September 20, 2007

8 Tishrei, 5768

Dear Praying Friends,

This letter is on the message and meaning of the Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and intimacy with the Lord.

Throughout the Land In these days, people greet one another saying, “Shana tova”...Happy New Year.  Rabbinic tradition has it that this is when the world was created.  This feast is traditionally known as Rosh HaShana…the head of the year…even though it is the seventh month on God’s calendar.  He chose to call it Yom HaTruah…the day of blowing, or the Feast of Trumpets. The trumpet, or shofar as it is called in Hebrew, is a ram’s horn.  As such, its first appearance in Scripture is at the moment when Isaac’s life was spared.  As Abraham’s faith was expressed in full measure, his beloved Isaac was replaced on the altar of sacrifice by a ram caught in the thicket by its horns.  

In this season, the shofar brings to remembrance the need for our Isaac to be placed on the altar; but in the end it is God Himself who will provide the sacrifice.  As such, the shofar reminds us of Yeshua, the acceptable sacrifice, who is the life of all our hopes and dreams.  The Feast of Trumpets is positioned ten days before the Day of Atonement to be a wake-up call to prepare for the Day of Judgment. 

On Yom Kippur, in the name of all the people, the high priest presented a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the nation done in ignorance.  It was not a given that God would accept it.  In the days of ancient Israel, the people waited with fear and trembling for the outcome of the high priest’s yearly entrance into the Holy of Holies.  It is not so for believers in Yeshua.  He has made atonement once and for all.  His blood is continually being offered for our cleansing.  So what is Yom Kippur for us, as New Covenant believers?  Last week the Lord gave me a word and took me through something that has brought a deeper perspective on the living reality expressed in these two feasts.  The Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement embody respectively grace and the fear of the Lord.  It is grace that comes to awaken and ready us for the day of the Lord that follows with fear and trembling.

Recently I did something that I felt grieved the Holy Spirit. I was a horrible sensation.  I wanted to hide my face from the matter but could not.  I was embarrassed and humiliated.  The Holy Spirit “suggested” I share it with Yonit.  I couldn’t, and I wrestled with my old man.  I knew that if I let it go long enough it would eventually fade away and probably be forgotten…by men.  I also knew that my heart would be deadened to the degree of my hiding from this painful light.  After a night of wrestling, I was able to own one aspect of the incident.  After sharing that with Yonit, I called someone that was involved in the whole thing.  As I confessed the one thing I had grace for, I was flooded with grace to open up completely.  The fullness of grace came when I acted on the little bit I had.  Consider this:

“The blood covers only what we uncover.”

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Messiah Yeshua His Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”  (1John 1:5-10)

This is really all about intimacy.  If we will not allow the Lord to bring us to the place of humiliation, if we will not let Him show us what is inside, if we will not look our sin in the face and bring our shame to the Cross where all things are laid bare, we will walk in darkness.  We will have no fellowship with Him, have no fellowship with one another, not be cleansed from our sin, and His word will not be in us.  Blessed are we when we are given an opportunity to offer up the deeds of the flesh in repentance.  In those moments, we grow closer to God.  We must decrease for Him to increase.  The revelation of greater glory is always either preceded or followed by the exposure of our flesh.  How amazing!

* * *

There is another experience I (Arni) would like to share with you.  Throughout my days there are moments when I am aware of the Presence of the Lord.  But mostly, though I think about Him and His coming Kingdom all the time, I do not walk around always feeling the closeness of God.  A few weeks ago I said to a friend, ”I don’t really feel like I have an intimate relationship with God.”  His response changed my life.  He said, “Arni, look at all the revelation God has given you.  He shares deep truths with you all the time.  What could be more intimate than that?”

Beloved, I had lived with a picture of intimacy that my life didn’t match.  I was looking for a certain kind of feeling.  I was looking for some kind of pattern of interaction. I have wanted to hear His voice and feel His presence in a particular way.  I thought that there was a way that it was supposed to be…a way it was supposed to feel…a way it was supposed to look.  I was not aware that my standard and measure of intimacy was off the mark.  Over the years, at times, I have received prophetic words about God’s love for me expressing that He was pleased with me.   Though I never actually doubted them, somehow the words never landed in me the way I thought they should have.  But when my friend said what he did, a veil was lifted from my heart and I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that God and I have been very intimate.  This is such an individual thing.  It is different for everyone.  God has created each of us to express and reveal an aspect of His nature and embody an aspect of His truth.  In the deepest place, in the most hidden chambersof our hearts, our Father has a special word, a special touch, and a special name for each one of us.

My thirty-four years of walking with the Lord have been marked by the Holy Spirit coming to me and revealing the nature and works of my flesh.  More than once, God exposed me to myself and to others.  There are times when in the hiddenness of our hearts and minds we willingly acknowledge our sin to the Lord, but not to our brethren.  Closing our hearts to one another is equal to closing our heart to the Lord.  Intimacy with the Lord comes when we remain transparent before Him and our brethren.  Here then is something we can do to deepen our intimacy with the Lord…and with one another.  We can “confess our trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that we may be healed.”  (James 5:16)

God has already exposed Himself to us via the Bible and the Cross.  In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua was speaking to a group who thought they were okay but really weren’t, and said to them, “I don’t know you.”  We might rather expect Him to say, “You don’t know Me.” How could He say He didn’t know them?  He knows everything. What was He really saying?  They must have had some knowledge of God, because they did miracles in His Name.  But they never fully opened up their hearts to let Him in.  There were places they would not let Him go.  For whatever reasons, which won’t matter in the end, they were not transparent.  Knowing that He already knew, they still kept things hidden.  They would not allow the Holy Spirit to expose the darkness within them.  They didn’t walk in the light, so they really had no fellowship with the Lord.  This message is not so much about what we can do to achieve intimacy with the Lord, but rather what we can do to allow it to happen. 

At all costs, we must never close our hearts.

* * *

Sitting here in Israel and writing as we do, we sometimes lament the fact that our communications are not more about current situations and events.  At this time most of what we write seems to be about what God is doing in our personal lives and ministry.  In the end, we can only give what we have been given and write of what we know.  Israel is a prophetic nation and we are a prophetically-oriented ministry.  We do not imagine that everything we go through personally is a message for the rest of the Body, but we believe that that is sometimes the case.  So we write, trusting the Lord to blow away the chaff.

All in all, we consider it a great privilege to share our lives with you.  We have been very blessed to know that people are in fact edified and encouraged by our sharing of our perceptions and experiences.  Whatever fruit we have to offer is of course due to the working and grace of the Lord.  It is also a product of the spiritual environment we live in.  Living in Israel is costly.  The spiritual battle simply never ends.  There is no break in the conflict.  We were believers living in Manhattan for eighteen years before moving to Israel.  New York City is not without its challenges, to be sure.  But it is not to be compared to living in the center of a furnace.  Living here and maintaining a ministry is also financially costly.  And right now we need help on this front.  Our monthly income has yet to consistently equal our operating expenses. We do not understand why that is, but this is where we are.  Perhaps this is one more opportunity to be naked and transparent.  So we humbly ask that if you are blessed by the fruit of our lives and believe in what we are doing, would you consider becoming a regular supporter of Emmaus Way (f you are not already) and pray about making a special offering so that we can go into this next season free of burdens from the past.

Thank you so very much.

May God bless you from Zion!

Your servants…

For the Glory of His Name, 

   Arni and Yonit

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