"The Promise - One Man's Journey To See God's Word Revealed" - Steve Martin

Yeah God! 

Almost here...after 10 years.

Steve

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PROPHETIC STEWARDSHIP - (c) Morris E. Ruddick

Morris Ruddick

PROPHETIC STEWARDSHIP (c) Morris E. Ruddick "Then the king said, 'Bring me a sword. Divide the living child  in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.' Then the  woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned  with compassion for her son; and she said, 'O my lord, give her  the living child, and by no means kill him!' But the other said,  'Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.'"  1 Kings 3:24-26 Solomon's wisdom in discerning the true mother is also a key to  discerning true leaders. True leaders have the compassion that  is willing to face personal sacrifice. It's the mark of stewardship.  The perspective of the wannabees and unseasoned will tend  toward being inwardly focused and driven by personal,  wrong reasons. True biblical stewardship is just the opposite. Prophetic  stewardship bears an even higher standard. Kingdom  leadership pivots on stewardship that seeks the community  good. That may require a decisiveness that is neither  popular nor comfortable. It demands a basis that  understands the true heart of God and the long-term  prophetic implications. Joseph's service to Pharaoh began with a time of preparation.  Scripture indicates that these years of preparation were  a fruitful time, a time of abundance. Yet, what was  required to gather and store the grain demanded discipline.  It no doubt involved some belt-tightening for everyone.  The tough standards and decisions required were not for  the feint of heart or those with the need to be accepted. Yet, when the years of abundance were over and famine  came, then both the decisions and the discipline became  even harder. Joseph's stewardship involved a balance  between maintaining order, adjusting to the widespread  famine, while establishing Egypt as solution-provider.  It required a level of administration that not only  was gifted, but drew from God's wisdom for the decisions  being made. Egypt, under Joseph, became the safe-place, the place of God's  order when everything else was falling into disorder. That took  tough-minded decision-making to set up and no doubt even tougher  decisions to maintain and administrate. Genesis 45 reveals that as  the famine proceeded, that the money failed. Prophetically God had  shown Joseph the need to gather and store the grain. Because the  staple with value was grain, Joseph was in the driver's seat. Clearly  Joseph heard from God. With the abundance of grain, Joseph cornered the livestock market.  The people of Egypt remained fed, as Egypt's influence with those  around them increased as a prepared-provider and a refuge during  the turbulence. As things deteriorated, the people sold their land to  Joseph for the food needed to feed their families. The famine was  severe. No doubt the value of land had also dropped. Yet, Joseph  the good steward, the prophetic steward, brought the people into  the cities to live. "When the money failed, Joseph bought the livestock;  then the land; then brought the people into the cities."  Gen 47:15-25 The suggestion is that there was safety and community order,  again a refuge, within the boundaries of the cities. Joseph maintained  the order needed during a severely difficult time, kept the people fed  and kept them safe. Following the famine, Joseph restored the people  to their lands requiring only a fifth on their produce in return. The Prophetic Dimension Operating in the prophetic means there are often times when we  "see" or perceive things that we want to act on. However, the  prophetic calling requires a lot more by way of self-control than  the ordinary. It's too important. The mature prophetic response  is from those who rule their own spirits. The prophetic is first hearing from God. However, when we hear  from God another key required layer is the issue of alignment and  seeing things from the stance of what God is doing. It's becoming  a participator in His destiny-shaping purposes and agendas. It's  entering a dimension of God's big-picture beyond ourselves. Yet, we can sometimes get the big-picture without seeing how God  is getting us there. So, operating in the prophetic requires a continual  checking-in with Him for the "interims." That's because none of us are  at the place to where we nail it at each step, despite our best and  most valiant efforts to do so. One of the hardest things to learn is to NOT force issues.  The flip side of that is holding steady when you don't yet  see the change in the natural. Yet, faith and faithfulness  are determined by those who grasp what is underway  in the unseen world. When we are in a place where there is something that  God is doing that we haven't fully or even partially  discerned, it represents a place of vulnerability.  Well intentioned people unwittingly walk into cross-fires  of judgment by yielding to the soulish in these interims. Judgment can also be triggered because of ones who,  being convinced of their "rightness" regarding something,  don't have the big-picture quite right. They lack a full  discernment of what God is doing or their place in it.  What results is creating a short-circuiting or backlash by  which they and others are hurt. Prophetic stewardship  requires keeping one's spiritual antennas high and at  the times one is provoked over something, to back  off until they hear specifically what the Lord has to  say about it. Cost of the Mantle The dreams Joseph received from God as a young man  came at a high cost. They cost Joseph everything that  had been dear to him, including his freedom. Yet, Joseph r ose to the standard that God had set for him. THAT took  decisions that refused to give in to the soulish. It took serious  discipline, humility and maturity. Not only did Joseph demonstrate a right spirit; but as a  good steward, he took it a step further in assuming  the mantle of his great-grandfather Abraham: to be  blessed to be a blessing. Long before his promotion to sit  alongside of Pharaoh, with nothing to go on in terms of  position, Joseph distinguished himself with Potiphar and  then the jailer with both his influence and the stewardship  of the mantle he bore. The result came from a right spirit that stewarded the  blessings of God in such a way that everyone around  Joseph saw that God was real, through the demonstration  of that reality through Joseph. Yet, it came at a cost;  a very high cost. In the face of losing everything; in the face  of slavery; in the face of unrighteous spiritual backlash; Joseph  maintained his faithfulness as God's servant-steward. Gravity of the Mantle Leaders, who truly understand the times and know  what to do, demonstrate a maturity that is above the  soulish. They don't quibble or second guess when tough  decisions are required. They guard their own hearts  diligently and do not give in to soulish machinations.  Yielding to the soulish is what opens the door  for the demonic. The contrast is demonstrated in Isaiah 22 with the  story of two leaders, one whose decisions were  short-sighted and driven by personal, soulish  matters and another whose stewardship embraced  the long-term opportunity resident in the heart of God. "Go to Shebna, who is over the house, and say:  Indeed, the LORD will throw you away violently;  there you shall die. Then it shall be in that day,  that I will call My servant Eliakim; I will clothe  him with your robe and strengthen him with  your belt; I will commit your responsibility  into his hand. He shall be a father to the  inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of  Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay  on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one  shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open.  I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, and  he will become a glorious throne to  his father's house." Isaiah 22:15-23 Authority of the Prophetic The authority of God for change is released through  the prophetic. The story of Joseph reflects a progression  of episodes in his life tied to how he heard and obeyed  the voice of the Lord. This simple foundation in many  untenable situations became the catalyst for a owner  and an authority that was recognized as being from God  by a whole range of non-believers, including those in  authority. That prophetic authority was the means by which God  used Joseph to shift the spiritual climate within Egypt's  power infrastructure. It set the stage for the prophetic  alignment needed for Joseph's apostolic gifts to harness,  redirect and then steward the resources of Egypt to  accomplish God's purposes for the future of His people. Discernment and Prophetic Alignment Joseph's tenure in Egypt is laced with examples of  Joseph's significant prophetic gifts. Prophetic stewardship  will unmask the intentions of the hearts of those who  serve a role, whether for good or for evil, in the initiatives  being stewarded. The story of the baker and the wine-taster exemplifies how,  during Joseph's weakest hour in the natural, that God  used him prophetically to judge and establish the removal  of one key man from Pharaoh's court; and to restore and  set up another, who became instrumental at the right  time in aligning things for Joseph's promotion. Similarly, Joseph's scrutiny of his brothers was not retribution,  but the need to see the repentance that was needed for  Joseph to establish parameters with those who once  betrayed him. By the time his brothers came back on the  scene, Joseph was in the full flow of his very considerable  calling. He did not need the old issues and patterns of behavior  demonstrated by his betrayers to manifest and disrupt in any  way his role as God's servant-steward. Still, the discernment of Joseph was not an end in itself,  but the means of aligning things first spiritually and then  in the natural, for God's purposes. Stewarding the will of  God begins with resetting the spiritual climate. When the  spiritual climate is properly aligned, it allows God's order  to be established. Only then, will the stable flow come  needed to counteract the forces of judgment and the  tentacles of evil. The Prophetic Steward The prophetic steward is the one who maps out, builds  up and brings increase in the face of the enemy's schemes  to divide, confuse and destroy. I have previously noted an organization I was a part of  many years ago. The standard for entry was high.  The standard to be maintained was even higher.  Members of this organization became known by the axiom  of "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."  It is unfortunate within the Body that many confuse  soft standards of the world with the level in which,  we as a Body are expected to operate. Our standard, like  that of Joseph's is higher. It's much, much higher. I have had the joy of working with two men of God who  operate with this higher standard. They each are very  different in their leadership styles, yet very similar in anointing.  Each reaches hard for God's heart and God's will on the  issues before them. Both are unusual in their roles as  prophetic stewards. One is incredibly gifted in discerning the gifts and will of  God operating in people, with the ability to draw forth  and put those gifts into operation. The other is a very  high-level administrator, whose ability to discern the  big-picture and then mobilize leaders to address it, is  timely and strategic. One is a model for the Body locally;  the other globally. Both are incredible peacemakers, a very high standard in  the progressive maturity unveiled by Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  They each have a gift for tapping and aligning things spiritually  to establish God's order and to release the supernatural for change.  We need more of that standard. We've entered a time that Jesus spoke of as when even the  very elect would be deceived. It is a time when the  convergence of good and evil will trigger both judgment  and change. Prophetic stewardship sees the alignments  and change in the spirit from God's perspective. It then  navigates and anticipates the responses needed to shape  and release God's purposes. The Lord Jesus also told us that many are called, but  few are chosen. The criterion for leadership, established by  Solomon's wisdom, begins with sacrifice and compassion. It is evidenced by those who not only face, but traverse and  emerge whole from the fires. It pivots on an unpolluted  prophetic stewardship that pays the cost to unswervingly  maintain the steps needed to change the spiritual climate  and to establish God's order. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may  see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven."  Matthew 5:16 ___________________________________________________ Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner and spokesman for  the call of God in the marketplace since the mid-90s.  As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation and designer  of the God's Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program,  Mr. Ruddick imparts hope and equips economic community  builders where God's light is dim in both the Western and  non-Western world. He is author of "The Joseph-Daniel Calling;" "God's Economy,  Israel and the Nations;" "The Heart of a King;" "Something More;"  and "Righteous Power in a Corrupt World," which address the  mobilization of business and governmental leaders called to  impact their communities with God's blessings. They are available  in print and e-versions from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com  and other popular outlets.   Mr. Ruddick is also a contributor in the just released five-volume  "Aligning with the Apostolic," edited by Bruce Cook with Forwards  by Peter Wagner and Bill Hamon. It is available through  www.KingdomHouse.net. Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is  a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts are enabled  by the generosity of a remnant of faithful friends and contributors  whose vision aligns with God's heart to mobilize the least of  these our brethren. Checks on US banks should be made out  to Global Initiatives and mailed to PO Box 370291, Denver CO 80237  or email us at sign@strategicintercession.org for access  information on our secure web-site. 2013 Copyright Morris Ruddick - sign@strategicintercession.org Reproduction is prohibited unless permission is given by a  SIGN advisor. Since 1996, the Strategic Intercession Global Network  (SIGN) has mobilized prophetic intercessors committed to targeting  strategic-level issues impacting the Body on a global basis. For  previous posts or more information on SIGN, check: http://www.strategicintercession.org

Morris Ruddick Global Initiatives Foundation www.strategic-initiatives.org www.strategicintercession.org

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Ezekiel 36 - shared by a Jerusalem resident of 40 years - Shmuel Suran

Shmuel (Samuel) Suran from Jerusalem

YouTube link: 

Shmuel (Samuel) Suran Shares on Israel & Jerusalem

Cathy Hargett, Founder of Highway To Zion ministry, invited Israeli Messianic Jewish speaker Shmuel (Samuel) Suran from Jerusalem to speak at the assembly meeting in Charlotte, NC on Aug. 23, 2013. He has been a resident of the capital city of Israel for 40 years now. 

In the first segment of his talk (see earlier video) Shmuel shared his testimony of how he met Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) in a very powerful way, after realizing that Jesus was (is) a Jew, and is The Messiah (HaMashiach). The Lord (Adonai) then had him move to Jerusalem with only a backpack and $100, in 1974.

In this video segment he shares on Ezekiel 36, and how the Lord Yeshua has, and continues to, bring the Jewish people back to their Promised Land of Israel.

Videos filmed and shared by Steve Martin - to give appreciation to and love for those we support, through Love For His People, Inc.

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The Hebron Massacre

“All Israel Was Shocked” ✡ Anniversary of the Hebron Massacre

Saul’s son heard that Abner had died in Hebron and he despaired, and all Israel was shocked.SAMUEL II (4:1) וַיִּשְׁמַע בֶּן שָׁאוּל כִּי מֵת אַבְנֵר בְּחֶבְרוֹן וַיִּרְפּוּ יָדָיו, וְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל נִבְהָלוּשְׁמוּאֵל ב ד:ב va-yeesh-MA sha-OOL kee mayt ahv-NARE be-khev-RONE vie-yeer-FOO ya-DAHV be-KHOLE yees-ra-ALE neev-ha-LOO

Today's Israel Inspiration Today marks the tragic anniversary of the Hebron Massacre of 1929. For a period of three days, “Israel was shocked” as the holy city of Hebron was turned into a place of terror as local Arabs led a rampaging massacre against the helpless Jewish community which left 67 Jews murdered. The survivors were relocated to Jerusalem by the ruling British and not until the Six Day War of 1967 did Jews regain control of the Biblical city of Hebron. Today the Hebron Fund works tirelessly to keep open the holy prayer sites of Hebron to the Jewish people and all visitors. Pray today in memory of the victims of the Hebron Massacre of 1929 and in the merit of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah, who are all buried in Hebron, may our prayers be heard by the Almighty. The Hebron Massacre With photos and testimony of the 1929 Hebron Massacre by the local Arab population, this graphic video leaves us shocked by the depth of evil perpetrated, resolved to remember the innocent victims and determined to maintain Jewish control over Israel’s holy places. Watch This Video » Egyptian Christians May Face Genocide Egyptian activist Maikel Nabil said he was sure that, “his countrymen will likely take to the streets again soon to topple the forces which removed the Islamist regime of Mohammed Morsi last month.” Read More » "Chai" Necklace This beautiful Chai ("Life!") necklace is traditional enough for a man or a woman. What makes it unique is the Hebrew engraving along the top creating the classic emotion-filled slogan Am Israel Chai ("The Jewish People Live"), sung in defiance of history. Comes with a sterling silver chain in your choice of length. Get this Amazing Deal » Today's Israel Photo Today's photos show the Abraham Avinu Synagogue, built in Hebron in 1540. During the 1929 Hebron Massacre, Arab rioters trashed the synagogue, and it was later turned into an animal pen by the Jordanians. When Jews returned to the Old City of Hebron after the Six Day War, the synagogue was rebuilt, and today it is used each Friday night by the Jewish residents of Hebron to hold prayer services. The synagogue is maintained by the Hebron Fund and is open daily for visitors to learn about its rich history.   Learn More About Hebron Fund » Thank You Today's Scenes and Inspiration is sponsored by Jose Silva in honor of his birthday.   Sponsor a Day » "All The Good You Do" It’s great to hear from so many of you - stay in touch and let us know where in the world you are enjoying Israel365! Stay in Touch » Thank you for all the good you do. Grace F. Thanks so much for all the ways you help those of us who are not there, feel like we ARE, and for all the teachings you provide and for all the ways you show your love of the Land and God's children. Blessings, Lauren G. Shalom, Rabbi Tuly Weisz RabbiTuly@Israel365.com

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Natan is an artist. He is a Holocaust survivor.

Rachel Boskey

Aug. 23, 2013

Shabbat Shalom dear Facebook friends!

I want to introduce you a dear couple whom Avner Boskey and I have come to love in the last years -- Natan Friedman and his wife Shoshana. Natan and Shoshana live in our town. 

Natan is an artist. He is a Holocaust survivor who escaped death by assuming the identity of a Polish child and living in a monastery. After World War Two, Natan sailed with thousands of others, mostly young people, on the famous “Exodus” ship and he stood on Israel’s shores briefly in August 1947. But all of the Jewish people on the “Exodus” were refused entry to their homeland and were sent back to Europe.

 Natan finally arrived in Israel on May 15, 1948. In Israel, Natan became an accomplished scientist. His wife Shoshana was a schoolteacher with a master’s degree in English literature. They have two children and seven grandchildren. 

Natan has created many amazing works of art over the years, both paintings and sculptures. Some of them reflect the traumas and horrors he experienced as a Jewish child in Poland and many others reflect his life of many years in Israel. Next week Natan and his art will be featured on an Israeli TV program. 

Today I was privileged to photograph some of Natan’s works which will be shown on the TV program. To know Natan and Shoshana is to love them! — with Avner Boskey and ‎נתן פרידמן‎. (16 photos)

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