Those who know me know that I do not often declare prophetic words, but I have something that I keep hearing in my heart and I think it is a word for us from the Holy One:
“Many of my children think they fully understand the feast of Shavuot, but they do not. They think they fully understand My Spring feasts and are now ready for the events foreshadowed in My Fall feasts, but they are not ready. They have not yet grasped some important points about Shavuot as it is related to My giving of My Ruach. I especially want this generation to understand these things because they have to do with empowerment to walk in My plan for them in the latter days. I want them to see and understand the foreshadowing of the two leavened loaves that were to be waved before Me on Shavuot, and to reexamine the reason why I poured out My Spirit on this day.”
To see Shavuot in context, we need to see that it is inextricably linked to the Day of the Wave Sheaf, which speaks of Messiah Yeshua’s Resurrection. On that day, we begin a 50 day count that is to end on Shavuot. We read about these two feast days in Leviticus 23:5-21.
“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread…for seven days….On the first day [and] …the seventh day is a holy convocation….When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it….You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits…they are to be holy to the LORD….On this same day you shall make a proclamation [and]…have a holy convocation….It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.”
Yeshua is our Passover Lamb and High Priest. When we believe that He paid the price for our sins, then presented Himself to the Father as the “First of Firstfruits,” we become “acceptable” in YHVH’s sight and are given the incomparable gift of eternal life (1 Cor 5:7; 15:23; 1 John 5:11; 1 Pet 2:5; James 1:18). But, Yah wants to give us even more…
On the First of Firstfruits we are to begin an expectant 50 day count. Scripture says it begins on the “morrow after the [weekly] Sabbath.” Judaism interprets this to mean the “High Sabbath” that is the First Day of Unleavened Bread, so Shavuot always falls on the 6th of Sivan on the Jewish Calendar. But their counting system does not work because their 49th day will seldom be a Sabbath, and Shavuot is supposed to fall of the “day after the Sabbath” (Lev 23 11-16). Starting the count on the day after the weekly Sabbath is the only way to meet the above four prescribed rules of Scripture.
Shavuot must:
* Be preceded by 7 Sabbaths (not more or less)
* Be the next day after a Sabbath
* Be a 50th day
* Be the end of a count begun the day after a Sabbath.
(For more info, See the book, “Israel’s Feasts and their Fullness” at www.RedeemedIsrael.com)
We also see that on Shavuot, two leavened loaves of bread made of fine flour were to be presented as a first fruits wave offering to YHVH. We suggest that even as the “two sticks” of Ezekiel represent the two houses, so do these two “imperfect leavened loaves.” Leaven was not fit for the altar, yet the two loaves were acceptable as a “wave offering.” Similarly, the two houses of Israel, Ephraim/ Israel and Judah, have stumbled over the Sanctuary that is Messiah Yeshua – in different ways – but Yah nonetheless calls them unto Himself so He can make their two sticks “one stick” in His hand (Exo 23:18; 34:25; Lev 2:11; Isa 8:14; John 2:19-22; Rom 11:25; Gen 48:19; Eze 37:15-28).
Both houses have fallen short of the Almighty’s high call (Rom 3:23). Yet, “fine flour,” or “good bread” (which is the source of life), can be found in both houses. Both bring forth leaven that now needs to be left behind, and both bring forth good truths that need to be carried forth in our restoration.
The Father wants to restore the fallen, divided house of David – He wants to to restore the Kingdom to Israel (Amos 9:11; Luke 11:17; Acts 15:16). His salvation plan is outlined in Romans 11: The wild olive branches are to be grafted into Israel’s Olive Tree and be greatly changed by its Life-giving Root: Messiah Yeshua. Their change is to be so great that Judah will become jealous and want to be “grafted in again” (Rom 11:23; Rev 22:16).
The problem is that Israel’s two houses, or two congregations of people, have been two imperfect witnesses for Yah. We see that lamp stands are congregations, and Yeshua said His “two witnesses…are the two olive trees and two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (Rev 1:20; 2:5; 11:3-4). (See Israel’s Olive Tree stages in the graphic to the right).
We are an imperfect people, yet the Father has great plans for us. In this hour, He especially wants to empower us to be able to walk in His Way.
Shavuot and Jubilee
In Israel, every fiftieth year is a Jubilee year. Shavuot comes on a fiftieth day and represents a type of Jubilee. In Hebrew, fifty represents liberty, freedom, and deliverance. Jubilee was a time when slaves were set free (Lev 25:8-17). So too, Shavuot is about us being set free from the sins that enslave us; it is about us being liberated, having spiritual yokes broken, and being empowered to walk in Abba’s Way.
Shavuot, the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh, is not supposed to be about crazy antics, but about Believers being empowered to walk in the Father’s Commandments, to have them written on their hearts. That is the promise of the New Covenant. If we want people to learn to truly honor Torah, we should want them to be empowered by the Spirit – because that is how Believers are destined to learn it: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel…I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” Moreover, it will be done, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Jer 33:33; Zec 4:6; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 8:8; 10:16).
In Luke 24:49 Yeshua said to His disciples, “Behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (see “The Promise of the Father” by Jim Brown: www.
The Father’s Promise is one of “Power.” Messiah Yeshua worked many powerful signs and wonders that testified to His anointing, or Messiahship. The Disciples walked in the same power (John 12:37; Acts 2:43; 5:12; Rom 15:19). Unfortunately, false messiahs and prophets seek to perform signs and wonders (Mat 24:24; Mark 13:22). In our day, because we have seen their false signs, we tend to reject the gifts of the Spirit. Such unbelief can cause us to miss the mark. We are told of a time when Messiah Yeshua did not do many miracles because of “unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). We want to instead please the Father by our faith (Heb 11:6; James 2:18).
Some seem to think the signs of the Spirit are a place to “camp out.” But signs instead give direction; that is the propose of some of the spiritual gifts, such as words of wisdom and knowledge. Signs also affirm that we are “on the right path.” When we see deliverance and healings taking place, we know that we are on the Road to Zion; we are on the Kingdom Glory Path. For, Messiah Yeshua went “throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.” He told us that His “gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mat 4:23; 24:14; Mark 1:39). If we want to see the Kingdom come, we need to reflect the image of our Messiah and teach and preach about the hallmarks of His Kingdom: Casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead.
Friends, we have been missing the mark here. We have not fully understood Shavuot and the Giving of the Ruach. We therefore need to come together and support one another as we seek to walk both circumspectly, and in the same sort of Kingdom power that our Messiah walked in.
Shavuot is coming. Let us therefore cry out to the Father for a powerful infilling of the Ruach HaKodesh of Israel! Let us ask Him to help us to properly honor both the houses of Israel, and to point both of them in the direction of the Torah-honoring-power of the Ruach!
Amen and Amen!
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We ask you to please continue to pray for Daniel and Sylvia Calderon, for Maria Marty, and for Lenny and Varda.