Don’t Miss the Point of Immanuel

21 12 2017

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One of the most important names of Jesus is Immanuel, which means “God with us!”

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23 (This is a direct quote from Isaiah 7:14)

Jesus, or Yeshua, means salvation. One of my new favorites is Yeshua ben Yehovah or Jesus Son of God. But the point of His name, Immanuel, is that Jesus, the Messiah, is Yehovah God with us manifested as the Son. It is a non-negotiable core belief of true believers. He was not just sent from God, He is God in the flesh. This is critical.

Muslims believe in a false god even though they have a “prophet” Jesus, or Isa in Arabic. But they don’t believe He is Yehovah’s Son. In fact, they consider it blasphemous. Yet, it is true whether or not they believe. When they accept Jesus as Immanuel, they are accepted into the house of faith.

Jews come at it differently. They do believe in the true God, Yehovah. But, even though the Bible speaks of His Son in Psalm 2 and Proverbs 30:4, they don’t believe Yeshua is the son of Yehovah. That is why this verse is so profound for Jewish believers.

Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son’s name,
If you know? Proverbs 30:4

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yehovah!” Matthew 23:38-39

This is not a generic representation of the Name, but the exact embodiment of Yehovah Himself! You may understand why the Jews also consider this blasphemous. It is precisely why he was crucified. Some of the Jews in that day received Him as the Son of God, but others did not. Although the above quote speaks of judgment on that generation, it also speaks of compassion and the certainty of a future time when their descendants would indeed recognize that Messiah Yeshua is the actual Son of Yehovah God!

My book, Blessing Israel, speaks of the coming merger of Jew and former gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel as one new man in Yeshua Immanuel! His death served as the ultimate payment for the sins of the world as the LAMB OF GOD!

We pray for the salvation of Israel, the Muslims and for all the nations.

Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:32-33

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and pray for rain!

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists               (Read more)

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What God Did Not Do

15 06 2017

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John 3:16 is arguably the most famous verse in the New Testament. But why don’t we hear about the next verse? Both reveal God’s desire to save us (and the whole world) from our self-willed selves, from the devil, and from hell. His love is the amazing root of His grace, yet we overlook the profound statement in verse 17.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:17

If the doctor diagnoses you with terminal cancer, is he condemning you to death or is the cancer responsible? Likewise, when God offers His Son to die in our place, He is not condemning us to hell. The cancer of our own sin and rebellion condemn us. Jesus came to save us, to give us life. He is the Messiah, the Lamb of God, sent to bear our sin that we could live. He is not the cancer, He is the cure!

In my recent book, Blessing Israel, I made a similar declaration about Israel. Yehovah God did not choose Israel as a means of rejecting the rest of the world, but as His means of saving the Gentiles. From the beginning, His promise has been that those who bless Israel will be blessed. That salvation offer was first spoken in Genesis.

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3

All the families of the earth! But the nations rejected God and His promised Messiah, and therefore rejected Israel. They became jealous of God’s chosen ones and began a long history of trying to kill the chosen people. Yet, the very reason they were chosen was to bless the nations. How ironic that this was misunderstood and rejected.

Now in this last generation, Yehovah God is restoring Israel to favor and great blessing. Once again Gentile nations have a choice to embrace God’s blessing or reject Him again. It is the dividing of the sheep and goat nations.

All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Matthew 25:32

Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the nations. One cannot accept Jesus and reject Israel or accept Israel and reject Yeshua. The merger has begun.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists


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Glorious Resurrection Day, but Please Stop Using the E word.

13 04 2017

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HE’S ALIVE! Christians all over the world will celebrate the resurrection of Yeshua/Jesus this Sunday. It is a most glorious worship of the One who conquered death. We cannot overemphasize the magnitude of that event. We should be giddy with joy. Yet I am grieved over an almost universal blind spot in churches this week. Most will use the name of the pagan goddess of  Babylon freely in their services.

We are instructed: In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. 2 Corinthians 13:1 (see also Deuteronomy 19:15 and Matthew 18:16). So what are you going to do from now on after reading the following four separate Scripture witnesses?

Simple Islam – Excerpts from Chapter 11 – Stop Saying the Names of other gods.

Most God-fearing Christians and Jews completely understand and respect the first commandment to have “no other gods” before Yehovah. Yet, in the Western nations, including America, many have opened up their thinking to other gods in the name of tolerance. This makes me want to ask them: “What part of ‘no other gods’ don’t you understand?”

It is only recently that I have found a more specific prohibition on the subject. You may have noticed by now that I am reluctant to say or write the name of the god of Islam. It is because the Bible prohibits it! What if we in America or at least believers were to practice the following four scriptures? Notice how the Holy Spirit progressively adds another component to the prohibition with each verse.

Here is the prohibition.

And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. (Exodus 23:13).

Then Joshua adds three more conditions.

You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to Yehovah your God, as you have done to this day. (Joshua 23:7).

The way a person converts to Islam is by standing in a public place and swearing allegiance three times to the god of Islam and his messenger, Muhammad. The next step is to serve that god and bow down to it. You have seen many examples of Muslims doing that even in public five times a day. I am ashamed to say that in a widely publicized picture, President Obama, who professes Christianity, bowed down 90 degrees from the waist to the King of Saudi Arabia, who is the religious custodian/keeper of Mecca.

The third scripture introduces another aspect, blood, which especially applies to radical Islamists. This blood thirsty death cult delights in the shedding of blood in the name of their god. Hence, we hear the perverse oath proclaimed by every suicide bomber before detonation, that his god is the greatest.

Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips. (Psalm 16:4).

Fourth, Hosea adds a final point. Not only will we not speak their names, but eventually their names will not even be remembered.

For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. (Hosea 2:17).

Psalm 83:4 highlights an amazing contrast: They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”  Satan does not have an original creative thought in his head. He can only twist and pervert what God says or does. So his plan to remove the remembrance of Israel is nothing more than a copycat idea from the truth that the devil and all his false gods face in eternity.

Now therefore, fear Yehovah, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve Yehovah! (Joshua 24:14)

We have already been lulled into complacency by using the name of the top pagan goddess, called Ishtar in Babylon and known by other names in other cultures. Christians use her name in place of Resurrection Day, calling it by her name, Easter, which is a derivative of the Babylonian “queen of heaven”. (More detail at this link) To top off the deception, some King James Bible translations even miss-translate Acts 12:4 using the name of the goddess instead of Passover, which is the real word in the Greek (Pesach). Most translations have corrected this error, but it is still used almost universally by Christians. Is it that important to correct this error? I am convinced that it is critical, along with using God’s personal name, Yehovah. Only Satan and Allah benefit from our ignorance.

(Note: I have used the banned names in my teaching, much as the Bible does. The prohibition regards using other gods’ names in daily life.)

Disclaimer: This is not meant to condemn or to be taken legalistically. I am just sounding a shofar to alert you to these verses. With all the commercial use of the E-word it is very hard to avoid it. It is so ingrained in our culture that it is easy to slip up and say it. My point is that it is time to pivot from our earlier times of ignorance and seek to align our everyday behavior with God’s revealed purpose. Please Stop Using the E word.

Let’s celebrate the resurrection of the Lamb of Yehovah God with all our might! Praise the name of Jesus/Yeshua! HE IS ALIVE!

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists             (Read more)

 


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Passover Merger

10 04 2017

Passover LambAs Jewish families observe Passover this week, a growing phenomena is happening. More Christians than ever are also sharing a Passover supper. Tonight, Doreen and I will be with 110 of our closest friends to celebrate the deliverance of the human race from the slavery of sin and condemnation.

The passing over of the death angel in Egypt was the first indication of Yehovah’s plan of salvation through the blood of a lamb. Who knew back then that the Messiah would ultimately become that Lamb Himself? (Read Isaiah 53)Jews and Christians who really value Passover are closer than ever to that wonderful merger of Ephesians as I wrote about in my book, Blessing Israel.

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:11-18

“One new man from the two” refers to Jews and former Gentiles, merging with one another by the Holy Spirit in their shared access to God. Hallelujah! This is the miracle of sacrifice of the eternal Lamb of God, our Messiah Yeshua.

Let it be done O Lord, according to your word. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists          (Read more)

 


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You Must Accept Christendom?

9 01 2017

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Let me draw a fine point. Must a Jew accept Christendom, or is it enough to accept Jesus/Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel? Growing numbers of Israelis are recognizing Yeshua as the Messiah and Son of God. Do they also have to accept all the traditions of ecclesiastical church history? I think not. Here is an excerpt from my latest book that explains my simple point. (The Hebrew God Who Has No Name – Chapter 8)

Restoration Timing?

Even the Second Coming, the climactic event of history, requires this timing. The Messiah clearly remains in Heaven until a certain time … and then He comes! He comes at the time of restoration of everything the holy prophets have said. Jesus cannot return until Yehovah’s Name is restored  according to Peter’s sermon in Acts 3.

that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Acts 3:20-21

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yehovah!’”  Matthew 23:37-39

Second Coming?

There is no question that the Second Coming is the crowning event of human history. We are close to the Messiah’s entrance. There is a classic joke about the Messiah finally appearing in Jerusalem and the Mayor goes out to meet Him. The Mayor says: “Welcome to Jerusalem. We have waited for you for so long, but I just have one question. Is this your first or second visit?”

The viewpoint of Jews continues to be a very serious issue. What do they think about the Messiah? How do they consider the Christian hope? Truly, a rapidly growing anticipation of the Messiah exists in Israel. Leading rabbis speak out that His coming is close. As the hope for a peace deal dies, more Israeli’s are considering their faith seriously, even if they are not religious. On a 2007 visit to Israel, I heard two prominent Israeli speakers touch the subject. One was in Jerusalem and one was in the Golan. Both made similar statements that shocked me by their public candor and position taken. Neither  man had acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but both believed in the Messiah, the Son of David. They both said that “when He comes, we will look at His hands and feet; and then we will all rejoice together”. The Golan speaker spoke those exact words to our Christian tour group. He flatly stated that the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha Kodesh) speaks to him in his heart. He said that he didn’t know “about those scholars down in Jerusalem with their stacks of books, but the Messiah is coming and I will look at His hands and feet, and then we will all dance together.”

When Will Jews See Jesus?

One of the most severe judgments of history was the removal of Israel from their land after rejecting the Messiah. Paul describes it as “the severity of God” in Romans 11:22. That event opened the way for the nations to be saved; but what about Israel? When will they see the Messiah?

What if I told you that it hinges on Jews changing one of their most common Scripture prayers? It is located in their Passover hymn (known to Jews as the Hallel – Psalms 113-118).

Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yehovah! We have blessed you from the house of Yehovah. Psalm 118:26

The problem is that the Jews do not pronounce the Name. They replace the word Yehovah with the word Lord, or in Hebrew; Adonai. Therefore, I submit that part of the scales falling off the eyes of the Jewish people definitely involves the revelation of the restoration and use of Yehovah’s Name!  Jesus even declared this directly in the Gospels. Although it is mistranslated LORD in our English Bibles, the Name of Yehovah was quoted by Yeshua Himself directly from Psalm 118:26.

Jesus said: for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yehovah!” Matthew 23:39

We know He said Yehovah, because this was a direct quote. Psalm 118 has the Name, Yehovah, no less than 28 times in the Hebrew text! So, does that really mean the Jews will begin using His Name again? Yes!

Note, that Jews will say: “Blessed is He” who comes in Yehovah’s Name. Jesus did that; and the Jews of His day did not say blessed is He, but killed Him for “blasphemy” for claiming the Name of Yehovah. We also may be rejected for speaking the Name, but proclaim it we must, as we stand with Israel and the Jewish people as they begin to profess: “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of Yehovah!”

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists       (Read more)

(New explanation for why I use God’s literal covenant Name: Yehovah. Here is a link to the best simple explanation I know, from my friend, Keith Johnson.)

 

 


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Israel: God’s Glory

4 12 2013

I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. Isaiah 46:13

What a wonderful way for God to display His power and glory, by redeeming banished Israel back to their land and their God! Embracing the literal restoration of Israel is pivotal to understanding God’s glory. My first book, Prophesy To the Land! was a literal reading of Ezekiel 36. Since then I have proven over and over the maxim learned from several mentors: “If you can possibly take a passage literally, do so.”

GloryOverIsraelGod’s glory is revealed in the awesome story of Israel. After the leaders of Israel refused Jesus as Messiah, and were banished from the land to wander the world, many concluded that Israel was replaced by the church in God’s salvation plan. However, that mistake (seemingly confirmed by the Holocaust) was blown away when God began to favor Israel on God’s own timetable:

You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For the time to favor her, Yes, the set time, has come. Psalm 102:13

I love to preach Psalm 102 which I call the “Holocaust Psalm.” Before Israel became a nation, one could claim that her judgment was permanent. However, since 1948, God has poured out blessing and favor for 65 years. The exiles have returned (and are returning), Jerusalem is back under Israeli sovereignty, God has miraculously protected and delivered them in multiple wars, and He has blessed them with massive newly discovered natural resources and technology. ​Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas are now flowing into Israel from vast fields offshore in the Mediterranean Sea.

Then you shall see and become radiant,​​ and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. Isaiah 60:5

Also consider that “Approximately 20 percent or 1 in 5 of Nobel Prize laureates are Jews, yet Jews make up less than 0.2 percent of the world’s population.” (Israel Today) FAVOR!

Finally, consider this recent headline: Netanyahu: Iran is the Darkness, We’re the Light: “We have come to banish the darkness and the greatest darkness that threatens the world today is that of a nuclear Iran,” he said. “We are committed to doing whatever we can to prevent this darkness. If possible, it would be preferable to do so by diplomatic means and if not we will serve as a light to the nations.”

While the world succumbs to the dark scourge of radical Islam, Israel is shining brighter and brighter. And as I said in my previous blog, “Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.” As for me and my house, we will serve Yehovah, God of Israel, and His eternal covenant purpose to bless Israel.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; ​​I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. ​​Indeed I have spoken it; ​​I will also bring it to pass. ​​I have purposed it; ​​I will also do it. ​​Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: ​​I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; ​​My salvation shall not linger. ​​And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory. Isaiah 46:9-13

Don’t forget that the word salvation in verse 13 above is Yeshua, the Hebrew word for Jesus. Jesus is the “salvation” placed in Zion for Israel.

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. Zechariah 12:10

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists      (READ MORE)


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