Rooted and Grounded

Shalom Fellow Israelite,

I think most of you know Hanoch Young, an orthodox Jew, who has been working to help restore the nation of Yosef/Ephraim for over 20 years.  Here is a link to a recent interview that was done with him:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-jYJxqmZMM

In the past week our mail box was flooded by many forwards from individuals and organizations with prayer alerts because of a happening called Tomorrowland, which has now come to the shores of Israel and was to take place in Jerusalem on Shabbat. The number of flagrant sins that are displayed unashamedly in the public arena is growing daily. Like us, you too must have received the links to the tunnel opening ceremony in Switzerland, the gay parade in Jerusalem, the said Tomorrowland event, and the list just goes on and on. No doubt the fields are ripe with… thorns and tares. But while Abba desires that we grieve with Him over those who are caught in these enemy-instigated impudent and defiant activities and at the same time desires us to help snatch out some of those hell-bent individuals (see Prov. 24:11-12), we also need to pray for the wheat (the sons of the kingdom) who are growing up alongside these tares (see Matthew 13:24-30).  Yeshua explains this parable, saying: "The field is the world, the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one” (Matthew 13:38).  Thus at the end of the growing season we will begin to see the wicked becoming more wicked, while the righteous are supposed to become more righteous (see Revelation 22:11).  Then, when the harvest comes, the tares are removed first and the righteous are left in the field to be harvested and taken into YHVH’s ‘granary’.   

In the previous parable of Matthew 13 (vs. 3-23), that of the sower, Yeshua points out that the cares and the riches of this world (in this case the thorns or thistles) can cause the righteous (the sons of the kingdom) to be choked off and not come to maturity.  But if during the growing season the good seed takes root in good soil and is nurtured by the water of the Word, then when the time comes for the harvest it will bear the fruit of righteousness.  If the word of the kingdom has not taken firm and deep roots (‘Hebrew roots’) in the soil of the heart (especially the Word called Torah), the roots and stalk of the thorns, which grow very rapidly, will draw the moisture and sustenance out of the ground and choke off the seed of the word before it can bear its fruit.  

In Paul’s prayer to the Father of Yeshua, he asks that the believers would be “…strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Messiah [the Word] may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height --  to know the love of Messiah which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of Elohim” (Ephesians 3:16-19).  Notice, “rooted and grounded in love.”  Again, in another scripture:  “As you have therefore received Messiah Yeshua the Master, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).  These key scriptures, if assimilated into the core and heart of our being, are helpful in the nurturing and watering of our ‘plant’ in order to bring us to full fruition at the end of the season, before the tares (sons of the wicked and lawless) and their fruit get taken out of the field (this world) and burned.  During the ripening season the conditions are hot and dry.  So if your experiences seem to be getting more difficult, and it is not so easy to walk through them in love or in righteousness, this could be the opportunity that YHVH is giving you to press into Messiah Yeshua, the indwelling Spirit of the Word (all scripture) and to be rooted and grounded in love. All of that so that His kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy may be fulfilled in you/us, so as to bring to fruition the purpose and calling of His redeemed Israelite nation. “Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6).

Shavua Tov,

Ephraim