Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I’m Candace Long with Lessons in the Latter Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we’re living in. Today, we’re going to explore our Jewish roots a little bit and talk about one of the biggest signs that tells us that we’re in the final days before the day of the Lord.

That sign is an outpouring of something called the Spirit of Elijah. We find this important sign at the end of the Book of Malachi, which is the last book in the Old Testament. The last two verses in Malachi say this.

Guest (Male): “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.”

Candace Long: This passage is extremely important, and I want to put it in perspective this way. Just a short time ago, a ministry colleague passed away suddenly with absolutely no warning. This was a devastating loss to me personally because this man prayed for me and the work that God has called me to do to prepare others for the kingdom.

He regularly communicated to me the things that the Lord impressed upon him about me and my calling while he was in prayer. The last email that I received from him was 17 days before God took him home on July 1st. The other day, as I was spending time with the Lord, he prompted me to go look again at what John had written me.

I went eagerly to my files to retrieve this now very precious email. I won’t share it because it’s personal, but the Lord knew how much more important it had become now, knowing that it was the last thing that John heard from God to say to me by way of encouragement and direction for my work. I share this because the Book of Malachi should elicit the very same response from those of us who consider ourselves followers of the Lord.

The Book of Malachi contains the Father’s last recorded, memorialized words that he gave to Malachi to encourage his children to hold on to for close to 450 years until the first coming of Messiah. In this episode, I want to share four takeaways from this passage in Malachi to learn the deepest things that were on the Father’s heart to prepare us for the coming of the Lord.

Number one, we’ll look at what the Spirit of Elijah is and how it operates. Number two, we’ll look at signs that show us whether God is releasing this spirit now. Number three, I’ll share my personal story of encountering the Spirit of Elijah and how life-changing it has been. And finally, we’ll look at why this is so critical for believers to understand.

So, what is the Spirit of Elijah? We read in Malachi, “I will send you Elijah the prophet.” Elijah had been dead about 400 years before Malachi came on the scene, so is this a reincarnation of Elijah or is it something else? We find the answer in the first chapter of Luke, where Jesus explains that John the Baptist was a living picture of what was referred to as the Spirit of Elijah.

Guest (Male): Here’s what Luke writes: “There appeared to Zechariah an angel who said, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.’”

Candace Long: God says in Malachi that he’s going to send the very spirit and power that he gave Elijah before the day of the Lord. That’s now. Please notice that it is God himself who is doing the sending. But what does the word “send” mean? In Hebrew, the word is shalach, which means to send out or appoint for a divine assignment.

It’s the same Hebrew word for the word apostle—one who is sent out or appointed by God for a definite mission. So what this is saying here is that at the very end of days, there will be an outpouring of this Spirit of Elijah for a specific, critical assignment of what’s described as turning the hearts of the fathers to their children and the children to their fathers.

What does it mean to turn the heart? The Hebrew word is shub, which means to cause to bring back home again. So what this means is that God is at work at the final stages of life as we know it, pouring out this Spirit of Elijah in an unprecedented way to reconcile something that has been divided or torn asunder for the purpose of bringing it back home again.

And to God, this is a serious assignment. It’s as if the older brother in the story of the prodigal son was sent on assignment in order to bring the younger brother back into the Father’s house so that true reconciliation could be made between the Father and the children. This is a picture for us. God wants his children in his house before the day of the Lord, and this Spirit of Elijah is poured out on those who have been appointed for this divine assignment of reconciliation.

In both passages—the end of Malachi and during the time of John the Baptist—God’s children had wandered away from the true faith of their forefathers. The entire religious systems and traditions were cold and dry. The leaders were going through the motions, but they had no zeal and affectionate longing to be in the Father’s presence.

Number two, are there signs that this spirit is being poured out now? Frankly, there are so many I don’t know where to begin. First, to me, is the level of unrest among those who have walked with the Lord a long time. Church attendance has declined, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend.

The pandemic certainly did not help, but even before that, there were signs that believers were restless and seeking something more. Second point is the rise of corruption and hypocrisy and moral compromise among church leaders has certainly not helped things. But the reality is there is a hunger for what I call something more.

I had a recent consulting session with a man of God who wanted to talk about his next book, and he was looking for a fresh approach to prayer and wanted to bounce some ideas off of me. And I asked him, “Why do you want to write a book on prayer? Do people look to you specifically as a man of prayer?” He hesitated.

I pressed in. “Why do you feel the need to write something on prayer that hasn’t been written before? Do you have some breakthrough insight to share?” Again, he was silent. I kept pressing him because, to be honest, I could see no reason why he should have a tree cut down to provide paper for a book that wasn’t begging to be written.

I could hear by his silence that he was wrestling to find the words to describe what he was feeling. I said, “Is it because you are sensing that the present Christian narrative no longer satisfies?” I could tell by his expression that he was surprised by my question. His eyes got really wide. He was almost embarrassed to admit that that’s exactly how he felt.

Lest you think I’m going off the rails here, bear with me. I knew this man loved the Lord, as do I. There is nothing insufficient about Messiah’s sacrifice and provision for us. But you see, there has been something missing, and we are now sensing it and we are wrestling to find the words to articulate what it is. I’m seeing this unrest everywhere. I believe a passage from Isaiah 66 may shed some light on why.

Guest (Male): Isaiah writes: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her, that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts, that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory.”

Candace Long: This is a beautiful picture of how the Lord created Jerusalem to be. The physical landscape of Mount Zion and Mount Moriah are a tavnit, or picture, of the two breasts from which we will be thoroughly nourished by all of what God has given to us. That’s why he used the breast imagery in Isaiah.

God designed these two breasts, which represent Judaism, the Torah, and the Spirit of God, to thoroughly nourish his children. For Jews, they draw nourishment from only a portion of the breast because they do not yet recognize Jesus as the Messiah. But I want to suggest to you that the same emptiness is true for the vast majority of Christians who have not drawn milk from the deeper roots of Judaism.

The result is coming away from the breast not feeling completely nourished. This is God’s doing. The Spirit of Elijah is being released to reach out to us—all of us, Jew and Gentile alike—who have refused to drink from the fullness of everything that God provided for us, not only at Calvary but also at Mount Sinai.

There is an inner longing within many believers to return to our Jewish roots and be grafted further into the house of our forefathers because that is the kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 8, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom.”

Are you ready for that? Most Christians are not. We do not long for Jerusalem. There is a disconnect for most believers when talking about things that are really Jewish. Everywhere I go and teach, I always say one of my mandates is to connect you deeper with our Jewish roots. And I cannot tell you how many people shout hallelujah and throw their hands up when I say that.

There is a hunger for the deeper things from the faith of our fathers. The Spirit of Elijah is at work. Whether or not we really realize it, there has been a shift, and it is very much God’s doing. We are no longer in the Church Age; rather, God has moved to the Kingdom Age, and most Christians are not ready for that.

But think about this from God’s perspective. If we are as close to the kingdom as I think we are, then he is removing our dependence upon our religious traditions. God is preparing us to come home—to his home, the kingdom—to live under a theocracy.

If you are hanging on to church as usual, doing things the old way, going through the motions, not feeling it like you used to, you are exactly where people were in the days of Malachi and John the Baptist, and where God says we will be again right before the kingdom. That’s why the Spirit of Elijah is being sent. The Father is calling us home.

Third point is my personal encounter with the Spirit of Elijah. You know, when God is about to do something major in your life to shift you in a different way, expect the old ways to fall apart. That happened to me 20 years ago when I was headed into the biggest business venture of my life and everything fell apart. I lost almost everything.

I share this story in the episode “When Life Falls Apart,” so I won’t repeat it here, but I bring it up because, following this devastation, I went into a wilderness period for three years seeking answers from the Lord. I had walked faithfully with him since 1969, and I needed to know why he had allowed this devastation in my life because I thought I was doing what he had called me to do.

Being in church around other people was painful at that time because I cried a lot. I needed to be still before him, so basically, it was me and the Lord out in the desert. In 2005, I had a significant dream. In the dream, I’m looking down at my fingernails, and there are Hebrew letters engraved on my skin underneath each nail.

I noticed that a couple of the nails were broken, and I was looking for a rabbi to repair them. And that was the dream. I thought at first that God was affirming my love for Israel and for the Old Testament, and there had always been talk at family gatherings that we had an ancestor who was Jewish, but really, we had no proof of that.

The real meaning of the dream, though, did not come for over a year. I attended a Christian conference where I was asked to interview on stage a Messianic Rabbi named Michael Washer. Following the conference, I was able to spend time with the Rabbi, and I asked his interpretation of the fingernail dream and to comment on some things I had been learning from the Book of Leviticus.

He said to me, “Candace, the nails are very significant in your dream because they are the only part of the body that is not dying. The Lord was showing you in the dream that you are Jewish, and he has engraved this on your hands. You were looking for a rabbi to fix them because there are things that he wants to teach you.

As to what you’re learning in Leviticus, again, it is very Jewish, and only God could have shown it to you.” This was a major turning point in my life because I became committed to repair my nails, so to speak, which is metaphorical language for my hands of service to the Lord.

Since then, I have been studying Judaism under Rabbi Washer’s mentorship and am aligned with the Lev Zion Messianic Congregation in El Paso, Texas. So, I am a Gentile who is part Jewish who believes Jesus is the Messiah, and I’m learning Judaism. Now, that may sound all messed up, but I am finally being nurtured from milk that comes from the full breast, metaphorically speaking. Interestingly, once I began to study Judaism, I saw clearly its place in God’s heart.

The fourth point I want to talk about is why is all this so important? What is on God’s heart is for his children to reconnect with our Jewish family. From the beginning of time as we know it, God had a plan of redemption for the world, and he chose to reveal it to the Jews.

If a Gentile wanted to know how to be forgiven for his sins or how to approach God, he had to go to a Jewish source. Following Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, a break occurred which separated the people into two different worlds—one Christian and the other Jewish. This was never God’s intention.

So, why did Christianity split from Judaism? The sad reality is that for most Christians, whenever we hear the word Judaism, we disconnect and we gloss over. We don’t relate to it. It’s foreign to us. And that was the enemy’s plan—to cut us off from it. Here are six highlights on what happened after Jesus' resurrection.

Guest (Male): Number one, in the first century, the early Christians practiced Judaism and taught the other followers of Jesus to do likewise. Remember, Jesus and his disciples were Jewish and lived as devout Jews.

Number two, the culture of the day was heavily influenced by Hellenism—the way of the Greek that was embedded in Rome—and that still poisons our culture today. Early Christians were influenced to choose Sunday as their day of worship instead of the Sabbath.

Remember, the Sabbath was designed by God as the first holy day, a consecrated day to meet with God. I can personally testify to this: that there is so much understanding about God and his kingdom that is released when we honor the Sabbath. So, the enemy set out to replace it.

Number three, the liberal culture of the day really put the pressure on. The teachings of the 12 apostles were misinterpreted by later church apologists and woke editors, saying that since Jesus rose on Sunday, we should replace the Sabbath with Sunday, even though the Torah clearly states, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” The Hellenistic church was rewriting history, just like today.

Number four, the Sabbath was tolerated along with Sunday worship. This is how it evolved. They were trying to be politically correct so people could worship however and whenever they wanted to. Sounds okay, right?

Number five, in 321 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine issued an edict ordering Christianity to be the official state religion and Sunday to be the official day of rest.

Number six, the final acts fell in 365 AD. The Council of Laodicea ordered that Christians must work on the Sabbath and they must celebrate the Lord’s Day on Sunday. It was mandated. This council went so far as to write that if Christians honored the Sabbath, let them be anathema from Christ.

This was a curse. They declared that any Christian who honored the Sabbath would be cut off from Jesus altogether or basically be damned to hell.

Candace Long: As a result of this split, Christians grew further and further away from our Jewish heritage. For example, we celebrate Easter, which evolved from a pagan festival, even though Jesus was resurrected during the festival known as Firstfruits.

We have three views of the rapture, but in biblical Judaism, there is no such thing; it is called resurrection, and the authoritative voice on the subject was linked to another Jewish festival, the Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah. In future episodes of this miniseries called Jewish Roots, I will share several important concepts of biblical Judaism in an attempt to help reconcile those of us who did not grow up in a worldview that honored our Jewish heritage.

Everything that I share in the next few sessions will have a strong biblical base so you can examine these things for yourself. We started this episode with Malachi, so let’s return to it to bring this important sign of the end times to a close. Right before Malachi closes with the promise that God will send Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord, he explains why he’s doing this the verse before.

Guest (Male): “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and judgments that I established for him at Mount Horeb for all Israel.”

Candace Long: You see, the reason he had to send the Spirit of Elijah to them then and to us now was because they no longer remembered or paid attention to or honored everything that God passed on to Moses to give his children.

The Father is so gracious to give us this period of grace to learn and reconnect with our heritage. That is his desire for you and me to get ready to come home. Now, for those of you looking to reconnect to the faith of our forefathers, I believe you’ll find these next episodes enlightening and hopefully as life-changing as it was for me.

As always, you can find each episode on my podcast page at candacelong.com. I am humbled that these episodes are now reaching people all over the world. The day of the Lord is coming soon, and he is preparing a people for whom the kingdom will feel like home. I’m Candace Long. I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.