is from the Spirit of God.

Now to really upset some apple carts, let me say that this spirit of divination is also spoken of in the New Covenant in Acts 16:16, where the Greek word puthon is used. This is the single Biblical reference to "python" upon which a widespread - yet false - prophetic teaching has popped up over the last decade.

If you do even a light study, you will find this word was used precisely because of the spirit of divination that was on the Oracle of Delphi. She was getting 'prophetic utterances' from the fumes of the rotting flesh of a python which she sat on a tripod over.

The point of that word python used in Acts 16:16 was not about the teaching that Christian prophets have put out about a spirit that causes its victims to have the spiritual life squeezed out of them. In fact, in reality a python is not even a threat to human beings, but only to the small prey like rabbits, or cats and dogs. But the desire to come up with brand new teaching to tickle the ears of Christians is so great in prophetic circles.

No, the use of python in Acts 16:16 is about a woman enslaved by familiar spirits, the spirits of divination - prophesying even right things by a spirit other than the Spirit of God.

Someone I read recently who also values going back to the original language, pointed out that this woman in Acts 16:16 was saying the right thing but Paul was grieved to be associated with her because it was obvious that she was speaking it out of a spirit of divination, not by the Spirit of God.

The writer related that scripture notes the woman was crying out (krazo G2896 which means croaking or shrieking). She was outwardly showing that her prophecy was not coming from the Spirit of God, but coming from an evil spirit. Other outward manifestations are going into what appears to be a trance-like state with jerking, quaking, moaning and other convulsive-like motions. Sound familiar? 

Now is the time to repent of both doing this and following those that do it. I am convinced that we are coming into extremely serious times and all the gold dust, 'heavenly' gems and hovering orbs you can gather are not worth the cost you will pay for not extricating yourself from these familiar spirits.

For Christians Regarding Israel & the Warfare

I want to talk to Christians who love Israel, want to see Jews enter the faith of Yeshua and are especially concerned by all the violence and chaos erupting to threaten Israel at this time. Please stay with me here if that describes you.

Those who study the history of war and military will tell you we have entered a whole new level of warfare with terrorism. The same thing they see from the perspective of military/war strategy, we need to understand that spiritual warfare has likewise gone to another level.

IN ISRAEL Yes, there are terror attacks increasing and nations surrounding Israel in the most brutal of Islam-on-Islam wars. Everybody knows that the only thing that unites these brutal sects of Islam is hatred of the Jewish state, so there is good reason for concern and heightened, strategic prayer.

But I want to also caution some Christians who feel the time is now to pack your boxes full of Bibles and head off to evangelize the Jews in Israel. Please stop right there and understand this could be the most counterproductive idea you could possibly have!

I can hear the indignation from here. How could that be counterproductive? Because you apparently do not appreciate what goes on in the Jewish mind about Christians trying to convert them!

When a terrorist strikes setting off a bomb that kills many in a crowded area, first responders have learned from the past that a great danger exists for them as they rush in to help people due to a secondary explosion that is set precisely for the purpose of taking out the first responders and others who rush to help.

Now you might think that I'm telling you that you should not pack your Bibles and go on a mission trip to Israel because of the 'secondary explosion' but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that if you carry out your plans you ARE the secondary explosion!

God has been raising up the Body of Messiah in Israel - now reaching upwards of 20,000 Jewish believers in Jesus in over 160 congregations in Israel and many more in smaller home fellowships - which are congregations in the making!

GOD HAS A SPECIFIC PURPOSE FOR RAISING UP THOSE ISRAELI BELIEVERS: because they know the baggage Jews carry about Christians and what has been done to the Jews in the name of Jesus. They know as Jews what a hurdle it is for Jews to receive Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel.

Did you know that when Martin Luther started out after nailing the 95 theses on the church door that he was very pro-Jew, but when the Jews did not respond to his break from Christian anti-semitism and get saved, he became extremely bitter toward the Jewish people. In the latter part of his life Martin Luther was vehemently anti-semitic.

We have seen this happen to other Christians who felt they were called to the evangelize the Jews, but when the Jews did not respond by getting saved, the zeal turned to aggravation and bitterness toward the hardness of Israelis and Jews.

My friends, that is the satanic "secondary explosions" that are dangerous to Israel right now. In order to be a true Ruth in this hour to Israel as far as God's purposes for salvation, you MUST allow the Body of Messiah to take their God-mandated lead in ministering to their own countrymen.

For such a time as this God raised them up. You were raised up for such a time as this to come to their aid - in prayer and practical support, not to step into their God-mandated role. Selah.

I certainly don't want to discourage Christians from understanding that the day of salvation for Israelis is now - just that there is a protocol involved: Israeli believing Jews are the ones harvesting the fields in Israelis and Christians from the nations are only working the "corners" of the fields. 

We must come to grips with the understanding that our acts of kindness toward Israel are wonderful, but the ministry of the gospel to the Jews in Israel is mandated by God through the Body of Messiah in Israel. We are called alongside them as an aid to the labors, not thru presumption disregard God's raising them up in Israel with the anointing to carry the gospel to Israelis.

- Donna Diorio, October 16, 2015

UPDATE Oct 21 2015:  So I got an elicited response from an Israeli leader that I deeply respect that I was "a little harsh" on this commentary, but also that it is a "complex" issue.

I want to hear more on this from him, but I thought it was good just to add a new disclaimer on what I've written. When I learn more of the issues involved, I will update here.

The Church Realignment with the Body of Messiah in Israel

(From left to right) Grant Berry, Apostles Dan Juster, Eitan Shiskoff and Che Ahn recently signed an historic document on the spiritual reconnection between Jew and Gentile in the body of Messiah/Christ. (Photo credit from Charisma Magazine article, Courtesy of Grant Berry, Reconnecting Ministries)

Here is where I'm at. I am all in for the Body of Messiah in Israel as the most significant sign of the prophetic times we are in and it is a HUGE drag to me that so few in the Church get it. Both the Church and the Messianic Jewish Body have equal roles to play in the glory of the Lord that is coming to us in the midst of the darkness that is covering the people of the earth. BOTH.

So the very charismatic part of the Church tends not to see a significance to what God is doing among Jews, nor ESPECIALLY the significance of Him restoring the community of Jewish believers in Israel. This group tends to see everything good that is coming from the Church in the end times as coming from those like them, basically the charismatic branch of the Church, Jewish believers being an basically insignificant minority that tries to be different but really are just part of the Christian church - no distinctions required.

Then there is the Israel-loving Church which despite loving Israel has been warned off of the "cult" of Jewish believers in Jesus by the unsaved Jews they connect with in Israel. The religious traditional Jews have used their love of Israel to blackmail many of these Christians into ignoring the profoundly significant Body of Messiah in Israel. The proposition has been that they have to reject evangelism of Jews, and steer clear of Israel's Messianic Jews if these Christians want to have good relationship with humanitarian projects in Israel. Many of these Christian leaders have justified doing exactly that thinking they are going to "make Israel jealous" by such actions. (How is Christian rejection of Jewish believers in Jesus ever going to make unsaved Israel jealous? ...I have the strongest urge to add the word dingbat here.)

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with a minority of Christians who have looked past their own interests and seen that God has planned all along to restore Israel - not only as a nation, but as a Jews choosing eternal salvation in Jesus.

God has hidden the details of how the non-Jewish Church and the Messianic Jewish - with special emphasis on their presence in Israel - in many places throughout the Hebrew scriptures AND it is not so hidden at all in the New Covenant scriptures. Paul wrote about it in many places, but somehow Christians who pride themselves for seeing the hidden treasures of scripture are stone, cold blind to what the apostle laid out about God's plans for Jew and Gentile in the last days.

So here's the thing. God has made it so neither side - not Messianic Jewish and not non-Jewish Christian, not Israel-rejecting Christians nor Israel-loving Christians - are going to see the promises of God to us all in these days by ourselves. We either join ourselves to His plan - which is to bring the Church to the assistance of the Messianic believers in Israel to fulfill their mandate of bringing the message of redemption to all Israel - or we will continue to delay ALL the blessings promised. Like the blessings of powerful waves of salvation worldwide.

The Church cannot fulfill its end time mandate without opening its eyes to what God plans for Israel through the Living Stones of Israel - the remnant of faith already at work among the people of Israel. And this remnant cannot fulfill their mandated work from God in this harvest without the help of the international Church.

When will the Church quit thinking they have all they need without having to see the gift that God has placed in this remnant of faith in Israel?

Ephesians 2 "one new man" does not mean the homogenization of Jews into a Christian expression that repudiates Jewishness. (Daniel Juster had an excellent word on this in the video teaching here from the Restore 2015 conference)

Is Jesus going to be too Jewish for you when He comes back as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne"?

You think that is just flowery descriptive language? Huh? That's reality! As the apostle Paul wrote, I say then, Has God rejected His people? God forbid! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew."

It's the faithful plan of God to restore the nation of Israel - first the natural and then spiritually. My goodness, Church! Open your eyes to the mighty work of God going on right now & get with God's plan for our role in it. The blessings of our doing so are beyond imagination.

* Here is the video message of Pastor Che Ahn of HIM speaks at the Tikkun America RESTORE Conference. "Apostolic Declarations of Blessing". 

Blind Spot

As an Israel supporting Christian, I have known for several decades that as soon as you say something about Israel, Christians who don't grasp God's incredible faithfulness to Israel's salvation even to this day will automatically get defensive with their perception that you don't care about Arabs. 

That's wrong. It is not only wrong concerning me, it is wrong concerning almost every Israeli ministry leader I know - down to the man (or woman). 

Israelprayer has always endeavored to raise prayer for the Christian Arab ministries too. I am not able to publish as many of the ministry prayer requests of the Christian Arabs, due to their own personal safety issues. Many must fly completely under the radar. Their personal safety issues have to do with life-threat from Islamists, not Israel! 

There are also those Christian Arab ministries that I choose not to publish because they are pushing a theological concept that God does not have any more use for Israel as a nation in His Divine plan. That is just wrong, and is it any wonder that Christians in the nations who believe the same way are the very ones who get so upset with their perception that you don't care about Arabs if you support Israel? 

God knows what is going to happen within the Church that thinks God eliminated His vows toward Israel when the Church came into being. I know precious people who love God, are faithful believers and ministers, but they have this incredible blind spot to exactly how faithful to His Word God actually is. Some of them 'humor me' but I have to say, I also humor them. When they come rebuking me for my beliefs, I do not humor that. 

I do have great concerns about when this blindness gets removed from the half of the Church that does not believe what is already unfolding - the redemption of Israel. I am sure many will gain the ability to see what is clearly written about these things, but I am not so sure all will. This concerns me because I do believe this issue of Israel is pretty much the last dividing asunder line between sheep and goats. 

Israel as a nation today stands alone as nations divide up against it - ignoring what is honest, just or right, so why wouldn't Israel also be a central spiritual defining issue among believers, as well? I believe it is the issue - for believers and for the nations of the world. Shouldn't believers be smarter about this choice than the unbelieving of the nations? 

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:17-21, 23-26, "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. . . .And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved." 

What do they think that means? The MYSTERY is hidden from those who are arrogant against Israel. From how I read it, God is judging individuals and nations on that basis.

IDENTITY Issues | A Spiritual Application Based on Current Events

A Spiritual Application Based on Current Events

IDENTITY ISSUES By Donna Diorio

I am not sure how this applies in the rest of the world, but in the United States we have been rocked lately by what the news media calls “Identity Politics”.  The best definition I’ve found for this is that Identity Politics is “political activity or movements based on or catering to the cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or social interests that characterize a group identity.”

Apparently Identity Politics also creates wannabe’s – people who reject their authentic identity to become identified as something they are not.  Olympic medalist Bruce Jenner recently traded his male identity in for a female identity – and since the LGBT movement is a cause célèbre for the “enlightened” Jenner’s rejection of the sex God made him is applauded by those outside of Biblical faith. 

We have also witnessed a rise in those who lie about incidents or circumstances in their lives in order to identify themselves, such as campus rape victims who are not even ashamed when the facts emerge that they were not raped.  They are not shamed because the ‘politics’ of their lie was motivated by a desire to give evidence of a non-existent “crisis” of rape on US campus. 

Speaking of US campuses, these are the breeding place of the anti-Jew, anti-Israel movement that is being instigated and propelled forward primarily by Muslim Students associations that are in reality of the American radical Islamist network.  Their appeal on American campuses is great because the cast themselves in a victim role – an essential element of Identity Politics – while casting Israel in an aggressor role.  In Identity Politics, it is necessary for the victim to identify a victimizer, and with complete disregard for the facts to paint their ‘enemy’ as devilish. 

Identity Politics claim the high ground of social justice – it’s just not Biblical social justice, but a God-less version of justice that is not intellectually honest with the facts.

I’m a believer in what we witness happening in our society is a reflection of a spiritual issue within the Body of the Lord.  Now don't go crazy on me here, but considering the major blow up being discussed by the political Left and Right over the white woman, Rachel Dolezal, who as the prominent head of the Spokane NAACP was passing herself off as black, what might that be saying to us is occurring spiritually among the Church?

Maybe nothing, but personally I believe that the IDENTITY issue may be the spiritual issue that God is putting His finger on right now.  For example among those Christians, many Millennials who have aligned themselves with the Identity Politics of radical Islamists claiming to be Davids fight Goliath. 

In the specific case of Rachel Dolezal, a naturally blonde woman of Swedish, German, Czech heritage who has been passing herself as a black woman, how have her lies discredited the claim that black in America is still a horrible racially victimized experience?  Do her lies, and the willingness of those in politics, news media and racial grievance movements to accept even her lying to them, have anything to say to us in the Church spiritually?

Since I have moved primarily in Messianic circles for the past two decades, the Rachel Dolezal incident reminded me of the many Christians that come to stand by the Jews who believe in Jesus and end up becoming so enamored of all things Jewish they being to transform their own identities into a Jewish identity.  Since the most obviously Jewish in appearance are Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, I have personally seen many Christians go full-tilt frum after joining a Messianic congregation.  If there is a spiritual reflection of the Rachel Dolezal incident, I would have to say it is the Christians who have traded their God-given identity out of a desire to identify as Jewish.  This does not serve God’s purposes.

You know how anti-missionaries use the false accusation against Messianic Jews who believe in Yeshua that they are not really Jews? Well I am just wondering out loud how much of that has credibility with unbelieving Jews because of all the Gentile Christians who are wannbe Jews in the Messianic movement? Those who have taken on Jewish identities, instead of being what God made them to be: Gentile Christians who stand by the Jewish Body of Messiah completely?

Do we not have the same identity issues are Rachel Dolezal? Personally I believe that Christians who trade their identity in to self-identify as Jewish are not advancing the plan of God for the Messianic community in the redemption of "all Israel" and are not only hurting the credibility of Messianic Jews to the Jewish people, but also to the Church that has not yet recognized our place is to stand by the believers of Jesus in EVERY nation, including - and at this hour, especially - ISRAEL.

Now I understand how we started down this road in the Messianic movement, because the fledgling Messianic congregations needed the help and support of Christians within their congregations, yet also wanted it to look authentically Jewish to the Jewish people who came in. Fine.

That day is over. It is time to move on to be authentic in our identities as Jew and Gentile in the Messiah.