The following will be my talking points for the message I will be giving this afternoon to the brethren assembled in Wilsonville, Oregon for Hoshana Rabbah’s 2015 Shavuot NW regional gathering. Tomorrow is Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost), and this message is helping to prepare ourselves to meet YHVH on his festival.

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Who May Ascend?

YHVH dwells in a high place (heaven), which is metaphorical represented as a mountain in the Scriptures. It’s high because it’s higher than man and this earth. Mount Sinai was where YHVH spoke to the Israelites from. Moses had to ascend the mountain to come into YHVH’s Presence. The temple in Jerusalem was YHVH’s abiding place among his people. One always went up to Jerusalem to meet with Elohim at this appointed times. When Yeshua returns, the righteous will go up to meet him — the king. In the Millennium, all nations will go up to Jerusalem to meet YHVH on his feast days.

David asks the question: Who may ascend and dwell in your holy hill or abide in your  tabernacle (Ps 15; 24)? What keeps us from the Presence of YHVH? It is obvious from this question that not everyone has the right to go up into YHVH’s Presence. YHVH as the Almighty Holy King of the universe has established the criteria for who may come up to meet him or not. Only those who meet his condition, will he allow to come up to meet him. Only those who have been taken prisoner by their own innate pride think that they can waltz into the King’s Presence anytime and any way. It doesn’t work this way. This is self-delusion. Only those who have died to their own pride and have humbly submitted themselves to do the will of Elohim will come into his Presence.

Do we really want to do the will of YHVH? Or are we listening to the lie of the serpent who tempted the first man to give in to the lust of his flesh and eyes and the pride of life when he questioned the word of Elohim and said, “Hath God [really] said?”

The older generation of carnal man Israelites couldn’t enter the Promised Land because of their stiff necks and hard hearts of rebellion and wilfulness. Like our ancient forefathers who died in the wilderness, we need to have the hard and fallow ground of our unrepentant and prideful hearts needs tilled up (Jer 4:3; Hos 10:12). Our hearts need to be circumcised. The filth of this world that has wrapped itself around us needs to be cut off. We need to be cut to the heart and find a heart of repentance (Acts 2:37). We need to put off our lukewarm, carnal Laodicean ways (Rev 3:15–20).

We must ask ourselves an important question: Is Yeshua really the Lord or Master of our lives, or only when it doesn’t get in the way of the things we’d rather do than obey his commands?

What does it really mean to follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Rev 14:4)?

What did Yeshua mean when he said, Lose your life (John 12:25), pick you cross and follow me (Matt 16:24)?

There is a group in the last days who will be walking righteously with Yeshua. They are the Continue reading →

 

To help you get ready for the biblical feast of Shavuot or Pentecost, I invite you to read my teaching article on the subject.

From Mount Sinai to Acts 2; From Faithlessness to Miraculous Empowerment 

Ya’acov Natan Lawrence
Waters in the Wilderness, A Teaching Ministry of Hoshana Rabbah Biblical Discipleship Resources

What is Shavuot All About?

In the roughly 49 days between Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Pentecost (Chag haShavuot), a momentous spiritual dynamic occurs. This period of time is comprised of forty-nine days or seven days of seven weeks, which is seven times seven—the biblical number for complete or full perfection. Add one day and you arrive at Pentecost. Fifty is the biblical picture of jubilee picturing redemption from the enslavement to this world.

Historically, the children of Israel were redeemed from their sins by the blood of the lamb on the first Passover in Egypt. At this time, YHVH betrothed himself to Israel (Exod 6:7). YHVH then led them out of Egypt into the wilderness, and on Shavuot he married them at Sinai (Exod 24 cp. Ezek 16:8; Jer 2:2; 31:32). At the same time, YHVH gave them his Torah, which was their ketubah or marriage vows.

Shavuot is a picture of the bride of Yeshua the Messiah coming into full maturity spiritually and coming to marriageable age. She has gone from being a spiritual child and slave in Egypt to becoming the fully mature spiritual bride and queen of the King of the universe.

At the time of Yeshua, he betrothed himself to both houses of Israel on Passover. Then, on Pentecost, he then sent his Spirit, the Comforter, as a seal of this covenant. He hasn’t married this bride (that’s you and me) yet — something that occurs at his second coming. In the mean time, he has placed her in a 2000-years-long wilderness to get ready for him — to fall in love with him (to love him by keeping his Torah commands; John 14:15) by receiving his Torah into their hearts.

In the end times, he’s going to bring his bride (the saints) out of the wilderness of Babylon (called the Second Exodus), and they will repent of their Torahless ways. We are now getting ready for this day.

Understanding the prophecies of the Bible that speak of these end-time events, and understanding who the principal players are (the two houses of Israel) is the key to insure that we’re ready for our Messiah — that we’ll be wise and not foolish virgins who have our lamps full of oil (the Torah and Spirit of Elohim).

Shavuot, along with Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) are three times each year when YHVH commands his people to gather together to celebrate before him (Exod 23:14–17).

To fully comprehend Shavuot, we must step back and view this feast in its context with the other six biblical feasts that YHVH gave to Israel.

YHVH’s Seven Biblical Feasts

The seven annual biblical festivals of YHVH Elohim (or, in our English Bibles, the LORD God), of which Shavuot (Pentecost) is the third of seven, Continue reading →