What is in a name?

 

Luke 1:5

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.

Have you ever thought about the spiritual meaning of your name? Many people do not realise that their name has a deep intrinsic value, because they think that it was randomly chosen for them by their parents. Traditionally, giving a family name to a newborn baby is what most parents would opt for. If not, parents of a soon-to-be-birthed little baby would typically work through a book of names, sifting and sorting until a shortlist is compiled that satisfies both, and gradually names would be eliminated until only one or two remain. Sometimes parents would just think of the name of somebody they liked and admired and choose to name their baby after that person.

There are parents who prayerfully ask the Lord what He would like them to name their child, and this is of course the best course of action. But the most wonderful thing about your name is that no matter how ‘randomly’ it was chosen by your parents, it is still in God’s will that you received that name!

How God uses names for His purposes is illustrated so well by the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth quoted above. He was a priest performing priestly services in the temple in Jerusalem, married to Elizabeth, but the couple remained childless until an angel appeared to him and told him that Elizabeth would give birth to a child in her old age. Zechariah’s Hebrew name was Zicharyah, meaning God has remembered, and Elizabeth was called Elisheva, meaning the oath of God. Their union in marriage spelled out a prophetic message to all who had eyes to see: God has remembered the oath of God.

This was a clear sign to Israel that God had not forgotten His oath to Abraham, because the baby Elizabeth gave birth to was named Yochanan, who was later to become known as John the Baptist – and his name means the grace of God - the grace of salvation through Jesus Christ, about Whom John had to testify all throughout his life.

Three names, no matter how they were decided upon, spelling out God’s intention to keep His eternal promises, at the exact time that those promises were being fulfilled – all orchestrated by God. Never doubt that your name is meant to be uniquely yours!

Pearls to ponder:

When people had to change their identity and direction in life, God often changed their names to reflect this. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel. Our names often reflect the spiritual journey we are on. Find out what the Christian meaning of your name is and pray the godly promises contained therein over your life! Let God’s promises override the names we tend to give ourselves – names like lonely, forgotten, wounded. Replace them with: I am God’s child, He holds me in the palm of His hand, He is my Healer!

Hello My name is

The circle dance

 

Ex 23:14

“Each year you must celebrate three festivals in my honour.

When God gave Moses this instruction for the Israelites, He then also clarified what He meant by describing the names and details of the feasts He wanted them to keep. The name He used for ‘Feast’ was the Hebrew word Khag, which Strong’s defines as:

 châgag, khaw-gag'; a primitive root (compare H2283, H2328); properly, to move in a circle, i.e. (specifically) to march in a sacred procession, to observe a festival; by implication, to be giddy:—celebrate, dance, (keep, hold) a (solemn) feast (holiday), reel to and fro.

It therefore implies the gathering together for a festival, usually in the form of a circle for dancing and feasting.

God loves to see His people filled with joy and happiness and expressing this in jubilant dancing before Him, which is why He named His Feasts with a word that means just that. In fact, Abba has anointed His Son Jesus with abundant joy, giving Him a measure above all others as we read in Heb 1:9 You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.” We know that Jesus attended wedding feasts, and I can easily picture Him joining a dancing circle on these occasions and celebrating with exuberant joy and laughter!

If we think about it, we can even come to realize that the khag is not limited to humans only, the earth also takes part in it as it performs its circle dance around the sun, joyfully proclaiming God’s greatness and power.

Certainly, dancing is not restricted to the Old Testament – there are quite a few words in the New Testament which equates joy with dancing or movement. In Matthew 5:12 the word ealats means ‘to jump for joy’ and pazaz means ‘to leap or bound’; in Acts 6:5 Prochorus was a Christian deacon, and his name means “one who leads in the circle dance”.

Pearls to ponder:

Are we prepared to bring a new dimension to the praise and worship of our God by dancing before Him? Knowing that it pleases Him, knowing that He instructed His children to do this? Or are we going to let tradition and legalism stand in our way?

Some churches have a formal dance group who will on occasion dance in front of the church to songs they have practised movements to, and this is to be commended - it gives talented dancers a platform to express their worship in a beautiful and godly way, so different from the way people dance in the world.

To those who would not dare to do so publicly, I encourage you to start moving before the Lord as you praise Him in the privacy of your own home. You do not need dance lessons, the Lord just wants your heart to be close to His, and your dance with Him will take you on a personal journey way above what you could ever have imagined!

Shavuot 2025

Weaving a tapestry

 

Esther 5:14

His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.

Esther 7:10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.

As we read through the book of Esther, we see that there are many incidences in her life that surely did not add up for her. She had no mother of father - losing one parent would have been difficult enough for a young girl growing up, but losing both must have been devastating! She grew up in a foreign land, in Persia, where her people were exiles and where her culture and religion were subordinated to the whims of the ruling pagan despot, Ahasuerus (or Xerxes in Greek), someone who was easily persuaded by his advisors to act immorally – we see him divorcing his wife Vashti after she refused to entertain his intoxicated guests by showing off her beauty. We read that he fell for the suggestion to sleep with any amount of innocent young girls to select a fitting successor for the previous queen. He listened to and believed Haman’s lies about the Jewish people not keeping the king’s laws, then accepted his bribe of 10 000 talents of silver to decree that all Jews be destroyed.

Esther was captured to join the harem of this very same king, knowing full well what was required of her, and that, should she not be selected to become the next queen, she would disappear into the second harem forever. None of these happenings in her life so far could have made any sense to her – her upbringing by her devout cousin Mordecai must have instilled in her the knowledge of a loving God Who cared for her, Who would protect her from harm. She could so easily have rebelled and gone her own way. But she chose to let the inner light and beauty that her belief in her God had ignited in her, to shine through to such an extent that the wayward king could not resist her, in fact no one could as we read in Esther 2: 15 And Esther won favour in the sight of all who saw her. 

We know the rest of the story, how Esther intervened in Haman’s evil plot and saved her whole race from annihilation, how his evil plans to kill Mordecai backfired and he was in fact impaled on the very pole he had set up for Mordecai. All because Esther chose to stay true to her God, even though she surely could not have understood the events that unfolded before her. But there is even more: Esther must have had a hand in influencing king Artaxerxes I (successor to Xerxes) who appointed Ezra to lead a group of Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God, and 13 years later sent Nehemia to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls.  I am sure that she would have been delighted to see the long-term effects of her dedication to her God!

Pearls to ponder:

When God weaves the tapestry of our lives, we simply cannot see what the whole picture is going to look like. We only see the colour that He is weaving into it at this moment in time, it does not necessarily make sense to us as we have such limited understanding of how all our life experiences are going to fit together in the end. Trust that He has a perfect picture in mind for the tapestry of your life, and stay true to Him no matter what! Your decisions to follow God today will impact not only your life, but the lives of your future generations to come!

Tapestry

The night of Adam

 

1 Cor 15:44

Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven

1 Cor 15:21-22

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Jonathan Cahn, that wonderful connector of dots, painted a beautiful picture showing the connection between the second man (Jesus) to the first Adam on the night before His crucifixion.

Man was created on the sixth day of creation. We can then rightfully name the sixth day the “day of Adam”.  Jesus died on the sixth day after He entered Jerusalem, on the day of Adam.

According to Jewish ways of calculating days, the sixth day always starts the evening before, and here we find more facts linking Jesus to the first Adam. When Adam fell, God said in Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In this curse, bread is linked to death. On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus ate bread, as it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When He lifted up the bread to His disciples, He joined the bread to His death, as was the case in the fall of Adam. (Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”)

After the meal, Messiah Jesus toiled in prayer and sweated what appeared to be drops of blood falling to the ground. When we consider the fall of Adam, we also see toil, sweat, and ground, and all happened in a garden, the Garden of Eden. Adam was then removed from the garden to the place of the curse, which was outside, where he would eventually die. So too on that night Jesus was removed from a garden, called Gethsemane, and taken to a place outside where He would be judged, cursed, and led to His death. And it all took place on the night of Adam.

We as the children of Adam are now redeemed from the curse, and we are released from our toil to come back to the blessing in the presence of God. Hallelujah!

Pearls to ponder:

Jesus paved the way for us to return to that blessed position Adam had in the Garden of Eden – living in the presence of God, communing with Him without any barriers that sin erected in our lives. We do not have to work hard to obtain our salvation and the forgiveness of our sin. We must strive only to be in His rest!

Come to Me

Your Eliezer

 

Gen 24:2-4

And Abraham said to the eldest servant of his house [Eliezer of Damascus], who ruled over all that he had, …… But you shall go to my country and to my relatives and take a wife for my son Isaac.

This longest chapter in Genesis is devoted to the searching for a bride. It is the beginning of God showing us that this is the most important theme threading all through the Bible and holding everything together: the love that God has for His bride! Let us first examine the Old Testament: we see Eliezer searching for a bride for Isaac; and Hosea having to marry a prostitute and take her back repeatedly to show God’s faithfulness toward His wife, Israel. We read about the Bride of Christ’s journey to accept her Bridegroom’s love for her in Song of Songs; and Esther winning the love of the pagan king Ahasuerus. Boaz married Ruth and became her kinsman redeemer. All of these are examples of how God wishes to establish the closest relationship with us possible, as embodied in the marriage covenant.

The New Testament abounds with references to us as the Bride of Christ. Jesus begins His earthly ministry at a wedding banquet, turning water into wine. He then often refers to weddings in His teachings, for example in the Parables of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14); the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24); the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25). Paul directly compares the relationship between husbands and wives to the relationship between Christ and His church in Eph 5:22-23 and continues the theme in 2 Corinthians 11:2. Of course, in Revelation 19:7 we read that at the end of the age, we will be the bride at the wedding feast of the Lamb!

Our quoted verse above comes from the remarkable chapter 24 in Genesis that shows us the role that Holy Spirit plays in bringing the Bride into this close relationship with the Bridegroom. The story begins with the outstanding servant of Abraham, called Eliezer, being tasked by his master to find a bride for Isaac. This mirrors the love our Heavenly Father has for us, that He is always sending Holy Spirit out to search for us. Eliezer then gently hovers around Rebekah, waiting for her to respond to his promptings, already giving gifts to assure her that he is genuine. This shows Holy Spirit’s selfless heart – his one aim is to win the future bride’s heart for his master’s son! As soon as she agrees to go with Him, He showers her with more gifts of the Spirit, then accompanies her on the long journey to meet her Bridegroom - Who had been waiting for her all this time, preparing a place for her to stay with Him.

Pearls to ponder:

Have you become aware of your Eliezer yet? This name means “my God is the helper” – and we know that Holy Spirit is also known as our Helper (John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.) Let us live today knowing that He is in and around us, that we are not alone on this journey through life. Be aware that He is constantly by your side, guiding you towards your Bridegroom, just follow His lead!

In His Presence

The Gift

 

John 1:32

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.

In Old Testament times, Holy Spirit did not abide in people permanently, He would only come on an individual to strengthen and equip him or her to do a certain task for the Lord.

Here are a few examples of this: Judges 3:9-10 But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, who saved them. The Spirit of the LORD came on him, so that he became Israel’s judge and went to war…

Ex 31:2-4 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

Deut 34:9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses.

These persons then would stand out among others as especially gifted from the Lord to excel in the duties that they had been selected for. It would be apparent to all that they had something special, a desirable attribute that others were lacking.

The New Testament started with the death and resurrection of Jesus, not His birth (the meaning of the word testament is a legal will, a covenant between God and His people). Therefore, Jesus received Holy Spirit from His Father at His baptism (as was the case in the Old Testament up until then), to empower Him for His public ministry.

But then something wonderful happened:  Holy Spirit remained on Him! Not only was this the sign that God gave John the Baptist that Jesus was the Messiah (John 1:33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’), but it also was a foreshadow of the wonderful Gift all believers in Jesus would later receive – the Gift of the Holy Spirit!

 He would now not only come upon us occasionally but remain and dwell in all of us who believe, to equip and empower us for our tasks here on earth. (Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit).

Pearls to ponder:

Is it apparent to all around you that you have Someone special, some extraordinary Gift that sets you apart for your assignment? Are you allowing Holy Spirit to work in you, to transform you so that His power can flow through you to accomplish His work here on earth?

Holy Spirit Breath of God

The hidden King

 

Matthew 25:40

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

We are all acquainted with the story of the Prince and the Pauper, wherein a certain prince and a poor beggar boy switched places and lived each other’s lives for a while.

Now in Jewish history there is a similar story, a legend of Solomon’s exile. In this story, King Solomon decides to dabble in the occult. Through this foolish behaviour he encounters a demon who flings him out of Jerusalem, takes on his form and reigns in his place. The real King Solomon starts wandering from city to city, begging for food. Some have pity on him and feed him, others drive him away. The king of Ammon employs him as a kitchen help, but then later throws him out into the desert to starve. The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem get suspicious about the king’s apparent behaviour changes, and when they realize what has happened, they search for the real King Solomon, reinstate him on the throne, and banish the imposter. This gives Solomon the opportunity to reward those who had been kind to him and punish those who had mistreated him.

According to D. Thomas Lancaster, this legend is referred to often and shows up in a variety of sources, so it must have been well-known by the time Jesus spoke of rewarding the just and upright and punishing the evil doers in Matthew 25:34-46. Upon reading these verses, we could rightly ask ourselves: When was the King hidden from his subjects so that they did not recognise him? How this came about is not written down for us. It could well be that this legend was the background which Jesus used when He spoke about rewarding the just and upright with their inheritance of the Kingdom, because they had shown the King acts of kindness when He was hidden or disguised from them. Just so, the evil doers were punished by being thrown in the eternal fire for not doing this.

 Feeding the hungry, sating the thirsty, showing hospitality to strangers, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the imprisoned are acts of kindness that Jesus singled out here. To whom was He referring? He spoke to ‘all nations gathered before Him’ (verse 32), so I believe that when He said, “whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine”, He was not only speaking of His spiritual family (those who are believers in Him), but also of His real earthly family, the Jews. Nations will one day be judged on how they treated Israel.

Pearls to ponder:

The King is among us today, disguised in the form of the aged, the sick, the infirm, the hungry. He is to be seen in the famine-faced children we see in the posts of charitable organisations. He is hidden as the persecuted church; He is among us as the Jewish people. Can you recognize His disguises? Remember, whatever we do for the least of His brothers, we are doing for Him! Let us put aside our own selfish desires and start looking for ways to meet the needs of those less fortunate than us.

Good deeds every day

Evaluate truth

 

John 9:7

“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

This well-known account of the healing of the man who was blind from birth, contains many interesting points of contemplation for us.

It is certainly one of the strangest ways of healing that Jesus used, even though using spit as medicine on the eyes was common in ancient times (classical writers like Pliny the Elder and Celsus noted saliva's healing properties). Jesus actually used His saliva to do two other healings as well, as recorded in Mark 7:33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. And in Mark 8:23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

What made this healing different from others is that it is the only recorded instance where someone who had been born blind, was healed. It sent a very clear message to the learned men of the time that Jesus was indeed God Himself, as they knew Ps 146:8 the LORD gives sight to the blind… Further proof lay in the fact that opening the eyes of the blind was a sign of the coming Messiah, according to prophecies like Isaiah 35:5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. No wonder they were running around in confusion – the evidence that Jesus was the promised Messiah was mounting up before their very eyes! It is the same situation today. Even when confronted with the undeniable truth that Jesus is God, people choose not to believe what is clearly shown in the Bible.

I have often thought that this man showed determination and courage to obey Jesus. Firstly, Jesus did not explicitly promise him his healing – He only commanded him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. Then, while still not being able to see, he had to grope his way to the Pool, find the steps and go down them to reach the water, all the while probably wondering what people thought about the mud layers on his eyes. His faith was rewarded, and he could see!

Pearls to ponder:

What would your reaction be if you had to receive the treatment that Jesus applied to bring about the healing of this man? Would you be offended by His ‘method’; would you rather not obey because you thought, “What would people say if they saw me now?” Would you have walked all the way to the Pool, or stopped halfway thinking, “What am I doing here, this is ridiculous!” Also, when confronted with truth that conflicts with your education/culture/religious upbringing – would you search for your own answers based on the Word of God, or would you stubbornly cling to old beliefs?

Healing the blind

A ruined partnership

 

Gen 27:28-29

“From the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth, may God always give you abundant harvests of grain and bountiful new wine. May many nations become your servants, and may they bow down to you. May you be the master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. All who curse you will be cursed, and all who bless you will be blessed.”

These are the blessings which Isaac spoke over Jacob, whom he believed to be Esau. He had called in his oldest son, Esau, and asked him to hunt game and prepare it for him, so that he could give him his blessing before he (Isaac) died. Rebekah overheard this conversation and took action. Jacob, obeying his mother Rebekah’s instructions, slaughtered two kids from their flock for her to prepare an appetizing meal for his father. He then put on his brother Esau’s best clothes (so that his aging father, who could not see properly, would smell Esau when he approached him) and covered his smooth hands and neck with the skins of those kids, so that he would feel as hairy as Esau to his father’s touch.

The plan worked perfectly, and Jacob received the blessings intended for Esau. This is where it gets interesting to take note of what the blessings entailed. We see from the quoted verse that Isaac had perceived that Esau would be a ruler of note, a world-class leader – he would have riches in abuncance (abundant harvests and boutiful new wine); be seen as a leader among many nations (many nations become your servants and bow down to you) as well as a national king (may your mother’s sons bow down to you); and who would also be seen as divinely protected (all who curse you will be cursed, and who bless you will be blessed).

The characters of the two brothers seem to indicate that a divine partnership had been intended for them, a ruler (Esau) making the way for a shepherd of the flock of God (Jacob) to operate, protecting him from their enemies and allowing the instructions of the Lord to be taught and followed in the land. We see other such partnerships in Israel – David and Samuel, for example.

Where did it all go wrong? Esau unfortunately chose to give in to his baser physical instincts more than honouring the moral implications of his position in the family – trading his birthright as firstborn (with all the benefits and responsibilities thereof) for a meal of bread and lentil stew in a moment of self-gratification. Given the important implications of this trade, we can assume that this was not the first of such decisions in his life thus far, it must already have been a character trait by that time.

Esau’s decisions had devastating effects on the future of his family, but also on his descendants. His generational line became known as the Amalekites and the Edomites, and it was Herod of Esau’s race that tried to destroy Jesus as an infant by having the male children of Bethelehem slain.

Pearls to ponder:

Let us be constantly aware of the inner fight between our physical and spiritual natures and refrain from making impusive decisions to gratify our flesh. In those moments, pause and ask direction and discernment from Holy Spirit before taking action. It will take dedication and lots of practice to consistently do so, for before submitting to Jesus as Lord of our life, we had been so used to selfishly only give heed to our own inner needs!

What we sow

God's Throne Room

 

Rev 4:2

At once I was in [special communication with] the Spirit; and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne.

Not long ago I watched a video showing the interior of Buckingham Palace, which included the throne room of the king. On first glance, the opulence and grandeur of all these rooms are too much to take in - I can imagine that if you actually stood there, you would not know where to start looking! Hundreds of rare and costly ornaments are displayed on every available surface; so many objects are gilded or made of marble; cut glass and crystal reflect the light throughout the rooms. Not to mention the authentic art portraits, antique and more modern, adorning the walls. Remarkable indeed!

And yet….there is no perception of life and emotion here, it feels like a spectacular display of wealth meant to impress, not to draw one into a community of warmth and shared human experiences. The throne room is used only on rare occasions, and then with scripted pomp and ceremony that has been left unchanged for centuries, meant only to impress and convey superiority. So different from our Father’s Throne Room in heaven!

This Throne Room, (we know from eyewitnesses who wrote about it in the Bible), is more spectacular than anything found on earth. We read about God being present here, sitting on His Throne, and His appearance is bright like jasper and sardius. We read about the bow of emerald encircling that Throne, and flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder emanating from it. Arranged around the Throne are more thrones, upon which elders sit wearing white clothing and golden crowns upon their heads, and in front of it are the seven Spirits of God blazing like torches. There is a sea of glass in front of the Throne, and around it four living creatures as guardians. And these creatures never stop saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come’, upon which the elders prostrate themselves before Him, throwing down their crowns before Him in worship.

The description above speaks of life, and majesty, and supreme authority! But also of warmth and love and compassion without end - we know this from the fact that we are invited to enter that very same Throne Room whenever we want, or need, to (Heb 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.)

Pearls to ponder:

Let us meditate on the wonder of this, that we have unlimited access to the Throne Room of the All-Powerful Creator of the Universe! Unlike here on earth, where people may only enter earthly throne rooms by invitation, an event most will never experience in their lifetime. We can be sure that this Throne Room exists, as several people, whose lives were separated by hundreds of years, wrote about their visitations there (Ez 1:26-28; Dan 7:9-10; Is 6:1-4; Micaiah in 1Kings 22:19; Jesus in Matthew 19:28 and 25:31, Stephen in Acts 7:55 to name a few). Come then, and enter the Throne Room of our Abba in absolute faith that we will be warmly received and welcomed there!

God's Throne Room

Rapture

 

Acts 1:11

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

The debate surrounding the rapture of the church is currently very topical indeed. We can hardly open YouTube without encountering someone hotly disputing what another YouTuber has posted on the subject, and there is nothing about it that is not under fire - is there a rapture; when is the rapture; who will be raptured; who will stay behind; is it pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib (referring to the tribulation), and on and on the list goes.

What I find so tragic about the whole dispute is the way that some church members go about voicing their opinions. The derogatory language that is sometimes thrown about in the comments toward one another is not only lamentable, but also so very un-Christlike. When one believer calls another believer stupid, or a moron, or uneducated, it goes against everything Jesus taught in John 13:35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

We do not have to agree with every doctrine our fellow Christians believe to be true, in order for the church to stand united in Christ. And unity in Christ is extremely important in the age that we are living in, so that the church may advance in strength of purpose and not be divided and conquered by the enemy of our souls.

What should the basis of agreement between all believers be? As Paul writes in Gal 1:8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. The pure gospel as preached all through the New Testament proclaims that God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Who died on Calvary as an offering making atonement for our sins, Who rose again on the third day and ascended to heaven where He is now seated on the right hand of the Father. He will be returning one day to gather us to Him, and to finally judge sin. Whoever believes in what Jesus did and in Who He is (with the result that he confesses this with his mouth and in his obedience to Him), will live forever, even if his body dies. The Holy Spirit was sent to dwell in us as a deposit here on earth, until we inherit everything God has promised us. On these fundamental matters there should be full agreement between believers. And if there are other doctrinal issues where there is no agreement, please voice your opinions in a humble and respectful way, harbouring a teachable spirit – you might find Holy Spirit convincing you that your thinking may be wrong!

What I personally believe about the rapture? Let me give the above verse as a clue. When the angels said that Jesus will return in the same way the disciples saw Him leave, what did they mean? Well, He left alone on clouds; without millions of white horses; and only disciples were present to witness this. Does this not imply that He will return (for His secret coming) on clouds; without white horses (these will be present for His very visible second coming); and only believers will eagerly be waiting….

Pearls to ponder:

Clues and hints concerning the rapture are scattered all through the Bible like hidden puzzle pieces. Search for them and start building the bigger picture!

Red Rocks Worship, Tyler Roberts - The King Is Coming (Official Live Video)

Pruning

 

John 15:2

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

There are a few reasons why vinedressers prune their vineyards. Pruning helps maintain the desired shape and structure of the vine, preventing uncontrolled growth. By removing some growth, pruning concentrates the vine's energy into fewer, larger, and better-quality bunches of grapes. Then also it can improve bud fruitfulness, meaning that more buds will produce fruit-bearing shoots, and removing diseased or weak wood helps prevent the spread of disease and improves overall vine health. 

We can certainly see why Jesus likened this process to us as believers being branches in Him as the True Vine. We also need to be prevented from growing wildly in all directions, instead of upward towards Him alone. Our energy also needs to be directed into better quality fruit, and we need to have fruit-bearing branches originating from even more areas in our lives until we are fully submitted to Him. Finally, those branches that are inviting disease and inner turmoil into our lives need to be removed so that we can be healthy vines in our King’s vineyard!

It might seem to us as if we are just constantly losing things during this pruning process - some things naturally disappear from our lives; some things are taken away – and indeed, many of these losses cause us heartbreak and sorrow. But here’s the thing, the purpose of pruning is not to harm, but to allow new and better growth. Our losses therefore are not meant to harm us in any way, but to make us better and stronger, to bring us closer to the perfect image that God wants to create in us.

Do not linger in past seasons; do not yearn for friendships that have clearly ended for now; do not keep looking over your shoulder to the experiences that were such highlights on your journey so far and continually long to return to them all again.

Instead, relish the good things from your past as blessings from God and thank Him for each and every one of them; keep those precious friendships as good memories to sustain you as you grow older; and keep on reminding yourself of God’s promise to let everything in your life work for your good (Romans 8:28: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.") as you step out into the new that He is inviting you to.

Pearls to ponder:

Proverbs 4:25 Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you is good advice for us on our life’s journey. As God works in our lives to prune us for better growth in Him, let us embrace this process and let go of things that might hinder us in our new season, those things that we cling to because we would rather hold on to the familiar than venture out with God into unfamiliar territory!

Vinedresser

Manna

 Ex 16:15

When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.”

Two Hebrew words mah and nah form the word manna, and it literally means “What is it?” For the Israelites travelling in the desert had no idea what it was that was lying on the ground that first morning – they saw round and flakelike things, as fine as hoarfrost, strewn around the camp, and they had no idea that it was actually angels’ food that the Lord had sent them to eat (Ps 78:25 Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance). It tasted like coriander seed and wafers made with honey. They could ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, or boil it in pots, or make cakes of it which tasted like cakes baked with fresh oil (Num 11:8).

A wonderful supernatural blessing straight from the hand of God, and true to His promise, He kept sending it to them until they reached the border of the land of Canaan and could from then on easily find food to eat. Of course, He also sent quails in the evenings for meat as well, so that they did not have to grow food or hunt animals in the arid and hostile desert environment.

But then the day arrived that this marvellous, spectacular blessing from the Lord came to be seen by the Israelites as uninteresting, mundane, run-of-the-mill even (Num 11:6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”)

Before we respond with shock at this, it would be wise to take a very close look at our own lives – are we not doing exactly the same? We receive wonderful blessings from the Lord every day, and we do not even see them anymore. Take the beautiful sunrises and sunsets as examples. Or the way the waves of the sea come and go. What about the migration of birds across thousands of miles around the earth. Or the immeasurable variety of green leaves on plants.

Closer to home, do we still thank Him for the blessing of children and grandchildren in our lives? Or the fact that we have food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear? These are blessings from God, as He promises in Luke 12:22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Do we see it this way, or are we taking His blessings for granted?

Pearls to ponder:

Let Holy Spirit show you how God is blessing you in your life. Be open to appreciate the small happenings that you are not even thinking about, as blessings from God. Begin a habit of finding five things to thank God for every morning as you wake up, and as you write them down, you will start seeing how God’s blessings abound in your life.

Counting my blessings

Mount Moriah

 

Gen 22:2

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

God has for centuries had a plan regarding Jerusalem, a plan that will culminate in the return of the Lord to the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4) and the thousand year long reign of Jesus here on earth from this very city. This plan started unfolding when God called Abraham to Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac.

There He provided a substitute lamb to die in Isaac’s place. The Hebrew word for provide is yireh, and Abraham called this place The Lord will Provide, or Jahwe Yireh. This is the prophetic act which pointed to the Lamb of God being sacrificed as the substitute for us, for on Mount Moriah we find Golgotha where Jesus was crucified, where God offered His only Son to die in our place.

About a thousand years after this incident, King David - who had conquered the city from the Jebusites - halted the plague that had already killed 70 000 men of Israel, by buying the threshing floor (and oxen) of Araunah the Jebusite, building an altar to the Lord and offering the oxen as burnt offerings there (2 Sam 24:24). It is important to realize that David bought this piece of land fair and square, because on this site Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem. (2 Chron 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.) The title deed in heaven for this property is registered in the name of David, King of the Jews, to this day. Even though the Babylonians invaded the land, followed by the Medo-Persians, then the Greeks, and the Romans after that; even though the Jews were scattered over the earth and Jerusalem suffered multiple changeovers of rulers throughout the subsequent centuries.

Jerusalem has always belonged to God, no matter who laid siege to it, conquered it, and ruled over it during history. He Himself has said that His name will always be in Jerusalem (2 Chron 33:4 …… “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”)

Pearls to Ponder:

Jews face many accusations that they are only occupiers of the land called Israel. We need to delve into the Bible to search out the truth of the matter, not get side-tracked by arguments of men. Biblically, God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants forever. Historically, the League of Nations decided that Israel will be a Jewish state, and this was later backed up by the United Nations charter. We would do well to investigate the facts for ourselves and take our stand on this issue, for we need to stem the tide of lies thrown about by the enemy and keep praying for the peace of Jerusalem. For the Bride of Christ, this also involves praying for all innocent victims on both sides of the ongoing conflict.

Jerusalem

God's Tabernacle

 

Hebrew 8:5

The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

Christians who have the view that the Tabernacle that Moses erected in the desert (and the subsequent Temples built in Jerusalem) belong only to the Old Testament and to the Jewish religion, are generally surprised to learn that a Temple currently exists in heaven. In the book Revelation John was shown that God will reveal aspects of it during the Tribulation, one of which is found in Rev 11:19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. (In the final newly created heaven at the end of the age, no temple is needed, as God and the Lamb are its temple -Rev 21:22).

We know that illustrations from the Old Testament are there for us to use as examples in how to live a godly life, as Paul writes in 1 Cor 10:11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. We therefore are grateful to Dr David Cho from Korea who gave us this beautiful framework as an example of how to use the tabernacle as a basis for prayer. In your imagination, go to:

The Altar of Sacrifice: This brazen altar was where all offerings were made. This reminds us of Jesus, our perfect sacrifice (John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!) See the redeeming grace flow from Him, thank Him that His blood has declared you a righteous person, completely free from the guilt and condemnation of sin. Also thank Him that He has taken your infirmities and carried away your sickness; that He has blessed you; that you are no longer under the curse of the law; that you are redeemed from death and hell!

The Laver of Water: Priests had to wash their hands and feet and face here. It was made of polished bronze, reflecting like a mirror all who bent over it, serving as a prophetic washing and cleansing of sin. We are reminded of our own baptism here (Acts 22:16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’) Meditate on the 10 commandments – Do I worship another god? Do I love something more than You? Do I take His name in vain? Do I keep His day holy? Do I respect my parents? Am I killing (hating) anybody? Always forgive! Is there adultery, even in my imagination? Am I stealing in any way or form? Am I lying? Do I covet? This is a time for repentance!

The Holy Place: Open the dividing curtain and walk into the Holy Place. See the candlestick, which represents the 7-fold manifestations of the Holy Spirit (Is 11:2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD). Remember that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12). Ask Holy Spirit to give you the fear of the Lord. He is a Person with will and emotions, He is your Guide and Teacher, do not “use” Him. Have fellowship, love Him, welcome Him, adore Him, worship Him! Thank Him for His anointing and follow His leading all day long. The shewbread is the Word of God, which is also Jesus (John 6:51). Thank Him for both the logos and rhema word, the knowledge that Holy Spirit turns into faith. At the altar of incense, start interceding. Commit everything to the Centre of the Universe, the Great Creator, the Ruler over history, send praise and stop worrying!

The Holy of Holies: In the original Tabernacle, this is where God met with Moses personally (Ex 25:22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.). Open the curtain to the Holy of Holies, for we received the right to do this through the blood of Jesus. See the disarmament of the devil, he is a defeated enemy! And commune with Abba, our Father. Thank Him for your redemption, the freedom from fear. Just worship and adore Him, He is worthy of all praise! And receive His everlasting love flowing through you.

Tabernacle

Summertime

Matthew 9:37-38

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

In the natural, we are currently in the grip of a very cold spell here in the Western Cape, with very low temperatures and heavy rain combining to keep us indoors as much as possible! But spiritually, the entire world is finding itself in summertime, the time of year in Israel when the Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot, has just been celebrated.

What happened next in ancient Israel was that the Hebrews went out from their cities into their fields to gather the harvest. They laboured at this throughout the summertime until the Feast of Trumpets, a date in autumn, when they would finish their harvest and gather before their Lord in Jerusalem.

This is exactly what happened spiritually two thousand years ago, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles on the Feast of Pentecost and they were sent out to bring in the harvest of souls into the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus meant when He said to them in John 4:35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” He showed that the fields are the world, and the harvest is the ingathering of lost souls. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for harvest is kayitz, which also means summertime.

This then is the season we are living in now. Jesus fulfilled all the Feasts of the Lord up until Pentecost, and we find ourselves eagerly anticipating the fulfilment of the next Feast, which will include the Rapture of the bride of Christ, gathering us to appear before our Lord. Until then, we are meant to be workers in the fields of the world, bringing in the harvest of new believers in Jesus. We are also meant to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send even more workers to work alongside us.

Pearls to ponder:

We are living at the end of the age. Harvest time is limited; there is not a lot of time left to gather people to Jesus. We have to go about our work in the fields with a sense of urgency! What does that mean?

It means that we have to actively look for opportunities to spread the Gospel. It means that we have to be ready to obey the voice of the Lord when He sends us out, even if it is to places that make us feel uncomfortable. It means speaking when we need to speak because Holy Spirit guided us to, not keeping quiet to ‘keep the peace’. It means maintaining an uncompromisingly holy lifestyle, so that what other workers of Christ have built up in people’s lives, we do not break down again.

Ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you what He wants you to know about your own particular situation, and where your own field of harvest is.

Bringing in the sheaves 

God's promises

 

1 Kings 18:1

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

We find the vivid account of the spiritual showdown between 850 pagan priests and one true prophet of God, Elijah, in 1 Kings 18. The background to this event is that God was punishing Israel with a very severe drought brought upon them because of their idolatry. By the time these dramatic events unfolded, the country had been without rain for three years, and every brook and river had run completely dry.

The reigning king Ahab, who can be described as the most wicked king in all of Israel’s history, then summoned the governor of his house Obadiah, and commanded that he go through the land to search for any remaining source of water and seize it for the king’s use. Unbeknown to Ahab, Obadiah feared the Lord and had hidden a hundred prophets in a cave, feeding them secretly. On his travels Obadiah met Elijah, who then told him that he needed to see Ahab immediately and would Obadiah go and inform the king of his intent - an instruction that Obadiah quite understandably did not appreciate, fearing that king Ahab would certainly have him killed for delivering this unwanted message!

This brings us to the quoted verse above. Mostly, when we think about this part of Scripture, we immediately remember that Elijah prayed to God to bring down fire from heaven to supernaturally burn up his (soaking wet) altar and bull offering. Certainly God had instructed him to do so (1 King 18:36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.)

But what we easily overlook is that God promised rain if Elijah obeyed his command. This is why Elijah, immediately after dealing with the pagan prophets by killing them at the brook Kishon, instructed Ahab to go back up the mountain to eat and drink, as he already was hearing the rain fall in the spirit. He then sent his servant seven times to look for clouds bringing rain. Even when the servant reported only a cloud the size of a man’s hand in the sky, Elijah reacted by sending a warning to Ahab on top of the mountain to come down immediately before the rain made it impossible for him to do so.

Pearls to ponder:

Elijah spoke God’s promise of rain out loud nine times in total. With not a cloud in sight, he spoke the promise from God repeatedly, until the rain manifested. He had no natural indications that rain would come, only God’s word to him that it would indeed be so. Every time he spoke rain, he was enabling the Holy Spirit to start creating this miracle! What are you doing with the personal promises God made to you? Are you idly waiting for God to bring it about, or are you actively proclaiming it until it manifests? Make very sure, however, that it is a promise from God, and not your own fleshly desires that you call for!

God will make a way

Fifty

Acts 1:3

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

In the wider church community, we have just celebrated Ascension Day, commemorating the day that Jesus ascended into heaven. He had been crucified and buried forty-three days earlier, and upon His resurrection visited His disciples over a period of forty days before ascending to heaven before their very eyes.

They then withdrew into the upper room to wait another ten days before the Holy Spirit came upon them, making the length of time between His resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, fifty days. Why is this significant?

It is important because it shows that Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Pentecost down to the very last detail! Just as He had fulfilled the previous three Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits) in their entirety and in all details.

The word ‘Pentecost’ means fifty - the Lord instructed the Israelites to count seven weeks after the Feast of First Fruits and then celebrate this Feast on the next day, and this adds up to fifty days (Lev 23:16). The Jews also call this Feast Shavuot, which means weeks. The seven sevens referred to here (seven weeks of seven days) is a picture of the pattern given in the Bible of seven sevens of years with the year thereafter being a Jubilee year – an indication of God’s ultimate period of rest and restitution. This is why Holy Spirit was poured out on that fiftieth day. It marked a reset of creation, proclaimed rest in the Lord and restitution of the relationship between us and Him, and between us as human beings. The leavened bread baked for this Feast shows that the Holy Spirit is now inside the followers of Jesus, making the Bride of Christ holy (Rom 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.)

This brings us back to the book of Acts, and to Acts 2:1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. They were celebrating the Jewish Feast of Pentecost when God poured the Holy Spirit out upon them, as He had promised He would. The very event we as Christians also celebrate when we gather for Pentecost, even though on a different date from their celebrations.

And I am wondering: is it not time for us as Christians to unite with our Jewish brothers and sisters by celebrating our common heritage on the historically real dates, i.e. as given on the Jewish calendar? Not according to Jewish religious and cultural customs, but in a uniquely Christian way?

Pearls to ponder:

Jesus fulfilled the first four Feasts of God, showing us that they really are all about commemorating Him. (He will also fulfil the next three!) Meditate on this – what is referred to as the Jewish Feasts actually are Jesus Messiah pointers – why do we hesitate to celebrate them alongside our fellow Jewish believers in Christ? Why do we criticize those who do take part and label them as being under the Law? Rather think about what these celebrations could look like, how we can remove Jewish cultural elements from them and celebrate Jesus only. And then quietly start observing them in our own homes, without fanfare or finger-pointing.

Pentecost 

My God-given identity

 

Judges 6:11-12

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

We are all well acquainted with the story of Gideon. We find him here, hiding away from the Midianites, threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress so that they will not find him and steal the crop from him. Imagine his surprise when the Angel of the Lord (whom many ancient interpretations identify as the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ) addressed him as “mighty warrior” when he was acting in totally the opposite manner!

This is such a good illustration of the way God gives us our identity. He does not see us as we are in the present, but as He purposed us to be. He bases His identity of us not on our past, but on our future, on that which we are to become.

There are more examples of this. Think about Abram, whose wife Sarai could not conceive, and yet God named him Abraham which means father of the multitudes. This only started to come into fulfilment twenty-five years later when Isaac was born. Joseph means to increase, and yet he had to face rejection from his family, false accusations and years in prison before living in the increase God had planned for Him all along. Peter means the rock, and before Jesus’ resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, Simon (whom Jesus renamed Peter) was a passionate believer but not a very stable man. Yet he became the strong anchor and rock for the fledgling church, just as Jesus called him to be by changing his name years before.

Unlike God, we form our identity based on who other people say we are, and upon our life experiences up to now. This process starts at a very young age, and our enemy skilfully uses these adverse experiences to keep us from walking in our true God-given identity. Why? Because if we did, we would be the greatest threat to the kingdom of darkness, basically unstoppable!

Start proclaiming your identity in Christ today. Believe that you have a new identity and act as if it were so – it is not enough to just say it - fix your mind and focus on this new person you already have become. Keep exchanging your old habits/traits/beliefs for the new ones God has given you, even if it takes a few years for you to see them fully developing!

Pearls to ponder:

Read your Bible and start writing down what God says about you. Meditate on these truths and start proclaiming them over your life. Here are a few examples:  I am faithful. I am God’s child, adopted into His family. I have been established, sealed and anointed by God. I am holy and blameless. I am forgiven. I am raised up with Christ. I have peace. I have access to the Father. I am sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. I have been justified. I belong to God.

Who I am

Discernment

 

Rev 22:18-19

And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

In the broader Christian community, this verse is often wrongly applied to mean that no one is allowed to either add or remove anything from the books in the whole Bible.

But verse 18 of our quoted section above refers to “in this book” and “what is written here”, clearly limiting the warning to the actual prophecy given in Revelation, and verse 19 further defines this limit with “words from this book of prophecy”.

If we were to interpret it as applicable to the total Bible, then John himself would be in trouble, because he wrote his other two books in the New Testament after he wrote Revelation, therefore adding to Scripture! Apart from the scrolls on which the Old Testament were preserved, most of the New Testament was still being written, and no complete book of the whole Bible existed yet.

Even a similar warning from Moses in Deut 12:32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it refers only to “Whatever I command you” and not to the Bible as a whole.

We definitely do not want to be guilty of either distorting, erasing or altering the text as given in the Bible. But the misapplication of the quoted verse to the whole of Scripture sometimes generates many misleading assumptions. For instance, people we know who studied Apocryphal books (a collection of biblical or related writings that were not included in the officially recognized canon of the Bible) were told that they were wrong to do that, as they were “adding” to the Bible. This of course is not true.

Another totally wrong deduction would be that you cannot make notes in your Bible. In answer to that I can only stress that Jesus Himself and Holy Spirit are the revealers of the basis of our faith, and the text itself is a tool that leads us to more understanding of Him – so go ahead and make notes, highlight verses, jot down all new revelations Holy Spirit gives you!

Pearls to ponder:

We are living in times where deception is increasing at an alarming rate. The sad part is that the church itself sometimes brings deception across our path. We have to start grounding our basic beliefs in truth and practise our discernment. Make sure that what you are told about the Bible is actually what is written there – do not take anybody’s word for it, read it for yourself – Holy Spirit promises to teach you (John 14:26). Make time, you will be greatly rewarded!

Discernment

Hedges

 

Ecclesiastics 10:8

He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and him that breaks down a hedge a serpent shall bite.

We build hedges around gardens and properties in order to protect them, to keep enemy forces who wish to harm us and our loved ones, outside. In biblical times, hedges were built around vineyards to keep insects, bugs, rodents, thieves and birds outside and prevent them from stealing the harvest. They mostly built these hedges in layers:

A stone wall was first erected, and beyond that, a thick layer of thorns. Right before the harvest, a wall of fire was created to keep the insects and birds away. What a beautiful picture of our Lord’s protection! Our Father is our Rock of Ages, firm, stable, unchanging. This is our source of peace and security. The ring of thorns on the head of Jesus caused bleeding, and His blood bought the everlasting protection of our spirits and souls. The wall of fire at harvest time was necessary because the lovely aroma of the ripe grapes would attract all who wished to devour it. So too, just as we are positioned to reap great blessings in our lives, every demon and foul bird is clamouring to get through the hedge and destroy it. But Holy Spirit brings His fire to surround us!

As in the natural, so it is also in the supernatural. We know that the serpent represents evil, and that in order to keep our enemy at bay, we need to build spiritual hedges around everything pertaining to us.

How is this accomplished? We have to firstly believe that God’s hedge of protection is already promised to us who diligently follow Him and trust in His name, and then act on those promises by declaring and praying this truth. Here are a few examples:

Ps 34:7 For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. I prefer to interpret this ‘angel of the LORD’ as Jesus Christ Himself, as it is found throughout the Old Testament, and as He is the commander of the Host of Heaven, He can summon any number of angels to intervene in every situation I face. It is in keeping with the promise He made to His followers upon ascending to heaven, written in Matth 28:20 ... And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Being in a church with leadership who stand up for the truth of the Word and are Spirit-led, brings protection, because God’s blessings rest upon such a gathering. People praying in unity also build hedges, remember that God would have changed the destiny of Sodom if Abraham could find only ten men living righteously – we have to join hands and start praying for our governments to make righteous decisions!

Pearls to ponder:

The above verse also refers to the outcome if we break down those hedges. Then the serpent can enter in and kill, steal and destroy. Carefully walk around the perimeters of your spiritual territory and look for two things:  Is there a gap in that fence; and, am I walking on the right side of it? Am I doing what I like, or what I ought?

Jesus be a fence all around me