Dear Bill, I wrote the bulk of this on 9-25. I had really wanted to put down on paper the things that the Lord had been teaching me, and I had told Him so many times. I knew that it would take a while to write it out and I didn't know where to begin. When I began my time with Him that morning I had no idea that this was coming. He engaged me with the first thought and had my ear and pen for hours.

After the initial writing I wrote an introduction to it. After writing both parts I was bombarded by confirmations. I visited an Assembly of God Church on Sunday and heard it preached from the pulpit there. I attended a Barbara Richmond conference during the 1st week of October and heard it there. I received the first edition of a ministries newsletter in the mail and there it was again! I added Barbara Richmond's quotes after attending her conference. I submit it to you, not necessarily as a submission for your list, but to you personally. As the facilitator, you read words from all over the globe. When I read your posted words it seems that the truth of this message is being trumpeted loud and clear. Yet, I know that many minds remained veiled to the reality of it. I just wanted you to be aware of it. As you read the words submitted to you, please ask the Lord to confirm it to you if it is His truth. I'm sorry it's so long, but there's still so much more that I could say...

Thank you for your incredible service and encouragement to the Body! One of the Parts, Nancy Shupe

In the last several years, the Lord has been speaking to many different people, using many of the same themes. We have heard certain phrases repeatedly, such as: Returning to the ancient paths...
Entering the promised land...
Restoring the things that have been made waste places...
Throwing down the stones of man made religion...
Restoring the foundation...
Repairing the breach...
Purifying the Bride...
Removing the doctrines of men and demons...
God is shaking to remove all that is not of Him...
Abandoning our plans and purposes to receive the Lord’s...
God is restoring our inheritance...
Yielding to God’s order...
Coming out of Babylon...
God is sifting the church...
He is separating the wheat from the chaff...
Come out of her and be separate...
We are in a season of transition...
The authority of God’s Word is being restored...
We need to return to sound biblical principles from the Word of God...
God is rebuilding the temple...
The Lord is coming back for a pure Bride...
The Lord is restoring unity to the body...

Here are two words by well known men that go into greater length about a coming change: "I believe that God is going to allow us to see and to even partake in this restoration -- this is a major statement and I want you to pay attention closely --to the restoration of the New Testament Standard... I believe that God is going to renovate the entire understanding of what Christianity is in the nations of the Earth. I believe that the way that 99% of us across the world as believers understand Christianity, in 20 years there will be a totally different understanding of what Christianity is from what it is right now. I believe the understanding of it, the standard of life and the expression of Christianity as we know it, I believe God is going to restore it and change it in the Earth in this generation." (Overview of Corporate Long Term Vision, Mike Bickle, 1/5/86, cassette tape.)

This is not a time to sleep. This is not a time to be numb or to numb our senses with the wine of Babylon or any other kind of wine if you want to know the truth about it. Ephesians 5:14-16. You say, "Well, what about wine drinking? There’s nothing in the bible about drinking wine as a sin, it’s only drunkenness that is a sin."

Well, be that as it may, this is the time for soberness. We are right on the heels of doom or we are on the threshold of the greatest move of God in all of the history of the world combined. So don’t you think it’s good if we give up the wine of Babylon and all else that comes from Babylon and come out from among her because the good that are in her will perish with the bad. All the bad that are in her. So you don’t want to be the good mixing with the bad. It’s an unholy mixture. God has come to give something to his people in an unprecedented way. He

will visit his people without mixture, with his Spirit without measure. (Paul Cain)

We hear over and over about the need for intimacy so we can know and hear God’s voice. Also, that when we hear Him speak, we need to surrender to Him in obedience, knowing His thoughts and ways are higher than ours.

We all interpret the things of the Lord through the veil of our own understanding. Because of the different things we have been taught and have received as truth, we all view each word received, heard, or read, in our own unique way. At times we miss the bigger picture that the Lord is trying to communicate, because our understanding of the truth has been tainted.

The following message will be a hard one to receive for many, because of that veiled understanding. It was shocking to me when the Lord first revealed it to me, two and a half years ago, and He continues to prune me with it regularly as He gives me deeper revelation and calls me to a greater level of obedience. I, in no way, am trying to imply that I have a full revelation either. The Lord has restored this understanding to thousands and continues to do so daily, so I don’t feel that I’m on the "cutting edge" of this revelation. I can’t say that I took hold of it right away in it’s entirety either, because there were so many different layers or "veils" that had to be removed. I am so thankful for the Lord’s patience and tender mercy towards all of us. I am most thankful for the blood of Messiah, which has atoned for my sins, whether hidden faults or willful disobedience.

We all know that now, at the end of the age, He is calling the people of Israel back to Himself. The church has become a stumbling block to their salvation in many ways. We have absorbed many pagan influences and practices into our religion or "worship" of God. We claim that He is the "Holy One of Israel" but very little in our religious practices and life styles support that confession. If we would truly embrace the Father’s heart and eternal plans for mankind, I believe that the scales would be removed from their eyes and they would see that we truly are worshiping "their" God.

I am in no way endorsing "Jewish" customs or "Oral Torah" in what I am trying to communicate. Just as in "Christianity", many of these things are quite harmless and can be used to "enhance" our worship of God. Nevertheless, they are man’s thoughts - not God’s. In this message I am referring only to the instructions in God’s Word - both the Old and New Testaments.

Nor am I implying that we can be justified by observing the law. The scriptures are quite clear about this point. Gal. 2:15 "We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Having said all that... Last week, while spending time with the Lord, a sentence popped into my head. I thought, "Hey, I like that! I’m going to write it down." Hours later, I finally put down my pen...

God’s Word is the goodness of God wrapped around his people. Like a blanket, a garment, a covering - protection from the elements. It is loose fitting, free-flowing and comfortable. It is perfectly designed and beautiful in the eyes of it’s Creator. It’s purpose is to protect - not bind like a straight jacket. It is God’s desire that we throw off our garments sullied by the world and be clothed in His righteousness. Yeshua is the righteousness of God living in us, the Living Torah, written on our hearts. He is not a harsh taskmaster. His yoke is easy and his burdens light, allowing us to move freely with Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. To deny His garment, which He designed, robs us of the blessings He desires to pour out on those who are obedient to His word. He is crying out - "Clothe yourselves with My garment (righteousness)! Take hold of My garment (security)! Wrap yourselves in the folds of My garment (hidden in Christ {protection})! Cling to what is good. Cling to me! God designed His ordinances to be lasting ordinances for all generations. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In Him is no shadow of turning. He did not change course midstream. He has always been a free-flowing fountain and river of life. It has always flowed from His throne to the heart of man, offering all who will, to come and drink of it and receive life.

Jesus died to save us from the curse of the law. He came to fulfill the Torah. He did not come to destroy it, He came to write it on our hearts so it would become a delight to do His will. He came to conform us to His image by the renewing of our minds - which were in opposition to His. He does it with His Word. His Torah, His "Instructions in Righteousness."

In her book "Coming Home," Barbara Richmond writes about the Torah, "It was never conceived in the heart of God as oppressive though this is how some modern theologies would portray it. It is the sacred Word of God, given from a God of love to people whom He had miraculously delivered, that they might learn to live in fellowship with Him, enjoying His blessings. For us today, the Torah should be a source of inspiration, teaching, motivation and revelation. Of the 613 commandments contained in the Torah, we today are still able to embrace and obey approximately 170 of them. Each of these 170 is reflected in the New Testament. When

Yeshua was asked what was the greatest commandment, He did not invent something new. He quoted from the Torah, which He lived by and revered. He was the living Torah!"

What changes would it to require of us as "Christian" believers to embrace all of His commandments? We could begin by honoring His Sabbath on the day and in the way that He has commanded us in His word. We could honor His Holy Days - His feasts - the Feasts of the Lord. (Deut. 23:2-4) "These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD. These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times:"

When He asks us to obey His commands is He requiring too much? Aren’t we to crucify the flesh with it’s desires, which are contrary to the ways of God? He asks us to lay our lives, ways, and thoughts down on the altar and surrender to His way. Is what He asks too difficult? At this suggestion some people say, "I don’t have to do those things! I am free from the law!" And this is true. They are not obeying His commandments, His "Instructions in Righteousness." But the sad truth is that, while they are shaking their fists in defiance, the robes of Babylon are flapping in agreement with their hearts. Waving like a flag of "independence" and "freedom," while the chains of bondage and captivity to the Greco-Roman mind set are jingling and clanking in a house "haunted" with the mind sets of mere men who did not rightly divide God's Word. They state with their mouths, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord", but their hearts are far from Him. They are living in disobedience to His Word. Their houses have been built on the sands of mans’ incorrect interpretations of God's Word.

There are many people who have rejected His design out of ignorance, not hardness of heart. We have become ensnared by the teachings of men and have viewed His truth through the veil of that misunderstanding. His foundation was established before He created the heavens and the earth. He laid out the blueprint for His design in His inspired, written Word. He then reiterated it when he came as a Carpenter to shore it up, where it had become corrupted at the hands of men. There is no other foundation which can be laid except for that which is Christ Jesus. He is the Chief Cornerstone, laid on the foundation of the Torah and the Prophets. We are called to be living stones with which He can complete His temple, but I believe we have not fully embraced His structure and design. We are trying to build on His foundation without understanding all of the materials that are required. We have no unity because we have an incomplete understanding of the Master Builder’s blueprints. We cannot figure out how the house is to be rightly joined together, because we each hold fast to an incomplete understanding of His Word. We are not embracing the full revelation of the truth that He has laid out for us. We must embrace His whole design. We cling to a piece of the structure that He has revealed to us, but we are not able to build with it because we have not fully understood His foundation.

Though His "Instructions in Righteousness" were originally given to Israel, He has always made provision to the nations of the world to come to Him through the same means. To the foreigner who joined Himself to Israel on God's terms, He gave an inheritance equal to that of His own children. Jesus reiterated that when He came. He said that He came to seek and save the lost sheep of Israel first, but that whosoever will, may come. Eph. 2:11-22 "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men) — remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." Peter wrote to believers, both Jewish and Gentile, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:9-10)

He was reiterating God’s promise to Israel. "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." (Exod. 19:5-6) We have been grafted into Israel (Romans 11), the Master Builder’s grand design. In His Torah He described what His called out people, His "ecclesia," would look like. How they would live and move and have their being. The Greek word that is translated "church" in the New Testament has the same meaning as the Hebrew word used to describe Israel. A separate word for a separate identity called "The Church" has never existed. We were always to exist as "one new man" grafted into believing Israel.

Like Ruth, the gentile, we are to come out from among the nations. We are to embrace the God of Israel, their Messiah, and become one with His people (believing Israel). It is their Kinsman Redeemer who haspurchased us and taken us unto Himself to become one with His Bride,Israel. He only has one bride and she will embrace and reflect the factthat He is a Hebrew. Barbara Richmond tells of a time when her earthlyfather revealed his true identity to her birth mother. Barbara said the Holy Spirit revealed to her that what He is doing now with the church parallels that experience. Yeshua is saying to His bride, "I’m Jewish. Do you still want to marry Me?"

If God has adopted us as His children, doesn't it make sense that He would raise us as one of His own? If you adopted children, wouldn’t you assimilate them into your family? Would you have two different sets of rules and expectations?

He says if we love Him we will obey His commandments. It is the Father’s will that we walk in obedience to His Word. This is not what saves us. He knows that we will not be able to do it perfectly, and certainly not in our own strength.

He has given us his instructions, the Father’s will (Torah). He has shown us what those instructions would look like when lived out perfectly in the flesh (Jesus). He has sent us a teacher (the Holy Spirit), to write them on our hearts and help us to walk them out. Because the Torah points out our inability to walk in complete obedience, and the penalty of sin is death, He sent Jesus to be an atonement for our sin. He is also our High Priest and our Advocate. He represents us before the Father on those occasions when we do transgress His commands.

It is my hope that none of us who call ourselves His disciples would reject any part of His plan for man’s redemption as not worthy of our acceptance or obedience. He has said, "This is My way, walk in it. May we walk worthy of His calling to be the ecclesia - "the called out ones". Called out to be a holy and separate people. Called out from among the nations of the world to show forth His glory, His unchanging nature, that all people might be drawn to His light. A holy nation, a kingdom of priests unto the Holy One of Israel, the Lion of Judah. Joined to Israel to become not only His unified body, the "One New Man," but also the pure and spotless "Bride" of Messiah.

We need to come before the Holy One of Israel and lay all that we have come to embrace as "truth" at His feet. Then we can lift our empty and open hands to Him, like a little child, and ask Him to strip us of the garments of Babylon*, including the Greco-Roman headdress*.

A word of warning: This stripping may cause death to many of the things that we have held dear. You cannot go through this stripping if you are not willing to die. You may come face to face with the fact that you have worshiped a Holy God in unclean ways. If you are sincere in your desire to worship Him in the beauty of holiness and truth, there are many resources available to research the pagan origins of what we embrace as expressions of our "Christian " faith. If you allow Him to strip you in earnest, it may leave you in a state of shock and brokenness. In this state of nakedness He is then free to clothe you with His truth, so you can embrace His grand design.

*These refer to the pagan influences and changing of the times and seasons that infiltrated the church during the time of Constantine. The celebration of Christmas, Easter, and Sunday as the Sabbath, all came about during that time. It stems from the root of "Replacement Theology" which states that Israel failed, so God transferred His plans to "the Church."

What would the Churches’ reaction be if the "hidden and prepared" apostles that so many people have referred to, ended up being the "Torah Observant" Rabbis in Israel? They have embraced Yeshua as the Messiah but they understand God has never changed His commands and ordinances. Jesus fulfilled and satisfied all of the commands pertaining to the blood sacrifices (which amount to about 25% of the Torah commands) but the others remain intact.

Paul wrote to Timothy, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16-17) The only scriptures they had at that time were the Old Testament scriptures. Contrary to what other men have taught, Paul, the apostles, and the first century believers were all Torah observant and continued to be so for the remainder of their lives.