Quote from Forum Archives on March 21, 2007, 4:06 pm

Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>

What HAPPENED
-by Art Katz.

Within the Veil
(Entering the sabbath rest of God)

I had waited a long time for such an entry, because I thought I had
to qualify spiritually. As much as I am at war with the secular
world, something of its concept of evolution yet lingered with me,
so that I thought that I had to ‘evolve’ into a higher spiritual state,
by virtue of which I would then be able to enter into this holiest
place. I ‘stumbled,’ however, upon a series of teachings that were
entitled: “Within the Veil,” and something in my inner man went
click, and I could not rush fast enough to hear them.

I put the first tape on with great expectations. Something in my
spirit was rising to the mystery in this, and as soon as I heard the
first few statements, I was tempted to shut the machine off. Some
‘hillbilly’ American was speaking. He was coarse and
ungrammatical, not my style at all, but as my finger went to the
stop button, I hesitated, because something now began to reach
me through his accent. It was beyond nationality, beyond culture,
beyond time, beyond father or mother or beginning or ending of
days. I continued to listen, tape by tape, of a man whose
frustration was much like my own. He had the same risings and
fallings of the spiritual life, the good days and the bad days, that
render us incapable of saying with Paul, “You yourselves know,
from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the
whole time” (ACTS 20:18B).

As I followed him in the Scriptures through the book of Hebrews,
he showed that the Law was only a shadow of the good things to
come, and not the very form of those things, and that it could not
make perfect those who draw near. He went on to explain that
there was One who came in point of time who could. His blood
was better than the blood of bulls and of goats and of sacrifices.
He had entered by His own blood into the heavenly place, and
entered once and for all. In all of our impressive, spiritual
‘sophistication,’ we have not allowed these words to impact upon
our souls. He entered once and for all, and He bids us enter also,
and to enter boldly. It is not on the basis of our natural qualification.
We must enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus. We have
come to think of His blood only in terms of our atonement, and
indeed it is sufficient to wash away sin and guilt, but His blood
has done something more. It has opened a new and living way,
inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. Since,
therefore, we have such a Great High Priest, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith.

I remember the night I heard the last tape. I was in bed, my Bible
open to these Scriptures in the book of Hebrews, and he
described in the last tape how he came to a Sunday morning
service as a minister, weary and defeated, in that kind of terrible
monotony and predictability that our churches can so easily come
to. But there was a woman that morning in the service who was a
very bright light. She could hardly contain herself, and she was
waving her arm in the air, wanting to give a testimony. “Yes sister,”
he said. And she replied, “I just want to say that I have entered
within the holiest place of all.” He was quick to correct her, “You
mean to say that you hope to enter.” After all she was only a
housewife, he thought. “No,” she said, “I have entered.” “By what
means?” he said. “By faith in the blood of Jesus, and the veil that
was rent by His flesh! I simply drew near with a true heart of Art
Katz 1 faith, and I confessed that right now, in Jesus’ name,
without any acknowledgment of qualification in myself that I do
enter into the holiest place of all by the blood of Jesus,” she
replied. She said that something had happened to her, and that
she had entered into a ‘new place’—and it was visibly true of her.
Before that service had ended, one by one, people were getting
up in the congregation and making a simple confession of their
‘entering right now’ on the basis of the blood of Jesus into a new
and living way. The pastor himself entered, for which reason I was
now hearing his tapes. A new kind of enablement had come to
him of an enhanced and deepened quality of apostolic faith. There
was a fresh source of creativity and originality that one receives in
a place of communion with God in the holiest place of all.

At about this point I shut my tape machine down. I took my
glasses off and thought for a moment, reflecting upon my years in
Christ—the frustration, the rising and the falling, and I just simply
breathed a prayer, flat on my back. I said, “Lord, right now, not on
the basis of any qualification, I do enter into the holiest place of all
by the blood of Jesus and the veil rent by His flesh. Amen.”
Something in my deepest inner man went click, and I believe I
have been in that place ever since, holding fast the confession of
the faith. A new kind of freedom from the torment of wrestling with
flesh commenced.

Something happened when I entered in through the veil of His torn
flesh that dealt with my flesh in a way I can hardly understand or
communicate. It is certain that every power of Hell will seek to
steal this from us: “Oh, this is only a play on words, just a kind of
Biblical rhetoric. There is no real, actual place of entry. This
heavenly thing is only a vapor. It is an intangible thing. You have
all that you need by virtue of your new birth. This is only a conceit
on your part. Look, you are still the same!” Hold fast the confession
of your faith. This is far beyond mere Christian respectability, far
beyond any kind of ‘nice- guyism.’ This is having a conscience
void of offense with God and with man. Let us therefore draw near
with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy
and may find grace to help in time of need. (HEBREWS 4:16)

If we shall not receive it and if we shall not find it, then how shall
we give it? We are therefore bidden to enter. It is the Sabbath rest
that God has prepared for His people. Religious acts and works
that stem from a bad conscience, that is to say, something that
you feel obliged to do, are called dead works by God. The work
of God comes always and eminently out of the rest of God, and is
always performed on the Sabbath day, and no other. It alone is
that act which brings sight to the blind.

When the Jews of Jesus’ time were antagonized and stupefied at
this bewildering Man, who performed these glorious things on the
wrong day, He could say to them in utter simplicity that it was the
Father who was doing the works. You will know when you are in
the rest of God when you are at peace. This does not mean there
will be an absence of trial or tension. Even in the midst of the
turmoil of it, you are in the Shekinah place, the holiest place of all,
independent of the circumstances that are flurrying everywhere
about you. God is not cruel to set before us such a calling, and to
think that we shall be able to fulfill it on the paucity of our own
human enablement. There is yet a deeper place, an ultimate place,
and an absolute place. It is the holiest place of all, and it is for all
those who are called to that which is apostolic and high-priestly.
Consider Jesus as you have never before considered Him—the
Son in whose image we also are called.

The one who is joined to Him is one spirit with Him. We can
understand Paul better when he says that he lives and moves and
has his being in Him. Where are we and where do we desire to be,
and where have we the faith to be? Do we desire an apostolic
participation in the eternal purposes of God? Will we be able to
stand against apostolic persecution and suffering? We have got to
come into a certain priestly place without which there cannot be
an apostolic fulfillment. Jesus has rent the veil and bids us come,
not on the basis of our qualification, but on the basis of His blood.
God is calling us to an unusual involvement and participation.
There is a high- priestly place available for us as a life that flows,
and which is indestructible. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. This is not some fanciful play on words, but
something to be earnestly considered. Faith is now, and the hour
has struck and the time is short, and God is requiring a fulfillment
that can only come from this place within the veil. Have the faith
to enter with a true and sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

[~See www.benisrael.org for Art Katz's articles and challenging
prophetic books, all of which carry true holiness as a sub-theme
throughout. Art is a Messianic Jewish Christian who preaches worldwide].