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The Light
Dr David Wood
THE LIGHT
PENTECOST
Once again I bring you greetings in the name of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. June is upon us. Here in south Texas the
summer is not at its peak but it is certainly warm. This month I am going to
take a break from the series, “Are You Naked?” and discuss Pentecost. When we
Christians mention Pentecost we are generally talking about the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit discussed in Acts chapter two. We will begin our discussion at
an earlier time as the Feast of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks did not arise that
day in Jerusalem which we read of in Acts two. For the Jew the first Pentecost
occurred some fifteen hundred years earlier when Moses was given the Law at
Mount Sinai. As I progress through this letter you will see that the roots of
Pentecost occurred four thousand years before Acts two in the Garden of Eden.
You might ask what this Jewish or Hebrew Holiday or Feast has to do with us
Christians. Glad you asked. Our God is very Jewish. He established the Jewish
people as His first covenant people and Jesus came and was raised as a Jew. The
Hebrew language is the language of perhaps heaven itself but certainly of the
“Old Covenant”. You may say that we have a better covenant with better promises
and certainly we do but it sits on the foundation of the old. These Holidays or
Feasts were not instituted of man but of God (Leviticus 23). American and other
national holidays will pass away but we will be celebrating these holidays
eternally.
You may remember that God told Abram He was
giving him the land to which He had brought him but it would be yet another four
hundred years before they could possess it.
Genesis 15:7 (KJV)
7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of
Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
Now this word inherit at the end of the verse is
a little more active then it may seem. This word means to
occupy
(by driving
out previous tenants, and
possessing
in their place); by implication to
seize,
according to Strong’s Dictionary. Now I want you to understand this does not
just apply to these people who some four hundred plus years later would stand at
the River Jordan looking across at their first battle, Jericho. This applies to
you and I, the promises of God do not simply fall into our laps we must occupy,
and we must seize the enemies’ territory, his stuff or stuff he thinks is his.
And praise the Lord we have the tools in Christ Jesus.
Genesis 15:13-14 (KJV)
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they
shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and
afterward shall they come out with great substance.
They were indeed afflicted when a new king arose
in Egypt that knew not Joseph (Exodus 1:8). But God had a man in place by the
name of Moses. God sent Moses unto Pharaoh to get the release of the nation of
Israel but he would not let them go unto the tenth plague which was the death of
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 11:5 (KJV)
5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of
the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
This is the event that gave rise to the Lord’s
Passover. They were to take an unblemished lamb and put the blood on the two
sides of the door and over the door of their home and they would be protected
from this tenth plague just as they had been protected from the proceeding nine
plagues. This brought about their release and just as God said they came out
with great substance.
Exodus 12:36 (KJV)
36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they
spoiled the Egyptians.
Psalms 105:37 (KJV)
37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was
not one feeble person among their tribes.
The Passover is prophetic of the crucifixion of
Jesus our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). At the time of Passover and seven
days following they were told to eat unleavened bread and later God instituted
the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Unleavened bread is the bread of affliction
(Deuteronomy 16:3). They were certainly afflicted in Egypt, just as we were
afflicted whether we realized it or not, in the kingdom of Satan before
salvation. We Christians talk of and think of leaven (yeast) as a type of sin
and indeed that is true. Affliction has its very root in sin. No sin, no
affliction, it is that simple. They and we must forsake sin and partake of the
sinless nature of Jesus bought by His broken body and shed blood. God the
Father also instituted the Feast of Firstfruits in association with Passover.
Jesus is the firstfruits of salvation or firstborn (Colossians 1:18). Jesus
arose from the grave on the Feast of Firstfruits, the 16th [16 =
love] of Nisan. He was sown (late on the 13th [13 = rebellion and
depravity] day of Nisan) and reaped a harvest that is ongoing. Praise His
name!
The people of Israel traveled to the Red Sea in
three days were saved from the pursuing Egyptian army by crossing that sea on
dry ground but when the Egyptians pursued they were drowned. This is a
prophetic look at the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus arose on
the third day before dawn and so the children of Israel traveled across the Red
Sea in the night. And so Israel was saved from their enemies. Egypt is a type
of sin and Pharaoh and his army a type of Satan and his unclear hoards. They
escaped and so do we. They then traveled to the wilderness of Sinai.
Exodus 19:1 (KJV)
1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out
of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of
Sinai.
It is at Mount Sinai that Moses went up to God
and received The Law some fifty days after leaving Egypt. The Jewish celebrate
Pentecost to this day as a celebration of the giving of the Law. The Passover
and the Feast of Unleavened bread is celebrated with unleavened bread but
Pentecost is celebrated with leavened bread.
Leviticus 23:17 (KJV)
17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two
tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven;
they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
Leavened bread is representative of prosperity or
you might say the bread of prosperity. Jesus is our bread of life (eternal) and
certainly paid the price for us to walk in prosperity and health even as did the
children of Israel. We were in bondage to Satan just as they were in bondage to
Egypt but as they were made free with “with silver and gold: and there was
not one feeble” so were we made free at salvation. But just as they were
required to seize and occupy the Promised Land so must we our Promised Land, the
Kingdom of God.
We Christians celebrate it as a giving or
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost as described on Acts
chapter two.
Acts 2:1-4 (KJV)
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with
one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Notice in verse two it says, “There came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.” This sound came from above and was as
of a rushing mighty wind but was not a wind. Their hair did not fly back on
their heads. We are made very aware in verse three and four that this wind is
the Holy Spirit. Why is He coming from heaven, from above? Was He not here all
along? To answer that let us look back into the book of Genesis.
Genesis 3:6-8 (KJV)
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in
the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of
the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
In this passage we see the first sin of mankind.
In verse eight we see the phrase, “in the cool of the day” but what does that
mean. Think about it. They had a perfect environment; there was no heat of the
day and a cool of the day as we have today. God did not wait until some time
during the day when the temperature was down for the temperature was perfect all
the time. So what is being talked about here? The word cool means wind as in
an exhalation and may even be violent. When man bowed his knee to Satan he
became his servant (Romans 6:16) and the authority and power that man had
enjoyed was now in the hand of Satan. That is why in Luke chapter four, Satan
could offer Jesus the kingdoms of this world which he said had been delivered
unto him. Delivered unto him by whom? Adam. So we see the Holy Spirit and the
Holy Angels exiting the earth back to heaven and the fallen angels which had
been in chains awaiting judgment (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6) released into the
earth. President Roosevelt that Pearl Harbor was a day of infamy so was this a
day of infamy or great wickedness. Praise God the story did not end there.
Jesus came and redeemed us and made us free of the wicked one.
Fifty days after the resurrection of Christ Jesus
the Holy Spirit again had a legal right to enter the earth and be with and in
whosoever would receive Him. Jesus had told His disciples that this Holy Spirit
who had dwelt with them would be in them (John 14:17) and so it started on that
day of Pentecost some two thousand years ago.
Remember that the number fifty is not only
representative of the giving of the Law, the giving of the Holy Spirit but also
of the year of jubile. In the year of jubile (every fiftieth year) every man in
Israel was to be returned to his former state.
Leviticus 25:10-13 (KJV)
10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty
throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a
jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall
return every man unto his family.
11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow,
neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in
it of thy vine undressed.
12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall
eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his
possession.
This occurred for them as a matter of law for us
by the broken body, the shed blood, His victory over hell and death and the
application of His blood to the mercy seat of Heaven. We were returned to the
place of Adam but with some enhancements. We are in Christ Jesus the One who is
able to keep us from falling. In Him all authority and power has been
returned. God still wants us to carry out His ancient mandate.
In the beginning God gave His plan for eternity.
Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.
Simply put we were given dominion (authority)
over all the earth, He blessed or empowered man and told him to be fruitful
(Galatians 5:22-23), to multiply (greater numbers on every level), to replenish
(fill) the earth and subdue it. But with the advent of sin dominion and the
ability to subdue were lost.
Genesis 9:1 (KJV)
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Well praise God, Jesus got it back!
Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV)
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Acts 1:8 (KJV)
8 But ye shall
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth.
The “All power” in Matthew twenty eight is dominion, authority and the power in
Acts is the ability to subdue. Praise the Lord.
If there was ever a time to understand and know the plan of God and that we have
what it takes to implement and carry out that plan, it is now! As I titled my
books, Awake, Arise and Triumph! I trust that now you have a greater insight
into this Feast of Pentecost or Feast of weeks (seven weeks plus one day). It
is the day that we were once again fully empowered to do the will of God as set
forth in the ancient mandate of Genesis One.
Until next month the Lord bless and keep all of you. May His face shine upon
you and His glory be displayed all about you. May He lift up His countenance
upon you and give you all that Jesus paid for, His peace, Amen.
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