Fruit of the Fig Tree

 

Fruit of the Fig Tree comes from Proverbs 27:18, it is the promise of God to those who keep (tend) the Fig Tree, shall eat of its fruit.

     Israel is represented in the fig tree according to its fruitfulness. Some suppose that Jesus cursed Israel for lack of fruitfulness forever in Mark 11: 13-14, but that is not the truth. "Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit. When He reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”  

     As soon as a fig tree begins to bud, fruit buds even before the leaves. So the season of fruitfulness had passed for the year is only leaves were found. Jesus was not cursing Israel forever, but the season for Judaism to bear the fruitfulness that God is ultimately looking for had past. Only the sacrifice His Son Yeshua was to make could bring forth the kind of fruitfulness God was teaching Israel in all those years before the appearance of His Son. Many Israelis believed at that time, but for a season most of Israel would be set aside: “so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you.” Romans 11:31  

     Did you know a fig tree down to the ground and it will still come back to life and bear fruit? God built that resilience into Israel too.  It is in God’s timing, according to His plan and in the season of His choosing. Fig trees only produce fruit on new wood; Israel will bear fruit in the “new wood” of the modern restored  State of Israel.

      Yeshua told us in Matthew 24:32-35 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."

     Israel has been budding fruit spiritually since 1948 fruitfulness and will bear even more as the war for Israel’s salvation has begun to intensify.  That is what we are nurturing in this elist, tending to Israel in prayers and practical aid of Israel’s Messianic Jews, so she will bear ALL the fruit of salvation.  

The Real NEVER AGAIN

Jerusalem Sunrise by Erin Cunningham

The Jews are being brought back to Israel by God. It may seem that their haters are driving them away from their homes, but it is God making sure they get out of their comfort zone and get back to the homeland HE assigned to them. This is His PLAN, not the antisemites' plan! Because now that God has restored the national HOMELAND of the Jews, not only will they never again be removed but in this place He will spiritually restore a national number of Israelis back to relationship with Him by Messiah Yeshua.

Amos 9:15 is the REAL NEVER AGAIN: "I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

 

2024: The Year of Generations

An answer from God on Christmas Day 2023
about what to expect in the New Year 

A few days ago I wrote that I was anticipating hearing from God about what is ahead for 2024. Afterwards for a few days now I have been getting one word that in my mind connects to the assignment for 2024 and that is GENERATIONS. I don't think it is just me. I believe most people my age, a Baby Boomer, have deep concerns about the generations behind us, from the perspective of spiritual relationship or understanding of the LORD.

You know, just being at this age is a reality check on the hopes and desires we have for all of our younger generations. We don't have that much time left to pray for them, that is just the reality.

I don't know about you, but I have deep concerns that the generations behind us cannot have a healthy relationship with the LORD when we see how "51% of Americans between the ages of 18-24 believe that Israel should be ended and given to Hamas." It is not only the lack of biblical understanding about Israel, this carries over into many of their social justice issues. Like Jesus said, "Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

It is a bit difficult to teach past generations much at this age. Our official generation name is "Baby Boomer" but I think in the eyes of younger generations in reality it is "Back Burner." But that does not mean we cannot spiritually impact all of those who don't have inclination listen to an old Boomer. We have lived longed enough to learn the lessons the hard way, that what God wants from us is mercy. He is well able to deliver justice and when He does, it if perfect justice, untainted by pride and misguided standards. He's got this.

Our part is to put the generations behind us in merciful prayer before Him. Angels are dispatched by merciful prayers, but demons are dispatched by prayers full of anger, resentment and revenge. God doesn't answer the bitter prayers but evil spirits do answer. This is an essential element of spiritual warfare. Which is why the apostle Paul warned us, "The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another."

I believe there is going to be much more God speaks about 2024: The Year of Generations. If you aren't sure how they break down, it is all over the place. People reference the various generations delineations. It is almost like a division of people that puts everyone in a descriptive box - one that separates people, and doesn't encourage people of all ages to come together as a whole. That in itself is not God's desire to draw us into "one new man" in Messiah.

To show you how people are divided up now in generations:

"The Pew Research Center periodically updates the age ranges it uses to define the generational groups, and that includes the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. In 2019, the organization officially added the birth years for Gen Z. Since then, other sources have weighed in on the suggested age ranges for Gen Alpha. Check out the latest definitions for each generation below:

The Silent Generation: Born 1928-1945 (78-95 years old)

Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (59-77 years old)

Gen X: Born 1965-1980 (43-58 years old)

Millennials: Born 1981-1996 (27-42 years old)

Gen Z: Born 1997-2012 (11-26 years old)

Gen Alpha: Born early 2010s-2025 (0-about 10 years old)

Yeshua/Jesus said in Revelation 22, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Only He can join all generations in Himself. But we are to come in agreement with God's desire to answer such a prayer.

 

The Book of Hebrews in the Days of Hebrews

 

Early Christmas Day 2023 morning
I honestly can't figure out why Bible scholars would argue that Hebrews wasn't written by the Apostle Paul. Who else would it be? He was the only one of the apostles trained in the Hebrew scriptures and this was necessary for the Holy Spirit to teach him the deep mysteries of God that are revealed progressively through the Scriptures. These are things that would have escaped the other apostles because they didn't have understanding of Scripture. We can get far without knowing the Old Testament, but we cannot get into the deeper mysteries of God that were entrusted to Paul. Yeshua hand-picked Paul for this job appearing to him after the resurrection. If these mysteries of God were not ultimately important for Christians for the fulfillment of God's plans, then Jesus would have no need to add to the Apostles and Apostle specifically to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Someone had to give the nations a contextual understanding of God's ways that is only found by starting at the beginning, with the understanding that was laid among the Jewish people. Jewish people can give us that contexual understanding, but really only those that have a Spirit filled life in Yeshua. You can't get that from just any unsaved rabbi, you must find the saved rabbis, filled with the Holy Spirit and in active process of being transformed in the likeness of God's Son Yeshua. 

Paul wrote almost the whole New Testament scriptures and scholars are telling me God called in Mr. Anonymous to write the book of Hebrews instead of Paul? handpicked by Jesus to lay out the teaching to the Gentiles? The other apostles admitted the advantage Paul had in both biblical training and in revelation of the mysteries that run from Genesis to end. He understood better because of his training of the Hebrew Scripture and even the other apostles learned from his teaching. I think one would just have to overlook the obvious and accept the least likely premise to say someone other than Paul wrote Hebrews. But I'm simple like that.

Early the Morning after Christmas Day 2023 
PART II: The Lord is continuing to speak to me about the apostle Paul, apostle to the Gentiles. He was unrivaled among all the other Apostles with a capital A, in understanding the mysteries of God. He was personally chosen by Yeshua after resurrection to declare the Gospel and the Mysteries of God's plan to all the Gentiles...but also to the Jews. I think it is fair to say that what Paul taught, the other apostles learned from. He wrote most of the New Testament, so there is that, but there are other things God is showing me about Paul, worth paying attention to. 

     Just right off the bat I am going to challenge you on the criticism of Bible scholarship who have claimed that Hebrews was not written by Paul. The apostle to the Gentiles wrote to the Corinthians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Romans and many others. Why in the world would we think he didn't write to the Hebrews? 

     I propose that the scholarship that claims Hebrews was not written by Paul, is rather a deep manifestation of Christian rejection of God's continuing love and plan for the Hebrew nation of Israeli Jews. It is a manifestation of supersessionism (replacement theology).

     Paul never turned his back on the Jewish people and he wrote much to make non-Jewish Christians to know that the temporary setting aside of Israel is one of the greatest mysteries of God, because they were set aside temporarily in order to open the door of salvation to all the people of the nations. Paul even argues in Romans about how Christians should not fall into the pride and arrogance that boasts and gloats over the Jews as forsaken by God. 

     In Hebrews, Paul's authorship is never mentioned. That is not enough to conclude he was not the author. Considering the things he wrote about in Hebrews, he is addressing precisely the kind of issues that needed to be addressed to Jewish believers. He addressed the same things that Jewish believers pointedly need to be addressed to non-Jewish Christians.

    That is the same thing he did in letters to the the Corinthians who were getting so charismatic that they ignored sin in the camp without addressing and correcting it. Or, like the Galatians, who became so fascinated with Jewish believers teaching the laws rather than the Gospel he had taught them of faith by grace. (If you are a Christian who thinks grace did not exist in the Old Testament, you just don't know the whole Bible! Grace still existed because it was ALWAYS impossible for even the best believers not to break the law and sin! Bathsheba, and many other prime examples of God's grace even under the Law.)

     In the Galatians letter Paul  he said he even had to rebuke the Apostle Peter in front of everyone in Antioch: “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

     Paul had bona fides (authentic credentials) for being accepted among the 12 Apostles because Paul was even chosen by Jesus after resurrection on the road to Damascus. He was halted from pursing Jewish believers to punish them for believing in Yeshua.

     Paul called himself "one born of undue time" which was a way to  say a premature baby. But I believe it is a spiritual reference to the premature birth of religious Jews to faith in Yeshua. Paul was one of them, completely unlike the other apostles - trained in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

     Maybe Paul's authorship being left out of the letter to the Hebrews has more to do with that than with anything else. Why did Jesus pick a trained expert in the Hebrew  Scriptures only after His resurrection instead of when He was walking throughout Israel preaching to the Jews? 

     One, because the Gentiles were going to need to understand what God was saying in the Hebrew Scriptures and the continuity of God's mysterious plans that can only be apprehended by someone who has studied the Old Testament enough to know what God spoke to Israel. There have been many ridiculous assumptions of what God was saying by Christians precisely because we reject what only the Jewish believers in Yeshua can inform us about.

     God sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies. At this table are marvelous things He has developed among Christians. But also at that table - a table set for the Last Days - there is a great banquet that has been prepared by God among Yeshua's Messianic Jews.  We are invited to sit down at that table - in the presence of our enemies - and partake of good food presented by Christians and Messianic Jews who are ready and willing to follow the Holy Spirit in to God's mysterious plan to make of two -Jew and Gentile- one in Messiah. The apostle Paul taught with authentic credentials he spelled out in Galatians 1 and Philippians 3, and many trials which he spelled out in 2 Corinthians 10. 

     Paul never lost his earnest desire to see the Jewish people join Him in faith in Israel's Messiah. He always went to the synagogue first to speak in any city he entered - but he also knew as the Spirit had instructed him, that until the season determined by God, he would not see a mass of Jewish people coming to faith. Individuals would come, but "all Israel" was reserved to a specific time frame - the return of Israel from exile to a reestablished physical nation, then spiritual restoration would also begin. That would happen in the last of the last days. Paul never stopped preaching the Gospel to seek the ones like himself who did come into faith after Jesus time walking among them had ceased.  

     All of the signs spoken of by Jesus Himself point to the time of God's mercy arising for Israel to be here and now. First the physical restoration of Israel as a nation, then the spiritual restoration to God by faith in Israel's own Messiah, Yeshua. The banquet table we are invited to sit at - in the presence of our enemies - that is at a table of Jews and Gentiles who opened their heart to each other as God intended in His Son. Short of that, and you will find your spiritual food more and more scanty as the trials continue to increase.

* One other thing is Jesus telling us that we must pray for our enemies. After Shaul had been blinded by the radiance of Yeshua appearing to him on the road to Damascus, the Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision, “Ananias!” 

     “Here I am, Lord,” he answered. 11“Get up!” the Lord told him. “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Shaul, for he is praying. appeared to Ananias, a believer in Damascus. 

     13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, many people have told me about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And now he is here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”

     15 “Go!” said the Lord. “THIS MAN IS MY CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO CARRY MY NAME BEFORE THE GENTILES AND THEIR KINGS   AND BEFORE THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.”

     Being chosen by God also comes with suffering for His name. We can pray for those who persecute us because they are deflecting the Word of God we carry for them.  Their eternity stands in the balance.

An Example and A Challenge from Ireland: For Pastors

 

an example and A Challenge
from Ireland: For Pastors
by Donna Diorio

A Spirit of Antisemitism,
by Pastor Keith Malcomson
Limerick City Church
Ireland

Keith Malcomson shares an important message that has received 3K views within 3 days. (A video is considered viral is if it garners over 5 million views within a 3-7 day period.) It is going viral because people are hungry for Christian pastors to speak up about antisemitism we see sweeping the world. His opening prayer over the sermon he is about to deliver alone has me in tears. Pastor Malcomson presents an example from his own city's history when he details how one sermon in Limerick City in 1904 unleashed the spirit of antisemitism in the mid-west Ireland’s Limerick City.

……I discovered Keith Malcomson in the last year through his message praising his wife Candace as A Mother in Zion. Candace died last year in August of cancer, cutting off a short but significant life. I was so touched by his message about Candace, and why she was a biblical “Deborah, a Mother in Zion.” It is more than being an intercessor, it is about the righteous judgment we are called to make, discerning the spirit of things.

     After the attack on Israel, Pastor Malcomson has emerged leading the way to speak to the Church regarding the spirit of anti-Semitism that is sweeping the nations. He a man of God anointed for this moment to provide both an example to other Christian pastors, as well as a challenge to all Christians to understand what the truth of anti-Semitism is and to speak up about it now. The lack of discernment within Christians circles on this issue hearkens back to one of the things Pastor Malcomson admired in his wife, the ability to make righteous judgments and advise the women of their church wisely with great discernment. In recent years we have had the “Judge not” message so hammered into us that many Christians have no idea that they are admonished to be able to judge matters, and if we can’t, it is a shame to us, not an accomplishment in the Spirit! 1 Cor 6:15

     It is important for us to share the instances of pastors and Christians in the nations standing up for Israel at this time, having righteous judgment in this matter between Israel and Hamas. We unfortunately will not see many news media reporting this, so we will have to be proactive in sharing the stories from our own nations to encourage the Jewish people, but also to encourage each other to be bold in the Spirit to do the right thing and not shrink back.

     One of the things that has always troubled me is something I also understand why Jews have come to this conclusion – that they can only trust other Jews when push comes to shove. This is a ‘wall of separation’ between Messianic Jews and Christians that we have to pull down in the body of Messiah. One valuable way to do that is to acknowledge and share the many Christians who are standing with the Jews right now, no matter what it costs. 

One Woman's Serious Cautionary Word for Women of God

 One Woman's Serious Cautionary Word for Women of God
... and the godly judging of sexual abuse accusations in the world we now live

By Donna Diorio
Written Nov 6th on Facebook, posted here Nov 13, 2023

     Sometimes I think young people think they are the only ones who know anything about sexual abuse against women. They seem willing to condemn without evidence and based only on accusations.They have even invented a slogan for that: "Believe the Woman."  

Young people don't have to tell me how sexual abuse happens. I am a woman! I may be 72 now but I wasn't always. I had my fair share of sexual abuse incidents. But I am cautioning women and men who are called God's people that there must be evidence and/or a confession. Even multiple accusations are not enough to convict someone of sexual abuse in the world in which we live now.

That is because sexual accusations have become a political weapon to destroy the one targeted. All political weapons can easily be deployed in spiritual circles too. It has become an agenda driven weapon and there appears to be no court of law that is immune to being drawn into the agenda with the accuser if the target is agreed on "must be destroyed." If you don't recognize that from our current events over the last many years, you are unqualified to make a judgment on this even as a believer.

     One morning last week I awoke thinking of how well I know about sexual abuse incidents. These several happened to me between the age of 16 to 22 years old : 

-attempted date rape by 2 boys after being the 2nd girl to be taken home after a double date 

-attempted rape by an uncle when I was home sick alone one afternoon; 

-sexual abuse by our family doctor whose pelvic exams went beyond exam

-on the job sexual harassment on my first job at Dairy Queen when at closing the manager would turn the lights off and chase me around the work counter

-sexual pressure by my divorce lawyer - give him more money, or sex

     That gets me to 22 years old, but it was not the end: There was the new general manager on my favorite job ever who told me if I intended to stay on as editor, I would give him sexual pleasure. My editor's job was the decade of the 70's and there was no hyper-sensitive HR Dept to run to with complaints. There was only the beginning of people being awakened to the injustice of what has been going on against women for THOUSANDS of years. Being "sensitized" has gone far over board at this point.

    I am well aware that women are sexually targeted by men and have been since the Genesis 3:15. God's resolution of this is not the same as what the woke crowd have convinced everyone must happen when accusations of this sort are lodged against a man. 

     Women today have been handed a weapon that they feel entitled to use whether it is true of not because of the historic sexual abuse by men. The weapon of choice is false accusation of sexual abuse on the most minor of grounds. 

     If a man of any age looks at you with interest because you are the type he is attracted to: that is NOT sexual abuse! That is a normal human reaction. Also if you were flattered because you admired the person and flirted back, that is you giving mutual interest signals. 

     It reminds me how as Baby Boomer kids we ate dirt & our parents were not germophobes, freaking out that we were eating dirt. We didn't die, but we grew up with healthy immune systems. I think of the whole overblown sexual abuse situation that is established in our society in much the same way. That's because you know what I did in the date rape situation? I fought like hell and didn't let them rape me. Same thing I did with the pervert uncle. I quit my job at Dairy Queen, and quit my job at the magazine. 

    Just because you are young and someone tries to take advantage of you sexually doesn't mean you are some weak, feeble little girl who just gets abused and sent into emotional trauma until decades later when you decide to speak out accusations preferring to remain anonymous.

     Does sexual abuse try to define us? Yes, of course, but if we are walking with God, allowing His Holy Spirit to transform us, we have laid that abuse down - turned it over completely to God to judge.

     Not only that, but waiting decades to bring accusation should be a flashing yellow CAUTION light to all.

     Too many of the situations we have seen unfold in this country of sexual abuse accusations by a high profile man have been women with an agenda using accusation as a weapon. And that weapon of women has been used throughout history ...very often false accusations based on lies. 

     I do not trust anonymity of accusers. As believers, we of all people cannot have some woke kangaroo court decide such situations, but accusations should be judged by spiritual judges within faith circles.

     I do appeal to the Judge over all the earth to make HIS own swift verdict known and not allow this to linger over the body of Christ and over the prayer for Israel community demolishing every good thing that come through a leader giving himself to establish 24/7 prayer for Israel. 

     I pray that God will thunder from Heaven, letting His verdict be demonstrated, as 1 Samuel 2:10: "Those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder from heaven against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth and will give power to His king. He will exalt the horn of His anointed."

The Battle is for the Truth

 

The Battle is for the Truth
by Donna Diorio

I just read a quote I picked out of one of Ron Cantor’s recent emails that said, “It's only normal that donations drop off. The initial shock of what happened on October 7th is dissipating. But the needs are only growing."

     Personally I don't see how it could be normal for donations to be dropping off when the horror has continued to grow. Not only has the horror grown in what Israel is discovering the extent of evil Hamas has inflicted on Jew, but in the nations there is the ripple effect of Israel-haters, Jew-haters coming out in force to intimidate fellow citizens and government officials away from standing with Israel.

     How can Christians in the nations let their interest waiver in what is happening in Israel, or their financial aid to help Israel come to a crawl so quickly?

     Prime Minister Netanyahu when he said, "Brief empathy over the Oct. 7 catastrophe is shifting to a global effort, propelled by Israel-haters and anti-Semites, to deprive us of the right to ensure it will not happen again."

     How easily we are to become wavering, "driven and tossed by the wind."  That has been the problem with so many Christians regarding Israel for decades but worse wavering on God’s love of Israel has deeply turned younger generations of Christians. Instead of supporting Israel so many of their parents have, they have been indoctrinated into the pro-Palestinian movement. This is a movement we have seen storming Grand Central Station and the U.S. House of Representatives. It is not only in the U.S. but in the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and Italy.

     Look at the pictures: these are mostly young people.  In places like the U.S. the young pro-Palestinians (Israel-haters) are college educated, in fact, college campuses are the number one place where young people are indoctrinated and inducted into these groups. They are part of the “social justice” crowd that has aligned with radical Islam's campus indoctrination teams. Being a Christian does not inoculate these young people from becoming enemies of the people God called "the pupil of His eye." Sadly they have no idea how far the devil has led them to the side of rebellion against God!

     Pray for our young people to have a revelation of God's love for Israel, enough that Zechaiah 2:7-9 has God crying out, “Get up, O Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon!” For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you— for whoever touches you touches the apple/pupil of His eye— I will surely wave My hand over them, so that they will become plunder for their own servants. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me.”

     We are very much in the valley of decision in all the nations. Our younger generations, in embracing their peer self-righteousness and social justice definitions, have exalted their sense of justice above the Word of God. Many of us old "Baby Boomers" did the same thing in our youth. I say that as a reminder that despite being gravely wrong, we were rescued from our youthful arrogance and put on the narrow path that knows God's Word is the last word. Therefore we can pray with hope and with faith that God can do a mighty work of recovering these who have become allies with the enemies of God. We can pray in faith they be given spiritual understanding from Heaven that sets them again, or for the first time, on the narrow path He calls us to walk with Him.

     I believe the spiritual warfare on the ground in Israel is a visible manifestation of the invisible war going on in all the nations. The Prime Minister of Israel also recently declared something I believe was prophetic coming out of the mouth of Israel's highest political leader. He said, "This is our 2nd Independence War, humanity’s war against evil." According to a teaching by Asher Intrater last week, Netanyahu also added to that statement, (at the 15:23 mark) “When this war is over, we as a nation will be born again.”

    Indeed the war for Israel's survival is the visible manifestation of the spiritual war against evil. The information war is front and center for both the physical war and the spiritual war.  We are in a spiritual battle for the truth of God to be heard by people…all those people in the valley of decision.