Shavuot - Two Testaments on Two Mountains (Page 3)
(continued from page
2)
We will begin to love our neighbor as ourselves and love one another
as He loved us. The central theme of the Torah is the same as the
New Covenant, "Love G-d with all your heart and love others
as He has loved you." Matthew 22:37-40
We have all tried to keep the Torah, in one form or another, in
our own strength and to the very best of our ability. We strive
do this as a testimony to G-d and others of how much we love Him
and how serious we are about our faith. Sadly we have all failed
miserably in our sincerest attempts of living up to the absolute
perfect holiness of Torah.
Our only hope is to completely surrender to G-d, embracing Him
as L-RD & Master, and confessing to Him that we have sinned
and fallen short of His glory. Unless we allow G-d's Word to abide
in us and we also abide in Him, we will never walk in the power
of His Spirit or know the fulfillment of His love.
We all need a daily immersion in the Word of G-d and the power
of His Spirit, if we ever hope to obey His commandments out of a
heart overflowing with His agape' love for our family, friends,
neighbors, and coworkers, as well as demonstrating G-d's love to
our enemies.
Shavuot means Weeks or Sevens. It is the culmination of the 49
days of counting the Omer (beginning the day after the Sabbath during
the week of Unleavened Bread), a specific measure of barley, from
which bread was made as a sacrificial wave offering on the temple
altar.
This seems to imply that there is a supernatural connection between
Passover and Shavuot. Seven is the number of perfection and completion.
Seven times seven indicates the ultimate perfection and completion
made available to us by G-d's supernatural intervention.
On Passover G-d Himself provided The Lamb slain from the foundations
of the world to provide all humanity with eternal redemption. Shavuot
takes our redemption from the future (Heaven) to the present (filling
us with G-d's Holy Spirit). Fulfilling the prayer Y'shua taught
His talmideem, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, in earth
as it is in Heaven." G-d wanted His will of His Kingdom to
come into the earth through us, His earthen vessels.
"For G-d Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has
shined His light into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of G-d in the face of Y'shua the Messiah. But we
have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that this all-surpassing
excellence of the power may be from G-d and not from us."
2 Corinthians 4:6-7
This perfect fulfillment of all the righteous requirements of Torah
has been paid for by our Messiah Himself and then imparted to everyone
who believes by the outpouring of HaRuach HaKodesh on the feast
of Shavuot. Living within us is the perfect righteousness of the
Son of G-d through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
This is the Sheckinah (the manifest presence of G-d) that once
dwelt in the Holy of Holies, deep within the holy Temple. Now, by
the miraculous grace of G-d revealed to us through the New Covenant,
we can actually receive that same presence into our own heart, changing
our lives forever, for we have become the Temples of the Living
G-d.
"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from G-d? You are
not your own, for you have been bought at a price (the precious
blood of Y'shua). Therefore glorify G-d with your body. 1 Corinthians
6:19-20
We are now privileged to enjoy intimate fellowship with G-d as
He had originally planned for us to do in the Garden of Eden, where
Adam and Eve walked and talked with G-d in the cool of the day.
This is what we were created for and this is what the two covenants
on two mountains testify to.
Our salvation is not just for our own enjoyment. G-d loves the
whole world and wants to impact every person on this planet with
the message of His amazing love before the end of the world is upon
us. As we read in the Prophet Joel:
"And afterward (after the restoration of physical Israel
[1948] and Jerusalem [1967]), I will pour out my Spirit upon all
flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will
dream dreams; your young men shall see visions. Even on my handmaids
and my servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
I will show signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood, fire and billows of smoke. The sun shall be darkened and
the moon shall be turned to blood, before the great and dreadful
Day of the L-RD.
And everyone who calls on the name of the L-RD will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,
as the L-RD has said, among the remnant whom the L-RD shall call."
Joel 2:28-32
We see that G-d wants to pour out His Spirit on all people, Jews
& Gentiles, the Young & Old, Men & Women. No one is
left out of this awesome opportunity to have G-d's holy presence
live within them and empower them to minister the Gospel.
These verses remind us that G-d is going to have great revival
amongst the Jewish people in the land of Israel before Messiah returns.
His Kingdom come, His will be done; in earth (in us) as it is in
Heaven, when Messiah's body will truly be ONE! |
