THE NEW COVENANT IS ALL ABOUT FREEDOM AND LIBERTY!

Illustration Taken From My Book: "The Language of God in Prophecy"

NOTE: This article was originally posted on

Christmas Eve 2013 on Facebook 

Let me make something perfectly clear. Although, as a Messianic, I teach others about the Seven Feasts of Yahweh God's Sacred Calendar, and understand the prophetic importance of God's Appointed Times, I also understand and teach that ALL of these feasts pointed ahead to Yahshua. In addition, I understand the future importance that three of God's Feasts - Passover Week (especially Firstfruits/Resurrection Sunday), Pentecost or Shavuot, and the Feast of Sukkot or Tabernacles - will continue to have in the Millennial Kingdom of Yahshua, as well as the great prophetic importance that Chanukah and Purim have for Gentile believers who are grafted in today.

But we must not forget that our Messiah Yahshua has already fulfilled ALL of these feasts to some extent with His perfect conception, birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, heavenly rule and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost/Shavuot to everyone who freely chooses to love and follow Him! In fact, Yahshua and His Apostles made it clear that - when we truly follow Him - the world no longer has any power over us because we have been given the power to break every satanic curse and bring forth every divine blessing with our prayers uttered in faith. Because of this, we are under no obligation to hold any day as holier than another, but are called to honor each and every day as being part of a perpetual Sabbath Rest, of which Yahshua's Millennial Reign is the final culmination.

Because we are under no obligation to keep any special feasts, but are told to see each day as a Sabbath Rest in Yahshua under His Grace, everyone can choose to celebrate Christ's conception and/or birth whenever they want. We are under no legal obligation to keep Christmas or to not keep it. For proof of this, read Colossians 2, Galatians 5, 1 Corinthians 8 through 1 Corinthians 10, and 2 Corinthians 3. If you are too weak in your faith and too fearful of laws that are no longer applicable to us under the New (NOT Renewed) Covenant, then choose NOT to keep Christmas or any other holiday that you feel is not on God's Sacred Calendar, although I have repeatedly shown that Christmas was never connected to any Pagan feast day, but is instead connected to Chanukah. It is your choice to do as you wish if you think it pleases God - even if it flies in the face of reason.

By reason, I mean the following: when reading 1 Corinthians 8 about not being a stumbling block, remember that Paul was applying this to eating food sacrificed to idols in front of people who worship the idol. This is further clarified in 1 Corinthians 9 and 10. There, Paul teaches us that, though we know that every idol is truly nothing and has no power over us, we cannot in good conscience eat food sacrificed to idols without telling those who worship them that we do not eat this food to glorify the idol or partake in its false worship! We are obligated to share what we know and explain our actions to those who are weak, but we are not obligated to starve to death to keep those with a weak conscience happy! In other words, we do not have to give up everything we enjoy in liberty, provided that we are up front about why we have no problem doing so!

In addition, under Christ, we no longer need to fear superstition or keep old traditions! We are free from fear in Christ, and are at liberty to choose to keep traditions or not to do so. Besides the Christian traditions of men surrounding Easter/Resurrection Sunday and Christmas, this includes keeping Chanukah, Passover or any other Jewish Feast traditionally. Among these traditions, Christmas trees and evergreen decorations are NOT objects of worship for most people, nor are crosses, menorahs, Seder plates, prayer shawls, stars, doves or nativity scenes. They are reasons for delight and give enjoyment with their loveliness or artistry, but we must guard that they are not worshiped and that others are fully aware that they are not to be worshiped or idolized, and we are in no way emulating Pagan traditions, but have created new Christ-centered traditions that center around Yahshua's coming Kingdom.

I sadly wasn't able to put up a tree this year, not because I didn't want to, but couldn't afford to! Times are tough. But they become even tougher when I have to fight this battle every year with ignorant people who are too caught up in legalism and are not filled with enough of the Holy Spirit to enjoy the FREEDOM and LIBERTY we have have been given through Yahshua, who fulfilled the entire LAW for us all because He is the living embodiment of the LAW! You can choose how you wish to live, but you don't have a right to condemn me or anyone else for enjoying our FREEDOM IN CHRIST, which is now, and forever will be a part of the NEW Covenant!

If you want to be weighed down by outmoded laws that no longer serve any purpose, then do so if it keeps you on the straight and narrow. But don't condemn believers for exercising their freedom and liberty to celebrate their faith in any way that they choose - so long as they are candid in sharing how it centers around Christ and His Kingdom, and why they see it as edifying to themselves and their families, friends and loved ones.

Remember that YAHSHUA IS THE GIVER OF, AND FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW! Therefore, when we love and honor Him and love others as He did, we are fulfilling the Law with every act of faith and love that we perform because we love Him! In all truth, you are blind if you cannot see that we keep the entire Law and ALL the commandments when we love Yahshua and use the power that He gives us to flee from sexual immorality, shun greed, avoid lies, reject lust, and see through Pagan and Occult distortions of the truth to see the godly truth hidden behind their lies. In short, when we are born again, believers in Christ are given the Holy Spirit, Who shows them how to keep God's Moral Laws as set forth in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and Who helps them to flee from all sin, including all forms of sexual immorality.

When we are tuned in to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us, we know that the sacrificial and ceremonial aspects of the Law are no longer important, but only God's Moral Law when it is tempered by the love, compassion, mercy and kindness that Christ calls us to extend to others. So, instead of becoming legalistic and weighed down by outmoded ways of thinking, let's choose to listen to the Holy Spirit, and to love others by sharing the freedom from sin and the liberty we have been given in Christ to throw off legalistic yokes that have no place in the Kingdom of God. Let's use our freedom through Christ to focus on the important things instead such as sexual purity, love, joy, peace, kindness, fellowship and charity - just as Yahshua told us to do!

Merry Christmas, and Happy Gregorian Calendar New Year!

Your Sister in Yahshua,
Helena Lehman of the
Pillar of Enoch Ministry
Ministry Blog: http://pillarofenoch.blogspot.com
Ministry Web Site: http://pillar-of-enoch.com 

The New Covenant of Liberty and Freedom

By Helena Lehman of the 

Pillar of Enoch Ministry

http://pillar-of-enoch.com

Click Image To Enlarge

This is being written to my fellow Messianic Jewish believers in love to show that you are grieving the Ruach Ha Kodesh or Holy Spirit with certain beliefs that go against the clear teaching of Scripture. Grieving the Spirit of God, Who is the Seal of our Salvation in the New Covenant in Yahshua’s Blood, is a serious offense that should NOT be taken lightly:

Ephesians 1:13 - “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise...”

Ephesians 4:3 - “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” 

We all need the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to seal us and to guide us in our spiritual walk with Yahweh God our Father, or we are NOT in the New Covenant of Grace and Jubilee! Being in this Covenant of Grace does not mean we are ignorant of God's Moral law, or that we can ignore His Moral Law, which is the fuel behind the power of God's Spirit in us to guide us into all truth.

But, regardless of what you have been previously taught about a supposed Renewed Covenant, I am proclaiming that YHWH God did NOT say that He would cut a Renewed Covenant through the Prophet Jeremiah (See Jeremiah 31:31-32), but a NEW Covenant with mankind that would NOT be like the one He cut with the Israelites when He led them out of Egypt. This is why the writer of the Book of Hebrews declared:

Hebrews 8:5-7 - “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.”

This is why Yahshua sent the Holy Spirit in Power on Shavuot or Pentecost, the SAME DAY that the Book of the Covenant was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Yahweh orchestrated this to show the New Covenant’s supremacy over the OLD Covenant, and to show that the Israelites and the Mixed Multitudes that were among them were now subject to a NEW set of rules that were NOT like the old ones. To show that this was Yahshua’s intent, He said:

John 14:26 - “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

John 16:7 - “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

Thus, the New Covenant is taught to us by our Helper the Holy Spirit when we are indwelt by Him. The Spirit then guides us into ALL Truth when we listen to the Spirit’s voice in dreams, visions and words of knowledge. In this way, God’s Will is written onto the hearts of all true believers. We do not need to memorize all the Moral Laws of God listed in the Torah Books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, although it is a good idea to be familiar with them. Instead, we should be guided to do what is right by the power of the Holy Spirit in us if we are truly born again. It is the Spirit of God Who readily reveals the deep and cherished things of God to His servants, the born-again saints, and teaches them things that they did NOT know before, as Jeremiah also prophesied:

Jeremiah 33:3 - “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Of course, this is also meant to be the case when we are reading God’s Word in the Bible. God’s Spirit - Who is also called the Wisdom of God in Proverbs, Chapter 8 - illuminates our hearts to understand the deeper meaning of each passage, showing us the rich beauty of our God’s infinite and all-surpassing wisdom. Without the Spirit of God guiding us, we would not be able to see how all the Old Covenant rituals pointed ahead to the ministry of Yahshua our Messiah, who fulfilled them all for us when He died on the Cross for our sins. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote:

“If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” - Galatians 2:15-21

This is why the Apostle Paul also said:

“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using - according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” - Colossians 2:11-23

Thus, we have Liberty and Freedom from the burden that the Law placed on us. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 - “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

The Apostle Paul also wrote about the Liberty and Freedom that believers have in Yahshua in all of Romans, Chapter 14 and Galatians, Chapter 5. In support of this, Yahshua proclaimed that those who serve and believe in Him are living as if they were caught up in an everlasting Jubilee Year, in which all debts are cancelled and all slaves are freed! Yahshua did so when He said the following, taken from the book of Isaiah the Prophet:

Luke 4:17-19 - “And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

To explore the nature and power of the Liberty and Freedom that we have been given under the New Covenant further, and to see the limits it sets forth on how much moral freedom we have, please read my recent article listed below, which lists the chapters in the Bible containing the moral commandments believers are called to follow, just as Yahshua did. May it guide all who read it into all truth by the power of the Holy Spirit that is found in those who are born again! In Yahshua’s Holy and Powerful Name, Amen!

FOR ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTION:

POEM Blog: WHAT COMMANDMENTS MUST BELIEVERS KEEP UNDER THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE? - Introduction: Though all believers are covered by the gift of God’s Grace or unmerited favor when they sin and seek repentance, and they all have freedom and liberty in Yahshua, who fulfilled the Law for us, there are many statements in the New Testament that indicate that Yahshua expects His followers to keep His Commandments. But defining what these Commandments are can prove to be rather tricky unless we understand the differences between the Mosaic Law and the New Covenant of Grace. Examples of New Covenant admonitions to keep God’s Commandments include the following...

WHAT COMMANDMENTS MUST BELIEVERS

KEEP UNDER THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE?

http://pillarofenoch.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-commandments-must-believers-keep.html

 ~**~**~**~**~

ABOUT THE PILLAR OF ENOCH MINISTRY:

My ministry centers around my Language of God Book series, and

my many free articles and news commentaries available on my

POEM web site and at My Page at Facebook.

If you would like to learn more about my books and ministry, visit

my Pillar of Enoch Ministry web site at http://pillar-of-enoch.com/

To purchase autographed quality paperback editions, PDF E-book

versions, or CD versions of my books, please visit my ministry

web site at http://pillar-of-enoch.com/bookstore/index.html

If you wish to purchase my books for Amazon Kindle,

please go to my author page at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Helena-Lehman/e/B00ELXEDQO/

~**~**~**~**~