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Saturday, May 26, 2012 11:40 AM 

The Meaning of Pentecost

            Pentecost was called the Feast of First Fruits in the Hebrew Scriptures.  It shows how God is calling only a few in this age dominated by Satan.  The majority will come to Jesus later -- in the millennium and in a resurrection and after those thousand years.  The small group of first fruits was keeping this day in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was poured out as the New Covenant church was born.   Pentecost means to count 50 -- 50 days after Jesus’ presentation to his Father as the First of the first fruits, which occurred the day after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.   The Holy Spirit has revealed, however, that there is much more to this feast.   Following are some of its meanings:

• Day of release, reclaiming and restoration. Release from anything that burdens you -- sin, debts, infirmity, commitments, disease, curses, bondages, vows – even extra body weight!   Reclaiming (or celebrating the restoration of) all you have lost, whether it be family, freedom, health, love, lands, wealth, heritage, houses, authority, titles, respect, etc.
• Day of celebration – a birthday party time for those who have been born among the first fruits as sons and daughters of God. Day to celebrate in the Holy Spirit. Day to acknowledge and rejoice in the blessing of belonging to the Family of God. Day in which God rejoices in the birthday of His Family and showers them with gifts.
• Day of claiming the promises of God (of which there are 6000 in the Bible).
• Annual day of acknowledging all the blessings and gifts that have come from God.
• Day of praise and thanks.
• Day of new beginnings, moving in newness.
• Day of prophecy.  The Hebrew Scriptures spoke much of the day when we would become His children and the Holy Spirit would be released to the church.
• Day for baptism in the Holy Spirit (being immersed in Him).  He always releases a new anointing on this day – a revival.

Memory device: picture a newborn baby, released into world. You celebrate him or her, claim promises for, accept as blessing and gift, praise and thank God for this new beginning, prophesy over and anoint.

The Jubilee number 50 has the following meanings (all arranged as P for Pentecost):

·      Patience in waiting on God.

·      Plan – trusting God to complete His plan for our lives.

·      Program – a committing to the program of God for our life.

·      Past – turning over past mistakes to Jesus. Celebration of freedom from past.

·      Problems – complete turning over of all fears, doubts and blockages.

·      Position of righteousness restored – Israelite backsliders on this day would touch the embroidered linen murals and the 50 golden eyelets and hooks they hung from and say prayers of restoration to righteousness.  Various depictions of commandments and holy days adorned these tapestries. 

·      Position of authority and rule over the creation restored.

·      Power of death over us destroyed.

·      Power of enduring, everlasting love. 50 is the golden anniversary in marriage.   Gold represents divinity and righteous character.

·      Preparation of the willing bride of Jesus- 50 days marked the time of completion in which the bride in Israel was to be prepared for the groom.

·      Purest gold describes the prepared condition of the bride – the church.

·      Praise dance that we dance before God is the strength and the joy of Jesus in us.

·      Pouring out of 25 graces and 25 mercies from God – a total of 50.

·      Prudence

·      Passion for Father God, willingness to receive His love.

      Every year we learn something new about Pentecost. Most Christians who do observe Pentecost observe this day nonchalantly and superficially. Yet the mysteries unveiled in this day are exciting and help us make leaps forward in understanding our identity in Jesus.

      Jesus spoke of much more than the coming down of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost: "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).

      The Greek word for "clothed" is enduo and it is packed with power, especially with the use of the amplifiers "power" and "on high." It includes being arrayed as our Divine Master Jesus is arrayed and clothed with a gift that is not strived for but received from God. We are clothed with the armor of God and the coat of righteousness.

      What we receive by keeping this day is colossal: we take part in a covenant that makes it impossible for Satan to distinguish us from Jesus!

      Shortly after my healing in 1998, my colleague Gerald told me: the Holy Spirit tells me that Satan has asked Jesus if he can test you for ten days. Jesus gave him permission." In the case of righteous Job, it was Jesus Himself who brought Job to Satan's special attention. When we have not attained to the high faith level that Pentecost helps us achieve, Satan is able to tell us apart from Jesus. When Jesus' light is shining through our level of love and faith, Satan does not see Jesus when he looks at us. God was allowing this direct test from Satan himself so I could grow in my degree of faith. God wants you and me to shine brightly like Jesus so we can accept the words in I John 4:17: "…love is perfected in us…because as He is, so also are we in this world."

      As the next verses show, it is our marriage to fear that has blocked God's perfect love from being perfected in us so we can shine like Jesus. Laying down our fears and dreads on the new moon prepares us to permanently reject fear and accept all of God's love.

      Enduo dresses our spirit man with light and life and our soul with righteousness and authority. The day of Pentecost signaled the coming of a Power that would shake the world. Sadly, Christians have not understood this day and thus have not received the power to change the world. Creflo Dollar's church understands God's purpose for us in their name, "World Changers." That's who we are called to be.

      On this day the Father sent the Holy Spirit down to this earth to be the governor of the earth, empowering Christians to be the gods on this earth to rule over the "god of this world," Satan. We are called to be lieutenant governors of this world. While world people are subject to their god, the devil, we are not his henchmen. We rule over him and his system of government in this world. We can bring governments down. Our word spoken in faith and boldness is law.

      Fear has kept us from being bold on this earth. This day is the day for ending the deception of all fear's power. It is also the day that the Father sent the Governor of this earth to God's church to establish us as the voice of God on the earth. He sent tongues of fire to burn out all Satan's gifts in us so only the strength of Jesus would remain. God dresses us in the coat of righteousness, glory and honor, renewing us and giving us dominion power in our prayers.

      While the Sabbath is also "dominion day" and prayers of power are spoken on the weekly Sabbath, this high day marks the initial release of that power and its importance in our lives.

      As representatives of the Kingdom of God, Jesus is authorized to meet all our needs and requests (John 15:7). This is the day we celebrate Jesus as our Sole Provider. He turns over the wealth of the wicked to those who learn on this day to those who call forth His Kingdom and seek Him in every aspect of their lives. To those who do not seek after the false Holy Spirit (mammon or money), Jesus promises to bless them with that money to further His Kingdom.

      This is the day that celebrates the mastery over money and its power. We declare on Pentecost that money must flow to us and bow down at our feet, obeying our every word. We now have the right to command money to come to us whenever and however we need it to preach the gospel and meet all our needs and godly desires.

      We also have authority over all demons, powers and worldly rulership through governments, banks, police and the courts. We have been granted this day the right to issue them orders! They must accept those orders. But most Christians are not at the level of faith and boldness to exercise our authority on earth. We must confess having refused to accept our identity in Jesus and our power on this earth.

      We are lay down our pride and accept what Jesus has for us. We are to reach our right hand out to hold onto the hand of Jesus and to extend our left hand to grasp the hand of our Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

      This day enables us and calls us to be like Jesus -- invincible! He said that through the power released on this day we would do more powerful works than He did on earth. We have the keys of the Kingdom He got back from Satan and we have the power of the Governor of this earth.

      Jesus' "right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him" (Ps. 98:1). We are one spirit with Him. We have access to His hand and His holy arm. Anything He can do, therefore, we can do. As long as we walk hand in hand with Him, we are more than conquerors. We can do crippling damage to God's enemies.

      We saw that recently when our apostle followed the lead of the Holy Spirit to help a member who was attacked by Satanists and witches. They wanted to swallow him up in the shadow dimension with what they call a shadow mirror. They were not joking. Satan does have power, but God's power, when understood and used, is far greater. Several members came in agreement to call for Jesus' shining feet like bronze to step on the shadow mirror. We received confirmation later that this action virtually shut down an entire worldwide operation of the forces of darkness -- the demonic power of 100 million people!

      Yes, Jesus is indeed an "avenger of their evil deeds" (Ps. 99:8), and we are His instruments of power on the earth. Jesus has defeated every enemy. We are simply called to enforce that defeat with our words of power.

      Look at Satan's forces as ants. All we have to do is step on them! They are "under our feet."

      As we sing songs of praise to Jesus and hold onto His hand, nothing can defeat us (Ps. 98:1)!

      God knew us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). We have always been in the "genes" of our Father. When we accept Jesus, we accept oneness with the "I Am" (I Cor. 6:17). This means what it says. We become eternal as He is eternal. We have no past. We are outside the realm of time. Satan is limited by time. We have no limits. If we accept this truth into our hearts, minds and lives, we have access to all the power God has, all the power He says we will have in the Millennium. If we need to do so, we can walk through walls as Jesus did after His resurrection. The only limit we have is the limit we put on ourselves.

      Death and any agents of death have no power over us, no sting, no victory (I Cor. 15:55). When we come to the middle levels of the ten levels of faith, doubt and shame are never issues with us. This day was given to us to give us this kind of confidence.

      God is Love. Love loves us so much that we always have what we ask of Him. Our requests are more like demands according the covenants we have with God. It is wrapped up in the childlike statement, "Daddy, You promised!" "Now, O [Eternal] God, You are God [Love], and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant [and Son]" (II Sam. 7:28).

      That was the confidence expressed by David, the man after God's own heart. God's heart is the giving, serving heart of love. Since we are one with Him, and since He is Love, so are we! We are love. God doesn't have love. He is Love. And we can claim the same.

      Because we are one with Love and walk in God's love and speak out God's Word of Love in love, we always have what we ask and demand. We are the way God has chosen to express His love to this world. We are as Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. We are the Light of the world. We receive what we need and request because we love, and because we are one spirit with Love Himself.

      We were made to think, act and speak like God (Gen. 1:26-27) and take dominion over this earth. As we walk in the likeness of His giving, serving love, we are invincible.

      When the church begins to keep all of God's feast days including Pentecost as the early church did, we will "speak the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31) and we will shake the world as that house was shaken on the day of Pentecost.

      The disunity caused by religiosity caused the power of the early church to begin to wane (Acts. 11:1-2). Instead of the church laughing at Satan and his schemes, He began laughing at the church, using mockery and betrayal to steal the truth and bring in doctrines of demons.

      The church is called today to walk in the spirit of Elijah, to restore all things that have been lost. The meaning of Pentecost has been lost. But we can be renewed and revived on this day of revival as understand this feast.

      The man with the withered hand (Mark 3:1-5) is a picture of the church weakened by religiosity. Jesus called him to rise and be healed as He is calling the church to do today. Pentecost releases the power to heal the church of the withered hand and put their "hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea," as Anne Murray sings.  

      The man healed of blindness in Mark 8:22-26 is also a picture of the church. When we accept Him we see Him only as a stick outline, not in His fullness. As we learn about Him and keep His days, we focus on Him and wee Him clearly for who He is. Pentecost is a time for breakthrough in vision -- seeing Jesus in His fullness, seeing in the spirit realm and even seeing clearly physically. We can ask for a clearer view of Jesus and ourselves. But remember that Jesus told the man who was healed to stay out of Bethsaida. It was a city of sin and unbelief. We must also stay out of Bethsaida. 

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