Now, the spirit-filled church has generally felt that it has it all. It has felt that having experienced salvation and baptism in the Holy Spirit, there is nothing else to experience. Having kept Passover and Pentecost, what more is there? These were life changing experiences, and so often the attitude that we have experienced all that God has for us prevails. What about the Feast of Tabernacles?
The Feast of Tabernacles is reserved for this generation, and is to be experienced by all believers.
The Feast of Tabernacles releases the fullness of Passover and Pentecost.
The early church received only the first fruits of salvation and Pentecost.
This generation will receive the fullness of these experiences, which will result in the greatest harvest that has ever been seen.
The Feast of Tabernacles was kept in the seventh month (Tishri) of the year: Seven is the number of completion, fullness, perfection.
LEVITICUS 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
It was at this time that the fruit of the land (the harvest) was gathered in.
It is Pentecost in its fulness.
The harvest that the early church reaped was wonderful, but it was only a foretaste of what is to come. This generation will see the fulness in all its glory and power.
EXODUS 23:15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread (Passover) (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) 16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits [Pentecost] of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, [Tabernacles] when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
However, there is no Feast of Tabernacles without Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement:
LEVITICUS 23:27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
The Day of Atonement was a day when Israel dealt with her sin. It was a day of mourning, a day of affliction, a day of repentance, a day of cleansing by fire.
ISAIAH 4:4-5 4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. 5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense.
Removing the leaven from Pentecost
The church has been in a Day of Atonement from the mideighties until now. When the charismatic move of God, which started in the late sixties, went into decline, a Day of Atonement began — a period of years when the Lord began to remove the leaven from the church. This has been a painful experience, as God used many ways to remove the leaven from our lives.
However, THE SEASON IS CHANGING! The Feast of Tabernacles is upon us, along with all that is promised in this feast.
Holiness and purity of heart
LEVITICUS 23:29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
The implications of this verse are clear: if we don’t go through the Day of Atonement, we cannot enter the new day and move on into the next wave of God’s Spirit.