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The
Purpose of Writing on the Feast of Tabernacles Part
1
There are many different approaches to study of the Bible. Some people see the Old Testament as a historical book only. Others observe the Old Testament customs and laws, thus making them of some consequence for today. But even that legalistic approach denies the power of grace found in the Old Testament and manifested in Jesus in the New Testament. There are some who believe that the Christians live in the “letters” of the New Testament and therefore disregard the Old Testament completely. Regardless of these different belief structures, all of which have some validity, this paper on the Feast of Tabernacles will try to reveal how the feast develops within the individual.
The
assumption of this small publication is that everyone is well aware of the other
feasts of the Old Testament Scriptures - Passover and Pentecost. A good Bible
student knows the types and shadows of these other feasts. Yet, types and
shadows are of no value if they do not lead to an experiential empowerment that
enhances the manifestation of Christ Jesus within the individual. The
Feast of Tabernacles by George Warnock is one of the first booklets that
I read on the subject. This precious Canadian brother has blessed the Body of
Christ with this writing written before 1970. His writing perceives the feast of
Tabernacles from an external, corporate view of the Body of Christ. It is well
written and worth the reading. It can be purchased by writing to him at: P O Box
652 Cranbrook, B.C. Canada V1C4J2. His series on Beauty for Ashes is also
worthy of reading. There is little written about the third feast, the feast of Tabernacles. We hope, in this small effort to elucidate the depth of this feast. The purpose, the end result hoped for, is not mere knowledge of the feast, nor understanding that is external in nature, but rather to empower every Christian with the Life found in this feast, the very Life of God. That is to say, we want the feast to be a living presence and experience within the individual, even as salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. This feast does deal with the Body of Christ, the true church, as Brother Warnock expresses it. However, we wish to review this feast from a personal, individual experience in one's own life. If enough individuals personally experience the ingathering (which is what tabernacles means) to Christ within themselves, then the corporate manifestation of Christ will be seen in the earth, the planet, as well as in the earth that Adam was. The two occurrences go hand in hand. So let us press on individually encouraging one another so that the corporate Body of the Lord might be seen and that He might place His headship on that body. The
Meaning of Booths - From
Succoth to Succoth
At the time of Tabernacles, which was in the seventh month from Abib
(March/April lunar calendar, falling in the Sept/Oct. time frame of today), the
Hebrew people would gather/garner the crops from the fields as the result of
harvest. It was during this time that the people would build booths for
religious observance of the feast. Jesus was born during the time of the feast
of Tabernacles. Jesus was born at Tabernacles! He left his home (house) and went
to Bethlehem to a manger. It was His “booth” or Tabernacle. Jacob built
booths or tabernacles for his animals at Succoth. Jesus was born in the fullness
of Tabernacles - no flesh. Shepherds were out in their fields (not inside a
building) a type of Tabernacles experience for it must be outside yourself, the
norm of the adamic nature. The shepherds were looking for Christ. They found Him
outside the norm - not in a hotel, but in a manger. Doesn't God do all things
well, even in type and shadow!
First, let us begin with some background information. The Hebrew word for
booth first occurs in Genesis 33:17 where Jacob built his house. It is
very important to understand that Jacob was a sojourner even a fugitive for all
of his life until this house was built. It was here at this
location, Succoth, which means “booths,” that Jacob settled. So also are we
not to settle for one realm - salvation, or baptism of the Spirit, until we come
into full union with Christ. You should know the story of Jacob's life. Everywhere he went he cheated, connived and dealt unscrupulously with people. While yet being called of God, his testimony was a poor one. But God loved Jacob (Romans 9:13). Every trial he went through finally brought him to this place, Succoth. The trials of his life changed him and formed him anew. (see our message: Who is Jacob?) Jacob found God at Peniel (Genesis 32:30) and saw God face to face. No man can live before God face to face unless his life has been changed from the fallen adamic nature into the glorious nature of the Son (Exodus 33:20). We know that Moses also saw God face to face (Exodus 33:11). Thus, for Jacob to see God it is an indication of the change of his nature. He left that deceitful realm of vanity and had entered into the spiritual place wherein life was found.
In fact, when Jacob came to see his brother Esau before him, he states: For
I see your face as one sees the face of God
(Genesis
33:10). Jacob came to see the spiritual truth, yea, even the very experiential
life of reconciliation. It is only when we can see every person in Christ, even
as a manifestation of Jesus, that we have arrived at Tabernacles in our own
life. Jesus, who is our pattern to emulate, revealed grace in that He was a
condemner of none and reconciler of all. Jacob had come to that place in his own
personal life. In this sense he identified with the Lord Jesus by taking on His
nature.
It was here at Succoth, that he built his house. It is here too that we
must build ours. We must come to the recognition that we are made in the image
of God and in His nature. A salvational experience in our life places us in the
Beloved. The old nature, that old house, has been removed and we now live in the
new house, the new creation man. Jacob had stopped running from himself and his
carnality and had wrestled with God and was changed into the nature of the
Father.
While some may question such a statement, please remember that God is the
God of the living and He proclaimed: I
am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
These men were living in the presence of God, which is to say, that they
had entered into a special spiritual realm during their lifetime. Many who
follow Christ have not entered experientially into the place of these three.
These men lived in a special realm even while they walked on the earth.
Consider Abraham. He lived in Canaan, the Promised Land, which everyone was
looking for. Yet, Abraham gave it no regard for he was living in the presence of
God, and the natural Promised Land had no attachment for him. Consider Isaac. He
never questioned being offered up as a sacrifice. He knew that this was the call
of everyone that followed God and had seen such manifested by his own father.
And now Jacob. Here was a man of
vile nature, who because he was loved by God, was changed forever. He didn't
just change a little; he changed so much so that he saw all men reconciled unto
God (Acts 3:21).
Succoth, which means “booths,” was a spiritual place to build your
house - your new spiritual nature. Genesis
33:17 states that Jacob “journeyed” to Succoth. Life is a journey that is to
lead to the knowledge, experiential knowledge of who you really are. When you
know, you build the house, even as Jacob did.
Four hundred and thirty years later, when the Israelites had departed
hastily from Egypt, they too journeyed to Succoth and encamped there.
It was there that the Israelites celebrated Passover. The key to
understanding is that Tabernacles (Succoth) was established before the
Israelites even went to Egypt. Yet, when they left Egypt they celebrated
Passover there, at Succoth. The first feast, Passover is dependent on the last
feast. The last feast, Tabernacles, established the first, Passover. This is the
fulfilling of Scripture also as He declares the end from the beginning
(Isaiah 46:10). It is out of the fullness that the part-realm begins. Church order has taught for years that we are to find God at Passover and progress upward to Pentecost and receive the Holy Spirit, and then kingdom preachers have emphasized the experience of Tabernacles as something we come into from Pentecost. This is looking at growth from the adamic point of view – from the bottom up. We are to progress from the “sinner state” to the “saint state” so to speak as it is taught in church. All this is incorrect, for it is Tabernacles that establishes the lower orders. God comes out of, speaks out of, and acts out of the fullness of Life. Jesus proceeded from the Father (out of the fullness) and lowered Himself (became less than the fullness, because a body limits the expression of the fullness). The coming of Jesus established the part-realm of Passover, or a salvation experience. His ascension established a higher order in the revelation of the Spirit or the feast of Pentecost. But it all started with the fullness.
In fact John 1:16 states that the saints have received the fullness. I
prefer Ephesians 3:19 in the Amplified Bible: [that you may really come] to know - practically, through experience for
yourselves - the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge (without
experience); that you may be filled (through all your being) unto all the
fullness of God - [that is] may have the richest measure of the divine presence
and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself.
Paul states that we are have the same fullness in the physical body as Jesus
did. While limited in expression because of the body, Jesus still manifested the
fullness from which He lived, moved and had His being. Jesus not only came from
the fullness of Tabernacles, but He revealed it also.
Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. All is summed
up in Christ. Succoth was before Egypt, and Succoth followed Egypt. The feast of
booths is all inclusive. It is big enough through the blood of Christ to accept
all creation cleansed by the power of the life of that realm. The feast of
Tabernacles is established by a “living” expression. The first room of the
Tabernacle in the wilderness is the Holy of Holies. It is filled with the glory
and the light of God. Everything emanates from that place. The beginning of
everything comes from there. In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1) and the
Word was God. Everything begins from the Holy of Holies within the Tabernacle of
the wilderness, within you. Your body is the wilderness, but you live within the
Holy of Holies. The thoughts that come out of a man but begin inside of him
determine what occurs on the outside. Those thoughts come from the Holy of
Holies. And all will be summed up by what comes from the Holy of Holies. Life
comes out and life will be the result or the fruit. The
Meaning of Booths
- from Nehemiah 8:14-18
It was commanded that during the feast of the seventh month that the
people should live in booths. It began as Deuteronomy 16:13 states: You
shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from
your threshing floor and your wine vat.
If you were to go to Israel today and visit the old section, you could easily
picture in your mind 2-3,000 years ago. Today in the old section you will still
see many flat roofed buildings. So it was in the past. When the Israelites were
to fulfill the command of Moses, they were to live for seven days in a booth or
Tabernacle that was constructed on top of their house's roof.
They had to leave their own understanding, their own comfort level, their
own religious ways, etc. and remove themselves from that order. They had to set
aside all that they knew and ascend into a new house. They had to leave the
adamic way of thinking, the adamic fallen nature, and enter into a new way of
thinking, enter into a new residence. Is
it not the same as when we leave the old carnal mind and put on the mind of
Christ and we leave the old nature and put on the new creation man?
Now, they were to assemble certain trees for the construction of the individual
booth. Every man had to work out his own salvation (Philippians 2:12), his own
house. This does not mean any self-effort but rather yielding to God to deal
with you individually based upon you as a unique creation. Each booth was
uniquely designed for that individual person. Salvation is a process in which a
house is furnished with all that it needs. So God deals with us individually to
accomplish the maximum result with us based upon our abilities and talents.
They were to construct this booth after they had enough wine from the vat
and enough grain or food from the harvest. This was not a time to plant and grow
and try to get what you would need to exist on. No. This was a time of
harvesting out of your own field, your own life, the fruits that you produced in
His nature to sustain yourself. Hear and understand! Selah! You were able to
enter into the booth because you had such a deep relationship with God that He
could sustain you without any outside help. The life of God was sufficient
within yourself that you could see God when you looked into the glass! Your
identity was with God. The booth was a time of fellowship and union with God on
an equal plane since you had arisen from the dust of your old house and decided
to live on the rooftop.
Abraham came as an equal to Melchizedek. He had conquered but yet gave
away all that he had conquered when setting Lot free. He came to Melchizedek as
one giving life - a higher order than receiving life. Melchizedek came to
Abraham giving also. He gave him the bread and wine, a symbolic gesture that
Abraham was on the life plane with Melchizedek. For as Abraham gave his life for
the freeing of Lot, it was a type and shadow of what Melchizedek was trying to
show with the bread and wine. You can only receive the bread and wine if you have
fulfilled Romans 12:2.
The wine from the vat and the grain represent the crucified life.
Have you given your life for another? In other words have you given up
your life's goal and accepted Christ's for your own? It is only those who can
enter into Tabernacles with God on an equal footing. It is only those who can
build a house (work out their own salvation) that God will inhabit (since He
builds it in you - this is what He wanted to do for David). You must realize
that all carnal things are crucified and your life is hid in God through Christ
in order to come into union with God. Do you think that God will give His glory
to another man who has not crucified the flesh?
Thus they were to build the booths. Note what they were to build the
booth out of wood. Wood represents humanity in Scripture. God is not done with
humanity. He is working within humanity to bring it into redemption. Depending
on your Bible translation, the names of the trees may read a little differently.
Olive branches represent the Hebrew people. As Paul states in Romans,
they were cut off so that the Gentiles (every other person in the world) could
be brought in and that they will be re-established after the Gentiles. The wild
olive branch represents the Gentiles, or everyone that is not a Hebrew. So when
you enter into your personal tabernacle you enter in knowing that Jesus is going
to save or deliver all creation. Your perspective in dealing with people comes
from the same venue. Whereas, normal church teaching infers that the cross saved
some, say 15%, but the devil wins the rest. Which do you think is correct? Was
the victory of the cross total? That begs a question. Was Jesus God? If Jesus
was God, and we know that He was, then can God lose anyone? No. Read Psalm
22:27-30. It is the Psalm of the cross. Does it say all the ends of the earth
shall return to the Lord? There are so many more scriptures. I would suggest the
book by Harold Lovelace, Read and Search. He can be contacted at: P O Box
995 Saraland AL 36571. The wood represents all creation, and the person who is
building his own booth embraces every individual as a creation of God. In fact,
God sees each person, while yet a sinner, as though he is already saved and
treats him or her accordingly - even as Jesus did you.
The other tree branches used on this booth, that is built on the flat
roof of the house, are myrtle, palm, citrus and willow (leafy trees) as Lamsa
states in the Aramic translation. The myrtle tree speaks of suffering. The house
is built with suffering. When the word suffering is used, most think of personal
suffering that they have gone through. But Paul considers otherwise. I
reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to
the glory that shall be revealed in us
(Romans 8:18). What sufferings? Not our personal trials and tribulations, but
the sufferings caused because we revealed Christ in our life!! It is these
sufferings that enable us to build a booth. When our identity is with Christ, we
suffer. There is no suffering outside of Christ, for the adamic nature is dead
and if we live in Christ, the adamic “suffering” is removed from our
consciousness.
It is the myrtle tree that
blooms with many flowers, and as Isaiah states will replace the briar in Isaiah
55:13. The crown of thorns (briar) is replaced by the myrtle tree, which
produces a beautiful fragrance and berries, which are eaten as fruit. It is only
the crucified life that produces such fruit and can change the thorns into
blossoms. Esther's name in Hebrew is Hadassah, which means “myrtle.”
Truly she is a type and shadow for us of the soul being subservient to the
desire of the Spirit (king).
The booth that is built contains leafy trees or willows and citrus as
Lamsa states. These are trees that grow by water and seek it out. A willow
becomes huge and beautiful as its seeds grow where there is plenty of water.
Life, water, is found in abundance in the Holy of Holies, the feast of
Tabernacles. There is no death in that realm - only life. So when the individual
constructs his own booth it speaks of being established in the area of life -
walking it, living it, breathing it, even drinking the very water of life.
The palm tree is a tree with a singular root. It is easily dug up and
moved. But the importance of the palm is that this root seeks out water, life.
The branches were used at the time of Passover when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday, as it is known today. (1 Kings 1:38 has Solomon riding into
Jerusalem as a king on a donkey, even as Jesus did.) They were cast before Him
so that as he rode the donkey, He would not touch the earthly realm.
The palm speaks of praise and anointing. It is the capstone, the roof of
the booth that is built. For we are to be a praise to Him. This does not mean we
are to sing praises. It means our life is a praise unto God.
The capstone of our life is when it can be said we are a praise to the
Father, even as Jesus was. So as these people built their own booths they were
to be a sign, an ensign, even as Christ was to the world.
The Moslems have their Ziggurats, those tall towers calling people to
prayer. The Hebrews had their booths once a year to show their union with God,
the true God. The Christian is to walk in union with God all of his life, and
not out of a priestly call three times a day. Nor are the Christians to follow
rituals and traditions of the elders, like the Hebrews did, which Jesus
condemned. The Christian is to construct his life so that it is indwelt by the
Lord to such a degree that only one is seen. When you manifest Him as yourself,
that is tabernacles, the finished product of a house built with trees. Your
booth becomes a house built out of everyone (each tree) that touches your life. Isaiah
41:19 states: I
will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and
the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box
tree together.
The garden is found in the wilderness. The booth is built on the rooftop - the
wilderness. For the rooftop is separated from the whole house (the old house,
that adamic nature, that fallen nature). It is in the wilderness where it seems
that nothing can grow. The reality is that the wilderness is the place where God
establishes a new order in your life. It is the wilderness that gives the
opportunity for focusing on what is important since all else is removed. It is
the wilderness that creates thinking “out of the box,” that is to say,
finding a new way because the old way no longer works. The
pine tree was used to construct the booth in Tabernacles as was the fir. Some
say that the cedar was also used. Studying each tree in the scriptures will
bring even more enlightenment concerning the booth at the time of Tabernacles.
Union with God comes with a house that God builds. Don't do as David did
in desiring to build a house for God. That is carnal thinking. Let Him who seeks
to have His good pleasure finish the work that He started in you (Romans 9:29).
Let Him build within you. A
True Tabernacle or a False Tabernacle?
Jeremiah 19:13
And the
houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like
the places of Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned
sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out libations to other gods.
Topheth is believed to come from the word toph which means
“drum.” Drums were used to drown out the sounds of children who were made to
pass through the fire for Moloch (2 kings 23:10). Some believe it was a place to
have dead bodies burned, and of course Hinnom was the place where the refuse of
the city was taken to be burned. The English word for this is the word hell
(Gehenna in Greek).
Obviously, during the feast of Tabernacles some celebrated the feast in
their own booth in such a manner that it was a reproach to God. God is merciful,
but He is a jealous God in that He wants no other gods before Him and rightfully
so. If the god of self is not crucified but allowed to remain, it will rise up
in the feast of Tabernacles and try, the key word here is “try,” to rule.
God will have none of that. In Leviticus chapter 23 that discusses
Tabernacles, in verse 29 it states: If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day he
shall be cut off from his people.
Verse 30 continues: As
for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy
from among his people.
Tabernacles is a time for the glory of God. He cannot come into union with any
person who has not recognized that the cross destroyed the old nature, which
cannot be lived in any longer. Any self-effort in the feast reveals that the
person is not in Christ. He that is led by the Spirit is a son (Romans 8:14).
A little leaven, sin, was allowed in Pentecost. It is definitely found
there. Many of the gifts of the Spirit are used for financial gain in the
natural or to build up one's vanity. In the movie, Devil's Advocate, Al
Pacino plays the devil. In the last scene of the movie, he states that he loves
vanity the best. It is vanity that causes one to offer sacrifices unto false
gods in Tabernacles. Knowing you are called for God's purpose, knowing that you
are to be revealed as a son of the Most High, knowing your authority, are all
reasons that you could be offering vain sacrifices and be totally unaware that
your flesh is enjoying it. Your driving force to be a son might not be a humble
expression of your love of God but a desire, a vanity of the flesh seeking a
place of honor disguised as some righteous goal. Think about it. Search your
soul and humble yourself before God.
Jeremiah goes on to say (19:15) that God is going to bring calamity onto
the people because they
have stiffened their necks so as not to heed my word.
This does not mean the letter of the word, for they were keeping that. They were
still performing the feast in the manner that it was to be done. But they did
not keep the word of it, that is, the spirit of it. By this Jeremiah is stating
that they were not in the nature of the feast, the character of it. The feast of
Tabernacles must not be a ritual like churches do every year for Easter and
Christmas. It must not be external and looking to a historical Jesus whether it
be a babe or the ascended Lord. To keep this feast one must be in spiritual
identification and union with the Lord of glory. It is a third spiritual
experience, which quickens you and reveals who you really are in Him. The one
who enters into tabernacles with the Lord must be of the same nature. Built
on the roof, in their courts, in the court of the house of God, at the Water and
Ephraim Gate
As Nehemiah 8:16 states each person went and built his own
tabernacle. In every possible location the booth was built. It was to be a
public manifestation that would be seen and it would testify to all. It was not
a door-knocking outreach. It was not a rally at some stadium. It was an
individually accountable action to be shown to the world. You can hide in a
congregation and never be seen because you blend in. Your weaknesses would not
be discovered, and that is why many of the churches are larger today. In grand
numbers there is no accountability. But the feast of Tabernacles was a time of
accountability, personal accountability publicly displayed.
It was an assembly of those who had returned from captivity. Those who
cried by the waters of Babylon (Psalm 137:1) were those desirous of Zion, the
ultimate in God. These were the ones who set aside all the acclaim and natural
prosperity that was in Babylon for the ruins of Jerusalem. They did not see the
ruins, but God. The entire (Nehemiah 8:17) assembly of those who left
Babylon built booths. Everyone of them built a booth. Something was wrought in
those people. They were not religious, although they kept the feast. They were
not rich because going back to Jerusalem made them poor. They had no family
because they left them in Babylon. These were rugged individualists who were
beckoned to give all for the Lord.
And they dwelt in the booths (8:17). They did not go in and out. They did
not go back to the house for something. For eight full days (eight is the
number of new beginnings - Jesus' name in Greek is 888 or new in spirit, soul
and body) they lived in the booth. They never returned to the old house. They
had forsaken their identity with the adamic nature. While it was a spiritual
type, which they may or may not have understood, it is a type and shadow easily
seen by us. But even that is not enough. Tabernacles is to be a lifestyle, a
method of daily living for us where we are fully identified with the Lord. Are
you and He not the same? If you say: "Well, positionally it is true, but
there are days that I am not like He is," then you make the cross of no
effect. Do you quicken that corpse He freed you from at the cross? What you see
is not reality, for your life is hid with God in Christ. A new day has dawned
and is growing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.
Hebrews 9:11 states: But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this
building.
Jesus came revealing a perfect tabernacle - a human one. We through Him can do
the same thing. As long as the old one remains, that adamic creation in our
mind, He cannot come forth. But because of Jesus we are now the new creation
man.
The sons
of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua, the son of Nun unto
that day. And there was great rejoicing.
So proclaims Nehemiah 8:17. I declare to you today that since the time of Christ
the saints of God as a whole have not walked in the fullness of who they truly
are. It is time that the feast of Tabernacles is clearly displayed on the house
tops (revealed in your mind), in the court yards (seen in your life), even in
the court of the house of the Lord. May the glory of the fullness of the Holy of
Holies be made manifest in the Holy Place and the Outer Court, or the two realms
of Pentecost and Passover that is within. May others in God come to the life
realm and drink from your cistern (Proverbs 5:15) yea, even the Water Gate which
you are (John 7:38) and may double fruitfulness be seen in your land (body), for
Ephraim is such.
And there
was great rejoicing.
Let the time of rejoicing begin! Let us dance in the house that is within. Let
us sing out of the well that is within. For we have tabernacled with the Most
High, and He has done marvelous things! For our death He has brought life. Out
of darkness He has established light. We who were once not the people of God are
now called the people of God, for we have His name, His character, His nature!
What a wonderful thing He has wrought, and to Him alone be the glory! For the
day of Tabernacles is come and it is His Day. It is the Day of the Lord, the Day
of His appearing within His Body.
And Joshua (in Hebrew it is the same as the Greek for Jesus) read
from the book daily! Truly he read from a scroll. But beloved friends in this
day there is a great need for the book of life to be read as Islam again is
spreading over the world and eastern philosophies and pagan religions snare
people! It is not a literal book - it is you. It is time for the people
of the feast of Tabernacle to be read. Open your book! Proclaim who you are by
what you do and say! Reveal Him and be not bashful, for He would testify of you.
You are the book to be read, for He has written on the pages of your being every
step of the way so that you can be valued as a precious book, one bought for a
blood price. You are the living epistle (2 Corinthians 3:2) that is clearly
seen. In the Roman times they would write an important document and then encase
it in a copper (or some other metal) case. On the outside of the case also would
be written the same letter as the one inside. Do you understand the spiritual
significance? What is written on the inside is the same as what is on the
outside, and if the outside is removed the same remains for that which is on the
inside is revealed. You are in
union with the Lord from the inside out. These are the seals in Revelation
(Revelation 5:1).
They read from the book for seven days (Nehemiah 8:18) but the eighth day
was the new start. As the chapter continues, they separated themselves from all
foreigners. Spiritually, they removed from themselves all that was foreign to
the nature of God. They had cleansed themselves and make sure that they were
sanctified before the Lord. They were to be a holy and consecrated people.
Note that it states that they read from the word for 1/4 of the day. That
is a six hour period! They sat patiently (children in tow) and listened for six
hours. But wait. They still were not done; they then followed that with worship
and personal testimonies (confessed - not their sin but God's deliverance) for
another six hours to total twelve hours of service. You may read from Nehemiah
9:5-38 some of the things confessed to God. What a service!!
The seventh day is a day of rest - a time of cessation of all
self-effort. This is why the eighth day is so important. From the dawning of the
eighth day, the person no longer was walking in any self-effort but in the
fullness of a new creation man - the eighth day man. Land was left fallow after
the sixth year. The harvest of the sixth year was great enough to feed the
people the sixth year, the seventh year and up until the harvest of the eighth
year. No effort needed, plenty to eat, time to think on the Lord and muse upon
the deeper things of life. This is what this time period was created to do.
The eighth day was a time to live in and walk by faith. Paul stated that
he no longer lived but that it was Christ in Him. The faith that Paul lived by
he stated as THE faith of the Son of God. Paul lived no longer by
any self-effort; he walked and moved within the union he had with God through
THE faith of the Son of God. You know you are in the adamic, fallen nature when
you “try to live by faith.” That is religious and carnal. You know you are
in Christ when you don't have to think about living by faith. That is what
Tabernacles is all about.
A while back I had some cancer and they took out
some lymph nodes. You walk by faith when you know that whether you live or die
it is Christ. You know you are in the adamic, fallen nature when you fight
“for your right to live and to be a testimony for Jesus in healing.” How
religious is that! How carnal is that! How vain that is! Our testimony is Christ when we are in
union with Him and we know it and live it before the people, family and friends.
The doctor asked in the pre-operating room how I could be so happy. I said,
"Why not, I know in Whom I believe." He stormed out of the room.
Further challenges have come even now, but I rejoice that I have been
birthed from my mother (the religious system) and the Son is revealed in me
(Galatians 1:16). What about you?
Tabernacles is a walk of faith. Faith sacrifices this life. Faith
trusts itself to God beyond reason. Naked faith has no regard for
blessings - past, present or future favors. Faith is walking out your life
knowing that you are in Him.
It is the time of Tabernacles. Separate yourself from all foreign
thought. Lead all captivity captive into Christ. Carnal thoughts come when you
are not actively focused on Christ Jesus. Focusing on Him who is within removes
without all doubt. |
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