Mishpachah Yeshua Newsletter

A Newsletter To The Family Of Jesus From Restoration Ministries

The Hebraic family is not simply an individual or private matter.
Rather, it is an institution in which the whole community has a stake.
Thus, the Hebrew word “mishpachah,” meaning family, not only refers to parents and children,
but to the whole extended family worldwide in the body of “Yeshua”—our Jesus.

[click here for a printable copy]

May 2000 Topic: Taking The High Places


Dear Friends,
While we were doing research on the early Church in Israel, the Lord told Sue and me that our ministry would entail “availability and mobility.” Well, He has called us to move again. While sharing at the Southwest Indian Ministries Center (SIMC) in Peoria, AZ in early May, the Lord showed us that we could better share the truths of the Hebraic Restoration among the Native Americans if we were physically located near the reservations. We are now living in Flagstaff, Arizona, a short distance from the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, and many more.
Some of you who know why we have been in Connecticut may be asking, “What are you going to do about the care of your Mom?” The One Who died for her sins is now caring for her Himself. My Mom saw the face of Jesus within 24 hours of our arrival back in Connecticut. The Lord honored the promise I gave her years ago, “Mom, I will be there to close your eyes.” Sue had a chance to sing Mom’s favorite hymns to her. As I finished briefing her about our trip to Arizona and our impending move there, I let her know she could now depart in peace. I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Her passing will be so glorious that no one can be with her when she dies.” She joined His eternal happiness that very night.
Our God is Magnificent!!!
Fighting Against Spiritual Forces
Several early mornings at SIMC found us hiking to some high peaks north of Phoenix with our Navajo friend James Skeet. He had been climbing these peaks for some time to break the spiritual forces of darkness over the area. Decades ago, when the Native Americans were being driven from their land, the medicine men would go to the high places and curse the land. 
The spiritual significance of “high places” may sound strange but it is very biblical and quite familiar to Sue and me. Do you remember the issue over the  high places in the Older Testament? A vital step in restoring the land was to destroy the demonic powers in the high places. Curses were placed on the land by the shedding of innocent blood. Do you remember the drought in Israel and how David sought the Lord about it? The innocent blood of the Gibeonites which Saul had shed needed to be atoned for before the Lord would bring rain. Thus, seven men from Saul's household were hanged.
Many Native Americans understand the Hebraic "protocols" of cleansing the land so that the Gospel can go forth. The power of prayer to break demonic control is amazing. Many years ago Sue and I were part of a faith community that at the turn of the last century focused heavily on specific intercession. They prayed around the clock in a prayer tower in Maine, at a house just outside the old city of Jerusalem, and aboard a sailing ship, the Coronet, calling on God to restore the Jewish people to Israel. Some died of disease both in Jerusalem and aboard the ship. But the demonic powers opposing God's plan were broken and new generations of Israelites are again in Israel.
The Coronet also sailed around Africa and South America, focusing on spiritual inroads to souls there. A few years ago a noted man connected with world evangelization declared that it was the prayers and deaths of the people aboard that ship that had broken the back of those principalities and permitted the Gospel to go forth on both continents.

The Retaking of a “High Place”
I don’t believe that the demons are either omnipotent or all-seeing. They can only see “line-of-sight.” Occupying the high places is crucial to their control over an area. On February 9, 1989, a group of church leaders joined me at the base of large cross overlooking one of the larger cities in Connecticut. God had  given us permission to bind the principality over that city for one year. The seat of demonic power over the city was at the base of the cross on that hill. You may have trouble with what I am sharing, but our Father impressed on me just before we went up to the high place to pray: “Mike, destroy all symbols of faith. It isn’t the cross that is important but what My Son accomplished on the cross.” I was standing near a cemetery when our Father spoke. He directed my gaze toward all the tombstones, many of which had crosses on them: “Every one of those people is dead.” I understood that not one person in that cemetery had made it to heaven. 
Following our prayer over that city in 1989, there was a tremendous conversion of Jehovah Witnesses, an increased cooperation among different faith communities, and the exposure of sexual impropriety involving influential clergy in the region.

If you live in a flat area, look at church steeples, tall trees and buildings as high places that must be taken back. SIMC staff found the tall palm trees to be demonic vantage points.

“Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets” 
(Amos 3:7).
During our first hike with James, he would stop at different points along the path and prophesy. Each message he shared was a confirmation that gave further understanding to prophecies Sue and I had been given over the years. As we completed our walk, we knew that God was opening up a new area of ministry for us among the Native Americans. However, Mom’s condition hadn’t changed as yet, so we didn’t know when our Father would release us. What we did know was that we were deeply in love with the Native Americans we’d encountered, and that the message of healing God had given us to share could restore and heal them.

I want to share  some excerpts of an email we sent to our friends during our stay at SIMC:
“For the past 9 days we have been at the Southwest Indian Ministries Center. To put it simply, we have never been involved with anything like what is happening now. First, let me say that the wonderful miracles we are seeing would not have occurred if it were not for prayer. We deeply thank you more than we can express.
“This past Sunday, as we walked to the top of another mountain at dawn, a magnificent coyote crossed our path. James turned and said to us, "Among my people, when a coyote crosses your path, someone is going to die." Because of the steepness of the mountain path and my heavy breathing, I thought it was going to be me!
“As we arrived back at the Skeets' later that morning, I received a call from my brother Tom that my Mom had been admitted to the hospital and was not expected to live. The news hit me hard. I asked Tom to kiss Mom and tell her that I love her and that I was about my Father's business. James came over to me and asked if he could beat the Navajo drum in honor of my Mom. As he did, the Lord reminded him of how beautiful that coyote was. He said, “Your Mother's passing will be doubly glorious.” With great delight I screamed to the heavens, "Get ready, my mother's coming!!!!!”
“Several families had gathered at the Skeets' to go to a church gathering on the Pima reservation. I asked if I could stay behind to both grieve and celebrate the impending passing of my Mom, my sister in the Lord, my friend, and the source of a sense of humor that has taught me not to take myself too seriously. Sue said she, too, wanted to stay.
“I was hesitant to ask the others to stay and celebrate with me. Just as they were about to depart, Debbie Cartwright brought up the Abilene paradox which I had just shared a few days earlier. The paradox is a story that illustrates how a group of people all end up doing something none of them wants to do because no one spoke up. [The story is found in our workbook, Growing Relationships Through Confrontation.] When Debbie expressed that she didn't want to leave, everyone else chimed in that they didn't want to either. 
“There we were: Sue and I, James & Joyce, Steve & Debbie, Dave & Leona, Gregg & Kathy, and Marion. We began to worship...Oh!!!! What worship! As we began to sing, I saw a vision of my mother approaching Jesus. Both of them had such glee on their faces that I  laughed and laughed. The Lord spoke to my Mom: "Do you remember the blessing you gave your son Mike?" She stood there with a quizzical face. He said, "You told Mike that of all your children, he needed Me the most because he was the dumbest." She broke into a broad grin as she realized that it was the Lord Who had prompted her to tell me that years ago.
“What her words have meant to me is that I needed to hold on to the Lord more than anyone else because I didn't know any other way. "Boy, have I been dumb, Mom. Thank you."

“One day while at SIMC I traveled with a Native American named Mike Andrews. We drove through the barren Pima, Maricopa and Yaqui reservations and mourned the devastation of the land by the white men who damned up the rivers to destroy the Native people. I realized how much I wanted to stay and help. I could feel the love God had given me for the Native peoples. Mike and I grew close as I heard the pain he himself had gone through. Our lives were so much the same that the Lord told me, "You two are brothers of pain."
“There is so much more I wish we had time to share. We have 9 hours of videotape from our times of sharing here that I hope we can edit and make available.” [End of email]

“I Will Give You a New Name”
On one of our trips to the peak, James told Sue and me that we are like eagles whose eyes can see resources for what God wants to do. Placing dirt on us, he “baptized” us into the land. He asked, “Are you prepared to die here for the Native peoples?” The love God had given us came out in a resounding “Yes”!!
The day before we left for Connecticut, we were given Navajo names. Sue’s is Ithozho Kizbah [Eek-hoe-JOE KHEE-zbah]. Ithozho mean she is filled with joy and beauty. It is the way in which happiness radiates from her. Kizbah means her happiness and beauty intersect a crossroad of war with joy as her weaponry.
My name is Hastiin Nobah-nodai [Hah-STEEN no-BAH-no-dy-EE]. Hastiin means elder or older man with wisdom. Nobahnodai means a “dog soldier” who wages spiritual war to its finality, who shows no compromise and takes no prisoners. Because of our love for the people, we knew the Lord had given us these names.

The Hebraic Restoration and the Native American:
A Kindred Spirit
Compared to us “Anglos,”  Native Americans are far ahead in many areas of understanding the Hebraic foundations. They comprehend the unseen world around us, and many have refused to adopt the scientific mindset of the whites. Their relationships with God and with each other permit them to just “be.” Native peoples are not dependent on the activities which keep Anglo churches going. Relationships are a value unto themselves. Their interconnectedness reminds me of a saying we found in our research which epitomizes the Hebraic way: “Die with your wealth found in the friends you made.”
Like our Hebraic forefathers, Native peoples are very atuned to the importance of keeping covenants. We Anglos understand covenants dimly at best. As one Native said, “The white man has kept only one promise that he made to us: ‘We will take your land.’”
Many Native peoples, who have a deep understanding of covenants, have never had Jesus revealed to them as the blood sacrifice of the covenant. Those of you who have been to our seminars know how crucial the covenant issues of the Gospel are—even communion as an act of “renewing the covenant.”

Our Father’s Loving Kindness
The Hebraic view of God’s Word encourages respect of cultures and cultural expressions of faith practice. In the New Testament, the Gentiles did not have to become Jews in order to follow Christ. With only a few limitations, each culture has the biblical prerogative to develop their own halakhic applications and exuberant worship expressions that display their relationship with our Lord.
My immediate goals upon our arrival here in Flagstaff are to meet Native leaders and to write cross-cultural applications of the Hebraic restoration. James Skeet, along with Sue and me, will be co-teaching at a gathering of Native leaders in Calgary, Canada in mid-June.
One of the future goals we discussed while at SIMC is to develop indigenous leadership for the Native peoples in the US and to send forth Native American missionaries around the world. They have tremendous power to bring the healing of Jesus from their own testimonies of healed suffering, bitterness they’ve renounced and forgiveness they’ve extended.
The Hebraic understanding of God’s Word permits Native peoples to share Christ unencumbered by religious forms of expression from western cultures.   It took me 18 months of immersion in Hebraic truths until one day I woke up and knew that I had changed: Plato was gone and the mind of Jesus had filled my understanding.

Our Personal needs: If God prompts you to help, we want you to know that our expenses will be doubling with our move to Flagstaff. Besides the increase in living expenses for housing and food, there are two other major areas of increase:
1). We will be doing a significant amount of traveling to Reservations and Native conferences. Also, we will be cooperating with and coordinating our efforts among other ministries to Native peoples. I have been given the Missionary Handbook from one  mission agency and I am re-writing mission processes and procedures from a Hebraic perspective.
2). Our spiritual “Timothy”, Matt Kowlsen, who has been part of our work for several years as a “tentmaker”, has moved to Flagstaff with us. We first met Matt while we lived in Atlanta, where we assisted him in sharing the Hebraic restoration at both his workplace and the apartment complex where we all lived. When Sue and I moved to Colorado Springs in 1997, I wrote in Matt’s Restoring the Early Church copy, “The reason I left you behind...” He filled it in wonderfully by God’s grace. Matt will be cooperating with us full-time for the foreseeable future.

Prayer
1. Sharing With Native Peoples
Ask God to give us wisdom and sensitivity in cross-cultural sharing of the Hebraic truths, and for open doors of opportunity, and others to help us.
2. Books to South Africa
Please continue to pray for someone with suitable software to receive our books electronically.
3. Demolishing Strongholds
Please lift up the DS Spanish translation proof and publication.
4. Our Website
Pray for Ed and Carol Stoy as they continue to help us get the truths out electronically. Their email is <stoy@lifegate.net>.
Praise
We are filled with joy and gratitude to our Father. The delights of our hearts have truly been met. Upon our arrival in Flagstaff, we found a motel owned by Christians where we were refreshed for five days. God led us to the only available 3-bedroom apartment in town and the last storage unit. In the days we’ve been here we’ve shared at restaurants and stores with Native Americans and Anglos alike why God has brought us here. Each time there has been overwhelming delight about our purpose!
May our Father bless each of you for caring and sharing all of this with us. (1 Sam. 30:24,25).
Mike & Sue Dowgiewicz
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is [with this message], because the Lord has anointed [it] to be preached to the poor. He has sent [us] to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve [on the reservations]—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild [God’s ancient ways] and restore [relationships] long devastated; they will renew [cultures] that have been devastated for generations”(Isaiah 61:1-4).