Chag haMatzah sameach, Shabbat Shalom, welcome to the final day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Passover Season and the spring festivals. Thirteen years ago I once called this the 'Feast of Spiritual Detoxification' and hopefully by the time we have finished you will see why.

Today's concluding message is by way of an explanation as to why people at this time are so unresponsive to the Gospel, why so many (if not the majority) of Christians are so stuck in their traditions and are closed to truth, how we should tackle both unbelieving 'believers' and unbelievers, and how we need to be about evangelism from now on. For witnessing is both the life blood of our own souls as well as the life blood of the Body of Christ as a whole. And I would like to end today with a word about the important rôle of prophecy in these days at a time when so few Christians calling themselves 'cessationists' believe in it any more. I'd like, I hope, to be able to help them gain a wider perspective of how Father is working. And finallhy, I want to leave my final word to you as if this were to be my very last sermon of all.

Today's leading passage of Scripture is taken from the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, verses 57-58:

"Yah'shua (Jesus) said to them, 'Nevi'im (prophets) are not without honour except in their own country and in their own house.' And He did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief" (Mt.13:57-58, NRSV).

Throughout the course of this Passover Season you may have noticed that I have quoted quite a bit from the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew and I shall be doing so more today, so keep your Bibles open there. Though it was not planned, Matthew 13 seems to have become the main theme of this Spring Conference. It's a chapter that speaks much about the Kingdom of Heaven and you may recall I cited three examples from it to illustrate my very first message to you a week ago nearly. And that, you will remember, was about the importance of parables for the hard-of-spiritual-hearing - the mustard seed, the yeast (chametz, leaven) hidden in the dough, and the sower. "The reason I speak to them in parables," remember Yah'shua (Jesus) said, "is [so] that 'seeing they do not perceive, that hearing they will not listen, nor do they understand'" (Mt.13:13, NRSV). In this - at first sight - strange statement, that parables are to be heard by everyone but not understood by the willfully hard-of-heart, we learned how it is He sifts out the elect from the nominal believers.

Then the Master went on to announce that the prophecy made by the navi (prophet) Isaiah (Yeshayahu) in Isaiah 6:9-10 was being fulfilled before their very eyes, and would continue to be as His followers spread this same message throughout the world. He did so even as He, the Creator of the Universe incarnated in human flesh, gave numerous infallible signs that He was the very Messiah they had been begging Yahweh for to liberate them from foreign oppressors like the Romans, with the ultimate proof being His resurrection to physical immortality. These were Isaiah's words from Isaiah 6:9-10 that He quoted in verses 14-15:

"You will indeed listen ('hear' - NKJV), but never understand,
and you will indeed look ('see' - NKJV), but never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown dull ('waxed gross' - KJV'),
and their ears hard of hearing,
and they have shut ('closed' - NKJV) their eyes:
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen ('hear' - NKJV) with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn -
and I would heal them" (Mt.13:14-15, NRSV; cp. Is.6:9-10).

Once the nevi'im (prophets) have established that everyone has heard Father's word to them and once that message has been rejected by both nominal believers and unbelievers alike, the prophetic message-bearers must either go home or move on elsewhere until everyone they have been commanded to preach to has heard their message. Once they have borne witness and their message has been rejected out of hand by the majority, and once the remnant who do believe have received it gladly and been thoroughly discipled, then the responsibility of the prophets, evangelists, pastors and witnesses in general is over, which for most is when Yahweh takes them home in death.

We so learn this in particular from the navi (prophet) Elijah but in truth from all Father's nevi'im (prophets). Some of them just went back to their former occupations (like farming), their message delivered and sealed by having spoken it aloud for all to hear, and they were to leave discipling in the hands of heads of households and, later, the rulers of the synagogues. Others effectively retired, like Jeremiah, for he was stuck with a bunch of rebels who headed off to Egypt and effectively started their own cult. Some of you may have heard of one refugee Judahite community which set up a miniature temple on an island on the River Nile called Elephantine. It will not surprise you to learn that Yahweh was never there - He had not commanded its construction (it had to be in Jerusalem or nowhere) and He never therefore endowed it with His Ruach (Spirit) as He once spectacularly did in Jerusalem when Solomon dedicated it (2 Chr.7:1-3). It is not uncommon for those who reject a prophetic message, such as Jeremiah's or indeed Yah'shua's (Jesus), to go and set up their own dead, sterile denomination or religion which the Enemy then hijacks and fills with his spirits as he does in so many modern churches. Most denominations are man doing his own thing, a few Yahweh bringing new life into a dead church like the Methodists in the Church of England. More about that in a minute.

A few days ago I was talking with a brother in Lower Saxony, Germany, who was bewailing the blindness and stubborn-heartedness of a minister in a Pentecostal Church he was talking to. He had provided him with infallible proof that the New Testament's attack on lawlessness was because of a refusal by believers to obey the mitzvot (commandments) of Torah. The minister would not, of course, accept that. 'Well, what is a lawless Christian, then?' he asked, hoping to stimulate an intelligent, scriptural response from this stubborn man, to which the minister replied, 'one who is not walking close to God'.

Honestly, in my 40 or more years in the ministry, I never heard anyone give that answer, but nothing really surprises me anymore. Of course, the statement is not untrue, just half true - one who is not living close to Yahweh almost certainly has problems, as would a genuine lawless Christian, but that is not what the word 'lawless' specifically means in the English language, let alone the Greek translation we use to translate most of our English New Testaments from or the original Aramaic that would mostly have been used by the apostles and earliest believers. Let's look it up in our dictionary:

law'less - where law is non-existent or inoperative; regardless of, disobedient to, uncontrolled by, law; unbridled, licentiousness (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Oxford: 1978, p.612).

If I were ask someone on the street what a 'lawless person' was, they would unhesitatingly say, 'one who breaks the laws of the land', like evading taxes, robbing a citizen, and so on, and they could quickly find the corresponding law of the land stating both what these crimes are defined as and what the punishment is for law-breakers. I have the thick law books of Norway and Sweden so I can look them up in minutes. A lawless believer, then, is one who is disobedient to, uncontrolled by, or disregards Elohim's (God's) Law better known as the Torah. Such a person is without a doubt not close to Elohim (God) even if he feels he is, but to something else, supernatural or not. But that is the consequence of disobedience to the mitzvot (commandments), as found written in Scripture.

Now typically it is assumed that because someone has been 'born again', 'spiritually regenerated' or 'baptised in the Spirit' (as Pentecostals and Charismatics believe) that God's law is now supernaturally written in his heart, and that he will automatically be obedient to it if he follows his feelings. Speaking of a future day, the navi (prophet) Jeremiah prophesied that such a transaction would happen, and it would happen when the fullness of the B'rit Chadasha or New Covenant came:

"Behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will make a new (messianic) covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- not according to the covenant [of Moses] that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put My Law (Torah) in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim (God), and they shall be My people" (Jer.31:31-33, NKJV).

Now pause, and think about this carefully for a minute. Our Pentecostal or Charismatic friend, along with many other Protestants, incidentally, believes the lie (by twisting the meaning of Paul) that Yahweh has done away with, abolished, or nailed the Old Testament Law to the cross (when it is its penalties that have been abolished upon repentance and receiving Christ). Thus, they reason, the 'law' they are supposed to be following is whatever is in their heart since they have been 'baptised in the Spirit' and have been given an infallible (so they believe) source of revelation because they are supposedly speaking in biblical 'tongues' (which were actually known languages in New Testament times) when in actual fact they are speaking in what Scripture calls meaningless batalogean gibberish.

Now read further what Jeremiah wrote and put yourselves in the place of a Pentecostal or Charismatic who believes all the above:

"No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,' for they all (read Pentecostals/Charismatics for this illustration) shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh" (Jer.31:34, NKJV).

• (a) a confirming burning in the bosom sensation (allegedly) given by the Holy Ghost, and
  
• (b) the authentic Priesthood authority (as they suppose) to 'confer' the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, similar to the Roman Catholic belief).

That's probably why the German Pentecostal minister refused to listen further to our German brother. So, oh my, what a deception these people are under, a deception that plays upon their pride, just as it does on the pride of Mormons, Catholics and others, in their own ways, all of whom believe that they alone are 'the one and only true church on the face of the earth' (and in the case of Mormons, they believe that all other churches are 'an abomination')! And though they never say so 'out loud', conservative Seventh Day Adventists also believe they are the 'true church'. How easy it is for Satan to infiltrate a soul that believes such a thing! You believe you are right either because of false evidence ('tongues' or a 'burning bosom') or a false claim to legal authority (Mormons, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans believe they are in legal, authoritative apostolic succession through ordination). But that isn't how we measure or determine truth. We measure truth first and foremost against faithfulness to Scripture because this is a sure protection against silly ideas and deceptive emotions. Always.

So we absolutely agree that when a person has been truly born again, spiritually regenerated, and immersed in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), Heavenly Father's Law becomes supernaturally written on our hearts, but not any old subjective law. Does anyone seriously believe for one moment that this heavenly 'law' will vary subjectively from individual to individual? Or between denominations and even within factions in a denomination (like the liberal and conservative factions in the Adventist Church)? In the minds of many charismatics, this, they believe, is the 'freedom' they have been given that Paul talks about - the freedom to get all of Elohim's (God's) truth directly from their (supposedly) regenerated minds and hearts - when in fact the 'freedom' false believers believe they have been given is from man-made tradition and false spirits. In reality, this so-called 'freedom' then becomes homage to, and bonage to, sin. Contrast this with the actual 'freedom' of the spiritually regenerated spoken of in the New Testament which you will find is to be set free from demonic manipulation and control and from guilt upon confession, repudiation and supernatural cleansing by the Ruach (Spirit). Freedom is not a license to do whatever you want, just as my being free in Sweden is not the licence for me to do rob little old ladies or break the traffic regulations. The 'freedom' I enjoy in Sweden is that wonderful feeling of knowing that I am not guilty as a breaker of the national community's rules - that I am in good standing with the community which then makes me socially responsible.

So the Law of Elohim (God) that the pen of the Ruach (Spirit) symbolically writes on the mind and heart of a child of Elohim (God) is not simply 'being good' but is the very same Law Yahweh gave at the beginning that is common to all, the first of which, you will remember, were way back in Genesis, namely, to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen.1:28, NRSV) and to rest on the seventh (Sabbath) day the way He did (Gen.2:3). Both the churches and the nations are lawless inasmuch as they refuse to marry and have children (they have recreational sex) and refuse to set-aside as day of rest to honour Father. The Charismatic belief is virtually, therefore, an endorsement of 'wokeism', if you think about it, where everyone claims they have their own 'truth' and can do their 'own thing'.

No, the Laws that Yahweh has given are the same in all generations even if some ceremonial ones have been fulfilled. This means that their original purpose has been completed so they are no longer required and in all cases they were fulfilled by the life and work of Messiah when He was on earth and are no longer binding on us but that is all. I speak of the Mosaic Ceremonial Law of animal and other physical sacrifices. The rest of the Torah is still binding on mankind "until heaven and earth pass away" which clearly has not happened yet (Mt.24:35). The Law that is written on our minds and hearts by the pen of the Ruach (Spirit) matches exactly the written Law of Scripture that has been supernaturally made alive in us by becoming desirable! Thus King David would exclaim joyfully:

"Oh, how I love your Torah (Law)!
I meditate on it all day long" (Ps.119:97, NIV).

That's why those who are authentically born again love the Scriptures so much and are constantly seeking thenm out and thinking about them! So what this means, then, is the written Law enables us to double check that our thoughts, feelings and actions are matching Yahweh's so that aren't inadvertantly listing to the Enemy's whispering and impulses through the fallen carnal nature resident in the flesh. If our heart tells us to do something contrary to the Scriptures then Father's Torah (Law) we love so well immedately warns us that we might be following deceiving spirits, to check in with Him in prayer and scripture comparison, and then change direction immediately. This Scripture calls repentance, which means to make a 180 degree about face, and to do it quickly before we get carried away into ever deeper lies, deceptions and bad habits. This is the Protestand way and it is the correct way. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Mormons and others would tell you to place tradition and church teachings ahead of Scripture, which cannot be. Our traditions must align with Scripture. That way they become authentic, divine and holy tradition - the apostolic tradition. Yah'shua (Jesus) warned most strictly against following man-made laws by warning the religious leaders of His day:

"Thus you have made the mitzvah (commandment) of Elohim (God) of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

'These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honour Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the mitzvot (commandments) of men.'"
(Mt.15:6-9, NKJV)

Think about it. If the Law is also written on your mind and not just your heart by the baptism of the Ruach (Spirit), then should you not be able to transcribe it onto paper, even if in your own words or the words of the Bible translation you use, into a list of statements, like "thou shalt not commit adultery" and "thou shalt not steal", and (because it is a 'law') the penalties for violating these? Every believer who has had the Law written on their minds ought to be able to sit down, write it out, compare notes and so discover that find everyone agrees. Why would they agree, at least conceptually? Because all will have been informed by Scripture.

Be very careful of those who then claim they don't need teachers anymore because Jeremiah prophesied that would be what would happen when the whole Law was written in our minds and hearts Why be careful? Because Paul says we haven't got there yet and therefore still need biblically-informed teachers. That's why we haven't yet come to a unity of the faith (Eph.4:13), which should be obvious by looking around. What does that mean, then? Pause, and think about it. What does that mean in practice? It means the whole Law hasn't yet been 100 per cent written on our minds and hearts yet. Woah! That means that this supernatutal writing is a process, a work in progress, that is related, on the one hand, in some way to our being imperoperly or inadequately informed, AND/OR to our failure to be surrenderd and obedient to Yahweh! It means that's why we still need teachers and preachers and prophets in the local assemblies (churches), as Paul declared (1 Cor.12:28-29), until we have learned to seriously get our noses into our Bible and really get to know it. It means we have got to do some work and be studious for the rest of our lives. It means we have to exercise responsibility and agency because we're always going to be learning. The more you know, the safer you will be. Divine knowledge is spiritual power.

To summarise this into one word, it means we must become KERYGMATICS. That words means becoming learners, and thereafter proclaimers, of the written Word) before we even think about becoming CHARISMATICS. Because if we do it the other wat round we will get enamoured by the showy gifts like prophecy, tongues, revelation, etc., which was the weakness of the early Corinthian believers because they had the wrong emphasis). In short, doing it the wrong was was a sign of immaturity.

What do people even mean when they use the word 'charismatic'? I think you'll find most 'charismatic Christians' don't actually know. What do we mean when we speak of somone 'having charisma'? It means they have an energy that draws other people to them, and we know that can be for good or evil. Hitler was charismatic - he was able to hold people spellbound but it was by means of demonic powers. Christ was charismatic because He drew people by the power and purity of His love and wisdom. Two very different kinds of charisma. Satan is charismatic too, which is why he is able to draw so many to Him. In short, charisma is a divinely conferred power, talent or gifting, that inspires followers with devotion and enthusaism. It has a major emotional content. Our English word 'charisma' comes from the Greek kharisma with means 'favour', 'grace', 'undeserved loving kindness' or 'unmerited favour'! It's another word for unselfish, sacrificial love. This love, Scripture tells us, we receive supernatually as a gift of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). So all true believers are technically 'charismatic' but...

...BUT as an ecclesiastical word, 'charismatic' has evolved considerably over the 2,000 years and has come to mean something entirely different. Now it means to act and behave like Pentecostals and Charismatic Christians. It means, amongst other things, believing in their doctrines, speaking their version of 'tongues', following their feelings, doing their kind of 'prophesying', doing their kind of 'healing', rejecting the Torah and becoming LAWLESS. This umbrella of denominations has reinvented the word 'charismatic' just as the denominations have redefined so many biblical words to mean differently from the original biblical intend. That is why we must be careful. That is why we must be diligent and studious so that we are not deceived. That is why we must know our Bible in its historical context and not tru to superimpose our own cultures onto it.

A reason the charismatic movement is so appealing is because it is largely emotion-driven, lax and lazy toward careful Bible study, something very appealing to a casual, individualistic (it started in the United States)[1] and careless generation whose fruits we see around us everywhere, a reason their churches are multiplying so fast, and not necessarily because it is a 'work of God'. It is far from being Berean or "noble" (Ac.17:11). The charismatic movement lacks what Luke calls 'nobility', which is why it is so unseemly at times and gets up to all sorts of wild, crazy and unclean things. Following your feelings uncritically (and claiming it is the Holy Spirit) and dressing them up with biblical language to make it look holy, and appending 'Hallelujah!' or 'Praise the Lord!' to every sentence, is, after all, a lot easier than studying your Bible, meditating on it and doing it as David did so enthusiastiacally! It's the lazy man's gospel.

Here's another uncomfortable truth: the level of Bible knowledge is appallingly low in the churches now. Millions of believers don't even read their Tanakhs (Old Testaments) beyond the occasional Psalm. Can you see why, now, one who is poorly schooled in Scripture is at a tremendous disadvantage and is massively open to deception? But there's another danger I need to alert you to as well. Once you have realised the importance of Bible study, do not assume that every Bible teacher is telling you the truth. Don't sweing to the opposite extreme as ex-Pentecostals and ex-Charismatics often do. Do not assume, by the same token, that a Jew or a Messianic Jew, who is diligent in following the Torah, has necessarily got it right either. False tradition plagues Judaism as well as Messianism, no less than orthodox Western and Eastern Christians. There are false teachings just as there is false charismata.

Almost in the same breath in telling us about the New Covenant, the navi (Jeremiah) issued this stern rebuke to the Torah-teachers (Bible teachers) of his day which we also need to be reminded of because we can just as easily be deceived in our thinking as we can in our feelings:

"'How can you (Torah/Bible teachers) say, 'We are wise,
for we have Torah of Yahweh,'
when actually the lying pen of the scribes (Torah/Bible teachers)
has handled it falsely?'" (Jer.8:8, NIV).

So that we are clear, Yahweh, our Heavenly Father - whom Yah'shua (Jesus) testified He imitated and obeyed to the letter, doing only what He said and did (Jn.5:19), as we should be - has given His people laws, and these laws are codified in the Torah, mostly in the first five books of Moses. He has appointed His Son, Yah'shua (Jesus) as the world's King - for now for those who trust Him and follow Him, in the Millennium for all the planet. A King has a Kingdom, that Kingdom is called the 'Kingdom of Heaven' or the 'Kingdom of Elohim (God)' in Scripture, and the Kingdom has laws or rules known as mitzvot (commandments). Without going into the different three different kinds or categories of law described in Scriptures, this means that a true follower of Christ obeys Father's laws, which the Son and the faithful malakim (angels) likewise obey (which is why the Father has safely given all authority to the Son (Mt.28:18) - and if he disobeys them, he becomes lawless or Torahless, and is therefore following 'the lawless one' to a greater or lesser degree.

The New Testment goes on to explain that Satan, as also the Antichrist and endtime False Prophet, is the "lawless one". (2 Thes.2:8-9). There is no ambiguity, no two ways about it. Read for yourself and learn who it is who those people are who are lawless:

"Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness (Torahlessness) is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless (Torahless) one will be revealed, whom the Master Yah'shua (Lord Jesus) will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendour of His coming. The coming of the lawless (Torahless) one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders (Charismatics please note), and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason Elohim (God) sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness" (2 Thess.2:5-12, NIV).

When, as I mentioned earlier, our German brother challenged the Pentecostal minister's sloppy interpretation, he received an angry rebuke 'in Jesus' Name'. I have met this type before, more than once. A Pentecostal Evangelist once rebuked me not so many years ago, as you know, for my biblical beliefs and practices and falsely prophesied that this was why I was suffering from from my heart condition and had needed a drastic operation. I made it plain that he was mistaken and that the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) had not given him this rebuke because it was a lie, that it was from his flesh, pointing out to him that my illness was congenital - in other words, it was a genetically inherited condition, and therefore wholly unrelated to anything false I might have believed or any bad choices I may have made. Well, to his credit, he did at least apologise for his error but I doubt he bothered to question what sort of religious 'spirit' might have been guiding his life leading him to make such an emphatic, conviction-filled claim 'in the name of Jesus', a serious thing to do.

Most charismatics, when confronted with their false prophecies - prophecies made in the Name of Deity that have clearly failed (just think of all the failed rapture prophecies) - rarely make a public apology and retraction for falsly prophesying, let alone soberly considering the possibility that they might be being led by a lying, counterfeit Ruach (Spirit) in their lives, which might be linked to their whole denominational system of belief or claims to 'special anointings'. They would never dream of ever considering themselves to be like the false prophets mentioned again and again in the Bible. I get it, even if I condemn it, because there are times we are all forced to deconstruct certain beliefs we may have based on faulty biblical exegesis (interpretation). I am not saying that many of these people aren't genuine born again believers - clearly many are - but what I am saying is that their religion (even though they deny they follow one) is essentially either a 'Gospel-plus' or 'Gospel-minus' belief system or indeed both. In the case of Pentecostals it's both Christianity 'plus' with false charismatic anointings (like batalogean 'tongues') and Christianity 'minus', the absence the Torah commandments obedience.

Now I know exactly how it feels to have to deconstruct and repudiate false beliefs and practices. I have been through the deserved humiliation of that once before, as you all know. I've been there. I am speaking from experience. I once falsely prophesied a date (the revelation was true and is being fulfilled now) [2], had to 'eat crow', apologise to everyone I had misinformed, and walk in the wilderness for a season by losing credibility as a minister as punishment for being presumptuous. I became super careful after that, believe me! In the more general sense, I've passed through Anglicanism and Mormonism and had to have much I inherited from these traditions that had to be painfully deconstructed. Moreover, the more passionately involved and committed you are to a false system - the more invested you become - the harder it is to admit you were wrong and repudiate it. Sometimes deliverance is needed too. What's even more ironic - and sometimes bitterly so - is if you have spent your best years getting people out of cults only to find you had unknowingly been in one yourself. One of the biggest handicaps I had as a deliverance minister was in undoing the spiritual damage done by other deliverance ministers who were being led in many cases by false charismatic spirits.

Anyway, I told the brother in Germany not to fret over what had happened to him, that this was not only to be expected but was becoming more and more normal, and that what he was dealing with was, as we read in 2 Thessalonians, was not only false spirits leading these ministers and their people but also Elohim - God - Himself establishing them in their delusion! Does not Scripture itself record:

"When one turns his ear away from hearing the Torah (Law), even his prayer is an abomination" (Prov.28:9, NKJV).

For those of you don't know, Brother Herman Rustad comes from a background of lay Lutheran preachers in the Hans Nilsen Hauge tradition (1771-1824), whose portrait hangs here in our headquarters. Brother Herman was for a while associated with the Pentecostal Church himself and so knows much about it. He was at home one day and was taken in a vision to one of the two largest Pentecostal Churches in Oslo. The vision rocked him to his core. In it, Yahweh showed him the spirit that steered that congregation in the form of a gigantic man, several meters high, who was made, from head to toe, of disgusting decomposing brown, noxious sh*t (pardon my language on this one occasionm, but I do not wish to minimise the impact of what he saw by being polite). It was so revolting that Brother Herman was horrified because that church's spiritual condition was far worse than he ever imagined.

The German brother, when I shared this with him, just went 'Wow!' as well he might, as I did too. This is a filthy spirit and for a while may mix with the true Spirit of Christ but in the end one or the other must go. And so long as we cling to our false beliefs and practices, having been extended grace time and time again even after we have been shown something is wrong with them, then in the end the true Ruach haQodesh or Holy Spirit must leave, and that is why the charismatic movement gets more and more wild and heretical with each passing year. It is judgment time for such as these. And that has been, and is, what the Penultimate Judgment is about. Can you see why the prayers of those who despise the Torah are an abomination given that such a filthy spirit lies behind such an attitude? Now please don't get me wrong, I am not saying all Pentecostals despise the Torah or won't listen to it - they, along with all Christians, obey some of it, which is why Yahweh extends grace, especially in the days of our ignorance. The same is true of the non-charismatic denominations - I am not singling out Pentecostals here. I am simply warning people to stop attacking Yahweh's Davar (Word) because the consequences are serious, especially then these groups come out against the true Remnant, "for so they persecuted the nevi'im (prophets) who were before" (Mt.5:12, NKJV). Our Heavenly Father has been putting up with this for centuries but a time of giving account has arrived.

One of the earliest prophecies recorded in the Olive Branch is one given by a Pentecostal minister no less called David Minor, received in 1987 in the United States. Yes, some Pentecostals do give true prophecies and speak in true tongues from time to time, and we respect these and have learned much from them! Not all 'tongues' are under demonic control, but many are. True tongues is very, very, very rare indeed and most of what is spoken in the churches is just dissociated childish babble that's of the flesh and no more 'dangerous' than a baby making gurgling sounds...but it still isn't the 'Holy Spirit' no matter how much those who do this claim it is! And when it's claimed as such, then a lie has been spoken and the Enemy is given legal grounds to cause trouble and introduce deception particularly if the one 'gurgling' (if I can politely call it that to distinguish it from the supernatural false variety of 'babbling') claims it is a prophetic word from Elohim (God).

So Yahweh has His people everywhere, I have learned, good people - faithful people - who love Him, amongst all the denominations, though they are getting fewer and farther between if we are to believe authentic biblical prophecy. If you are unfamiliar with the David Minors prophecy, I would invite you to read it because it is being fulfilled now, and started being fulfilled as long as 10 years ago but more particularly since the turn of the decade. I have written a longish commentary on it and referenced some articles and sermons that mention it which you may find helpful. You'll find it in Section 7 of the Olive Branch. I may put it up on social media as I know it will be of interest to many of my social media friends on Facebook, MeWe and Gab. There's also an ex tempore video I made on it last year (in two parts), on 26 July 2023 (ITS014a&b) to be exact, which you can also see but it's not in written format anywhere. We have an important second prophecy by a Norwegian Pentecostal in the Olive Branch too which has since come to pass, a prophecy made even longer ago in the early to mid 20th century when that movement was less corrupted. It's known as the Kongsberg Revelation and is about the End Time Delusion and accurately predicts how the Norwegian political system would turn into a kind of 'pink communism'. That has happened as it has throughout Western Europe. Communism has moved from Moscow to Brussels in stages and like its Soviet forerunner is slowly collapsing. It's 1991 all over again...sort of. Anyway, the revelation is in Section 467 through it may not be online yet.

None of what we are seeing in Christendom at this time should come as any great surprise if the times we are seeing match those Christ Himself prophesied when He said: "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8, NIV),

and by "faith" I assume He meant "true faith in Yahweh" since people have always had, and always will have, 'faith' only it will be of the wrong kind, with some it even being faith in nihilism or nothing at all.

There isn't a lot of true faith, sadly, which is why it is hard to find souls of like spirit. In times of apostacy and unbelief, it can be very frustrating, for as it is written by the navi (prophet) Jeremiah:

"Return, O faithless children, says Yahweh, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and will bring you to Zion" (Jer.3:14, NRSV).

This means that, unless you have been trained to operate alone and know Father personally and intimately, in order to find true Christian fellowship and companionship you are going to have to be led by the Ruach (Spirit) to individual souls here and there. He won't leave you entirely alone - even Jeremiah had one faithful companion, Baruch, his scribe, and new friends were sent by Yahweh to him here and there whenever he had need of assistance or rescue, especially in the court at Jerusalem when you will remember he was thrown into a well and would have died there had it not been for the intervention of a sympathetic courtier. So Yahweh will provide. For me there have always been at least one or two loyal and faithful friends in the flesh, spiritual companions, and quite a number online, though it's the ones who can give you face-to-face companionship who become increasingly important. For some nevi'im, (prophets), like Jeremiah and Elijah, it could be lonely at times, though as I said, Jeremiah had Baruch and Elijah eventually had Elisha. So we should not be at all be surprised to find very few willing to walk closely with us, who love Yahweh and Yah'shua (Jesus), and who strive to be faithful to the Torah, pior to the Sukkot Anointing. If you want lots of people around you, then go lawless, though few of these will make lasting friends, especially not when the going gets rough.

Cultivating a personal relationship with Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) therefore becomes of the utmost importance, and if we want it to be ever deeper and more meaningful, then the only way is by deep surrender and obedience. Often we choose to forego that by choosing human relationships first, one of the worst mistakes you can make, because most people are fickle and unreliable and will let you down at some time. And even those nearest and dearest can, at times, turn against you. So it is well to be prepared. Yahweh, on the other hand, will never let you down or leave you.

I hope your spiritual batteries have been charged somewhat these past 8 days. We have another sabbath together tomorrow, which also happens to be the semi-pagan 'Easter day' this year (an observance which is a symptom of what I have been talking about, namely, 'Christianity-Plus' and 'Christianity-Minus) when I will be sharing the important 1619 Prophecy. Celebrating Easter (which I haven't done now for nearly 50 years), would, for Christ, be a bit like someone celebrating a special anniversary day that reminds us, his allegorical 'wife', not of the original day commemorating our 'husband', but something your ex-boyfriend liked doing, eating the food that he liked eating, instead doing of those things special to your husband. Imagine how you would feel if you did that to your spouse! It would hurt, wouldn't it? Well, that is how the Saviour feels about Christians celebrating His Resurrection on the wrong day, eating food which He detests (like pork, because His Father, and ours, has forbidden it) or playing games he loathes (like chasing Easter fertility bunnies and eating chocolate fertility eggs), and worse than all of that, renaming His day - Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits - the Firstborn - after a demon - a pagan goddess variously called 'Astarte', 'Ishtar', 'Eostre' or 'Easter', which the Bible condemns, and then expecting Him to be happy about that. Imagine telling him, 'It's OK, darling, I know by ex loved these things but I am doing them now in honour of you!' Would you feel honoured? And almost as bad, mutilating the Davar Elohim (Word of God) - specifically the King James Version (KJV), and substituting 'Passover' for 'Easter' (Ac.12:4), something earlier English versions also did like the Bishops Bible, Tyndale and Coverdale versions but which no version since the KJV does, the Greek word being pascha ('Passover [Seasion]', 'Pesach' in the JNT/CJB & ISRV) and the Aramaic being 'Feast of Unleavened Bread' and not any abominable 'Easter' [3].

Brethren and sisters, I have once again taken a lot of your time and I hope you will forgive me. Understand that when I preach now it is as though it were my last sermon, because I just don't know when Father will take me home given the current state of my declining health. I'll be silent soon enough then. May I conclude this latest Passover season with four words of fatherly counsel? Consider this as you would a dying man's last words in case they should be. I'd like this to be a summary of the Gospel, a touch stone for my family and friends in particular.

Passover was, and still is, all about New Life (Chayim) and New Creation - passing out of the old unsaved life and into the new saved one. The Gospels testify that Yah'shua (Jesus) of Nazareth came in person to lead people into this New Creation. Who ever answers the call to follow Him can enter that beautiful, transcendant realm for which He destined us. When His early friends asked Him for clear directions on how they could get there, He replied unambiguously:

"I am the Way (Derech), the Truth (Emet), and the Life (Chayim). No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6, NKJV).

"I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9, NKJV).

He's neither a philosophy, not a ritualistic religion, nor an abstract force. He is a Person, a Divine Being. There are no alternative routes, no shortcuts, no ways around Him to that Realm. So what exactly does it mean to follow Yah'shua (Jesus)...to 'go through' that Door? It means to exercise the desire and power He alone can provide to do these four things:

• 1. REPENT of your sin, specifically of going your own way through life as if you're in charge, as if you're the judge of right and wrong and can determine what's good enough to please Yahweh. In other words, you must admit to Elohim (God) that He alone holds authority over your life and then relinquish judgment to Him;

• 2. BELIEVE through study and testing that Yah'sua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is eactly the person He claimed to be - fully Elohim (God) and fully human - the only human being could could actually be perfectly good in actions, words and thoughts. Believe that because He did nothing to deserve death, His execution covered the penalty for all your sin (caused by Torah-disobedience), your lack of perfect goodness in actions, words and thoughts. And believe that Yahweh accepted His sacrifice in your place, raising Him bodily from the grave;

• 3. COMMIT your life to learning day by day what it means to follow Him; to love Him with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength; and to love others as yourself. Acknowledge His gift of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) within you, and trust Her to nurture your growth as you live in the community of other Messiah followers. Trust Him to help you release anything, such as bitterness or unforgiveness, that hinders your growth; and

• 4. SPEAK UP in words and actions to let others know you are a follower of Yah'shua (Jesus) - and why. Invite them to come along with you in a life-long journey. It will be full of challenges. You will encounter great joys and sorrows, delights and sufferings, but never without Father's comfort and care. And when you enter the New Creation at the Resurrection, everything will make sense. It will all be worthwhile [4].

Until the regular Sabbath tomorrow, may His charisma - His grace - go with you in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes