I knew that Shavuot was a time of renewal for me and was planning on being mikveh'd but this last Wednesday our middle son came to me and said he wanted to do it with me. I asked him why he felt Yah was leading him to immersion. He told me that Yah had given him a dream about being immersed. We were so excited that he allowed the Spirit to speak to him and he made this conscious decision on his own with Yahweh leading him. Then on Friday evening as we were talking about Shavuot and the significance of the Holy Day our oldest told us that he wanted to be immersed too. He had been baptized at age 7 and now at 12 we asked why he felt he was being led to this immersion. He told us that it symbolized how Yahweh has changed our family and shown us so much of His truth this last year. He also wanted to do it with his brother to have this bond and to get along better. (They are really good friends by the way.)
This is the boys' proclamation yesterday:
I believe in Yahshua as my Savior as
they did in ancient times.
I will love Him with my whole heart,
body, mind and soul.
I will obey His Torah and love my neighbor
as myself thru the Holy Spirit living in me and being my guide.
I believe that the whole Bible is
true and I am being immersed in the name of Yahshua.
Here is my testimonial and pictures of our special time together: (it's kinda long...but I had so much on my heart)
Several months ago Yah put the idea of Mikveh or immersion
on my heart. I researched scripture and
teachings about Mikveh or immersion and prayed about it a lot. Then here in January the Spirit was really
pressing in on me. I think it was a
Thursday and as I was driving into town by myself. I prayed and asked Yah if immersion was
something He wanted me to do then to give me a sign, dream, vision or a person
to show me this. I went to town, ran my
errands and by the time I got home I could not remember what I prayed for. I knew that I prayed hard for something but
for the life of me I could not place what it was. On that Sabbath we drove here and were
getting ready to start our fellowship and worship time when Bob made an
announcement about Mikvah/immersion. I
can tell you that from the tips of my toes to the very top of my head the
memory of my prayer came flooding through me.
My heart started to beat faster and I knew that this was Yah telling me
that YES immersion was what He wanted me to do.
He showed me being immersed in a body of water that wasn’t a tub, I
would be surrounded by like-minded believers and it would be on Shavuot. He also showed me there would be a lifting up
of prayers to the Almighty Himself. And
just recently He showed me that it would be my husband a who would be immersing
me. I am under the spiritual covering of
Scott in our marriage and this symbolizes my submission to the authority and
order Yah has given us.
Today’s immersion does not in any way nullify my previous
baptism. It adds to it. 18 years ago I
was baptized for the remission of the sinful life I was leading. My life was filled with so much that was not
the ways of the Almighty. He was
pressing in on my life then and I really feel that’s when I left Egypt and
crossed the Red Sea. These last 18 years
I have been wondering in the wilderness.
Yah was revealing more and more to me and slowly removing the leaven of
Egypt from my life. Did I falter? Yes,
many, many times. Did I believe in false
systems of religion and man-made doctrines out of ignorance? Yes. Yah continued to press in on me. Did I wrestle with Him as Jacob wrestled
with Him? Oh we wrestled.
Six years ago Yah showed me how to trust Him through several
different situations that were going on in my life at that time. Things like my mom’s cancer, pride,
selfishness, marital issues with Scott, wanting to be home with my boys and
seeing no way to fix it all. I felt that
the ground was forever getting thinner and thinner beneath my feet and at any
moment I would break through and never get up.
I was trying to control everything about my life and not letting my
Heavenly Abba take care of me. I cried
out to Him and He just asked me to trust Him.
Yah taught me to trust, to let go and to love. Did things change immediately? No, not
everything but He did show me that He knows the desires of our heart. The spirit started to change me from the
inside out and I eventually stopped trying to control everything. Blessings started to flow in our lives, sin
was being cast out, forgiveness and healing came.
But Yah wasn’t done with me yet and still isn’t. You see, I had left Egypt but in the process
of Yah getting the leaven of Egypt out of me, I picked up a whole lot of lies
from the surrounding nations, the traditions and doctrines of man. Two years
ago I became very discontent with the modern church as we know it. What the
scriptures and my spirit told me and what the church told me didn’t match so I started searching for truth. I prayed for truth. I remember yelling once at Scott that “I just
want the truth”. I was waiting for thunder to come and say, “You can’t handle
the truth!” But the Amighty knew I could handle it. Yah started to reveal
things to me in a profound way.
This last year has been a whirlwind of sitting at the
entrance of the promised land and unlearning the traditions, doctrines and dogma
of man’s ways and learning and embracing the ways of the Father found in His
Torah and the teaching of Yashua.
So today on Shavuot, I stand before you all as my witnesses
along with heaven and earth to declare at the base of Mt. Sinai that I say “I
do” to the covenant, the marriage contract, His Torah that Yahweh made with
Israel so many years ago on this day. As
in the words of my friend Nancy, “There is so much to Shavuot and the Torah
that most of the world doesn't even want to know because they think it is
bondage. But the Torah is simply Yahweh’s wedding vows with HIS bride. It's HIS covenant. My
part is so simple. His part carries the heavier responsibility. By the presence
of HIS SPIRIT living within me, I can fulfill my part of the vows. All the
world sees is the physical application; but for every physical picture there
was and is a spiritual one. You have to know and understand what the spiritual
picture is as well. I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE FREE THAN I AM NOW SINCE FOLLOWING
HIS TORAH!”
I am thankful that HE has called me, revealed His
righteousness to me and taught me how to repent of my wicked ways. I choose to be HIS BRIDE, drink from His cup
and to walk this walk with Yahweh within the boundaries of His Ketubah, the
Torah. Yahweh wants to write the Torah on our hearts by the Holy Spirit to
transform us into a new creation and draw us into HIS heart.
I understand and believe that I am grafted in to Israel, the Kingdom of
the Most High God, because of my faith in Him, through His Son Yahshua, just as Ruth was.
I understand and believe that Yahshua didn’t come to
start a new religion, He came in His Father’s name to teach and do the Father’s
will found within the boundaries of His Torah and set the Pharisees straight. He
came to teach us true repentance and how to turn back to the ways of Yahweh. I understand that this physical washing of
immersion is significant to what the Spirit has already done and will continue
to do inside of me. I feel that I am no longer wrestling with Yah
but now dancing in His infinite power and love. Sometimes I step on His toes but He’s got my
hands, we reset and keep on dancing because He is leading my steps. I am His and He is mine.
Our youngest the Shofar Man...Summoning all to the Shavuot Immersions
Gathering Together by the Water
The boys giving their statement of faith.
The laying of hands on the boys.
Our Oldest with Dad..Guiding him down, letting go and letting him come up on his own as a new creation.
Our Middle Son with Dad...Guiding him, letting go and letting him come up on his own as a new creation.
Giving my testimony.
Here I go...I was so excited!
Hubby meeting me and guiding me through the water.
A special moment.
Guiding me, letting me go...
Coming up as a new creation.
It was the most special of times and annointed with the Set Apart Spirit of Yah!
