Shofar

Rams horn Shofar
Significance of the Shofar
The Shout of God’s Victory
and the
Blood Sprinkles the
​Tabernacle

As you  can see we need to come together  start praying. Repentance  to God for not doing it  sooner.

Rev. James

1.  Blow a trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm on My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of the Lord is coming;
Surely it is near,
2.   A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness.
As the dawn is spread over the mountains,
So there is a great and mighty people;
There has never been anything like it,
Nor will there be again after it
To the years of many generations.
3.   A fire consumes before them
And behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them
But a desolate wilderness behind them,
And nothing at all escapes them.
4.   Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like war horses, so they run.
5.   [a]With a noise as of chariots
They leap on the tops of the mountains,
Like the [b]crackling of a flame of fire consuming the stubble,
Like a mighty people arranged for battle.
6.   Before them the people are in anguish;
All faces [c]turn pale.
7.   They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like soldiers;
And they each march [d]in line,
Nor do they deviate from their paths.
8.   They do not crowd each other,
They march everyone in his path;
When they [e]burst through the [f]defenses,
They do not break ranks.
9.   They rush on the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter through the windows like a thief.
10.   Before them the earth quakes,
The heavens tremble,
The sun and the moon grow dark
And the stars lose their brightness.
11.   The Lord utters His voice before His army;
Surely His camp is very great,
For strong is he who carries out His word.
The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome,
And who can endure it?
12.   “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
13.   And rend your heart and not your garments.”
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
14.   Who knows whether He will not turn and relent
And leave a blessing behind Him,
Even a grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?

12.

Joel 1:15

15.   Blow a trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
16.   Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.
17.   Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers,
Weep between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not make Your inheritance a reproach,
A byword among the nations.
Why should they among the peoples say,
‘Where is their God?’”

(11.)

Amos 2:2,3

To sound a warning of danger.

2. I will send a fire on Moab
and burn down the palaces of Kerioth.
Moab will die during the noise of battle
while troops are shouting and rams’ horns are blowing.

2.  I will send fire upon the land of Moab and burn down the fortresses of Kerioth. The people of Moab will die in the noise of battle while soldiers are shouting and trumpets are sounding. 3.  I will kill the ruler of Moab and all the leaders of the land.”

Our prayer, worship is like a ( trumpet ) or  a rams horn. To move  in the lifes of other we need to sound the alarm.

( Trumpets Rams Horn ) prayer.

Rev. James

Portal of Heaven Ministries

(The significance of the Shofar)

The sound of the shofar arouses our souls to repentance. We blow
the shofar to show that we accept God as our king, as it says in
Tehillim (Psalms) 98:6, “With trumpets and the sound of the shofar
make a call out before the King, God”.

In Biblical times the shofar was blown to announce an important
event, such as the alarm of war, the coming of peace or to announce
the New Moon. The shofar was heard when we received the Torah
and the ten commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai as it says in
Shemot (Exodus) 19:16, “And it came to pass on the third day in the
morning, that there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud
upon the mount, and the voice of the Shofar extremely loud; so that
all the people that were in the camp trembled.” Thus when we hear
the shofar we are reminded to strengthen our commitment to the
Torah.

The Shofar reminds us of the ram God brought to Abraham just as he
tied down his son Isaac in preparation for the ultimate sacrifice.

(8)

Psalms 47: 5,6

God has ascended with a might shout. The Lord has ascended with trumpet blaring. 6. Sing praise to God sing praise; sing to our King, sing praise.

Psalms 98: 4 – 6

As we can see here we need songs ,harps, horns, and trumpets we need them all.
4 Raise your voices; make a beautiful noise to the Eternal, all the earth.
Let your joy explode into song and praise;
5 Make music to the Eternal with the harp;
sing a beautiful melody with the harp and chorus.
6 With trumpets and horns,
fill the air with joyful sounds to the King, the Eternal.

Psalms 150: 3

3 Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.

Isaiah 18:3-4

3 Look when someone raises a flag on the mountains.   Listen when someone blows a ram’s horn,   all you inhabitants of the world who live on the earth. 4 This is what Yahweh says to me:  I will keep quiet and watch from my dwelling place.   My presence will be like scorching heat in the sunshine,
like heavy dew in the heat of the harvest.

Isaiah 27:12-13

12 On that day, people of Israel—people of promise—the Eternal will thresh the lands from the Euphrates to the Nile, from Mesopotamia to Egypt, and gather you up one by one. 13 With a great trumpet blast, everyone who was dying in captivity—in Assyria and Egypt—will come to worship the Eternal on the holy mountain that is Jerusalem.

Revelation 1: 9-10 ( Sabbath )

9.  I am John, your brother. I share your suffering, ruling, and endurance because of Yeshua. I was exiled on the island of Patmos because of God’s word and the testimony about Yeshua. 10 . I came under the Spirit’s power on the Lord’s day. I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet,

(9.)

Isaiah 58: 1

Eternal One: Tell My people about their wrongdoing;
shout with a voice like a trumpet;( or we say this)  Cry aloud! Don’t hold back!
Raise your voice like a ram’s horn.
Hold nothing back: say this people of Jacob’s line and heritage
have failed to do what.

(To do what)

(Is right in God”s eyes and not in our eyes  it is about time we look in to our self  and asking God about right and wrong in His eyes.              ( Rev. James)

Hosea  8: 1,2

The Lord Will Punish Israel for Its Rebellion

and ( Gentiles also will be punish, side not.)

8;1  “Sound the alarm on the ram’s horn.
The enemy swoops down on Yahweh’s temple like an eagle.
The people of Israel have rejected my promise, (Gentiles people have also rejected my promise,  side not)
and rebelled against my teachings.

2 They cry out to me, ‘We acknowledge you as our Elohim.’

Joel 2: 1,2

The Day of the Lord

2: 1 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion.
Sound the alarm on my holy mountain.
Everyone who lives in the land should tremble,  because the day of Yahweh is coming. Certainly, it is near.

2.  Judgment will come on a black and fearful day;   a thick cloud of darkness will loom over everything.   A great and mighty army advance,  like dawn spreading across the mountains   Never has the world seen anything like it before,  nor will future generations ever see anything like it again.

Rev. James

Now it is time for us to wake up and do are job , as men and women of God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion;   signal the alarm.

Genesis 22: 12-23

Special Messenger:

12 Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to harm him. I know now that you respect the one True God and will be loyal to Him and follow His commands, because you were willing to give up your son, your only son, to Me. 13 Abraham glanced up and saw a ram behind him with its horns caught in the thicket. He went over, dislodged the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering in the place of his son.

The (Shofar first brings to mind the ram caught in the thicket by its horns which, Abraham sacrificed in place of His son Isaac at Mount Moriah

The Ram’s Horn and the Akedad

Numbers 10:9-10

The Shofar (ram’s horn) is often used as an instrument of (of spiritual  warfare…

9 There will be times, when you’re living in the land I’ve promised to you, that you’ll need to fight against people who oppress you. Use the trumpets to sound an alarm. Your God, the Eternal, will remember you, and you will be saved from such enemies. 10 Also use the trumpets in happy times. Blow them when you celebrate festivals and make sacrifices. On days of joy, feasting and new moons, sound the trumpets as you offer your burnt offerings and sacrifices of peace offerings. Again, they will be a reminder to your God. I am the Eternal One, your True God.

(4. )   Leviticus 25:10

To, Announce the Year of Jubilee

(5.  ) 2 Samuel 6:15

(6.)   1. Kings 1:34

To be sounded when a king was anointed

7.   Nehemiah 4:18

To rally troop

(1).   Exodus 19: 16,19

To herald the Lord’s descent and the giving of the law at (Mount Sinai.

(2.)   Numbers  29:1

To usher in the ( Feast of Trumpets, know today as Rosh Hashanah.

(3).   Leviticus 25:9

To herald the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur

Rams horn Shofar

Significance of the Shofar

The Shout of God’s Victory

and the

Blood Sprinkles the

​Tabernacle

Exodus 19: 16

On the  Morning of the third day there was a powerful thunder and lightning storm, and a dense cloud came down upon the mountain. There was a long, loud blast bled.

Rev. James

Side not

Revelation chapter eight verse one verse two and verse three let’s look at verses and one and two.

When the seventh seal is open, the seventh prophet judgment, are revealed.  This is talking about when
When Yeshua returns to the earth and claims his own and that includes you and me if we are believers
And washing his blood without spot can recall.
In three ways see Yeshua listening more prayers and the angels takes our prayers up to the altar
We see in scripture it was offered on the gold altar before the throne of God.  By reading that scripture we can see how important a prayer life is.  That goals for all of us that it for air is so important to god that the angels brings our prayer requests to the altar of gold again one more time let none of us take up our life likely.

Revelation 8 Names of God Bible (NOG)
The Lamb Opens the Seventh Seal

1. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour,  Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets

2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand in God’s presence, and they were given seven trumpets.

3 Another angel came with a gold incense burner and stood at the altar. He was given a lot of incense to offer on the gold altar in front of the throne. He offered it with the prayers of all of God’s people.

15

​Matthew 24: 29,31     Revelation 8: 2

​Matthew 24: 29,31

​​The Glorious Return

29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from [r]the sky, and the powers of [s]the heavens will be shaken.

30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His [t]elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

14

Zechariah 9:14

​14 Then the Lord will appear over them,
And His arrow will go forth like lightning;
And the Lord [n]God will blow the trumpet,
And will march in the storm winds of the south.
15 The Lord of hosts will defend them.
And they will devour and trample on the sling stones;
And they will drink and be boisterous as with wine;
And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin,
Drenched like the corners of the altar.

Let us look deep

Let us take a closer look at this verse is.  The first part talks about the Lord, down with a great shout. The believers will rise first those are still alive will follow later, and be caught up with the Lord, as the ram’s horn is being blown.  It also talks about coming together looking out for each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord.  I believe the best way out for each other is one of two things number is to learn to pray with each other number two is to have confidence the person you praying with has the same heart.  Let us sound the trumpet and shout down ram’s horn and announce His coming.   Soon, Shown and very shown we will see His coming.

Rev. James

13.

1 Thessalonian 4:16,18

16 On that day, with a command that thunders into the world, with a voice of a chief heavenly messenger, and with a blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven; and all those who died in the Anointed One,our Liberating King, will rise from the dead first. 17 Then we who are alive and left behind will be snatched up together with them into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This is how we, the resurrected and the living,will be with Him forever. 18 So comfort one another with this hope, and encourage one another with these words.

(10.)

Jeremiah 4:19,21

To sound the alarm for war

19 My belly, my [p]belly, I am pained, even at the very heart: mine heart is troubled within me: I cannot be still: for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, and the alarm of the battle.
20 Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is wasted: suddenly are my [q]tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment  . 21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

Yeahua  spoke of  the shofar blast from the angels who would gather together His elect from the four winds, one end of  heaven to the other ( Matt. 24:31 ) Indeed, Yeshua Himself  will blow a shofar on the rapture: “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angel, and with God’s shofa; those who died united with the ( Messiah ) will be the first to rise. ” 1 thess 4:16″ ). Moreover, at the sound of  “great shofa ” ( shofa hagadol ),

the dead will be raised and death itself will be “swallowed up” in victory ( 1 Cor: 15: 51, 57 )

Yeshua

The Shofar

The Shofar was also used during worship at the (Tabernacle) and Temple. Its was sounded when the (Ark) of Covenant was returned to the camp (1 Sam 4:5- 2 Sam 6:15) and was regularly used as an instrument of praise in the Temple ( 2 Chron 15:14- Psalm 47:6 – Psalm 89: 16 – Psalm 150: 5. )

Blowing the Shofar declares that the Lord God is the King of

universe,as it says in (Psalm 98:6) trumpets and the sound of the shofar, (Isa. 27:13 – Joel 2:1)

The Seven Festivals of the Messiah
Rosh HaShanah (Head of the Year) is also known by the Biblical name of YOM TERUAH. In Psalm 98:6 it is written:
“With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout joyfully before the King, the Lord”
The blessing that we receive when we understand the meaning of Rosh HaShanah and the blowing of the shofar is found in Psalm 89:15 as it is written:
“How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound (blast of the shofar”
Rosh HaShanah is referred to in the Torah as YOM TERUAH, the Day of the Sounding of the shofar (or the day of the awakening blast). On Yom Teruah (Rosh HaShanah), it is imperative for every person to hear (Shema) the shofar. The mitzvah (biblical commandment) of the shofar is to HEAR (Shema) the shofar being blown, not actually to blow it yourself, hence the blessing for the shofar, “to hear the sound of the shofar”.
Teruah means “an awakening blast”. A theme associated with Rosh HaShanah is the theme “to awake”. Teruah is also translated as “shout”.
In I Thessalonians 4:16-17 it is written:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a SHOUT, with the voice of the archangel and with the TRUMP (shofar) of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first”
In I Corinthians 15:51-52 it is written:
“Behold, I show you a mystery (sod = deeper spiritual meaning), we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at THE LAST TRUMP: for the TRUMPET (shofar) shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed”
THE THREE TRUMPETS (SHOFARIM) OF GOD
The three great trumpets (shofarim) that mark MAJOR events in the redemptive plan of God are associated with days in the Biblical calendar. The FIRST TRUMP is associated with and was seen as being blown by God on the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) when God gave the Torah at Mount Sinai. In Exodus (Shemot) 19:18-19 it is written:
“And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the TRUMPET sounded LONG and waxed LOUDER and LOUDER, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice”
God was seen as blowing the TRUMPET (shofar) on Mount Sinai in Exodus (Shemot) 19:19. It is SUPERNATURAL to blow the shofar and for the sound to “wax louder and louder”. It is NATURAL when you blow the shofar for the person blowing the shofar to loose their wind and the sound of the shofar to wane as this happens. However, on Mount Sinai, the TRUMPET “waxed louder and louder”.
The LAST TRUMP is associated and blown on Rosh HaShanah. In his book, “Festivals of the Jewish Year” in the chapter on Rosh HaShanah, the Orthodox Jewish author (not a believer in Yeshua/Jesus as Messiah) will tell you that an IDIOM for Rosh HaShanah is the LAST TRUMP.
Therefore because the LAST TRUMP is a Jewish idiom for ROSH HASHANAH, the Apostle Paul (Rav Sha’ul) when referring to the resurrection of the dead happening at the “last trump” was using a Jewish idiom for the feast of Rosh HaShanah and indicating by doing so that the resurrection of the dead will take place on Rosh HaShanah.
Genesis 22 is the primary Torah reading for Rosh HaShanah. This is the story of Abraham going to offer his son Yitzchak (Isaac) on the altar. As he was about to do so, the angel of the Lord intervened and Abraham saw a RAM (male lamb) caught in the thicket. The ancient rabbi’s saw the thicket representing the sins of the people. The two horns of the ram caught in the thicket were given a name. The left horn was called the FIRST TRUMP and the right horn was called the LAST TRUMP.
Therefore, the shofar (ram’s horn) was seen as playing a significant role in the redemption.
The third significant shofar in the redemptive plan of God is called the GREAT TRUMP. The GREAT TRUMP is associated with and is blown on YOM KIPPUR. In Matthew 24:29-31 it is written:
“Immediately AFTER THE TRIBULATION of those days … and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven … and he shall send his angels with a GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET (this is the GREAT TRUMP or the Shofar HaGadol) …”
Therefore, the literal second coming of Messiah AFTER the tribulation is idiomatically shown to us by Yeshua/Jesus to be associated with YOM KIPPUR.
TWO KINDS OF TRUMPETS IN THE BIBLE
The shofar was blown at the temple during the days of the temple to begin the sabbath each week. There are two types of trumpets used in the Bible:
1) The silver trumpet 2) The shofar (ram’s horn)
According to (Lev 23:24 and Numbers 29:1), Rosh HaShanah is the day of the blowing of the trumpets. According to the Mishnah (Oral Teachings of Judaism) in (Rosh HaShanah 16a, 3:3), the trumpet used for this purpose is the ram’s horn not the silver trumpets mentioned in Numbers 10.
THE USE OF THE SHOFAR IN THE BIBLE
The shofar or ram’s horn has always held a prominent role in the history of God’s people in the Bible.
1) The Torah was given to Israel with the sound of the shofar (Exodus 19:19) 2) Israel conquered in the battle of Jericho with the blast of the shofar (Joshua 6:20) 3) Israel will be advised of the advent of the Messiah with the sound of the shofar (Zech 9:14, 16) 4) The shofar will be blown to signal the assembly of the Israelites during war (Judges 3:27, II Samuel 20:1) 5) The shofar will be blown at the time of the ingathering of the exiles of Israel back to the land of Israel (Isaiah 27:13) 6) The watchman who stood upon Jerusalem’s walls blew the shofar (Ezekiel 33:3-6) 7) The shofar was blown at the start of the jubilee year (Lev 25:9) 8) The shofar is a reminder that God is sovereign (Psalm 47:5) 9) The ram’s horn is a reminder of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac and God’s provision of a ram as a substitute (Genesis 22:13) 10) The shofar was blown to announce the beginning of festivals (Numbers 10:10). The shofar was blown to celebrate the new moon on Rosh HaShanah (Psalm 81:1-3) 11) The blowing of the shofar is a signal for the call of repentance (Isaiah 58:1) 12) The blowing of the shofar ushers in the day of the Lord (Joel 2:1) 13) The blowing of the shofar is sounded at the resurrection of the dead (I Thess 4:16) 14) John was taken up to Heaven with the sound of a shofar (Rev 4:1) 15) Seven Shofarim are sounded when God judges the earth during the tribulation period (Rev 8-9) 16) The shofar was used for the coronatino of kings (I Kings 1:34, 39)

The Sound of the Trumpets

Trumpets have a very clear and pure sound which seems somehow to be clearer and louder than any other musical instrument. However, not everybody likes trumpets because they can offend; they are usually quite a loud and even frightening instrument. The silver trumpets were used to alert the people to danger and battles. They were also sounded to let the Israelites know when it was time to journey on and follow the cloud, and sometimes that occurred during the night so they would have been woken up by the sound of the silver trumpets (Num 9:21). But being woken up by trumpets can be a bit of a shock! Yet how necessary it is for us today to hear and know God’s voice as a trumpet blast which wakes us from our spiritual apathy, sleep and even death…

A loud trumpet blast is needed to break through our spiritual death/sleep/lifelessness and raise us to Life in Christ! “Take notice! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable MUST put on the imperishable (Christ) and this mortal MUST put on immortality (Life!)” (1 Cor 15:51-53). Resurrection isn’t just a thing we receive in the future but is a Person we can know now; Jesus said “I AM the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes and trusts in Me, though he is dead yet shall he live. I came that they may have and enjoy Life and have it in abundance, to the full, till it overflows” (John 11:25; 10:25b). Most of us know that truth and agree in our head that Jesus is Resurrection and Life, but the question is: do I know Him as MY Life? Have I experienced Him as Resurrection? We need to know and see the truth and reality of Christ as Resurrection and Life in our own personal experience. This Resurrection Life is not just something that may take place in the future but is Someone which we need to be seeing and knowing now, “that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death, in the hope that if possible I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body.” (Phil. 3:10b-11).

One message which God is sounding through His instruments is found in Revelation 4:1,2: “…I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like a trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future” and the result of individuals who truly hear His trumpet call is: “at once I came under the Spirit’s power and BEHOLD, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne!” – the effect of hearing the Voice of the Breath of God is that people come under the Spirit’s power and have the revelation of seeing the One seated on the throne! “Come up here, and I will show you…” but not everybody wants to be woken up let alone get up and go up…

“Come up here…” but going up can seem like hard work and is impossible if we rely on ourselves and our own strength, abilities, righteousness and life; it can only happen as the Wind blows away what is dead and gives us His new Life, Breath, Strength and Vision: “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, (I STOP!) and watch to see what He will say to me, (I LOOK!) and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: (I LISTEN!) Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run (get hot!) who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will SPEAK, and it will not lie (or deceive). Though it tarries, wait for it; (stop, look and listen!) because it will surely come, it will not tarry (be delayed or deferred).” (Habakkuk 2:1-3 NKJV). The word ‘SPEAK’ in that verse is the Hebrew word “puwach” which is similar to ruwach and means: to cause to breathe out, blow, puff, exhale, utter.

The sons of the Light Bringer today are being used to trumpet: “AWAKE, O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ shall shine and make day dawn upon you and give you light.” (Eph 5:14). To those who are of this world, physical bodily resurrection is a really big thing; we think it is a great sign and wonder if someone comes back to life! But how much more of a miracle is spiritual resurrection from spiritual death! Those who are born from above are desiring, praying and looking for the UNSEEN and eternal coming to Life – looking for the unseen resurrection of Christ’s Life in people who were dead even while they lived… This miracle of His Resurrection Life in us is truly a great sign and a wonder but one which may be unseen and unrecognised and unheralded by most people. May He give us eyes to truly see the reality of His Life and to see and know Him as Victory and Resurrection in our own experience: “O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting? But THANKS be to God Who gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Since we consider and look NOT to the things that are seen but to the things that are UNseen; for the things that are visible are temporal, brief and fleeting, but the things that are invisible are DEATHLESS and everlasting”! (1 Cor 15:55,57; 2 Cor 4:18).

Resurrection Life is the ultimate in freedom! Death is the greatest enemy to life so to be freed from death and instead to know and experience Life and be raised with Christ to be seated with Him in the heavenlies is Life and Triumph and Victory indeed! Nothing can get in the way of Resurrection Life; Christ has done it all and IS All. Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the valley of dry bones: “…Behold I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live… and I will put breath and spirit in you, and you shall live; and you shall know, understand and realize that I Am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:5,6). How we need this resurrection Life every day! We may look alive and yet still not have the Breath or Spirit of God as our Life – we may still be dry bones.

Being brought from a state of death to Life is something which only Christ and the power of His Life can do; death is final and means there is no hope naturally. I used to think I was an alive Christian and full of the Spirit of God and I did all the things that “good Christians” are supposed to do, but it wasn’t until the Holy Spirit blew upon me and raised me to Life in Him that I came to really know through experience what real Life is and there is no comparison between religion and Life; they are as different as night and day! I used to appreciate and read the Bible, but compared to Christ the Living Word reading it with me and being in me, my previous reading of it was dead. I realized I had been like the bodies Ezekiel saw; looking like I was alive, but desperately needing the Breath of God to breathe on me (Ezek. 37:8-10).

When you are asleep or dead, you do not know your need! You have no idea that you are essentially blind, deaf and dumb. It is only when you are awake and alive that you can at last really see, hear, feel, touch and speak because you have Life.

What is vital and eternal is the unseen spiritual life rather than anything visible and external. “Woe to him who says to the wooden image, Awake! and to the dumb stone, Arise, teach! Yet it cannot for behold, it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all inside it!” (Hab. 2:19). We are simply dumb stones and dry bones until and unless the Breath of God blows and awakens us, breathing His Life into us and transforming us into His living stones. What we may appear to be on the outside is unimportant and can be deceptive; we may look as though we are covered in the gold and silver of God’s nature and words, but what matters is the internal, unseen heart of who we truly are before God – are we simply gold and silver plated or are we genuine, true and solid to the core? Our Father is looking for only one thing: His Son and His Truth – His Life in us and through us.

May we be those who know Christ as our Life and allow Him to refine, purify, and form us into silver trumpets which reflect His glory and Light and through whom He can blow and sound His message of Life with clarity and purity, waking many and raising them from death to abundant Life in Him!

“The Spirit and the Bride (the Breath and the Trumpets) say, COME!  And let him who is listening say, COME! And let everyone who is thirsty, (who is painfully conscious of his need of being refreshed, supported and strengthened); and whoever desires to do it, let him COME, take, appropriate and drink the Water of LIFE without cost!” Revelation 22:17