One year ago today I was in my home in Seattle packing my car in preparation for my move to Orlando to work for the Messianic Israel Alliance. My sister called to tell me that my father had just died. I finished packing, said goodbye to my friends, then headed south, first to California to my father’s funeral, then onward to Florida.

I was sad about my father, but anxious to continue on the journey the Father had called me to. It was a journey of faith. A journey in anticipation of things still to come. I was reminded of what the Scriptures say about change. There is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to live and a time to die. A time to mourn and a time to rejoice. A time to sow and a time to reap. Though I was mourning at the time, I believed I was about to enter into a time of rejoicing and reaping.

Something New is About to Happen

For the past several months, those of us who work for Messianic Israel have been aware that things are changing. We have been calling out for new growth, new insight, and a time of refreshing.

As many of you are aware, there have been changes in the ministry. We have been through difficult times. We have searched our hearts trying to see what we need to change in ourselves and where the Father would have us go next.

Like most of the world, we have been concerned about the threat of imminent war and how that will affect America and Israel. We have been asking ourselves, “What do we do now?”

This past weekend I had an open schedule and decided to go to the Joyce Meyer conference being held in Orlando over the weekend. I went to the first meeting hoping to gain some insight from one of my favorite Bible teachers from the past, then stayed for all three days. Although Joyce Meyer is not a Messianic, she is nevertheless an anointed teacher of the Scriptures, and today I am truly grateful to the Father for using her to help me clarify some of the things He Himself has been speaking to my heart. I not only received some excellent teaching, but also the refreshing I had been seeking.

Much of what the Ruach HaKodesh has been showing me was confirmed by her teaching at this conference. I would like to share some of the insights He has given me personally, and how I think this may apply to some of us in Messianic Israel.

He is Right Here

Sometimes even when we are worshiping and praising, our minds tend to wander. We think about where we will go next, the projects we are working on, or even where we will go to eat afterwards. Sometimes we reach out to God and He seems so far away. We reach out to Him crying, “Oh God, I want to know you. I want to see you. I want to be in your presence.” We forget sometimes that He is right here inside of us.

“I’m right here,” the Father has told me many times. “Right here.”

He has deposited His Spirit within us. Yeshua said, “Out of your bellies will flow rivers of living water.” He is the living water. He is the refreshing. And He lives within us. He is right here. Inside.

In times of need we can go to Him. We can abide with Him inside. We can go inside and be comforted while the battle outside rages on. Someone can be mistreating us, the world can be pressing in, but still, we can turn our focus inside and be with the God of the universe. He has given us Himself. We are His living temples.

I think sometimes in all our attempts to explain the Father, to define Yahweh, we lose track of this simple fact. We know the Father is in Heaven and that Yeshua is there at His right hand. We know in out heads that He is our Redeemer and our brother, but sometimes we forget that He sent His precious Spirit to live INSIDE us. “I’m right here,” He reminds us. “Right here inside of you.”

This is the place of refreshing. The place where we can live in the Spirit in every present moment. This is our blood-bought right as Believers. Sometimes we just need to get out of our heads and out of our feelings and live in this place of inner peace and refreshing.

It takes being still and knowing that He is God.

It helps to pray in the spirit without trying to do anything but just being there with Him. Without striving. We can simply let our spirits soar as we live and move and have our being—absorbed in that place of abiding.

It takes quiet waiting. Receiving. Not being in a hurry. Telling our busy minds to be still for now. Putting aside our lists and our concerns and all the many projects and processes we busy ourselves with. Just being there with God.

I was reminded that if we are concerned about what others think, we will not be able to flow in that spiritual place with God. Caring what others think of us inhibits our freedom to move in the spirit.

I am not suggesting that we stay there all the time, only that we go there much of the time. Our schedules will wait. Our minds will have plenty of hours to work. We can eat later. We can make our lists and work on our projects in a little while. But now is our time to be with God.

We don’t really understand the spiritual realm anyway. We try to, but in some ways it intimidates us, even frightens us. We long for it, yet we often avoid it. At least I do. Yet when I am there I really don’t want to be anywhere else.

The Seasons of Change

To everything there is a season
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 NKJV).

There are seasons in our lives. Times when we are leaving one thing behind and moving on to the next thing. I left Seattle and the life I had there to come to Orlando to begin a new life. My father left this earth when he died—he went on to another life in eternity.

There are times of plowing, then the planting of the seed. After planting there is a long time of waiting and weeding and tending the crop before the time of harvest, then there is the pruning.

The seasons of our lives are like this. I believe I have personally been in a time of harvest for much of this past year. I thank God for the blessings He has bestowed upon me. I thank Him for the opportunity to work with Batya and Angus and the MIA. I thank Him for material provision. I thank Him for the healing He has brought to my body. I thank Him for friends and loved ones and the spiritual family He has given me. I thank Him for restored relationships with family. I thank Him for healing my inner hurts and bringing me through the trials. I thank Him for the many blessings and His abundant goodness. I am exceedingly grateful. But still, I am not satisfied. I want more of HIM.

Like many of you, I have been in a time of harvest in some areas of my life, but have had trials in other areas. At this time the Father is plowing up new ground in me. And I want this because I want to get over the insecurities that have been holding me back. I want to get at the root of rejection that keeps me in a place of insecurity so that I do not even step out into the areas that I know I am called to, and that keeps me critical of myself so I am critical of others–-seeing their faults instead of their strengths. I have been afraid to be all that I can be. I am sometimes so fearful of failure that I do nothing.

Yet there is no longer time to look to self. Yeshua says to look to Him for our sufficiency. We have got to ask Him to bring it out of us. There are too many in need. The world is in turmoil and is about to be thrust into war. The terrorists want to destroy us. The times we live in are critical.

The enemy has come to kill, to steal, and to destroy. He is actively pursuing our destruction each and ever day. Don’t we see the evidence of this in the news, if not in our own homes and neighborhoods?

Will we let him do this to us without a fight? Yet I have seen the body of Messiah fighting among itself while the real enemy strategically plots our destruction.

None of us knows all the answers. There is no one with 100% perfect theology. We’re all under construction. We are continually being led to new insights and new truth. We have all been blinded.

But listen to me. There is no longer time to hold back. There is a war raging all around us.

“I’m right here,” the God of Israel reminds us. Trust in me. You are about to be stretched.”

So, it is a time of plowing. Plowing.
A time of preparation for a new level of obedience.
Sow with a view to righteousness,
Reap in accordance with kindness;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord
Until He comes to rain righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12 , NASB).

Can it be that Messianic Israel is in a time of plowing? Is it time to break up the fallow ground that is still filled with rocks and clods and hidden things? Hidden sins. Messes from the past. Wrong attitudes. Wrong focus.

Is it time to seek God as never before?

Plowing is about turning things over. Turning things over to the God of the universe. We must allow Him access to areas of our lives that have previously been closed off. There are buried things. We have to be broken up like the rocks in the ground.

He is preparing new ground as He prepares us for the next harvest. We are beginning to sow new seeds, but the plowing is not completed. We need to be obedient to the new leading of the Spirit. He desires to use us to help His people come up higher.

God Will Bring Every Act into Judgment

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.

For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14, NASB ).

As He brings every work into judgment and every secret thing into the open, as He prepares to rain righteousness upon us, let us seek Him as never before.

God has a unique plan for each of us, yet He puts us together with others who are walking along the same pathway. Let us join together with our brothers and sisters to follow the God of Israel. Let us determine in our hearts to give our lives as an offering to Yahweh. Let’s abide in Him and listen for His voice so we can keep His commandments in spirit, truth, and worshipful service.

If you have never asked the Messiah of Israel to come and dwell inside you, do so right now. Say a personal prayer of repentance, asking Him to come into your heart and to be the Lord of your life forevermore.

If you have already asked Messiah to come inside you, then remember that He is there. The God of the Universe lives inside you!

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).

“I am right here,” declares the God of Israel. “Right here inside you.”