To have discernment is to see things as they really are. To be spiritually minded is to view things from God's perspective. God's journey of redeeming man (arguably) started with the Patriarch Abraham. Through his obedience, YHWH's plan to form one new man from all the human races - Jews and Gentiles -was actualized. By Jesus the Messiah, a race with a common spiritual lineage could and was birthed.
God : YHWH who is Spirit, would now have a family that is described by his Spirituality and not just their flesh. He partook in their humanity not to remain there, but to lift all He 'births' to His divinity.
''by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,'' Ephesians 2:15
His idea is one new race of people with Abraham and the patriarchs as their gates (entry so to speak) and the Apostles of our Lord Jesus as the Foundation. Jesus the Messiah himself is the chief cornerstone.
As John the Apostle describes the ''bride, the wife of the Lamb'' (vs 9) in Revelation 21:10 -14:
''And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.''
This is the description of the Family of God. It includes the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles.
What am I getting at? God has not and will not neglect his promise to the Fathers- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He fulfilled it in Jesus the Messiah, but he will complete it by bringing them in.
Hence when we say #onechurch, #onefaith, #onebaptism, do not neglect to pray for Israel. For YHWH does not forget them.
Conversely, neither should a Messianic Jew fail to see the place of that Christian Brother as fellow heirs in the faith. As in Acts 10:9 - 16, the Apostle Peter had a vision in which he saw a sheet lowered from heaven containing several types of animals generally referred to (by Jews) as ceremonially 'unclean'- creatures no practicing Jew would ever eat. However, a voice from heaven said,
…“Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
To which Peter replied:
“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
To which the voice replied:
“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
The Lord would like me to concentrate on this verse 15:
'' The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
The Living Bible renders this as:
''The voice spoke again, “Don’t contradict God! If he says something is kosher, then it is.”
Your brother is Cleansed.
The Lord also told me that this is a new season. For this season, the slate is wiped clean. Like the verse above, the Lord has cleansed us for a new beginning. Here, your Brother (with Jesus truly as his Lord) is clean. The cleaning is not because it is deserved, but because the mercy of YHWH has willed it. The Head of the Church has declared the slate clean. Let's write now, a posterity worth recounting to generations of Believers who will hear about us as we now hear about the Acts of the Apostles in the Scriptures. Let us run a race we and the Lord can be proud of.
He enables us by His Spirit. Amen
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