My Goals Were Never His

It was a particularly good evening. I was worshiping with a friend, we were going through the usual YouTube worship music with lyrics. I did not need the lyrics. I was worshiping with my eyes closed, very lost in the moment. I heard Him speak to me very clearly, He asked: “What is the goal?” Such an odd question, He had my attention. So, I listened.

“What has your goal been at this point?” I immediately knew the answer: “To be your bride!” I knew that answer was wrong from the moment I thought it. He took the opportunity to correct me. He said: “Up until this moment you have been concerned with being in My presence, walking to be my bride. But up until this moment, your works have only been about you.”

My Goals Were Not His

He continued to tell me that His goal was not to be King, His goal was to gather & seek the lost, redeem the sinners, to love on the unlovable and restore the relationship between God and man. By then I knew I had lost sight of His heart, I was no longer aligned with His purpose and that depressed me. I cannot remember when being the bride became my focus, what I do know was He wanted me to change focus and look to serving Him again to serve the purpose that he was sent into this world for.

In John 21:15-17, Yeshua directs Peter’s path. With each confession of love that Peter declares, Yeshua the Messiah says: “Feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep”. Yeshua does not tell Peter to strive for righteousness, he is not saying be knowledgeable and gain all the wisdom that you can possibly acquire – this is not a bad thing.

Living in His Righteousness Helps Us Work Towards His Goal

I believe that Yeshua used his last few opportunities with Peter to reveal to him what He was most concerned about, what was in His heart; and that is His sheep, his lambs, the flock. As much as Peter confessed his love for the Messiah, Peter would have to put those words into action by loving, caring and serving the sheep. The book of Acts is filled with accounts of how Peter was moved by this instruction and lived it.

What has your focus been, honestly ask yourself? You say you have awakened to the light and the true Word of YHWH, you say you know the truth and the scales have fallen from your eyes. You have denounced and turned away from the lies that kept you captive. You have given yourself titles like “Torah keeper”, “Yeshua follower”, “Messianic” or whatever new phrase that may be currently being used to explain your present disposition. Between the labyrinth of Sabbath keeping, commandment reciting, and Hebrew spoken terms, I ask you to look at what your focus is and question if what you are saying is aligned with His heart.

Peter would have to put those words into action by loving, caring and serving the sheep.

We now know the truth, praise YHWH for that, but what are we doing with it? Do we use the knowledge of the truth to puff us up, and declare only we are the ones that can rightly love Yeshua because we do not use the name, Jesus? Does knowing a “truth” entitle us to a one-way ticket to heaven over our brothers and sisters that worship YHWH on a different day than us? Is our righteousness so bright that YHWH the holiest of them all, stops His reign to feast on our light?

Are you fit to be called the bride of Christ?

You are the light of the world. It is impossible for a city to be hidden on a mountain. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it shines to all those in the house. Let your light so shine before men, so that they see your good works and praise your Father who is in the heavens. 

Matthew 5:14-16

When I read Matthew 5:14 – 16, I think of an empowered people, filled with the Spirit and wisdom of Elohim. They not only speak YHWH’s words to the lost but they actively live out every single commandment as if it were written on their hearts. Their purpose comes from knowing that Yeshua did not die for a selective few households but for an entire world that needed to be saved (see John 3:16-17). These people let their light shine in the dark places that need His word so that the lost can see and say that those people belong to the great God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

Can we really say that we are fulfilling the aspects of being the light of the earth? How many people can say they have been drawn to your light, and seeking YHWH because there was something so different, so set-apart and loving about you. Was it your compassion for the poor that attracted them, or maybe you took care of the orphan and the widow. No? Perhaps it was your meekness and understanding of the bigger picture and the purpose of dying to self.

The one who loves his brother stays in the light, and there is no stumbling-block in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:10-11

I understand it was your love for your brother as written in 1 John 2:10-11. The very brother who is not currently “keeping Torah”, who walks by a “different doctrine”. That’s the brother that we should be feeding and taking care of. So that when that brother compares the fruit of his doctrine to the fruit of yours, he can begin to see there is something priestly and Christ-like about these people.

They are walking as Yeshua walked, loving and serving the lost, poor and downcast. They forgive the sinner and not judge him. Their kindness and patience extends to those that not deserve it. They pray for the unbeliever and are quick to give up their lives for a brother, because “For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Me and the Good News, he shall save it” – Matthew 8:35

Shalom
Kat Hlongwane