SPARE NOT September 2000

​​"When the Lord Your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, ....and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Further more, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire." (Deut. 7:1-5)

These are the instructions Yahweh gave the Israelites before they crossed into the land of His promise. He told them to wipe out the people who inhabited the land because He knew that if the Israelites allowed them to stay, the Israelites would be influenced by the idolatry of these nations and would turn away from following Him.

"Then Samuel said to Saul, 'The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, "I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey;'" (1 Samuel 15: 1-3) Yahweh clearly spoke to Saul through Samuel and told him to "utterly destroy all.....do not spare him." However, Saul did not obey the Lord. "But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ' regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not carried out My commands.'" (1 Samuel 15: 9-11) Saul did not obey Yahweh's command. Therefore, his disobedience resulted in his being rejected by Yahweh. "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordinations is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king." (1 Samuel 15:22, 23)

Both of these circumstances demonstrate the importance of complete obedience to Yahweh's commands - an obedience that is as important to us today as it was (and still is) to the Israelites. However, complete obedience by our own power is impossible because we are children of disobedience (Eph.2:2) through the sin of Adam. The fulfillment of Yahweh's requirement of obedience is not impossible, though, because, what Yahweh requires, He provides. And that provision is found in His Son Yeshua.

As a man - "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ..." (John 1:14) - Yeshua knew temptation (Matt. 4:1-11), yet He did not sin (2 Cor. 5:21). He learned obedience - "...and He continued in subjection to them; ..." (Luke 2:51) - in order to fulfill His Father's plan for His life - "...yet not My will, but Thine be done." (Luke 22:42). He demonstrated obedience - “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. ...This commandment I received from My Father.”(John 10:17, 18) - in order for us to learn how to obey - He lay down His life. This is what we must learn to do - to lay down all in our individual lives that is of our "self". Once again we find an impossible task for us to accomplish without His provision. As a faithful Father, He gives us the means by which to accomplish this command - "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. ...If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." (John 15:4, 5, 7-10) If we are to obey, we must abide in Yeshua. As we abide in Him and in His love, we learn to lay down our own lives and to obey the commands of the Father, as Yeshua did. We learn that we must drive out of our lives all that is not of the Father - sin - all of it, not just some of it. Just like Saul did not totally destroy the Amalekites, and was rejected by Yahweh because of his disobedience, we cannot completely abide in Yeshua and the Father if we do not reject all sin in our lives. Yahweh's command to us is the same as His command to Saul - "utterly destroy...do not spare."

BOTTOM LINE

Over the years the Father has often demonstrated His Kingdom principles to us in what we call "The Circle Concept." In His Word He tells us what He desires. Then He places that desire in our hearts. When we obey Him His desire is fulfilled, as is ours. He blesses us by placing His desire in our hearts; then we bless Him by fulfilling His desire. Then He blesses us as we fulfill His desire. This same concept defines our obedience to His commands. When we first say "Yes" to His call on our lives, ["No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; ..." (John 6:44)], we enter into a relationship with Yeshua. As we spend time with Him, we learn His desire for our obedience to the Father’s commands. The more time we spend in this relationship the more our desire increases to be obedient to the Father. The more we are obedient the more we desire to spend time with Yeshua and the Father, increasing our relationship with Them and our desire to be obedient - and our obedience increases. As our desire for relationship and obedience increases we realize the necessity for sin to be driven out of our lives. We cannot have a complete relationship with our Father Yahweh and His Son Yeshua and be completely obedient to them as long as sin still has a place in our lives. We must obey the Father’s command - "utterly destroy...do not spare."

CURRENT EVENTS

When the children of Israel first entered the land of His promise they did not obey Yahweh and completely drive out their enemies and destroy the altars of their false gods. Consequently, the people Israel were exiled from the land of Israel - twice. In 1948 they returned to their land and in 1967 all of Jerusalem was restored to them. Unfortunately, once again, they did not utterly destroy their enemies nor destroy their altars. As a result, their enemies have increased and continue to threaten Israel's existence. The charade called "The Middle East Peace Talks" gives the appearance that there exists the possibility of peaceful co-existence between the people Israel and their Arab enemies. The world governments encourage the charade while the Arabs continue to threaten Israel and Israel cooperates in its own dismemberment. The land of Israel belongs to the people Israel and no one else. They have the choice to obey the commands of their Father Yahweh and drive out their enemies and destroy the altars to their false gods, or to obey the commands of man and be driven from the Land. Their Father Yahweh says, "To obey is better than sacrifice." (1 Sam. 15:22)

FROM THE BRIDEGROOM

"No one can truly be a fit usable vessel for My life–My whole life–until they die. Dying is hard. You do not like seeing yourself as you really are in the flesh, the natural, soul you, the selfish you - the you who wants what you want when you want it --- lust. All of you, all of mankind, lives in lust - the lust of self. All of that can die. I desire for all of it to die so that I may fill you to overflowing with My life." (Sept. 21, 1995)

"Through the darkness of burial of your self life into the resurrected life - My full life in you, ...only through the complete death of self, can you have the complete life of Mine, My Spirit life in you, reigning from My new temple, your heart, your inner chamber, holding Me. My Father tore the curtain in the temple in Jerusalem for all to enter into Me. Now with My leading and help, when you agree by obedience, you tear your heart. I tear by circumstances. You agree by obedience and the veil of flesh is torn and My temple is open to all of Me in you." (Dec. 10, 1995)