Post by Paddy by Grace on Jul 1, 2009 3:38:49 GMT -7
the Glory
by haRold Smith
Jerusalem, Israel
"Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the Glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud." Exodus 16:10
"Now the Glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud." Exodus 24:16
"Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." Exodus 40:34-35
"And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the Name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Exodus 34:5-7
Many speak of YHVH's Glory in apocalyptic terms, associating it with funnels of fire, earthquakes and dramatic movements of time and space when actually, as we see from the passages above, His Glory is revealed in a cloud. The Hebrew term Shechinah (as in the Shechinah Glory of Elohim) while not explicitly found in Scripture, is derived from the Hebrew verb sakan or shachan which is used frequently in the Hebrew Bible to mean, literally, to settle, inhabit, dwell or rest. It is used to designate the visibility of God's Presence. When the Lord led Israel out of ancient Egypt, He went before them "in a pillar of a cloud" (Exodus 13:21 click on highlighted verse to see scripture). This was the symbol of His Presence with His People. The Talmudic Sages conceived of the Shechinah as a spiritual essence of indescribable beauty and exalting effect. It was generally spoken of as brilliant light or radiance. According to this Jewish tradition the radiance of the Shechinah, with its untold blessings, "rests" IN those who call upon His Name. To be in His Presence is to have rest and a joy that comes with that rest (Exodus 33:14, Psalm 16:11).
In Exodus 33:18 Moses asked YHVH to "show me your Glory" - and He did. In v19 it says, "I will make all My Goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before you." Here, we see the Name of the Lord IS His Glory (v22), they are interchangeable - to speak of one is to speak of the other. His Glory is His Goodness. His Name is Goodness. It is said of Yeshua, in Acts 10:38 that He went about doing Good. His Goodness is an indication that we are IN His Presence, hence - a cloud of Glory. But a cloud is not something you can capture. It is only something, like the wind, that you can detect because of what its effects are.
The root word of the Hebrew baruch is barak which means to bend the knees, to kneel down. The Hebrew word for 'name' is shem. 'The' in Hebrew is ha, hence, Baruch haShem means 'Bless the Name'. We bless His Name by embracing His Nature.
The verse in Exodus 34 above tells us the Name of the Lord - goodness, mercy, grace, long - suffering, forgiveness and, most of all, Truth. This is His Glory - clearly defined. It is in the lifting up, the elevation of these attributes, the Essence of Who He Is BY our life that we call upon, or embrace, His Name and, thus, come into His Presence. It is BY this embrace with our life of His Glory, His Name and all that it entails that His Presence envelopes us as a cloud - and gives us rest (Matthew 11:29). The 'weight' of this splendor comes from being in the Presence of this Glory - all anyone can do is to bow down, to bend the knee at the majesty of His Excellence and, thus, it becomes an acknowledgment of the nobility of His Essence (see theTestimony). This is what immediately happened with Moses after the Lord passed before him - he bowed down and worshipped this Glory. He could not help himself, so great was the radiance, the 'Glory' of His Presence. The same thing happened when His Presence filled the tabernacle - the congregation had to bow at the magnificence of what was before them. Baruch haShem.
We see where Yeshua said that He had 'finished the work' the Father had given Him to do because He 'manifested His Name' to the twelve men the Father had given Him (John 17:4-12) and He 'kept' them in His Name in that He didn't lose one of them (v12). He manifested the Life of the Glory of the Father. He kept them in the Glory of His Name. He manifested the Nature, the Character and the Essence of the Father in the Life He led before them that they could see and it was considered Glory. To embrace Yeshua is to embrace the attributes of the Father in the same manner as He manifested them by His Life. This is what He meant when He said when you see Him - you are seeing the Father (John 14:9). If we are to embrace Yeshua, it can only be in the Way He embraced the Father (John 12:26, see To Believe). In our embrace of the Father, as He embraced the Father, we become as He is - He is "seen" in us (1John 4:17).
When Moses asked to see God's "glory", what ultimately passed before Him were the actual, realized Nature and Characteristics of the Lord - they were visible, they could be "seen", they had form and substance. One Hebrew meaning of this word "glory" is literally translated "liver" and then is figuratively applied to the soul. The liver is the organ that cleanses the blood of our physical bodies. The embrace of these characteristics of Yeshua's Life in our life is the embracing of His Virtue that cleanses and keeps the Blood pure within us (see Flesh and Blood). This is what it means to "follow" Him.
The Life Yeshua led and entreated us to follow was not some esoteric, ethereal affair only realized after death - it is a down-to-earth, in this earth reality that, once attained, we carry with us (as He did) and our Purpose then becomes to bring that Life into this earthly realm (2Thessalonians 1:9-12, Luke 17:20-21). The Life of the Flesh is in His Blood (Leviticus 17:14, John 6:53-54). and the Virtue, the Glory of His Life, lived in the manner of the Flesh He lived, cleanses the Blood - it keeps it pure. As we embrace and appropriate the Virtue of His Life as our own, that Blood of His literally begins to course through our veins to make us clean. This is not a mystical experience. It can not be said enough - (Romans 8:11).
There was a difference between the temple of God which was the structure itself and the temple of God which was the dwelling place. When Yeshua was accusing the Jewish authorities He said, "You have made My Fathers house into a den of thieves." By saying "My Father" they knew He was claiming Messianic authority over the temple, and so they said, "What sign do you show us seeing that you do these things?" and notice what He said: "Yeshua answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body." (John 2:13-21).
They were looking at the physical structure (Hebrew mikdash) of the temple but when He said, "Destroy this temple" He used the word in Hebrew mishkan which was the word used in the Old Testament of the Presence that lit the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur in the tabernacle or temple. Yeshua was saying "I am the temple (mishkan) of God." When the Glory (Shechinah) would come upon the Holy of Holies and His Presence would manifest on the mercy seat between the cherubim after the blood was sprinkled, that was the mishkan. That Presence was what Yeshua said dwelt within Him. And was the same thing Paul said about the church, "Know you not that you are the temple (mishkan) of God?" (1Corinthians 3:16). We, as the body of Christ, have the same Presence dwelling within us as did Yeshua. Elohim doesn't dwell in buildings but within His People. When you believe on, rely upon, trust in, embrace the Life of YHVH as exampled by the Life of Yeshua, you become the Mishkan of YHVH. When YHVH said, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them," He literally said 'in' them (Exodus 25:8). God's ultimate goal has always been to dwell within His people (Jeremiah 31:31-33) and to put His Spirit within us. When you embrace the Life of Yeshua, you become the Mishkan of YHVH.
If you look at the wording used in describing His Name, His Glory, you find them listed again in the New Testament and described as 'fruit of the Spirit' - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Too often, we tend to confuse these attributes with feeling. When you look at the fruit of the Spirit described in the simplicity they are presented, the first three do have some associative feeling most of us can relate to. But, if you look at the rest, there is no feeling or emotion that can be associated with them whatsoever. I have never "felt" longsuffering. Longsuffering (or patience) is something you "do", not something you "feel". You suffer, or endure something for a long while. Faithfulness is just that - BEING faithful in the middle of adverse circumstances that would strain the credibility of His Goodness. Self-control is something you just "exercise." If we realize that love, joy and peace are just as much "do" actions as the rest, we see that these all are just choices we make in the middle of whatever circumstances are presented us.
They are not called "fruit" of the Spirit by happenstance, either. The Lord once asked me had I ever seen fruit trees eat their own fruit? A fruit tree does not grow fruit for its own benefit or consumption. It grows fruit for the benefit of others passing by to partake of and be blessed by. Love is a choice we make in the middle of circumstances that exude hate or loneliness or despair. We don't "do" love in those instances because we are motivated by a feeling, we "do" love because that is the expression, the manifestation of His Name, of Who He Is we have embraced and now abides within us as a part of us. If feeling comes, that's wonderful - but our initial motivation should be from a standpoint of believing that if we call upon His Name by exercising His Attributes in the midst of whatever circumstances we are in, regardless of what we feel, His Presence will manifest. Yeshua said if we ask anything in His Name, it will be done for us. Too many times we ask because of our wants instead of BEing IN His Name, His Nature expressed by these attributes, and don't understand why it is not done as He promised (James 4:3. Prayer and Healing). Something else - they are called the "fruit", singular, of the Holy Spirit - like a singular diamond which has many facets and is but a single entity.
This scripture in Romans 5:1-5 is an example of how this works. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. And not only so, but we Glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience works experience and experience works hope: And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us."
So, how do you DO joy in the middle of un-joyful circumstances? You REjoice as an exercise, a manifestation, of your belief, your faith, that the Goodness of Who He says He Is will overcome the fear and trepidation the circumstance facing you would try to cause you to believe in. You will believe in one or the other because Faith and fear, like Light and darkness, cannot abide in the same space at the same tim (see Faith and Fear). You DO joy as a proclamation of the Truth of His Presence in the midst of the circumstances surrounding you. As we exercise our faith by the choice of our actions in the middle of the circumstance, we DO Glory - because that is Who He Is. Perfect Love casts out fear and as He is, so are we in this world (1John 4:17-18). As we abide in Him by the belief in our heart and the confession of our mouth we overcome the assault of fear the enemy would mount on our faith.
"Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle." Psalm 24:7-8
How is the LORD mighty in battle? 2Chronicles 20 gives us a glimpse into the type of warfare He engages in. It provides us with a different perspective on what we would normally consider warfare to be. Our weapons are not physical and the battleground is in our mind - the warfare is over our faith (1Corinthians 10:4-5). It is over whether we are to believe in His Goodness, Who His Name Is, in the middle of overwhelming circumstance - or not (see Authority). Were that assembly of Israelites in Chronicles to have picked up a sword and gone swinging into the middle of the enemy confronting them, they would have been conquered because they were outnumbered.
In Ephesians 5:8-10 the fruit of the Spirit is IN all goodness and righteousness and truth AND it is associated with being 'children of the Light' (see Light).
If we are BEing "In His Name" we can ask whatever we will and it will be done for us because we are not asking to consume it upon ourselves (see In The Name of Jesus).
In 2Chronicles 20, the battleground was in Ziz, which comes from the Hebrew root word tsiyts (pronounced tsets) which is also the name given to the shining plate of gold the high priests wear on their foreheads. It was the singers and the praisers that were the warriors sent out before the army. Praise in the Hebrew is halal and means to shine forth brilliantly. This is how we engage in warfare - to simply believe that He is Good; no matter what we see, no matter what we hear, no matter what we feel, no matter what we think. This is how we manifest His Name. This is how we enter into His Presence. This is how we bring the force of His Glory into this earthly realm for others to see.
Be Brilliant.
"if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard...the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory." Colossians 1:23-27
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love you." (Psalm 122:6)
(prosper - from the Hebrew, "shalav", meaning "to be at rest")
Baruch HaShem Yeshua!
by haRold Smith
Jerusalem, Israel
"Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the Glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud." Exodus 16:10
"Now the Glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud." Exodus 24:16
"Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." Exodus 40:34-35
"And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the Name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Exodus 34:5-7
Many speak of YHVH's Glory in apocalyptic terms, associating it with funnels of fire, earthquakes and dramatic movements of time and space when actually, as we see from the passages above, His Glory is revealed in a cloud. The Hebrew term Shechinah (as in the Shechinah Glory of Elohim) while not explicitly found in Scripture, is derived from the Hebrew verb sakan or shachan which is used frequently in the Hebrew Bible to mean, literally, to settle, inhabit, dwell or rest. It is used to designate the visibility of God's Presence. When the Lord led Israel out of ancient Egypt, He went before them "in a pillar of a cloud" (Exodus 13:21 click on highlighted verse to see scripture). This was the symbol of His Presence with His People. The Talmudic Sages conceived of the Shechinah as a spiritual essence of indescribable beauty and exalting effect. It was generally spoken of as brilliant light or radiance. According to this Jewish tradition the radiance of the Shechinah, with its untold blessings, "rests" IN those who call upon His Name. To be in His Presence is to have rest and a joy that comes with that rest (Exodus 33:14, Psalm 16:11).
In Exodus 33:18 Moses asked YHVH to "show me your Glory" - and He did. In v19 it says, "I will make all My Goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before you." Here, we see the Name of the Lord IS His Glory (v22), they are interchangeable - to speak of one is to speak of the other. His Glory is His Goodness. His Name is Goodness. It is said of Yeshua, in Acts 10:38 that He went about doing Good. His Goodness is an indication that we are IN His Presence, hence - a cloud of Glory. But a cloud is not something you can capture. It is only something, like the wind, that you can detect because of what its effects are.
The root word of the Hebrew baruch is barak which means to bend the knees, to kneel down. The Hebrew word for 'name' is shem. 'The' in Hebrew is ha, hence, Baruch haShem means 'Bless the Name'. We bless His Name by embracing His Nature.
The verse in Exodus 34 above tells us the Name of the Lord - goodness, mercy, grace, long - suffering, forgiveness and, most of all, Truth. This is His Glory - clearly defined. It is in the lifting up, the elevation of these attributes, the Essence of Who He Is BY our life that we call upon, or embrace, His Name and, thus, come into His Presence. It is BY this embrace with our life of His Glory, His Name and all that it entails that His Presence envelopes us as a cloud - and gives us rest (Matthew 11:29). The 'weight' of this splendor comes from being in the Presence of this Glory - all anyone can do is to bow down, to bend the knee at the majesty of His Excellence and, thus, it becomes an acknowledgment of the nobility of His Essence (see theTestimony). This is what immediately happened with Moses after the Lord passed before him - he bowed down and worshipped this Glory. He could not help himself, so great was the radiance, the 'Glory' of His Presence. The same thing happened when His Presence filled the tabernacle - the congregation had to bow at the magnificence of what was before them. Baruch haShem.
We see where Yeshua said that He had 'finished the work' the Father had given Him to do because He 'manifested His Name' to the twelve men the Father had given Him (John 17:4-12) and He 'kept' them in His Name in that He didn't lose one of them (v12). He manifested the Life of the Glory of the Father. He kept them in the Glory of His Name. He manifested the Nature, the Character and the Essence of the Father in the Life He led before them that they could see and it was considered Glory. To embrace Yeshua is to embrace the attributes of the Father in the same manner as He manifested them by His Life. This is what He meant when He said when you see Him - you are seeing the Father (John 14:9). If we are to embrace Yeshua, it can only be in the Way He embraced the Father (John 12:26, see To Believe). In our embrace of the Father, as He embraced the Father, we become as He is - He is "seen" in us (1John 4:17).
When Moses asked to see God's "glory", what ultimately passed before Him were the actual, realized Nature and Characteristics of the Lord - they were visible, they could be "seen", they had form and substance. One Hebrew meaning of this word "glory" is literally translated "liver" and then is figuratively applied to the soul. The liver is the organ that cleanses the blood of our physical bodies. The embrace of these characteristics of Yeshua's Life in our life is the embracing of His Virtue that cleanses and keeps the Blood pure within us (see Flesh and Blood). This is what it means to "follow" Him.
The Life Yeshua led and entreated us to follow was not some esoteric, ethereal affair only realized after death - it is a down-to-earth, in this earth reality that, once attained, we carry with us (as He did) and our Purpose then becomes to bring that Life into this earthly realm (2Thessalonians 1:9-12, Luke 17:20-21). The Life of the Flesh is in His Blood (Leviticus 17:14, John 6:53-54). and the Virtue, the Glory of His Life, lived in the manner of the Flesh He lived, cleanses the Blood - it keeps it pure. As we embrace and appropriate the Virtue of His Life as our own, that Blood of His literally begins to course through our veins to make us clean. This is not a mystical experience. It can not be said enough - (Romans 8:11).
There was a difference between the temple of God which was the structure itself and the temple of God which was the dwelling place. When Yeshua was accusing the Jewish authorities He said, "You have made My Fathers house into a den of thieves." By saying "My Father" they knew He was claiming Messianic authority over the temple, and so they said, "What sign do you show us seeing that you do these things?" and notice what He said: "Yeshua answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body." (John 2:13-21).
They were looking at the physical structure (Hebrew mikdash) of the temple but when He said, "Destroy this temple" He used the word in Hebrew mishkan which was the word used in the Old Testament of the Presence that lit the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur in the tabernacle or temple. Yeshua was saying "I am the temple (mishkan) of God." When the Glory (Shechinah) would come upon the Holy of Holies and His Presence would manifest on the mercy seat between the cherubim after the blood was sprinkled, that was the mishkan. That Presence was what Yeshua said dwelt within Him. And was the same thing Paul said about the church, "Know you not that you are the temple (mishkan) of God?" (1Corinthians 3:16). We, as the body of Christ, have the same Presence dwelling within us as did Yeshua. Elohim doesn't dwell in buildings but within His People. When you believe on, rely upon, trust in, embrace the Life of YHVH as exampled by the Life of Yeshua, you become the Mishkan of YHVH. When YHVH said, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them," He literally said 'in' them (Exodus 25:8). God's ultimate goal has always been to dwell within His people (Jeremiah 31:31-33) and to put His Spirit within us. When you embrace the Life of Yeshua, you become the Mishkan of YHVH.
If you look at the wording used in describing His Name, His Glory, you find them listed again in the New Testament and described as 'fruit of the Spirit' - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Too often, we tend to confuse these attributes with feeling. When you look at the fruit of the Spirit described in the simplicity they are presented, the first three do have some associative feeling most of us can relate to. But, if you look at the rest, there is no feeling or emotion that can be associated with them whatsoever. I have never "felt" longsuffering. Longsuffering (or patience) is something you "do", not something you "feel". You suffer, or endure something for a long while. Faithfulness is just that - BEING faithful in the middle of adverse circumstances that would strain the credibility of His Goodness. Self-control is something you just "exercise." If we realize that love, joy and peace are just as much "do" actions as the rest, we see that these all are just choices we make in the middle of whatever circumstances are presented us.
They are not called "fruit" of the Spirit by happenstance, either. The Lord once asked me had I ever seen fruit trees eat their own fruit? A fruit tree does not grow fruit for its own benefit or consumption. It grows fruit for the benefit of others passing by to partake of and be blessed by. Love is a choice we make in the middle of circumstances that exude hate or loneliness or despair. We don't "do" love in those instances because we are motivated by a feeling, we "do" love because that is the expression, the manifestation of His Name, of Who He Is we have embraced and now abides within us as a part of us. If feeling comes, that's wonderful - but our initial motivation should be from a standpoint of believing that if we call upon His Name by exercising His Attributes in the midst of whatever circumstances we are in, regardless of what we feel, His Presence will manifest. Yeshua said if we ask anything in His Name, it will be done for us. Too many times we ask because of our wants instead of BEing IN His Name, His Nature expressed by these attributes, and don't understand why it is not done as He promised (James 4:3. Prayer and Healing). Something else - they are called the "fruit", singular, of the Holy Spirit - like a singular diamond which has many facets and is but a single entity.
This scripture in Romans 5:1-5 is an example of how this works. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. And not only so, but we Glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience works experience and experience works hope: And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us."
So, how do you DO joy in the middle of un-joyful circumstances? You REjoice as an exercise, a manifestation, of your belief, your faith, that the Goodness of Who He says He Is will overcome the fear and trepidation the circumstance facing you would try to cause you to believe in. You will believe in one or the other because Faith and fear, like Light and darkness, cannot abide in the same space at the same tim (see Faith and Fear). You DO joy as a proclamation of the Truth of His Presence in the midst of the circumstances surrounding you. As we exercise our faith by the choice of our actions in the middle of the circumstance, we DO Glory - because that is Who He Is. Perfect Love casts out fear and as He is, so are we in this world (1John 4:17-18). As we abide in Him by the belief in our heart and the confession of our mouth we overcome the assault of fear the enemy would mount on our faith.
"Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle." Psalm 24:7-8
How is the LORD mighty in battle? 2Chronicles 20 gives us a glimpse into the type of warfare He engages in. It provides us with a different perspective on what we would normally consider warfare to be. Our weapons are not physical and the battleground is in our mind - the warfare is over our faith (1Corinthians 10:4-5). It is over whether we are to believe in His Goodness, Who His Name Is, in the middle of overwhelming circumstance - or not (see Authority). Were that assembly of Israelites in Chronicles to have picked up a sword and gone swinging into the middle of the enemy confronting them, they would have been conquered because they were outnumbered.
In Ephesians 5:8-10 the fruit of the Spirit is IN all goodness and righteousness and truth AND it is associated with being 'children of the Light' (see Light).
If we are BEing "In His Name" we can ask whatever we will and it will be done for us because we are not asking to consume it upon ourselves (see In The Name of Jesus).
In 2Chronicles 20, the battleground was in Ziz, which comes from the Hebrew root word tsiyts (pronounced tsets) which is also the name given to the shining plate of gold the high priests wear on their foreheads. It was the singers and the praisers that were the warriors sent out before the army. Praise in the Hebrew is halal and means to shine forth brilliantly. This is how we engage in warfare - to simply believe that He is Good; no matter what we see, no matter what we hear, no matter what we feel, no matter what we think. This is how we manifest His Name. This is how we enter into His Presence. This is how we bring the force of His Glory into this earthly realm for others to see.
Be Brilliant.
"if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard...the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory." Colossians 1:23-27
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love you." (Psalm 122:6)
(prosper - from the Hebrew, "shalav", meaning "to be at rest")
Baruch HaShem Yeshua!