How to Enter Your Afterlife Now
DAY 317
THE GUARDIAN
COME,” SAID THE teacher. “Let’s go for a camel ride.”
“To where?” I asked.
“To nowhere in particular,” he said. “Just for a ride.”
So we embarked on a desert journey to nowhere in particular. It was late afternoon when we began. We rode parallel to each other, slow enough and close enough to be able to carry on a continuous conversation.
“Many journeys in the Bible were made with camels. So it was with Rebekah. When she said yes to marrying Isaac, Abraham’s servant immediately prepared to take her and her maidens on a long journey through a Middle Eastern desert. That was the mission for which he had been sent, to find a bride for Isaac and to bring her back to the groom. Imagine seeing it . . . a caravan of camels carrying on their backs a bride, her maiden, and all their possessions across the desert landscape. Rebekah was being led by a man she had never seen before, a stranger, the servant of Abraham. She was in his care. She was now his responsibility. He was her guardian for the journey. It was his responsibility to bring her safely through the desert and home to the tents of Abraham. Only he knew the way. Rebekah had no idea. So what did she have to do?”
“She just had to trust . . . trust his intentions, his knowledge, his leading, and his commitment to bring her where she had to go. And she had to let him bring her there.”
“Now let’s open up the mystery,” he said. “Rebekah represents the bride. And Abraham’s servant, the servant of the father, represents the Holy Spirit. And the servant’s mission is to bring the bride to the Bridegroom. Thus it is the Spirit’s mission and responsibility to lead you, to keep you, to protect you, to guard against your going off the path, and to bring you safely home. And since He alone knows the way, what must you do?”
“Trust Him to lead me where I need to go . . . and let Him lead.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “the bride must be guided by the leading of the Spirit every day of her life. Each day she must let Him lead her and go where He leads. She doesn’t need to know every detail of the journey or the path. She just needs to know Him who journeys with her, and to allow herself to be moved by His moving. And as she stays close to Him and goes as He leads, she will end up dwelling in the tents of the Father.”
The Mission: Live today in the leading of the Spirit. Go only where He goes. Move as He moves. Let your every step be guided by His.
Genesis 24:51–61; John 16:13; Romans 8:14
The Isaac Rebekah Wedding Mystery I–III
DAY 318
THE MOSES PARADIGM
IT WAS A breezy and hot afternoon. We were sitting at a table in the shade just outside the Chamber of Books.
“I call it ‘the Moses paradigm,’” said the teacher. “It’s one of the most important keys of your calling. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. But what happened before he did that? Years before the Exodus, God caused Moses to undertake his own exodus out of Egypt. Only after Moses’s own exodus did Moses lead the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses brought Israel to Mount Sinai. But years before that event, God brought Moses to the same mountain, Mount Sinai. When Moses fled from Egypt, he came to the land of Midian and there entered into the covenant of marriage. Forty years later, Moses would bring Israel to the same land to enter into a covenant of marriage to God. Do you see the pattern?”
“Everything happened to Moses first, then to Israel.”
“Yes. But it goes back even further. When Moses was a baby, God caused Pharaoh’s daughter to draw him out of the Nile River and thus save his life. It was because of that that he was given the name Mosheh, or Moses, which means drawn out. And what was Moses’s calling and destiny? It was to draw out his people from the land and ways of Egypt. So his entire life and calling, his destiny, was to do that which was done to him, to save others by drawing them out. The Moses Paradigm is this: The key of your calling and life is found in what God has done for you. In the same way that God has touched your life, so touch the lives of others. The disciples fulfilled their calling when they made disciples of others, as they themselves had been made disciples by Messiah. Paul fulfilled his calling when he imparted to others the revelations that God had imparted to him, and when he ministered grace to the lives of others as God had first ministered that grace to him. As God has given Himself to you, so give yourself to others. As God has saved you, so save others. And deeper than that, love others not only as God has loved you, but with the same love with which He has loved you. For all that God has called you to do and fulfill, you already have. God has already done for you . . . Now go and do likewise.”
The Mission: How has God saved you, loved you, and touched your life? Use your life to do the same for others. Begin today.
Exodus 2:1–10; Matthew 10:8; John 15:9; Ephesians 3:7–8
Graduation I–II
DAY 319
THE UNENDING BOOK
HE LED ME into the Chamber of Scrolls and to one of its rooms where a solitary scroll was resting on a wooden stand, unrolled to its end.
“The Book of Acts,” he said. “Tell me about it.”
“It begins where the Gospel accounts end,” I replied. “It’s the sequel, the account of what happened to the disciples, how they went forth in the power of the Spirit and spread salvation to the world.”
“Yes,” said the teacher. “It’s the account of miracles, healings, and the spreading of the Gospel to foreign lands. It’s the account of a people who could not be stopped, who overcame all odds, all barriers, all opposition, and the world.”
“They were an amazing people.”
“And this is how it ends,” he said. He began reading from the last words at the end of the scroll. “‘Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah with all confidence, no one forbidding him.’” He paused for a few moments of silence, then asked, “Did you notice anything strange?”
“Like what?”
“There’s no ending. There’s no closure, no finality, nothing. It’s as if the book was cut short in the middle of two paragraphs. God was obviously overseeing its writing, and yet it has no ending. Why?”
“Tell me.”
“Because the Book of Acts has no ending. The Book of Acts never ended. How could it? The Gospel is still here. The Spirit is still here. The disciples are still here. The acts of God are still here. The Book of Acts is still here. And we’re in it. You’re in it. And what they did back then, you are to do now. As they spread the Gospel to the multitudes then, you are to do so now. As they could not be stopped then, you are to become unstoppable now. As miracles followed them then, miracles are to follow to you now. As they overcame all odds, all barriers, and all opposition then, you are to overcome the same, all things now. And as they changed their world then, you, by that same power, are to change your world now. The Book of Acts never ended, so that you could be part of it. So be part of it. Write your own chapter. Live as if you were actually living in the Book of Acts . . . because you are.”
The Mission: Live today as if you lived in the Book of Acts and as if your life and your acts were being recorded in Scripture.
Acts 1:7–8; 2:39; 28:30–31
The Book of Acts
DAY 320
THE KARAT
IT WAS EVENING. We sat at opposite ends of a small wooden table in the center of a mostly empty chamber. Resting on the table in front of the teacher were two small parchments. “This,” he said, pointing to one of them, “is from the Book of Jeremiah, the promise of the new covenant. The prophecy begins, ‘“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”’ It ends with the words, ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” He turned the parchment around and moved it acr
oss the table so I could see the text. “But in Hebrew,” he said as he pointed to the bottom of the parchment, “it doesn’t say, ‘I will make a new covenant.’ The word is karat. It means to cut, as in offering up a sacrifice. The prophecy literally says, ‘I will cut a covenant’ or ‘I will make a new covenant through the cutting of a sacrifice.’ So according to the Hebrew prophecies, the new covenant can only begin with a sacrifice. Only then can sin be forgiven.”
He lifted up the second parchment. “This is from the Book of Daniel . . . the prophecy of the event that will ‘finish the transgression, make an end of sins, and make atonement for iniquity,’—the same thing promised in the new covenant. But Daniel’s prophecy will reveal the nature of the sacrifice . . . and its timing.”
He now moved the parchment of Daniel across the table so I could see.
“Do you know what this says?” he asked, “It says ‘Messiah shall be cut off.’ And do you know what it says in Hebrew? Karat. It’s the same word. It means the new covenant will begin with the cutting of a sacrifice. So Messiah will be the sacrifice that is offered up to begin the new covenant. Daniel’s prophecy goes on to reveal the timing. Messiah would be killed and then Jerusalem would be destroyed. Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. That means . . . ”
“The Messiah has definitely come. The sacrifice has definitely been offered up. And the new covenant has been cut and has definitely begun.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “and just as definitely that means that your iniquities are, without question, forgiven, and your sins are absolutely and conclusively remembered no more.”
The Mission: The karat is the sign and assurance that your sins are absolutely remembered no more. Live in the confidence and repercussions of that fact.
Jeremiah 31:31–34; Daniel 9:24–26; Hebrews 9:14; 13:20–21
A Most Holy Verse
DAY 321
THE NAME IN WHICH YOU ARE
WE WERE SITTING in the sandy plain, in the same place where the teacher had in the past drawn symbols in the sand. But this time he handed me the stick and asked me to draw. So I did, slowly, as he directed. When I was finished, he told me what it was that I inscribed in the sand.
“Each of the symbols you drew,” he said, “is a Hebrew letter. The first is the yud. The second is the shin. The third is the vav. And the last is the ayin. Do you recognize it?” he asked. “It’s how the name Yeshua looks in Hebrew, which was then translated into ‘Jesus.’”
“Yeshua,” I replied, “Messiah’s real name.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “but think about it. He wasn’t always Yeshua or Jesus.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before the creation, the Son was with the Father and the Word was with God. He was the Son. And He was the Word. But He wasn’t called Yeshua. In view of eternity, He has only borne the name Yeshua for a very short time. Why was it that He was given that name?
“Because He was to save His people from their sins.”
“Do you remember what Yeshua actually means?”
“God is salvation.”
“Yes. So it wasn’t His inherent name nor His Name from the beginning. In the beginning there was no sin, no darkness, no fall, no crisis, no brokenness, no judgment, no death, no need for salvation. For His Name to be Yeshua from the beginning would make no sense. Think about it. His Name is Yeshua because of us . . . because of our need to be saved. So every time His Name is spoken, it proclaims His being joined to us. And He chose to bear that name forever. And do you know what else that name means? It means we’re actually in His Name. It’s the salvation of us that His Name is declaring. It’s the salvation of you. His Name declares your salvation. You’re in His Name. And when you receive Yeshua, when He becomes your salvation . . . then it’s all complete.”
“It’s as if His Name is a prophecy . . . a prophecy that comes true when you receive it.”
“His Name is a mystery in which we are part. And when you receive the name, then the name is fulfilled. God becomes your salvation. And all who receive the name . . . are already in it . . . Yeshua.”
The Mission: Ponder this mystery: You are in His Name. He was named for you. You are joined forever. Seek what that means. And live this day in that joining.
Isaiah 12:1–3; Jeremiah 23:5–7; 33:16; Matthew 1:21; John 1:1–2
Yeshuati
DAY 322
THE SCEPTER OF JUDAH
HE REMOVED THE scroll from the ark and read from the Book of Genesis: “‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet . . . until Shiloh comes.’ This,” he said, “was a prophecy given by the patriarch Jacob to the tribe of Judah. What was Shiloh?”
“I have no idea.”
“Listen,” said the teacher, “to what the rabbis wrote in the Book of Sanhedrin in the Talmud, concerning Jacob’s prophecy: ‘What is Messiah’s name? . . . His Name is Shiloh, for it is written: “Until Shiloh comes.”’ What are they saying?”
“They’re identifying Shiloh as Messiah,” I said. “So then the scepter won’t depart from Judah until Messiah comes. But then what is the scepter?”
“A scepter is what a king holds. It denotes power, rule, dominion, and sovereignty. So the rabbis understood it this way: The power of dominion would not be removed from Judah, or the Jewish people, until the coming of the Messiah. And the crux of that dominion, they said, was the power of life and death, the power to decide cases involving capital punishment.”
“So then the Messiah would have to come before the power of life and death, capital punishment, was removed from Judah.”
“Yes. And the rabbis went further. They actually identified the moment in time when it happened. They wrote that when the members of the Sanhedrin found themselves deprived of the right over life and death, they cried out, ‘Woe to us, for the scepter has departed from Judah and Messiah has not come.’ When did that take place? The Book of Sanhedrin gives the answer: The scepter departed from Judah forty years before the destruction of the Temple, thus forty years before the year AD 70. Therefore, according to the rabbis, the year the scepter departed from Judah and thus the year by which Messiah had to have come was AD 30. Do you realize what that means? Of all the years of Jewish history, in all the years of human history, the Book of Sanhedrin itself marks the year by which Messiah had to appear . . . as AD 30—which just happens to be the very same time in human history when a man appears in Israel who will change the course of human history and be known throughout the earth as Messiah . . . Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth!”
“So according to the rabbis, the time of Messiah’s coming . . . is AD 30.”
The Mission: Even the Book of Sanhedrin bears witness that Messiah has come. Live this day and beyond a life that manifests that fact.
Genesis 49:10; Matthew 26:63–64; Ephesians 1:20–22; Colossians 15:24–28
The Scepter of Judah
DAY 323
THE GARDEN OF MIRACLES
DURING ONE OF our walks by the gardens I asked him a question I had been pondering.
“You shared with me how on the day of man’s creation, on the sixth day, God brought man into a garden of life. Then, on the day of man’s redemption, on the sixth day, man brought God into a garden of death, a garden tomb.”
“That’s correct,” he said.
“But when God placed man in the garden, it wasn’t the end of the story, but the beginning. God put man in the garden to work the garden, to tend to it. The garden was a real functioning garden. It was an ongoing work. So when man placed God in the garden of death, wouldn’t it also be an ongoing work? And, if so, what is the ongoing work of the Garden Tomb?”
“A garden tomb,” said the teacher, “the most radical of places. A tomb is a place of ending, but a garden is a place of beginnings. Tombs are where life ends, but gardens are where life begins. So a garden tomb is the place of death and life, the end and the beginning.”
“A place of life after death,” I said, “resurrection.
”
“Yes. And how does life begin in a garden?” he asked. “It rises. It rises up from the earth.”
“The rising of Messiah from the earth.”
“And what rises in a garden? That which has descended to the earth. The seed. And what did Messiah liken His death to?”
“A seed falling into the earth and dying.”
“And what happened to the seed of Messiah’s life as it was buried in the Garden Tomb?”
“It bore life. It rose.”
“And so,” said the teacher, “it is an ongoing work. Just as the Garden of Eden was to be. Whatever is brought into this garden, whatever is planted in the Garden Tomb will bear a miracle. Whatever you plant here, your past, your broken dreams, your old life, your failures, your losses, your tears, whatever you let go of here, your treasures, your life, whatever it is that you plant in this garden will come alive again and blossom and bring forth life, a miracle more beautiful than what you planted. For this tomb is now the Garden of God . . . and the ground of miracles.”
The Mission: Take all in your life that failed, that was taken or lost, that was broken, or that came to an end, all your sorrows. Come to the Tomb and plant them in the Garden of Miracles.
Genesis 1:27–29; Isaiah 61:3; John 19:31–20:16; 1 Corinthians 15:36–37, 42–44
The Gardener
DAY 324
THE RETURN OF THE PROTOTYPE
IT WAS AT the beginning of the age,” said the teacher, “that the new covenant faith was in its original and most natural state.”
“And what was its original and most natural state?”
“Revolutionary,” he said, “set against the status quo of the world . . . underground, miraculous, countercultural, distinct, radical, powerful, overcoming, and world-changing . . . And it was also something else.”
The Book of Mysteries Page 46
