If you continue

Looking back over more than 25 years of being involved with the restoration of our ancestral identity, I am convinced that it is truly founded upon the moving of the Father’s Holy Spirit, for the purpose of turning the hearts of the seed of the Patriarchs back to their roots.  YHVH’s intention in doing so is in order to demonstrate His faithfulness to the promises, one of which is the multiplicity that He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and has carried out over 4,000 years of history.

In Romans 4 Paul writes: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?” (v. 1). He then goes on to quote Genesis 15:6:  "Abraham believed Elohim, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (v. 3). What did Abraham believe that Elohim accounted to him for righteousness? 

”…Contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your seed/descendants be.’  And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.  He did not waver at the promise of Elohim through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to Elohim and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.  And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Romans 4:18-22). 

Did YHVH keep His promise to our forefathers?  Paul reveals YHVH’s faithfulness to execute His word to Abraham in one verse: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise (of multiplicity) might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all”  (v. 16).  The question before us today is: “Does YHVH recon us righteous if we believe the same thing that Abraham believed?”   “He [Abraham] did not waver at the promise of Elohim through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to Elohim,  and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:20-21).  When it comes to this present day restoration of the seed of Abraham (after the flesh) and that includes “all those who are of the faith,” do we waver in unbelief at the faithfulness of YHVH to perform what He promised?  What else does it say about Abraham “he obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws" (Genesis 26:5).     

When we talk about returning to our Hebraic roots, in response to the Spirit turning the hearts of the children to the patriarchs we are to "remember the Torah of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments” (Malachi 4:4).  However, this alone will not produce the fruit of righteousness, and this was the major concern that the apostles had with the believers they were addressing: “Now it was not written for his (Abraham’s) sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Yeshua our Lord from the dead,  who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:23-25). We, who came out of the “flesh of Abraham” through the deadness of a womb that produced Isaac, are now recognized as having the same faith as our father, which enables us to believe that Yeshua was delivered up to death for our sin and was raised for our justification.  Here is the key that opens the door to the fruit of righteousness.  It is found in the promise of the new covenant “I will put My Torah in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled  in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight -- if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard” (Colossians 1:21-23, emphasis added). This little two-letter word that cannot be overlooked makes all the difference…  

In these days and within this ‘move’ too many are forsaking the “hope of the gospel of His kingdom” and are seeking to produce a fruit of righteousness by the “works of legalism.” The kingdom of Elohim [however], is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Some have become disenchanted because they have not witnessed or experienced the fruit of the Spirit in the “church,” and later on, in the Messianic groups with whom they affiliated themselves. Most likely they have not been taught how to overcome and walk in YHVH’s righteousness, bearing the fruit of their salvation through faith and obedience to His Word.  Yeshua warned about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (see Mark 8:15), and Paul concerning the wisdom of men (1 Corinthians 2:5).

The “if” in the above quote, as stated, is very important: “If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”  We have been reconciled to the Father, in the flesh body of Yeshua. Yeshua is our righteousness, and thus also the epitome of the fruit of the Spirit.

Additionally, our Messiah is the Word, and the Bread that has come down from Heaven.  Let us “sink our teeth”* into Him, chew well, mix with a little “heavenly wine,” take time to taste, smell and then swallow - so that at least ‘morsels’ of His Word assimilate into our very being; the Word becoming flesh…

Ephraim