Inside: A report on our 22nd Passover Seder and Convocation in Israel
W W W . J E R U S A L E M C H A N N E L . T V
Anointing delegates with oil in the Synagogue of Jesus in Nazareth
meeting with Christians. They both suffered widowhood and now have come together as Israel’s new power couple—she as head of a charity to aid widows and orphans, and Rabbi Yehuda announced that he is no longer seeking political office but will begin a Shalom Foundation to build bridges concerning his vision of the Temple Mount being a house of prayer for all nations. We marvel at the anointing upon this man of God who suffered an assassination attempt in 2014, with four bullets fired By Christine Darg Our 22nd Passover tour and convocation point-blank into his chest. But now he is increasingly, included a time of ministry in the Synagogue of like so many Orthodox Jews, willing to speak in Jesus (above) in Nazareth, where the Lord read churches while worshipping the God of Israel with Christians. We continue to be part of a new day! from the scroll of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the One of the joys of our insiders’ tours is the Sovereign Lord hath anointed me to preach.” variety of opportunities afforded to us by the Land In the photo below, Member of Knesset of Israel. It is also important for us to introduce Rabbi Yehuda Glick and his new bride Hadas spoke to us in our hotel synagogue. This was the leaders to Israel! In the photo above, Pastor Mary Lunt from Manchester dug up a museum treasure first time that Mrs. Glick participated in a
22nd Passover Convocation in Israel Of Exploits Ministry & The Jerusalem Channel Channe
while our group participated in an archeological dig! The bowl dates back 2,200 years to the Maccabees! We were honored that the wives of Rabbi Glick and Avi Lipkin attended our convocations on their birthdays. Avi is founder and visionary of the Bible Bloc, Israel’s first historic and prophetic party of Jews and Christians. At right, Rachel and Avi pose with me on Palm Sunday in the synagogue of our hotel. Also below left is one of our riveting evening guests, Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, who has written more than 2,000 articles for Breaking Israel News on the coming of Messiah and redemption. We invite ministry partners to come with us for our next convocation 16 to 21 October 2019 during the Feast of Tabernacles. Helen Lineen, whose husband Patrick is a Trustee of our ministry in the UK, testified that our Passover tour was “power packed with wonderful trips during the days topped only by the real treats of worship and teachings in the meetings.” For tour details visit Events at www.Exploits.tv
22nd Prophetic
His Bann By Chr
Praising God for our 22nd Convocation to proclaim the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus during the Passover Festival, when world-changing events recorded in the New Testament occurred. This year Passover and Western Christian Holy Week converged, as they should, to be biblically correct. The Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. tragically changed the timing of the celebration of Holy Pascha (Resurrection Sunday), but sometimes the Gregorian calendar converges with the Hebrew calendar, which is vital for events to be understood. We held our prophetic Passover seder meal to pray for Israel and the region on “Maundy Thursday,” as Jesus did (Maundy means “commandment”), for Jesus gave a new commandment at his Last Supper that we should love one another. Jesus also changed his Last Seder to the Table of the Lord for us to share in remembrance of him and to proclaim the significance of his death until he returns. On his first coming, Jesus was the Lamb of God. He will soon return as the Lion of Judah and King Messiah. He must occupy the throne of his father David here in Jerusalem for messianic prophecies to be roundly fulfilled. At that time, Israel will summons him with, “Baruch Haba B’shem Adonai,” (Matthew 23:39), and the People of the Book will rejoice together–as we are already beginning to do now in holy convocations of Christians and Jews during the Lord’s festivals. For several decades in prayers and prophetic convocations, we have been taking the broom of the Holy Spirit to many traditions that detract from the prophetic purposes of Jesus who died as the Lamb of God at Passover for Israel and for the world. Just as the Jewish people do their spring cleaning before Passover to remove leaven from their
homes, we ask God to send the Holy Spirit to sweep through the
Passover Seder
by Church traditions concerning the Lord’s types and shadows in Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Bikkurim (the festival of First Fruits) which occurs importantly on Resurrection Sunday. Unfortunately because erring churchmen changed the times and seasons, Passover Eve is not always on a Friday, but it happened this year as in the New Testament. That meant that the normal Sabbath this year was Holy Saturday when Messiah lay in the tomb. Some day in the future, this unique sabbath will be known among the Jews as the Sabbath of Sabbaths because of the sacrificial death of their Messiah. Selah! The Passover lambs were slaughtered from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. when the High Priest shouted, “It is finished.” This was the exact time that Yeshua was suffering on the cross to make Atonement at the time of the evening sacrifice. Our Lord voluntarily died as the Lamb of God in order for him to shout from the Cross, “It is finished!” Of the last words of Messiah, none is more significant. Found only in John’s Gospel, the Greek word translated “It is finished” is “tetelestai,” an accounting term meaning “paid in full.” Thank you, Jesus, You paid the full price for all of our sins. You are the Saviour of Israel and the world. We declare that Jesus, Yeshua, did not die as a victim. He gave up his spirit into the hands of his Father when all things, including the prophecies in Psalm 22, were accomplished. He was taken down from the cross and quickly buried in a garden nearby before sundown because Passover was beginning that evening. These are deep mysteries, types and shadows, and the Lord fulfilled them all. In the resurrection garden, Mary Magdalene encountered the risen Lord, but at that point she was not allowed to touch him because He had not yet ascended to the Father. Therefore, early Sunday morning on Bikkurim, Yeshua ascended to the Father and presented Himself as the first fruits from the dead. Then he returned to earth for 40 days to appear to his disciples, to teach how Scriptures declared that Messiah must die and rise again, and to give the Great Commission to make disciples.
er Is Love
istine Darg
Church worldwide and to cleanse it in order to recover much revelation that has been veiled
Paul: Perfect or Permissive Will? By Christine Darg The apostle Paul was determined to go up to Jerusalem even though many of his colleagues warned him that he would be in great danger. Was Paul being foolish, headstrong and irresponsible, or did he have a strong conviction, an inner leading from the Holy Spirit? Let’s examine Paul’s fateful decision to return to Jerusalem for the last time. We will consider divine guidance and doing the right thing! We all have many decisions to make on a daily basis, and God does provide us with his Word for principles and guidance. Theological scholars are sometimes divided on whether or not the apostle Paul made a mistake in going up to Jerusalem, where he fell into trouble and imprisonment. After all, Paul had been repeatedly warned. I once knew a Pentecostal couple who disagreed over Paul’s decision. They were both Spirit-filled believers, and yet they didn’t see eye-to-eye on Paul’s decision. As we look at this dilemma, think of how it affects us —and this episode in Paul’s journey also sheds light on the Hebrew Roots movement in the churches today. St. Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, traced Paul's missionary journeys. In Acts 20: 22, Paul told the Ephesian elders, “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.” Note carefully that Paul said he was “bound in the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem despite believers’ warnings, indicating that Paul had definite marching orders. His ship landed at Tyre, and Acts 21: 4 records that through the Holy Spirit, believers in Tyre kept warning Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. So on the one hand, Paul was being Spirit-led, but on the other hand, Spirit-filled believers were warning him not to go. Is God double-minded? Of course not! Rather, was Paul being tested by God to see whom he would obey? Or was Paul being continually prepared by the Holy Spirit to know that Jerusalem was not going to be a picnic? Paul and his companions called in Caesarea at the house of Philip the Evangelist. Philip’s daughters had the gift of prophecy, a fulfillment of Joel 2: 28. While Paul was staying in this very spiritual home, a prophet from Judea named Agabus visited, and Agabus acted out a prophecy in front of everybody. He took Paul’s sash, and binding his own feet and hands, Agabus prophesied, “Thus says the Holy Spirit: ‘In this way the
Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles.” Agabus did not forbid Paul to go. Rather, he simply prepared Paul for what would befall him. It’s a blessing to be forewarned about trials, just as the prophet Simeon had warned Mary, the mother of our Lord, that a sword would pierce her heart. When we are forewarned, we are forearmed. Philip’s household begged Paul not to go — just as the apostle Peter had wrongly insisted that Jesus should not go up to Jerusalem to die. Out of love and concern, the disciples reasoned that Paul should continue at liberty. But like Jesus, Paul had apparently set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem, and so could not be stopped, and the people said, “The Lord’s will be done.” Love always means well but the Lord’s will be done! So now, in Acts 21, Paul arrives in Jerusalem where he is soon apprehended by authorities and put into great danger. The brethren, the elders and James, the half brother of Jesus, had welcomed Paul joyfully, and he recounted to them all the great things God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. To their credit, the Jerusalem brethren glorified God without envy, or jealousy. Then, no doubt, it was inevitable….. they mentioned to Paul the old controversies that had hounded the fledging Jerusalem congregation from the beginning. The elders told Paul, “You see, brother, how myriads of Jews have believed—” a myriad contains ten thousand, meaning that tens of thousands of Jews now believed in Jesus as Messiah, but they were all zealous for the Law. So when Paul arrived in Jerusalem, the Christian Jews were very much attached to the Law of Moses, and this situation throws light upon his Epistle to the Galatians and many other passages in Paul’s letters. How fascinating that the issues debated in the early Church are being experienced once again in our day because of the growing number of messianic believers in Israel and around the world! James and the elders reported to Paul that the zealots were under the mistaken impression that Paul had taught his fellow Jews to forsake circumcision and the laws of Moses. But that was a totally false charge! Paul never taught a Jewish person to abandon Moses and the Torah. But he strongly taught that Gentile believers in the Messiah should not be forced
to conform to Jewish laws. It was Paul’s practice to become all things to all people to win them to Messiah. To the Jews he was a Jew, under the Law, but he did not require former Gentile believers to submit to ceremonial law because he taught that Jesus, Yeshua, is the fulfilment of the Law. Paul in actuality taught that neither Jew nor Gentile can be saved by the Law. Salvation is by faith in the Atonement of Messiah. This was also the doctrine of James and the elders. We know this because in Acts 21 James reiterated the earlier ruling of the Jerusalem Council that had been decided back in Acts 15 that Gentiles did not have to become Jews. They were required only to abstain from four things: “from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.” The messianic believers at that time accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, but they saw no reason to break with their life-long observances. Although they believed in Jesus of Nazareth, yet they did not possess the level of revelation that Paul had —to see Jesus as the sum and substance of all the ceremonies of the Law. They could not bear to hear of any abrogation. The extreme party of the Pharisees prided themselves as “zealots of the law,” a description Paul himself had once claimed in Galatians 1:14. In an attempt at unity, James and the elders of the Jerusalem church asked Paul to gratify his fellow Jews with a public compliance with ceremonial law. However, the well-intentioned plan backfired. Commentaries explain that it’s vain to court the favour of zealots or a party spirit— the act of compliance did not pacify anybody! The commentaries warn us not to try to press believers into performing religious ceremonies to placate others. Some commentaries commended Paul for his humility in trying to submit to the suggestion of James and the elders. But when Paul was recognized in the Temple complex, a riot ensued, and as a result, Paul became a prisoner of Caesar— bound in chains for the rest of his life. So was Paul in the will of God or not? Before rushing to judgment—consider this: Paul, the active missionary, was now confined and forced to put his thoughts into writing. His letters have been cherished in the New Testament for almost two millenia. Some of the greatest Christian writings have been the result of time spent in prison, as was the case of John Bunyan and his classic book, “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Some preachers claim that Paul exhibited a martyr’s complex, that he was stubborn or disobedient like the unnamed prophet in 1 Kings 13. One commentary explained that believers receive the Holy
Prophetic Action of Agabus: a Warning to Paul
Spirit “by measure;” therefore the prophets of Acts 2021 who foresaw impending danger for Paul might have lacked the higher inspiration which guided him to Jerusalem. Paul accepted their information— he filed it for future reference, so to speak— but he did not yield to their warnings. Here is the key— turn to Acts 23: 11, and hear the Lord’s own approval of Paul’s actions! The Lord appeared to Paul by night after his arrest. Jesus stood by him and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.” There was not a word of displeasure from Jesus in that night vision. There was no rebuke of Paul having ventured into Jerusalem outside of the will of God. There was no question asking, “What are you doing here when all the prophets warned you not to come?” You see, Paul had learned how to be led by the Spirit though his many years of ministry. We have an example in Acts 16: 9 where during the night Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” At another time he was directly forbidden by the Spirit to go into Asia, and he did not go. We may conclude that Paul knew when he was following divine guidance; and, on this occasion, we have evidence in the Book of Acts that Paul was deeply convinced of the will of God, that he was taking the path of duty despite many warnings. Let’s consider the various levels of comfort given to Paul in the vision: first of all, the Lord appeared to Paul. What an honour and immense comfort in the weary nighttime after such a harsh ordeal of misunderstanding and mistreatment. Secondly, the Lord himself stood by Paul. This was wonderful commendation of Paul’s actions. Believe me—when the Lord stands by you, nothing else matters! The Lord also spoke words of assurance and encouragement to the beleaguered apostle. The Lord
Paul: Perfect or Permissive Will? assured him of future service in Rome, which there would be special peril in the journey. God would ease his mind about his trial and the was telling him in no uncertain terms, “It will cost assassination plot brewing against him. you imprisonment, and risk of death.” Counsels So Paul was in the centre of the will of caution and words of loving friends, bidding of God. He wasn’t in God’s permissive will. you to spare yourself from overworking or from He went “bound in the Spirit.” Paul knew he This teaching is a danger, may be from the Lord, and, like the was headed for trouble but was following an video at Exploits.tv warnings of Paul’s friends, it is necessary to pray inner leading of the Spirit. Doubts did not over such matters. I like the interpretation of one assail his inner peace. commentary: God was saying to Paul, “This journey, In my own ministry, God led me to hold a though it will be full of peril, will result in the fulfilment Gospel tent at the Pyramids, and on another occasion, of your desire to preach about the Messiah in Rome. This I was directed to lead a seven-day march in Jericho— journey, though it cuts you off from other evangelistic a parable to believe God for a harvest among a billion journeys, will result in epistles that will make you the souls bound behind the walls of religion. I led a prayer theologian of generations to come. So now, judge if you journey of 12 intercessors into Iraq when Saddam possess the courage, and, if you know that I’ll be faithful, Hussein was in power. Plenty of high-powered, Spiritthen GO.” filled believers advised me against all these missions, The best commentaries conclude that Paul saying they were too dangerous, but I was led by the would have been altogether wrong if he had yielded Spirit of God to go, and I had my husband’s approval. to the suggestions of his friends, and if he had resisted A man or woman of God may have a clear knowledge the inward leading of God’s Spirit. Oftentimes in our of God’s will. However, prophecies, advice and warnings walk with the Lord, our most painful duty is to resist from family, friends and even very spiritual persons may the sound reasonings of loved ones to delay us or to influence us to disregard God’s will. On the one hand, hold us back from the very exploits God is calling us there IS safety in counsellors. But when a man or to do. The prophets’ words tested Paul’s loyalty to the woman of God has an inward conviction of the right Spirit’s inward leadings. I thank God that Paul did thing to do, all prophesying of consequences become not yield. I am glad he was God’s man. Paul’s example temptation to be resisted. This level of faith requires teaches mature believers loyalty to the inward witness discernment and spiritual maturity—attributes the of the Spirit. Romans 8: 14 declares, “For all who are apostle Paul had developed. Such guidance does not led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Amen! apply to novices. One of the simplest ways you can leave a legacy is to In their prophetic encounters with the Apostle, name Exploits Ministry/Jerusalem Channel in your will or certain persons, when exercising prophetic gifts, trust. Your gift can be a stated cash amount, a percentage, foresaw the consequences and stated what they saw in a specific asset, or the remainder of your estate after other the Spirit. Paul’s leadings concerned duty, while the distributions have been made. Through a gift from your will or trust, you will be able to continue your support of prophets’ impressions concerned danger. Paul had to Exploits Ministry/Jerusalem Channel. For details please decide. One commentary explains that God certainly visit the donate page at www.JerusalemChannel.tv put before Paul’s mind the suggestion of prudence, that The mandate of EXPLOITS MINISTRY ® Acts 1:8 ‘And you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’
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