Tag : calling-2
Tag : calling-2
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” (Hebrews 12:29).
One of the first Christian songs I ever learned was Pass it On. It starts, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going…” That song came up for me this week as I thought about the fire that was kindled over eight years ago in Israel. In a store called Shorashim which means “roots,” the LORD told me that my Jewish father died but my Jewish roots never died. It has been an amazing journey since that word. It has led to a return to school to work on a Doctor of Ministry degree in Messianic Jewish studies and the production of two documentaries to fight antisemitism. Tomorrow I will be returning to Israel again with television friend, Destiny Yarbrough, to co-produce a documentary on Bridging the Gap in the Holy Land. It’s a look at how both traditional Jews, Christians and Messianic Jews are bridging the divide between each other.
However, jumping into the fire of a new calling has not been easy. Going back to Israel after having been there less than two months ago is somewhat overwhelming, especially since I fractured my arm there in January. Meanwhile, school is like a part-time job, in addition to other responsibilities. When the work seems mountainous and I am not sure I can make the climb, I ask, Am I really supposed to be doing this? That’s when ADONAI adds some fuel to the fire, and any doubt I have burns up.
G-d’s fire has been a repeat message for me over the past couple of weeks. I pay attention to patterns of three. It’s as if the LORD is saying “The fire of this calling I’ve placed on your life is growing and will be evident to others.” This week, I attended our in-person doctoral cohort. One of the classes I am taking this semester, as promised, is a lot of work. We have had hundreds of pages of reading and also had to prepare three oral presentations with PowerPoints for this week. However, the hard work was all worth it, and sitting in this class under the teaching of Messianic Jewish authority, Dr. David Rudolph, was an accelerant. The fire and passion toward my calling to Messianic Judaism was now a blaze. I could not get enough of the dialogue. It was as if G-d was confirming that school is where he has placed me in this season. As one classmate said, “It’s all coming together for you at this time.”
When the LORD spoke to Moses through a burning bush, it was the beginning of Moses’ true calling to lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt. As believers, the LORD has placed a calling on each of our lives. What fire has G-d ignited in you? Do you sometimes get discouraged when it gets too difficult? If you have received a spark toward a calling, ask the Lord to fan the flames and to consume you with his holy fire. It will be a bonfire seen from miles away.
Categories: Blog
This week we held the premiere of the documentary, Terror in Toulouse: Has the Community Recovered? It was overwhelming to watch it on the big screen and brought tears to my eyes again, even though I had viewed the video presentation scores of times.
Afterwards, several people said, “I’m so proud of you.” I never know how to take that. Does it mean that they didn’t expect this kind of product out of me? Did I exceed my abilities? All this is true. However when God calls us to do a project for Him, He provides the vision, the provision and the ability.
Jesus experienced this kind of amazement from others in Mark 6 when he taught in his neighborhood synagogue. “And many hearing Him were astonished saying, ‘Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” The people were actually offended by His words. But they did not realize that Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit. He was on a mission ordained by His Father and used verbiage that funneled directly from Heaven.
Proverbs 3:26 says, “The LORD is your confidence.” What I’ve learned is that I don’t have confidence on my own, but if God has called me to it, I’ll tell the world.
Over the past couple of days, Pearls of Promise team member, Michelle Burden, and I attended the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast in Houston. It was an event filled with U.S. and Israeli governmental dignitaries, as well as others, who worshiped together and prayed for Israel. It’s always an inspiring two days.
I took a business card with me to the event, created by another team member, Aurora Ortega Geis. The card had a QR code on it leading right to the Terror in Toulouse documentary. Normally, I am very shy about meeting new people, but we prayed for divine appointments and I boldly gave the card to those God placed in front of me. Now I just have to see how the LORD works on behalf of this work to fight antisemitism.
The important thing to remember is to not take credit for what God is doing in and through us. For myself, I know He is the one who provides for the calling. While others may be amazed and proud, it is because I have an amazing God working behind the scenes on my behalf.
So what about you? Have you been commissioned by the LORD to do a great work beyond your abilities here on Earth? Do what He says, and walk confidently. People may be proud and amazed, but you’ll know it’s because God is the One doing this in and through you.
Categories: Blog
As followers of Jesus Christ, we can experience many directional shifts in our lives but not all are willing to leave what is known for the unknown.
Before my 2014 trip to Israel I was told by a prophetic friend that The Host had a message for me there and I received that message in a shop in the Jewish Quarter named “Shorashim.” Shop owner Moshe Avraham Kempinski has a heart to improve relations between Israel and other countries and has written several informative books. While at Shorashim, he began teaching our small tour group and shared the story of the olive tree.
He said “the leaves of the olive tree represent God’s protective covering over His people, but to get the fruit off, you have to thresh it or beat it, representing God’s discipline in your life. The trunk of the olive tree lives a long time” (there is one in the Garden of Gethsemane that is over 1400 years old). Then everything slowed down because God’s message for me was forthcoming. I felt like the Spirit was telling me, Pay attention Lisa. Moshe then said, “And the roots of the olive tree never die.” It was at that moment I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Lisa, your Jewish father died, but your Jewish roots never died.”
I did not know what to do with this message. Was I supposed to attend a Messianic Synagogue? Did God want me to enroll in a Hebrew class? It was a directional shift in which I did not have all the answers yet.
I am wondering Is God shifting you, but the details are still a bit sketchy?
On my trip to Israel a couple of weeks ago, I returned to Shorashim and Moshe Avraham Kempinski was there, right where he was in 2014. I was thrilled to tell him how I received a Divine message at his shop, Shorashim, a name I later discovered means roots. So what a story! God took me to a shop named roots to tell me my Jewish roots never died. You can’t make this stuff up.
Returning to Shorashim caused me to reflect on what has happened since 2014. I did choose to shift with God and asked him to reveal what He desired of me. Since that day at Shorashim I have:
Gotten involved as a prayer leader in Jewish Ministries at Gateway Church
Now participating in the Jewish Feasts and Festivals, and will teach an Equip class on them at Gateway Church this Spring
Written a book about my return to my Jewish roots called The Root that Never Died
Gone back to school to work on a Doctor of Ministry in Messianic Jewish Studies
Felt a call to fight antisemitism and have now produced two documentaries on the topic
Have created a Facebook page called A Bridge of Love to honor the Jewish people/Israel as well as to make people aware of antisemitism.
I am now planning to return to Israel in March with television friend, Destiny Yarbrough, to produce another documentary called Bridging the Gap in the Holy Land. This one is about Jewish efforts, both traditional Jew and Messianic, to bridge the gap between Christians and Jews. The exciting news is that we will be interviewing Moshe Avraham Kempinski at Shorashim—where this all started!
What if I had not shifted?
1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—”
But in order to live this abundant life God has for us, we have to be pliable and open to change because there are very exciting plans ahead for those who are willing to shift.
Categories: Blog
When I look at the Christmas story, one of the beautiful aspects of it was the confirmation God gave both Mary and Joseph that this baby, Jesus, was of Him and was His Son. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to relay the news, she was afraid at first but Gabriel said, “Do not be afraid Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Once Gabriel explained how this would occur, Mary was ready to move into her calling.
This idea of someone being impregnated by the Holy Spirit had never happened before and I’m sure was difficult for Mary’s betrothed, Joseph, to believe. Not wanting to expose Mary to public disgrace, Joseph decided to divorce Mary quietly. However, before he could act on those plans the same angel, Gabriel, appeared to him as well. This time he showed up in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” He received almost the same message, and because of that did not divert from the original marriage plans.
I thought, God still does this for couples. When he calls one he will confirm it with the other.
I think back to the time I was called to seminary, then twelve years later, to work on a Doctor of Ministry. Through supernatural scenarios, God confirmed these two calls on my life not only to me, but my husband, Jeff, as well, so he was not afraid to move forward with me into new territory.
When we left our church of eleven years, the Holy Spirit told us both that it was time to change.
More recently, when I received a dream about Toulouse, France and the dream led to traveling to Toulouse to film a documentary on an antisemitism, he confirmed it with Jeff as well, and he generously financed the project.
When couples face a major decision, it’s important to pray over it. If this decision is of God, He will show both husband and wife, whether it’s through a dream, repeat messages, God’s Word, or an impression on the spirit. We don’t have to move into new space without support. He did it for Mary and Joseph, and He still provides confirmation today.
“The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
(Genesis 2:24–25, NIV)
Categories: Blog
Last night we had a “get to know you” session for one of my spring doctoral classes . The professor said, “Tell us something others may not know about you.” The professor was an Abraham Lincoln fan so I shared that my father was born on Lincoln’s birthday and because of that was named “William Lincoln Burkhardt,” Then I told him and the class that I was named “Lisa William” after my father.
As a child I was embarrassed about having a boy’s middle name but when I matured, I was proud of being named after my father, who died two months before I was born. Some friends in college called me “Willie” or “Bill.” To this day when my husband wants to get my attention he’ll exclaim, “Lisa William!”
While I was telling this story last night I felt like God shared something new about my name with me. He knew that He would one day call me into a male-dominated field as a sportscaster so he gave me a man’s name, Bill. While sportscasting is not necessarily a ministry profession, what I learned in that profession trained me for what I am doing now to serve the LORD, reaching the world through our television show POP Talk. It was all part of God’s plan—at birth. Psalm 139:13 says, “For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (NIV). There was a calling from the beginning. All the hardship. Any career training. The highs and lows. It was all molded together to glorify God.
Have you ever thought about your name and the significance it has in your life? My middle name “William” actually means “strong-willed warrior” and I know that has meaning as well as I war for the faith in these troubled times.
Your name matters.
Names are just as important now as they were in the Bible. Your parents may have named you but it is God who planted that name in their minds, because He designed a calling for your life as He formed you. It’s not too late to walk in that calling.
Categories: Blog