Chanukah Days

            Chag Sameach! Happy Chanukah! And for some, long time no see! Blessings to all who happen across this blog site as it is my hope to share some hope and encouragement along life's journey.This is a return to the blog 'scene' after a 'several month' sabbatical. Life is full of twists and turns and sometimes we are stretched and compressed regardless of willingness or preparation, and so I find myself here, sharing some of the things with you, that matter to me. Allow me to give a heartfelt thank you to those who do come back and visit from time to time. And as time permits, this blog will become a well worn path in the bookmarked section of your browser. Also I look to investigate more ways to exploit the features available here to make you the precious reader more apprised of late breaking developments with our ministry B'midbar Ministries. 

            B'midbar Ministries is a praise and worship/Torah teaching ministry designed to encourage folks who desire to connect with their Hebrew roots, and do so in a practical way that reveals HaShem's heart for us. You are precious in His sight and He has a very real plan mapped out for you. It's simply a matter of pursuing Him--period.  Suffice it to say everything my wife Debora and I do is borne out of a desire to effect real change in our lives. When we talk about things sometimes it is for the sheer wonder of soaking it in like contemplating the stars that float across an ethereal canvas awaking us to eternal things stirring in the deep places of our being. But we also want to be real in the sense that what we share is designed with the intention of equipping every follower of Messiah Yeshua with the knowledge profitable for real change in our heart and mind, as the writer of Proverbs aptly declares "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov.23:7)

             I would like to introduce to you the latest gift Abba's given, 'Chanukah Days'. You can stream or download your own copy at my reverbnation page by clicking here. Aptly titled by my wife Debora because the song chronicles the steps we take throughout the course of our days. Everyday is to be a Chanukah day, perhaps not all exactly the same, but do we not all struggle at different times in our life with burdens that were never intended for us to carry? We come into this world and the Father says Arise, Shine! One of my all-time favorite verses of Scripture is B'resheet 1:3

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

            Which brings us to the introduction of our song. 'First come the waters, darkness and deep, then come the ancient wind and then a voice a speakin' peace'. In the beginning of creation there were dark waters, void and chaotic. Torah tells us that The Spirit of Elohim hovered over the waters. Through The Spirit God spoke to the waters. Those waters were violent, turbulent, bitter and uncomforted. 

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires." (Isa.54:11)

Then The Spirit spoke to them and they became calm. YHVH said 'Let there be light' and the primeval light obeyed and shone, lighting the waters. Now we celebrate Chanukah, or the 'festival of lights'. Light is so symbolic of many a great thing. Hope, Love, Remembrance, Redemption, just to name a select few, but the light we often hear associated with a lampstand is the Holy Menorah that constantly burned in the Holy place within the tabernacle or Mishkan. That light illuminated everything in the room, sitting opposite the table of shewbread and altar of incense. The table of shewbread is symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel, the gathering place where we gather and dine from YHVH's provision--The Living Bread who is Yeshua. While located in the center of the room burned the holy altar of incense. Incense is symbolic of prayers. Whose prayers? 

"And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." (Rev.8:3)

 The light as defined in the testimony of Yeshua in the book of Yochanan tells us that John '...came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.' What we learn is that Yeshua lights every man who comes into the world.

            And so here we are, the world spins around and around. Abba establishes His covenant through Abraham, and soon Jacob has two camps. All along there are mountains and valleys, each one a test to purify and refine. Removing those things ignoble and refining those things fit for The Master's use. He does this with His truth. The truth is Yeshua, the Living Torah and Torah is YHVH's loving instructions. When we obey Torah, walking as Yeshua walked, it breaks chains--strongholds, many which we ourselves have allowed to make us slaves. Slaves like our precious ancestors who slaved away for four hundred years for a hard and cruel taskmaster called Pharaoh. For hundreds of years the Israelite people became intimately acquainted with oppression and despair as symbolized by the brick and mortar that caked their cankered-sore feet in the form of mud, and straw, stubble--stuff that daily suffocated hope for a better life right out of them. So by the time Moses came along many were too blinded by fear or being numb, or perhaps a combination of the two to realize that YHVH had sent them a deliverer. 

            And isn't this what we do? We suffer under the cruel hand of resentment, bitterness, or addiction, and when the solution is presented we often times refuse to reach out because we've become so very accustomed to our current state that we find a measure of comfort in its predictability. 'But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.' (Ro.10:21)

            And yet, the greatest miracle of all is that when The Father had every right to walk away from His covenant responsibility with us, because we had long since gone chasing our other lovers and idols--He made a way to restore us. He made a way to pull us from the depths of insanity and change us from within and without. That's what He does. He removes us out from under the heavy hand of Pharaoh, redeems us and calls us His own, and fills us with His Ruach Ha'Kodesh, that ancient wind that when whispered over the chaotic waves of creation suddenly became tranquil and mastered with peace. And then like Sha'ul said--Redeem the time-- "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." (Eph.5:14-16) Again, the reference to Yeshua who is and gives us light to redeem the time. How do we redeem time--by walking in obedience to Torah!

            Blessings to you and your family as we walk in this precious time of rededication. Let us fix our heart upon Him and seek Him first and faithfully in all we do today so that we may experience in even greater measure, His beautiful redeeming light. Chanukah Days!
 

Chanukah Days
First come the waters, darkness and deep
Then come the ancient wind
and then a voice a speakin peace.
Then the, Word of God come forth
Like a breakin every chain
The Light shines in darkness
so that through Him all might believe
Chorus:
Round and Round the dreidel spins upon the table
History retold of how the miracle of
Light in you and me
was sent to Save Fill and Redeem, round and round it goes

Gelt in the pocket and a Gimel on my mind,
Sure walkin towards something, Im leaving prison bars behind
Lived a, long time with burdens that I thought were my own, now His voice is calling, Im kickin off the mud and straw [Chorus]
Li li li li li li....
It takes the faith of God to win a war
when a heart is bound by fear
So raise your arms and feel the wind blow
because His love will persevere
Hes sees ya weepin and the
tears fall from your eyes
Today He says be still and believe in
Yeshuat Adonai [Chorus]
Dreidel, dreidel, Dreidel, dreidel

Words and Music by Will Spires copyright 2012, B'midbar Ministries.

Glory Chasers

Chag Sameach everyone! That's what our brother Judah has been saying for thousands of years during the time of the appointed Feasts; and as a person desiring to walk in sincerity and truth, we would all be blessed to be sure in our heart of the things we are chasing; and that is, however simple to state, quite another thing altogether to accomplish yes? And this is the direction we are exploring in this, shall we say, 'blog exploration'.


This Shabbat, millions of Torah-observant folks are sitting around their tables in the their local assemblies, celebrating the Redemption our ancestors experienced that is called Pesach, or Passover. This Pesach my family and I celebrated with our brother and sister Daniel & April Rendelman of Emet Ministries. It was truly a blessed occasion as folks of all ages came together under one roof to experience the walking out of YAH's commandment to observe this season of Passover. For those of the Messianic persuasion, we take comfort in having 'the veil' removed as we recognize our Kinsman Redeemer Yeshua Messiah has come, humbling Himself to death on a cross, as a criminal even, to die for us- while we were yet sinners. Leading up to Pesach we have just recently breached the subject of Temple service in the weekly Torah portion study. It is no coincidence that it is of HaShem that the Torah readings dovetail so beautifully with the welcoming of Pesach. During this season we are recognizing a number of things, one and most notably, is that we by YAH's design, apart from His indwelling presence are shackled; in bondage to any number of ills and plagues that would steal, kill and cheat us of living a life free from the veil that besets so many, including those of us who know the truth, and yet struggle to walk in it daily it. 


And that's the $64 question isn't it? The reality is we look in our churches, synagogues, even in Jersusalem, and all around the globe to witness the testimony of millions who ascribe their faith to the Elohim of Avraham, Yitsak and Ya'akob. And yet we have not all achieved a complete and harmonious lock-step, arm-in-arm 'in-sync' as of yet have we? Why are we all not experiencing the abundance of over-coming the challenges that daily probe and provoke our timid faith? For right now I want to turn your attention....inward.


In my last blog I made a reference to a new song called 'I Was the One' that I am currently spinning on the potter's wheel. It was born from a painful experience that revealed more than I wanted it to. If I may set the stage with broad strokes, ultimately this is all that is required. I have a brother who placed something in front of me that was a stumbling-block, to me. Perhaps not so much to him, but it was very clear this was not appropriate for me; & rather than establish a safe, healthy boundary, I instead justified it without giving it more thought; and because this stumbling-block had some crude humor associated with it, while my brother laughed, I almost immediately found myself fully engaged, and laughing as well; I was engaged in a behavior that I knew was damaging to me, and my relationship with The LORD and I did nothing to address it when I had the chance. Suffice it to say, afterwards I had a conversation with another person that I am very close to, and much to my chagrin I eventually conceded that the only reason I had not maintained the boundary was because of my own pride. No matter how much I attempted to divert attention from myself by pointing at my brother, the fact remained, I had involved myself, I had made a choice, and the reason I chose to engage with my brother in the stumbling-block, after all the excuses had been painfully pulled away, was my Pride! Cunning, camouflaged, conceited, and conciliatory. Pride always goes before a fall.


Pride says, this is okay because everyone does it, even people we may regard as holy. But whose evaluation of holy behavior will endure the refining fires of Adonai? Mine? or His? Exactly. And so, as we enter into this Passover, we must humble ourselves, one by our obedience to God's Word, and two, by receiving the deeper meaning behind this Feast's particular command...to clean our homes of Leaven. Leaven is the yeast that causes bread to rise when you watch it baking in an oven. It tastes good, but it doesn't give us the same nourishment of that Heavenly, Living Manna who is Yeshua Messiah. In fact, like most things that taste good to our worldly-conditioned palate, left unchecked it would soon doom us to a life cut-short due to disease brought on through our own negligence (i.e. congestive heart failure, lung cancer, arteriosclerosis, Diabetes, Stroke). How many of these awful consequences could have been avoided had we chosen a different path? Again, with the choices...


And so we come to the title of this entry's blog, Glory Chaser. The real question however is this: Who's Glory are we Chasing? HaShem's? Or our own? And it all finds its origin back in the garden. When offered another path for our magnifying minds to consider, we we're so apt to gamble, to rebel, to go against what HaShem has already instructed us to guard against! And it's the reason He divorced us as we read in His Word (Jer.31:31-32), but it's also the reason He sent His only begotten Son to restore our covenant with Him. W read in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1Co 5:8 NAS)".


So there is a Bad Glory, and a Good one. The God we serve desires to make distinctions yes? Clean and Unclean, Holy from Common, Death from Life, Truth from Lies, it can go on, but the point to all of this is that we serve a Mighty Elohim who has created us with the opportunity to experience Real Change, Real Honesty, Real Holiness, and Real Passover. I scrubbed on my oven range for almost two hours today trying to scrape the build-up around the stove-eyes and scooping up the crumbs that had fallen underneath. And as I cleaned I couldn't help but be reminded that we were instructed to clean our entire home of leaven. Why not just the kitchen and the dining room? I submit to you the inherent evil purposed in the T.V. tray! Okay, maybe not, but seriously, personally I did not grow up sitting around the dinner table with my mom and dad growing up under their roof. It was always them in their easy chair and myself in a chair with a t.v. tray in the living room in front of the t.v. or even in my bedroom at my homework table, next to my television. The point of all of this is to remind us that we don't need a lot of encouragement to figure creative ways to carry leaven into every part of our home. We drop it in the couch cushions, leave cracker crumbs in the bedsheets, we forget to wipe the homework table or the night-stand in our bedroom and come time to prepare for the advent of Passover, we have this extraordinary task of remodeling our home to remove the buildup of leaven. Why do we need to remove leaven anyway?


Symbolic of sin, before the priest could come and offer a sacrifice to HaShem upon the Brazen Altar of fire, he first had to Mikvah at the Bronze Laver (Ex.30:18-21). There he was cleansed of anything that could bring judgement upon him and afterwards could then offer sacrifice properly to The Father. This is why we need Yeshua, our Passover Lamb. He is Perfect, His Blood is Holy, Perfect and void of any and all defect. No Leaven. And so as we recognize the sheer enormity of the task we have in our homes to find and remove all the leaven which YHVH has commanded us to do, through the process I realize that no matter how excellent a job we do, even our best works are like dirty rags to God. And so it is by the Cleansing Blood of Yeshua that we are set free from the bondage of leaven, that which would 'puff' us up and encourage us to entertain or 'chase' our own shot at glory, and miss out on the real opportunity, to experience like Moshe did, the Glory of YHVH (Ex.33:17-19)!

"Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. But, says the Torah, 'whenever someone turns to ADONAI, the veil is taken away.' Now, "ADONAI" in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of ADONAI is, there is freedom. So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by ADONAI the Spirit."  (2Co 3:15-18 CJB)

When we chase our own glory, we receive our reward, and it is usually death. But when we choose to walk within the healthy boundaries established in Torah, we experience the paradox that is Freedom in a Willing Heart's Service. When we choose to stand up for God's Word in our lives we pull down strongholds. When we humble ourselves and like Messiah, obey our Father, our flesh may experience a measure of pain, but we  are put into The Holy of Holies and are able to experience like Moshe did in the cleft of the Rock, The Glory of YHVH! And when Moshe came down the mountain, his face shone so bright that the Israelites were frightened and required him to wear a veil to cover his supernaturally-charged countenance. How much more will our lives change and radiate with the Glory of God if we choose to Chase His Glory rather than our own this Passover season?

For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. (2Co 3:11)

6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;  (2Co 4:6-7)

May we as we continue this season of Passover, come to the greater understanding that it is because Yeshua our Redeemer Humbled Himself because we were too proud to repent. This season, let us honestly humble ourselves, & choose to be God's Glory Chaser, ahmein, and ahmein. Blessings.

                                                                                                   -will

A Willing Heart Is the first step to Wisdom

            Shalom! & Welcome! to my new  blog at willspires.com. I want you to be encouraged today, or this evening depending on what time you’re able to drop by. Feel free to surf around the site & get a little better acquainted with me.

             Technology is quite fascinating today, as I’ve never been predisposed to the idea of a blog, and yet—blogging appears to be such an effective means to communicate innovative ideas. Right now though, technology aside, we are living in truly exciting times. Keep coming back each week as I will begin blogging here with distilled points of interest and nuggets of wisdom in the weekly Torah portions. Not only that, here I will be sharing personal testimony of things we can learn to walk in and through in our daily life.App

            I want this to be a place where friends and sojourners seeking God’s truth can find a fellow pilgrim here. I don’t have it all figured out, but like the song Ivrim says, ‘Anach nu B’derek’, which is Hebrew for “We are All on The Journey”. One among many, a favorite verse of mine found in the Psalms says “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom”  (Ps.90:12). It always comes back to a matter of the heart, and the more I mine God’s word the more I find His word truly is a portrait of His heart to us, His children. This is a place where we strive to honor Our Creator in our lives, but knowing full well that although we possess His Word, none of have learned to successfully possess their own souls. I do know though that it is a life-long journey, and it requires patience, prayer, forgiveness, and above all—A Willing Heart.

On the music frontline of the music ministry, as The LORD allows I have committed myself to getting back in the studio in earnest. In fact, I have an important announcement; with the help of my brother Dana Martin I’ve just completed the title track, Guide Our Feet. This song was birthed out of a desire to understand the Kedushah prayer read daily in the Amidah. It is a song sent straight from The Father, and was prayed by many of the great sages, men of the Great Assembly such as Ezra and Nehemiah. I encourage you to check it out! You can stream it directly from my Reverbnation page at www.reverbnation.com/willspires, or from my facebook page at www.facebook.com/bringasacrificeofpraise. There are links located here at the top of my blog page, and also on my homepage as well.

In a recent agreement with Reverbnation, Guide Our Feet will soon be distributed for download/purchase at Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and a number of other music websites.  Also I would appreciate your prayers, as after coordinating with my brother Rennie Rivera and my Mother-in-Law, I have almost completed Guia Nuestros Pies, the Spanish translation of Guide Our Feet, which I hope to have available for download/purchase hopefully in the next few weeks. Debora and I have a burden for our Hispanic brothers and sisters and believe Abba has called us to reach out to them as we strive to share Messiah in Torah.

Right now I’m working on two new songs. One that I want to share with you is  called ’I Was the One’. It’s a very telling tale, and personal account of how we can engage in ‘Lashon Hara’ for the sake of our pride. I think it will be a song we can all relate to.

There is a silver lining, but I don’t want to give it all away just yet. Truthfully it proves to be a funny, quick song, that’s light on its feet, as you will be encouraged and uplifted as it barrels down long stretches of open road sharing about the need for Honesty, ‘Keeping it Real’, forgiving one another—and yourself; and learning from our mistakes.

So let’s call it an introduction, Welcome, follow me on Twitter as you can keep up with progress on the latest songs, teachings and fellowships I look to be sharing. Until the next installment, Keep in touch, Shalom! Shalom!

Mercy

John 8:12 says "Then Yeshua again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."
Many of us may have read this verse several times before, appreciated it for the face-value it declares and moved on to another memory verse only to allow this one particular verse to diffuse into the chaos that batters our lives within and without each day. I submit to you though that Yeshua wasn't trying to coddle us with a warm platitude to help us sleep at night. He wanted us to know His word is truth, and that truth is intended to set us free.
Mercy is a song I had the privilege to pen in 2009. This particular song was birthed from a series of personal events occurring in my family, namely with my best friend and beautiful bride Debora, at that time and a few select messages of our good friend Dr. Hollisa Alewine of whom I frequently listened to on my three hour round trip commute to work everyday. So much knowledge and growth was and still is drawn from those deep wells of teaching and life experience. I hope to pool some of these truths Messiah has revealed to me in the next several paragraphs and my prayer is that it will reach in to where you are and prove to be a blessing.
Practical Atheism:
We've all heard "it's all a 'state' of mind". As humans being we all wrangle with perceiving life's daily events and attempting to make sense of all the headlines in our public and private lives. Part of our journey though, in my humble opinion, is unlearning some of the junk we've absorbed into our heart and mind. A long time ago I was impressed with the acronym G.I.G.O., which simply stated is Garbage In, Garbage Out. For too long, in some measure we've all allowed damaging memories to play over and over in the background of our mind only to reinforce negative thoughts.
My bride Debora confided in me how for years she battled with forgiveness and the all too real pain that encouraged her to 'nurse' vengeful, angry thoughts toward a father who during her and her sister's childhood committed unconscionable acts, stealing their youth, and laid burdens upon them that would trace their indelible marks into adulthood, making it impossible by man's standards to rise above such reprehensible behavior.
In a conversation she compared the battle she justified for years in her mind akin to what she called a 'practical form of atheism'. She would explain that the hurt pent up inside her wounded sould would cry to forgive but also for justice. She was torn between fearing her suffering would be in vain and yet her childlike heart deeply desired reconciliation with her daddy. This vicious cycle she later told me, exacted a heavy toll, impairing her ability to grow and develop in her relationship with her Heavenly Father; and a heavy price it exacted indeed.
In February of 2009 my wife received the call that her dad was in ICU in Texarkana Texas. Suddenly her estranged relationship with her ailing father took center stage in her life and everything she had painstakingly struggled to heal from all at once became an open wound again. Over the course of the next several months Debora soldiered back and forth between her home here in South Carolina and back to Texas to be by her father's side.
I remember though the initial reunion of Debora and her dad. I'll never forget, on that fateful day as we entered his room in ICU, Debora spoke life with a heartfelt smile and said shalom; and without skipping a beat this weathered ole' fisherman and rehabilitated man struggling to live and rise above his own regrets called back with 'shalom' as well.
There, in an utter state of helplessness, connected to a mesh of tubes and wires plugged into all manner of blinking diodes and respirating machines beckoned his beloved daughter to his side. I do believe it was then that all the anger and unforgiveness broke and melted away. There were more precious visits Debora was afforded in that brief interim of time, suffice it to say though she received some of her greatest teachings on forgiveness and reconciliation during those divine appointments with her dad.
The lesson for me came during another divinely inspired conversation with Debora in the car. It seems some of our best conversations come when were on the road together...there's a sermon in there I think. But I remember her sharing about all she had suffered in seeing her father in ICU, helpless and completely at the mercy of other people, completely dependent upon the commitment of other folks to keep him alive. It was observing his frail condition that crushed the vengeful spirit in her that she had nursed for so many years. It was in seeing her father in such a fragile state that I believe the Holy Spirit gave her such a nugget of wisdom. She said that all of us are like that, really. Certainly, many of us don't appear as her father did then in ICU, but essentially we are all truly helpless. In foolishness we may boast of our health and our ability to navigate life with 'lone ranger' bravado, but in truth, all of us are one 'hiccup' away from total dependency. We've no guarantee of tomorrow, we don't have certainty of the next hour, but how sinister the enemy appeals to our sense of pride and revenge that he has ravaged many a mind of untold years that could have been spent loving those we've offended or been offended by.
A Time to Make Up
　
One of my Deborabel's favorite Bible verses is found in Joel 2:25; "Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten..." God is faithful to heal us and restore back unto us the years we've lost if we would simply be willing to come back and submit ourselves to Him. She has experienced this in a very personal way, and it seems so evident everywhere we go. Kind of like that new car you see on the showroom floor at the dealership, and then suddenly you start seeing it everywhere out in town. I've been afforded opportunities to share in what my Debora sees because we stand together. People are hurt, angry, guarded and reluctant to open up because life has been one ouch after another and it's usually involved another person or group of people. We're all guilty of it.
If we could show your most intimate thoughts on the big drive-in movie screen what would we find? How many people have we held hostage? How many people have we crucified in our mind and left them there day after day with no hope? It may be that some of these people we've nailed up in our minds are so far apart from us that not only do we never speak to them, it may be that they've physically passed on and we never seized the opportunity to make it right. Regret on top of regret. Isn't it time to take them down and bury them? Dr. Alewine teaches on this in her messages and I encourage you to visit her website at www.thecreationgospel.com and www.israelnet.tv as you will discover a wealth of knowledge to challenge and encourage your walk with Adonai. But back to the mental reference of crucifixion. Beloved, if you take a dead man down off the execution stake, for whose benefit is it really? The dead man? How would it benefit him, he is dead and wouldn't know. The benefit is for us.
When we take them down and bury them figuratively, we forgive and show them mercy. Deserved or not, it is the same mercy our Messiah demonstrated when His very murderous screamed "Let His blood be upon us and our children!" And thank God that it is only by His Son's shed blood upon us that we can be made right with Him again. But when we bury something that has died, then it has the opportunity to become something beautiful. It has the chance to ressurrect and bring new life! When we show mercy we open the door for forgiveness and life and that's what my wife experienced first-hand beside her father.
I have been reading a couple of books lately, both by Mrs. Batya Wootten. One book entitled "Israel Empowered by The Spirit" is a very encouraging read. In it many topics are covered but one I just completed reading is very fitting for this teaching. In it Mrs. Wootten discusses one of the most crafty agents in the arsenal of our enemy the devil. I highly recommend anyone desiring to come to a deeper understanding of God's truth please obtain a copy at keyofdavidpublishing.com. But for those unfamiliar with this effective tool of the enemy allow me to share with you it has been used since the Garden of Eden. It is a "Lying spirit". The lying spirit has destroyed more families, marriages, relationships, and congregations than anything else. The lying spirit masquerades as an angel of light and is oh so convincing. It speaks persuasive words and can even sometimes for the sake of ensnaring its prey, work a miracle, but in the same breath reject the commandments of God! I cannot count the times I have been an accomplice to a lying spirit. How many times I claimed to love God with all my heart, but in the nooks and crannies of my heart I refused to forgive someone for some wrong I felt was done to me. Beloved, how can there ever be healing and true restoration if we never do like the AA big book succinctly states, which was taken straight from scriptures tells us, that we need to turn our lives over to the care of God.
Dr. Alewine touches on this in her teachings about the Spirit of Wisdom in The Creation Gospel. The Spirit of Wisdom is all about humility, and in discussing it she states "Reverence for our Creator leads us to humbly invite His Spirit of Wisdom into our lives. Proud people can learn very little, for there is little room for God's wisdom if the heart is already swollen and crowded with pride and man's wisdom, which is a poor counterfeit for the true Spirit of Wisdom".
When people meet my wife, sometimes she can come off a little intimidating. She doesn't fancy herself a 'Betty Crocker' mom. But one thing I remember so powerfully after her father passed away was that at the different congregations we visited afterwards, during prayer requests with tears flowing down, looked without shame into every face in the room and begged for our hearts to be brought to that place where we can all be broken; because it is there that we can be filled with Love like we've never known and have our stubborn shells cracked, finally being set free from denial and able to breathe in the sweet breath of God and to share it like He desires us to every single day. That's why I sing over and over to give mercy away everyday. Mercy brings resurrection and life and beauty and this is what our Heavenly Father desires of us more than anything.
I never knew how powerful a song "Mercy" would become, but I've always known that when YHVH's Word goes out, it never returns back void and always accomplishes what it was designed to do. My prayer is that every heart within ear shot of "Mercy" will experience reconciliation and ressurrection in their relationships and experience Mercy and Love the way our Creator and His Son demonstrated on the very first day of creation. Beloved, be blessed.
Praise Him,
Will & Debora Spires

NewsLetter and Teaching

　　

Sunday, November 29, 2009　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Grace and Peace to you chaverim! Debora and I pray you and your family had a beautiful thanksgiving this past Shabbat. We still possess a remnant of Turkey we’ve been cutting away from as necessary. My father and step mother actually loaded us down with a literal picnic basket overflowing with a veritable smorgasbord of Turkey and all of the delicious trimmings that make a 3 day (hehehe) thanksgiving dinner complete! I have much to be thankful for and over the course of this past Shabbat and weekend I have thanked Abba for the love He has for me inspite of my piteous self. Folks, we had a grand time at Emet ministries this past Friday night. Rabbi Daniel Rendelman hosted special speaker Scot and his wife Suzanne Dryer from Profound Prophecy ministries. If you have a moment you might enjoy perusing the subject matter addressed there at http://www.profoundprophecy.com I had the lovely opportunity to share music that evening and was fortunate enough to share three new songs with our congregation. The first was an　incredible new song by my beloved bride Debora,　a truly anointed　praise and worship songwriter, called I Will Follow You. This　praise and worship song has become an instant classic, boldly declaring our allegiance　to our Messiah Yeshua and I　can't wait to share it with you.　We also share a new song by brother Stephen Franklin, called Ha-Kli, or translated to English means "The Vessel", one that cries out for Abba to change us and use us for His Kingdom. And the　final new song, which is actually a re-vamped rendition of an old classic known by many as "Little is Much". Abba laid it on my heart some weeks ago to do this song with a newe twist and He offered me a third verse. The music was well received by all, and for all who missed, it was a real treat and I hope to have it recorded and made available on the new CD tentatively slated for release in late Spring of 2010.Friends, I don’t claim to be a wise man, but I know where true wisdom originates, from our Abba and as a matter of course He loved us enough to put it in His Torah. I thought I might share a few thoughts to encourage and challenge you as you go about your week. Two main thoughts, and both are not entirely disconnected. The first involves our britches. Britches? You might say? Again, yes, and simply put I think it’s important for us to evaluate, and make sure we don’t get too big for em. Now, just to distinguish, we are not talking about waistlines, turkey portions and overdoses of tryptophan (tryptophan is that lovely chemical naturally occurring in turkey that can lead us to partake in that beloved pastime, the "after thanksgiving dinner" nap in the easy chair while the ball game idly continues on the television set.Rather I want to encourage all of us, myself included to do a spiritual gut-check at the beginning and end of everyday. Rav Shaul (Apostle Paul) beseeched the church of Galatia to not become boastful, challenging and envying one another (Galatians 5:26). The writer of the book of Hebrews said that we need to "consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near" (Heb.10:24-25). Beloved, we are in tough times. I’ll submit to you that even when the times are "good", they can still be tough. We fight a war everyday and while talking heads may declare the economy is on the upswing and a loaf of bread is cheaper today than it was yesterday, this by no means disqualify us from many of the inner struggles no one ever sees. We need to encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Life tends to allow us several opportunities to rub shoulders with familiar things, some lovely, some unsavory. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to walk through some painful steps that have and continue to teach me about humility. There will come some people through your life that you will hope will steadfastly remain in place, and for reasons beyond your finite perception are simply not meant to. And you know what? That is ok. Abba is enough. When Yeshua was arrested in the garden, where did all of his close-knit family disappear to? They scattered. But there’s a lesson there. For one it reveals where we are spiritually. Are we placing man on a pedestal? Are we putting our trust more in man than in YHWH? Psalm 118:9 we are told that it is better to take refuge in YHWH than to trust in princes. The fact is, when we suffer the pain of folks leaving our lives for reasons known or unknown to us, it is not idle. Our Creator is still on the throne and is orchestrating all things for our good. Joshua 23:11 says "So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the LORD your God". YHWH repeats this over and over and over. In order for us to fight the good fight, we need to daily do a spiritual check of our own hearts. When we find ourselves struggling with emotions we regret, these are opportunities to clean house, refocus our vision on Abba and make certain our hearts are crucified to this world and sold out to Him and Him alone. I say these things beloved only because I have been guilty of these same things. Pride, anger, vanity, revenge, strife, jealousy, ego…old foes of our "old man" that will lie in wait at the door until we complete our journey- nevertheless- we like our ancestors before us have been shown a better way, through the life-giving power of Abba’s Son Yeshua HaMoshiach, who showed us how to walk in victory. As He is the Torah in flesh, let us follow in His footsteps, focusing upon Him and allowing Him to be our all in all.The second thought I wanted to share stems primarily from this past week’s Torah portion. Ya’akov had a dream and what he witnessed in the dream revealed that the supposed mundane was charged with Hashem’s holy presence. What he saw in his dream was a ladder, and upon that ladder angels would descend and ascend it constantly, and at the top was YHWH. This ladder was the connection between Abba and man, and this ladder was none other than a picture of Messiah, as referred to by Himself in John chapter 1, verse 51 when He said "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man".When Ya’akov awoke from the dream he said, and I really like the NAS translation of this verse, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it", He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this the gate of heaven". Beloved, what you have here is nothing short of Ya’akov receiving a very spiritually eye-opening gift from Abba. Perhaps Ya’akov at this time in his life was struggling against many of the same foes present in our current day struggles. Fear, dread, inadequacy, pride, ego, the whole lot of ‘em.It was in that moment that I believe many of those foes were slayed when Abba spoke to him there and confirmed the same promise upon him that was first given to Abraham. Folks if Yeshua is the ladder, and he is the connection between YHWH and man, and if He resides in us, then these verses in Torah only confirm what Shaul(paul) said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse16, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" So now, we are presented with a grand truth. If He resides in you, then the holiness of that space Ya’akov experienced can be experienced by us wherever our feet take us throughout our day. YHWH is speaking to us all the time….which prompts the next question beloved, are we listening? When we go about our morning commute, a trip to the post office, waiting in the checkout line of the grocery store, any and everywhere, Hashem is constantly present and using these places and times to teach, mold, and transform us more into the likeness of His Son. Let us boldly go forward seeking His face confident that as we remain submitted to Him, He is always teaching us. Amein.
Shalom
　
P.S we Also　go to the Christ Homeless Shelter In Columbia South Carolina　to sing sometimes, they are always on our hearts we would ask that you please keep them
in　prayer always, they give a great service to all who　are in need.

http://www.willspires.com　Lyrics for the songs are now on the webpage under the discography tab.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Mitzvah Minute

Love your fellow as yourself"—Leviticus."This is a major principle of the Torah"—Rabbi Akiva."A soul enters this world for seventy or eighty years just to do a favor for another"—the Baal Shem Tov.

http://www.willspires.com/

Shalom

never alone

Life is not meant to be lived jaded, numbed out or as a cynic. Life is meant to be experienced with hope and life through the highs and the lows, but every single situation we must walk through will reveal Adonai’s presence if we will only walk in His Way, not man’s. I pray that this music that Abba’s given me to give to you will bless your spirit, encourage your heart and point you to our Messiah Yeshua and His precious life-giving Torah.Praise Him, Will Spires