Pièce de resistance / come up higher

Reconciliation in the family of Abraham, was the title of the teaching I gave at the conference in Gagnières, in the south of France. The sons of Abraham were Ishmael and Isaac. Through Isaac the covenant promises of a people, a land, and a nation were established (Gen 17:19,21), becoming with Abraham and Jacob a patriarch to Israel. Ishmael was blessed to father twelve princes and to become a great nation (Gen 17:20), without partaking in the covenant that God made with Abraham (Gen 17:18-21, 21:12-13). The Muslims claim Ishmael as their spiritual father (even though very few are physical descendants of Ishmael) and see themselves as descendants of Abraham. When we put the family of Abraham in this era, we have the Jewish people being descendants of Isaac and the Muslims seeing themselves as descendants of Ishmael. In Israel this boils down to the Jewish Israeli being Isaac, the Arab Israeli and the Palestinians identifying with Ishmael and the Arab Christians often siding with the Muslims, because they have had to do so over the centuries in order to survive. So you can imagine that reconciliation between Ishmael and Isaac is not an easy theme to approach. It was literally the pièce de résistance of the conference. Pièce de résistance means the most important or remarkable feature, or the main dish of a meal, when you are talking food. But here the résistance was also literally pointing to resistance that people experienced in their hearts, when touching this subject.

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It is so difficult for us to love Israel and also love the Palestinians. Or to love the Palestinians, but also love Israel. We are very much like Joshua in his encounter with the Commander of the army of the Lord in Joshua 5, verses 13 to 15. Here is Joshua with the Israelites, the people of God. Joshua is doing God’s will, following God’s commands and instructions. They are about to take over Jericho following God’s directions. And Joshua asks this Man with His sword drawn in His hand: “Are you for us or for our enemies?”. In our mind the answer is simple: Of course this Man (which is an image of Yeshua) is for Joshua and Israel, because they are God’s people, doing God’s will, walking in His ways. But what does this Man answer? “No!”. For me this feels like a “No, I am not into your games of for or against, of friend or enemy. I am above that.” He is above the friend / enemy game of Joshua, because He is the Commander of the army of the Lord. That is literally a higher level. And from this higher level, you can see things from a different perspective, a higher perspective. This higher perspective is something that God has been speaking to us in TJCII about, more or less since the beginning of Covid. This was through one of our intercessors, who shared about Revelation 4:1. Here John is invited to come up, into heaven, to see. He is shown things in heaven and things that will happen on earth, but he sees it from a heavenly perspective. I feel strongly that this is also what God is inviting us to: to come up higher, to receive that higher perspective.

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Personally I closed off my heart for Arab Christians in Israel in my first year in Jerusalem (2008-2009). I was visiting an Arab speaking Catholic church. The service was beautiful and I was really blessed by it. But after the service I ended up speaking with one of the parishioners and he started talking very negatively about Israel and the Jews. I decided there and then that it was too difficult for me to keep my heart right with Israel, if I would stay in relationship with people speaking so negatively about her. But last October during the strategic prayer gathering of TJCII God worked on enlarging my heart (and with me the hearts of many others), to have enough love for both, Jew and Arab/Palestinian. And I think this is something God calls many of us to: to let Him enlarge our hearts, so we can love both. And to rise above the political narrative of friend/enemy to receive God’s higher perspective of things. Because God wants to heal the relationships in the family of Abraham. He wants to heal the contempt of Hagar (Gen 16:4), but also the harsh dealing of Saraï (Gen 16:6). He wants to heal the hatred of Esau (Gen 27:41) and also the supplanting of Jacob. He wants to reconcile all to Himself (Col 1:20) and for this He has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2Cor 5:18). So, let’s work together with God and not against Him. Let’s take His invitation to come up higher, to receive this higher vision of things. And I believe that we can come up higher, by going lower, by casting down our crowns (Rev

4:10), letting go of our friend or enemy vision of things, but just entering into worship of the King of kings (Jos 5:14).

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There is something else, that God spoke to me during the conference, that I would like to share with you. I was praying for one of the participants, when God gave me this, I think, higher perspective. It is about Yeshua sleeping in the boat in the middle of the storm and His disciples waking Him up. We read this in three gospels: in Matthew 8, verses 24-27, in Luke 8, verses 23-25 and in Mark 4, verses 37-41. In all of them Yeshua wakes up, silences the storm and rebukes His disciples of lacking faith. I have always read this story with the understanding, that Yeshua would have wanted His disciples to silence the storm. That that is where their lack of faith is. But praying for my brother during the conference, I at once had this thought: What if Yeshua wanted His disciples to come and lay down next to Him and sleep in His arms in the middle of the storm…? How often don’t we pray for the storms in our lives to be silenced? And how often is Yeshua’s answer not to silence the storms, but to give us shalom within the storm? Just as He invited Peter to walk on the water in the middle of the storm (see Matt 14), perhaps He is also inviting us to come sleep next to Him in the middle of the storm…? I do think, that the storms in this world will only get more intense and they will not be silenced anymore (until Yeshua’s return). But in the middle of the storm Yeshua has His shalom for us, which gives us such a strong feeling of safety, that we will be able to sleep in the middle of the storm. I for sure want to loose myself so deep in Him, that I will come to this place!

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At this moment I am in Paray-le-Monial, staying with my sister. Last weekend was the Jesus Festival, a ecumenical worship festival that drew this year 7500 people. I participated at the night of worship in the 11th century old basilica, as I also did last year. It was a huge blessing and some of the worship was very anointed. The most amazing time was with Loire en Gloire, a worship collective of Catholics and Protestants with a heart for Israel. They combine worship and intercession. During their worship I was invited to dance with some of the (huge) banners they have and I could feel God’s presence in a strong and deep, transformative way.

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What’s coming up next? The coming 2 weeks will be time for vacation with my sister and then I will set three weeks apart to start writing. God gave me a book project over three years ago now and I haven’t gotten to write yet… I would love your prayers for this, because I feel there is a lot of spiritual battle around it. Then, mid-October I plan to be back in Israel for a time of intercession and meetings with TJCII. After that I do not know yet, but as I always say: God knows, and I just have to discover His plans for me. Thank you for joining me on my adventurous walk with Yeshua through this life!

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