Chapter 7

Ruhammah in Travail

“And I will betroth you to me forever; yes I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion.”

Hosea 2:19

In the previous chapter I called the Church Ruhammah, the one that has received compassion. In this chapter I would like to go deeper into our ‘wedding preparations’ as the Bride of Messiah, to the King of the Universe and the roll that compassion will play in this prophetic preparation. In Matthew 9:36 we read: “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd”. Yeshua’s motivation for ministry was mainly compassion.

Today the Jewish people are like sheep with no shepherd, especially the young generation and the soldiers. They are looking for something to fill them up. They need to experience a move of compassion coming from the Church. In Mark 1:41 we read: “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him, I will; be thou clean”.

Again we see that the Lord cleanses people not because He is upset with them, but because He is moved with compassion. One of the most lacking components in the Church is compassion. Everywhere we go in the world we meet wounded sheep. Sheep that have experienced no compassion from their leaders or from their peers. Having no compassion is like denying the faith, because the name of the ‘cut off branches’ was:

Lo Ruhammah,( Hosea 1), which means , No Compassion, that is the name of Ephraim who became ‘The Fullness of the Gentiles’, as we have seen in previous chapters

So what is compassion? Compassion in Hebrew is Rahamim. From this word we derive the word Ruhammah, or the one who has received compassion. Rahamim also means:

A Multitude of wombs, as the womb of a pregnant woman. It implies, birthing and travailing, children, motherhood, tender loving care, instruction, protection and a generous dose of forgiveness. It implies total acceptance and patience for growth processes. Rahamim implies the total unconditional, unselfish, patient, confident love of a mother who is willing to give up her life in order to bring a baby forth, no matter what the cost, or the pain or the suffering, and is willing to give of her time and comfort in order to provide nurturing and tender loving care and correction for this baby to grow up healthy in spirit, soul and body so that he can confidently fulfill his call in life. That is how Yeshua walked, that is what moved Him and that is how He has treated us and how He expect us to treat others...

This call to be Ruhammah, to a lost and dying world is our major call. This call to be Ruhammah to our fellow Christians is our major call. This is the call on the leadership of the Body of the Lord today. Be Ruhammah to My sheep! So many times I hear unkind remarks, condemning remarks from leaders about the people under their care. So many times I need to check my own heart and my own tongue when I speak of people. So many times we are unwilling to give ourselves up for someone else to grow. We forget our name and our calling as Ruhammah so often, and we shut our wombs of compassion because of selfishness and self pity. Mothers often get hurt when they care for their children. Sometimes the children are ungrateful or disappointing in their development, but it is not natural for a real mother to shut her womb of compassion over her children. It takes God’s love and God’s grace to keep our bowels of mercy open, but we do not have any other choice...We are called Ruhammah.

Even as I am writing this book the Lord is working within my heart about what I’m writing. Last night He gave me a dream to illustrate the point of this chapter.

The Dream: I was very busy, standing at a bus stop, talking on my cellular phone. I was making an important call to the hospital, as I thought that my father was in the hospital.

At the same bus station was a very distressed woman with a baby in a carriage.

She said to me: “ Please make a phone call for me on your cellular phone, I’ll pay you for the expenses, but I need to communicate with my home as this bus is taking too long and the baby is sick”. My response was very cold and detached and self important. “I will help you later, but first I have to make my call which is more important to me.” As I was trying to dial the number to the hospital, my brand new camera that I was holding in my hands fell to the ground and rolled under some cars. I had to stop my phone call, as I was trying desperately to search for it, but it was hidden from my sight and I could not recover it.

I woke up from this dream very distressed and I asked God what was He trying to tell me. The interpretation came right away: I failed to have compassion over a person in need, putting my important matters first, thinking that what I was doing is more important than helping her. My camera represents , prophetic revelation, and the Lord was communicating with me;

that if I have no compassion I will lose all prophetic revelation!

I immediately repented before God and as I finished doing so He gave me this chapter that I am writing. I believe this is the word of the Lord for the Church and especially for prophetically anointed ministries: without a selfless compassion we will lose our sight.

Compassion is the antidote to pride and arrogance.

The Church is called to be a priest and a prophet in the world. Without compassion our priestly and prophetic ministry is perverted. We are called to be Ruhammah to Judah, to the Jewish people, and to extend compassion to her that has had no compassion: “Comfort, o comfort My people”, says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins”.

A German lady in America told us of a dramatic experience that she had with the Lord.

She was laying next to a swimming pool and suddenly a vein burst in her head , (also called an aneurysm). She was rushed to the hospital clinically dead. Meanwhile she found herself walking in heaven with the Lord. He was showing her a few rooms. Then He took her to a certain room where she saw a very handsome and selfassured man coming towards Jesus. The Lord addressed him and said: “And what have you done for My people?”

To that, the man replied full of pride and self satisfaction: “O Lord I have cast out demons in your name, I have healed the sick in your name, I have opened blind eyes in your name...And on and on he went”. The Lord, very serious and insistent asked him again:

“Yes, but what have you done for My people?”. “O Lord I told you, I raised the dead opened deaf ears...”. The Lord said: “Have you heard of the Scripture, ‘Comfort, O comfort My people?’ . “Of course I have Lord, that is my favorite Scripture for the Church”, to which the Lord replied in a stern voice: “Depart from Me into outer darkness, I never knew you!” . Then He turned to the German woman and said:

“Go back and tell the Church to repent for not extending mercy and compassion to My people, the Jews”. This lady came back to the living and brought with her this message.

Dear Ruhammah, we are the Church of the Lord, He is preparing our wedding garment. But neither the Bride, nor the Wedding will be ready until we lay our lives down for the Lord’s people, Israel. They have been persecuted and slandered in the name of Jesus, and now the Lord is extending an invitation, that is also a commandment: “Comfort my people, travail for them to come forth, be like Ruth was to Naomi and stick to them even in their unbelief. Be like a mother to them, they need your love and commitment in order to start believing in the goodness of the Lord. Be Ruhammah to them and extend the same compassion that has been extended to you”. And as you do that, there is a very special promise for you: “Be joyful, with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts...” Isaiah 66:10,11

As we extend comfort and mercy to Jerusalem and to our Jewish brothers, Jerusalem, will in time turn and be our comfort. For as we travail for Israel to come forth she will become Ruhammah as well, ’the one that has received compassion’, just like the Church is now Ruhammah. And then they will be one Bride before the Lord,

one nation, one people, one God.

A Prayer of Response

Please pray this prayer with me in order to allow God to deal with our lack of compassion!

Dear Father in heaven. I come before you, bowing down before your feet, laying down all of my gifts and anointings, ministries and callings. Father, I ask you to cleanse me from any lack of compassion, pride, arrogance , selfishness and self importance.I renounce all of that in the name of Yeshua, and I pray that you erradicate it from my soul and spirit. Father help me to walk in full compassion, in the fullness of what Ruhammah means. Lord, use me as a vessel of comfort and compassion in the Church, to the lost and especially to Your Jewish people.

Amen

Go to Chapter 8 

Go to CONTENTS