THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (The Baptism of Fire)
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (The Baptism of Fire)
Sunday, September 28, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
From this morning’s
message, (Feast of Trumpets) two promises were quickened by the Holy Spirit for the church:
- Numbers 10:9: “And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God and you shall be saved from your enemies.”
- Luke 21:15: “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to contradict nor resist.”
The trumpet is the revelation or revealing voice of Jesus Christ in a people.
“You observe days, and months, and times and years. I am afraid of you, less I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” Galatians 4: 9-10
The Feast Day of Atonement was the most solemn of the Jewish Feast Days. It was the day of national and sanctuary cleansing.
The Feast Day of Atonement was fulfilled historically in Jesus Christ. He is the High Priest who atoned for man, the scapegoat and Lord’s goat who put away sin, sickness, poverty, and death. The feast will be fulfilled experientially in His Body, the church. There is no doubt that He made a full and complete Atonement, and there is also no doubt that the Church has never yet fully appropriated and received all that His Atonement has provided.
The Feast Day of Atonement applied to the Christian reveals our progressive walk in Christ as we experience the baptism of fire.
We (the church) are experientially “carrying” the “feasts” as we have walked through each of these spiritual experiences on our life journey.
Below is what “I know” to be a “fact” because it was my spiritual journey.
We received forgiveness of sins at our Passover experience with Christ as our Savior. We become carriers of His salvation.
Then was a time of separation and the beginning of our walk with God in holiness, sincerity, truth, eating the bread of life (Unleavened bread).
Next we began to arise to walk in newness of life, knowing Him in the power of His resurrection (First fruits).
We were filled with the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), and endued with power from on high. This is a time of faith, miracles, Gifts of the Holy Spirit operating in our lives, great joy, and great victory.
Then we hear the call to come to maturity within the rent veil (Trumpets); next comes the baptism of fire (Day of Atonement). Our souls are afflicted and we learn as overcomers how to walk in the Spirit and become fire carriers.
This is all in preparation that we may be vessels to carry the Glory of God (Feast of Tabernacles). This is a work in progress as we press on toward the high calling and release the revelation of Jesus Christ as ministers of the gospel
This “I know” because I have experienced this work of forgiveness, filling, remission, release, restoration, deliverance and blessing. I am a “carrier” of all these spiritual experiences.
However, what I do not know is where we are being led in the Spirit through this present transition.
In January this year, the trumpet sounded and the “camp moved”. There is a “transition” which has been going on amongst the remnant during the year 2014.
The journeying of the camps – Numbers 10:2: When the cloud moved, the trumpets sounded, and the people were to move with God. God is moving and transitioning the “elect”.
The Bible background for the feast of Atonement is Lev. 16; 23: 27-32; Num. 29: 7-11; Heb. 8-10.
Mt. 3:12 “I (John) do indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”
Mt. 20:22-23: “Jesus answered and said, ‘You know not what you ask, Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They say unto him, ‘We are able’. And Jesus said unto them, ‘You shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with…’”
Lev. 23: 27-32: “On the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation unto you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord…”
For Israel, this Day of Holy convocation was a day of fasting. This was a day of the affliction of the soul (intellect, emotions, will). This was a time of mourning, humiliation, repentance, purification, cleansing and intercession. Israel as a nation afflicted her soul. Only the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place with the blood. (Lev. 23:31) “…it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”
“On the Day of Atonement, Israel is called to a new repentance and a humbling of themselves before God in preparation for the Great Feast of Tabernacles. Israel had to have a new Passover every year, and a new Day of Atonement every year---because their sacrifices which they offered year by year served only to call sins to remembrance, and to revive their sin-conscience. Jesus Christ died once-for-all, and so effectual was His redemptive work that there is “no more conscience of sin” (Heb. 10:2).
Except Christians keep falling into sin and being hampered by the works of the flesh, and harboring a sin-conscience. We testify on the one hand that God has taken away our sins and nailed them to the Cross---that is true! But the next moment we are beset by sin and suffer defeat.
We rejoice in the righteousness of Jesus Christ which has been placed to our account---thankfully this is true. But how little of that righteousness have we been able to appropriate. How little do we know and experience of real, vital holiness of life, and purity of thought, word and deed.
Thank God for the pattern we find in Israel’s Feasts, and for the knowledge that there is a place of real victory over sin and the flesh. Many preach this and testify to having received it. Actually men have never experienced it to any degree of fullness. At least no one I have ever met.
Let us stop trying to justify ourselves and insisting that everyone should live up to our holiness of conduct, when it is apparent to everyone that we are all saved by grace and the righteousness of Christ. All of us are together pilgrims on life’s journey. “Living epistles” of Christ do not have to tell the world how holy they are. The world will see it and will be amazed to discover something real and genuine in the midst of this wicked and perverse generation.
This victory is the very victory of Christ Himself. When we attain this victory, there will be no need to formulate weak excuses---for this place in Christ knows no defeat. We will not have to explain how Satan gained an advantage over us and planted a new seed of sin in the heart.
He that overcomes enters into the very victory and triumph of Christ---a victory which can never be lost or forfeited. Nor can it be earned or gained through our own effort. It is the grace of the victory of Jesus Christ Himself, and the overcomer is therefore “more than a conqueror” through Christ who loves us.”
For the Overcomer this is experientially putting away of sin and carnality. We cannot point with positive assurance to any person in the church age who appropriated this blessed condition of holiness in its fullness. However, this glorious victory is declared in the Word. Thank God, it is and it is attained by the Overcomer---not by flesh, but by the Spirit. The promise of the experimental Day of Atonement is held out to us at the ends of the ages, as to no other people in any past dispensation, “Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart… “
Romans 6:4: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
The Jewish Feast Day of Atonement took place on the tenth day of the 7th month. Ten is the number of testing, trial, law and order, and responsibility. The time between the Feast of Trumpets and Atonement is a time of sifting. These were days of spiritual preparation for the Israelites. For the Christian it is a journey. As I look back over the season in my life where I experienced the baptism of fire, it was 7 years in duration.
Everything that is burned off of us is wood, hay and stubble. All that is left after this baptism is that which is of the Lord. After this purifying, we will receive the full adoption and the redemption of our bodies, becoming a tabernacle for all the fullness of God.
I can testify that this was my journey and is my progressive journey. Like all the other Feast Days, the Day of Atonement, is no longer a date on a Jewish calendar, but a spiritual experience with the Lord on this Christian journey. I went through the Baptism of Fire beginning in 1982 and passed through the fire by approximately 1989. It was only the mercy of God that pulled me through. I was a slow learner. I am sure there is a faster way through.
Those saints, who will submit to this “cup” and be baptized with this baptism, will become fire carriers. Heb. 1:7: “And of the angels he said, ‘who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
1 Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”
Jesus cleansed the temple twice during his earthly ministry at the beginning and at the end of His ministry. (John 2 and Matt. 21) We can compare the cleansings of Passover (Salvation) and Atonement (Baptism of fire). Mal 3: “…the Lord whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in; behold, he shall come…who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.”
There is an outward washing (baptism) with water, and there is an inward purging by fire. God cleansed the temple at the beginning of this age (the ministry of Jesus), and will cleanse His church at the end of this age.
Leviticus 16 details this Feast which is fulfilled in Jesus and His Church:
- 16: 1-2--- The Lord will appear in the Cloud on this day.
- Verse 4 --- The High Priest washed and put on the linen garments of righteousness. He laid aside the garments of glory and beauty. (Phil. 2: 1-11)
- Verses 3-11-There were many sacrifices and offerings:
(a) Burnt Offering---young bullock, a ram, seven lambs.
(b) Meal Offering---appropriate to each of blood sacrifices.
(c) Sin Offering---a kid of the goats.
(d) Daily Sacrifice---Burn, Meal and Drink Offerings
- Verses 12-13---The Golden Censer ministry: Jesus Christ was the “censer” from heaven who contained the fiery light and life of the Father. Christians have been called to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts whereby we might become true worshippers. We are not to offer “strange fire” unto the Lord as did King Uzziah when he invaded the priestly office. Only those truly born of the Spirit can worship in Spirit. All others are leprous in their foreheads. The Church, His body is to be a “censer full of burning coals,” a people alive with the fire of His Spirit. We have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. The word for censer” in Hebrews 9:4 is actually “the altar of incense,” which was moved within the veil on the Day of Atonement. Likewise, our prayer, praise, and worship will move into the Most Holy Place, the realm of maturity and completeness.
- Verse 14--- Verses 3-14 detail the Atonement for Aaron and for his household. The seven-times sprinkling reveal the complete and perfect Atonement of Jesus. The seven-times sprinkling were before the Mercy Seat. There was also a once-for-all sprinkling with his finger upon the mercy-seat East-ward. This speaks of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (Heb. 8-10) Heb. 9:12: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
- Verse 15 – The Lord’s goat for the sin offering was Atonement for the people (applied as the blood in verse 14).
- Verse 16---This was the Atonement for the Sanctuary. (Jn. 2; Mt. 21)
- Verse 17---Aaron alone makes the Atonement (Heb. 9:7).
- Verse 18-19---This is the cleansing of the Altar of Incense (worship, praise and prayer). (Psa. 19:14)
- Verse 20-22---Jesus is the scape-goat.
- Verse 23-28---Aaron then entered the Holy Place, washed himself, and changed his garments. The bodies of the Sin Offerings were burned without the camp. (Heb. 12:29; 13: 10-13)
- Verse 29-34—the chapter closes with the anointed High priest who was to minister in his Father’s stead and the principle of the Atonement being a statute forever.
There were two goats chosen for the Day of Atonement:
- The goat for Jehovah---The Lord’s goat. (16: 8-9)
- The goat for Azahel---The scape-goat (16:10)
In a basic application, Jesus was both goats. The Lord’s goat died to reconcile (Heb. 9: 1-14; 13: 11-13). The scape-goat lived to reconcile. Jesus died for our sins and carried them away. In type the whole ordinance speaks of the Atonement which Christ effected on the Cross.
The Hebrew word for “scape-Goat” is “Azahel” and means “the goat of departure; banish, remove, for entire removal.” The word has also been interpreted as “the evil one” (pointing to Satan). The goat for Azahel was thus the goat to subdue the Evil One.
In a deeper application, the Lord’s goat speaks of those overcomers who walk beyond the veil and pour out their life (blood) in the Presence of God for the healing of the nation.
In this Feast, someone entered into that which was within the veil (Heb. 6: 19-20). On the Day of Atonement of the Old Covenant, Aaron went beyond the veil with both hands full of incense. There is a ministry of praise (taking hold of God with the left ha nd) and prayer (taking hold of man with the right hand). This describes the Melchisedec order of ministry, the fullness of ministry to God and man (from the Most Holy Place).
Rev. 22:2: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tress were for the healing of the nations.”
It is my persuasion that the Lord is “journeying the camp”; planting trees of righteousness to bring forth ministers who will carry the end-time anointing for the healing and deliverance of the nations.
Nest week, we will finish our study with Feast of Tabernacles.
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. I entered into the labors of Principles of Present Truth from Leviticus by: Kelly Varner; The Feast of Tabernacles by George H. Warnock; Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.