Embracing the Divine Calling: From Civil Engineering to Ministry and the Unveiling of God's Prophetic Plans
As a civil engineer, I was never interested in ministry but only in pursuing my career goals. However, the Lord had other plans for my life. If I have learned anything in my relatively short walk with the Lord, it is that His ways are not only different than ours but are most often opposite ours.[i]
It is written, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12, NKJV).[ii] Yeshua said it like this, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38); “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
These words should stand as a shocking reality for those of us who take God’s word seriously, and this, I believe, separates ordinary men and women from those called Yeshua’s disciples.
Christianity is far more than merely believing in Christ. It is about having a personal relationship with Him. This relationship will continuously be tested in our response to His word and the calling on our lives.[iii] Yeshua said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21).
This verse implies the Lord is looking for people so perfected by His love that He entirely consumes their lives.[iv] God’s love makes His call on our lives, something profoundly internal and inescapable. We could try to flee like the prophet Jonah, but we will never have peace in our souls until we rest in His perfect will.[v]
Despite my apprehension towards ministry work, the Lord began to open doors for me to serve in the church. At first, these invitations were small: attending a men’s fellowship and sharing my testimony, participating in a bible study, joining a prayer team at church, and helping with praise and worship.
As I responded, these invitations grew and expanded rather quickly. Before I realized it, I taught whole congregations about profound spiritual and theological truths contained within scripture, such as the feasts of the Lord or how the Gentiles are grafted into Israel.[vi] My Jewish lineage and time growing up in Israel studying the Hebrew language were indispensable, and the Lord used all of this to His advantage.
In contrast to my prior experience with the Gentile church, I was now discovering a new group of Christians who loved the Lord and His people, Israel, and they were hungry to know more about their spiritual heritage. These holy men and women were seemingly invisible and hidden from everyday Christian assemblies. They were like a golden thread woven into a beautiful tapestry of many colors. This thread could not be seen except by the most discerning eye.
As much as I longed to see my people saved, it was evident the Lord was calling me, like the Apostle Paul, to preach and minister to the Gentiles.[vii] And Paul and I shared much in common. He and I were both students of rabbinic Judaism. We both held dual citizenship with Israel and were both bilingual, speaking both Hebrew and the international language of the day—then it was Greek, and now it is English.
Interestingly, when I first started reading the Bible, I did not immediately read any of Paul’s writings. Instead, the Lord had me focus on the Gospels, the Book of Revelation, and the Old Testament prophets. I also studied the books of Moses and Israel’s history from Joshua through Nehemiah.
Only after reading the Old Testament did the Lord lead me through Paul’s letters to the Gentiles. On this journey, two things became apparent. First, the Lord wanted me to understand the Messiah from a Jewish and Hebraic perspective. Second, the Lord wanted me to break away from any religious strongholds from my Jewish Orthodox upbringing.
Paul is probably the most hated figure by the Jewish people in the New Testament, right after Yeshua. He is accused of establishing Christianity as a separate and antagonistic religion to Judaism. He is blamed for creating a doctrine that promulgated hatred and anti-Semitism towards the Jewish people by turning Christians against the Laws of Moses, including circumcision, and the oral traditions of Jewish law narrated in the Talmud.
In their minds, Paul was the worst of the worst—a self-hating Jew. So, when I began to read his epistles, naturally, I approached them with some skepticism. What I discovered, however, was quite the opposite. Paul loved the Jewish people so much that he wished he could be separated from Christ for the sake of their salvation. It is written, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3).
The Lord gave me a more profound understanding of this scripture. He showed me that Paul was not necessarily asking to be “accursed” by Christ but was asking that he be “separated” the way that Christ was separated from the Father. Christ hung on a cross and was accursed (separated) from God, but through this act of obedience, Yeshua’s sinless body became our sacrifice for sin. Therefore, Paul was saying he wished he could be separated from Christ the way that Christ was separated from the Father so that his body could become a living sacrifice for Israel—a living example of what Christ did for the Jewish people on the cross.
Paul sternly warned the Gentiles not to boast in any way against the Jewish people or construct their theology about God’s plans and purposes for Israel.[viii] These warnings should be enough to bring Godly fear upon any sensible person who would dare consider coming against the Jewish people.
But Paul also loved the Gentiles with equal burning passion and zeal, and he continually reaffirmed them of God’s immeasurable and unfailing love for them in Christ.[ix] He wanted the church to remain focused on this love. And I saw this love demonstrated first-hand in the lives and testimonies of the Gentile Christians I had met over the years, even while living in Israel. However, I had not yet learned to love the Gentiles as I knew God did, nor even as Paul did.
On April 6, 2008, the Lord gave me a dream where several men and I sat in Yeshua’s royal chambers. The walls of the building were made of carved stone. We were seated high up in the heavens, with an east-facing window. All I could see was a blue sky and pure white clouds below.
Yeshua stood at a table, unveiling different scrolls and teaching about His Kingdom. I stopped Him at one point and said that I had a question. My voice and demeanor were childlike. He turned to me with loving eyes and began to answer what became a series of questions. His whole attention was devoted to me, and He never displayed any sense of impatience.
Yeshua moved us from His table to His royal bed. He sat upright, propped against a pillow. I was crouched at the edge of the bed, my head resting on His upper chest and my eyes gazing up at His face. There was such love in His voice.
I had one final question, which is the only one I remember: “What about these Gentiles?” I asked. He responded: “These are the righteous ones who travel the paths of the earth.” I sensed they were kings and priests, sent from place to place to bring people to the Lord along these righteous highways. He said, “They will pay homage to us, and they will serve us.” I knew that He was speaking of the nation of Israel. Yeshua then said, “But the sons of righteousness must learn to serve all.”
Yeshua was reaffirming His words from the Bible: “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave” (Matthew 20:26-27). I looked at Him and said, “I want that kind of spirit.” And at that moment, I knew I had been called to serve the nations.
He looked at me, reaffirming my request, and said: “There is just one small part that we still have to work on.” I knew that He was speaking of Himself and the Father. He touched my heart and tickled it with His loving presence. I awoke and felt His peace in my heart.
I was beginning to understand more of God’s heart for the whole world, which I knew included Israel but was not exclusive to her. The Lord showed me a much larger picture of His prophetic plans for all creation. On the one hand, I could see that the Bible clearly described God’s love and purpose for Israel. But Paul was not writing to Jewish people. He was writing to Gentiles, who, now being grafted into Israel, became partakers and sharers of the same blessings and covenant promises in Christ that were initially for Israel.[x]
Just like Paul, my heart was burning in agony for the salvation of the Jewish people. Oh, what a calling and destiny we have in our lives. If only my family could realize this. Except for one distant cousin and now my sister Gabriella, my whole family has continued to reject Yeshua with a seemingly irrational animosity and hatred toward Him. Yes, church history is riddled with anti-Semitism, but my family’s adverse reaction to Yeshua was beyond rational thinking—it was spiritual.
As I continued studying Paul’s writings, I noticed that he made one very profound statement. He said: “Through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles… that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:11 & 25). Paul was restating what Moses had already told the Jewish people.[xi]
This scripture was the key to understanding my family’s rejection of Yeshua. It was also the key to understanding why the Gentiles had taken center stage in delivering the gospel message over these past two thousand years.
Because of Israel’s idolatry and their eventual rejection of Yeshua, Israel has become blind to the Messiah and missed her calling to be a light to the nations.[xii] God has now turned His face towards the Gentiles and given them the gifts and callings originally for Israel. It was so that the Gentiles would bring the peoples of the earth into the Kingdom of God.
However, this season is temporary until the fullness (full number) of the Gentiles have entered the Kingdom. As it is written, “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Romans 11:26).
I now understood why the Lord expanded my ministry work with the Gentiles. As challenging as it has been, this is my calling—to be a modern-day Paul. I also understand that Israel’s destiny and salvation, for this season have been entrusted to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy.
While the Jewish people, by and large, have rejected their Messiah, I also see that the Gentile church has primarily moved away from the Jewish people. The two branches have been wedged apart, but my ministry calling is to help bring these back together as “one new man” and “one people of God” in Christ Yeshua.[xiii]
When the Jewish people return to their Messiah, I know that Israel will be resurrected from the dead.[xiv] This resurrection will not only bring life back to the church but will bring His life to the whole earth, ushering in the Kingdom of God. And it will be the Gentiles who will essentially rebuild Jerusalem and restore God’s heritage—Israel.[xv]Christ is returning to the Mount of Olives to establish His earthly Kingdom in Jerusalem amid the Jewish people and those of every nation, tribe, people, and tongue whom the Lord has grafted into Israel.[xvi]
[i] Isaiah 55:8.
[ii] All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Bible (NKJV) unless otherwise noted, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982.
[iii] Matthew 25:12, 1 Peter 1:7.
[iv] John 7:38.
[v] Jonah 1:10.
[vi] 1 Corinthians 5:8, Romans 11:17.
[vii] Acts 13:2.
[viii] Romans 11:20-21.
[ix] 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8.
[x] Romans 11:17, Ephesians 3:6.
[xi] Deuteronomy 32:21.
[xii] Isaiah 42:6.
[xiii] Ephesians 2:15.
[xiv] Ezekiel 37:1-14.
[xv] Isaiah 61:4-5.
[xvi] Zechariah 14:4, Revelation 7:9.