Leah's Story by Leah Ann Paul

 

Leah’s Story by Leah Ann Paul.

The Search.

Looking back, I can now see that the revelation given to me has caused an immense impact on my life.  I understand that it is a great privilege to have had it bestowed on me, but I also know that a tremendous responsibility comes along with it.  The privilege lays in the fact that throughout all of history only a very few handful of souls had ever been entrusted with such an experience.  Likewise the huge responsibility lays in the fact that I had to live a life totally worthy of this high calling.  I knew that since much had been given and entrusted to me, that much would also be required of me.

 

The reality of the deep chasm separating the transcendent nature of what was revealed to me against the backdrop of my mundane everyday life seemed almost too much for me to bear.  I was constantly aware of the fact that many of the people that touched my life led lives much more worthy of my experience than I considered myself to be.  It seemed that the harder I tried the more inadequate my life seemed in comparison to the life of others.  The acknowledgement of this fact was often extremely painful and bore with it a very keen type of guilt impossible to compare with any of the other more common types of guilt.

 

For many years after my return from the spirit realm, I found myself unable to cope with life in this world.  I went from day to day with no choice but to have to constantly compare the indescribably sublime realm of the spirit with the mediocre and mundane life in this realm.  I was experiencing a spiritual phenomenon, which St.  John of the Cross rightly called the ‘dark night of the soul.’ Looking back, I now realize that my ‘dark night’ had been extremely dark and extremely long.  For almost 40 years I subconsciously struggled with God for having brought me back to this ‘valley of tears’ as Teresa of Avila described life on earth.  The questions of ‘why’ and ‘what for’ were always there lurking in the recesses of my subconscious mind.  Why did I have to leave the only place in which I had ever felt true and infinite love, compassion and understanding? What were God’s great reasons and purposes for having brought me back here? I had tasted the pearl of great price.  I had to sell everything and go back to my pearl…no matter how long it took in the process.

 

Never having felt too comfortable here in the first place, I finally had discovered my true home in which I felt total peace and joy beyond words.  Yet now I found myself thrust back into this ‘valley of tears’, which generated a torture and torment within me beyond words.  To intensify my pain even further, I slowly came to realize that chances were I would never find even one soul to understand my secret agony.  Who would I be able to share this with? Who would not only understand, but somehow also believe me? These questions went around in my mind over and over again thus creating an even greater isolation from everyone around me.

 

My soul would go through periods of excruciating spiritual torment that only another person who has gone through it could possibly understand.  Perhaps I might have felt unloved or unwanted at times in my life as many others have, yet now I felt somehow unloved and unwanted by God, Himself.  In my young mind I viewed my return to this realm as a rejection by God.  My relationship with others began to take on a very different meaning for me.  I was forced to feel hypocritical around others since I felt that they could never come to know the ‘real’ me.  I often felt as if I was hiding a huge secret from them.  I could never tell them this secret because they would never understand.

 

No amount of trying to share and relate my experience to others seemed to work.  The people I had tried to share this with, thought that I had imagined all of it or that I was hallucinating.  Some would look at me with a daze of unbelief and others would stare back with a look of utter boredom.  They seemed to all be mocking the one thing that meant much more to me than life itself.  These reactions from others caused me to retreat even more into myself.  It has been a lonely struggle and a solitary plight.  How I longed for my true home and to be in the presence of my Beloved.  Faced with the ever present and forbidding darkness, temptations and sorrows my soul ached with the desire to be in that total union with my Beloved that I had already tasted…however fleetingly.  Nothing I could aspire to or attain to could ever satisfy my soul the way that the fleeting touch of my Beloved had.  I would give a thousand worlds for one second in His presence.

 

Although I had been raised a strict Catholic, I often wondered if what we were being taught in school was the absolute ‘truth.’ I often thought, “where did all these beliefs come from”? Who had come from the dead and explained to them what God, heaven and hell were like? Who had told them about the trinity? All these wonderful and awesome doctrines being taught to us were sometimes difficult to comprehend fully in our young minds.  How could they be so sure that all the dogmas and doctrines they were teaching us were indeed absolute truth? The trinity, itself, made no sense to me.  How could God be one and three at the same time? How could I accept something as absolute truth, which I found so utterly confusing?

 

Then came the cross.  I wondered why the God who had created this vast and beautiful universe would require an innocent person who was also His only Son (or so they claimed) to suffer such a horrible and gruesome death? I could not make the ultimate connection between the God of creation and the God taught to me in Catholic school.

 

When I observed the beauty and perfection in nature all around me I knew there had to be a very awesome and loving God somewhere.  This same God had to be magnificent and worthy of our utmost praise and devotion.  All of creation gave clear evidence and complete testimony of His awesome greatness, majesty and wonder.  My young mind questioned these things and little did I know that He, Himself, would provide the answer I was so intently searching for.

 

 

 

The Messiah.

 

It was a normal summer’s day in 1967, yet little did I know that my life was never to be the same again after that day.  Everything began to happen very rapidly as I just closed my eyes to rest for a few moments.  Immediately I felt my spirit or what I know as ‘me’ lift up through my head and begin to ascend.  As I went higher and higher, I also began to accelerate until I was traveling very rapidly so that the stars themselves seemed to give the effect that I was going through a tunnel of light.

 

At a distance in the firmament I could see a very bright light. As I rapidly approached this light I could perceive that I was going towards something very wonderful and I was overwhelmed with the joy of what lay ahead of me in this brilliant light.  Even though I understood that I was traveling through the galaxies never did I feel any type of fear or discomfort; I was totally at ease and felt as much ‘at home’ as I do here on earth.

 

When I finally reached the brilliant light my spirit came to a complete stop. As soon as I stopped my entire being seemed to explode into what I can best describe as an ocean of Divine Love.  This love was so great and encompassing that I know very well that there are no human words that can adequately describe it.  It is the Love of God that is so great, so sublime and so perfect that it passes all human understanding.  In other words it is so enormous and fully perfect that it cannot possibly ever enter or fit into the mind of man; the mind of flesh cannot comprehend this powerful and awesome spiritual love of God.  All of a sudden I found myself melting into this ocean of sublime love that God felt for all of His creation, it was all around me and came from within me and from without me and seemed to pulsate with its own life as it expanded outwards through the entire universe.  This majestic love united and established the brotherhood of creation.

 

Within and as part of this vast ocean of love I also felt a great peace and rest. I could only describe it as God’s rest.  It was much different than any other peace or rest I had ever experienced on earth. This was a complete and total rest of my entire being.  As I experienced this completely satisfying rest and peace of God I realized that what I had understood to be rest was not really rest. All of a sudden I felt a release from an invisible constant struggle.

 

Whether we realize this or not, we are always working when we live on this earth.  We have to be many different things to different people.  We must act the way we are required to act and as others expect us to.  Our minds are always working with issues or concerns that affect our day-to-day life.  I understood that I had lived in this constant subtle struggle although I had not been aware of it.  Now I found myself in God’s rest and I could feel and enjoy this pure and perfect state of being. I realized that all along life on earth had indeed been a struggle and now I was at rest for the very first time!  My soul stood now completely naked. There was nothing that could be hidden from the all-encompasing eye of the Father.  Now I understood that we are not ever able to comprehend fully who we are in the intimate core of our being.  Yet in God’s divine realm our true selves will stand naked before the all-perceiving eye of The God of all creation.  We shall fully understand and be fully understood.

 

Through all of the experience and what was revealed to me I do not remember having heard any audible words.  I was receiving information directly into my mind.  It was being relayed to me at a very rapid pace in a way that could never be accomplished on earth.  My mind was being flooded with what seemed like all the wisdom and knowledge of heaven itself.  Every question I had ever had was now being answered to the minutest detail.

 

Then suddenly I began to observe certain things and events in what appeared to be a huge screen before me.  The very first thing I saw was a man dressed in a white robe with his back to me.  The man had his hands lifted up in adoration and he had a gold band that went around his waist.  He also had a turban on his head and I noticed that there were tiny bells that dangled from the hem of his robe. He was standing in front of some type of altar and he was sacrificing a small animal on it.  The altar itself had been built with stone upon stone and I could see that no mortar had been used in its construction.  From the sacrifice on this altar I saw a cloud of smoke that rose up in the sky, there was an intense holiness and reverence about the scene I was observing

 

At that time I had no idea what this was or represented.  Yet later I understood that this was a high holy priest of ancient Israel sacrificing a sin offering for his people.

 

Immediately after this I was taken to a place where I could see the entire planet earth beneath me.  I observed as something somewhere on the planet began to rise up.  Slowly as it rose I could see that it was a cross.  It continued to rise until it became a very huge cross in the sky, then suddenly I observed as an enormous cloud of smoke emanated from this cross and went around the entire circumference of the earth.

 

I understood that the event that took place upon that cross way exceeded in importance anything that happened before or after this day.  It was by far the most important day in all of history for the God who created the vast universe.

 

The sacrificial offering up of animals was required up to the point of the Messiah’s ultimate sacrifice of Himself for the sins of all people on the face of the earth.  These animal sacrifices were the shadow of things to come and pointed towards the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

 

These sacrificial offerings required of ancient Israel for the forgiveness of sins were also a type of visual aid that helped the Israelites understand that sin had a price that was required to be paid.  Blood had to be shed for the forgiveness of sins.  An innocent animal had to serve as a substitute for guilty men and its blood had to be shed in place of the blood of guilty human beings.  These sacrifices also helped to remind Israel that their God required blood for the forgiveness of sins.  “For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls” ( Lev.  17:11).

 

The God who created this vast universe is a perfect God; He cannot observe any type of defect or fault in man.  If He does observe fault or sin in us then He cannot, by any means, accept us into His Kingdom.  This does not mean that we can live a life free from fault, sin and failure since by the mere fact that we are human represents that we are also weak and prone to sin and failure. Therefore since God cannot accept us if He observes these defects in us we require a middle-man or a type of scape-goat to make atonement for our sins and failures. By our mere human nature we are ALL prone to sin and failure and the fact is that nothing we can do can ever change this reality.  The sin offering provided by God had to be perfect and without any type of blemish whatsoever in order to take our place and be our substitute. Since no human being ever born from a woman could ever meet those requirements…God had to send Himself…in the form of His Son to die for each and everyone of us.

 

When Balak sent Balaam to curse Israel and therefore enable him to subsequently conquer them he was not able to ever utter one evil word against Israel.  God allowed Balaam to observe Israel the way He saw Israel.  When Balaam opened his mouth to curse Israel he had to bless them because he observed Israel sin-free as God saw them.  By way of the animal sacrifices offered up for the forgiveness of their sins Balaam saw Israel perfectly innocent and sin free as God saw them. This does not mean that they were sin-free…but that God OBSERVED them to be sin-free!

 

And in the firmament I saw a great light that was rapidly approaching me.  As this brilliant light was coming towards me, I could observe that in the center was a figure of a man.  As He came nearer and nearer the light became as bright as the sun around Him and radiated outwards from Him.  His robe was luminescent and pulsated as if it had a life of its own.  Then He came very close and I could capture His incredible majesty and beauty.  His eyes were like torches of fire that seemed to burn right through to my innermost being.  They gazed at me with love and knowledge to the utmost.  I was aware that my soul stood naked before Him and there was absolutely nothing at all that I could ever hide from Him.  He knew the reasons behind the reasons of every single one of my actions and thoughts before and after this encounter. He knew the thoughts behind the thoughts I had had and would have.  He knew me much better than I could ever know myself.  The amazing and very touching reality was the fact that eventhough He knew me so very well yet He loved me with a love so strong that it surpassed by far any human emotion I could ever experience on earth.  I still did not know who this incredible being was.  As I felt that my spirit was melting under the immense weight of His boundless love and compassion I could do nothing more but fall at His feet.

 

As soon as I fell to His feet I knew who this being was.  There were two scars…one on each of His feet.  All of the holiness and awesome sacredness of heaven were emanating from His precious feet.  The ultimate and complete and joy I felt while lying prostrate at His feet is impossible to describe.  My soul was totally satiated, fulfilled and overflowing with love and gratitude.  I know that I would have been totally content to have stayed right where I was throughout all of eternity…I knew I would need nothing more than this.  Billows of thankfulness emanated from my being as I realized that it was my sins that had caused these scars on my beloved’s feet.  This was the Prince of Peace, the Rock of Ages, the King of the Jews, the Messiah and the Savior of mankind.  For this precious moment in time He was not just the Savior of all of mankind He was my Savior.  I knew that if I was the only human being ever born in all of creation He would have suffered and given Himself as a sacrifice just to save me.  His love was that great and that intimately personal.  Although I felt the weight and seriousness of all my sins before and after this encounter I did not feel any fear whatsoever.  As I stood an open book before Him His all encompassing eye saw and covered any sin or imperfection He beheld in me.  In His presence there was perfect peace, perfect love and perfect forgiveness.  All of the love that filled the entire universe seemed to bounce and emanate from Him to me and then back again from me to Him.

 

Love itself is not of the same nature here on earth as it is in the spiritual realm.  Love here can mean many things to different people.  Many times human love has a selfish motive behind it even though we may not be aware of it.  Love in the spirit realm is totally pure and of a very self-less nature.  There is absolutely no frame of reference between the eternal and the physical realm.  Just as love itself is of a different nature so are many other details of our lives here on earth also very different when compared to the realm of the infinite.

 

Many insignificant and often times menial aspects of our lives here on earth are seen as extremely important and valuable from the perspective of the infinite realm of God.  The opposite is also true.  Events, objects and details that seem to be of so much value to us in this realm are of absolutely no consequence in the next realm.  Wealth, positions of honor and material possessions for example will mean nothing and be of no help to us whatsoever in the infinite realm.  Not that these things will not be of much help but that they will be of absolutely NO HELP TO US WHATSOEVER!  I cannot stress this enough because I, myself, found this detail of the difference between the finite and infinite realms of existence so surprising and difficult to understand.  I was experiencing it, yet it was a fact that amazed me and still does to this day. I can try as much as I can to explain this truth but I know that only after a soul experiences this on their own will they be able to understand it fully….unfortunately many times it will be too late by then.  In the face of His infinite realm and before His awesome majesty and wonder all of our earthly trappings and treasures will melt away like wax and disappear forever…I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!!

 

Most of humanity wastes its time amassing material possessions and positions of honor which will be of no value whatsoever to them when they come face to face with the realm of the spirit.  The only actions that will stand the test of the infinite are those actions done out of humility, self-less love and repentant contrition. OUR SOULS SHALL STAND NAKED BEFORE THE ALL SEEING EYE OF OUR INFINITE GOD!!!!

 

The Word of God is an absolute.  All of heaven and earth will pass away but His Word will remain.  The Messiah came to us as the Word of God in the flesh.  The Father would never have sent the Messiah to us without first giving us clear substantiation of who He was and what He would do for us.  This is why the entire Torah gives us evidence of His person and His mission as it clearly points to Him as the promised Messiah.

 

Each of the ancient festivals of Israel is a type of visual aid that help us to understand who the Messiah is and what He came to accomplish for us on earth.

 

He is Noah’s ark as He shelters us and saves us from destruction.  He is the Passover Lamb as His innocent and spotless blood was shed for our sins.  He is Joshua that led His people into the promised land.  He is Isaac who was to be sacrificed on the altar on Mount Moriah as a test of Abraham’s love for God.  This act was forshadowing the day when God, Himself, would sacrifice His precious and beloved Son in order to reveal His immense love for us.  He is Joseph who saved the entire then known world from famine after his own brothers left Him for dead and he was sold into slavery in Egypt.  The story of Joseph and his brothers is a perfect prototype of Yeshua, the Messiah, and His relationship with His own Jewish brethren today. In the end Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and though they were terrified he tells them not to fear. Jospeh goes on to forgive them and assure them that eventhough they meant it for evil…God used it for good to save the entire world and them also from death. He then cries on their necks instead of they on his…so great was his love for them. He is also Rahab’s scarlet cord representing His shed blood for our sins.  Though she was a sinner the red cord saved her and her entire household when all of Jericho was destroyed.  It represents the completeness of the Messiah’s atonement and how His blood cleanses us from all sins no matter how serious in nature these sins might be.

 

I understood that there was no other way that a person could attain eternal life in the realm of the kingdom of the Father without the redemptive grace of the sinless Lamb of God.  There is just no other way provided for the sins of mankind to be forgiven and thus enable us to enter God’s eternal kingdom.  We can never do this ourselves.  We may think that we can do it but there is just no way that we are able to make ourselves clean and sin-free, it is just humanly impossible.  When we do not understand His sacrifice fully…we somehow think that we have to help God with our own salvation.  We do not comprehend the ultimate ‘completeness’ of His sacrifice for us.  When Jesus uttered the words…’It is finished’…from the cross He meant just that…’finished’.  Nothing more had to be added to it or taken away from it… it was in and of itself…total, complete and finished.

 

It is written that ‘our righteousness are as filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6).  It does not say that our sins are as filthy rags but that our ‘righteousness’ are filthy.  What may seem as pure and holy to us may be totally unacceptable to the eyes of a holy and awesome God.  He sees and can perceive what we cannot.  He sees the reasons behind the reasons of our actions and if He perceives ‘self’ and ‘self-centeredness’ in any of our actions He cannot and will not accept them.  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord, search the heart, and I test the mind” (Jer 17:9-10).

 

No amount of clean living, no amount of righteousness or good works can make atonement for our sins and failures. If we think that we can make ourselves clean and provide for our own salvation then the Messiah died in vain. This kind of thinking places too much emphasis on our own actions.  God wants us to focus on Him and the sacrifice He provided for us.  His mercy, grace and compassion granted us this priceless gift.  We cannot obtain it or earn it in any way…it is a free gift from God to us.  This becomes fully evident in the fact that while we were yet sinners He sent His Son to die for us. This is why God many times chooses people who had lived lives steeped in sin to show us the totality of His forgiveness. Our thought should always be…”Lord, if you forgave that horrible sinner…you can certainly forgive me!”  We should try and live holy and sinless lives out of sheer and utter thankfulness and appreciation for the great gift and sacrifice of His Son sent to us all.

 

 

 

The Chosen People.

 

Before me as if on a very large screen I saw the face of an old man.  I understood immediately that this was no ordinary old man.  The man before me had been very special to God, Himself, and I knew then that this person was Abraham the patriarch.

 

Suddenly I felt as if I had entered the relationship that existed between Abraham and God.  I felt the warmth and genuine friendship that had existed between them both.  Just as we have very close or best friends that we esteem higher than all our other friends so Abraham was God’s very best friend.  It is almost impossible for us to comprehend how God could have a mere human being as a best friend but the scriptures testify to this fact.  Apart from Abraham, the patriarch, no other person in all of history was ever given the honor of being selected to be God’s best friend.  “But you, Israel are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, my friend.” (Isaiah 41:8).

 

Since then Abraham was so very special to Him, then also all of Abraham’s descendents would be very special to God.  He would look kindly on all of his descendents for the sake of the love He had for Abraham.  The same love He felt for Abraham was passed down to each and every one of his descendants throughout the centuries.  His special love for Abraham and his descendants would never fail.  He valued each and every one of them just as much as He valued and esteemed Abraham.  “I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that curse you.” (Gen 12:3).  Again He states, “For he that touches you touches the apple of my eye” (Zech 2:8)).

 

The pupil or the apple of the eye is the most sensitive and delicate part of the entire body.  The pupil allows us to observe things around us whether they be good or evil.  By stating that Abraham’s descendants are the apple of His eye, God is making a very bold statement.  He is saying that He actually sees or touches the world through these descendants of Abraham.  He did not choose them because they are special in and of themselves, He chose them because ‘He’ is special and chose to touch or see the world by way of or through them.

 

I observed what seemed to be a huge tapestry that filled the sky before me.  Then I saw as the Father wove something in and out of this huge piece of fabric.  I understood this fabric to be the nations and what He was weaving in and out of it were the Jewish people.  He was doing this to bless the nations and to shed His light wherever they went to or were scattered to…even to the four corners of the world.  They were the main thread with which He wove the tapestry of the nations.  He was sending them out to bless the entire world.  It didn’t matter that the nations and they themselves were unaware of this truth; God could only bless the world by way of these descendants of Abraham.

 

I saw that the world was covered with a blanket of darkness and that the Jewish people were like tiny lights that shone in that darkness.  Each one of them gave off light that shone in the darkness so that all the nations could see.  They illuminated the darkness not in and of themselves but in as far as they shed the light of God.  They had the light of God’s Word, His commandments, His oracles, His appointed Feast Days.  Even after they were dispersed throughout the nations they carried this ‘light’ with them.

 

If the Torah, itself, were the only gift of the Jewish people to the world that would have been enough.  It is impossible to measure the enormous value and significance of this special Jewish gift to the world.  Great nations have risen and fallen in accordance to how they have lived up to or failed to live up to the simple Ten Commandments and principles found in God’s Word.

 

Besides the immense and priceless contribution of God’s own Word to the world the Jewish people themselves have been a blessing.  They have excelled in the fields of science, medicine and the arts etc.  There is not a nation under the sun that has not benefited by their presence in some way. Yet the greatest gift the Jews have given the world is the Messiah, Himself.

 

Since the Jewish people were so beloved and used by God to bless the nations the enemies of God would also become their enemies.  Through the centuries the enemies of God or evil forces have selected charismatic leaders to spread their venom.  Many times these were lukewarm Christian leaders who poisoned the minds of the masses to persecute and destroy God’s chosen people.  Huge waves of anti Semitism spread through various times in history to bring about their almost total annihilation.  The fact that there still is Jewish presence still in this world after so many attempts made towards their annihilation is the surest proof of the existence of their God.

 

Yet there have been cases, however isolated, of Gentiles who have shown by their bravery and courage a great love for God’s chosen people.  These beloved Gentiles sometimes paid with their own lives as evidence of their love God’s chosen people.  “Come beloved of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren (brothers of the womb, my blood brothers) you did it to Me.” (Matt 25:35).

 

And I saw the Son sitting on a throne and He was judging the Gentile nations  This was the Last Throne Judgment and He was separating the sheep from the goats.  At His right hand He placed those whom had been good to the chosen people and to the left those who had not.  It will be just as He said the difference between heaven and hell for all of eternity will be determined by how these people living in their midst had been treated.  If they cursed God’s chosen then they would be cursed, if they blessed them then the blessing would fall upon them.

 

While I was in the Spirit, I saw the Father (not with my natural eyes but with my spiritual eyes) and He was sitting on a throne.  All around this throne were huge billows of clouds.  Incredible glory and majesty filled the firmament.  Mere human words could never describe the absolute splendor, holiness and sacredness that emanated from His being.  There is continuous praise and worship presented before Him by the Hosts of heaven.  While I observed this scene in wonder and amazement I could see that He had His back to the Jews and His face towards the Gentiles.  I understood this to mean the two thousand years of Jewish dispersion and suffering.  It represented all the suffering, shame and dishonor that they were allowed to endure when they were scattered to all the Gentile nations on the face of the earth.  He had indeed hidden His face from His people as it is written: “and your sins have hidden His face from you…” (Isaiah 59:2).  As He had His back towards the Jews His face was towards the Gentiles.  This represented ‘the time of the Gentiles’ and a time of great blessings for them.  Wherever the light of the gospel was spread and people lived under the saving grace of the Messiah God’s blessings were then put into effect.  Then as I observed all these events as on a huge screen before me something amazing began to happen.  Suddenly…I could see that the Father was slowly turning on His throne.  As He turned His grace turned with Him.  He slowly began to turn His face again towards the Jews.  I understood that when His face would be completely turned around again towards the Jews His back would then be turned towards the Gentiles.  This would then usher in a time of great testing and trials that the Gentile nations would have to endure.  Yet He was turning towards Israel with great compassion, mercy and infinite love.  They had suffered immensely throughout the ages.  Many times they had to endure all types of inconceivable suffering at the mercy of the citizens of their host nations.  God, Himself, had allowed it but sometimes these nations had gone too far.

 

“Comfort, yes, comfort, My people!” says your God.  “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2).

 

As I mentioned before this experience was given to me during the time of the Six Day War, the time when Jerusalem was again given into Jewish hands.  Even though the State of Israel had already been established, Jerusalem was not under Jewish control until the summer of 1967.

 

And He looked at me and in His eyes I could see that I was Jewish.  He was overjoyed that Jerusalem was again under Jewish control after two thousand years of being ruled by the Gentile nations.  I understood that all of history had been leading up to this day.  This was a time of great joy in the heavens.  I understood that now He, Himself, would bring His people back to their own land.  He would bring them back from the four corners of the world just as each and every prophet had foretold.  He would bring them back and He would restore them and bless them much better than He had blessed their fathers in ancient times.  “And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return and will rebuild those places as at the first.  I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned and which they have transgressed against Me.  Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them, they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.” (Jeremiah 33:7-9).

 

This unique relationship between God and the Jewish people must be given special attention especially if we wish to draw closer to God, Himself.  We must understand that God chose these people to bless and to reveal His nature and character to the world through them.  We must know that because of His great love for the entire world He designated these particular people to be a light to the nations.  It was the method He chose of spreading His light throughout the world.  He didn’t choose them because they were special or any better than other peoples. He chose them in order to reveal His greatness through them and to keep the covenant He made with Abraham the patriarch.

 

The restoration of the land of Israel to its former glory and the re-gathering of the exiles from the four corners of the world is perfect proof of the existence of God.  Tiny Israel will stand strong against all the nations that come against her to destroy her and she shall be victorious through the God that strengthens her.  After all is said and done and all nations have had their time of glory then God will again choose Israel and make His name and power known throughout the world through this tiny nation.

 

During the spring of 1992, on the anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain following the Inquisition, Spain formally requested pardon from the nation of Israel.  Spain was officially pardoned by the State of Israel and this serves as an example to all nations everywhere that forgiveness can be attained through God’s mercy.  “For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” (Isaiah 51:3).  “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land.” (Isaiah 14:1).  “Those who come, He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.” (Isaiah 27:6).

 

The prophet Ezekiel prophesied into the far future when he proclaimed what the Lord had in store for the state of Israel.  “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones…Again He said unto me, ‘Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah.  Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring flesh upon you, and you shall live; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.  Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.  And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith Jehovah”(Ezek.37:1-6,12,14).

 

The people of Israel were scattered throughout the world for almost two thousand years.  They have witnessed all types of anti Semitism and have suffered unimaginable forms of persecution throughout the centuries but the God of Israel has by no means forgotten them, no matter what they or the rest of the world may believe.  “For a small moment I have forsaken thee; but with great mercies I will gather thee.  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee” (Isaiah 54 7,8).  In other words, God indeed allowed all these terrible things to fall upon these people yet we must also understand that He had something very beautiful planned for them in the distant future.  He had hidden His face for a while yet He would again turn to them in love and compassion with all of His heart, to forgive, to restore, to heal and to bless them.

 

The skeleton and the framework upon which the modern day nation of Israel was founded was the Zionist movement under the leadership of Theodore Herzl.  It was the establishment of a concept and recognizing the need of establishing a homeland for the scattered people of Israel.  The vision of Theodore Herzl was the vehicle God used to begin to bring His people back to their native land.  The dry bones would come back to the land yet there was nothing to hold them together since they were returning from many different countries and they had very little in common except this one singular Zionist dream or ideal.

 

Another great and inspired man of God, Eliezer Ben Yehuda would provide the force that would hold them together or to lay the sinews upon them.  The force was the Hebrew language.  Through much suffering and persecutions this father of modern day Hebrew accomplished what no other person had been able to before him..  Hebrew was the uniting force that they needed to be able to pray, to work and play in one accord, just the opposite of the dispersing effect of the Tower of Babel.  Without a pliable modern form of Hebrew, Israel could never exist as a state.

 

Then in November 2, 1917 the Balfour Declaration established the right for the Jewish people to have a home in Palestine.  England issued this declaration after Dr. Chaim Weizman, from the University of Manchester developed a way of synthesizing acetone from horse chestnuts.  This was essential for the British in the manufacture of cartridges for rifles during World War 1.  The Balfour declaration and finally on May 14, 1948 the formal establishment of Israel as a state by David Ben-Gurion provided the much needed flesh on the bones.  The flesh is what shapes and gives form and substance to the body at the same time being the part that is seen and touched.  This tiny yet incredibly significant nation was indeed born in one day as Isaiah had prophesied, “Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8).  The travail was of course World War 11 and the atrocities suffered by the Jewish people under Nazi Germany.

 

Israel stands alone surrounded by millions of enemies.  She is a perfect prototype of David standing before Goliath.  She is waiting to receive the breath of God into her.  She waits yet she must first understand that the spirit of God will not come upon her until she learns to rely on Him and Him alone.

 

Just as David had to cast off all the help from King Saul in order to have the strength and coordination needed to combat Goliath, the giant, so must modern Israel stand alone with only the help of her God to be able to combat her many enemies.  When she stands alone without any aid from any other nation then the God of Israel will breathe His breath upon her and she will indeed defeat all who come against her.  So the entire world will then understand that it was only through the power of her God working through her that she was able to defeat those that rose up against her.  And the glory shall be ONLY to her God…the one and only TRUE GOD OF ISRAEL.

 

 

 

Babylon the Great:

 

The arm of God swept across the sky from right to left and from east to west. As this panoramic view began to unfold before me, I was given certain truths and answers to questions telepathically. Hearing no audible words it was as if though my mind was being saturated with a constant flow of information. Before any questions or doubts were given time to form in my mind, I was already receiving the answers. It is difficult to specify whether these things were relayed to me as a type of vision or experience, yet it seemed very real to me at the time, as real as anything one can feel on earth and much more so. Though it was indeed a profound and awesome experience yet ironically it all felt very normal.

 

Many developments both here and around the globe seem to be leading us right into what was relayed to me while in the spirit. It is obvious that this is not a very popular message but nevertheless in order to be truthful and unbiased the message cannot be watered down in any way. Here I will try and share not only what I saw but also the information that was being passed on to me as this panoramic view of past and future events unfolded before my very eyes.

 

I watched as the movement of God’s arm moved from east to west across the sky. What was being revealed to me were nations and empires rising to greatness and their eventual fall from their pinnacle of glory. They were each given an alloted, predestined time to rule as world empires. These individual empires had a given set length of time to rule most of the rest of the world as they saw fit. Some would rule in righteousness others in unrighteousness but they nevertheless were appointed each their set time to rule. They each contributed to the general development of mankind as a whole. After their individually appointed time to rule reached its end this power would then be transferred to the next nation in sequence. Though each of these nations believed that their empire would never fall from their own position of relative greatness they all came to an end when God deemed their time to rule had been exhausted. This power that was being passed on from ruling empire to ruling empire was the same spirit of ancient Babylon. This period of sequential ruling nations is called ‘the time of the Gentiles’ or nations. The last empire to receive the embodiment of the spirit of Babylon would rise to the highest pinnacle of power as compared to the nations that had preceded her. Since the fall of this great nation would bring an end to the world-rule, imperialist spirit on earth, her fall is destined to be the hardest and most violent with devastating repercussions that will affect the entire world. Although we may not want to hear this, I understood this nation to be the United States of America.

 

The vast expanse of land before me erupted with mushrooming columns of smoke. As I watched at a distance and before me I observed in disbelief what almost seemed like a scene from a science fiction movie. I couldn’t believe what was unfolding before my very eyes. There could be nothing to compare it to because nothing quite like this had ever happened before to any other nation on the face of the earth. My inner being trembled at the finality of the judgment engulfing this nation that stood before me. It was an absolute, total and fierce devastation. This nation could never recover from this final, horrific and complete destruction. As I watched the incredible scene before continue to unfold before my eyes I saw that there was an angel standing next to me. I asked this angel if this nation had been properly warned before these this incredibly horrific judgments befell them. This would be an ultimate and utter destruction without any hope of ever returning to or rebuilding what had been destroyed. I didn’t see a sequence of scenes of acts of war but instead one single act that would cause infinitely more destruction in one hour than all the previous wars put together. No one will be expecting this attack and no one will be able to stop it. The only thing that would be able to stop this judgment on America would be a national repentance and return of this great nation to her roots in utter humility and with a contrite heart before the God of the universe. This must be done both individually and collectively. This may sound naive absurd to some but God will not relent of His judgments on America unless she repents as a nation. We may think that we are too sophisticated and that we have somehow become so wise in our own understanding that we are immune to any type of judgment or punishment. There is no other way to try and bring across the danger we are in as a nation. If God completely removes His protective covering that is still over us to this day then Satan is allowed to come in and do what he wishes with us. These terrible judgments will fall upon us because after removing His covering of protection we shall stand totally helpless before the enemy of our souls.

 

I was overwhelmed with a sense of tremendous urgency that the nation receiving such harsh chastisement should be first warned of her impending judgment. My spirit was saddened by the response. It was revealed to me that this nation had already been warned by each of the Biblical prophets. These prophets of old had seen the same vision of a mystery Babylon or an unknown nation being totally destroyed by means unfamiliar to them. For example, the prophet Joel had seen a scene of sudden devastation of “Blood and fire and pillars of smoke,” that would turn the sun into darkness and the moon into blood. Jeremiah 50 and 51 describes an ultimate destruction and desolation to fall upon Babylon that is almost identical to what the Apostle John describes in Revelations 18 to be the “Fall of Babylon the Great”. They were not given the specific name of this nation. Isaiah 47 warns us of a proud lady who believes she will be a lady forever and that there is no other nation like her yet she will fall in one hour and in one moment. Almost all the prophets see the destruction of a very powerful nation and yet they only knew that this would occur at an unknown future by means unfamiliar to them. They do give an indication that Israel will be dwelling safely and the captives will have returned to Zion when Babylon is destroyed.

 

Nations will stand in utter disbelief and awe at the waves of intense judgments falling on the one nation they all looked up to as a model of successful and prosperous super power. The severity of these judgments have a direct correlation to the degree of spiritual and material blessings that had been bestowed upon this once proud land. In many ways this nation has always represented an answer to the problems of people the world over. To many she was a shelter from political persecution, to others it was a place to worship as they saw fit and still to others it was the land of infinite opportunities. No other land country had ever represented so much to so many people from every nation and tongue as this one has. No other country had provided the solution to so many dilemmas or met the need of so many people around the world as this nation has. In turn, it is not surprising that this nation was idolized and put on a type of a pedestal that if continued could become the object of her downfall. Since all the blessings and opportunities that people came to find here in America were coming from the God of Israel, He and only He should have been placed in the true place of honor. God wants people everywhere to know that He is the answer to their problems, their afflictions and dilemmas. No nation or government, no matter how great and powerful should ever take His place in their lives.

 

Once America is out of the picture as a world superpower, great evil will spread over the earth. The policeman of the world will not be there to try and bring some justice to and unjust world. Evil men with sinister projects and principles will thrive with no one to stop them. These will be men of hard hearts who stop at nothing to spread their venom to the mostly unprotected nations. They will have no compassion, but will rule cruelly over lesser nations including the Third World. I remember feeling how bloodthirsty and cruel their ideology was and how easily they would rule the world with terror since there was nothing to stop them. I supposed this to be a combination of many nations who do not follow the Judeo-Christian value system and do not know the God of Israel. Since they don’t believe in the God of Israel and His commandments mean absolutely nothing to them they have nothing to stop them from committing horrendous atrocities. Their value system is completely different than ours, what we esteem highly is not esteemed by them at all. The strong eagle of democracy will fall off her high perch and nothing and no one will be able to come to her aid or assist her on that very dark day. Nothing will be able to stand in the way of the evil scheme of these combined (Communist-Islamic) forces and their desire for world domination. Once this American super power is no longer there to protect the lesser nations they will be left vulnerable and susceptible to the whims of the combined anti-Christ forces.

 

As negative and as somber as all this may sound yet all scripture testifies to the fact that if we turn back to our God He will forgive us completely. I believe that there is still hope in America’s future if we return to God with contrite hearts in true repentance. Perhaps these words may sound too cliché and unfashionable yet these are the very things that touch the heart of God. He desires to see our broken spirit when we realize that we have not acted according to His will, something we are all guilty of to some degree. It is my personal belief that America still has time to return to her God and to her former place of glory among the nations. He always warned cities and nations before they were punished in any way, this must also hold true for modern day America. Since He is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow and He never changes He always warns a nation while there is still time. “When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies…Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die…For I have no pleasure in one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”(Ezek.18:30-32). He is waiting for us to turn to Him with all our hearts and He will indeed turn to us in utter forgiveness and compassion but the first step must be taken by us. If we humble ourselves He promises to exalt us yet if we continue in the stubbornness of our own understanding we must suffer the consequences.

 

America is a type of Israel in that they were both founded on God’s Word. No other nation can attest to this fact. Her many contributions to the world such as the Industrial Revolution, the invention of electricity, the car, the telephone, television, the motion picture industry, etc. were all direct blessings from the God of Israel Himself. People of all nations and tongues streamed to her light as they fled the poverty and despair of their own native lands. Yet in a period of more or less forty years this once proud nation founded on God’s Word and precepts has fallen from her high perch. The proud eagle has taken a nose dive into the pit of oblivion. Her destruction will come upon her suddenly and she will not be able to shake off the judgment coming directly from the throne of the Holy One of Israel. “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven will be brought down to Hades: for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” (Matt 11:23-24). What is the Lord trying to tell us here? If we closely examine His words they are almost impossible to believe. How can a city of mostly law abiding citizens be judged harsher than a city filled with lust crazed sodomites? It is because though the Kingdom of Heaven in the form of the Messiah had come to them in all His glory they had failed to recognize their day of visitation and had not repented of their self-righteous acts and their enormous pride, both spiritual and material. Yet Sodom was judged very severely without ever having witnessed any of the Messiah’s miracles and the sheer glory of His presence. Most of all, this Word of God had never been preached or taught in their homes and synagogues nor healed the sick in their streets.

 

Most Christians in America today fit the mold of Capernaum and not Sodom. We will be judged much harsher than Christian nations that have not been blessed such as ours has. Yet what is almost unbelievable is that we will be judged even harsher than many heathen, sinful and non-Christian nations. America was founded on Judeo-Christian values and beliefs yet the day came when America took God out of her schools and public institutions. Our children are forbidden to take Bibles to school yet they are encouraged to read Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone and other such works of nonsense which promote witchcraft and New Age beliefs with no problems whatsoever. We have done a complete turn about in our belief system, we call what is right wrong and what is wrong right. Perhaps we just see no harm in it and we just do not understand that what can be totally acceptable to men can be a complete abomination in the eyes of God.

 

Just as ancient Israel was chosen, so America was chosen. They were both chosen to bear the Word and the precepts of God, Himself. Yet even though they were chosen they still had to abide by and be obedient to His laws and commandments, they were by no means exempt just because they were chosen. In Deuteronomy 11 the ancient Israelites were warned to be very careful from not turning to other gods and from not following and obeying His commandments. He told them that if they obeyed and held fast to Him He would in turn drive out nations stronger and more powerful than themselves. Through His power and might they would dispossess nations that had already been settled and established and they would take over these lands and make them their own. The tribes and peoples that ancient Israel were going to overcome and take over were peoples that followed and worshiped other gods. They only thing that gave ancient Israel the power to conquer these many tribes and peoples stronger and mightier than themselves was the fact that they represented and stood for the One who created the heavens and the earth.

 

God also cautions ancient Israel to be extremely careful to make sure that they remained obedient to Him walking in all His ways. Deuteronomy 11 continues in verse 26-28 to warn Israel to watch her step carefully, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: “the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” In perfect correlation to ancient Israel, so also modern day America falls under this same mold. She was allowed to conquer the ancient peoples and tribes native to this land only because she was endowed with the Word of God, His statutes and precepts and the light of the gospel of truth itself. Just as ancient Israel they could never look to themselves in pride thinking that they, because they were special in some way had accomplished all this. The reverse would also be true, in that He warned them that if they did not remain in the obedience and humility that allowed them to conquer these nations in the first place that they would fall from grace and He would have to curse them because of their disobedience to Him. These were not pagan and heathen peoples He was threatening to curse but His very own chosen people.

 

This is a concept almost impossible to conceive of. How can God who had just chosen and blessed these people be also capable of cursing them in such a horrendous way? We can read about these curses in Deuteronomy 28 in intricate detail of what will happen to a people and a nation when it falls under His curse after it has been the recipient of His manifold blessings. We must keep in mind that this can not affect the people who had been chosen by God. They could never be judged as severely as the people who had been chosen by Him, who in turn were familiar with His laws of love and mercy but also of justice. “And the servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”(Luke12:48).

 

The native peoples of this land suffered greatly in ways that only God, Himself, knows fully yet I believe that He is going to heal their wounds and He will call them to Himself in a very special way. His love and mercy shall envelop them in such a way that they will know that it is the God of Israel who is turning to them with all His compassion and love. We must always remember that God is a God of justice and that He always settles our accounts after all is said and done. There is nothing or anyone that can be hidden from His watchful eye. The righteous will see the recompense of God right before their very eyes, even though they themselves once believed that it could never be done. The peoples that were allowed to conquer this land over two hundred years ago did so with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other. As long as they remained obedient to the Word they would be blessed. Yet once they failed to obey or fell into other belief systems they would stand without God’s divine protection and powerless for all the other nations to see. “And it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant-when you have eaten and are full-then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…(for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), less the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth’.” (Deut. 6:10-12,15).

 

Recently, in Alabama, we have a perfect example of what is occurring now in the United States. The chief justice of Alabama displayed a monument to the Ten Commandments in the lobby of the state courthouse that was removed after much controversy. It is hard to understand how the hypocrisy of this act was evident to all. When we swear to say the truth in all courthouses throughout the United States we swear with our left hand placed on a Bible, shouldn’t we also take these Bibles out of our courthouses? Our entire legal system is built upon the foundation of those same Ten Commandments that were given to us by the God of Israel and no other god or belief system. No matter how much we wish to deny this fact we cannot escape that this nation was founded on everything that we are trying to eliminate from our classrooms and public institutions and offices today. Yet America fails to realize that all the blessings that were bestowed upon her through the years were because she had been founded on a strong Judeo-Christian foundation as no other nation had to that day except for ancient Israel. Therefore we can say that America today is a type of ancient Israel and likewise we must not forget that ancient Israel was severely punished when she was led astray after other gods and she fell away from the path chosen for her by the same God that had blessed her so richly.

 

One of the subtlest lies infiltrating many churches and congregations today is the prosperity dogma. This popular false teaching claims that we can serve both God and mammon. The belief is that if we are pleasing in God’s eyes we will live a life full of ease, comfort, and pleasure blessed much material wealth. At the very heart of this concept is the love of self.  We cannot love God for what He will bestow upon us we must love God for who He is! A great light has shone upon us, the very face of God, Himself, yet we did not understand the depth of its significance. We still remain a nation of basically lukewarm and indifferent believers. It would have been better not have known Him and His grace, than after knowing Him and receiving His abundant blessings to still remain lukewarm and hard of heart. After being blessed so richly by Him, some Christians are more dedicated to their pastors than they are to Christ. Had they known their Savior better they would not have followed a false pastor, they would have easily detected the lie. When we erroneously trust and follow the false teachings of these so called men of God and not the Word of God itself, God sees this as idolatry. We must stay close to the Word and let the Holy Spirit teach us as we grow in faith and wisdom yet staunchly reject the slight variations and adjustments to His Word that are the personal views of misguided men. These misguided blind guides are misleading multitudes upon multitudes of Christians down the wrong path. I believe personally that some of these Christian pastors and preachers are unaware of their distorted belief system, yet however unknowingly or well intentioned they might be the outcome is till the same of the blind leading the blind into the pit. “Oh, my people! Those who lead you cause you to err. And destroy the way of your paths.” (Isaiah 9:16).

 

Most of the prophets led frustrated lives in which their words of warning fell on deaf ears. They were misunderstood, disregarded and despised by all. Zechariah was murdered between the temple and the altar. Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon and left to die. The Ethiopian eunuch was the only one who had compassion on him, and pleaded with King Zedekiah to have him lifted out of the mire. Job was tested beyond human endurance to see if his love of God was greater than his love of the blessings God bestowed on him for being a righteous man. Moses had to leave a life full of comfort and ease within the royal chambers of Pharaoh’s court before God could touch him. Then he had to roam the desert for another forty years before God could use him to deliver Israel out of bondage.

 

The New Testament examples are even more numerous. We all know the sufferings of Paul, the shipwrecks, the many perils, stoning and stripes. All of the disciples led lives of suffering and persecutions. Finally, the Lord Himself came to suffer and serve, until finally He died hanging on a cross as a common criminal. “It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household?” (Matt10:25).