Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective by Elinor Montgomery Very Little Fruit Left in Israel February 10, 2008 There is very little fruit left in Israel as the leaves of the fig tree wither away. The light of her lamp is all but snuffed out. Where has the oil, which kept it burning, disappeared? Jesus pulled His church out of the tight grip of Judaism and they were the so-called priests of God who fought Him all the way. But they were not the priests of God. They were Roman-appointed counterfeits who claimed Caesar to be their king while, at the same time, wanting the blood of the true King, Who ruled over Israel and the entire world. They did not know it and they could not see it in their religious blindness, compromised by their unity with Rome. Nothing has changed, and once again Jesus is going to pull His true apostolic church not out of the grip of Judaism, but rather out of the grip of Christianity and its so-called priests of God, who are fighting the Word all the way. The priests of Christianity also are Roman-rooted, Roman appointed counterfeits, originally appointed by Caesar and never by the Lord God. Caesar’s high priest, the pope, held the first Christian high priest office, while claiming the mighty Constantine to be his king, a Caesar who was losing his grip over a failing Roman Empire. When will the Christian institutions ever understand just who John the Baptist really was and what he was all about? He was not just another flower-child running about the desert in sandals and animal skins, eating the latest health food while shouting peace to the world. He was the prophet of God, making one of the most important statements this world would ever hear, yet would refuse to receive. Hence, the Lord says of the Spirit and the bride’s prophetic message that it, too, will only be for those who have ears to hear, for the world will not receive her voice any more than it would receive the cry of John. He was truly in a wilderness crying out to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by repenting and being baptized. He baptized with the water of this world, but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Once he had announced the words “Behold the Lamb of God”, John’s disciples ceased to follow John, redirecting their focus toward Jesus. They immediately recognized Him as ‘Rabbi’ or ‘Teacher’, not as priest, prayer warrior or worship leader, though He was all of these things. With the title of Rabbi or Teacher, His ministry began. With this same teaching ministry, which was one of testifying to the truth (He stated such to Pilate), He would send out His church, His voice, and ministry of the truth. Again today, as the true church comes out of her religious tomb of Christianity, Jesus will revive her with a teaching ministry on the solid-rock foundation of truth. The bride, the true church will challenge the Christian priesthood, the giants of religion, in the same manner as John challenged the Judaic priesthood, the religious giants of his day. When he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming toward him, he called them a brood of vipers, asking who had warned them to flee from the wrath, or fire, to come. He commanded them to bear fruit worthy of repentance and warned them about their pride and self-absorption in thinking themselves sons of Abraham. May our Messianic religious groups take heed of what is being said here, for they see themselves as Hebrew children different from other believers in Jesus. They have a bloodline, you see, and by the simple term Messianic they become divisive in their approach. John claimed that God could raise up children of Abraham from stones, with no bloodline in them. And so He did raise up a people from the stones of the church – a people of no particular bloodline other than that which goes back to Adam, the first man and son of God. It was through Adam that son-ship was lost, and it is through Jesus, not Abraham, that son-ship can be regained. John went on to say that even then the ax was laid to the root of the trees. So, it would be that every tree, which did not bear good fruit, would be cut down and thrown into the fire. We have a choice – we will either be baptized in the Spirit, which means the Spirit of life returned to us who are dead in the spirit of death, or we shall burn in the fire. Dead wood cannot bear fruit, and is only good for burning. John could not imagine why Jesus would come to him to be baptized when he was the one who needed the baptism of the Spirit from Jesus. Deaf and dumb church, why in the world do you think Jesus was standing there waiting for baptism before John? He had no sin; He was not in need of repentance or of the transformed life. You cannot answer because you do not know. You have not been taught at the feet of Jesus. Foolish priesthood, you have become victims of religious denominational institutionalism that sets up seminaries to keep you in religious blindness! Only Jesus is the ‘Rabbi’, not the Pharisees of today who have about as much understanding as the Pharisees of yesterday who never could see Jesus as King over Israel and over the entire world. Don’t you know who John the Baptist was? He was the last person, recorded in Scripture as being in line for the Levitical high priesthood, which came to an end with him. He no longer wore all the vestments of the office, for he had the humility to see himself in his beastly unredeemed nature as fallen man. He was bringing to a close the wearing of the vestments of the Levitical priestly office, for he was about to transfer the office of a national high priest over to the office of the High Priest of the Universe, Who had absolutely no place at all with Roman religious appointments. His appointment was from above, as would be the appointment of His apostolic priests. There is no blood lineage for the descendants of the High Priest, Jesus, for He is the eternal High Priest, calling us to come into His priesthood through rebirth in the Spirit of life, which was lost to man in the Garden. He wants to redeem us from our captivity to death, by breathing life back into us, and He wants to love us, His church, as a bridegroom loves his bride. Beware, for the winnowing fan is in His hand, which will thoroughly purge the threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. Joseph, before Him, gathered up and stored the wheat in Egypt. What he stored was good to feed his brothers, and also good to feed the entire known world. The food Jesus has stored to feed His own, and the entire world, is that incredibly perfect spiritual food that comes down from heaven, called the Word. Jesus is the Bread of life, supplying our much-needed spiritual vitamin D and calcium, called understanding, to strengthen our spiritual bone structure. And in all your getting, get understanding (Proverbs 4:7). The Lord is about to peel the shell of religion away from the pearl of the true apostolic church at the center of it. As the prophet Amos explained it, the Lord is going to go right around the temple building of Judaism and the church building of Christianity to get at the pearl, with every brick and stone around it being leveled to the ground. Amos refers back to the Lord bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. Looking back, we find it hard to understand the stupidity of a people, once released from the captivity of slavery, wanting to go back to their old captive life, yet Christians want exactly that, my friends. We still don’t get it – religious idolatry is the same today as yesterday. The Lord is going to destroy the sinful kingdom of Babylon from the face of the earth. On the day Israel is restored, it will be in the kingdom as part of the tabernacle of heaven described in the book of Revelation, not in affiliation with any temple other than the body of Jesus. There will be no religious temples, but rather the restored tabernacle of the wilderness, which existed until the time of David upon whose throne will sit Jesus and His bride. It will be repaired, raised from its ruins, and rebuilt as in the days of old, says Amos, in chapter nine of his book. They are the ones who shall possess the land and plant vineyards, make gardens, and drink the wine from them and eat the fruit from them. They will be planted where they will no longer be pulled up, declares Amos. This is the tender twig from the tallest cedar to which Ezekiel refers, planted on the mountain of Israel, the majestic cedar. And all shall know the Lord has brought down the tree of pride and exalted the low tree. “I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it (Ezekiel 17:24).” And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Revelation22:1-2). Take a careful look at the Canadian flag and consider the above words. In the final analyses, the bearing of the fruit and the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations, ride side by side. Canada, you have a destiny! Do not miss the day of your visitation. www.voiceofthekingfisher.ca
