Don't Be a Victim of Identity Theft

Consider how Jacob's name was changed.

We must consider it because there is a message I feel led to share with you... Don't Be a Victim of Identity Theft!

To better understand our call as His people and how covenant believers are a part of Israel we must consider how it happened that Jacob’s name was changed as a blessing by the Almighty.

It is not just a story (Genesis 32:24; Hosea 12:4).

After Jacob's family “crossed over” the river ahead of him, Jacob “wrestled” with The Angel (Messenger) of YHVH. Do you remember what happened at the end of Jacob’s struggle in the darkness?

The Angel (who came in the flesh as ‘The One’ annointed in the Spirit of YHVH (Yeshua) touched him and He altered Jacob’s stride. His “walk” was changed permanently and he was given a new name, the name “Israel” (Genesis 32:28).

Can’t you just imagine the conversations he had for the rest of his life whenever he met someone new on his life journey?

I think that there’s a really good chance that whenever anyone met him for the first time and saw his distinctive walk, they probably asked, “Wow… What happened to you?” I can just imagine the gist of his reply…

My “walk” was changed by YHVH’s hand. I was wrestling with Him and He gave me this walk that you see. But then I told Him I would not “let go”, not stop struggling until He blessed me, so He gave me my name, it is Israel, it means "God Prevails". After I received my new name from God I was able to “cross over”. It was in the beautiful dawn of the morning light that I then “walked” into the Promised Land. The different way that you see me walk today is the way I will always walk.

Can you also imagine that whenever anyone that knew him saw him coming, before they could see his face they just knew by his walk – who he was, and his story.

“Israel”… it is the name of God's children, it is our Name and Our Mission Today!!

Now, "all Israel" both native and stranger, all believers must know their identity because understanding "Israel as one people" is a part of our mission, God's goal is Israel’s eventual full restoration, and it’s ALL about ONE House... one people united in Messiah, it is about the identity of the people God calls out to Himself. After all, “Israel” literally means God Prevails!

As we know, Paul told the Ephesians “gentiles”… you once were separate, excluded "strangers" from Messiah and the identity of none other than… Israel!

“Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles… remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11-12).

We need to remember too Paul was subtly referencing Manasseh, Joseph's son. After all, his Hebrew name Mĕnashsheh literally means: "One who forgets". He and his brother Ephraim were adopted into the family of Israel by by Jacob.

God knew we would forget, but it is now time to remember that God recruits, He calls people into His commonwealth Kingdom adopting them in under the same name He chose to give Jacob, it is the name of His family. He calls all that follow Him -- by the name “Israel” -- they are His chosen, both native and stranger, Jew and Gentile!

And Israel has a servant duty to be priests to all nations. To spread the good news of His plan of salvation and redemption to all mankind.

But “Israel” has an identity crisis as one people group:

Many that call themselves Christians do not know "the word", the Torah, and many that call themselves Jews do not know Messiah. Indeed, neither fully know the Messiah in the Torah, the living word of God. But that day of blindness is ending, praise YHVH.

Think about it... In God’s word, He does not call us "Christians and Jews", it is hard to fathom at first but God never uses the word Church or Judaism, these are the "assumed names" of man's tradition, and of religion.

If we study the plain Word of God, we are given the name He chooses for us, we are "Ephraim and Judah", but this is not a "two-house" message. Why? Because we are destined together in Messiah, restored in His teaching and instruction, joined together in His Spirit as one new man. This is a "one house" message because our identity is that we are all to be His children, restored in His covenant so that we may be called out as “Israel”.

Just as the day when Esau was preventing Jacob from entering directly into Canaan, the family today is divided. In a mysterious way it has been for their protection. The story of Jacob's entry into the land is a prophetic story, an image of how Jacob’s family will come back into the land promised to Abraham before the return of Messiah Yeshua. Like Jacob, we need to get face to face with God to see who he really is and to learn who we are from Him.

Because "Jacob's Trouble" and darkness approaches again. We must place our trust in the promise and protection of God's hand. We need to prepare now and start with "the blessing" of knowing our identity, because Yeshua tells us a house divided can not stand in the end. But God gives us an eternal promise in His word. We will be united as one stick one in His hand, restored into the One Tree, the olive tree as one new man. See Ezekiel 37 Jeremiah 11 and Romans 11.

"Israel" is the very identity, the prophetic message that the angel, the "One" that is Messiah gave to Jacob as his blessing... "after" the wrestling!

This struggle and blessing occurred during Jacob’s journey "back to" the Promised Land.

Remember, Israel means ‘God Prevails’. May we receive it and understand why God renamed Jacob in his blessing. God does not want us to be known as “Jacob”. After all, Jacob is one who "grasps at the heel", struggles with “the walk”. Everywhere you look, Christians are learning to return their Hebrew roots, they are returning to the covenant of Torah and at the same time Jews are returning to Messiah. The two camps are becoming one, they are being restored and reunited as the people of the covenant, as "Israel”.

God wants us to know that when He speaks of "Jacob's Trouble", it is the time that will give a laser focus on the restoration of all “Israel”. This message appears throughout His word, He speaks of "all" Israel as His chosen and not just Judah (Jews) or Ephraim (Christianity) as being His people. If we do not understand our identity, we are still divided and avoiding each other as brothers in the one family of God!

The so-called Old Testament, the Tanach is full of the promise of the restoration of all Israel – as is the books we call the New Testament. Restoration is the overriding Kingdom message in His word, A to Z, Alpha to Omega, Aleph to Tav. His promises to enter into His great Kingdom are not just for one tribe, but for all twelve tribes, as well as all the strangers and mixed multitude who sojourn with them! It always has been and always will be a salvation plan for all mankind to enter into the 12 gates (see Revelation 21:12). The reason is that in God's eyes, the people He calls by the name "Israel" are those that represent the people in covenant with Him.

United together we are to be the people of sure faith, "the way" and recipients of His great mercy and redemption. It has nothing to do with DNA.

Once we see we are all in His camp, as one people in sight of His Shekinah Glory, there will be but one name for all His chosen people. It is Israel. It is not "the Church", it is not "Judiasm". YHVH God has no religion and Jacob was not a Christian or a Jew.

The apostles understood this. We too need see the truth in these verses:

“The God of our fathers raised up Yeshua, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand [to be] a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and [so is] also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him” (Acts 5:30-32).

“Of this man’s seed hath God according to [his] promise raised unto Israel a Savior, Yeshua: When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not [he]. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of [his] feet I am not worthy to loose. Men [and] brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent” (Acts 13:23-26).

We need to understand these verses as well as Romans 11. We must know today that Paul was not giving a teaching to those in Rome about “Jews” not following Messiah. For 30 years or more, when this letter was written to the Romans, the people called “Judah and Benjamin” the Jews of the day were on literally on fire in the spirit for Messiah!!!

These men were all "Jews", yet today many say they were the “Christians” spreading the good news of Messiah. The fact is they were the Jews that knew and followed Messiah, they were spreading the gospel of the Kingdom across the land for over 15 years, until Cornelius the Italian centurion, a "just man" was called by the Angel of YHVH to go to Peter in Joppa. There he received the Holy Spirit and was baptized (Mikvah) after Peter proclaimed: “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10).

Paul wrote:

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:26).

Moses also recorded that some people, of Israel, and not just Judah would be blind, not just to Messiah but also blind to Torah until the fullness of nations. Paul said, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).

Hum... the fullness of the nations, full of the hidden, the dispersed and the "adopted" ones. All are Israel... just as Hosea’s teaching tells us!!

Paul was not telling the "gentiles" of Ephesus that they were separate in God’s word from Israel, but that the promises throughout the Tanach are about them… they needed to know their identity, Paul knew that in his heart so he told them. That is Paul’s consistent message – who you are in Messiah -- that is your identity -- and his other teaching is the misunderstood teaching of Paul that God’s Torah done away with. But it is not. It is for living in the Spirit of His love.

Paul also wrote:

“That at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers [unknown identity] from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Messiah Yeshua you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah” (Ephesians 2:12-13).

This promise is for the Jew first but not for the Jew alone… The Father says, “This [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days… I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know YHVH: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:10 -11).

Many say we are in the "end days". Do you know what that means? It is the latter days of the division of those He calls Ephraim and those He calls Judah. It is the letter days that they are scattered among the nations our of covenant.

In these days, the Torah is being restored and the identity of Israel is being restored as well. Why else would we read "of all" in the latter days book of Revelation:

“And I heard the number of them which were sealed: [and there were] sealed a hundred [and] forty [and] four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 7:4).

“And [the city] had a wall great and high, [and it] had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are [the names] of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 21:12).

Paul taught there is only one body, one identity in Messiah, it is “Israel” and today we too need to understand just like he did that there is not a separation of a New Testament “Church” and an Old Testament “Israel”.

Paul was teaching the Gentiles that they were coming into the family of God and thus were part of Israel. I know it is shocking, but Paul was not trying to start a new religion.

For, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body; whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Colossians 3:15). There is really no difference between believers that are “saved” and true “Israel” according to Scripture. There is just one identity, one name given by God to His people. It is Israel.

“Jesus” whose real Hebrew identity is “Yeshua”... is The Creator, The Living Torah and the firstborn of resurrection as The Son of man into life as Messiah. He is the head of His family – His children, the restored House of Israel. Because of His life, His authority, those that follow Him as the faithful are a part of His people, His congregation, a people He has always called Israel. And soon Yeshua will return just as YHVH told Moses "to complete" the covenant given to Abraham:

Behold, I send a Messenger before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Exodus 23:20

As a Believer, the entire Bible is your story too, you must know your identity, the one given to you by God, it is Israel so…

Don’t be a victim of Identity Theft.

It is time to learn more about our Identity as a member of God’s family. Throughout the Bible God (YHVH) changed the names of faithful people after a meeting with God in which their heart was changed by an act of faith and obedience to God’s voice. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel. Do you know who have you become? God does.

Paul plainly wrote in three letters on this:

Let's repeat the truth, it is worth it.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Romans 10:12

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ [is] all, and in all. Colossians 3:11
Members of the family of God are called "Israel" and your identity is shown throughout all of Scripture. You are not just a Gentile or a Jew, you are adopted in as one new man – know who you are, you are Israel.

We must study God's word and find our "set-apart" walk in it as weu live out the Bible and discover our identity as we recover from tradition and restore the identity He gave us.

Please consider reading a study that provides many of the Scriptural references to the identity of the people God calls Israel. It is titled "Restoration: The Lost Sheep Scriptures".

Study the Scriptures offered, you will find yourself in them.

As the Song of Moses tells us, dark days are ahead, they are the Time of Jacob's Trouble. As in all of Scripture, Judah has led the way. We are a witness to the holocaust. Ephraim will join, 9/11 is the witness.

So, we must all return to God's teaching and instruction and find our identity in His word. The key to understanding our identity is to understand God gives us His teaching and instruction for living because He loves us and He never changes His mind. He teaches us some very simple guidelines about how we are to live. It's the original message of the Deceiver to fall for the idea that God does not mean what He says or that He changes His mind. Don't listen to that message any longer. Instead, discover your identity.

Consider this excellent overview from 119 Ministries: Grafted In?

Grafted In? (28 min) from 119 Ministries on Vimeo.