Which God Do You Serve?

I often bring up the name of God in many of my blogs, and it is not necessarily to emphasize the spelling of the name in any particular language. “Name” means more than a string of letters that are associated with that which a person or deity is called by the phonetic pronunciation of those letters. The word “Name” in a biblical sense is referring to the reputation, DNA, essence, greatness or not so greatness, and all items associated with that person or deity.

For example, Yahweh gives us many things to associate us with Himself. One of these is His Sabbath day.

Exo 31:12 And Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 31:13 “And you, speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, because it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, in order to know that I am Yahweh, who consecrates you.
Exo 31:14 And you must keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; defilers of it will surely be put to death, because anyone who does work on it—that person will be cut off from among his people.
Exo 31:15 On six days work can be done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy day for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death.
Exo 31:16 The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered.”

Another aspect that Yahweh gives of Himself are His special days. He tells us what they are, and to align ourselves with Him, through observing these days with Him.

Lev 23:1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘The festivals of Yahweh that you shall proclaim are holy assemblies; these are my appointed times.

“Appointed times” or Yahweh’s feast days are His special days. One translation of the word is “ornaments”. The Hebrew word for appointed times is Strong’s H4150. In the ancient pictograph Hebrew, the root word consisted of an eye and a door, meaning “see the door” or “know the door”. This is 𐤏𐤃, or עד. It is not an accident that Jesus or Yahusha, the Messiah, calls Himself the door.

H4150
מועדה / מעד / מועד
mô‛êd / mô‛êd / mô‛âdâh
BDB Definition:
1) appointed place, appointed time, meeting
1a) appointed time
1a1) appointed time (general)
1a2) sacred season, set feast, appointed season
1b) appointed meeting
1c) appointed place
1d) appointed sign or signal
1e) tent of meeting

Joh 10:1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
Joh 10:2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Joh 10:3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Joh 10:4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Joh 10:6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Joh 10:7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
Joh 10:8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
Joh 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Before I go any further, it is important for me to explain that I do not follow the belief system of dispensationalism, where the God of the Old Testament is a different God than the God of the New Testament. The new covenant is not with some new entity called “the church”, it is with the entire house of Israel. We as believers can be grafted into the vine or root of the cultivated olive tree, which is Jesus. Here are some scriptures to consider:

Heb 8:8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
Heb 8:9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Mat 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

There are more attributes that identify us with Yahweh. They are the instructions of His covenant. We know we are His when we live our life in a way the reflects how Jesus lived His life when He walked the Earth.

1Jn 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

John equates loving His God as doing the commandments of His God. So with that in mind, how do we know which God we love and serve? Another valid question is: “How do we know we are not serving another god, ultimately the false light?” Yahweh gives us ways to determine if what we are following is the true way leading us to through the door of the Messiah. Consider the following scriptures:

Deu 13:1 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder,
Deu 13:2 and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’
Deu 13:3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self.
Deu 13:4 You shall go after Yahweh your God, and him you shall revere, and his commandment you shall keep, and to his voice you shall listen, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

Yahweh is telling us that He will test us with prophets that tell us to do something different than what He commands us to do. He gave some warnings to His people entering the land and what to do with any foreign gods or symbols of foreign gods:

Exo 23:24 “‘You will not bow to their gods, and you will not serve them, and you will not act according to their actions, because you will utterly demolish them, and you will utterly break their stone pillars.

The Bible is full of examples of Yahweh’s likes and dislikes, and what He wants us to do and not to do. If someone comes presenting ideas, traditions or symbols that are not those of Yahweh, we are not to have anything to do with them because they are not part of His name, which is fame, reputation and identity. The things we associate with our God are the things that tell us who our God is or is not. For example, if a stone pillar is involved in the symbolism, architecture or our praying and worship practices, that is an indicator that the god we are pointing to is the wrong one. Jesus makes it very clear that He is coming in the name of His Father, who is Yahweh of the Old Testament.

Joh 5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
Joh 5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
Joh 5:38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
Joh 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Joh 5:40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Joh 5:41 I do not receive glory from people.
Joh 5:42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
Joh 5:43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
Joh 5:44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Joh 5:45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
Joh 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
Joh 5:47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Here we see Jesus explaining Himself after He healed someone on the Sabbath and that person picked up his bed supposedly breaking the Sabbath. John 5:18 “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” Jesus or Yahusha, tells them that even though He comes in his Father’s name they do not receive Him, but they will receive another that comes in their own name. This is where we must look at the full definition of “Name”. In other words, Jesus came with the Father’s “stuff” and they rejected it, but someone else came with Babylonian ideology, such as the Talmud, and they accepted it. A very important statement by Jesus is, John 5:46-47: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Jesus implies someone cannot understand Him if they do not believe the writings of Moses. Also, this whole business about Jesus breaking the Sabbath cannot be true if He is the Messiah. If the Messiah breaks the commands of Himself, being the Word incarnate, He is a different god than Yahweh. Jesus says He is Lord of the Sabbath.

Mat 12:8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

In this context, lord comes from the word Kurios, which is not only used for Yahweh’s name YHWH in the Greek Septuagint, but it is where we get words like curator. The Messiah created the Sabbath through being the Word that was there in the beginning with Yahweh, creating all things, having all things made through Him. A curator is a guardian. Jesus showed us how to honour the Sabbath the proper way because it had been corrupted by belief systems of other gods. It is important to note that Jesus did not say to disregard the Sabbath, or start keeping it on the venerable day of the sun, ‘Dies Solis”, because if Jesus had done that, He would fail the Deuteronomy 13 test, and be a false prophet.

If a religious organization has a very tall stone pillar at the center of their headquarters, and they specifically change the day Yahweh tells us to observe the Sabbath, they are signaling to the world that the god that they worship is not Yahweh of the Old Testament, therefore, the messiah they worship is not the true Messiah, but an imposter. He is Sol or Mithras, Dagon or Helel, the light bearer. It is fitting where these deities’ birthdays are a few days after the winter Solstice.

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.
Mat 24:5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

The use of the word “name” here is once again meaning more than just the pronunciation of letters that consist in the name. Name is Strong’s G3686

G3686
ὄνομα
onoma
Thayer Definition:
1) name: univ. of proper names
2) the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one’s rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.
3) persons reckoned up by name
4) the cause or reason named: on this account, because he suffers as a Christian, for this reason

This is the reason we are told to ponder the name of Yahweh.

Mal 3:16 Then those who revered Yahweh spoke with one another. And Yahweh listened attentively and heard, and a scroll of remembrance was written before him of those who revere Yahweh and ponder his name.
Mal 3:17 “They will be mine,” says Yahweh of hosts, “on the day that I am acting, my treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

This is not talking about sitting around pondering the letters that comprise the name, although doing that is part of the process. It is more like sitting and pondering about what the Bible verses in this blog mean. Trying to understand which God you are serving, Yahweh or someone else, that is presenting a phony, iniquitous filled messiah. Many modern Jews reject Jesus because of how the church presents Him. They look at the church at large, the messiah they are presenting, and immediately know that it cannot be the Messiah they are waiting for. One who disregards the feasts, sabbaths and commandments of Yahweh cannot be the Messiah. In that light they are correct, because unfortunately, often the contemporary church, comprised of all 40-50,000 denominations, is presenting a false messiah. Moses spoke of the real Messiah:

Deu 18:9 “When you come to the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you, you must not learn to do like the detestable practices of those nations.
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or one who practices divination, or an interpreter of signs, or an augur, or sorcerer,
Deu 18:11 or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults a spirit of the dead, or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.
Deu 18:12 For everyone doing these things is detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God is driving them out from before you.
Deu 18:13 You must be blameless before Yahweh your God.
Deu 18:14 For these nations that you are about to dispossess listen to interpreters of signs and to diviners, but Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do the same.
Deu 18:15 “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, and to him you shall listen.
Deu 18:16 This is according to all that you asked from Yahweh your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘I do not want again to hear the voice of Yahweh my God, and I do not want to see again this great fire, so that I may not die!’
Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said to me, ‘They are right in what they have said.
Deu 18:18 I will raise up a prophet for them from among their countrymen like you, and I will place my words into his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.
Deu 18:19 And then the man that will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will hold accountable.

In order for Jesus to fulfill the Messiah role, He cannot speak something different than Yahweh. It is impossible. They are one in the same. Remember, Jesus said if a person doesn’t believe Moses they will not believe Him.

Joh 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
Joh 5:47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

This indicates if we are getting a different message from Jesus or the Apostles than that which Yahweh gave in scripture, than we have two options: 1) Jesus of the New Testament writings, and His apostles are not who they say they are, or 2) the people who are imposing their theology on the scripture, telling us the Sabbath is no longer applicable, it’s on a different day, that things that were defined as sin by Yahweh are no longer sin, or the feasts and Sabbaths that are adornments of Yahweh no longer are His gift to us, are pointing us to a different god. If someone or something is trying to get us to celebrate the days that belong to other deities, using symbols of the heathen gods, they are being used as a test for us to see if we will serve Yahweh, or chase after the symbols, names and practices of other gods with their false messiahs, stone pillars, Asherah poles, sorceries and inquiries of the dead, just as Deuteronomy 13:3 states.

Deu 12:29 “When Yahweh your God has cut off the nations whom you are about to go to, to dispossess them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and you live in their land,
Deu 12:30 take care so that you are not ensnared into imitating them after their being destroyed from before you, and so that you not enquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, and thus I myself want to do also.’
Deu 12:31 You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”
Deu 13:1 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder,
Deu 13:2 and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’
Deu 13:3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self.

Paul is no different when it comes to applying the Deuteronomy 13 test. Does Paul tell us to do things contrary to what Yahweh commanded, or do people just say he does trying to lead us to a false messiah? Peter warns us about what people will do with the words of Paul.

2Pe 3:15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
2Pe 3:16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
2Pe 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

If a person does not read, regard or understand Moses, they will not understand Paul; just as Peter warns and Jesus said about himself. John 5:46-47 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” I have given many examples of where Paul is misinterpreted to embrace lawless (Torahless) behaviour in previous blog posts. Here is my favourite place In scripture which I have pointed out several times in the past.

Gal 4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything,
Gal 4:2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
Gal 4:3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
Gal 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Gal 4:7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Gal 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Gal 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Gal 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years!
Gal 4:11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
Gal 4:12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.
Gal 4:13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first,
Gal 4:14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
Gal 4:15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.
Gal 4:16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Gal 4:17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.
Gal 4:18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you,
Gal 4:19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!
Gal 4:20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

The law Paul is referring to here is not the life giving instructions of Yahweh. It cannot be simply because he is attributing it to other gods. Humanity at large was given over to the spiritual overlords of the Earth through death by the law of sin and death, and will still remain there unless they are grafted in to the cultivated olive tree of Yahweh by the door of the Messiah. Can Paul be considered sane if in one letter he calls Yahweh’s Torah the weak and beggarly elements of the world, then in another letter calls this same Torah righteous and holy? Just as Peter states Paul is hard to understand. If we know and study the same books Paul studied, the Old Testament, we will have a better chance at understanding the words he writes. In the letter to the Romans he explains the difference between the law of sin and death and the law of Yahweh.

Rom 7:7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Rom 7:8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
Rom 7:9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
Rom 7:10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
Rom 7:11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Rom 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Rom 7:13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Rom 7:16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
Rom 7:17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Rom 7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Rom 7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
Rom 7:23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Rom 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

If a person reads Paul, following the wrong god and messiah, then the conclusion will be that we no longer need to regard the instructions of Yahweh. If a person knows Yahweh, His fame, righteousness, ways and truth, then that person will understand what “delighting in the law of God” is and what is waging war in the persons mind.

Just to conclude this tangent we discussed about the enslavement to the elementary principles of the world, let’s look at who these devils are and what will happen to them.

Deu 32:7 Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.
Deu 32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
Deu 32:9 But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
Deu 32:10 “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

These sons of God are the principalities and rulers Paul refers to in other places. We will be redeemed above their status, and they don’t like it, wanting to keep us enslaved. The sooner people realize what these dark forces are all about, the sooner those people can see through the deception of the false gods and messiahs. Just because someone calls their messiah by the name of Jesus does not mean the Messiah of Yahweh is being spoken of. Yet, look what happens in the end:

1Co 6:1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
1Co 6:2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
1Co 6:3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

These angels or entities that once enslaved us will be removed so that we can have the inheritance to the kingdom as joint heirs with Jesus! Why would we allow them to control us now by following after their special things, opposing the things of Yahweh?

Which god are you serving? The creator of the universe, Yahweh, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, who sent His son to be the door to access Him, or some other lesser deity that is tricking you to worship him and his false messiah through pretty ornaments, light, false love, spirituality and condoning iniquitous behaviours, instead of the Spirit of Truth and Wisdom? The only way to understand His Word is through obedience to obtain the Spirit of Truth.

Joh 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Joh 14:17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Joh 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Joh 14:19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
Joh 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Ponder His name and follow His ways to obtain the Spirit of Truth and show true love to the Creator, Yahuah.

Featured image taken by Emma Vail.