You shall count 7 weeks from the day after the Sabbath, you shall count 50 days to the day after the 7th Sabbath, then you are to present an offering of news grain before the LORD. Leviticus 23:15
The annual 8 days Passover festival came to an end 2 weeks ago. Now religious Jewish people are in the 49 day countdown to the next Biblical Appointed time of YHVH. This 49 day period which begins on the second day of Passover is known as the Counting of the Omer, and ends the day before Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks (7 x 7 =49). In the days of ancient Israel, an omer was the measurement for dividing out the grain. During the 49 days, haircuts and shaving are forbidden for men, listening to music, weddings and dancing are forbidden. It is a time of mourning and self reflection in preparation for the celebration of Shavuot, when the Torah was given to Moses on Mt.Sinai.
For those of us who are privileged beyond measure to have come into the New Covenant, a covenant with YHVH, the Creator of the Universe, sealed by the precious blood of the Passover Lamb of GOD, Yeshua, it is very important to know and understand that the event known as the Day of Pentecost, occurred at the same time, on the first day of Shavuot, – the 50th day after Yeshua the Passover Lamb died on the Cross at Calvary. The GOD of Israel is a God of pattern. The reason why much of the Church has lost its way in many areas, is that the non-Jewish men who hijacked the Body of Messiah in the 2nd century, out of deep hatred of anything ‘Jewish’, cut the Ecclesia off from anything that they considered Jewish, including the Biblical Feasts which YHVH calls ‘My Appointed Times.’ As I have shared many times in the past, YHVH gave us these very special days for a number of reasons…
- 1. To teach our children about the wonderful things that GOD has done for us.
- 2. To remind us of His faithfulness
- 3. To show us the pattern of the past so that we can better know what He is doing now, and what He has planned for the future
These are the reasons why Josie and I strongly believe (as do many other Believers today) that the LORD is calling the Body of Messiah back to the way it was before the Romans and Greeks corrupted it. If you have not read it already, you can read more about the Restoration of the Church in my free 35 page booklet – Click Here.
To connect what I have written above to our current world situation, we are in the time of the Counting of the Omer. We are counting down to the celebrations of Shavuot and the Day of Pentecost. The Jewish people will celebrate the giving of the Torah and the Body of Messiah will celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit. As the world continues to be shaken by the effects of COVID-19, and will most likely will be for some time yet, we Believers need as much of the Holy Spirit as we can contain. I am sure that almost everyone of us have serious decisions to make, as we need to adapt our lives to get through the COVID-19 crisis.
To survive and prosper we need to be led by the Holy Spirit, and we need to minister to others by the Holy Spirit. We need to witness to non-believers by the Holy Spirit, and we need to pray for those in need of healing and other kinds of miracles under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Therefore as the Jewish people count the Omer, and prepare themselves to celebrate receiving the Torah, I want to encourage everyone, including myself, to celebrate Pentecost, not just as an event that happened 2000 years ago, but as something that we all can, should and need to experience every day, especially in light of the daily challenges connected tp the virus, and other things that we are facing.
Of even more importance is preparation for the days and challenges that may lie just ahead. Even if COVID-19 goes away, according to the Passover pattern and the prophecies, much worse is prophecied to take place before Yeshua returns. As the events of Matthew 24, Luke 21 and the book of Revelation, begin to unfold, we will all need the reassurance, wisdom, guidance and anointing of the Holy Spirit to enable us to function and survive those dramatic and dangerous times.
Lets us all cry out in prayer to the Holy One of Israel between now and Shavuot / Pentecost, that He fills us, leads us and guides us daily by His Ruach ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) and that this will be the year that we experience a major outpouring of the Ruach ha Kodesh on the Day of Shavuot on May 16th.
This article originally appeared on Out of Zion Ministries and is reposted with permission.