An Historic Shabbat at Kol Dodi

Shalom KD Family,

We witnessed an historic day this past Shabbat. As Dr. Finto said, mark the date - February 6, 2010. A nearly packed shul experienced the undeserving and overwhelming Presence of God.

I asked Val Waters if she would attempt to write a synopsis of the event. When the Living God speaks, it truly is eternal Event, as the word D'var in Hebrew indicates. It is active, not static (Heb. 4:12), and we are brought by His Ruach (Spirit) into a separation (Holy) unto the Eternal One who IS the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and will ever BE. This happened in a most significant way this past Shabbat, as a new covenant and covering was publicly pronounced.

Val's summation is superb - far better than my memory would have been able to recall. I have added some of the gems I had written down from Dr. Finto's message - but I believe it was recorded and you can secure a copy at Kol Dodi (see Nathan).

If you were there, you may be able to add something else - please feel free to do so.

We have great days to look forward to if we walk closely with Him:

"Be strong (in Messiah's grace - 2 Tim. 2:1) ... keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep ... what is written ... that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me (you)..." (I Kings 2:2-4).

Rabbi Ken
rabkba@gmail.com
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Covenant blessings for Kol Dodi!

When Pastor Don Finto came to speak at Kol Dodi for Shabbat services on February 6, 2010, we expected, as always, to be blessed by prophetic pearls of wisdom from the written Word. Before Papa Don spoke, however, he wanted to ask our forgiveness! He said that as member of the Toward Jerusalem Council II, and involved in gathering with Jewish and gentile leaders all over the world, he recently had recognized that he had never honored the Kol Dodi congregation, and he wanted to correct that error by apologizing to Rabbi Ken and his wife, Frances, and also to the members of the congregation!

He then publicly affirmed Ken and Frances’s ministry, and said that a prophetic word had been spoken during a prior gathering of believing and non-believing Jews and other gentiles about honoring leaders. The prophetic word was that Don was to spread a tallit (prayer shawl) over Rabbi Ken and his wife Frances and declare his Caleb ministry would stand as a covering for Kol Dodi and Rabbi Ken and Frances’s ministry!

Don said he felt he was to use a tallit that he and Joseph Shulam and carried with them in Jerusalem over the years. Don and Todd prayed over Ken and Frances, and asked the LORD to create open gates from heaven to allow a fullness of His power over Kol Dodi and all of Nashville! Don emphasized that he was covenanting with Kol Dodi and with all Jewish believers, to encourage their willingness to express themselves as Jews in their worship of Yeshua! He said that the Jewish expression of worship of Yeshua today helps reconnect today’s Jewish believers with the original Jewish believers, the followers and disciples of Yeshua Himself.

Papa Don described this covenant as correcting a previously established connection between believing Jew and gentile believers was based on what Asher Intrater had called the wrong kinsman-redeemer. Just as Ruth’s husband’s closest relative was not willing to take her as a husband, and the right of kinsman-redeemer then passed to Boaz, the original idea for Jewish believers involved giving up their Jewishness and being ‘converted’ to Christianity. They were to be blended into a church body, no longer recognizable as Jews. Asher then symbolically re-covenanted with Don (as a gentile) saying that he needed to bring the fullness and completeness of being a Jewish believer in a Jewish Messiah and thus add blessings to the church body. This fullness and richness of the Jewish expression of our Jewish faith is what Don was now covenanting to cover and bless.

The shofar was blown at the end of the ‘covenanting’ and the mishpochah, the family of believers, spontaneously broke into a clap offering unto the Lord! This was truly an exciting and momentous day for Kol Dodi!

Val Waters
February 6, 2010
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Some of Dr. Finto’s nuggets from his message (which was recorded – see Nathan for a copy):

• We can only enter into covenant with believers (Messiah’s Body); we have relationship w/ non-believers, but not covenant. My pastor used to say we have a ministry to unbelievers, but fellowship only w/ believers – same truth said another way. Don mentioned this in connection to his relationship to the Jewish Community and leaders at large, vs. the Messianic Community.

• Read the entire Word (Gen-Rev) throughout the week, always, even if it seems laborious at times. Grab hold of its treasures.

• Dreams in the heart – “God-dreams” – don’t stop praying regarding them – even if it takes several decades for a dream to be realized! Stand on the Word of God! He related this to the time when synagogues will believe in Yeshua, including here in Nashville! There will be a remnant of believers in every ethnic group in the world! I would add that P. Richard Wurmbrand had the same vision and writes of it in his book, Christ on the Jewish Road.

• There will be a restoration of power seen and experienced in the Body of Messiah. Moses didn’t hear God’s voice for 80 years, but then he did!

• We must ask God to fill us with compassion – His compassion for others. This will bring the power. I would cite that the Scripture says “Yeshua was moved with compassion” and “virtue (power) went out of Him” to heal. As Don said, the two are inseparable. If there is something in my life preventing this from taking place – some sin – agree with God about it and let God cleanse and use me. We are to provide a landing pad for the Holy Spirit, said Don.

• The Book of Revelation is a book about Passover. As with the plagues in Egypt, some affected Israel, and some did not. We will experience tribulation and be affected in the upcoming confrontation between good and evil. But we will be spared from wrath. God’s wrath will not affect us (because of Yeshua).

• As Moses’ hands were held up by Aaron and Hur, and thus Joshua won the battle (Ex. 17) - so we will only win the battle inter-generationally. It took both generations working together to win.

• We need to share the burden – God’s leader cannot bear it alone (Ex. 18).