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 7 days Passover festival finished at sunset last Wednesday. Now religious Jewish people, who do their best keep the Torah and the commandments, are in the 49 day period before the next Biblical festival or Moed (appointed time) of YHVH. This 49 day period which aways begins on the second day of Passover or Nisan 16, and ends the day before Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks (7 x 7 = 49) is called Counting of the Omer. In the days of ancient Israel, an omer was the measurement for counting out grain. During these 49 days, haircuts and shaving are forbidden for Orthodox Jewish men, listening to music, weddings and dancing are also forbidden, as it is a time of mourning and self-reflection in preparation for celebrating Shavuot, which remembers and celebrates the giving of the Torah and commandments to Moses on the top of Mt.Sinai, 50 days after leaving Egypt.
For those of us who are privileged beyond measure to have been invited into the New Covenant with YHVH, the Creator of the Universe, sealed by the precious blood of the Lamb of GOD, Yeshua, it is very important to know and understand that the Day of Pentecost (Greek meaning 50 days), ocurred at the same date and time, early in the morning of the 1st day of Shavuot. This confirms that the GOD of Israel is strong on pattern and timing. 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 the Jewish people, cut the Ecclesia off from anything that they considered Jewish, including the Biblical Feasts or Moedim 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 meet with the LORD in a powerful way at His appointed times.
- 2. To better understand the nature and character of the GOD who we worship and serve.
- 3. To help us to teach our children about the LORD and the ways of His Kingdom and the wonderful things that He has done for us.
- 4. To remind us of His eternal faithfulness.
- 5. To show us the pattern of the past so that we can better know what GOD is doing now, and what He has planned for the future.
These are the reasons why Josie and I strongly believe (as do a growing number of Believers today) that the LORD is calling the Body of Yeshua back to the way it functioned before the Romans and Greeks corrupted it in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Up until that time the majority of Believers were Jewish and they still lived according to the Biblical calendar, and they celebrated the Sabbath on the 7th day and continued to celebrate the Feasts of the LORD. In fact their celebration of the Feasts were even richer as they understood that Yeshua was the fulfillment of the prophetic picture of the original events. 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 now in the period of the Counting of the Omer and we are counting down the days to Shavuot and Pentecost. The Jewish people will celebrate the giving of the Torah at Shavuot, and the Body of Messiah will celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. As the world continues to be shaken by increasing natural, political and financial upheaval, we Believers need as much of the Holy Spirit as we can be filled with. Almost everyone of us will have serious decisions to make, as we are forced to adapt our lives to prepare for, and navigate through the challenges that are very likely to confront us in the months and years that lie ahead of us.
To survive ourselves, and to be able to minister to others, we will all need to be full of, and led by the Holy Spirit, and we need to minister to others by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to witness to non-believers with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and we need to pray for those in need of healing and other kinds of miracles under the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore as the Jewish people count the Omer, and prepare themselves to celebrate the giving of the Torah, I want to encourage everyone, including myself, to celebrate this coming 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 that we are facing in 2023.
This will also empower us to be better prepared for the days ahead. As the events of Matthew 24, Luke 21 and the book of Revelation begin to unfold, there are many things that the Bible says must take place before Yeshua returns. Therefore we will all need the comfort, wisdom, guidance, anointing and power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to function in and survive the challenges when they come.
Let 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 all experience a major outpouring of the Ruach ha Kodesh at Shavuot / Pentecost in a few weeks from now.
The LORD bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on all of the land given to the right Jewish people by the GOD of Israel. Please pray that all of the Jewish people will turn back to their GOD. Do not be silent, but share this with your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors, and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for a breakthrough for the Muslims, and please remember to pray Divine protection for all of the soldiers in the IDF. And let’s continue to pray for Jews and Christians to be given full access to the Temple Mount.