Three Transforming Experiences - Part 4
Salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit are wonderful transforming experiences, but God has provided a third transforming experience for every believer that is illustrated in the third great Feast of the Lord—The Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles was originally instituted by God to commemorate the time in the past when the people of Israel dwelt in tents in the wilderness after God delivered them from Egypt (Leviticus 23:43).
In celebration of this feast, the participants lived in tabernacles made of palm branches and other materials for the seven days of the feast. This is described in Nehemiah 8:13-18:
“On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the teacher to give attention to the words of the Law.** They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month **and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: ‘Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters’—as it is written.
“So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.
“Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.” (NIV)
As it says in this passage from Nehemiah, the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated in the seventh month. For the individual believer, this speaks of an experience for those who are mature because the number seven represents completion or perfection. Contrast this with Passover, which was celebrated in the first month, speaking of the beginning of a believer’s journey with the Lord.
In the life of the Church, the number seven could also represent the culmination of things because the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated at harvest time (Lev 23:39). Jesus told us that harvest time is the end of the age (Matthew 13:39).
Leaven was allowed in the feast of Pentecost, but there is no leaven allowed in the Feast of Tabernacles. There has been a lot of mixture, carnality, and impurity in the Pentecostal church and the charismatic movement. That will not be allowed when the Church enters into the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. Purity will be required. Believers who think they can waltz into this great move of God without repentance will find themselves watching from the sidelines, not qualified to participate.
No work was allowed on the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles. This is a work of God. There is nothing we can do to add to what God does in this transforming experience.
The Feast of Tabernacles experience takes us into the Most Holy Place in His Tabernacle—the Holy of Holies.
Fulfilling the Feast of Tabernacles
To celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, Jewish participants made personal tabernacles unto the Lord that they lived in for the seven days of the feast. This is symbolic of an ultimate experience when God inhabits the bodies of believers in the fullness of His Presence with power.
We know from Scripture that each individual believer is now a temple (or tabernacle) of the Lord.
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?”—1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)
When a believer enters into the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles experience, God comes and take up residence in His tabernacle—the body of the believer. The believer becomes a living carrier of the abiding, manifested presence of God with God’s authority and power.
There have been a few forerunners who have entered into the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles experience, and we can look at their lives to discover more about this experience, but the fulfillment in the life and experience of the Church is still to come.
Passover was literally fulfilled in the history of the Church when Jesus died as the Passover Lamb. This opened the door for everyone who believes to experience Salvation and new life in Christ. Fifty days after that, the Holy Spirit came to the group of 120 disciples in the upper room during the Feast of Pentecost according to the Jewish calendar, and that second great feast was fulfilled.
I’m sure that, if they realized at that time that two of the three great Feasts of the Lord has just been fulfilled in their time, the people of God were intensely anticipating the seventh month of that year!
But the seventh month came and went that year, and there was no fulfillment of the great Feast of Tabernacles in the life of the Church.
Why?
“Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection apart from us [before we could join them].”—Hebrews 11:40 (AMPC)
When will the Church finally experience the fulfillment of the great Feast of Tabernacles? The clue is that the Feast of Tabernacles took place *at harvest time! *Harvest time is the end of the age (Matthew 13:39). The great Feast of Tabernacles has been reserved for us in these last days!
Soon, the fullness of time will come, and the Church will experience the fulfillment of the great Feast of Tabernacles! God will come to His Church and take up residence in those who have prepared themselves to be His living tabernacles. Those who are counted worthy to enter into the fullness of this Feast of Tabernacles experience will enter into an infilling of the presence of God like never before! These believers will become living tabernacles carrying the abiding, manifested presence of God in their bodies, and they will do the works of Jesus just as He did when He was on the Earth, and even greater works will be done by these believers! (John 14:12)
Just as Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled at the time of each feast according to the Jewish calendar, there is no doubt that the great Feast of Tabernacles will also be fulfilled when its fullness of time comes according to the Jewish calendar.
Will it be this year?
Three Transforming Experiences
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