Ephraim, My Firstborn, Can You Hear Me?

A Question From The Father
by Batya Wootten


Shalom

A friend of ours sent us a copy of a prophetic word she had that begins with a question from the Father. It is, "Ephraim, My firstborn, can you hear Me?" (See Jeremiah 31:9.)

Properly "hearing" the Father is a subject that is dear to my heart. I write about it in my book, "The Voice... Hearing The Almighty." I explain that hearing His voice within ourselves is an ability that we lost when we sinned in Gan Eden (Garden of Eden). Moreover, our sojourn here on earth is about having that ability restored. It is about learning to hear His Spirit, and to in turn obey Him.

In Hebrew, shema (hear) is an action word. When one hears they are supposed to respond. These are separate ideas in English, but not so in Hebrew. So to speak, proof of hearing is seen in one's response.

The problem is that we taint the beautiful gifting of hearing the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) if we tell others that the Lord is speaking to us when in truth it is our flesh talking, or a mix of flesh and spirit, or the evil one is whispering in our ear.... We also taint the idea of listening to the Spirit when we do crazy things and say the idea came from the Lord. (These lists can go on, and on.)

Nonetheless, we must press on, we must learn to hear and obey His voice, especially in this hour (Zec 4:6).

Yom Kippur is a special time that calls for introspection. It is a time wherein we need to examine ourselves, to test ourselves to make sure we are in the faith, to make certain that we have not gotten off course. It is a time when we need to hear the Father's correction in our lives so we can grow up in Messiah (2 Cor 13:5; Eph 4:15).

As Ephraim seeks to discard the foreign ways he has embraced during his 2700 years of exile he needs to beware that he does not leave behind the rubbish of Rome only to pick up the of baggage of Babylon. He needs to make sure that the does not become self-righteous about what he has learned of his Hebrew roots and instead learn to have mercy on those who do not yet see the truth.

Yom Kippur is a time when we are to afflict or humble our soul, we deny self, put down our flesh, and lift up the Holy One. And, however we choose to do that, we must not do so for the wrong reasons. We must not try to look "holy" (Isa 58) but must instead truly be holy, as in "set apart."

Let us set this Yom Kippur day and ourselves apart. Let us seek to truly hear Him as He gently whispers in our ear, "This is the way, walk ye in it."

For the last ten days we have been posting prayers for each of the days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur. Now, as we soon celebrate this holy day, we want to offer one more little prayer:

Abba, please help us to truly hear and obey only Your voice. Unstop our ears that we might hear. Open our eyes that we might see. Create in us a clean heart and renew in us a right spirit that we might obey You in truth.

In Your mercy, please help us to more clearly see the great and glorious plan that You have for Your people at this time in history. And help us to share the joy of that great plan with those whom You wish to call to Your Kingdom.

In Messiah Yeshua's Name we pray.
Amen and Amen.

Batya
batya@mim.net

This is a team effort, so we would like to hear your thoughts and comments.