Amy Kay Hickerson 2026 Torah Sisters Retreat "Yeshua is Divine"

This was the first session of the 2026 Torah Sisters Retreat.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm your speaker tonight, and let me pray again. Father Yahweh, I pray that the words I speak would be only from you, and that it would be just what this body of women need. That I would forget the camera, forget the YouTube later, that I would just be all here, just as these women are all here. And that we would serve one another this week, wash each other's feet, love each other, and speak your word to each other. And that now, as I have the microphone to do that for the next little bit, that these would be your words. And that even though I say what I say, that each lady would hear what you say. Um sometimes you work like that. One thing comes out of my mouth, but they hear it a certain way based on their life, what they're going through, what they've been studying, or where they lack, maybe that each one of us would hear from you, not from Amy. So we pray all these things in Yeshua your son's name. Amen. So the theme, I always have a theme for the Torah Sisters Retreat every year. I I've done so many now, I start to forget them. I think the first one was women of shalom. And I'm starting to forget women of Tashuva, women of intention, women of courage last year, and I know I'm forgetting one. And um this year, finally, it's the actual like Torah Sisters tagline, Women Who Love Yeshua. Um, I started Torah Sisters about a month after I came to Torah. Don't recommend it, but you know. Um, and I just wanted to be able to say Shabbat Shalom on Facebook, sort of incognito, without me being the face of anything. And so I started a Facebook page called it Torah Sisters. And then eventually it kind of became a website. Well, if you're gonna have a website, you need a tagline. So I'm like, well, women who love Yeshua, because that says a lot of our identity. We are women who love Yeshua, first and foremost, I think. First and foremost. Secondly, our our walk of faith in and through him is Torah. So Torah sisters, women who love Yeshua. And so finally, it's about time that is the theme for this year's retreat. So Ian, Heidi, myself are going to speak to you about Yeshua. But then also we could be here all year talking about Yeshua. Uh, and so we're gonna just try to give you, I think, the best of what he's been teaching us and that what we think he wants us to share with you during these short times we have. And so, my talk, I feel like it's just a whole bunch of nuggets. It's like a bag of chicken nuggets, and I hope they're all really wonderful, and this is getting weird, but like the best chicken nuggets that you need tonight. And that I would um, even though it's a little bit of a popcorn message, maybe I just I really want you to know this thing, and I really want you to know this thing, that altogether it would help you walk out of here, not just tonight, but all of us want you to walk out of this whole retreat. Number one, being more like him. The knowledge is so good. Oh my goodness, this Torah keeping disciples of Yeshua, we love knowledge. And those of us who used to walk a different-looking faith walk, we love learning new things and being challenged and growing in knowledge. But man, if we don't walk like him, what good is the knowledge? Or we're just uh making a lot of racket, right? As Paul says. So we don't want to be racket makers. We want to be women who love other people the way he did. So I pray that we're all gonna walk out of here walking more like him, but also with some knowledge to understand him better, understand what he, who he is, what he's done, and what do we like do with all of that? If it doesn't apply to us, again, what's the point? So I'm hoping that I will challenge you with some things, but also that you can apply it. And again, that might look different for each of you. I also am well aware that in a group like this, if you came here to hang out with me this week, we're already pretty like-minded. So the challenge, there might not be much that I say that is new to you, or that you feel like I've already known all that my whole life. You might think that about every word that is spoken from this stage. And if that's the case, praise Yahweh. We're like-minded. And if all I do up here is really what I feel like I do every year up here, I remind you of good, wonderful things that you already know, but they're solid biblical truths. And it's so important to be reminded of these things from time to time. It's easy. Sometimes we can go to fellowship or watch YouTube, and it's they can be deep and full of knowledge, but we still need to apply it. So I guess I'm good, I'm saying, I hope I encourage you in some way, even if it's stuff you already know, but that you can apply it in your faith walk deeper, and that you can be affirmed that what you think is true, so does Amy. And so does probably most women in this room because you're here and you all knew what the theme would be. Uh, a lot of what we're gonna talk about is what some people might call milk. Um, even Paul says, you know, sometimes um we need the milk of the gospel, the very simple truths. And so some of you might think, well, this stuff about, you know, who is Yeshua and the gospel is just milk. Give me the meat, Amy. But I think sometimes in our greater Torah community, we can be choking on the meat because we're not washing every bite down with milk. We have forgotten the basic truths of Yeshua. And he's the foundation of everything. Without he's the root, he's the foundation. None of what we do matters without Yeshua. So we're gonna lift him up this week. We're gonna put him in his rightful place, and he's we don't put him there, he's already there. Let me say that better. We're gonna recognize his rightful place, and Heidi's nodding, thank you. We're gonna remember, recognize, and proclaim from this stage his rightful place and who he is, what he's done, what it's for, and all these things that some people in the I don't know the right words. Like, there's no name for what we do. So I struggle with words, but some people and I guess I keep calling it the greater Torah community, and that's a great big bucket of all kinds of flavors, right? Some people are forgetting or walking away from the very simple things that Ann and Heidi are going to present to you this week. To you, they are simple, they are basic. To me, a lot of this I've known since I was four years old. And at four years old, I remember telling my mom, I don't want to go to hell. I want Jesus to come into my heart and save me. I don't want to sin anymore. I want to be like Jesus because I don't want to go to hell. And that is so simple, but it's true. And I know that's when I started a faith walk with Jesus, who I now know is Yeshua. So these things are simple and basic, but they're true. And so many people in the greater Torah community are walking away from these most important things. And so, this retreat more than ever, I think we're covering the most important things we could ever cover, which is probably why last year was women of courage, so that we'd be courageous to say hard things at this retreat. So that's how Yahweh works. Um, so you know, Peter says, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk. It's good to be reminded and to drink the milk. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I fed you with milk, not solid food because you weren't ready for it. And then he goes on to say that there's strife among people who forget the milk. So there's something about remembering the basics that just makes us walk more like Yeshua. Um are you thirsty? We're gonna come to Yeshua this week and we're gonna drink. Um, John 14, six. There's so many good verses about Yeshua, but this was my sort of theme verse for my talk. John 14, 6. Yeshua said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So that's sort of like my anchor passage for this. So let's talk about how he's the way. First of all, I'm gonna say Yeshua is God, and we're gonna unpack that a little bit, but not heavily, because Ann and Heidi are gonna touch on these things too. And guess what? I bet there's gonna be lots of times where we repeat one another, and I think that's a good thing. We do it every year. We're like, oh, that's a verse I was gonna use, and that's why I go first. So then I can say they stole my verse. But when when Yahweh, the Spirit, puts on our hearts to use the same verse, maybe we should all listen up to that verse. Maybe that's one we need to write down or tuck away. Um, so you'll hear these themes in a lot of these verses over and over. So it does it matter that Yeshua is God? Oh yes, it matters. And many, many in our Torah community are, how do I say, downgrading Yeshua's divinity. If I say Yeshua is divine, that means he's somehow God. And by God I mean the Father, the creator, um, the maker of all. So there's many, you know, Yahweh goes by many different names. But if I say Yeshua is God, I am saying Yeshua is Yahweh. And so that's a simple statement, but there are many, many who disagree with that. And so that's why I learned last year how to be courageous so that I could stand on a stage and say, Yeshua is Yahweh. Love you, Shannon. Thank you. And Yahweh is also the Holy Spirit. And this isn't in my notes, but isn't there a verse in Revelation where it says he's seven spirits? Like, so I'll just leave that on this side of the stage and I'll go back over here now. So, yeah, Yeshua claimed to be God. Really quick, John 8.58, Yeshua said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So this is one of those I am statements. Go study that some other day, some other time, when Yeshua said over and over, I am. John 10.30, I and the Father are one. John 10, 38, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Yeshua said, The Father is in me, and Yeshua said, He's in the Father. Somehow they're the same. John 14, 9, Yeshua said to them, Have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the whoever has seen me has seen the father, is what Yeshua said. So Yeshua himself claims over and over and over that he and the father are the same. Now he also claims that they're different and that the father is greater than him and that they're separate. So, do I believe him? Do I understand it? No way, Jose. I do not understand it. And so this is the first concept that I just wanted to, you guys already know this. This is like cream of the crop, Bible-believing, faith-walking women. It's you guys. And it sounds so silly to tell you these basic things, but if you ever doubt, just remember this moment here where I reaffirmed to you it's okay to not understand. And that I don't think we're allowed to understand these heavy things in this life. How is Yeshua God, but also Yahweh is separate? They're like different, but they're the they're the same. I don't think we're allowed to wrap our heads around it in this life. Um, and I pray someday we can wrap our heads around it. What a glorious thing to like fully understand and comprehend that. But for now, here's where I rest on scripture. The Bible says it, so I believe it, right? What's that little Diddy song? Remember that song? So if scripture says this is how it is, especially red letter words from Yeshua himself, then this is how it is. Don't let chasing knowledge and having to explain it draw you away from the very plain truth that Yeshua is somehow God. Yeshua and Yahweh somehow are the same and also the Holy Spirit. And yet I know that they're separate. I know that they somehow they have different purposes, different areas of workings, but Yeshua said over and over that he and the father are one. But he also called him the father and him the son, and the father is greater than me, and he prayed to Yahweh. These things are also true. But if you start to go down a road of downgrading Yeshua's godness, or I could say, if I wanted to sound a little more theological, downgrading his divinity, which is still a very simple way of saying it, you're going down a very dangerous path. So because I love you, I'm gonna say from the stage this right out, please don't go down that path of downgrading Yeshua's divinity or downgrading his godness. Um, just be thankful he's God. So the next thing is does this matter? And I I believe it matters, and that's why we're talking about it. Umgrading his divinity can lead you down a path where I believe the scriptures tell us you can lose your salvation. And I'm not the judge, I'm not in charge of you. Thank goodness I don't run the Lamb's book of life. Thank goodness. I am not in charge of writing names in and um whiting at them out. Remember white out? Doesn't isn't there a verse where he says, I will blot you out of my book? I'm glad that's not my job. I don't want that job, but it's not my job. But there is a point where if you reject Yeshua's godness enough, then how could he save you? What are you putting your faith in? You're gonna end up putting your faith in your works, you're gonna end up putting your faith and resting your salvation on all the good things you do and not in the one who saves you from the bad things you already did. Okay, so and that you will continue to do. We're all gonna be sinners until we die. So these things matter. It is a salvation issue. I want you to watch out for anti-missionaries. So I this was a word I had never heard until I came to Torah. Have you heard of anti-missionaries? All right, well, I am here to be an anti-anti-missionary. I just made up a new one. That is me, and that is Ann, and that is Heidi. We're gonna be anti-anti-missionaries. Um, anti-missionaries, so I'm gonna be really simple and fast, are people who want to pull you away from Yeshua and make you end up going down this works-based salvation path and eventually getting to the place where you deny that you need a Yeshua, that you don't need a savior. Even that Yeshua was, and especially they will say that Yeshua was not the Messiah in the flesh. They will eventually say, and there's different brands, right? Like I'm it's hard for me to lump all anti-missionaries together, nor do they walk around with a name tag that says, hello, I'm an anti-missionary. They don't, I wish they did. They would be easier to spot. But they will eventually make you try to get you to believe that he was not even the Messiah, that the Messiah of Isaiah 53 and 59 has not yet even come. Now, you might think, oh, well, then they're all Jews, and I don't want to go there because that's not true. And there are so many Jews now who believe that Yeshua was the Messiah in the flesh. And some of you might be Jewish believing that. And I'm so glad you're here because we all fit right in together, don't we? Torah sisters. What is the word? Miss Pakha, we're all family. So they're not all Jewish, so don't just assume that either. Um, but I would say those, they have those big things in common. They want to draw you somehow or other away from Yeshua, his godness, his being the keeper of your salvation, him being, you know, the one of the Lamb's book of life, and even in fact, being the Messiah at all. They are becoming more and more, I don't know, like just, I feel like they're just everywhere. They're around on social media a lot, they're in your Facebook group sometimes, they will hang out in um groups like Torah keeper groups, messianic ones like us who believe that Yeshua was the Messiah, um, but they don't believe he was the Messiah, or they don't think you need him, but they hang out there anyway. So when you're in a group, even in this group, don't assume that every woman next to you is on board the same as you. You have to stand in your own beliefs. You have to stand with your husband, if you're married, in your own beliefs. Don't you can't outsource that to the woman next to you. So you have to know what you know. And it can be a very simple thing like what we're talking about today. Uh, so I want I just want to encourage you. No, I want to warn you, please look out for anti-missionaries. Um, not there is, they're just very sneaky. They, it's like they just can't go live their anti-Yeshua life. They have to infiltrate and they want to also pull you away. It's like the worst MLM ever in history. They're just always recruiting more people to walk away from Yeshua with them. And I don't know what their deal is. Um, it should be the opposite. We should be out evangelizing people to the good news of Yeshua and the faith walk that we call Torah. Um, instead of them, they work really hard to pull us away. So please watch out for them. They're very sneaky. They will not just divulge, they will almost sound like they believe like Yeshua was Messiah. They're very sneaky with their language, and they will ask you questions. This is a pattern I've seen over and over again. They ask very sneaky questions. And the questions are so sneaky, you won't have an answer. The questions are sometimes so bad and illegitimate, completely illegitimate questions, there is no answer, and they are all traps. There is no way to answer them except to say, Oh, I guess you're right. I don't need Yeshua. I'll just go do good works. That some man decided are good works, usually too. It's usually not even Bible good works, it's a man-made religion set of good works. So their questions are so sneaky. One lady told me once that she was being pursued by someone who really cared about her. And the lady said to her, prove to me from only the old testament that Yeshua is the Messiah. Now, some of you could do that, you could prove it, and I use the word prove because it's hard, I think it's hard to prove things. But you you have to prove to me from only the old testament that he was Messiah. No New Testament. That's the rules. And if you can't do it, you should question your faith. And this lady was distraught because she was looking at the prophets, she was looking at the Torah, and she was having a hard time convincing her friend, her friend, that this was the case. But what I said to her is I said, Well, who says you can't use the New Testament to prove it? How else are you supposed to prove it? He fulfilled all those prophecies. He he did everything that Isaiah said he would do, all these things. Why does that lady get to make this rule? Question the question. And uh that case did not go well. That lady walked away from Yeshua. She she just kept engaging and engaging, and she couldn't have answers because the questions were illegitimate questions in the first place, in my opinion. So this is Amy. A lot of this is just Amy. Um, but I'm being courageous and I'm telling you things that I have seen have become very dangerous in our greater Torah community. And I just I don't want us to ever let go of Yeshua. Again, this is basic, but it's oh so important. So if People start asking you questions. Question the question. Secondly, you do not have to even engage with people. If it's a man, he should be engaging with your husband. And if it's a woman asking theological challenging questions like that, it should be when you and your husband still together if you're married. Um, girls, it should be with your mom and your dad. So you have to go almost like to battle with anti-missionaries. Again, you might not even know that they're anti-missionaries, but they are people who are they're just taking you down a very dark path. I don't think you have to engage. I don't engage with them. I don't. Um, I don't feel equipped enough to wiggle out of their traps. Their questions are traps. I did this week put on my website, ToraSisters.com. There's a page called New to Torah. I have some resources to some links of some websites I like. I probably don't agree with everything, but some websites I like, and I just added another one. It's a lady who has worked really hard to answer some of their difficult questions. So if you do feel, and some of you might be called, some of you like you could, some of you ladies, like you know your Bible like nobody's business, far better than I do. And if you really feel called to engage with people, then um that that website can be a great resource. She's done years and years and years of study on countering the anti-missionaries. And sadly, many of them are Jewish, but not all. Not all. Like you just can't assume these things. Uh and so just don't be afraid to not engage. You saying, you know, I just don't feel good about this conversation. I know what I believe, and I know the scripture says Yeshua is my savior and I need him. He's my rock, he's my cornerstone. And without him, I will lose my faith. If I to know Yahweh is to know Yeshua. So you just tell those people, I love you, but I won't engage. And they might make you feel stupid. Well, you need to study more because you can't prove it to me. So therefore you must be wrong. Sisters, losing an argument does not mean you're wrong. Uh you know, you ever see like on YouTube some of these Torah YouTube teachers, they'll have a debate with someone else who has an opposing viewpoint, like an antinomian viewpoint. And it's like, who's gonna win the debate? Who's right? Seriously, winning a debate does not mean you're right. It means you had a good day. It means you studied and had some great arguments, it doesn't mean you're right. Maybe the pro-nomian person just didn't feel good or didn't study, didn't have their ducks in a row. You know, whatever, it can mean a lot of things. Um, I could bring up a six-year-old girl and I can ask her, is Yeshua God? And she can say, Yes, Yeshua is God, and God made everything. And I could say, Do you need Yeshua as your Savior? Oh yes, he died on the cross so that I can have eternal life. But if I bring in a 50-year-old person to like have an argument with her, who's gonna win? Who's gonna win? A 50-year-old man is gonna win an argument with a six-year-old girl, but who's right? A six-year-old girl with that little bit of knowledge can be so much more right. So, sisters, if someone comes to you with a lot of knowledge and fancy big words and arguments and emotion and criticism, it doesn't mean they're right. Stand up in your big girl's shoes. I give you permission, stand up in your big girl's shoes, and you say, I know what the Bible says. And I don't want to engage in this discussion because you're wrong, and I will be praying for you. But you do not have to show up to every fight, every discussion that someone invites you to. Being invited and asked to discuss and argue does not mean you have to obey them. They're not the boss of you. So I want to encourage you in that. Um Satan hates what we're doing. Don't you think he just hates it? I mean, who does he go to war with in Revelation 12? Revelation 12. Who does the dragon go to war with? People who keep the and the testimony of so these two things. Satan goes to war. I think is it Revelation 12? Okay, go read it on your own time. Um, with people who have the testimony of Yeshua, and a testimony is what you have seen and have heard. So I have a testimony of Yeshua. I have seen in my own life, and I have heard him speak to me and change me and save me, and can and he is Yahweh and Yahweh's spirit convicts me. This is my testimony of my faith walk, of what I have seen and heard in my life. The second thing is that I keep the commands. My life resembles, I hope, Torah. So those are the two things that people who have those two things are the people Satan hates the most. So we talk a lot about Torah in our community, and we should, because it's new to most of us. We're learning it. We're like little Tory babies, we don't know what we're doing, and we're so awkward at it and stuff. But man, we have to talk about Yeshua too. Because Satan is not only trying to get us to not keep Torah, he's trying really hard, like a prowling lion, to see who he can devour and pull us away from Yeshua. So you might think, oh, this could never be me, I'll never walk away from Yeshua. That's when it gets dangerous. Keep your guard up, put on that armor, be ready to either defend yourself or say, this is not a fight I have to do with you. Um, I love you, sister. If it's a lady who's trying to argue with you, I love you, but I don't feel like this is a discussion that's gonna bear any good fruit. I will be praying for you and do pray for them, but you don't have to engage. So, question the question, use that resource blog I put on my website. Um, I'm gonna go a little faster now, but please also remember: I think it's okay to worship Yeshua. When you worship here today, um, this week, we are we you can be like worshiping Yahweh and worshiping Yeshua in and through the Holy Spirit. It's okay. Worship him. He's gonna be worshiped, he was worshipped in the past, he'll be worshiped in the end of time. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess he is Yahweh. So I think worship him now. Um, another reason it matters that Yeshua is God is it puts us back in our rightful place when we keep him in his rightful place as being divine, as being God. And again, I don't understand how that works. The best I can describe it lately is that Yeshua is made of the same stuff, right? He's not exactly God's son because he wasn't exactly conceived in their usual way. We'll just leave it like that, you know? It's not like God had a wife and then they had a baby together. It's not like that at all. Yeshua was a real baby, but they're not father and son exactly in the sense that we think of a father and a son. Um, they're kin, they're made of the same stuff. So, like, if I look at my mom, she's my mom. I have her DNA in me. We're made of the same stuff, a unique stuff that you guys don't have because I came from my mom. So Yeshua came from the Father. He is the Father. They're made of the same divine stuff. And it's not stuff that you and I have. We're made in God's image, but we're not God. We're not divine. We don't have what they have. And so that's the rightful place that we have to keep ourselves in. So remembering that Yeshua is God helps us remember that we are not, we don't have exactly his power. We don't have God or Yeshua's knowledge, we don't exactly have their authority. We they give us a lot of authority, but I don't have the authority to condemn or to decide who's saved and not saved. I judge fruit. I can be discerning about people's fruit, but I am not God. The world today wants you to think that you are God. Um, especially, especially the secular world. Isn't that the trick from the garden? Like, don't you want to be God? He gave you one rule, but he didn't mean it. You should have your eyes opened and be like him. He wants you all, he wants me to think that I am God. Uh, I mean, you there's like such nonsense out there. A lot of new age, weird witchcraft, occult stuff. And at the root of all of it is that you have God in you, you have God's exact power, you can be God, you just have to unleash the God within you, and you can do the same things that God does. We know, however, of course, that's not true. We don't have the same anything as God. We have his spirit in us, and so we have a lot of authority over things. I think we have the power to overcome sin and so much, but we are not God. We don't eat we still have mortal bodies, even. Like we're so far from not being God. So challenge, I challenge you to please watch out for that in your faith walk. Even in the Torah community, things are creeping in that will make you think that you can do whatever God can do. And anything that He's allowed to do, you're allowed to do. And that is not true. Even in the even in the temple service, there were things that the high priest would do that regular people were not allowed to do. In fact, they would be cut off and killed if they did. So there are rules in the kingdom. So keep in your place. We want to keep Yeshua in his esteemed place, but we have to keep ourselves in our place too. And in that way, then we need to walk humbly, humbly before God. And walking humbly before him means being grateful. It means being thankful for him and for Yeshua's sacrifice and for what he did for us. He suffered and died and bled for us. And that is no small thing. And I don't think we talk about that enough. And so it keeps us humble, it keeps us grateful, it keeps us in a place of praise and worship. Because if we're God, then we don't need to worship him, but we worship him because he's so much greater than us. It also then helps us to walk humbly in front of each other. Um, this week is a great time to practice that because I'm not God, I'm your equal. We're all sisters, we're the same, and I want to see you through God's eyes. I want to love you the way Yeshua would love you if he were here. Um, and this is what an exciting time to be alive. You know, we not only, I used to, when I was younger, I thought, wow, you know, there were so many saints who never knew Yeshua. They didn't have the New Testament, they didn't have the accounts of him, they didn't know exactly what to expect with Messiah. But now we're in this, you know, age of like 2,000-ish years since. What a wonderful time to be alive. Because for thousands of years they didn't know him. Now I get to read a whole Bible about him. But then Torah, too. Like when I was 37, I came to Torah. What a crazy wonderful thing. But we need to remain humble with one another. He has shown us so much because he loves us. And everyone in this room, I think you've all had your eyes open to walking Torah and walking with Yeshua. But let us not ever get puffed up. Let us remember our place as daughters of the servants, servant daughters of the Most High. Just as Yeshua, even though he's like he's God, but he washed feet. Um, a lot of us wash feet at our Passovers, and it's a it's a really good reminder that the King of the universe died for me, and yet if he were here, he would wash my feet, and he does every day. He serves me and loves me and cares for me and shepherds me. So, how much more should I wash the feet of my sisters, my husband, my children, and love all of you well. So I hope that this week, while we're here, we get to practice walking humbly with one another and seeing each other through Yeshua's eyes. Another thing I want us to remember, another little chicken nugget, is that there is only one law for all people. There's only one. There's only one set of instructions, there's only one Torah. And it is the scriptures, and it is for all people. Part of this, part of Satan's tricks to pull us away from Torah and from Yeshua is to try to get us to believe that there's different rules for different groups of people. And I just, I'm standing here again in my big girl, my big girl courageous sandals to tell you there is only one Torah for all of us. Um, it isn't like this side of the room does some Torah, you do Noah Hide Laws, and you can just go do Christmas and Easter, you don't have to worry about any of it. That's kind of where we're at. You know, it's getting very weird and messy out there. And the more people who come to Torah, the more, I guess, little different flavors and branches. And I think that's partly sadly natural right now because we're just in exile and things are not how they're supposed to be. They will be, but we're not there yet. So you're having all these branches and flavors, and more and more people are believing and preaching very loudly with very nice podcasts and YouTubes and books and materials and the graphic design. I'm like, oh, that graphic design is beautiful. And their stuff is so polished, but it's deceiving because there are some very big ministries out there teaching that there are two distinct groups of people, therefore, there has to be two distinct groups of rules. And I even heard a ministry write in a blog post last week. Oh, I'm in my big girl's shoes now, Ian. They said, if you keep the Torah and you dress too Jewish, you're anti-Semit, anti-Semitic, actually, is what they said. So I it's out there, and I don't think they know what they're saying. I think there's a veil. So I have compassion, but that's very, very wrong. Um, I don't even know what it means to look Jewish, but if you just do the Bible, sisters. Do the Bible. You don't have to add in Judaism, you don't have to add in Christmas or Easter. They're not in the Bible either. Just do Bible. Bible things and Bible ways. I call it keeping Torah, but it's not just the first five books. I obey the entire book, the entire book of scripture, the entire Bible. So don't listen to the lies, even though they're really polished and fancy looking, that you're under a Noahide law, but you're under Judaism. And if you're gonna keep Sabbath, you have to keep all of Judaism. That's one of the lies. And it's just not in scripture, it's not true. You can just keep Sabbath and keep Bible and the feasts and all just the Torah stuff without doing all of Judaism. And it doesn't make you, you are not anti-Semitic by doing Bible things in Bible ways. I'll say it again. You're not anti-Semitic by doing Bible things in Bible ways. In fact, I think it's a wonderful way to love our Jewish brothers and sisters, and I hope that they're here and that they come to the retreat in Yeshua. Man, there's so many Jewish people coming to um Jewish people coming to Yeshua, and there's so many Christians coming to Torah, and there's people all around the world coming to Yeshua. Like there's a great awakening happening on every level right now, but we just have to keep it very simple, and just all of us together go back to the Bible. And hopefully together. We shouldn't be little different groups. We're all one in Messiah. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's only one Yeshua for all people. Just the same thing. Same as there's only one law for all people, there can only be one Yeshua for all people. Have you heard this thing that when I first came to Torah, I heard this a lot. You're believing a false Jesus. I believe Yeshua. You're following a whole different guy. Like they would tell the Christian world, you're not even following Jesus at all. That's a whole different Jesus. As if he's really a different person. And it was a very confusing thing to me. So I'm gonna stand in my big girl's shoes again and tell you this. There's only one Yeshua. Whether you call him Jesus or you have a really big accent, you call him Yeshua, like, or you have a whole different pronunciation, like it doesn't matter what you call him, he is still who he is. Uh now, when I was a Christian in mainstream Christianity not that long ago, I greatly misunderstood him. I didn't understand he wore zizi. I didn't understand how he ate, or that you know he was doing shavuot, or I didn't understand these things about him. I didn't understand his Torah-ness and his what it meant that he was a perfect, sinless Lamb of God. I thought that when he had his disciples pluck grain, he sinned. But then I also thought he was sinless. Like, explain that. I was believing, contradicting things at the same time, but I was weirdly okay with that for a while until he grabbed me. But I still believed the same guy. I called him Jesus. Now I call him Yeshua. It is the same guy. There is not different Jesus's, there's not different Yeshua's, there's just really bad misunderstandings of him. Is that true? So don't think that you're following a different one or that someone else is. Um the literal Torah. This is another thing I hear a lot and I don't understand it. Um, he's not the Torah. He did Torah, but not all of it. He's not a woman. There are some woman parts of Torah, but that is only for us. And I don't think he was a farmer, he wasn't a Levite, right? So there were he didn't do all of Torah. But the Torah that applied to him, he did perfectly. But some people will say he is the literal Torah. I want to tell you, he's bigger than Torah. I think he's bigger than Torah. Torah. I will think about this more later, and you guys can challenge me on this. One day there will be no need for a man to teach another man. The Torah will be written on our hearts. And the Torah has a lot of punishments for sin, rules about how to deal with sin. Someday we're not gonna need those. We will not be sinners when we have our new bodies and we're living with him eternally. Yeshua will go on. I think the Torah, in a sense, will come to an end because there will not be a need for it. Things will be restored like they were in the garden. In the garden, there was one rule. So I think things are gonna, in a sense, go back to that. But I say that not to quivel over like details in eschatology, but to remind us Yeshua is bigger than the Torah. He was at the beginning, he was before the beginning, he was not formed, he was not created by God, he was always there, he will always be into the future. He's bigger than a set of codified, codified rules. Does that make sense? He's bigger than Torah. I think when we say Yeshua is the Torah, as if he's like a literal set of rules. We're belittling him. He's so much bigger and more important than that because he saves us from breaking those rules, and only he can do that. Um I'm just skipping all around, but I there's just these things are things I really wanted to tell you. In the last year, I've seen so much weird stuff in the in the greater Torah community. And I uh Ann and Heidi and I just have a heart for the simple, simple truths. Um don't go chasing knowledge so much that you feel like you have to understand it or it can't be true. Sisters, Yahweh created everything with his breath out of nothing. Out of nothing. How do we understand that? How can we we can't? So the fact that you can't understand it means he's God and you're not, and that's a good thing. Um, he loves you though, still. He he loves you and he chases you. He didn't just bring you to, you know, Christianity, but then he opened your eyes to Torah. And that's so precious. And it's because he sees something in you that he wants to do something with and through you. I don't think I'm anything special. And I don't think you're anything super special either. What I think we are are daughter servants of the Most High God. And what we can do is lay our life down before him. I call that surrendering, and saying, you can use me how you want. When I came to Torah, I remember very clearly I told him, I don't know how to do this. This is weird, but I can see clearly from scripture, you want me to do Torah. Show me how. And that was like my moment of full surrender. And so when we surrender our lives to him, not just in knowledge, but in word and deed, um, he can do tremendous things through us, even though we're nothing special. He saw in you that you would be willing to wash feet, that you would be willing to lay down your life for Yeshua, um, and that you would be willing to love the women around you, your husbands, your families back home, and be his hands and feet everywhere you go. I wish Yeshua was here now. I feel like the whole Bible is a story of Yahweh trying to dwell with us on earth. Um, our sin made him have to leave the garden. And then he tried to dwell with us um here, but then sin was so bad he couldn't, and then he tried to dwell with us in a tabernacle, but sin was so bad he couldn't, and he's just trying to dwell with us. So he sent Yeshua, I think, in bodily form so he could dwell with us for a time. And one day he's gonna come back and dwell with us forever. But because we're a messed up, sinful people, he has to clean us up. Um, let me see. I think I'm almost done. Sisters, it's just all good news. The good news is not what I thought it was when I was 36. The good news is that I am loved and that I am created in the image of God, and he sent, but I sinned, but thankfully he made a salvation, a redemption plan for me, and his name is Yeshua. And because Yeshua came and suffered and died to save me from the darkness, save me from the kingdom of darkness, I can then again have a relationship with the Father. Yeshua did not stay dead. He did not stay dead. He rose, he conquered death. No, what he conquered is the second death. If you put your faith in him and you lay down your life for him and you decide you're gonna walk like him in his example, you will not suffer the second death. In this life, we will all die, but we will not suffer the second death, and that is good news. And then the good news also includes a faith walk that comes with blessings. Walking out Torah is not a cake walk, it's a faith walk. And faith, I don't know, there's lots of definitions of faith, but um, to me, it's laying down my life day by day, doing the hard things. Uh, I was telling a Todd the other night, the hardest things I've done turned out to be the best things. Like, oh, I know what I was telling. And when I left my my Sunday church, I used to, of course, almost a lot of us used to go to Sunday church. And when I left it, not all of you had to leave your Sunday church. I did. And um, I was just like, where am I gonna get friends? I'm not gonna have any friends. You know, women, we need friends. And I was like, I'm not gonna have any friends. But then look what Yahweh gave me. All of you and many, many more Torah sisters who will watch this someday, I hope and pray. Uh, so that's that's the faith walk is saying obediently every day, I will lay down my life because he laid down his life. Yeshua had the authority and the power to forgive sins. This is another marker that makes him stand out. Um, and this is what angered the Pharisees of the day. How dare you say that you can forgive sins! But he had the authority to forgive sins, and I am forgiven. And you are too. If you're in him, you are forgiven. It doesn't mean we're not still gonna sin. I know I'm gonna sin. I know I'm not perfect yet. It's a lifelong process, but he has forgiven me. Um, he's not angry with me, he's not furious with me, he loves me and he loves you. And sisters, the last thing I want to end with is that one of the most important things Yeshua said that I think we forget is to forgive 70 times seven. And if you don't forgive one another, there is no forgiveness for you. And that is that Matthew 5 or 7. I'm all jumbled in my notes. Yeshua said you have to forgive 70 times seven. He said, if you don't forgive others, there is no forgiveness for you. So we can talk all day about all the ways to get saved and have that assurance of salvation and to know that you're in the kingdom and you won't suffer the second death and that you'll be resurrected one day. But don't forget what he said about forgiveness. And this is in the example of the Father, because the Father, Yeshua, forgive us. We ought also to forgive others. And I think we have a supernatural, spirit-filled ability to do that. So I encourage you, if there is someone in your life that you have not forgiven, please forgive them tonight. Um, after this is done, we're gonna have some fun and stuff like that. But you don't have to partake in it. You can go find a quiet place, you can pray, talk to God, and you can call that person and forgive them. Forgiveness is letting someone off your hook. They might still be on Yahweh's hook. Okay? Everybody's on Yahweh's hook, right? We can't get off his hook. That's because he is just. And Yahweh will act out his justice how he chooses. But you don't get to have that authority. Our job is to forgive each other and let that person be on Yahweh's hook. And then, sister, you are free. So I don't want us to go through this whole week talking about Yeshua and what it is to love him and to know him and to walk like him, unless we also walk like him in the realm of forgiveness. If you're harboring a grudge, bitterness, lack of forgiveness, it's you're not walking like him. So to walk us in his example is to forgive generously and then to not hold on to it anymore, to not get revenge, to not act like that person owes you. It might mean boundaries and things, I get that, but to just fully and completely forgive. Um, most importantly, Todd and I, and I think Ann and Heidi too, we want you to know Yeshua. We want you to feel that you are loved. So we want to be Yeshua to you here. That's one way, but just even those times at home when you're alone. I've already talked to some of you, and you're like, I'm so lonely. There's no one that does Torah. And some of you aren't married, some of you are like really, really alone. Read your scriptures. That is how you know Yeshua. And we want you to know him intimately. You want, we want you to have a relationship with him. And by him, I mean Yahweh. They are the same. So to know Yeshua is to know Yahweh. And I mean know them, talk to them, pray to Yahweh, walk like Yeshua, read his words. Don't just stay in the Torah portion. It's not enough. It's good. Torah's great. We have to read all of it and read what the prophets. I haven't been reading the prophets enough to read what did they say about this coming Messiah? What do they tell us about Yahweh? We want you to know him intimately. And I personally want you all to walk in confidence in your big girl's shoes wherever you go in this Torah community, especially on the online. That's the dangerous place. Um, and to not fall for the tricks of the enemy. And if you feel yourself being tempted, first of all, please talk to your husband, communicate these things with your husband. Let him cover you and question things with you and tell him what you're looking at. And the if you're hearing stuff, let him help you discern if it's good or not. Um, and sometimes disengage, leave groups that are not good for you, leave them. Encourage your kids to leave these groups that they're not if they're not good. Get with real people in fellowship. Oh, I have so many nuggets I want to share, but I think I'm done. I'm so glad you're here. And uh, you're gonna be very encouraged this week.