Ivrim (overcomer)Songstory on a classic: Ivrim by Will Spires
I really want to share something with you that I believe will speak life to you today. The yearly celebration of Chanukah is right around the corner again and if you’ve observed it in the past or if you’re completely unfamiliar with it, I’d like to share just a few personal insights that will bless you. Is that alright? Can I do that? I remember mine and Debora’s first Chanukah, it was our first trip “around the mountain” and the fellowship we were with during the celebration really went out of their way to create an atmosphere that fostered an understanding of its significance. |
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Allow me to preface this first by stating an imminent fact. All year long we are in spiritual warfare, we are, and if you’re unaware or unwilling to recognize that fact I want to encourage you to do a little investigation as part of your homework. Paul said,
“But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” - (Romans 7:23),
and he also said...
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” - (Ephesians 6:12)
At the end of the day have you ever felt like you’ve been in the ring wrestling with something? Maybe it’s emotional, a strained relationship. Maybe it’s physical, perhaps you struggle with some addiction or habit that has you bound. Maybe it’s psychological? It could be you have a physical condition that traumatizes you to the point that it has convinced you that life is not the way God says He created it to be. Perhaps you’ve altered the way you think to cope with something unpleasant in your life. Of course, all of these can affect us in multiple ways, but they are ultimately spiritual wrestlings that whether we want to or not require us to wrestle each day. To that end, our purpose should be concentrating our hearts and minds on God’s Kingdom, and learning how to submit ourselves to YHVH, allowing Him to work through us every moment of every day; because when it comes down to it we should be doing everything to “The Glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
But if I’m willing to be honest with myself I fall short of this, believe me, the more I learn the more I realize just how cunning my own pride and ego are—again, we are in a war. But the beauty of this holiday is realizing the magnitude of the spiritual lesson found in the physical victory of the Maccabean revolt, over the Greek-Syrian army in the second century BCE. Allow me to share this with you. What the Maccabeans did was take back the holy temple that had been defiled by the Greek-Syrian empire. What the Maccabeans did was to clean the temple. They washed its floors, its walls and even the ceiling. They meticulously took the time (there’s that reference to time again) to repair all that had been damaged. They picked up the Torah Ark and checked the scroll, they repaired the chairs, the bema and cleaned the Menorah. And when everything had been completed you know what they did? They rededicated the temple to God.
There are so many beautiful things going on in this story it’s a bit overwhelming to absorb it all. So much could be said I’m afraid I might lose you. Time is scarce in our busy workaday world. I realize your time is precious. Again, we are in a war, but I implore you to continue with me for just a few minutes more. The first thing is, under inconceivable (by the way I always think of the movie The Princess Bride when I use that word) under inconceivable odds, the Maccabeans were absolutely undermanned, “outgunned” and should never have even “made it out of the gate”, if I could borrow a horse race analogy. These guys I can only surmise were akin to the minutemen in America when we first declared our independence from England. But see, this is one of those valuable moments God steps in and demonstrates that one plus God is a majority. God wins and always makes a way. We could actually stop right there and just soak that in for a minute.
The other important point is, they rededicated the temple to God, and Chanukah means just that. Linguistically the root word of Chanukah is “chanu”. That “C” “H” dipthong in English typically is pronounced with a “cha” sound, much like that found in the words change, check, and chimney. But in the Hebrew language, this two letter pronunciation is commonly referred to as a “guttural”. In other words it’s primarily achieved from the back of the throat, not completely unlike the sound you might make if attempting to clear some obstruction. Okay practice later, the important thing of note here is that this is a feast of rededicating the temple. But we’re not only referring to the temple in Jerusalem in the second century, but a different one. I know I’ve already quoted Apostle Paul a good bit in this brief lesson, but I can’t help that God chose to use Him to pen so much of the Bible. So, again, it’s important to recognize God is not only referring to the temple of the second century, but to us as well. Paul said,
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” - (1 Corinthians 6:19)
So there is this connection we’ve been inching toward since I began sharing this with you. You were created to be God’s temple where His Holy Spirit can dwell inside of you, and lead you into all truth, and intercede on your behalf with prayers and groanings that even you are not consciously aware of. But here’s the other thing that maybe you haven’t considered. Chanukah is celebrated not just to remember something that happened over two millennia ago, rather it is to give you a golden opportunity to rededicate your life to Him, to begin anew. Everyday can and should be a Chanukah celebration in our lives if we are honest with ourselves. The beauty of this holiday I think is that God is teaching us yet another important lesson. He is totally aware that we being yet limited in our earthbound coverings and blinded by any number of conditioning, habits, insecurities, defeats, diseases, or scars and hurts we’ve either wrestled with or nursed, depending on your specific situation creates the opportunity to reflect, to do a little honest introspection. When we do that it puts us into a position to make a decision, to make a choice. Hopefully it is to choose to restore your personal temple, with a willingness to surrender any right we thought we had to ourselves. It is the chance to rededicate our lives back to God by submitting to Him. Why? Because He loves you, and desires to dwell within you, to bring about the changes needed to set your free from bondage in order for you to have life, and to have it to the full!
So there you have it more or less. There is a great mystery I share in the lyric attached to a declaration that I hope you will sing with me wherever this song is played. I say,
“I am an overcomer, by the blood of the lamb, I am an overcomer, Nais Gadol Hayah Shahm.
The phrase there means “a great miracle happened here, and refers to the miracle God wrought through the Maccabeans in overcoming the Greek-Syrian army, in retaking the temple, in rededicating it to God, and in the story of the one cruse of oil that kept the menorah lit for eight days. It’s a beautiful reminder and its acronym is spelled out with the Hebrew letters Nun, Gimel, Heh and Shin. As they were then, today they are still inscribed on an enduring children’s toy known in Yiddish as the dreidel. The Jewish children played the dreidel, also recognized as a top, in those days as a means to keep Torah and their Jewish heritage alive amidst persecution. It was a constant reminder of God’s love for His people, and for what He did with a few willing and obedient Maccabeans. A great miracle did indeed happen here.
But the great miracle didn’t stop there did it? There was another place where a great miracle occurred. Mount Calvary, where our Messiah obediently gave His life for ours, stiff-necked haters of God, and with His blood He made the way. He restored our relationship back to The Father that had previously been cut-off. That was indeed a great miracle, which in turn created another miracle right here. I’m pointing to your heart, figuratively speaking of course but all the same, I’m still pointing to your heart. I’m speaking of the great miracle of God breathing His eternal spark into you. The psalmist said He knew you before He formed you, you belong to Him. And so, we go throughout our days acquiring life experiences that compete for our allegiance, our time and our attention and just when all holiness, all righteousness, all heavenly value appears to have been lost, God steps in. He says, I can restore you. I can make you new again. I can give your days meaning. Will you let me do that? And in that precious moment of truth, by His grace, we allow Him to touch our heart. Suddenly we are broken prodigals and become painfully and sometimes at first shamefully aware of how rebellious we have been, and how in need we are of Him to come and make us clean. And He makes us new again! He takes our Torah ark (your heart) and stands it upright, and He puts the Torah scroll (His word) back inside. And the light and love of that Torah scroll shines like a song through every dark and dreary hallway and passageway of our being. Like a beautiful melody speaking change, His word is His heart encased again in our own, and it sings lovingly, speaking life and light that calls us from out of the darkness. He puts a new song in our heart and we can again sing, “I am an overcomer by the blood of The Lamb, I am an overcomer a great miracle has happened here!
In the song lyrics I’ve worked in some Hebrew here and there. I feel compelled to do so in most of my music because Hebrew is the language we will speak in God’s Kingdom when Messiah returns. So it’s important to me and I believe it should be important to you also. I began this Chanukah song with I chanu my chaim, roughly translated “I dedicate my life” which again is why the celebration of Chanukah is so wonderful, because it is an opportunity to get right, and to rededicate our life to God. And all of us are not necessarily in the same place spiritually as everyone else, are we? Some of us may have a greater grasp of these things while others are just starting out. The point is, all of us wherever we are, need these opportunities to rededicate our lives afresh to God right? Look at Rosh Chodesh (new moon), the Torah cycles, the seasons, and the moedim we are called to walk in every year. Look at Sabbath that comes every seven days as a time of rest and healing. God is all about renewal and rededicating. All of that to say, we are all on this journey together. One of the lyrics declares in Hebrew, “Anach nu’ B’derech”, we are all on the journey. And we are on the journey together because God has declared us to become like our father Abraham, overcomers as we learn to grow and rededicate our temple back to God on each and every day. Happy Chanukah my friends.
“But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.” - (Romans 7:23),
and he also said...
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” - (Ephesians 6:12)
At the end of the day have you ever felt like you’ve been in the ring wrestling with something? Maybe it’s emotional, a strained relationship. Maybe it’s physical, perhaps you struggle with some addiction or habit that has you bound. Maybe it’s psychological? It could be you have a physical condition that traumatizes you to the point that it has convinced you that life is not the way God says He created it to be. Perhaps you’ve altered the way you think to cope with something unpleasant in your life. Of course, all of these can affect us in multiple ways, but they are ultimately spiritual wrestlings that whether we want to or not require us to wrestle each day. To that end, our purpose should be concentrating our hearts and minds on God’s Kingdom, and learning how to submit ourselves to YHVH, allowing Him to work through us every moment of every day; because when it comes down to it we should be doing everything to “The Glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
But if I’m willing to be honest with myself I fall short of this, believe me, the more I learn the more I realize just how cunning my own pride and ego are—again, we are in a war. But the beauty of this holiday is realizing the magnitude of the spiritual lesson found in the physical victory of the Maccabean revolt, over the Greek-Syrian army in the second century BCE. Allow me to share this with you. What the Maccabeans did was take back the holy temple that had been defiled by the Greek-Syrian empire. What the Maccabeans did was to clean the temple. They washed its floors, its walls and even the ceiling. They meticulously took the time (there’s that reference to time again) to repair all that had been damaged. They picked up the Torah Ark and checked the scroll, they repaired the chairs, the bema and cleaned the Menorah. And when everything had been completed you know what they did? They rededicated the temple to God.
There are so many beautiful things going on in this story it’s a bit overwhelming to absorb it all. So much could be said I’m afraid I might lose you. Time is scarce in our busy workaday world. I realize your time is precious. Again, we are in a war, but I implore you to continue with me for just a few minutes more. The first thing is, under inconceivable (by the way I always think of the movie The Princess Bride when I use that word) under inconceivable odds, the Maccabeans were absolutely undermanned, “outgunned” and should never have even “made it out of the gate”, if I could borrow a horse race analogy. These guys I can only surmise were akin to the minutemen in America when we first declared our independence from England. But see, this is one of those valuable moments God steps in and demonstrates that one plus God is a majority. God wins and always makes a way. We could actually stop right there and just soak that in for a minute.
The other important point is, they rededicated the temple to God, and Chanukah means just that. Linguistically the root word of Chanukah is “chanu”. That “C” “H” dipthong in English typically is pronounced with a “cha” sound, much like that found in the words change, check, and chimney. But in the Hebrew language, this two letter pronunciation is commonly referred to as a “guttural”. In other words it’s primarily achieved from the back of the throat, not completely unlike the sound you might make if attempting to clear some obstruction. Okay practice later, the important thing of note here is that this is a feast of rededicating the temple. But we’re not only referring to the temple in Jerusalem in the second century, but a different one. I know I’ve already quoted Apostle Paul a good bit in this brief lesson, but I can’t help that God chose to use Him to pen so much of the Bible. So, again, it’s important to recognize God is not only referring to the temple of the second century, but to us as well. Paul said,
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” - (1 Corinthians 6:19)
So there is this connection we’ve been inching toward since I began sharing this with you. You were created to be God’s temple where His Holy Spirit can dwell inside of you, and lead you into all truth, and intercede on your behalf with prayers and groanings that even you are not consciously aware of. But here’s the other thing that maybe you haven’t considered. Chanukah is celebrated not just to remember something that happened over two millennia ago, rather it is to give you a golden opportunity to rededicate your life to Him, to begin anew. Everyday can and should be a Chanukah celebration in our lives if we are honest with ourselves. The beauty of this holiday I think is that God is teaching us yet another important lesson. He is totally aware that we being yet limited in our earthbound coverings and blinded by any number of conditioning, habits, insecurities, defeats, diseases, or scars and hurts we’ve either wrestled with or nursed, depending on your specific situation creates the opportunity to reflect, to do a little honest introspection. When we do that it puts us into a position to make a decision, to make a choice. Hopefully it is to choose to restore your personal temple, with a willingness to surrender any right we thought we had to ourselves. It is the chance to rededicate our lives back to God by submitting to Him. Why? Because He loves you, and desires to dwell within you, to bring about the changes needed to set your free from bondage in order for you to have life, and to have it to the full!
So there you have it more or less. There is a great mystery I share in the lyric attached to a declaration that I hope you will sing with me wherever this song is played. I say,
“I am an overcomer, by the blood of the lamb, I am an overcomer, Nais Gadol Hayah Shahm.
The phrase there means “a great miracle happened here, and refers to the miracle God wrought through the Maccabeans in overcoming the Greek-Syrian army, in retaking the temple, in rededicating it to God, and in the story of the one cruse of oil that kept the menorah lit for eight days. It’s a beautiful reminder and its acronym is spelled out with the Hebrew letters Nun, Gimel, Heh and Shin. As they were then, today they are still inscribed on an enduring children’s toy known in Yiddish as the dreidel. The Jewish children played the dreidel, also recognized as a top, in those days as a means to keep Torah and their Jewish heritage alive amidst persecution. It was a constant reminder of God’s love for His people, and for what He did with a few willing and obedient Maccabeans. A great miracle did indeed happen here.
But the great miracle didn’t stop there did it? There was another place where a great miracle occurred. Mount Calvary, where our Messiah obediently gave His life for ours, stiff-necked haters of God, and with His blood He made the way. He restored our relationship back to The Father that had previously been cut-off. That was indeed a great miracle, which in turn created another miracle right here. I’m pointing to your heart, figuratively speaking of course but all the same, I’m still pointing to your heart. I’m speaking of the great miracle of God breathing His eternal spark into you. The psalmist said He knew you before He formed you, you belong to Him. And so, we go throughout our days acquiring life experiences that compete for our allegiance, our time and our attention and just when all holiness, all righteousness, all heavenly value appears to have been lost, God steps in. He says, I can restore you. I can make you new again. I can give your days meaning. Will you let me do that? And in that precious moment of truth, by His grace, we allow Him to touch our heart. Suddenly we are broken prodigals and become painfully and sometimes at first shamefully aware of how rebellious we have been, and how in need we are of Him to come and make us clean. And He makes us new again! He takes our Torah ark (your heart) and stands it upright, and He puts the Torah scroll (His word) back inside. And the light and love of that Torah scroll shines like a song through every dark and dreary hallway and passageway of our being. Like a beautiful melody speaking change, His word is His heart encased again in our own, and it sings lovingly, speaking life and light that calls us from out of the darkness. He puts a new song in our heart and we can again sing, “I am an overcomer by the blood of The Lamb, I am an overcomer a great miracle has happened here!
In the song lyrics I’ve worked in some Hebrew here and there. I feel compelled to do so in most of my music because Hebrew is the language we will speak in God’s Kingdom when Messiah returns. So it’s important to me and I believe it should be important to you also. I began this Chanukah song with I chanu my chaim, roughly translated “I dedicate my life” which again is why the celebration of Chanukah is so wonderful, because it is an opportunity to get right, and to rededicate our life to God. And all of us are not necessarily in the same place spiritually as everyone else, are we? Some of us may have a greater grasp of these things while others are just starting out. The point is, all of us wherever we are, need these opportunities to rededicate our lives afresh to God right? Look at Rosh Chodesh (new moon), the Torah cycles, the seasons, and the moedim we are called to walk in every year. Look at Sabbath that comes every seven days as a time of rest and healing. God is all about renewal and rededicating. All of that to say, we are all on this journey together. One of the lyrics declares in Hebrew, “Anach nu’ B’derech”, we are all on the journey. And we are on the journey together because God has declared us to become like our father Abraham, overcomers as we learn to grow and rededicate our temple back to God on each and every day. Happy Chanukah my friends.
ivrimIvrim words and music by Will Spires from the Album “Mercy”
I Chanu’ (I dedicate), my Chayim (life), L’olam va’ed (forever) to the Elohim, everyday His rachamim (mercy) is renewed Kindle the fires kol’ vec’ avod (All honor to The Father), I hear the sound of shofar blow It cries out through the ages! I am an Overcomer—by the Blood of the The Lamb I am an Overcomer—nesga’ dol-Hayasham (A Great Miracle happened here) It’s You holding my hand faithfully delivereth I am an Overcomer Anach’ nu’ Ba’ Derech! (We are all on the journey) Na na, Na-na-na-Na! Na-na, Na-na-na-na-na-na! We Are Ivrim! (Overcomers) Your cloud by day and fire by night, holding my gaze gives way to light
Ha cochavim (the stars), remind my heart, Nothing down here could ever part Your strong Arm from my life We were meant to be set apart, So let us keep the Father before us Do not grow weary, do not lose heart, Like steps each trial is part of the journey, & All of YHWH’s people say, All of YHWH’s people say!! I am an Overcomer—by the Blood of the The Lamb I am an Overcomer—nesga’ dol-Hayasham It’s You holding my hand faithfully delivereth I am an Overcomer Anach’ nu’ Ba’ Derech! Na na, Na-na-na-Na! Na-na, Na-na-na-na-na-na! We Are Ivrim! |
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