A Time to Ask and Prepare for the Harvest
In my recent message, “A Time to Ask and Prepare for the Harvest,” I shared an important word about the coming harvest and the end-time revival that is coming to Israel, as well as the United States of America.
Please join me as I share a few of those notes below…
“‘Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow—for their wickedness is great.’ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. ‘So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again.’”—Joel 3:13-17
This scripture foretells what just happened concerning the recent decision by the U.S. Administration to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. I personally like what God has done… but if you don’t like it you may have issues with God.
What this says is, that as a Church we are now found in a valley of decision. The wealth of the goat nations is going to be transferred to the sheep nations. The way He does that is by taking the money from the goats and giving it to the sheep—the transfer of wealth is already taking place.
An example of this can be seen recently where Iran threatened Israel with nuclear attacks, but God didn’t let that happen. If you obey God and you are living right for Him, He will send out His angels to take care of your enemies for you.
>>>What is the ONE NEW MAN?<<<
It is time to ask!
Many of us battle the fear of rejection and so we don’t ask God for big things. We just hide instead, and hope something good will come out of that, versus, setting goals and learning from our mistakes.
Many of us are afraid to ask for help. We are afraid what others will say if we admit our weaknesses. However, in this season, you’re going to have to reach out to the Lord, asking Him for the abilities and the finances to answer your call. We must be willing to reach out to those trusted individuals around us for their support and encouragement in this season.
Fear of Failure
Many of us are afraid of failure, none of us want to fail. You need to know that failure is the next step to success. It is ridiculous to think that you won’t fail on your way there.
Failure does not define you, quitting defines you.
Some people feel like they’re not capable, and the honest truth is, that we’re not capable on our own. In my 26 years of ministry, God has always asked us to do things that they we were incapable of doing without His intervention. Just like you, there have been many times where we were afraid to admit that in our own strength we were just not good enough. Still, this is the beauty in the story of God, no one is good enough, but through Him we can do anything!
I don’t care if you’re 15 or 115 years old, we never lose all of our fear. Courage is not about doing something without fear…
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”—Franklin D. Rooselvelt
But courage the size of a mustard seed, together with strength in Him, is enough to face down any fear. It’s time we face our fears and embrace and proclaim action plans to do what God has called us to do for the greater good of the Kingdom!
It’s time to ask! Are you hearing me? It’s time to ask BIG!
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”—Matthew 7:7-11
>>>Why is it important the Church accepts Israel?<<<
EVERYONE! This includes YOU! You know you didn’t ask… you know that you feared rejection when you say, “Well what happens if it doesn’t happen?” Welcome to the human race… Face your fear of not asking big! Face your fear of knocking on God’s door to ask Him for something big!
We must get over the fear of asking God for BIG! We need to come clean and get that fear broken off of our life, because if we don’t ask we’re not going to get it! God needs YOU, and God brought YOU here to read this message.
Here is a biblical principle that is key to success…
SOW to where you want to grow! And where you need to grow, you sow!
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”—Matthew 6:33-34
The word ‘righteousness’ in Hebrew is ‘tzedakah,’ which means ‘justice’ or ‘righteousness,’ and is closely associated with acts of charity and giving. It is rooted in the Hebrew word, ‘tzede’ which also means ‘fairness.’
We are called to seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, His righteousness, His fairness—hence the Jewish tradition of giving ‘tzedakah,’ which is the giving of financial alms or aid and assistance to the poor and needy or similar causes. Seeking His righteousness is an active action.
With this perspective, one might read the scripture as:
‘Seek first the Kingdom and the righteous acts of God—seek first kindness, seek first abundant benevolences, seek first gracious acts and deliverances and all other things will then be added to you.’
Here is a biblical example of the above…
How many know that David had some sin issues? BUT he was a man after God’s own heart. David made good decisions regarding not touching Saul. David took care of his men and his people, even when His people turned against him.
“Vindicate me, O Lord my God, according to Your righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.”—Psalm 35:24
In modern-day terms the psalmist would be saying it like this, ‘Lord! I offer You to tzedakah with me. I’m relying on Your goodness to me. Please be fair, be kind, and gracious. Lord, if You don’t vindicate me… You know I’m damaged goods. I’ve got too many accusers. There are too many pictures that they could put up of my past on Facebook, Lord, and I need Your help.’
In other words, ask for what you need. God doesn’t give based on what you deserve, He gives based on what you ask for and need! He is merciful and generous. Just like David experienced His mercy, even after making big mistakes… and now his kingdom has been established for all generations. You can’t tell me that David didn’t experience a tremendous return when He chose to trust in the goodness of a loving Heavenly Father.
>>>What are the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith?<<<
End Time Harvest and Israel
Now, let’s shift gears. I’m going to take you on a little journey, applicable to right now–particularly in the Jewish Orthodox community.
There are some in the Jewish Orthodox community who believe that Christians are their enemy. Please understand… this is just one sect of an entire group of people, not the entire community.
In their culture, they understand that Israel is God’s chosen—His firstborn—making the Christian community second. Jewish tradition is that the firstborn receives two-thirds of the inheritance, while the second receives one-third.
Much like the story of the prodigal son, some in the Jewish community are going to struggle with the idea of Christians as their equals through Christ.
Even just recently there were many who struggled with the large support of their Christian brothers who made the trek across continents to support them as they welcomed the American embassy to Jerusalem—its rightful place as their nation’s capital.
Many Jewish people struggle understanding how the Christian community can be grafted into their promises, especially when past centuries have been wrought with atrocities done to the Jewish people, all in the name of the Christian God.
For the record… at Curt Landry Ministries, we know that the Holocaust, the pogroms, and so many other historical accounts of genocide were not inflicted by true believers of the Christian faith, but by evil people who used the Bible entirely out of context in order to influence and manipulate large groups of people to commit mass murder of the Jewish people.
And we understand that as a Jewish person who witnessed, or had family members who witnessed those acts of violence, it is very difficult to understand the difference between true Believers and those who are not—because on the surface sometimes they appear the same.
We have a deep love for our Jewish brothers and sisters who fail to understand that even after living their life obedient to the Torah, that their brothers and sisters in Christ who have not lived such a life, still have access to the promises of Abraham.
AND on the flip side, the Christian Church at large struggles with the identity of their Jewish brothers and sisters as co-heirs in the Kingdom of God. Denominations since the councils of Elvira and Nicea have taught a false doctrine that slowly removed the Jewish Roots of the Christian of the faith, only to be replaced by pagan rituals that have nothing to do with Yeshua, Jesus our Messiah.
The One New Man… A fresh start for everyone
Take a look at this parable of the prodigal son to understand what this picture might look like…
“Then He said: ‘A certain man had two sons.’”—Luke 15:11
You see, in this end-time harvest, God has two sons who are getting ready to come together—the Jew and the Gentile Church.
“And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So, he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”—Luke 15:12-13
If we examine this story from the perspective that Israel is the firstborn son, and the Church is the second born heir, we see an interesting parallel.
See, since the Councils of Elvira and Nicea, where the Church made decisions to separate from the Jewish roots of their faith, we could say that they’ve gotten ‘off track.’ They went in a totally different direction from their Messiah and created doctrinal theology to explain away their lack of power.
Church statistics today are sometimes just as bad, if not worse, than those who live outside the Christian faith. We cannot reap good fruit when we are not walking in the principles of God—when we ignore the importance of the Old Testament, and when we forget the Lord’s Feasts.
But on the other hand, the Jewish Orthodox community struggles, as well. This firstborn heir has adopted a Yeshualess Gospel, that does not leave them prospering. They live beneath a legalist structure that relies on works alone, and are not empowered through the power of the Holy Spirit, redeemed by the Blood of Lamb.
These two brothers have lost communication because the younger did not understand their inheritance through their Jewish roots, and the older has become bitter and jealous of those in the Christian faith who are coming into the understanding of their promise through Abraham.
“But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”—Luke 15:14-16
I want to tell you now that in both the Jewish and Christian communities God is bringing a spiritual famine into dead religious organizations.
God wants us to be dependent on Him and Him alone. God’s not angry with these two camps, He just wants us to truly know Him, and many have never really known Him at all. He’s bringing Psalm 23 to the world.
The Church is going to be removed from the false covenants that they have made with pagan nations. God will not allow this behavior like He has in the past. He’s concerned with the true salvation of those who are lost.
He’s going into both houses and He’s drying them up. God is draining the swamps of the religious communities.
There are people who love God but they’re stuck in dead religion. There is a new wineskin rising up!
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’”—Luke 15:17-21
God is calling the Body of Christ back into their rightful inheritance as a grafted-in child of the promise. He is giving us new identity through the Jewish roots of our Christian faith.
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”—Luke 15:22-32
God is preparing like never before to raise-up the One New Man—Jew and Gentile as one in Messiah. There is room for both communities to enjoy the gifts of a loving Heavenly Father—He has had a plan for both groups all along.
Will you join us in this end-time harvest of souls? As Christians, can we lay down the prejudices against the Jewish community that were born out of false anti-Semitic Church doctrines of the past?
It’s time that we each step into our identities, now, while the fields are ripe for the harvest! It’s time to ASK BIG, so that we might step into the calling that God has on our lives, so that we might bring light into our workplaces, into our families, into the world around us.
Don’t be afraid! Now is the time to ask, now is the time to see the return of the prodigal Church to the house of their Father in Heaven, now is the time for their older Jewish brother to see that God meant for them to enjoy all the benefits of His Kingdom from the very beginning.
We are grafted in together, and we MUST set aside the jealousies of the past and embrace our identities in a Heavenly Father who says, “There is more than enough! Come! Let us kill the fatted calf, let us celebrate all that is available to both of my sons (Jew and Gentile), who I dearly and equally love!”