Many of us are off celebrating the end of the book.

Sukkot and the 8th Day look towards Revelation chapters 20, 21, and 22 being fulfilled! The Kingdom of God is at hand and will come swiftly in the end times! What a magnificent event this week pictures.

But there is something lurking at the end of the book, for within these three chapters of triumph, victory, and regeneration, Yah includes a few phrases, a few side notes for us to consider lest we let our fancy carry us away in bliss.

Consider these words:

“But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” – Revelation 21:27

Here we have a whole chapter dedicated to describing the new city of God, the coming Kingdom, in all of its glory for Yeshua and the Father to dwell with us.

And then suddenly out of nowhere we have this statement about some who are not allowed to enter into his Kingdom.

That should cause us some reflection, because the whole first 19 chapters of Revelation already talk about this, about the distinction between sinners and saints, between Yah’s chosen and those fallen away. So why, in the midst of these beautiful descriptions here in Revelation 21, did our Father choose to again remind us of this?

I believe it boils down to a mental condition that you and I all have, every one of us. And this condition is called separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety is a state of stress, apprehension, and fear when a child is removed from his or her parent.

You can see this happen in cases where a child’s parent tragically dies, or when a child is taken away from his or her parents due to divorce, or a legal issue. Or on a much tamer scale, when a child is separated from their parent on their first visit to a friend’s home.

In some of these less serious cases, a child can learn to cope. However, with some of the tragic scenarios, separation anxiety disorder is something that the individual will have to deal with for the rest of their life.

If you were to look up this disorder, you would find statistics of adult separation anxiety at 1% to 6.5% of all adults. Considering there a billions of people, this is a staggering amount of people.

But I think the figure is actually 100%.

Because we have all been separated from our Father, have we not? Do we not all suffer from stress, apprehension, and fear at the loss of our spiritual parent?

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” – Isaiah 59:2

Sin always separates us from God. We can see this many times throughout the Bible:

Jonah sinned by disobeying Yah. He fled, trying to separate himself from God and get as far away from Him as possible.

Adam and Eve sinned and were cut off from the tree, they were cut of from Zion, and were separated from the intimacy they once had with their Creator.

Cain sinned by killing his brother, and was marked and separated from Yah and from all the other people.

Yeshua Himself, when He took the sins of the world upon Him, became at the one instant, separated from God (Yahweh having to turn away from the sin, which is why Yeshua asked God if He was abandoned (Hab 1:13)).

All of these examples and more prove this point.

My friends… we are all separated from our father. And our sin is to blame!

But, there is hope. And if there is ever a time for hope, it is during the feast of sukkot!

The hope is this: that Yahweh will reconnect with us.

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” – Revelation 21:1-3

Yah has made a promise, spoken by His own mouth and His own hand, and here through His own messenger. His promise is that he is not a parent who has been killed, we have not been taken away permanently like so many poor people who have separation anxiety disorder due to lacking a parent.

No –

He is a father who returns, He returns to heal us of our disorder. To make us whole once again.

But here is the catch, and, if you will, the purpose of this note today:

Our Father cannot reconnect with us while sin still separates us.

So if we are looking forward to the Kingdom of God and want to be in it, we must repent and remove sin from our lives.

This is the first step to removing our mental disorder! This is the first step to healing our brokenness.

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Therefore “come out from among them and be separate, says Yahweh. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says Yahweh Almighty.” – 2 Corinthians 6:16-18

Yah puts it very plainly for us. He says, “if you want me back as your dad, your Father, then you need to stop separating yourself from me”. For truly it is by our own hand, just like Jonah, that we remove ourselves from His presence, His love, His protection.

Sin is enticing, sin if pleasing to behold, to partake in. Sin gives us wealth, power, health, pleasure, and so much more in this life. But Yah tells us that we can only pick one way of life.

God’s Kingdom to come is not a Kingdom of riding the line. It’s not a Kingdom that allows us to have one foot in and one foot out! It is a Kingdom of people solely dedicated to their King and savior.

The Maker says we have a choice, and we can pick one of two options. We can continue to be separated from Him, we can continue to suffer the effects of this separation anxiety disorder, with the fear, apprehension, and stress…

Or, we can run back to our father like the prodigal son. And He will return to us also, with arms wide open, welcoming us into the Kingdom.

So my friends, it’s simple.

Here we are basking in the glory of the millennium to come, picturing the world tomorrow. If we want to be there, if we want to no longer be a lost child without a father, we must repent. We must ask our heavenly dad to come back into our lives.

Let us no longer live in a state of separation, but one of a true father and son, father and daughter.