The Kiss

Dear friends,

Have you ever experienced a time like this? A time when you waited for something, you tasted something, you knew it was coming, in advance. Conceptually, it was exciting, full of mystery and wonder, amazing, bubbling over with sensations of God’s glory. Goosebumpy. And then when  reality hit it was tragic, miserable, ugly, horrific; when the prophetic bridal declarations turned to numbing heartache and you could hardly breathe. 

Yep. 

Last March or April, the Lord began discussing the upcoming war or battle, which would start in israel during Sukkot. It would be the next major step towards His return. It would continue His separation of wheat from chaff. I was ecstatic. The earth was being prepared for Yeshua. He was coming.  I could smell the aroma. Hmmmmmm. 

Five years earlier, during Passover of 2018, GOD had told me He was done with mixture. From that time on, I had watched as Israel’s elections turned awry. As the US elections turned awry. As Covid came and went … and came. As the southern border of the USA was opened indiscriminately. The separation of good and evil. 

A very very mixed aroma. 

The world was turning darker and darker, but the followers of Yeshua were burning brighter and brighter, increasingly walking into Oneness with the One they loved. The fragrance of their  Godly surrender was being magnified day by day. Beauty incarnate. While the landscape was being cleansed for our Bridegroom’s return His Glory was being magnified.  And mixture, grey, was being minimized because God was done. 

I was filled with expectation, excitement, illusion,  not realizing my romantic delusion. 

My stomach turned. The horrors of demonic warfare came sharp like a knife. How could a good GOD allow such atrocities? He quoted Ezekiel 38 to me. (See bottom of newsletter) Where were we? There? Memories of Auschwitz, of my own childhood traumas, filled my mind.  I had experienced demonically controlled people cutting off live people’s limbs. I remembered the smell of roasting flesh. (You can read my book “Freedom: True Freedom Lasts Forever” to know that story).

I watched the news in horrified sadness. As a child I had seen children, women and men raped till senseless, then brought back to consciousness, then made to do other ghastly things till they died. I knew the evil that people could perpetrate. What was next? The stench was nauseating. 

Frozen and numb, I sat for hours, seemingly doing nothing… listening to music from heaven, yearning for somebody to kiss Israel’s booboos and make her all right again. Feeling hopeless, I asked God how to pray and He told me to pray for souls and that, if I worshipped Him and celebrated Him, I would have the biggest possible positive impact on the war. I did so. 

In worship, radical love for everyone filled my heart. 

I had healed from my own abuse by forgiving my perpetrators and understanding that they had become pawns in a very wicked scheme. That did not mean they were guiltless. It meant I understood how they had become wicked and I released them to God for His judgement and healing. I set myself free. 

On Friday, my pain broke. Peace flooded over me. The Lord told me to pray for shalom, for rest, for order in Israel and the Middle East.  Then later that night, in the Spirit, He took me to a meeting with the military leaders of Syr**, Le**non, Ir** and Ir**. I was presented as a military general, and I warned the leaders that if they pursued any further action against Isr*** they would cause the complete eradication of their own people, and would be held eternally personally responsible for those deaths. God’s double edged sword was unsheathed. I knew I was to pray Ps 85:10, that truth and mercy would meet, that righteousness and shalom would kiss. 

Then today, in the news, I read this from Hezbollah: “What we have is faith, and Allah is stronger than all, all your battleships and all your weapons.” Violence fuels violence.  We may well be in this battle until it is fully finished. When Ezekiel 38 is truly unleashed, it will only be completed by God Himself.

YHWH is a warrior king. He is revealing the hand of evil and demonstrating the horrible consequences of wickedness. He is teaching us how truth, mercy, righteousness (proper judgment) and shalom can be married together as one. We are to represent both sides of His double edged sword. The cleansing power of love, the nexus point of their combined goodness, is found in their Union. 

There is a song written by Misty Edwards, in 2005, that I would love for you to hear.    

Baptize My Heart

Baptize my heart with Your fire, I desire…

‘Cause I don’t wanna be offended …

When it’s all coming down…

He is in charge.  The battle is His.  Radical faith gives us His radical capacity to defeat everything that would come against Him. ISRAEL needs to know that. The nations surrounding her need to know that.  The world needs to know that. I need to know that. 

The questions of origin remain elusive. Why He created a world where unspeakable beauty and horror dwell together is beyond me. The explanations fail me … but I know what I am supposed to do. To fight in love. To love in war. To allow His love to control my thoughts and actions. To see His victory pour through me when I trust Him. To become His peace. To become His total victory as a demonstration to those who would fight against Him. To stand with Him, defeating His enemies from within His Love.  He is the place we are trusting ourselves to become. His Love overpowers death. His aroma becomes ours. He is coming. It is time. He is home. 

He reminds me. Look up. Let go of the pain and the suffering and the questions. Just be quietly in Me.

Peace returns like a River. Heaven Scent. Home. 

Ezekiel 38 NASB

38 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 and say, ‘This is what the Lord [a]God says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 4 So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and [b]buckler, all of them wielding swords; 5 Persia, [c]Cush, and Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet; 6 Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.

7 “Be ready, and be prepared, you and all your contingents that are assembled around you, and be a guard for them. 8 After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many [d]nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual place of ruins; but [e]its people were brought out from the [f]nations, and they are living securely, all of them. 9 And you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.”

10 ‘This is what the Lord God says: “It will come about on that day, that [g]thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan, 11 and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of [h]unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, who live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, 12 to capture spoils and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the ruins that are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who live at the [i]center of the world.’ 13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its [j]villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoils? Have you assembled your contingent to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to capture great spoils?’”’

14 “Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? 15 You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a large assembly and a mighty army; 16 and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes, Gog.”

17 ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? 18 It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “that My fury will mount up in My anger. 19 In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will certainly be a great [k]earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the crawling things that crawl on the earth, and all mankind who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; and the mountains will be thrown down, the steep pathways will [l]collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 And I will call for a sword against [m]him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 With plague and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, [n]a torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 23 So I will prove Myself great, show Myself holy, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.”’