"THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE FEAST OF PENTECOST"
“THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE FEAST OF PENTECOST”
Sunday, May 19, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
This is the age of Pentecost.
Acts 2:1: “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”
The Feast of Pentecost was the second of Israel’s three annual Feasts. The Feast is also called the Feast of Harvest, of Firstfruits, or of Weeks.
Pentecost means ‘fiftieth”. and is the New Testament name for the feast which began fifty days after the Passover Sabbath.
Christ was crucified on the day of the Passover, the Sabbath followed the next day, and the sheaf of Firstfruits was waved before the Lord on the “morrow after the Sabbath.”
We as Christians clearly understand that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God and the fulfillment of the Passover Feast. Just as Passover must be personally appropriated by faith, in the same manner we appropriate Pentecost by faith.
When Christ rose from the dead, He continued with the disciples for forty days, “speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
After ten days, Jesus ascended into Heaven (on the day of Israel’s Feast of Pentecost). He sent forth the Holy Ghost upon the waiting disciples.
Acts 2:2-4: “Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Then appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
“Even among many saints who are hungering and thirsting for more of God, there is a tendency to believe that “another” Pentecost or a “restoration” of early apostolic Pentecost is the hope of the church.
We have a long way to go yet to equal the power and glory of the early church, but that power and glory is by no means the sum and substance of genuine Christianity. That was Pentecost in the early hours of dawn; the church must go on to the Pentecost of the noon-day sun; and then on, and on, and on to the Feast of Tabernacles” (the Glory of God). (G.W. Feast of Tabernacles – parenthesis mine)
The Holy Ghost is the earnest of our full inheritance. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the pledge of the fullness “unto the Glory of God” (2 Cor. 1: 20-22) “All the promises of God in him are yes and Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us to God; Who has also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”
The Greek word for “earnest” is “arrabon” and means a pledge, down payment, foretaste, guarantee.
It may seem to some of us as we look back at the turn of the 20th century, when God began to restore Pentecost; and through the mighty supernatural out-pouring of the Charismatic Renewal in the 70’s, and 80’s that the church of the 21st century is weakening in power.
Friday night I went to a Chuck Pierce meeting titled Pentecostal Explosion. All day on Friday, my spirit was before the Lord praying for the Lord to reveal and remove the hindrances to revival; and the church coming into the level of maturity to be able to “carry” revival.
Most are still so full of themselves, self-importance, ego, seeking pre-eminence, noses, names and nickels that even if the Lord poured out His Spirit in great power, they would usurp the glory of the Lord for vain glory.
Brother Pierce’s declaration to Houston was to break the spirits of denial over the city; break the reign of Athaliah; the church stand (immovable) in position until the Glory comes; don’t be ashamed of your gift; etc. (from my notes---parenthesis mine).
He further declared that Harvest is coming forth. (Pentecost is Harvest.) The present structure and shell of the church (wineskin) cannot hold the new move of the Holy Spirit; our weaknesses be strengthened and power and authority be released; and refreshing for our weariness.
(The above references are not a “worthy” or full declaration of all that Chuck Pierce declared, but excerpts from my notes.)
Chuck Pierce further declared a New Wind over Houston and the region.
The Wind is one of the symbols or token of identity for the Spirit of the Lord. These symbols reveal a measure of the Holy Spirit’s nature and His ministry.
- Wind ---May or may not be seen in the eyes of the Spirit, but definitely can be felt. I have had open-eye visions of the “Wind of God”. It is varied in its manifestation as seen in the North Wind (conviction), the South (Comforter), East (discipline) and West (brings rain).
- Water ---Rivers, floods, rain, clouds, dew, springs; absence of water means famine, thirst, and ruin. I am thinking of the avalanche of water that fell in Houston on the evening of April 27th, 2013, the Year of Our Lord.
- Fire----Gives warmth and light; consumes dross; the generation of power; impelling to service, purifies; and shows God’s acceptance of sacrifice.
- Salt---Preserves; purifies; gives taste; irritates (convicts); creates a thirst.
- Oil ---used in the Bible for food, light, and for anointing.
- Seal---Speaks of ownership, authentication, witness, authority, and impression.
- Clothing---Speaks of covering, protection, and beauty.
- Dove---Loving, peaceful, harmless, sacrifice, constant, swift, beautiful, mournful, gentle, particular in diet, single-eyed.
- New Wine---New, fresh outpouring of the Spirit; intoxicates, no inhibitions; easy communication; joy, boldness.
Our generation has had a foretaste of Pentecost. But we have by no means seen the fullness of the Pentecostal experience, as recorded in the Book of Acts, where tongues like as of fire came down and sat upon each of the disciples, and they were given the ability to speak the languages of all nations. Like Anna who waited for the coming of the Messiah, we wait anticipating this greater glory and out-pouring.
Thank God, Jesus is continuing to build His church. He is continuing the great work of restoration when He began in the days of Luther. The gates of Hell will not prevail against the Lord’s church.
The past few years, I tend to have wrongly “resigned myself” that only a “remnant” will come into this Glory. Patiently, carefully and walking circumspect before the Lord, I, like so many Christian laborers press on, faithful, praying, hoping, to see the hearts of the Great Harvest of the earthy.
1 Cor. 15:58: “Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
For precept must be upon precept, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; for with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people, to whom he said, this is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing yet they would not hear.” (Isa. 28: 10-12)
Pentecost was a new feast set for a certain day, (Lev. 23:17) “You shall offer a new meat (meal) offering unto the Lord. The Passover Feast was wonderful. The appropriation of the Passover from the Cross produces pardon and justification from all sins. The old is taken away, sins are forgiven. The past life is forgotten. The sinner is left with a clean record before God and ready to start a new life.
In conformity with this new happy state, therefore, the God of grace and glory invites the justified man to receive a new experience in the Holy Spirit, whereby he can offer a “new”…offering unto the Lord”. He is invited to drink into God’s Spirit, and be baptized with the Holy Ghost. In justification he is pardoned. In this new experience he is empowered for service.
The early disciples were cleansed by the Word which Jesus had spoken unto them during His earthly ministry (Jn. 15:3). Furthermore, on resurrection day “He breathed on them, and said unto them, receive the Holy Ghost”.
Right then and there the Spirit of God entered into the disciples.
Just as truly as God in the beginning breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life and man “became a living soul,”---so now the Last Adam (who had now become, by virtue of His death and resurrection, a “life-giving Spirit’ --1 Cor. 15:45) ---the Last Adam breathed into the disciples the breath of spiritual life, and they passed experientially from death unto life.
This experience, however, was not sufficient by way of equipping them for the great and mighty tasks which lay just ahead of them; and so the Lord “commanded that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said He, you have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” (Acts 1: 4, 5)
And so they tarried in Jerusalem for the “promise of the Father,” and after ten days the Holy Ghost came down upon them, and literally revolutionized their whole concept of life and service by transforming weak and humble vessels into the mighty apostles of truth, power and authority.
One of the decrees made by Chuck Pierce on May 17, 2013, in Houston, Texas was, “Harvest is coming forth.”
In one instance Pentecost is called “the feast of harvest” (Ex. 23:16). The grain harvest was completed. The sheaf had already been waved before the Lord fifty days before, heralding the coming of the harvest; and now the harvest time had come.
What a tremendous harvest there was! Peter preached his dynamic sermon under the “dunamis power” of the Holy Ghost, and some three thousand souls were added to the disciples. A few days later there was another harvest, and we are told “The number of the men was about five thousand.” (Acts 4:4) to say nothing of the hundreds or thousands of women and children who also must have believed at the same time.
The revival continued with ever increasing power from day to day. “Believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Acts. 5:14). Great and mighty signs and miracles were wrought among the people, until---in very short order---Jerusalem, and then Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of the earth literally rocked under the mighty impact of the Holy Ghost through His anointed ministers.
Truly the Day of Pentecost was a great Day…but the Day is not finished yet…that was but the dawning of the Day. We have yet to witness the noon day splendor of the Feast of Pentecost. “Let us not stop at the fullness of Pentecost, but let us go on to appropriate and experience the glories of the Feast of Tabernacles---for which Pentecost has paved the way.” (G.W. Feast of Tabernacles)
Let us declare in “one accord” on the Day of Pentecost: “The Harvest is Coming Forth”!
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Scripture from KJV
I entered into the labors of George H. Warnock, Feast of Tabernacles; The Tongue of the Learned by: Kelly Varner; a declaration to Houston, Texas on May 17, 2013, by Chuck Pierce. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I entered into their labors.