The Fallacy of Ownership

The key to your heart's true lasting security and rest in God has been found! You thought I was going to say in Yeshua, didn't you? Well, yes, He is the only way to it. But how many true believers in Yeshua are not fully at rest in Him, try as they might? Are you one of them?  Even sometimes? Would it surprise you to learn that the key is in thinking like a Hebrew. If you thought like a Hebrew, you would have a different understanding of life in God then you more than likely do now. You would be able to live in the same peace, power and fearlessness that Yeshua's first disciples did.  

As you read on, you will see why God's adversary, the devil, hates Israel. Because Israel - and it's language - is the one way we can truly understand God and His Word as He meant for all who follow Him to know Him. There are so many deep meanings in Hebrew that do not exist in other translations. Hebrew was lost as a spoken language following the destruction of Jerusalem. But God prophesied through Jeremiah that it would be spoken in the same Land again:  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes"  (Jer. 31:23).  In order to know how God really thinks, we must think like a Hebrew. We are blessed today to grasp some of the deeper foundational truths of salvation through the restoration of the language of Hebrew since Israel has been back in their Land.

What you are about to read is how Yeshua understood the Bible, including the prophesies and how His desciples would have understood God and His Words to Israel.  The Bible says we are to have the mind of Messiah.  Before Yeshua returns, according to the "restoration" that must take place before He does (see Acts 3:21), it is quite likely that His people must think as He thinks. Would you marry someone with whom you couldn't really communicate, who didn't understand your deepest thoughts and desires? Marriage is a type of our relationship with Messiah Yeshua. We are to worship, that is to say, relate to God in Spirit and in truth. All else is misleading and false. So what does He see is false so we can avoid it?

The Fallacy of Ownership: [1]  One of the numerous properties of Biblical Hebrew is that there are no words that are possessive. Our lives largely circle around the things we posses, what we own, the obtaining of them, earning the money to pay for them, the caring for them, the protecting them. The same thing goes for relationships. We say things like my wife, my husband, my friend, my dog. We also say my car, my house, my business and even, my problem.  In ancient Hebrew there is no such thing as anyone owning anything. You  cannot say "I have a car, I have a degree, I have ..." 

This was the language of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who lived in tents and didn't own much compared to what we do. Could you imagine Abraham and his kin shlepping a bureau or a dining room table with them each time they moved?  It's also the language of the priests to the nation.  The royal priesthood were given no inheritance but the Lord. They couldn't own anything. In the same way, Hebrew is a priestly language. There is no ownership but the Lord is our (only) inheritance. And we have to think like a Hebrew to know what God is really saying.

When Yeshua came to earth, He owned nothing. He had no possessive concepts.  At one time I realized that Yeshua owned absolutely nothing. It was somewhat disconcerting when I realized how encumbered I am with 'things'. He said He even "had nowhere to lay His head" (Matt 8:20; Luke 9:58).  Well,  God does give us all things to enjoy. On the other hand, Paul said to Timothy,  "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17).

We say, "I have" but it's really an illusion. Hebrew is very truthful, more than English.. Owning things is really an illusion.  Ba'al was the lord of the Canaanites - he was a fully unrighteous god in every way.  The word ba'al means "master" or "owner".  When you own things, and you possess them, you become a ba'al - like a god over your possessions. The more possessive we get, the more we take upon ourselves all kinds of anxieties and striving surrounding our possessions. They are a false sense of security at best.

In Hebrew you can't say something in yours, but you would say it is "to" me. Hebrew has a L' - meaning something or someone is "to" you..  L' = to.  You can't say I have a house. You say the house is "to" me. (My own name in Hebrew, pronounced L'ani means "to me.") Things are "to" you, they are not yours. fi they are to you, then they are from someone else - God!  He is the giver of all things. It implies direction toward us and our receiving them, contrary to our "having" them on own, or our ownership of them as if we could produce them on our own.  In Hebrew you really don't have things or own anything but rather things are to you.   What you have is really a gift to you from God. When you see things this way, and you let go of your sense of ownership, you begin to see His provision and love for you. When you let go of the false idea of ownership you are free to see the love of God who brings things L'atah. - to you.  You have to let go in order to receive the blessings of seeing how all things come to you from God

All things are really L'Adonai, or L'Yohavah. - to the Lord, or to YHVH.  They belonged to God.  The priests have on their turbans, "Holy to the Lord" "Kadosh L'Adonai" (Exodus 38:26). The Sabbath is Kadosh L'Adonai (Ex. 31:15), the altar in the Holy of Holies is Kadosh L'Adonai (30:10). There are 22 references to Kadosh L'Adonai in the Scritpures.  It may surprise you to see what is Kadosh L'Adonai - even you!  God owns all things, including you!  In Hebrew we say, "All things are to God."  Even our lives are His. We must give our lives to God. Like bride and bridegroom give themselves to one another in a covenant of love.  

This even applies in very practical ways. In Hebrew you can't even say: my need, my struggle, my problem. In Hebrew you say the problem is to me. You con't own the problem. When you release the problem, you're thinking like a Hebrew in your heart. It's not a problems anymore because it really belongs to God and He has promised for those who love Him that He will "work all things together for good..." (Romans 8:28).  When you see it like that, it's not yours anymore. It's His. Let it go.  Life is a gift. That's the Hebrew way of seeing life in its entirety. 

I picked up a non-Christian self-help book out of the blue just this week as God was showing me thsese principles. It said to close your eyes and locate your past and your future and to point to them with your hands over your head. Your past was supposed to be behind you and your future in front of you, but some people's past is still in front of them as they keep dealing with it. I saw that my past was right here with me, around me, and in me. At first I wondered what that could mean but then I realized that I am a product of my past. I have given all of my past to God, in some cases, incident after incident as I forgave or asked for forgiveness where needed.  Who I am today is the sum total of all I have experienced, the good or the not so good, because it has all been given to God so it's all "in Him."  My past is now all "for good" because He has "worked all things together for good" (Romans 8:28), for and in me. My past isn't mine. It was to me, but isn't even that anymore. I have no ownership in that sense of my past, whether the glories (they belong to Him) or the sorrows (He's taken my sorrows).  How wonderful is that?! How wonderful is He?!!!!

In the Song of Solomon, in English we read, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." That's not what it says in Hebrew. It says, "My beloving is L'ani, to me and I am to him." There is no possessive.  The only proper response to God is to be "to him."  We can give up our ownership of each other. What a freedom that brings to a relationship. We are not each others to own or correct or judge. That's for God to do. We are to love one another as God loves us - unconditionally. When we give up the sense of owning another person, we can let God take care what we may have been frustrated about and just enjoy them. We can even give up our ownership of our past. Your past is no longer yours It was L'atah, to you, not your own. Let go and let God work everything for the good on your behalf. No more hurts. Give them to God and now they are to you for good. Let go and let God work all things "to you."  Thinking like a Hebrew in this way, as God meant for you to, will unlock the freedom in your heart you've been longing for. 

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[1]  Much of this information on non-possessive Hebrew comes from a message by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn. For more of his teachings go to: HopeOfTheWorld.org .