Our Heavenly Father has promised us many blessings, but the most significant gift He has given His children is the gift of HIS Holy Spirit. This miraculous gift became ours on a very special day exhibited in the fullness of God’s prophetic time clock. You see, just as God used His appointed time of Pesach (Passover) for Jesus’ crucifixion, the Feast of Unleavened Bread for His burial, and the Feast of First Fruits for His resurrection, He continued His prophetic course as it was on the very first day of Shavu’ot (or Pentecost in Greek) that God sent the Holy Spirit to reside in the hearts of those who would receive Him.
And, dear readers, this awesome blessing of the Spirit continues to this day!
Scripture is filled with the truth of God’s promises and the traditions that His people have passed down for generations. The focus of this month’s Kaleidoscope are the blessings of those promises and the traditions that honor the memories of these blessings.
When Yeshua resurrected and lived among His followers, He taught them in His ways, instructing them on how to live their lives. He told them to go wait in Jerusalem for the true Promise of the Father (the coming of the Holy Spirit.) It was customary that during the fifty-day period from the Passover Season to Shavu’ot the people were to count the omer (or days) anticipating the great work of God yet to be done. An omer of grain was actually a daily measurement of “just enough” provision for one person. What God was really saying in this exercise was to trust Him daily for all our needs and be prepared for the day that is soon coming when His children will receive a true provision from on high.
This ancient lesson (and many others) have been carried down through the generations by time honored traditions centered around the feasts of the Lord. For example, during the Passover meal a piece of matzah (unleavened bread) is broken in half and hidden. The matzah is symbolic and represents Messiah. After dinner, the child who finds the hidden matzah (or Messiah) takes it to the papa who gives them a redemption price called “The promise of the Father,” a deposit that is to be paid some fifty days later.
The number fifty is symbolic throughout Scripture. It was on the fiftieth day after the first Passover events in Egypt that Moses led the Israelites to Mt. Sinai. It was then that God re-introduced Himself to His covenant children after the 400 years of slavery in pagan Egypt. God wrote with His own finger the guidelines of His ways on tablets of stone. Shavu’ot has been celebrated since the day that the power of God manifested on Mt. Sinai with earthquakes, thunder, lightning, and His powerful voice from heaven. But something even more miraculous happened on that chosen Shavu’ot day, just ten days after Yeshua ascended into heaven. It was then the true promise of the Father came, not like the vain traditions of silver and gold redemption deposits passed down by men—but rather because of the precious blood of Messiah. Because of this Holy Spirit blessing, the transforming promise and ways of the Father are written onto the tablets of the hearts of all those who find Messiah.
And just like the children who find the hidden matzah are rewarded by their papa, we are rewarded by our heavenly Father with the blessing of redemption that is God’s promise to all His children.
