May 18, 2013 ~ Sivan 9, 5773
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Torah Parashah 35 Naso (Take)
Torah – B’Midbar (Numbers) 4:21- 7:89 cjb p 150
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Sh’ma
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Holy Spirit – Ruach HaKodesh
(A significant part of this teaching – especially the linguistics comes from Bradley Scott.)
Last week we studied the gifts of the Ruach HaKodesh from
I Corinthians 12.
Remember – these are gifts that can NOT be taught…but are only b/c of the Holy Spirit in us flowing through us.
We talked about:
1. Wisdom
2. Knowledge
3. Faith
4. Healing
5. Miracles/ signs/ “oat” in Hebrew
6. Prophecy
7. Ability to judge between spirits – discernment
Now we are ready for the last two gifts in this passage…
8. Tongues
9. Interpretation of Tongues
I Corin 12:10 cjb p 1434 “… to another, the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues/ and to yet another ability to interpret tongues.”
Speaking in Tongues
I corin. 12:10 says….“kinds of tongues”
“kinds” = from greek word “gene” (pronounced-“ gana”)
---From root word- “genas”… = basis of genealogy – genetics, gene
= where something comes from, where things begin.
First use= Gen 1:11 talking about fruit trees yielding fruit after their own kind/likeness..
Kind = “miyn” = “from, or out of”
The idea that there are kinds of tongues.. the source of what something is coming out of (offspring) something coming from something.
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“Tongue” – not the same thing as “language”
“Tongue” = “lashone” in Hebrew
“Language”= from Hebrew word “safa”
B’resheet (Gen) 10:5 cjb p 9 “From these the islands of the nations were divided into their lands, each according to its language, according to their families, in their nations.”
n This says they were divided according to family, land and tongues…
n B’resheet 10:5 -People scattered according to their tongues… lashone = dialect!!!
Two people can speak same language and yet have two different tongues.
We can say… B’resheet 10:5 is talking about dialects, because…..
--If they were divided by languages – why would ….
B’resheet (Gen) 11:1 say…”The whole earth used the same language, the same words.” !!??!!
- This says - all earth was of one language!!
B’resheet 11:1 = One language = safa
and one speech = d’varim (words)
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When we say “tongues”…..
.. we are talking about dialect .
Dialect is about where your tongue is in your mouth when you talk.
- If your tongue in your mouth is in a different place – your speech sounds different – but you use the same words. = Dialect.
People from east coast – drop their Rs
People from south add Rs and make Is long.
They are both speaking English= the same safa / language,
– but where put tongue determine how it comes off tongue = how it sounds – the dialect.
The Hebrew word – “lashone” = tongue
The Hebrew word – “safa” = lip = language = what comes off the lips
Sound begins with tongue
And ends with lip… last thing.. shore = safa = the lip of the land…
Try this….
Put your tongue in middle of mouth and pop your lips and say
“ pa pa”
Now take your tongue … and put in roof of mouth and say
“ pa pa”
Now put your tongue on the side of lip and say
“ pa pa”
Now curl your tongue back and say
“ pa pa”
We were speaking the same language… but made different sounds…
Sometimes the different sounds come out as “nonsense”
- Meaning they might not even be “words”… but they are sounds.
-I can, in my mind,… depending on what I have learned
-- put together a series of words and speak them to you…
……but if I am speaking in “tongues” like in the Word here in I Corin 12…. is not about what I learn…
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So…..Why? What is the purpose of these things?
Typically from western point of view… “either tongues is straight from hell or you aren’t saved if you don’t have it.” !! L
Tongues can be a known language … (Father is not limited!!)
Sometimes - not a known language…
There is a really good book I read a long time ago….
“Experiencing the Spirit: Developing a Living Relationship with the Holy Spirit” by Robert Heidler.
This is a great book…. b/c he came out of a seminary that doesn’t believe in the gifts of HS and he got them anyway!
It is funny, it is real and … it is joyous.
In it he tells a story of going to Russia to preach… and the Russian preacher spoke no English. The Russian Preacher’s wife did however speak English…. And how after Robert got done preaching – the Russian preacher got up and started praying and suddenly was praying in perfect English with no Russian accent. Robert looked at the Russian pastor’s wife and she said… “It’s his tongue, he has no idea what he is saying.” !!
I have known others who were praying and people who spoke another language other than just English came up and thanked them for praying for them in their native tongue.
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What happened in Acts 2 on Shavuot that the Holy Spirit came back to the nation of Isra’el?....
Acts 2: 1- 21 cjb p 1361
Each person from different regions “heard” in their own language.
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Now before we go further let’s understand something else…
There is a difference between if I or someone else – stands up and speaks to the congregation in a “tongue”… giving a prophecy….
And when I am just praying – even if out loud in a group of people.
I Corin 14: 22-32 – tongues and interpretation
Remember Shaul is speaking to the Corinthians who came out of pagan church that was very chaotic and confusing… so he is teaching them order.
His point – that it is about edification…. A building up of the body…
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I teach that sometimes… someone may “give a word” in tongues… and nobody jumps up to interpret it – I believe b/c they may not even know they have it… or be afraid to share it…. So then I will ask Father for the interpretation and give it.
We don’t have to have a “freak out” b/c there are tongues that aren’t interpreted immediately….
(There are demonic tongues… this is why some are given the gift of discernment.)
(But do not panic that you have demonic tongues… those come out of demonic invitation/ abuse etc…)
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Romans 8:26 cjb p 1411 “Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don’t know how to pray the say we should. But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf with groaning to deep for words;”
Ephesians 6: 10-18 cjb p 1464
Vs 18 “as you pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all Yah’s People.”
Mark 16:17 cjb p 1286 …”And these signs will accompany those who do trust; in my name they will drive out demons, speak with new tongues,”
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Interpretation of Tongues
Interpretation = hermina (hermeneutics) = to understand the words.
To interpret what the words are in their own language.
I Corin 12:11 cjb p 1434 “One and the same Spirit is at work in all these things, distributing to each person as he chooses.”
all these .. same spirit = same source ..
King James says….“to every man severly as he wills”
Cjb = “distributing to each person as he chooses”
Severly = in greek = idia / idos = idiot = of one’s own particular view… (idiot = outside common understanding of things)
Divides/ distributes to every man based on his own particular situation as he will and not he will
If we believe that we have every one of these gifts – it doesn’t give much power/decision to HS…. He distributes them to us….
Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 2:4 cjb p 1494 “while YHWH also bore witness to it with various sings, wonders and miracles, and with gifts of the Ruach HaKodesh which he distributed as he chose.”
= gifts are given according to HIS will.
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Now go back to Sh’mot 19 and Acts 2….
Another occurrence very similar to Acts 2… a group a people called Isra’el, who previously had been in captivity in Egypt
….and the Father delivered and rescued them right after Passover…
YHWH had them partake of Passover and told them he would deliver them out of Egypt …
….so they could/would “serve him on the mountain.” Ex 3:12 cjb p 62
The point is ….”To serve him on the mountain”… there is going to be a period of time between Him delivering them out of Egypt and serving Him on the mountain – Ex 19 = the receiving of the Torah.
They had to wait… 50 days…. (counting of Omer – till Shavuot.)
Until they received His instructions that were to bless them and guide them thru the wilderness…
Father knew all along they were going to have to wonder through the wilderness and he essentially told Moshe that
….. the identification of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob , the true God, is that He delivers you out of Egypt and then He takes you to the mountain.
In order to serve Him, they had to be redeemed b/c the people of YHWH/ Isra’el …..are about to go into the nations.
From the mountain – they are going to wander around in the wilderness… be redeemed – b/c they are going to then go into the Promised Land… and what is in the Land – the nations of pagan goyim = pagan gentiles…
The Father knew they were going to all the “ites” among the nations – as part of his plan…. First they were taken to Sinai … to prepare for the nations. And then they wondered around…because they chose man’s ways instead of YHWH’s ways, despite what they said.
So back to Acts 2 …..they are waiting till HS comes to give them power – to do what???
– To go into the nations!!
Same kind of parallels at Sinai and in Acts!!
Wait until I give you the strength and power and ability to be able to wonder through the desert… so he gave them the torah .
The law is spiritual Paul tells us…
He gave them the Torah so they could last in the wilderness…
so here we have his people turning away from him and rejecting the Torah
So the same phenomena that is going on in Acts 2 is the same phenomena that is going on at Sinai
…b/c first he had to redeem them…so he redeems the 12 disciples except for one – who was replaced… b/c he was about to send them out into the nations in order to restore the kingdom back to Isra’el.
Sh’mot (Ex) 19:1-6 they are already redeemed….then later as they wait for 50 days..
Sh’mot 19 they are gathered …and in Acts 2 they are gathered
Sh’mot 19 they are in one accord in one place and there is a mixture b/c Egyptians had Hebrews and other nations captives … mixed multitude (Sh’mot 12:38)
Acts 2 – multitude of different people – waiting in one place…
Sh’mot 19 – extraordinary weather
Acts 2 extraordinary weather
Sh’mot 19 Yah’s presence in fire
Acts 2 tongues of fire = Yah’s presence
Mixed multitude in both places
In Sh’mot 19 – were mixed but all heard Yah speak with one voice and all understood what he said.
Acts 2:13… Yah spoke with one voice and they all understood…
“Great noise” in both Sh’mot and in Acts 2
And people responding ---“what hear we will do”…
They all eventually turned away…. In the wilderness ….
All the people excited to keep feasts and Yah’s Sabbath … and then they all turned away… just like every other generation does.
We need to remember that…
The HS - YHWH is perfectly capable of manifesting thru someone – who didn’t know a language – the ability to speak it…
and He is perfectly capable of giving others the ability to understand and interpret that language…
And HS-YHWH is capable of manifesting himself to speak thru someone a tongue that is not known to any one – but can be understood through the gift of interpretation….
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The natural question would be this…
…Where is this in the Tanakh??
Nobody would argue with the gifts.. except when we get to tongues…
but tongues isn’t brand new either….
Yah has been working thru tongues – all along and it is not a new thing.
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I want to pause here and remind you of the question I first asked you when we started to study the Ruach HaKodesh….
What would it mean if YHWH really does not change and we aren’t “special” in that HE has not given us something that He didn’t always give His people????”
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There is a well know word in Hebrew culture…that appears in different forms – over 30 times in the Tanakh .
We need to know….
Hebrew culture is more oriented to singing than our culture is…
Mothers used to sing the Torah from the womb to their children…
We speak these things…
We call it - “speaking in tongues”
That well known word in Greek = lalayo
And that is used all over Tanakh…
--Most of the time it is translated lalayo in Greek, from the Hebrew word davar
davar= WORD …= to point someone to the source of food… “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yah.”
The idea or meaning of “DAVAR” - “WORD” in Hebrew
= to show someone something; to point someone to the beginning; the source, the origin of what is good for them.
This is why the Bible is called the “Word” of yah.
Because it points us to the beginning, our source, the origin of what is good for us.
But - it is interesting to note that …..
….lalayo in greek – means “to emit a sound”
Why did they use “lalayo”???
Because, primarily these things done in Hebrew culture, were done through singing rather than speaking, but both singing and speaking do happen.
In Hebrew - lalayo = “Niggun”
= admitting a sound with the tongue - ie –“speaking in tongues” or having the manifestation of this!!
In Hebrew this is called a NIGGUN
“Admitting a sound – singing or speaking in tongues!” = NIGGUN.
Remember we were talking about that word called “kinds” – that has a G and an N in it….?
Different “kinds” of tongues = “gana”
The reason, in English,… the words with have a G and an N in – particularly if they start with G and N or end with a G and an N
– have something to do with…the beginning or the start or something – this comes from the Hebrew word “gan”…
Ie – general, genetics, geneology, generator, genesis, genes, origin, begin.
All these have something to do with the beginning of something.
The beginning of righteousness – where that takes place is in the garden and the Hebrew word for GARDEN = GAN.
Things begin in the garden and things are going to return to the garden.
The English word “garden” – has same letters… G, N.
Niggun = N-I-G-G-U-N.
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We are talking about this not to say we are proving something …
but to highlight the fact that that is the ‘normal’ in the Tanakh.
This is not a new thing… and is something in Jewish literature as well.
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The best way to define Niggun – speaking and singing in tongues….
is to look at it from Jewish point of view….
BOOK = “Niggun, Stories behind the Chasidic Songs that Inspire Jews” by Rabbi Mordechai Staiman
The opening statements in the book…
“When does a Jew sing? A Hebrew writer once asked. His answer: When he is hungry.
Truth is, a Jew is always hungry. And to most observant Jews, the Niggun is (a wordless song, but not necessarily) is the fastest way to feed his hunger.
Hungry, a Jew searches because his Jewish soul won’t let him rest until he has comes to hear what he needs to hear and says what he needs to say.”
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Listen carefully to these words…
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“Hungry, he turns to music when words fail, and he looks up to HIM and sings his heart out.
With the right intent, any Jew who sings a Niggun always reaches His Creator.
In a sense, a Niggun is a combination of parent- child sounds that no one else can understand.”
{This is a picture of what was always understood among the Hebrew people!!}
“In a sense, a niggun is a combination of parent-child sounds that no one else can understand. ‘Ya- na- na- ya- no-pa- pa yaya- ya’…
A stammering infant language, God created for us when our feelings are too delicate and too intimate for others to hear.
A child speaks this perfect language , but forgets it when he learns his parent’s language.
Yet nothing is lost to a Jew, one day, when he is at his wits end… the parent rediscovers suddenly in singing a niggun – the language of the child in him.
Then he speaks to his Father and all becomes right. This is what a niggun is for.”
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(Remember this is kind of a nonsensical set of sounds put to a melody but not always , it is a sound that instruments that make as well - a plucking sound…not a known word but the sound that comes off of it….
This is why in the Word, it is translated many times as ‘a stringed instrument’
but really, the word behind the word that is translated “stringed instrument” means “nonsensical noises and sounds coming off the instrument” is more what it is talking about.
In Hebrew understanding, the mouth is an instrument… so we would sing these songs to each other… they were primarily sung in songs…
Whereas today .. we tell people to say ‘untie my bow tie and who stole my Honda’ and just keep saying that until you are speaking in tongues… you say it faster and faster and faster.. next thing you know the guy is speaking in tongues.
= This is a corruption and perversion !!!
Hence the Father is going to restore back to the way it was in the beginning – the way it was in the first place.)
Okay back to book…
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Another example … same book page 17…
“Niggun, niggun, though I have loved thee, I did not yet know thee. Tell me of my Creator and His creation. You are the reason of the heart that reason cannot undertand.”
In other words he is saying…
“This song, this song that is within me – it is coming from my heart , not my mind - it is not a collection of things I come up with in my mind.. it is not coming from my mind – it is coming from my heart and going right to YHWH… right from the baby to the dad.”
--Parents understand baby babble… the parents know what the baby wants…
“Tell me of my Creator and his creation, you are the reason of the heart, that reason cannot understand.”
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Another example in the (same) book…. There is a ….
Story about a Rabbi Zalman
One day he was teaching his class, when some anti-Chassidic scholars came in and interrupted his class…and they confronted the Rabbi with all kinds of questions … and he entertained their questions, but he didn’t answer their questions… they were bombarding him with questions and it was bringing confusion to his students.. so finally he dismissed his students …
“Then he took them all (the ones with questions) into one room and joined them and there he sang one of his famous wordless nigguneem.
And everyone heard the same niggun, but everyone heard his own answer to his question.”
Like when Yah spoke out from the mountain and they all knew what he said…
Acts 2 a whole multitude of people speaking different languages.. these men spoke and they all heard them in their own tongue.
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Then the book goes on….
“I recall when I first became an orthodox Jew, said (name), one of my closest friends asked me every question on his mind… Why was I doing this, why was I doing that…. And in the beginning I would answer and explain and explain… and then as I was preparing to go back to my yeshiva, the same friend suddenly raised the same questions again. Why are you doing this, why are you doing that?
That is when I realized, that you can explain WHY for an eternity. The questions are emotional and they aren’t satisfied with an intellectual answer.”
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Another …
“A person didn’t understand this Rabbi’s sermon and so the Rabbi apologized and said ‘it may have been my fault, perhaps I was not clear enough. At any rate, I am going to sing to you now, for melody goes right to the heart, and understanding where the words fail. And he threw his head back and closing his eyes and sang with ecstasy a niggun. And the old man listened and his face lit up.”
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Another…
“Someone asked a singer where did he learn a particular niggun and he said – father I don’t know, it just came to me like that. Excited the father said, my son my son, this niggun is the very niggun sung by the angels and it is going to be sung by the Jews when they go out to finally meet the Messiah.”
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Remember…. this is their view!! - This is the understanding of those Hebrews who have walked in Torah all their lives and their families lives!! - Maybe we should take note of this!!
They understand YHWH as Spirit way past what we have known!
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A last quote from the book:
“Somewhere out there, is a niggun made of flesh and bones, having a Jewish soul, probably joined together at Friday evening at Shabbos and perhaps it is the Rabbi himself whose own nigguneem have the power to open the gates of heaven – if ever a niggun …. truly one of God’s gifts to man.”
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Modern day examples…
Perhaps you sing… older songs, or Messianic songs..
And they have lines like….
Li li li li… li…
When the person wrote the song, do you believe that they just weren’t talented enough to write another verse??
Or is it b/c that is the ancient niggun??? !!!!!!!!!!
Many times the li li li li or the da da da da da…. are the more important expressions of the song
- rather than the ones you have to take in through the mind.
Another example….. (from Fiddler on the Roof)
A man, a hard working man, a father…and a husband .. all he has is a cow to give milk and he delivers that milk every day…
And one day he is in his barn with the horse and the chickens and he gets so excited about the prospect of being rich one day and so he dreams and cries out to God of one day being a rich man… and
Sings…..“if I were a rich man.. vidi vidi vidi vidi…..”
That is a modern day example of a niggun…
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The major differences between that and the way christianity has expressed tongues….
is that Hebrews tend to sing rather than speak them…
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Scripture…
The 4th 5th and 6th psalms… in most bibles.. may have something in italics… but these verses are always put before.. the other verses… when they are actually part of the Hebrew text…
It will say something like… cjb p 793
Tehillim 4 = “For the leader. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David”
Tehillim 5 = “For the leader. On the wind instruments. A psalm of David.”
Tehillim 6 = “For the leader. With stringed instruments. On sh’minit [low-pitched muscial instruments?].
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Closer to original it would say…
“to the chief musician on the niggunoth”
…. It is a nonsensical plucking sound in those three psalms.
“Instruments” in the intro to these three Tehillim = “niggun”
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Tehillim (Psalm) 69:12 “I was the niggun of the drunkards”
cjb p 857 = “the theme of drunkards’ songs”
the word “songs” = “niggun”
Remember Acts 2 .. when people were seeing/hearing people speaking in tongues.. they thought they were drunk!
Psalm 77:6 cjb p 866 “in the night I remember my song”
“song” = niggum
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I Corin 13
13:1 cbj p 1434 “I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels;…”
… this is probably referring to niggun b/c it seems to clairfy part of the context…
….remember it is that word again… “tho I speak”/ or “I may speak”…..it means I am emitting sounds (“speaking in tongues!!”)
13:2 … (“gift” is supplied)… clearly relating back to chapter 12… he says.. I have knowledge and faith… this is the kind of faith that can’t be learned….
The context is not condemning these manifestations.. but presenting a weightier matter…
Like in Matt 23:23 “Woe to you hypocritical Torah- teachers and P’rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah – justice, mercy, trust.”
=a weightier matter
He is saying here… = if these gifts done outside of love …. you are just blowing in the wind….nobody cares about your gift…
Love is eternal – gifts are not eternal.
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**They are the dowry the bridegroom gives the bride for her to be able to exist till married….
(Think about this for a bit as it pertains to where we are!)
Only his love for his bride is eternal.
Gifts are given to the bride until the consummation of the marriage for the bride to survive…
Gifts are only part…
We are scattered and we are not one….we only do part, not the whole….
Read through Acts 13…
Acts 13:12 - then we will see face to face.. as in a marriage ceremony
Traditionally in christianity it is taught that the gifts were only given b/c the cannon was not written down –L
= “they didn’t have the WORD written to preach the gospel to the people so YHWH gave gifts in this dispensation – till cannon complete..
and then they don’t need the gifts any more b/c now they have the Bible”… L
Acts 13:10”‘But when that which is perfect has come…”
They believe the gifts are done… b/c they say they can’t be talking about the Messiah… so they must be talking about something else = the bible…
They get this because….
The word “perfect “ is in neuter gender – so can’t be messiah b/c that would be masculine..
”So it must be the bible/ Word, because that would be neutral gender”…
The problem with this Christian thinking is..
We are scattered now.. but we will all be together as one…. And
Messiah has a body.. and that body is us…
and right now we are scattered… but there will be a day when that will no longer be
and the body is neither JEW nor gentile, neither male nor female..
The body of Messiah is neither male nor female nor jew or gentile.. but neutral gender.
Eph 4: 4….”There is one body and one Spirit, just as when you were called you were called to one hope,”
One body… (=neuter) and one Spirit and one hope…..
Ephesians 4:4- 13 cjb p 1461
Shaul goes on and says – “the gifts” in verse 4:12 “for the perfecting (neuter) of the saints for the edifying of the body (neuter) of the messiah….. Until we all come in unity of the faith … and to a perfect man (masculine) ….
When the bride is one with Messiah –THEN the terminology switches to masculine…!!
Until bride and bride groom become one – the body of messiah is neuter!!
This is what it means in 1Corn 13!!
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There are many in Hebrew roots like the idea of restoring the Torah in OT… but not the gifts of HS….
These are not just NT things!!
What was the voice that walked in Gan Eden ?... the Spirit.
This is nothing new – it is just simply true….
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And Niggun is an amazing concept… not the forced thing that christianity has made it out to be….
But truly using the child language, or plucking an instrument….
(Now some of you understand in other –words – why playing your instrument is such a joyous time with your Father!!!)
The child language… the instrument sounds which causes us to hear what we need to hear and say what we need to say….
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Turns out the Ruach HaKodesh has been here all along.
Turns out… we have a lot to learn. J
I invite you to begin to enter into the niggun…
In speaking – but more than that – into the deeper places – of instruments and in singing the nonsensical words as they flow out of you….
To turn off your brain and let your heart sing to your Papa.
Amein!
Play “Let Me Hear Thy Voice” by Rav Shlomo Charlebach from the Shavuot play list.
Amein!!
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