Beyond Pentecost

[Esaias]

Beyond Pentecost

There are three main Feasts that God ordained for His people, Passover/Unleavened Bread, Weeks/Firstfruits/Pentecost, and Tabernacles/Ingathering. As I stated in another thread, there are four layers of understanding concerning the Feasts of the Lord - the Historical, the Christological, the Experiential, and the Eschatological.

Let's talk about the Experiential side of these three Feasts.

Passover and Unleavened Bread must be experienced, that is, the individual needs a Calvary experience. They need to identify with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Not just through outward motions of repentance and baptism, but personally, mystically, spiritually, by taking up their cross and dying to self, coming alive to the will of God.

Pentecost must also be experienced. The individual needs a Pentecost experience. What does this entail? Obviously it involves the receiving of the promised Holy Ghost, but what does THAT include? It is being endued with power, Holy Ghost power, enabling the believer to be a witness, a genuine witness, for Christ. It is also a purification of the heart (Acts 15:8-9), a sanctifying, cleansing experience of being filled with the Spirit of HOLINESS. In the first Pentecost, in the Old Testament, the people met God, made a covenant with God, and received the Word of God, His LAW. But they couldn't keep it, because they didn't receive it in their inner man. They had His Word ringing in their ears, and written on tables of stone, and in a book, but it wasn't written in their hearts. So God promised to make a New Covenant, where He would write His laws in the inward man, and cause them to walk in His statutes, His ways. This was fulfilled on Pentecost, and is why the true Pentecostal experience is a heart purifying experience.

But the Feasts do not end there. There is yet still more! There is another and deeper layer to our walk with God that we need to recognise and walk in - TABERNACLES.

Tabernacles of course refers back to the time when Israel lived in temporary huts or booths, or "tabernacles", in the wilderness. During this time, God also "lived in a tabernacle" with them. They had not reached their final destination, they had a long journey to go, but God was with them, Tabernacling with them. In the fullness of time, this Feast was fulfilled Christologically when God tabernacled among us in the Son, Jesus Christ. (see John 1:14). So Tabernacles speaks of Christ come in the flesh, it speaks of the Word being made flesh, of God being "with us" truly and personally. But just as Passover and Pentecost have not only a fulfillment in the life and ministry of Christ, but also a fulfillment in the life of each believer, so too does Tabernacles.

How does Tabernacles get fulfilled in the believer? First of all, it should be noted that God tabernacled with Israel and Israel only. There is no tabernacling with God unless one has been delivered from the Egypt of sin and the world by the Passover Lamb, and until one has sealed the covenant at the fiery mount of Pentecost. Only then can one truly tabernacle with God. The Tabernacles experience is only available to those who have first gone through Calvary and on to the Upper Room.

Also, it is not merely an "experience", but a continuous journey. Israel was Tabernacling with God in the wilderness as a matter of daily life. Every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, from the time they became a nation before God until the time they had conquered Canaan. And of course, afterwards, they continued to remember those Tabernacle days by the yearly memorial Feast. The point is, Tabernacles teaches us that our walk with God is not just a series of distinct experiences that we can look back to in our personal history, but an ongoing lifestyle, a present continuous reality that lasts from the time God called us to the time our journey is finished and we have run the race.

But is the Tabernacles reality simply something we should take for granted? NO! We need to actively LIVE in the Tabernacles reality! Where our life is ACTIVELY and ACTUALLY a daily dwelling with God. Not merely where we affirm to ourselves that God is with us, but where He is ACTUALLY MANIFESTING HIS PRESENCE ALL THE TIME. Or to put it another way, where our eyes are opened up to the DAILY AND CONTINUOUS MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S PRESENCE WITH US as we journey to our destination.

What are the benefits of this? What exactly is the difference between a believer walking in Pentecostal reality, and a believer walking in Tabernacles reality? It is the difference between being sanctified, and being ENTIRELY sanctified. It is the difference between reckoned as abiding in Christ, and actually ABIDING (permanently) in Christ. It is the difference between imputation, and impartation, and between impartation, and saturation. It speaks to a permanence. Too many have Pentecostal experiences, and then like a yo-yo they bounce from one extreme to the other. Many fall by the wayside. They got something, but it didn't stick. God came down in tongues of fire and sat upon them, and they spoke in tongues like Joel said they would, but somehow they didn't follow God in their journey, somewhere along the line they got sidetracked. They find themselves powerless, dry, maybe even backslidden. They pine away for the good ole days, and although they believe "God is with us" it is really just something they tell themselves to keep from despairing. What we need is a Tabernacles revelation, our eyes need to be opened to the spiritual reality God has for us. We need to walk in the reality of tabernacling with God on a continuous basis. Not from meeting to meeting, but from breath to breath.

But there is more. Passover and Pentecost were not only PERSONAL experiences, but CORPORATE experiences. The church in the wilderness experienced Passover, and afterwards kept it as a nation, as a body. Same with Pentecost. And under the New Covenant, the whole church entered the Pentecostal reality, corporately, as a Body. This was the time of the first or early harvest. After the first harvest, were many long months preparing for the final harvest. And in the time of that final harvest, was Tabernacles.

Will the church experience a CORPORATE Tabernacles? Will there be a revival, if you will, whereby the Tabernacles reality becomes a present experienced reality for ALL GOD'S PEOPLE, as a BODY? I believe yes, it is possible. I do not believe it is strictly limited to some specific historical period, either in the past or the future, but is something we can access RIGHT NOW BY FAITH. Pentecost and Passover (Calvary) are available right now to whosoever will. SO IS TABERNACLES. There doesn't have to be a delay in our experience between Calvary and the upper Room. A person can, IF THEY HAVE FAITH FOR IT, they can go straight from Calvary to Pentecost in one shot. They can repent, experience remission of sins in Christ, and be filled with the Spirit and have their heart purified by faith all in one meeting. There is no requirement that anyone delay, or have to "come back in a couple weeks or months" to "get the next thing God has to offer." There is no need for "steps" spread out over time. TODAY is the Day!

But this implies that Tabernacles is available Today as well. One can get IT ALL in one shot, IF THEY WILL BUT BELIEVE! All the delay is on our part, it is due to our lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, and lack of believing. This is why many go for days, weeks, months, or years from the time they repent and are baptised until they "finally" get the Holy Ghost. It wasn't because God wasn't ready, rather they themselves weren't ready. So the question is the same that was asked of Paul - why tarriest thou? Why are you waiting? Get up and RECEIVE!

But wait! Someone will say Tabernacles speaks of backslidden Israel wandering in the wilderness! They were commanded to memorialise it as a reminder of their backslidden ancestry! Well, are you backslidden? Are you wandering in a dry desert? Then you need TABERNACLES! But besides that, the Feast of Tabernacles was not given to remind Israel of their backsliding in the wilderness, but rather of their being delivered from Egypt and forged into a nation in the sight of God as His peculiar people (Lev 23:43). Tabernacles thus speaks of God calling and delivering a people for Himself.

Also, God tabernacled with man, and Christ makes us His Body, so we become the Tabernacle of God. This world is a wilderness of sin, and people are lost and dying, and they need the TABERNACLE OF GOD. They need a church that is alive to the present reality of the manifest presence of God! They need God to tabernacle among them so they can be led to the promised land! In the Revelation it says God will tabernacle with us (dwell among us, His tabernacle is among men). This is not merely a backward look to our time in the wilderness of this world, but rather it is a forward look to our final destiny.



Calvary is about conception, eternal life is made possible. Pentecost is about birth, eternal life is birthed in us per Acts 2:38. Tabernacles is about MATURITY, "a perfect man". Tabernacles isn't a one time experience, but an ongoing reality.

[houston]

Excellent

[Evang.Benincasa]

Do you have this on audio?

[Michael The Disciple]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Beyond Pentecost

There are three main Feasts that God ordained for His people, Passover/Unleavened Bread, Weeks/Firstfruits/Pentecost, and Tabernacles/Ingathering. As I stated in another thread, there are four layers of understanding concerning the Feasts of the Lord - the Historical, the Christological, the Experiential, and the Eschatological.

Let's talk about the Experiential side of these three Feasts.

Passover and Unleavened Bread must be experienced, that is, the individual needs a Calvary experience. They need to identify with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Not just through outward motions of repentance and baptism, but personally, mystically, spiritually, by taking up their cross and dying to self, coming alive to the will of God.

Pentecost must also be experienced. The individual needs a Pentecost experience. What does this entail? Obviously it involves the receiving of the promised Holy Ghost, but what does THAT include? It is being endued with power, Holy Ghost power, enabling the believer to be a witness, a genuine witness, for Christ. It is also a purification of the heart (Acts 15:8-9), a sanctifying, cleansing experience of being filled with the Spirit of HOLINESS. In the first Pentecost, in the Old Testament, the people met God, made a covenant with God, and received the Word of God, His LAW. But they couldn't keep it, because they didn't receive it in their inner man. They had His Word ringing in their ears, and written on tables of stone, and in a book, but it wasn't written in their hearts. So God promised to make a New Covenant, where He would write His laws in the inward man, and cause them to walk in His statutes, His ways. This was fulfilled on Pentecost, and is why the true Pentecostal experience is a heart purifying experience.

But the Feasts do not end there. There is yet still more! There is another and deeper layer to our walk with God that we need to recognise and walk in - TABERNACLES.

Tabernacles of course refers back to the time when Israel lived in temporary huts or booths, or "tabernacles", in the wilderness. During this time, God also "lived in a tabernacle" with them. They had not reached their final destination, they had a long journey to go, but God was with them, Tabernacling with them. In the fullness of time, this Feast was fulfilled Christologically when God tabernacled among us in the Son, Jesus Christ. (see John 1:14). So Tabernacles speaks of Christ come in the flesh, it speaks of the Word being made flesh, of God being "with us" truly and personally. But just as Passover and Pentecost have not only a fulfillment in the life and ministry of Christ, but also a fulfillment in the life of each believer, so too does Tabernacles.

How does Tabernacles get fulfilled in the believer? First of all, it should be noted that God tabernacled with Israel and Israel only. There is no tabernacling with God unless one has been delivered from the Egypt of sin and the world by the Passover Lamb, and until one has sealed the covenant at the fiery mount of Pentecost. Only then can one truly tabernacle with God. The Tabernacles experience is only available to those who have first gone through Calvary and on to the Upper Room.

Also, it is not merely an "experience", but a continuous journey. Israel was Tabernacling with God in the wilderness as a matter of daily life. Every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, from the time they became a nation before God until the time they had conquered Canaan. And of course, afterwards, they continued to remember those Tabernacle days by the yearly memorial Feast. The point is, Tabernacles teaches us that our walk with God is not just a series of distinct experiences that we can look back to in our personal history, but an ongoing lifestyle, a present continuous reality that lasts from the time God called us to the time our journey is finished and we have run the race.

But is the Tabernacles reality simply something we should take for granted? NO! We need to actively LIVE in the Tabernacles reality! Where our life is ACTIVELY and ACTUALLY a daily dwelling with God. Not merely where we affirm to ourselves that God is with us, but where He is ACTUALLY MANIFESTING HIS PRESENCE ALL THE TIME. Or to put it another way, where our eyes are opened up to the DAILY AND CONTINUOUS MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S PRESENCE WITH US as we journey to our destination.

What are the benefits of this? What exactly is the difference between a believer walking in Pentecostal reality, and a believer walking in Tabernacles reality? It is the difference between being sanctified, and being ENTIRELY sanctified. It is the difference between reckoned as abiding in Christ, and actually ABIDING (permanently) in Christ. It is the difference between imputation, and impartation, and between impartation, and saturation. It speaks to a permanence. Too many have Pentecostal experiences, and then like a yo-yo they bounce from one extreme to the other. Many fall by the wayside. They got something, but it didn't stick. God came down in tongues of fire and sat upon them, and they spoke in tongues like Joel said they would, but somehow they didn't follow God in their journey, somewhere along the line they got sidetracked. They find themselves powerless, dry, maybe even backslidden. They pine away for the good ole days, and although they believe "God is with us" it is really just something they tell themselves to keep from despairing. What we need is a Tabernacles revelation, our eyes need to be opened to the spiritual reality God has for us. We need to walk in the reality of tabernacling with God on a continuous basis. Not from meeting to meeting, but from breath to breath.

But there is more. Passover and Pentecost were not only PERSONAL experiences, but CORPORATE experiences. The church in the wilderness experienced Passover, and afterwards kept it as a nation, as a body. Same with Pentecost. And under the New Covenant, the whole church entered the Pentecostal reality, corporately, as a Body. This was the time of the first or early harvest. After the first harvest, were many long months preparing for the final harvest. And in the time of that final harvest, was Tabernacles.

Will the church experience a CORPORATE Tabernacles? Will there be a revival, if you will, whereby the Tabernacles reality becomes a present experienced reality for ALL GOD'S PEOPLE, as a BODY? I believe yes, it is possible. I do not believe it is strictly limited to some specific historical period, either in the past or the future, but is something we can access RIGHT NOW BY FAITH. Pentecost and Passover (Calvary) are available right now to whosoever will. SO IS TABERNACLES. There doesn't have to be a delay in our experience between Calvary and the upper Room. A person can, IF THEY HAVE FAITH FOR IT, they can go straight from Calvary to Pentecost in one shot. They can repent, experience remission of sins in Christ, and be filled with the Spirit and have their heart purified by faith all in one meeting. There is no requirement that anyone delay, or have to "come back in a couple weeks or months" to "get the next thing God has to offer." There is no need for "steps" spread out over time. TODAY is the Day!

But this implies that Tabernacles is available Today as well. One can get IT ALL in one shot, IF THEY WILL BUT BELIEVE! All the delay is on our part, it is due to our lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, and lack of believing. This is why many go for days, weeks, months, or years from the time they repent and are baptised until they "finally" get the Holy Ghost. It wasn't because God wasn't ready, rather they themselves weren't ready. So the question is the same that was asked of Paul - why tarriest thou? Why are you waiting? Get up and RECEIVE!

But wait! Someone will say Tabernacles speaks of backslidden Israel wandering in the wilderness! They were commanded to memorialise it as a reminder of their backslidden ancestry! Well, are you backslidden? Are you wandering in a dry desert? Then you need TABERNACLES! But besides that, the Feast of Tabernacles was not given to remind Israel of their backsliding in the wilderness, but rather of their being delivered from Egypt and forged into a nation in the sight of God as His peculiar people (Lev 23:43). Tabernacles thus speaks of God calling and delivering a people for Himself.

Also, God tabernacled with man, and Christ makes us His Body, so we become the Tabernacle of God. This world is a wilderness of sin, and people are lost and dying, and they need the TABERNACLE OF GOD. They need a church that is alive to the present reality of the manifest presence of God! They need God to tabernacle among them so they can be led to the promised land! In the Revelation it says God will tabernacle with us (dwell among us, His tabernacle is among men). This is not merely a backward look to our time in the wilderness of this world, but rather it is a forward look to our final destiny.



Calvary is about conception, eternal life is made possible. Pentecost is about birth, eternal life is birthed in us per Acts 2:38. Tabernacles is about MATURITY, "a perfect man". Tabernacles isn't a one time experience, but an ongoing reality.

Amen

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

Do you have this on audio?

Not this one, specifically. This was culled from my study notes for a teaching I gave a while back. Sorry!

[Esaias]

Now, let's be clear about what's NOT being said here. We're not talking about a new experience, with distinct sensations and phenomena, as if Pentecostals need some new fangled thing to "get". Unfortunately, a lot of people who have never got the revelation of the Oneness of God are stuck running around chasing after "new experiences". And sadly, some of the folks among us have fallen into the same trap. Let me show you how Oneness ties into all this, and how a deeper revelation of Oneness can help prevent you from falling into that kind of snare.

Trinitarians have divided God, and as a result they have divided salvation. Just like they have a tripartite understanding of God, they have a tripartite understanding of salvation and redemption. They say you need the Calvary experience, which they identify with justification. Then, they say, you need the Pentecostal experience, which many of them identify with either the baptism with the Holy Ghost, or else some kind of sanctifying or empowering experience. And then, they say, you'll get the Tabernacles experience (if they even think about things this way) when you die and go to heaven, or maybe when you are resurrected with a new body (or tabernacle).

A lot of Oneness people came out of trinitarian backgrounds, and some of them maintained their previous views concerning salvation, albeit adopted to the Oneness truth and Jesus name baptism. So they taught that one came to Calvary in repentance and got justified (forgiven), then you needed to go on and get your sins remitted by being baptised in Jesus' name, and then you needed to go on to a third experience in the "Upper Room" and get the Pentecostal baptism, which they believed was only an empowering experience.

Now, those of us who have received the revelation of not only Oneness but the new birth (and the two really go hand in hand), can see the error in such views. We understand that receiving the Holy Ghost and being baptised in Jesus' name are both part of regeneration, or being born again, or being saved. We understand the new birth is of water AND Spirit. So doctrinally we do not separate them, nor do we separate the receiving of the Spirit from the baptism with the Spirit. Yet, many of us still have not fully realised the depths of the riches of the Oneness revelation. We still have a divided salvation, in that we make remission of sins in baptism and the gift of the holy Ghost into two seperable events or experiences. And repentance we often still make a seperable experience as well, so we are stuck with a tripartite salvation. This is a left over of trinitarian thinking, even though many are not aware of it.

The truth is, just as God is One, just as Christ and God are One, we and Christ are to be One as well (John 17:21). Our experience is to be a reflection of His, our salvation is to be a ONENESS or UNITY with Him. Not a tripartite or otherwise divided up experience, but a single, unitary, whole.

The Biblical and apostolic salvation experience is for a person to hear the Gospel, repent (make a decision to follow Christ), be baptised in His Name (exercise faith in His atoning death and resurrection), and receive the Holy Ghost (receive His salvation as an actual experiential change of the person). This is to be done all at once! There is no apostolic precedent for separating these things into different experiences, so that on one day a person repents, and then a week or month later they get baptised, and then weeks, months, or even years later they get the Holy Ghost. Or that a person would repent, and then later get the Holy Ghost, and then even later get baptised.

Now, the Scriptures do contain examples of non-normative conversion experiences: Cornelius and the gentiles, and the Samaritans. But in both cases their experience was out of the ordinary. Peter and his friends weren't even certain why they were preaching to gentiles in the first place, only that God had made clear to Peter that he was not to despise them but preach the Gospel to them. So nobody was planning on preaching and then baptising anybody. God short circuited their understanding by giving the Holy Ghost to the gentiles while Peter was still talking. And it was then he and they understood that gentiles were to get in on this thing as well, the Gospel wasn't just for the Jews. So they were baptised. But notice, they were baptised immediately! No "schedule a convenient time", but right now!

The Samaritans heard Phillip preaching, they believed the Gospel, and were baptised. But something was deficient, they did not receive the Holy Ghost (for some reason, which Luke does not tell). As soon as the apostles heard the news, Peter and John immediately went to Samaria to rectify what was lacking, and pray for them that they might receive the Spirit. It was an abnormal situation, and the apostles were intent on getting things on the right track as soon as possible with no delay. They did not say "Well, God will deal with them in His own time. Maybe next month, or next revival meeting." no, they went right away, and got busy praying for them and with them.

In these instances, we see that something was amiss, either in the ministry (in the gentiles' case, as the ministry had no expectation whatsoever of making any converts at all that day), or perhaps in the new converts' own faith or understanding (like with the Samaritans, possibly). This is true today. Many repent, and get baptised a week or even a month later. Many get baptised, and it is years before they get the Holy Ghost. Why? Why this separation? Because either they are not being taught correctly, or because there is something lacking in the understanding and therefore their faith. They do not expect to get baptised as soon as they hear and believe the Gospel, they do not expect to come out of the water speaking in tongues. They do not expect to have it all in one shot, one meeting, one experience.

But when we see the Oneness of it all, when we see that Christ our example came to John and was baptised and immediately was anointed with the Spirit's descent upon Him, that it was all one event, one experience, and we understand we are to be ONE with Christ... then we see that the salvation experience should be like His, ONE EXPERIENCE.

But I fear some reading all this, about "going beyond Pentecost and going to Tabernacles" may be thinking about it the wrong way. They may be thinking about it in the old trinitarian, traditional, divided up way. As if Tabernacles is some kind of new experience, separate and apart from the salvation they received. Some new thing they need to seek. When that is not really the case at all!

The only "new experience" is really a new, that is to say, a deeper, revelation. An opening of the eyes of the understanding to have deeper faith. But as I said previously in the first post, there is no need to "wait" or treat any of this as a wholly separate experience. Because it really isn't.

Again, we have the revelation of ONENESS. Our God is ONE. Our Saviour is ONE. And we are ONE with Him. Our salvation is ONE. And Tabernacles is included!

We do not have a separate Calvary experience and a separate Pentecost experience, except insofar as we want to examine the different aspects of salvation. Christ's blood refers to Calvary, but it was on Pentecost that the message went forth to repent, and be baptised in His name, and receive the Spirit. The delay between Calvary and Pentecost was ONLY because certain prophetic elements of God's timetable had to be fulfilled first. Do we not sing "The Comforter Has Come"? Do we not confess TODAY is the Day of Salvation? There is no need to wait. If the preaching is correct, and the hearers' faith is right, then they will experience Calvary IN THEIR PENTECOST.

So then, we should expect the Tabernacles experience, as I call it, which is not really just an experience but a continual state of being (as I pointed out in the first post), we should expect that to also be ONE with Calvary and Pentecost.

Look at Jesus again. He was baptised and received the Spirit's anointing, and immediately went into the wilderness. How was He able to survive in the wilderness and overcome temptation unless God was with Him? If the Spirit was with Him (it was), then God was TABERNACLING WITH HIM IN THE WILDERNESS. He had no permanent structure to live in, He had to depend on God's Spirit. That is what being tabernacled is all about - living in booths in the wilderness, that is, depending on God's provision and not making yourself at home in the desert, but sojourning with God through it all.

So we see that Jesus had His Tabernacles right along with His Pentecost and even His Calvary (Calvary is Passover, and the Exodus, when Israel went through the water and was separated from Egypt, and Christ went through the water of baptism and was separated to His Divine Mission, declared to be the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world). It was a package deal.

And there is no reason it cannot be so with us. Your Tabernacles experience is already provided for. It was made available on the Cross. You received it when you were born again. Now walk in it, like Jesus did. He was not only tabernacled with the Father in the wilderness, but as He said the Father is always with him, He was tabernacling with God permanently.

The "new thing" you need is an understanding, a revelation, that God is ALWAYS WITH YOU. And because of this, you need NEVER FAIL.

[TyronePalmer]

Originally Posted by Esaias

They need a church that is alive to the present reality of the manifest presence of God! They need God to tabernacle among them so they can be led to the promised land!

True Christians don't need a 'Church', they need to understand the truth, that those in whom God's Spirit dwells ARE the church, and start applying the scriptures they read and quote every Sunday. Start fasting and cutting out the lust of flesh and eyes and the Spirit in them will start cleansing out their temple.

I wonder how many really want the manifest presence of God? A Continuous and conscious awareness of His holiness and righteousness, a fearful expectation of judgement when they do wrong. Yes He is abounding in love and slow to anger, but He chastens those whom He loves and scourges every son whom He receives.

And scourging is painful!

What many believers need today is repentance and obedience to the word of God they already know but don't practice!

[Esaias]

Nehemiah 8:13-18 And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law. (14) And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: (15) And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. (16) So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. (17) And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. (18) Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

To better understand Tabernacles, and what it entails for us, let's look at the restoration of the Feast of Tabernacles as recorded in the book of Nehemiah. The people had for a long time failed to keep the festival. In fact, they had not been keeping the Feast properly since the days of Joshua. A lot of people have figured they have entered the Promised Land already, and as a result have left off some important things. Elsewhere, we read about how Jereboam made a replacement, a substitute, "feast", in the eighth month, as a counterfeit to Tabernacles. This tells us that Tabernacles was being kept, but comparing Scripture with Scripture, as we read in Nehemiah, it apparently was not being kept completely. The people were keeping it in some vague form, but they weren't doing it the way God had originally ordained. Their obedience was only partial, and so they had been enjoying only a partial Tabernacles experience.

I think this describes many people today. Perhaps they mentally acknowledge "Yes, God is with me, God tabernacles with us" but they only have a partial enjoyment of that reality. It's in the head and maybe even somewhat in the heart, but not evident throughout their life, in all departments. Maybe it's only evident in the theological books, but nowhere evident in the meetings, let alone the daily living! So what many need is a restoration, a Nehemiah style restoration, of the true Tabernacles. They need to go from a partial understanding to a fuller, complete and mature, revelation and application.

We see also that they were to "go to the mount, and fetch" the branches with which the Feast was to be kept. You will not be keeping Tabernacles until you "go to the mount." What mount is that? It is Mount Zion, which in the New Covenant reality is the redeemed church. The people are to be told, the news is to be proclaimed, to keep Tabernacles. That is the preaching of the Gospel. And the way to keep Tabernacles requires the people to "go to the mount", to Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:22). Not to a building, but to a people, the redeemed of the Lord. Folks are not going to discover how to live in fellowship with God (which is the point of the Gospel, by the way) by merely going to the internet, or to some book, or some Facebook page. They have to GO TO THE CHURCH. They need an encounter with God's people, because that is where the Holy Ghost Presence of God is going to be found - in the midst of a red hot Holy Ghost meeting of the saints of God! The people need you, dear saint, IN THEIR LIFE.

We also read they are fetch branches. The booths or tabernacles were be constructed with these "goodly branches". Branches of "goodly trees". The only tree on Mount Zion today is the Tree of Life, the CROSS OF JESUS. Fellowship with God is built on the Cross. You cannot tabernacle with God apart from the Cross. EVERYTHING goes back to the Cross. Everything goes back to the sacrifice of Christ. That's where the "water of life" flows. That water of life is the blood of Jesus. and listen, that water of life is the HOLY GHOST! The Holy Ghost is the power of the blood made real in a person's soul. Why did Jesus say (during the Feast of Tabernacles, no less) "He that believes on Me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water", speaking of the Holy Ghost? Because once you get the blood of Jesus down inside you it becomes a well of living water springing up into everlasting life! To keep the Feast, to walk in the Tabernacles reality, we have to construct our dwellings out of the branches from the mount, it has to be built from the Cross.

These booths are not full blown houses. They are mobile, temporary structures. The emphasis is not on the temporariness, but on the mobility. A tabernacle can travel with you. What is temporary is not so much the tabernacle itself, but your particular spot where you are camped out. We are pilgrims and strangers here, we are sojourning with God. We are on an expedition, and our dwelling place cannot be a great big old house. Because then we will camp out in one spot and refuse to move forward when the Cloudy, Fiery Pillar moves on. So our dwelling here must be temporary, and our booth must be mobile. It must go with us, wherever God leads us. This is the secret of Tabernacles, that God is with us as we travel this world. But if we lose the pilgrim's heart and attitude, if we decide to make do with where we are, no more to roam, then we cannot, spiritually speaking, go on with God. So we must be mobile, and our life must be spiritually mobile, able to go wherever God leads, quickly, with no delays. This is a true Tabernacles walk with God, being able to go wherever God leads without delay.

They made these booths wherever they could. On top of their houses, in the streets, in the Temple area courts, in their front yards. Everywhere. Wherever you are, you can enter the Tabernacles reality. Everything, everyplace, becomes a tabernacle. It doesn't matter where a person is in life, they can enter into fellowship with God, and sojourn with Him! Nobody need be left out, nobody has to be left behind, unless that is what they choose.

And during the Feast, they read in the book of the Law. A person walking in the light of Tabernacles, will be walking in the light of God's Word. That's the whole point of it: to fellowship with and travel with God, which requires fellowship with His Word. Why? Because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and TABERNACLED AMONG US.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by TyronePalmer

True Christians don't need a 'Church', they need to understand the truth, that those in whom God's Spirit dwells ARE the church, and start applying the scriptures they read and quote every Sunday. Start fasting and cutting out the lust of flesh and eyes and the Spirit in them will start cleansing out their temple.

I wonder how many really want the manifest presence of God? A Continuous and conscious awareness of His holiness and righteousness, a fearful expectation of judgement when they do wrong. Yes He is abounding in love and slow to anger, but He chastens those whom He loves and scourges every son whom He receives.

And scourging is painful!

What many believers need today is repentance and obedience to the word of God they already know but don't practice!

Well, of course believers who are not practicing the Word need to get busy being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.

but when I said "the people need a church" I meant that the lost need to encounter the true living church of the true living God in whose midst He truly dwells. They don't need a denomination, or a program, or a man made religion. They need the real deal.

Thanks for the input.

[TyronePalmer]

Originally Posted by Esaias

Well, of course believers who are not practicing the Word need to get busy being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.

but when I said "the people need a church" I meant that the lost need to encounter the true living church of the true living God in whose midst He truly dwells. They don't need a denomination, or a program, or a man made religion. They need the real deal.

Thanks for the input.

Totally agree with that! We all need the real deal! Hasten the day Lord!