A Mighty Rushing Wind

The blessed Feast of Shavu'ot (Pentecost) has come and gone. Because most of us are not functioning in the agricultural cycles of planting and harvesting that the Israelites carried out, it is much harder for us to discern how we should be celebrating the feasts of the LORD. Yet, two things regarding Shavu'ot are certain: we are called to offer firstfruits to the LORD, and we should be expecting another Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as the apostles experienced on that day!

Leviticus 23:15-17:  ¹⁵ “‘From the day after the day of rest — that is, from the day you bring the sheaf for waving — you are to count seven full weeks, ¹⁶ until the day after the seventh week; you are to count fifty days; and then you are to present a new grain offering to Adonai. ¹⁷ You must bring bread from your homes for waving — two loaves made with one gallon of fine flour, baked with leaven — as firstfruits for Adonai.

The apostles would have counted those fifty days, known as the counting of the omer, and then on the 50th day - the feast of Shavu'ot - they were gathered together.
Acts 2:1-4:  The festival of Shavu‘ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. ² Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. ⁴ They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

Last Saturday we went out to a Colorado State Park near a lake and camped out with two dear friends who, like we, were greatly anticipating a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. We were blessed with a campsite very near the water, and we spent the entire afternoon in the Word.  After enjoying a sumptuous banquet of the Scriptures, we all began to question, "What do we need to do to be prepared for a fresh anointing? Does God consider us ready and worthy of such an event?" We all received the same answer as we sought the Lord, and the answer was "teshuva" (repent)! It bore witness with all of us. We needed to be clean vessels before the Father. 

We had a time of precious worship in our little camper that evening, as the feast day came in, and we each offered up to the LORD our own personal confessions of sin, asking forgiveness of Him and of each other. Then, quite suddenly, it began: the mighty, rushing wind! The wind blew so hard I wondered if our little pop-up was going to roll over! The great gusts of wind ushered in the rain - a downpour of heavenly blessing, a sign of Father's cleansing work in each of us.  That night we slept peacefully, confident that we had heard His instruction and received His blessing.

 In the morning we walked down to the lake with two freshly-baked loaves of fine flour. Before we waved them before the LORD, we two couples entered the lake and washed our spouses' feet, asking for forgiveness in any ways we dishonored one another, and then asking the Father to accept US as two loaves - two people joined together as the two sticks of Ezekiel - being restored as one.

How personal and intimate this Shavu'ot celebration was! We knew the Spirit had visited us in the wind and in the rain, and again in the lake. Tearfully we climbed back up on the bank and waved the loaves of bread as an offering to YHVH, feeling overwhelming gratitude that our Abba was looking down on His children with joyful approval. We are not in the Land - we are in exile - and none of us have full understanding how to keep these wonderful festivals; yet, it reminds me of little children who make a card for their daddy's birthday and scribble all over the paper and make funny pictures. Does the daddy disapprove because he can't read the scribbling or understand the pictures? Of course not! The daddy's heart is melted because his little child did the best he could to show his love for his father.

I pray that our Abba Father's heart was melted as we worshiped and confessed, and washed feet and waved the firstfruits offering of bread before Him. I pray that the couple who came walking by and curiously watched us will want to discover what we were doing, and come to the LORD because of it! I pray that the mighty wind and the outpouring of rain were signs that we are being cleansed, healed, restored, and made ready to be the Bride of our soon-coming King!

God's Rest

The times are getting exciting and intense; many are entering into much anxiety and fear based upon the news and the violence that surrounds us. Yet, today's Torah portion from Leviticus 25, about the shmita, or sabbatical year, and the yovel - or jubilee year - is one that brings great joy and shalom.

Leviticus 25:1-7:  And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ⁵ What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. ⁶ And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, ⁷ for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.

The instruction to the children of Israel was that they plant their crops for six years, but then let the land rest in the shmita, the seventh year. This year was to be a shabbat to the LORD.  This word shabbat is Strong's #H2323 and it means to cease, desist from labor, and rest. Because we live in a society that does not comprehend this word, it is very foreign to us, and its deeper spiritual meaning escapes us. We have to go back to Genesis 2:2-3 to see where God originally established this pattern of shabbat, or rest, on the 7th day (which, of course is our present Saturday). What was this pattern all about?

I would submit to you that it is all about trust. From the beginning our God has been trying to teach us to fully trust in Him for everything we need and with everything we have. Even in current Israeli culture the majority of Jewish farmers and vineyard owners do not practice the shmita rest for their land. It has been reported that many of them actually "hire the land" out to foreigners during shmita years so that technically they are not planting the land - somebody else is! Do you think this fools the Creator of the Universe? I think not - because on the other hand, those in Israel who have returned to the keeping of the shmita (seventh) year, letting their land rest and not planting at all, have reported up to 800 times the quantity of produce in following years!  They trusted in God to provide for their seventh year, in order to feed their families and their workers, and our faithful God did not disappoint!

In Leviticus 25:8-13 the children of Israel are instructed about the 50th year, or the Jubilee year: 
And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. ¹² For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field. ¹³ ‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. 

Julie Parker writes in her wonderful Torah study, Sheepfold Gleanings: "Jubilee was announced to Israel on the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur - the Wedding Day, in the seventh month on the tenth day, when atonement was made. A trumpet was blown to proclaim liberty, freedom and release for people suffering economic and social hardship.  Everyone who had sold their family property had it restored to them, all land was given back to its original owners and those who had been forced to sell themselves into slavery were released. The land of Israel was never to be permanently sold. The children of Israel were and are to be YHVH's caretakers of the Land. The Israelites could not buy up the land of Israel because the Land itself belonged to YHVH! He is the owner of the land of Israel. It is HIS to give and by His grace and mercy to lease it out to the children of Jacob as their inheritance (Leviticus 25:23)." 

This led me to think about our Shabbat celebration with some friends last night. After lighting the candles, singing some songs of worship, and then entering into the throne room of the Lord for prayer, all four of us began crying out to Him in passionate pleas for our unsaved children and grandchildren. John and I had done this many times before for our families, but never with so many tears and unbridled passion! We were reminding the Lord of the brief space of time we believe there is left for repentance and salvation; but then, the Lord began reminding us of something we may have forgotten: our children are not really our own, they are His. Everything we have - our lives, our money, our wives, our husbands, our children, our jobs, our time and our abilities are all from Yehovah. He has "leased" these people and things to us for a time, so that we can care for them. But we must trust in Yeshua - the Kinsman Redeemer - to redeem them in His perfect time. 

Julie Parker also writes, "According to Yovel (Jubilee), the people will also be returning to their allotted tribal lands. In Scripture, those who return will do so by the power of Yeshua, our Kinsman Redeemer, and by the price He paid for us that opened the way for the right of redemption under the law of the Yovel year. The Law of Redemption is Yeshua; He has provided the way back home!"

Isn't this glorious news? We who are grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel through our belief in Messiah Yeshua, and keeping of His commandments, will, in God's perfect timing, find our way back home! I know many of you, like me, are homesick, now more than ever. This world is not our home! But one thrilling day in a Jubilee year yet to come, we will be "returned to our allotted tribal lands" and enter God's true Shabbat, His perfect Rest!

During one of our Monday bible study classes with 18 elderly folks at a retirement home, we read Luke 22:29-30:

²⁹ And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, ³⁰ that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” 

One of those in the class, who happens to be a retired Lutheran pastor in his upper 80s, raised his hand, a look of great concern on his face, and he said, "Why would we be judging the twelve tribes of Israel if there's no one there to judge?"
My heart sank with sadness at this prevalent example of replacement theology. This pastor had been taught - as most in his generation had been taught - that the Church replaced Israel and the Jews and they would have no part in the Kingdom! When we explained to him that he is blessed to be grafted in to Israel through Messiah, and the root supports him, he does not support the root (Romans 11:18), he was quite distressed!

How blessed we are to remember that Yeshua is our Root, our Kinsman Redeemer, who still holds to and operates within the calendar set forth at Creation! Rest assured that even though we have no accurate account of when the next Yovel year is, we understand its spiritual meaning and apply it to our lives. As we keep the weekly Shabbats, we enter into God's rhythms and cycles. As we count the Omer from Unleavened Bread to Shavu'ot (Pentecost), we move in His rhythm to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming Outpouring of the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit). And as we lay our ambitions, our goals, our hopes, our lives, and even our children, on the altar, we can truly take a deep breath, separate ourselves from the world's system, trusting fully in the Creator of the Universe - and REST!

Shabbat Shalom,
Kelly

P.S. If you are interested in an incredible weekly Torah study, visit www.sheepfoldgleanings.net

Also, I would encourage you to again visit our friend Edgar's website for all-natural, chemical-free hair and skin products. We want to support this humble believer in Yeshua, who is making these wonderful, pure products, now including shampoo, conditioner, and kosher soaps. Visit his site at www.bellasshampoo.weebly.com. And if you would, please pray for his wife who is very sick in a Denver hospital.  Thank you!