greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat."---theodore Roosevelt

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1 The Fullness of God Those who covenant with us, Jew and Gentile alike, over the years and have committed their ways to the Kehillah, the Congregation physically spiritually, and financially have seen and experienced transformation in their lives! Their testimonies are powerful, real, and they have and are drawing close to God. This is the key I desire to focus upon! Why do we teach, express, and walk out obedience, submission, and drawing nearer to God in the Messianic Movement! This and so many other questions abound in the greater body of Messiah! There are many unanswered questions particularly in the Christian realm and many, many false messianic theologies, wolves in sheep clothing trying to deceive and destroy the sheep. I prophetically know this is why we are here, this is our mission from Adonai. Not only to close the chasm, the divide between Jew and Gentile, but unlock the mysteries of the Kingdom of Adonai. Let me begin with a rhetorical question. As a professed believer are you, according to scripture commanded to draw close to God? Do you as a professed believer desire to draw nearer to Him? Does God desire that AFTER you receive Yeshua as your substitute sacrifice you quite digging, quit searching, quit learning about Him and His Kingdom? Doe Adonai want you to idly sit around, waiting for your death or the heavenly shofar to sound and you cross over into eternal life? Can you honestly say you are searching the scriptures, that you re currently mining Gods word to its fullest, maxim potential? Do you have a teachable spirit or is your heart hard, your ears plugged, and heart sluggish with fat? Are you walking in the fulness of the Kingdom of God, healing the sick, raising the dead, walking in signs and wonders? Listen, as a Messianic Rabbi, as a Messianic Congregation swimming against the current contemporary religious and secular culture there is a tendency to irritate Pharisee s both in house and out! I m amazed be the haughty, self-righteous religious elite who criticize, judge, and accuse us of Judaizing while they themselves are unable to heal the sick, raise the dead, and save the lost! It reminds me of one of my favorite life quotes by one of our greatest presidents, the 25 th President of the United States of America: "It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out where the strong man stumbled, or where a doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. The man who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while daring 1

2 greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat."---theodore Roosevelt In order to receive the Fullness of God we first must have a teachable spirit, an open mind, be transparent, while searching, seeking, and striving for Kingdom truth and power. Sha ul, Paul shared in Romans 11:11 that Gentiles are called to provoke Jews to jealousy regarding the Messiah. He went on to say the conditions by which this would happen: Romans 11:25. For, brothers, I want you to understand this truth which God formerly concealed (Musterion: Mystery, secret, hidden, concealed, not fully manifested) but has now revealed, so that you won't imagine you know more than you actually do. It is that stoniness (Porosis: hardened, callous, blind, insensitive, stoniness), to a degree, has come upon Isra'el, until (achris: time, season, until) the Gentile world enters in its fullness (pleroma {play'-ro-mah}; that which is filled, the body of believers filled with the presence, power, Kingdom of God and Yeshua, that with which a thing is filled, freight and merchandise, completeness, fullness of time- Maturity). As Paul Wilbur talked about last Shabbat, now is the time, the season, for Romans 11:25 to come to pass. Sha ul is talking about a truth, a fact, that has been concealed, not fully manifested yet that Israel would be in a state of blindness, hardness, callousness, insensitive regarding Yeshua UNTIL the time, the season when the Gentiles enters into the full presence, the power, Maturity, the Fullness of the Kingdom of God. This is both a somber warning and a prophetic statement. Paul is warning the Gentile body not imagine you know more than you do. God is not done with Israel, its not been replaced, Gods covenant with Israel remains forever! Yeshua, Jesus is returning upon the request of the Jewish people to rule the world from Jerusalem! This was been formerly concealed until now, as the Gentile body of believers is coming into maturity, the fulness of the Kingdom! What We share week after week is that there is so much more, more intimacy, more power, more signs and wonders, more supernatural revelation for you! But you have to want it, you have to search it out, you have to investigate, be the good people of Berea and verify everything I say with the word! There is so much more! Proverbs states: Proverbs 25:2. God gets glory from concealing things; kings get glory from investigating things. Why? Why must things be concealed, hidden from us? Why isn t everything laid out, in plain view for us on a silver platter? Why did Yeshua speak in parables? 2

3 Because is separates those who belong to Yeshua and those who don t! The Talmidim themselves asked Yeshua: Matthew 13: Then the talmidim came and asked Yeshua, "Why are you speaking to them in parables?" 11 He answered, "Because it has been given to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it has not been given to them. 12 For anyone who has something will be given more, so that he will have plenty; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away. 13 Here is why I speak to them in parables: they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. 14 That is, in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Yesha`yahu which says, `You will keep on hearing but never understand, and keep on seeing but never perceive, 15 because the heart of this people has become dull -- with their ears they barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, so as not to see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and do t'shuvah, so that I could heal them.' Yeshua established criteria for who were truly His and who were not. His Talmidim, His Chosen will know the secrets, the mysteries, the fulness of the Kingdom. Those who are willing to forsake everything they have ever known will be His Talmidim. Those wiling to forsake the love and material excesses of this world, those who will repent of religion and Hellenistic knowledge which results in an increase of the fullness of the Kingdom. Most of todays Body of Believers in general want reason vice revelation. Yeshua prayed in: Luke 24: Yeshua said to them, "This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled." 45 Then he opened their minds, so that they could understand the Tanakh, The core of my teachings reflects Biblical culture, Israeli culture, Hebrew idioms, Torah and other teachings from the Tanach (old Testament) and the Brit Chadesha (New Testament). I don t do this just because we re a Messianic Synagogue and it s expected. As a Congregational leader I have a commission, a responsibility to bring you to the fullness of God through Yeshua and His word. Every Congregational Leader in the same position, no matter the title has the same commission; To make Disciples, Talmid or Talmidim plural in Hebrew. The drashes you hear week to week and the manner in which I present them is because to truly understand what Yeshua is saying in His Idioms, Parables, and Teachings we have to know the context of how, where, when, and to whom was He saying them. Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah came for the lost House of Israel according to His own words. He traveled the Nation of Israel, commissioned and trained twelve of His own Talmidim or disciples who were Jewish, He celebrated Shabbat and all the Biblical Feast Days in either the Temple at Jerusalem, a 3

4 synagogue in whatever town He was currently in, or in a field or a boat. He used every available opportunity to teach and bring His followers into the Fullness of God. Unfortunalty, most contemporary, gentile Discipleship training today teaches adherence to doctrine or denominational Theology. Most Jewish Discipleship training teaches adherence to Oral Traditions and Rabbis-neither of which is what Yeshua was teaching 2,000 years ago. A disciple or Tamid in Hebrew is: one who, mimics the teacher, the Rav. a: one of the twelve in the inner circle of Yeshua's followers according to the Gospel: a convinced adherent of an individual. We are called By Yeshua to become talmidim, people who mimic His behavior which is not the same as a believer. The book of James states that HaSatan is a believer but he s not a talmidim disciple. A non-disciple, a believer, a spectator vice participator doesn t learn the ways of the Kingdom of God. They come for the thrills, emotion, and charismatic worship but won t change their lifestyle, they won t perform T Shuvah and lay everything down to receive the fullness of God. Receiving the fullness of God isn t just timing, it also requires the correct alignment with Gods word, His Kingdom, His Son, and His Ruach HaKodesh. The discipled, the un teachable are content to do things the way it s always been done, the way there were TRAINED to do them. Like in Yeshua s day the multitudes are too self-absorbed in themselves as He back in Matt 13:15. Gods heavenly purpose of mysteries and parables is to leave clues for the true Talmidim, true Disciples of the King. It separates the Talmidim from the spectator, those who dabble but remain uncommitted. Mysteries and parables draw us closer to Him, to gravitate towards Him, it spurns, it inspires, it energizes us to dig deeper, to know more, to get more intimate with Him, to obtain everything He has for us, missing nothing! This is the essence of the fullness of God, to walk in, live in, to experience the indwelling God s presence! The fullness of God manifests in the person through radical courage, boldness, signs, wonders, coupled with heartfelt, passionate expressions of praise, thanksgiving, worship, and fear of the Lord. It s a manifestation and demonstration of God's sovereign power within you which advances the spread of the Good News, the Gospel s, the Kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. Not living in the fullness of God is like owning a vehicle with every option available but the salesman told, taught you, trained you that the options are all done away with! So you insert the key in the ignition, place the vehicle in drive and transport yourself around in the most basic, fundamental way. It does work but in a very rudimentary, limited fashion far short of the vehicles potential. No options are utilized so you sweat in the summer and freeze in the winter! You 4

5 have a hard time seeing in front of you because the windshield is foggy, dirty and streaks when it rains and snows. But you were told, trained, and are convinced that the wipers are done away with. Your trained, taught that putting the key in the ignition was enough, that s all you had to do! The reality is you have all these resources, all these tools at your fingertips! All you had to do was reach out and turn the wiper blades on and you could clearly see-as Yeshua told us the Kingdom of God is at hand, its near, its among us! You don t drive at night because you aren t utilizing the headlights. You don t take others along with you because your told and taught that there are many other paths, many other vehicles out there so all of your seats remain empty! You don t know where your at because you re not using the built in navigation system (feast days). Everything you need to maximize your drive, your experience, to navigate to your destination, day or night, in any weather condition and bring others along with you is given to us! Just reach out, open the glove box and read the owners manual! All the warning lights are explained, all the operating instructions for the air, heat, wiper blades, head lamps, turning signals, navigation system, and routine maintenance and care are clearly laid out for us but we stubbornly refuse because of our deceptive training and teaching that it s all done away with or better yet, these options were only for when the care was new. The body is taught all those options are unnecessary while we grope through the darkness, bumping into things, having accidents, getting lost, unable to see what s before us, where were going and dangers lurking in our path! We just keep looking through that same mud smeared, foggy, streaked dirty windshield, in the dark, without the headlights on, not signaling those around us with empty seats, lost praying something would happen when in reality it s at hand, were just denying it! The options are there for every driver, every believer, Jew or Gentile, its doesn t matter. So it is with the word of God, His Kingdom, the Fullness of God. Ephesians 3:5-6. In past generations it was not made known to mankind, as the Spirit is now revealing it to his emissaries and prophets, 6 that in union with the Messiah and through the Good News the Gentiles were to be joint heirs, a joint body and joint sharers with the Jews in what God has promised. We all share the same power, grace, mercy, blessings, calendar, Ruach, Messiah, bible and scriptures! We are to be Echad, in relationship with each other and with the Lord. The whole megillah, every option is yours, its available for you to draw closer to Him, allowing you to live and walk in the fulness of Him! God doesn t command us to do the bare minimum, the least amount necessary to get saved then stand on the sidelines and what for it all to end! Is merely saying the prayer of salvation enough? NO! God desires, He expects, He commands action on your part to chase after Him, to learn, discern, investigate, align, crucify your 5

6 flesh and old desires, transform and conform yourself to His Kingdom not your fleshly desires or the way of the world around you! Romans 12:2. In other words, do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the 'olam hazeh. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed (metamorphoo {metam-or-fo'-o}: change, transform, transfigure) by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what he wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed. What does He want? He tells you clearly in the 66 books of His word, the scriptures, the bible: 39 books in the Tanach and 27 books of the Brit Chadesha! Yet again, when this was written there no New Testament! We were changed, transformed, morphed, transfigured to reflect the fulness of God, the Kingdom of God as recorded in the Tanach! As a sage once told me, the closer you come to God the more Jewish it begins to look! Todays Divine Mentor reading gives a profound word from God that sums up this entire message and where America is at spiritually today! This passage, through critical, communicates a boldness to come into the fullness of God. Speaking to a divided Kingdom, Adonai speaks through Azaryah reflecting upon the sins of Jeroboam in Israel (false, manmade religion) vice a personal, intimate relationship with God sough in Judah: II Chronciles 15:1-8. The Spirit of God came on 'Azaryah the son of 'Oded; 2 he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Y'hudah and Binyamin! ADONAI is with you, as long as you are with him; if you seek him, you will find him; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you! 3 For a long time Isra'el was without the true God, without a cohen who could teach, and without Torah. 4 But when, in their distress, they turned to ADONAI the God of Isra'el and sought him, they found him. 5 In those times people going about their business were insecure, and great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands; 6 so that they were shattered to pieces, nation against nation and city against city, as God troubled them with every kind of distress. 7 But you, be strong, and don't slack off; for your work will be rewarded." 8 When Asa heard these words prophesied by 'Oded the prophet, it gave him courage to throw the disgusting things out of the whole land of Y'hudah and Binyamin and out of the cities he had captured in the hills of Efrayim; he also renewed the altar of ADONAI which was in front of the vestibule of ADONAI. Choose you this day whom you shall serve! The continued sins of Jeroboam or will you choose the fullness, the power, the kingdom, the word, the Ruach HaKodesh, Yeshua the Son of God! Are you at the bare minimum or do you desire more? 6