Sid: My guest by way of telephone from his home in Jacksonville, Florida is anointed Levitical psalmist Paul Wilbur, Messianic Jew. We are featuring this week his selections from his latest CD “Lion of Judah” recorded live in Jerusalem. Yesterday’s broadcast… we played “Show Me Your Face.” Paul tell me about that song.
Paul: Well Sid as we shared yesterday that comes from one of the portions of scripture that absolutely provokes me to the core every time I read it. We see Moses on top of the mountain, he’s the only one of the whole community of Israel who has faith to come up the mountain and to meet God in His atmosphere. Yet you know God calls us all to come close to where He can speak close to us and whisper in our ear deep speaking to deep. It says there in the scriptures in Exodus 33 that God wants to reward Moses for his faith of coming up the mountain and He says “What can I do for you?” Moses there in the presence of God says “I simply want to see Your face. I want to see Your glory.” That has so provoked me Sid, there have been men and women down through the ages who have been given the privilege of witnessing, seeing, the glory and the presence of God but there have been many who have searched and have not found. In the Song of Songs that we were speaking of the other day in the song “Dance With Me” here he says in chapter 2 in verse 14 “My dove in the cleft of the rocks in the hiding places of the mountain side show me your face. Let me hear your voice for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.” We have this searching through all of the scriptures of those who love God seeking out His face, but I have to tell you Sid there’s a happy ending for all of us. As we look in the very last chapter in the very last book the book of the Revelation in chapter 22 listen to this in verse 3 “No longer will there be any curse” speaking now of the river and those who have overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. It says “No longer will there be any curse the throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city and they will see His face.
Sid: We’re getting Mishpochah for the greatest Jewish wedding in history, but there’s work to do and there’s something in the air. Paul you travel around the world, I travel around the world but something is going on that I haven’t seen. I’ve been a Messianic Jew now for almost 30 years and I have never seen this move of God’s Spirit that’s going on right now and part of it is involved with the restoration of the Biblical roots of the church which happen to be the same as the Jewish roots. It’s sort of like Jewish people look at Christianity and they say “I don’t see anything Jewish.” Christians look at the Jewish people and they say “I don’t see anything Christian.” The prayer that our Messiah prayed in John 17:21 is not any closer when He prayed “I pray that they,” and He’s talking about Jews and Gentiles would be one so the world would believe.” In Ephesians it’s the same thing He said “Jesus came to break down that middle wall of division between Jew and Gentile.” My thought that God is using the restoration, the Biblical festivals, to finalize that wall of partition to remove it so we can have the glorious church the One New Man congregation. What is God showing you Paul Wilbur about this?
Paul: Well I love the way that you phrased that Sid because I see something happening there is a parallel… Derek Prince mentioned it years ago in his book “The Parallel Restoration of the Church in Israel.” There is an unveiling happening now even as a veil of the bride covers her face. There is an unveiling of Isaiah 53 to the Jew, and there is an unveiling of Romans 8:9, 10 to the Gentile. I think that through the feasts, and through… you know as we’ve discussed in the past these are not Jewish feasts, these are not the feasts of Israel, these are not even Biblical feasts first and foremost of all. If we’re going to call ourselves Word people then we’ve got to say what God says. If we look in Leviticus 23 over and over He says, God says, “These are My feasts.” These are the feasts of the Lord. “Those of you who are called by My name have to proclaim them, have to live in them, and to declare them.” He’s got a good reason for that.
Sid: What’s that?
Paul: Well I believe it’s just what you stated before He’s bringing unity. If we wild branches and natural branches have been grafted into the same olive tree of God, if we are taking of the same nourishment of the Holy Spirit of the sap of the Holy Spirit, then there has to be a bearing of the same fruit because we are taking of the same nourishment. He said Psalm 133 “Behold look see how good how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity for there I command My blessing even life forevermore.” I believe that it was that text that Yeshua was quoting, if you will, or was referring to in John 17 when He said “Father I pray that they would be one.” That we would demonstrate in our unity and love for one another that God is who He says He is, and that Jesus, Yeshua, is the Messiah of all the world.
Sid: You know Paul when you or I discuss the Biblical festivals people says “Oh legalism.” They think #1 it has nothing to do with salvation, it has nothing to do with righteousness it is the blood of Jesus plus nothing to have your sins atoned for. However, it is an issue as you put it God’s feasts, it is an issue of blessing. Let me read to you from the New Living Translation Isaiah chapter 58 it’s talking about the Shabbat or the Sabbath.
Keep the Sabbath day holy don’t pursue your own interest on that day but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day. Honor the Lord in everything you do and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly. If you do this the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and give you your full share of the inheritance I promised to Jacob your ancestor. I the Lord have spoken.
It is a blessing issue, it is a glory issue. Paul what is God telling you?
Paul: Sid as you look at the feasts and the church has begun to embrace now the Feast of Tabernacles. I am praying, I am believing that before either the Lord comes for me or I go to Him that I am going to see, and I know I’m on some very dangerous ground here I’m going to say it anyway. I’m believing the church of Jesus, the congregation of Yeshua, will throw off those shackles of the traditions of men of the traditions of the cults that have come and infected our pure faith and will embrace the pure times and the seasons of the Lord. Because if we discern them, if we look at them with eyes of faith Sid we will see that through Passover, that through the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, through the Feast of Tabernacles, through the other Feasts that the word even calls minor feasts that Yeshua Himself is shown He is revealed. The blood of atonement is amplified…
Sid: Not only that we’ve got the whole future of what God’s going to do on planet earth! Inside these Biblical festivals I’ve got to hear your song, I mean I’ve got to hear it! It’s called “Yaweh” from the “Lion of Judah.”
Excerpt – Yaweh
Sid: I love it that was just a little bit from the CD Paul Wilbur that was recorded live in Jerusalem called “Yaweh.”