Time & Law

ACTS II MINISTRIES - The Hebraic Roots Movement, and the Relevancy of Time and Law

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. (Romans 11:17,18)

Hebrew Roots Movement

One of the most significant moves of the Holy Spirit of God in our day is the ‘Hebrew Roots Movement’ that is seeking to restore the ‘ancient paths’ demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ, which He taught to the Apostles and was manifested in the early Church. It was against this backdrop of Hebraic thought and action that ultimately resulted in signs and wonders and produced an army of Saints who literally ‘turned the world upside down’. This current phenomenon is perhaps best defined by Dr. John D. Garr, founder and President of the Hebraic Christian Global Community.

“Something truly amazing is happening right now before our eyes! What can only be seen as a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit is breaking forth as Christians around the world are working to restore the Hebrew foundations of Christianity. After being marred for more than eighteen centuries by Judaeophobia, anti- Judaism, and anti-Semitism, Christianity is being impacted by a revolution of restoration.”

ACTS II MINISTRIES (AIIM) has come to realize there are many hidden treasures in scripture that cannot be unlocked except through an Hebraic understanding, motivated by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we are just beginning to tap into the ‘Rich Root’ of the olive tree, and to pursue a lifestyle that is obedient, trusting and Christ-honoring. It’s ‘The Way’, the appellation assigned to the early church in Jerusalem and spoken of again to the apostles by the angel who set them free from the public jail with this admonition: (Acts 5:20)

“Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.”

At AIIM, we are determined to pursue, demonstrate and proclaim to the world ‘the whole message of this life’, which can only manifest in an Hebraic context.

Like every other move of the Spirit of Christ, there are those who resist and those who accept; there are those who catch the vision and run with it, and others who are more like the Sanhedrin that Stephen addressed in Acts 7: 51 - (NASB), “You men who are stiff- necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit”.

At AIIM, we do not want to resist the work of the Spirit, however; it would also be very easy to fall headlong into overemphasizing the Jewishness of this movement rather than the ‘Hebrew’ concept of ‘Crossing Over’, i.e. possessing the ‘Mind of Christ’ and the ‘renewing of our minds’. It is not our intent to be Jews, but to be Christians who understand what it means to live a biblical lifestyle and to follow ‘where the good way is and walk in it’ (Jer 6:16 NIV). In regard to the scriptures, we believe the only way to correctly interpret and understand the Word of God, is to understand the Hebrew context in which it was written, and to receive the instruction given by the Lord to the Gentiles in Jeremiah 12: 16; “Then if they will really learn the ways of My people” - therefore, we do endorse the Hebrew roots movement to the degree that it transforms us into the image of Christ, from Glory to Glory and from strength to strength.

There is an added benefit to pursuing this course, that is, we begin to live out the admonition given to us by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11: 13-14 - (NASB)

“But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.”

Not only do we want to ‘magnify’ our ministry, but we believe the only way to ever move our Jewish friends to jealousy would be to demonstrate a true Christ-like lifestyle that accepts and lives out the ‘Everlasting Gospel’, the true ‘good news’ as displayed by the early Church in the context of a Hebrew culture.

Understanding the Relevancy of God’s Law

The Lord brings order to His creation through ‘Time’ and ‘Law’, see Eccl 8:5-6, Jer 8:7-9. The anti-Christ spirit seeks to disrupt and ‘make void’ both these components of order. This is confirmed in scripture in Daniel 7:25, speaking of the anti-Christ: (NASB)

“He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”

Once again, to understand the significance of this scripture we need to think Hebraically, which is the culture and ‘world-view’ created by Jesus Christ. When we interpret scripture through a Greco-Roman mindset, which was institutionalized by the Roman Emperor Constantine, we will often come to incomplete and/or incorrect conclusions concerning God’s word. Indeed, scripture teaches us that there is a war between these two mindsets as stated in Zech 9:13 - (NASB)

“For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece; And I will make you like a warrior’s sword.”

The enemy has been very successful in perverting both time and law and because of that, has left the Church (Ecclesia of God) in a vulnerable, covenant-breaking position. Just as the Apostle Peter stated and affirmed in 2 Pet 3:15(b)-16 (NASB)

“and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Because God’s people are ‘perishing for lack of knowledge’, the Church leadership has the obligation, actually, the mandate to find out why; again, both time and law have been perverted by the enemy, who counterfeits all of the Lord’s work in creation. In many ways, like the accusations made by the prophet Ezekiel to the Priests of his day, (Ezekiel 22:26), the Church has ‘done violence to His law’.

In regard to law, many have twisted the words of Paul either in ignorance, or to their own ends to exploit the word of God. This has enticed the Church to accept a form of ‘Cheap Grace’, the term coined by the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book titled ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, published in 1937.

As the apostle Peter commented, some of Paul’s teaching on the law is hard to understand, and how much more today when we attempt to decipher it through a western mindset?

There is however, an abundance of scripture that clearly defines the Lord’s view on time and law, in which there is no room for ‘private’ interpretation, and is confirmed in both the new and older covenants. Listed below are some of the most obvious and easy to understand.

In the book of Lev 24:22 (NIV), we read that there is one law for both Jew and Gentile: “You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.” (Lev 24:22 - NIV)

Then Jesus Himself tells us in the Gospel of John -

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16) Comment: If there’s one flock and one Shepherd, then Jesus is indirectly confirming the older covenant statement, there is the same law for both foreigner and native born, or Jew and Gentile; “One New Man”.

Probably the most succinct mention of the relevancy of the law in reference to the New Covenant is from (Jer 31: 31-34) NASB -

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law (Torah) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Then Jesus confirms Jeremiah’s prophecy with these words in Mat 5: 17-19 (NASB) -

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Comments: Many who embrace a liberal theology often quote Matthew 5:17, that Jesus ‘fulfilled’ the law, but fail to mention verses 18 and 19. In addition, the term used by Jesus ‘fulfilled’, the Greek word (plēroō) is best defined in the Blueletterbible under Thayer's Greek Lexicon as:

a. To cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally
b. To fill, diffuse throughout one’s soul with everything that God wills
c. To pervade, take possession of one’s heart
d. To execute His counsels
e. To fill the universe with His presence, Power and Activity
f. To make complete in every particular, to render perfect
g. To cause all to obey, and finally -
h. ‘To fulfill, i.e. to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God's promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfillment’

In Psalm 19: 7-11 (NASB): we read the following -

“The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.”

Comment: Not only is the law perfect, but by them Your servant is warned, in other words, they protect us in a fallen world that is ruled by the devil.

Paul confirms Psalm 19 with the following statements in Rom 7: 12-13 (AMP) -

“The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.”

Again, Paul makes plain his stance on the law in (Rom 3: 31 - AMP) we read -

“Do we then by faith make the Law of no effect, overthrow it or make it a dead letter? Certainly not! On the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the Law.”

We see Jesus doing this very thing on the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, He is not only confirming the law, but in this particular teaching, He is making it ‘firmer’ still and ‘writing’ it on the hearts of those who are hearing.

Mat 5: 21-22, 27-29 - (AMP)

21 You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court. 22 But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!] shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire.
27 You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. 28 But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be cast into hell (Gehenna).

We know from 1 John 3:4 that “Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” This is yet another example of why we must process scripture through an Hebraic understanding, because in that mindset those ‘Hebrews’ who read this scripture would have interpreted it thusly; “Everyone who commits sin (missing the mark), is guilty of being (without Torah); sin is the state of being (without Torah).

Paul admonishes us in 1 Cor 7: 19, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” Solomon, in his closing thoughts in Eccl 12:13, (AMP) says this; “All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.”

Finally, in regard to the law, the final Chapter of scripture, Rev 22: 14 (KJV) we read,

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”

This perfect and holy law must at all times be meditated upon and sifted through the wisdom and understanding of Holy Spirit of God for its current application in the newer covenant. If we simply cast the commandments aside and pretend that we understand them (from a Greek mindset), for example; what Paul wrote in Rom 6:14 “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace”, or in Gal 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”, then we may very well find ourselves outside of God’s covenant protection.

The curse of ‘the law’ is simply this; “cursed (because of the law) is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (paraphrase of Gal 3:10). In other words, the written law consigns us to death, (eternal separation from God) because we are guilty and unable to live up to its righteous standards. However, because of the victory of the cross and the empty tomb, we are no longer consigned to the curse of ‘the law’ of sin and death, but to the ‘law of the Spirit of life’ in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Rom 8: 2 - paraphrase). Again, the law is not a curse, but you are cursed if you think that your salvation will come as a result of attempting to keep the law, i.e., that you can attain unto the righteousness of God by law-keeping. That is the summation of Paul’s teaching to the Galatians.

Understanding the Relevancy of God’s Timing

Now, in regard to ‘Time’, once again the anti-Christ spirit has perverted the clear teachings of scripture. First of all, we know that God is eternal and outside of time, but, we see that He set man in time based on the following creation event spoken of in Gen 1:14 - (AMP) -

“And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs and tokens [of God’s provident care], and [to mark] seasons, days, and years.”

The word translated as ‘seasons’ is a poor translation (from a Greek mindset) of the Hebrew word (mow`ed) and simply means God’s ‘appointed times’. This is confirmed again in Lev 23, where (mow`ed) is translated as ‘feast’ (again, from a Greek mindset). In Leviticus 23 we are commanded to keep the Lord’s ‘Appointments’, because they are neither Jewish or Gentile, they are God’s appointments with man. The root word for mow`ed is (ya`ad), which means to ‘assemble’ to ‘meet’, to ‘set’ or ‘BETROTH’. These appointed times with the Lord are nothing less than holy ‘dress rehearsals’ with our Bridegroom King!

Everything that the Lord created was meant to be a blessing for us, even time, and it’s obvious that time is very important to the Lord, or else there would not be a constant reference to Biblical events that are captured in regard to time and season. Just as an example from many scattered throughout scripture - “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle”, (2 Sam 11:) (NKJV), or from Acts 20:6 (AMP), “But we [ourselves] sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread [the Passover week], and in five days we joined them at Troas, where we remained for seven days.”

The calendar and timing of God was established during the creation event, before there was any law or instruction given to man. These events have eternal significance, as confirmed in later scriptures. In the opening verses of Genesis Chapter 1, we see the following repeated phrase; “and there was evening and there was morning”, which defines each day of creation as beginning at evening time. The second timing event was the seventh day Sabbath, recorded in Gen 2: 2-3 (AMP):

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. And God blessed (spoke good of) the seventh day, set it apart as His own, and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all His work which He had created and done.”

Notice the seventh day was set apart and hallowed by God, in other words, just as the law is holy, there is also ‘Holy’ time. Often, when the Sabbath is mentioned in scripture, it’s preceded by the word ‘Remember’, that’s because it was part of the creation event. The Hebrew word for ‘Remember’ is (zakar); not only does it mean to remember or memorialize, but according to the Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, found in the Blueletterbible, its origin seems to indicate the idea of ‘pricking or piercing’; the idea of memory then may come from that of penetrating or infixing, to shut up, keep and preserve - to be mindful of this day and of this covenant.

Time is also memorialized through the phases of the moon, as shown to us in Ps 104: 19 (AMP) - [The Lord] appointed the moon for the seasons; the sun knows [the exact time of] its setting.

Again, the Hebrew word for seasons is ‘mow`ed’; the new moon signifies an appointed time to meet with God, and further defines the timing of the Hebrew Holy-Days. This was established in Exodus 12:2, (AMP) when the Lord initiated His redemptive calendar:

“This month shall be to you the beginning of months, the first month of the year to you.”

That which the Lord identified as the first month, has since (the Babylonian captivity) become known as the month of ‘Nissan’, which is the month of Passover. To read about the Lord’s complete list of appointed times, read Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28 and 29. These appointments create what we call the ‘Rhythm of Heaven’, which help to keep us in the right time and in the right place, which is a critical component of serving in the Lord’s army, particularly in this season of ever-increasing ‘gross darkness’. Paul admonishes Timothy in 2 Tim 2:4 (AMP) -

“No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him.”

Refer again to the passage, in Daniel 7:25 and see that there is a link between ‘the wearing down of the saints’, and the spirit of Anti-Christ changing time and law.

The confirmation of the eternality of the Sabbath and the New Moon is clearly presented in Isaiah 66, verses 22 and 23: (AMP) -

“For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make shall remain before Me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. And it shall be that from one New Moon to another New Moon and from one Sabbath to another Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord.”

We see additional confirmation of God’s timing and law confirmed in Ezekiel chapter 44: 23-24 (AMP); speaking of the millennial temple where priests are assigned to teach torah and timing:

“The priests shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the common or profane, and cause them to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. And in a controversy they shall act as judges, and they shall judge according to My judgments; and they shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed feasts, and they shall keep My Sabbaths holy.”

Looking at the Lord’s timing prophetically, we see in Ezekiel 46, verse 1 (AMP) (still speaking of the millennial temple service), it says the following:“Thus says the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut during the six working days, but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and also on the day of the New Moon it shall be opened.”

Think of the significance of that statement, (put on your Hebraic mindset, motivated by the Holy Spirit of God) - that on every Sabbath and every New Moon the Lord opens a prophetic door of understanding and blessing!

Paul confirms the actual physical keeping of the feasts in 1 Cor 5: 7-8 (AMP):

“Purge (clean out) the old leaven that you may be fresh (new) dough, still uncontaminated [as you are], for Christ, our Passover [Lamb], has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of vice and malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened [bread] of purity (nobility, honor) and sincerity and [unadulterated] truth.”

Also, in Zech 14:16-17 the prophet tells us:

And everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. And it shall be that who so of the families of the earth shall not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain.”

In Col 2: 16-17 (AMP), Paul makes the following statement to the Gentile converts in Colossi:

“Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath. Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.”

It would appear that Paul had taught the Colossians about keeping the Lord’s timing, but they were being judged by those who were attempting to impose the ‘letter of the law’ on them. As we quoted 2nd Peter previously, some of Paul’s teaching was difficult to understand. Look however, at the term ‘shadow’, and then apply that to Jesus’s Mat 5:18 teaching, which says this: (AMP) -

“For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished.”

Paul confirms Jesus’ statement about the foreshadowing of the law, which tells us that even though the fulfillment is Christ, as we are obedient to do them, they become ‘prophetic acts’ until their complete fulfillment. For example, in obedience to the Lord the Jews kept Passover and Pentecost, and in their (the Jews) faithfulness to keep those appointments with God, they were eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the same will happen with Tabernacles.

It’s the same principle with the Sabbath, not only do we receive a blessing from the Lord, (see Isaiah 58: 13-14), but we will eventually play a part in bringing about the ultimate fulfillment of the Sabbath, a time of completion and perfection when all the world truly ceases striving with God and enters into His spiritual and physical rest. That’s why Jesus often healed on the Sabbath, it was a sign or foreshadowing of things to come, the healing of the nations on the 7th day of completion.

If you still believe that there is no longer a requirement to observe the physical Sabbath day, then we recommend that you read Jonathan Cahn’s “The Mystery of the Shemitah” which is advertised (and rightly so) with the following statement:

“The Mystery of the Shemitah: The 3,000-Year-Old Mystery That Holds the Secret of America's Future, the World's Future, and Your Future!”

This research and revelation from our Messianic Jewish brother proves beyond all reasonable doubt that all of human history has been impacted by the seventh year Shemitah's, and in order to have a seventh year Shemitah you have to have a seventh day Sabbath.

Again, the whole concept of living in God’s timing creates a lifestyle of blessing. Even though some of the Appointed times have been fulfilled, as we participate in them, their original purpose continues to work itself out in our lives. For example, as we celebrate Passover each year we come to a new level of deliverance and freedom, and as we celebrate Pentecost, we can receive a fresh and greater infilling of the Holy Spirit, so that by the end of each year we can be further along in our walk with the Lord. Then Psalm 65:11(NKJV) will begin to manifest in our lives, “You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance”.

When we celebrate Rosh Chodesh (the New Moon or Head of the Month), we are giving the first of our time to the Lord as each new month rolls around, it becomes a first fruits offering of our time, and “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also” (Rom 11:16), which means the whole month becomes sanctified to the Lord. The root word of the Hebrew Chodesh is ‘chadash’, meaning to ‘renew’, ‘make new’, to ‘repair’, to ‘renew oneself’, or as explained in the Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon:

“The signification of newness appears to proceed from that of a sharp, polished, splendid sword”

In November 2007 Robert Stearns shared a prophetic dream, which gave powerful confirmation of the importance of Rosh Chodesh to the body of Christ. For those who would like to view his dream testimony, it’s available on youtube at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9gNZsTVYRo.

In that dream, God revealed that He is realigning time with His purposes through a new understanding of His lunar calendar. As we embrace that understanding and receive the anointing that’s released through participating in the Lord’s ‘Holy Time’, i.e., by celebrating according to the lunar calendar and God's ‘appointed times’, then the bridal love of God will be released as time itself gets realigned with the Lord’s calendar. As we worship and receive according to the ‘rhythms of heaven’, it will begin to motivate us to obedient exploits that will manifest the glory of God on earth.

In closing, by embracing our Hebraic roots in the ‘Spirit of the Law’ and not the ‘letter’ and by heeding the admonition of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 51: 1-2 (AMP) to ‘remember the rock from which we were hewn’, ACTS II MINISTRIES is entering into an entirely new season of revelation and blessing and ‘preparation for difficult times’. Moreover, it’s this Hebraic ‘crossing over’ that will ultimately provoke the Jews to jealousy, (just as happened in the early Church), because they will see the fruit of it manifest in our lives, (often in supernatural ways), and it will not be according to the ‘traditions of men’, but a true, biblical approach to life. We are on a journey, and as Paul tells us in 2 Cor 3, 7-18, it’s progressive.

7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This is ‘unto’ the making of ‘One New Man’ in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s all part of a ‘First Fruits’ lifestyle that causes us to seek first the ‘Kingdom and His righteousness’, and in true covenantal alignment we give all that we are to Him and He gives all that He is to us - which is the greatest exchange and gift in all of human history.

J.Keen
ACTS II MINISTRIES (AIIM) (05-12-2015)