A few months ago, I began having dreams that I knew were from YHWH. They were close together and were pointing me in the same direction, but it took me awhile to understand their meaning. I also think that we must be very careful with dreams and interpreting them, so, before you read this, please ask YHWH to guide you in this. I will first describe a few of the dreams to you and then the incidents that brought me to a conclusion. Because they were close together, I felt a major urgency in the message and am sending this out because I’m hearing that, in the body, many are having the same type of dreams and I feel like I was directed to do so. Pronto.
In the first dream, I was staying at someone else’s house, but I don’t know who owned the home. I had the feeling that we were visiting extended family, but I don’t know this for sure. My brother and my kids and I had decided to leave the little house at the end of a cul-de-sac to go for a walk. As we exited the front door, we walked down a gently sloping lawn onto the street. The next thing I remember, we were on our way back to the house. My kids had run ahead and went into the house and closed the door. As my brother and I continued to leisurely walk down the street, chatting as we went, I turned around to look behind me and was surprised to see a large, black, hairy boar with very large tusks staring at us from the end of the street. My heart went into my throat when I saw that he had turned to charge after us. I yelled to my brother, “Run!” and he did, but when we got to that gentle slope of a yard, it became a very large sandy hill and the faster we tried to run, the more our feet sank into the sand. I soon realized that the goal was to simply make it up the hill, not that it was a timed race, so I slowed my pace and made a conscious effort to take one step at a time. We finally made it, out of breath and panting. I turned the knob of the front door of the house and was hoping to run inside, but instead, looming in the doorway was a very fat, pink pig with rolls all over his body. To my shock, around his neck was a dog collar. My first thought was that this thing was a pet! I remember his eyes and they were not friendly like a pet would be. Then he rose up on his back legs as if to lunge at me, but before he could, I grabbed the collar on his neck and pulled hard, sending him flying out of the house and into the yard. I woke up.
The second dream contained many of the same people, but with different animals. We were staying in a hotel and we had our dog with us. I opened the room door to take the dog for a walk, but as we were going down the long hallway, I saw a large wooden pallet lying on the floor. My brother had just come around a corner ahead and we both stopped in front of the pallet. Underneath, I could see a skunk moving around. He came out, heading in my direction and hoping that my dog wouldn’t be sprayed, I quickly ran back toward the door of my room, but I wasn’t quick enough to get inside before the skunk was upon us. I was surprised to see that my dog didn’t try to go after the skunk, she simply stood there as the smelly animal passed us by at a leisurely pace. After it went by, I noticed that the skunk’s tail was standing straight up (not a good sign on a skunk), but then I saw that all up and down the fur of the tail were various hair accessories, such as barrettes and colorful clips and bands. This was someone’s pet! I needed to warn my mom before she came out of her room with her dog, not to try to kill it, after all, it was a pet. Then I woke up.
I told my son about these dreams and his first thought was that there was something unclean in our house, but I couldn’t get over the fact that both dreams took place in another person’s dwelling, not in our home. These two dreams also happened to fall in between funerals of two of my uncles that our family attended. These two funerals were like night and day. The first funeral was overflowing, not only with people, but with sweet stories, praise, hope, humor and so much love. The second funeral was, in many ways, just the opposite. This funeral was filled with many past hurts and pain – words that, now, would never be repented for. At the time, I thought that this is what these dreams were about and I felt led to speak to one of my cousins. I only said, “You know, this is no longer your DNA. Through Yeshua, we have a new family tree and this tree is beautiful.” At the time, I knew these words were for me, but they didn’t quite reach my heart because I felt like something was missing. Something was not right. I knew that if this funeral was the reason for my dreams, they would stop, but they didn’t. Not very many days had passed by and I had another dream.
This dream began with a man’s voice saying, “I have something for you,” and he handed me a key and showed me to a room with a cupboard that was locked and then he left. I knew the key was to unlock the cabinet door, but I was totally surprised that when I opened it, inside was a beautiful baby girl with straight, dark brown hair -almost black- and sparkling brown eyes. She looked like she was about nine months old or so. I couldn’t believe someone had placed this precious child in a cabinet and I reached in to pick her up. She smiled at me and said, “Mama”. I told her that I wasn’t her mom, but that we would go search for her. Everyone that passed by me, said the same thing, that she was mine and looked just like me. What?? I would think I would have remembered carrying a baby for nine months and giving birth! Believe me, childbirth is not a pain that you just forget totally. And, she looked nothing like me. No, she wasn’t mine. I finally found the man that had given me the key and with him, was another child that I knew was indeed my son (he even looked a little like my oldest son). The man began talking about how we were all a family. I was getting quite angry that even he seemed to think that this little girl was mine! Finally, I yelled, “We need to get this straightened out before we can become a family! I want a DNA test!” Then I woke up.
Three very odd dreams, but all of them have to do with family. The first two dreams also contained unclean animals – a boar, a pig, a dog and a skunk. The third dream had a beautiful little baby girl that looked very different from me and the rest of our family, but everyone insisted that I was her biological mother. These dreams took many days and lots of fasting and prayer before I came to a conclusion that they had to do with the family – and specifically, sins of the family.
On my dad’s side of the family, we tried to get together over the years and had many family reunions. I was the one that enjoyed researching our family tree and had joined many websites over the years to find the pieces and would share what I had learned at these reunions. My uncle (the first one that passed away) was a minister and would always give a beautiful teaching at each of these reunions. I was in a deliverance ministry many years ago and felt led to get the family together to confess the sins of the fathers, so we all met in Kentucky, where my grandparents were from and we did just that and had a beautiful time of praising, worshiping and prayer over each other. After I began studying the Word more and more, I was led to the Hebraic roots of Christianity and had begun following Torah. This led to much repentance on my part and many changes in my life and the lives of my children, especially when I finally saw the definition of sin in 1 John 3:4 (KJV) “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” We began observing the 7th day Sabbath and celebrating YHWH’s beautiful feast days, which of course, brought a division in our family as not everyone was being drawn to the Torah. Many of you can certainly identify.
So, back to the dreams – I felt like we had already confessed the sins of the family, so what was YHWH telling me? Was there more? Something we had missed in Kentucky? I had told the first two dreams to a close friend in our Torah study group and not long after, she had a dream that she shared with me. She had been raised in a Mormon family and her dream had her walking inside of a Mormon temple and she came up to a bulletin board. On the bulletin board, there was a red string that was tacked from one side of the board to the other and hanging from this string, there were red porcelain soldiers that all looked like nutcracker soldiers. She remembered laughing at their tiny feet as they were all marching on the board. She later told me that she didn’t know who the dream was for or even what it was about. I added the info in the back of my mind and later, recalled it. It had to do with DNA. The soldiers were all red porcelain (which is made from kaolin; a type of clay) and they were strung together like DNA and they were red like blood as was the string that held them together. So, back to researching my family tree; it was so strange because the last time I had worked on my family tree, I was stuck on my great great grandmother and simply gave up in going back any further. That was about six or seven years ago. I put her name into a search engine a few weeks ago and immediately, her death certificate appears with the name of her father. Voilà! Another generation back! I looked down at the bottom of the page and shouldn’t have been surprised to see that I was on the Mormon family tree research page (even though no one that I know of in my family was Mormon). Next, I put in my newly acquired, great great grandmother’s father’s name and I stumble across a census from the 1800’s. I was able to look at the original document and was shocked to see that there was a checkmark next to each person in the family under the column labeled “Condition. (Deaf, dumb, blind, insane or idiotic).” Wow! Two things went through my mind – number one -What a range! And number two – I have never heard this before in family stories. This led me to the story of the boy with a deaf and dumb spirit in the book of Mark chapter 9. After I read it again, I could see that this spirit was brought about by the boy’s father’s sin of unbelief. This was generational. Was YHWH showing me that I needed to confess our family’s sin of unbelief and repent for any part of that sin that I have had? I did this immediately, but then, I had two other dreams – the one about the baby girl and then this last one.
My sweet friend that had the dream about the red porcelain soldiers had invited me over for lunch one day. The night before I went, I had a dream that I was trying to get to her house for the lunch visit. Every road I took led to a roadblock, so I would try a different direction and each time, another roadblock. The last one that I came to was manned by two men standing at the roadblock and I told them that I had to get to my friend’s house for lunch. One of the men said, “You can’t go there yet.” And the other man opened a book that looked like a high school yearbook with black and white photos on it and he showed me a page that I knew were photos of my family tree. I had no idea what this dream meant until I was at my friend’s house for lunch. She had been telling me about some Scriptures that she had been studying about the house of YHWH and His people. It was an awesome lesson and I truly enjoyed it! I kept wondering what the warning in the dream was about. Towards the end of our lunch, she asked if I had made any headway about the dreams. I told her, “very little”, but told her about finding the death certificate and the census record. She cautioned me that spending time on my family tree could be a waste of time and that maybe this was leading me away from what YHWH was showing me by keeping me busy since we were now grafted into Yeshua’s good tree. Had I not had the dream about the roadblocks, I would have agreed with her wholeheartedly. It did seem like a waste of time researching people that were already long gone, but the man at the roadblock’s words popped into mind, “You can’t go there yet.” This led to more fasting and praying.
A few days later, I was lying in bed and it was very late and I couldn’t sleep. Our internet had been down all day and usually, I listen to the Hebrew Nation Radio before I go to sleep. I decided to try it one more time, so I picked up my Kindle and touched the “Tune-In” app, knowing in the back of my mind it wouldn’t work, but amazingly enough, it did! Instead of listening to the shows that I usually listen to, I was afraid to click off it, so I listened to a show that I had never heard before that was currently in progress. The guest speaker was talking about how many people in the Messianic movement were having similar dreams. They were all about the health of the house of Israel or, more to the point, sins of the family! Also, he said, we are having an identity crisis in the body of Messiah- specifically, he said, in the Hebrew Roots movement. Then he began talking about our DNA! As I lay there listening to the show, I think my mouth was open in shock during the whole thing. I only caught the last part of the show and the second it was over, the internet crashed again. I know there are no such things as coincidences! I couldn’t wait to hear the entire show, but it would be a few days before I would hear it again. Sure enough, this guest speaker had been led to speaking about the identity crises that the house is experiencing right now and the sins of the fathers. I went onto his webpage and he gave step by step instructions on how he felt led to pray! I couldn’t believe it! I will include a link to his webpage at the bottom of this page. But, first, let’s look at this identity crisis. I had to study this myself and not just go off of what he was saying. It’s the only way that the lesson actually reaches my heart.
When most of us first “woke up” and began seeing that we were supposed to be following the Torah, we knew who we were. We were Israel! Our Father had “whistled” for us. Zec. 10:7-8 (NASB) “Ephraim will be like a mighty man, And their heart will be glad as if from wine; Indeed, their children will see it and be glad, their heart will rejoice in the LORD. I will whistle for them to gather them together, For I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they were before. We knew that we were Ephraim and that someday, we would be going home! Most of us had read the book “Who Is Israel?” by Batya Wootin and we identified with it. I remember those days of being full of wonder, excitement, but also of repentance for the lies I had believed and the sins I had committed as I began to search the Torah. But somewhere along the way, we lost our identity again. We became a very splintered group. Some of us tried to join the stick of Judah and some of us began going back to the churches and some of us simply isolated for a time. When we came together for the feast days, we argued about how it was to be done and even about the calendar we were supposed to be following for these beautiful days. Many of us cut ourselves off from our families that didn’t believe in following Torah or maybe some did, but we didn’t agree with each other on the “how to”. Our tzitzit looked different from each other and some quit wearing them at all. Some had Passover dishes and some didn’t. Some became very disenchanted with Judah as we tried to read the Talmud, which is leading to a very dangerous situation. I will not talk too much about Judah in this because she is a different stick in Ezekiel and it is YHWH, Himself, that will bring these two sticks together. The word for sticks there is actually etz or trees. Judah will go through this differently than we will and I will show you later what I mean.
In the meantime, I will tell you, I do not have answers to all of these problems, but what I feel like YHWH is doing right now is telling us to stop and go back. Go back to when you first found out that you were Israel. Go back to those days of wonder and excitement. We are even closer today than we were then for the Scriptures to be fulfilled.
How did we lose our identity again? We really never left the lying tongues. Let’s look at our “family tree” again. Jeremiah 11:16-17 (NASB) The LORD called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”; with the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, and its branches are worthless. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering up sacrifices to Baal. (If you don't know who the house of Judah and the house of Israel are, please click on the tab entitled "Two Houses"). The house of Judah and the house of Israel were, at one time, called a “green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”, but YHWH kindled fire on it and then its branches became worthless. However, we skip over to Paul’s words in the book of Romans about this same tree and for some reason, we have a different idea of what she looks like today. Romans 11:17-18 (NASB) But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. What is it about Paul’s words that make us think we were grafted into a rich, beautiful, lush green olive tree? It is only the root that is rich, which is Yeshua and Yeshua is the Word that became flesh. Revelation 22:16 (KJV) I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. The tree itself is still very sick looking. She is still missing many branches and because the branches that were grafted in can’t agree on anything, they are certainly not healthy branches. This is how I picture her today:
As Israel and Judah separated, they became two different sticks off of the same tree. This is not how YHWH described this olive tree, “a green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”. I want you to notice something. Paul describes the ones that are grafted in as “wild olives”. Is that just the fruit that he is speaking of? The Greek word used here is agrielaios and comes from two Greek words meaning “wild olive tree”. You and I were not some other kind of fruit tree that was grafted in. We were olive trees that had run wild. You could say that we were uncultivated olive trees and the fruit is not fit to eat. We tend to overlook the first part of Romans 11 that says in verse 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. We were not figs or apples or oranges. We were “wild olive” trees. Chances are, our family trees were originally part of Israel and even if we weren’t, we are grafted into Israel, we are not grafted into some mythical perfect tree nor is the tree grafted into us. I will say it again, we ARE ISRAEL! Just like in my dream, before we can become a family, we need a DNA test! So, if we are indeed Israel, how does YHWH view us right now?
Let’s look at Hosea chapter 2. YHWH is speaking of the people of the house of Israel. We will start in verse 5. (NASB) “For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now!’ She begins looking for her first husband and chances are, lands in the Christian churches. There, at least, she is hearing His words. Something is familiar. Let’s continue in Hosea. “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time and My new wine in its season. I will also take away My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness. And then I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of My hand. I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths and all her festal assemblies. She might be looking for Him, but she is doing completely different feasts and Sabbaths because she cannot find her paths. “I will destroy her vines and fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages which my lovers have given me.’ And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will devour them. “I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she used to offer sacrifices to them and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, and follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the LORD. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. This is when she returns to the land of her inheritance. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. “It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “That you will call Me Ishi and will no longer call Me Baali. “For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more. “In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety.
What is the Valley of Achor? This story is in the book of Joshua. As the children of Israel were returning to the land, after they defeated Jericho, they had been told not to keep any silver or gold that they find. Joshua 6:9 (NASB) But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are holy to the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD. Chapter 7 begins with, But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel. So, the people were taken by lots and pared down until they came to the culprit. Joshua 7:21-21 So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” So Achan and his family had to be punished. Joshua 7:25-26 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. They raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor to this day. Achor means “trouble”, and we could certainly attribute a spiritual meaning to the “valley of Achor as a door of hope” to the time of Yeshua’s first coming, but Isaiah also talks about a physical translation that takes place at His second coming. Isaiah 65:9-10 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me. We will pass that mound of stones again, but this time it won’t be trouble to us, it will be a door of hope for we will no longer have a “mantle of Shinar”. We have coveted and worn that Babylonian garment for far too long.
I know this was long, but we have looked at the book of Hosea and YHWH is covering over 2,700 years worth of time. This is Israel or should I say, this is us over the last 2,700 years and into the future. Where, in these verses, are we today? Aren’t we still in punishment? We haven’t been allowed to come back to the land yet and because it was Him that took away our Feast Days, we are still arguing over when they are. Is He alluring us and “speaking kindly to us”? That verse literally says, “and speak to her heart”. Yes, I would say so. We tend to distance ourselves from the original tree, but this olive tree is guilty of treason. She is deserving of death. We know how the story ends, so we tend to jump ahead to the salvation part and the New Jerusalem, but YHWH has not returned to us yet and He has not called us His people yet. Are we experiencing blessings from following Torah? Absolutely! The blessing spoken on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal are still going out today.
This is where we should be today: Ezekiel 6:8-9 (NASB) “However, I will leave a remnant, for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.
I think most of us have been going through personal repentance, but He hasn’t come back yet. What is He waiting for? Besides timing, there is also another reason. Hosea 5:15 (NASB) I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
Again, we have been doing this on a personal level, however, what about as Ephraim or as Israel? He is still calling us by those names, so shouldn’t we be acknowledging our guilt for the last 2,700 years? Not just our personal sin, but also the sins of the fathers. He tells us what to do right in the middle of the Torah. He explains everything in the entire chapter of Leviticus 26, which I urge you to read, but for now, we’ll just look at Leviticus 26:40-42 (NASB) ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. He wants us not only to acknowledge our own iniquity, but also those of our forefathers as well. We cannot repent on their behalf, since that word means to turn away from iniquity, but we can certainly acknowledge and confess those sins to Him. Iniquity and sins that have been going on over the last 2,700 years is quite a long list.
What does the verse mean when it says, “or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity”? The Interlinear Bible says it this way, “if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their iniquity…” Let’s go back to Hosea 5:15 again. I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. “Until they acknowledge their guilt” is a little different in the footnotes of the NASB version. It says, “until they bear their punishment”. The Hebrew word there is asham’ and means to offend, be guilty, suffer punishment. We’ll talk about the punishment in a minute, but first, I have a "Rabbi trail".
This is again, another place where we have not left the lying tongues. We tend to believe that we are okay. That YHWH no longer remembers our iniquity and we have been forgiven and all is forgotten. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have people sick and dying. Does this world look okay to you? As believers, have we stopped suffering? What would be the reason for the bowls of wrath that still haven’t been poured out on this earth? We have to remember that the two witnesses against us, heaven and earth, are still alive and well today. It’s not until after the one thousand year reign where these two witnesses will be eliminated. See Revelation chapters 20 and 21.
One thing that is hurting our belief system in this area, is the translations from Greek to English in the New Testament. Trust me, I am not a Greek scholar, but I started to notice some inconsistencies with verb tenses. According to the webpage Blue Letter Bible, there is a verb called an aorist verb tense in the Greek and the definition of it is this, and I quote, “The aorist tense is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time. There is no direct or clear English equivalent for this tense, though it is generally rendered as a simple past tense in most translations.” This makes for some very difficult translations. It goes on to say, concerning this aorist verb tense, “The English reader need not concern himself with most of these finer points concerning the aorist tense, since in most cases they cannot be rendered accurately in English translation, being fine points of Greek exegesis only. The common practice of rendering an aorist by a simple English past tense should suffice in most cases.” This verb tense is used thousands of times in the Greek New Testament. We shouldn’t concern ourselves with something that was translated as past tense, but may not have already happened? Could this have something to do with why we are taught that we already have received the New Covenant? We do not seem to have this verb tense problem in the Old Testament as it was translated from Hebrew to English. This is why when we read the Old Testament and it talks about punishments that haven’t been received yet, but then we read the New Testament, and tend to believe that all of that sin confessing and punishments is over and done with. We are okay now. It helps to do a massive study of the New Covenant, or the Covenant of Peace and specifically, the timing of it. For further study, please start at the beginning of this webpage.
So, let’s get back to Hosea 5:15. We were looking at the footnotes in the NASB version, which would then read, I will go away and return to My place until they bear their punishment and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. Whoa! Punishment? Yes, He has not forgotten. Israel, Judah and even Jerusalem committed adultery and went against her king. She is guilty of treason. WE are guilty of treason. Remember, we ARE Israel. YHWH is waiting until we confess our sins and confess the sins of our fathers all the way back to the time this family tree began, but even more than that, to declare ourselves guilty and be willing to accept the punishment. Wow, what a scary place to be in. We tend to think that the verse in Hosea 5:15 is still speaking to those same people in the Bible, which is some phantom Israel that is already dead and gone, but He said that He will return to His place UNTIL they acknowledge their guilt. He’s still waiting, so who is going to do it? Will it be those people that are already dead and gone? Are we waiting for them to be resurrected to do this? He calls us to do this while we are in the land of our enemies, just as Leviticus 26:40-42 said. This land where we are now is not our inheritance. Yes, we are looking to a New Jerusalem, but let’s not forget that He calls her Jerusalem for a reason. She, like us, must first confess her sins and return to Him before she can be transformed and given a new body, just like us. This New Jerusalem is not a completely different city. Yes, she comes down from the shemayim (the heavens), but only after she has been transformed or “born again”. Remember, YHWH placed His name there, so she must be restored for the sake of His Name. How does the land or the city repent? By the people doing it with words. Hosea 14:1-2 (NKJV) O Israel, return to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity; take words with you, and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. I don’t think that I have fully grasped everything about Jerusalem, but please see the tab entitled “The Bride” under "Studies" for a deeper explanation on the link between the land and the people.
Ezekiel chapter 16 goes into great detail about the past, current and future time for Jerusalem and what will happen to her. I will only quote just a little bit, but I highly encourage you to read the entire chapter. Ezekiel 16:2-8 (NASB) “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born. When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD. This should begin to sound like the Song of Songs because Solomon is also singing to a place not a person. Sng 7:1-4 (KJV) How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. The land of Israel, specifically Jerusalem was the bride. The people are her children. I will explain just a little of this later. Back to Ezekiel. Jerusalem had become a harlot. Ezekiel 16:32 (NASB) “You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! YHWH gives her over to her lovers. He talks about Sodom and Samaria being her sisters. Ezekiel 16:51-55 (NASB) “Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed. Also bear your disgrace in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your disgrace, in that you made your sisters appear righteous. Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity, in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel ashamed for all that you have done when you become a consolation to them. Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state. We’ll skip down to verse 58-63 “You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations,” the LORD declares. For thus says the Lord GOD, “I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” the Lord GOD declares.
Why am I going into all of this about Jerusalem and Samaria? Because this is Israel’s and Judah’s land. This is our land. Remember, we are formed of the dust of the ground and we have become as native born. Can the land commit harlotry? According to Hosea 1:2, it can. “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the LORD.” And just like the people, the land must repent. I think that Samaria, or the northern kingdom will confess theirs sins in the land of their enemies and will then be brought back to the land of Israel. When the captivity of Samaria is returned, then Jerusalem and the people of Judah will do the same. We just read in Ezekiel 16:61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters…
You can see a picture of when Judah and Jerusalem repent and confess their sins. It is in Zechariah 12. We will just look at the last couple of verses. Starting in verse 11 “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves…”
I believe that as the house of Israel, we are to do this now - confess our sins and the sins of our fathers, not as me as an individual, but as Israel and as Ephraim (Samaria). Yes, we are all going in completely different ways with different beliefs and different ideas, but I really think this is the first step of making this a healthy tree. We cannot worry about Judah right now. She will do the same thing, but later. It is YHWH that brings these two sticks together in His own hand.
Those dreams that I had? We have allowed unclean things like the pig and the skunk to stay because we didn’t think they were in our house. Those weren’t our sins. They were the sins of the people that came out of Egypt. Not us. But, we have done the same things. Like the northern house of Israel, we have taken away from YHWH’s Word and like the southern house of Judah, we have added to YHWH’s Word. We have allowed these sins to stay like pets instead of grabbing them by the collar and tossing them out on the lawn! “That beautiful little girl wasn’t mine”, I say. Oh yes, she is. She doesn’t look like me, but she is indeed mine. Again, we need a DNA test. We ARE Israel. We are responsible for confessing the sins of the house and declaring ourselves guilty.
I will give you a link to that teacher’s website (I am not sure about his name) at the bottom of this page. However, I do caution you, just as this teacher does, to not just read through this prayer in front of YHWH. I had another dream (don’t roll your eyes) right after I read this prayer. In my dream, I was at a university and I was following around a professor. I had a card key that looked just like his that allowed me to enter all of the same doors that he did. If he left a class, I left a class. If he entered another door, I entered another door. I followed him exactly for a day. After the day was over, I went back to my dorm and my roommate asked me what I did that day. I relayed everything. The roommate asked “why did you do that?” And I replied, “so I can learn.” “No,” the roommate replied, “you have to do it yourself.” My phantom roommate was correct. We have to do the homework. We need to make a list of as many sins as we can that Israel has committed. Believe me, YHWH is very specific and we should be too. Take your time to list them. I had pages of them and this took several weeks. Also, include any sins of your own fathers that you might know of. After you feel like you’ve done this, take your paper and stand before YHWH and confess these sins to Him. I guarantee you will do it in between sobs. After you finish, I highly recommend doing a mikvah (baptism) just like this teacher recommends. Again, not as you…you have already done a baptism of repentance, but as Israel/Ephraim. I believe we will receive one again in the land and at that time, even our blood will be cleansed. Joel 3:21 (KJV) For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
I will say that the second I finished my mikvah, we had a torrential downpour outside and I felt it was like YHWH repeating Joel 2:23 to me. (HNV) "Be glad then, you children of Tziyon, And rejoice in the LORD, your God; For he gives you the former rain in just measure, And he causes the rain to come down for you, The former rain and the latter rain, As before.