FEAST OF PASSOVER - A HARVEST TIME FOR A NEW SEASON & ERA OF WORLD MINISTRY
HARVEST-TIME GIVING
The Covenant and the Observance of the Feasts of the Lord
Deu 16:16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
In the Old Testament, though the tithe opened the windows of heaven and released the blessing of rain over the land, after the rains came and the harvests came up, there were three main times of giving in the Hebrew economy that the children of Israel were to bring special offerings unto the Lord. They were known as the Feasts of the Lord that were to be kept 3 times a year in the Hebrew economy; Feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
The Key to God’s blessing of Provision and Abundance
Early on in my life in ministry God revealed to me the significance of keeping these three feasts. I was 29 years old when I first began receiving a revelation of the covenant observance of keeping the feasts of the Lord, as related to the blessings of God on my life. I was preparing to be married, but I had nothing in the natural seemingly to predicate me getting married. I was a missionary evangelist that had traveled to many of the third-world countries of the world evangelizing these countries with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had nothing to show for this evangelistic work when I heard the Lord speak to my heart on the 17th floor of the Jerusalem Hilton in 1994, saying; “In 1995 I’m going to connect you with your bride, as a witness of the return of my Son to return for His bride, the Church.”
This seemed to me to be a strange word, because I wasn’t dating anyone at the time. This was mainly due to the fact that I didn’t have anything materially to offer anyone. I didn’t have a car, I didn’t have a house, and I didn’t have any money. All I had was a calling to the nations of the world, and a covenant promise, which God had spoken to my heart, that said, “Whatever your wife to be needs or desires is inside of you, and as you stay in covenant with me, and enter into covenant with her, I will release it from you at the time needed.”
I then begin to study the covenant promises and stipulations God had given to man for the release of those promises, beginning with the children of Israel in the Old Covenant, along with the seasons and times to expect to receive those covenant promises. I found out that God’s seasons are not Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, but they are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. These are the three times a year the children of Israel received covenant provision and blessings from God. These 3 seasons that were for the release of supernatural provision and blessing were known as the Feasts of the Lord. God told me that if I understood and kept the covenant of the Feasts of the Lord three times a year, I would reap in each season supernatural provision from the Lord for my life and family. He taught me that this was the system that God instituted in the Kingdom of God, for covenant release and increase for wealth and the blessings of God to His people yearly.
Soon after this revelation in this bible study I met my wife to be and was engaged to be married, with nothing but a word from the Lord and a revelation of the Feasts of the Lord. We were engaged to be married in the season of the feasts of Passover, with the wedding being scheduled in the fall season of the feast of Tabernacles. But remember, I didn’t have anything to offer her in the natural, but a Word and a promise from the Lord. This Word from God was “Everything you need is inside of Me.” The promise from the Lord was, “Whatever you want will come as we ASK, SEED AND RECEIVE. Notice, I didn’t say, Ask, SEEK, and receive, but ASK, SEED, AND RECEIVE.
The first act of asking, seeding and receiving came in the first season of Passover, the season I engaged to my wife to be. I didn’t even have money to buy her an engagement ring, and my wife-tobe had exquisite taste and wanted a unique engagement ring. I was tempted to get her what I could afford, just something to put a ring on her finger. But God said, “I want you to give her whatever she asks for, not just what you can afford.” So I explained the key God had given me for receiving from Him whatever we wanted in the seasons of covenant release He called – Due Season(Gal 6:9). I begin explaining to her the Feasts of the Lord and how God blesses His people in season by offering up a special offering to the Lord three times a year. She wanted to hear more.
I told her these feasts were all significant covenant seasons and were to be recognized and passed on to the succeeding generations. The Feast of Passover signified the coming out of Egypt of the Children of Israel and was connected to the spring barley Harvest. The Feast of Pentecost or Feast of Weeks was 50 days after Passover, and signified the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai. This Feast correlated with the wheat harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles signified God coming down and living with them in the wilderness being a cloud by day and a fire by night to lead them to the Promised Land. This feast was the last and greatest harvest of the year and it was known as the rainy season, called the Latter Rains.
These three main feasts were to be observed as a means of continuing to pass on to the next generation the testimony of God’s favor to His people, and show the power of the covenant God they served. These feasts were a way of passing on the covenant faithfulness of God to the next generations. This would enable all generations to know the power and blessing of their covenant with God. These feasts were memorial events that would commemorate the awesomeness and might of their God, who cut covenant with them and delivered them out of all their troubles. During these feasts, they would rehearse the victories of God for them over their enemies, and they would pronounce the blessings of God over their lives from the covenant. These feasts would always remind them of their victories and their blessings.
The Feast of Passover
Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God: for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place that the Lord shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. Deuteronomy 16:1-3
The Feast of Weeks
And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there. Deuteronomy 16:10-12
The Feast of Tabernacles
Thou shalt observe the feast the tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place that the Lord shall choose: because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Deuteronomy 16:13
These festivals were presented to the children of Israel as Jehovah’s foreshadowing for the coming New Covenant that Christ would bring to the lives of all believers, with his various works of grace.
These feasts depict the unity found in God’s unfolding purposes for His people: from the new birth found in Passover and the Crucifixion, the release of the Spirit in Pentecost, all the way to entering God’s rest found in the Feast of Tabernacles and the Second Coming of Christ.
Harvest-Time Sowing and Reaping
Just as there were 3 times a year that the children of Israel were to bring a special offering – Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles - there should be at least three special times of giving per calendar year in the body of Christ, in addition to our regular weekly tithes and offerings. These special times of giving are what I call “HarvestTime Giving.” These are based on the three Feast celebrations, set around the three times of harvest seen in the agriculture calendar year; spring, summer, and fall. The males were to bring an offering from their harvests to Jerusalem. Though the majority of the New Testament Church of this generation has failed to see the importance of understanding and keeping the feasts of the Lord, the New Testament saints of the early Church did keep the feasts because they understood it’s covenant significance.
Once I explained all of this to my fiancé we purposed to get a significant seed of $1000 to sow for a release of a significant harvest of everything we needed to get married by Oct 21st – The end of the Feast of Tabernacles. The first thing we wanted was this unique engagement ring she desired. Understandably, until she had the ring on her finger her family would not recognize our engagement. They were very skeptical about our getting married before we had a consistent income, a house, and all the things we needed to put in the house. However God had promised us that if we asked Him for those things, and seeded for those things we would have everything we needed by the day of our wedding. So we ASKED for the ring, SOWED the significant seed in Passover season and waited to RECEIVE what we had asked for.
A Passover Miracle
Not only did He release that ring, but He did it exceedingly and abundantly above everything SHE could’ve asked or thought. What God released totally silenced every doubter and skeptic in hers and my families. Soon after we sowed that supernatural seed during the Resurrection season of the feast of Passover a Church in Hawaii called to invite me to preach on the Island of Kauai. God was sending me on a mission’s trip to Hawaii, ALLELUIA!! It was on this trip that I was blessed with $2500 to purchase this unique Hawaiian heirloom engagement ring. It was truly a sign and a wonder for all those that needed a sign of the significance of God’s system of operation, as opposed to the worlds’ system. However, God was just getting started, as we still had Pentecost, and Tabernacles to go and we still need the car, house and the honeymoon before Oct 21st.
A Pentecost Miracle
In the season of Pentecost I was called by a ministry in British Columbia Canada to come and minister for a week of services. During this time of ministry God did many wonderful miracles and many people were blessed with prophetic words of edification, exhortation and comfort. After this time of ministry God sent me home with a Pentecost blessing that I had not room enough to receive. It was enough money to pay up my fiancée’s car note for the remainder of the year. This was pretty significant, since God had spoken to my fiancée to resign from her job in preparation to begin travelling with me to the nations of the world, once we were married. I was a little nervous about this decision because my fiancée’s car note was in her mother’s name, as the co-signor, and I didn’t want her parents to think I had pressured her into this decision to quit her job, 5 months before our wedding. Her Father threatening to refuse to pay for the wedding if she followed through with this decision.
Well, when I received this Pentecost harvest, I was all too willing to obey God’s directive to put this harvest towards my fiancée’s needs, and especially towards her car note. This was also an additional faith reinforcement to strengthen our faith in this new system of kingdom living that God was teaching us, concerning the release of God’s covenant provision and blessings in the seasons of the Feasts of the Lord. It also continued to help squelch the skepticism and criticism we were receiving for not waiting until we were better financially situated to be married. However, the best was yet to come. We still needed a place to live, the monies for the honeymoon and all the other things we needed for our megachurch wedding, complete with 12 bridesmaids, 12 groomsmen and a mega-church guest list. But the greatest feast of the year – Feast of Tabernacles was still to come.
The Pressure leading up to this season was beyond our spiritual pay grade at that time. We were not prepared for the warfare and spiritual intensity that accompanied the resistance against us as this last feast season approached. It seemed as if everything was yelling at us to cancel the plans for this wedding and retreat to more rational common sense sight living, where everything is seen and on-hand before you make your plans. Don’t misunderstand me, this new kingdom living we were learning still required planning, it just required more prophetic forecasting and wisdom of God, that doesn’t make sense, much of the time, to the natural mind.
A Tabernacles Miracle
As we fought through all of the false atmospheres of this time, we resolved to go through with our plans, even though we had no money and no hint of where any more finances would come from. We had been denied by many Apartment complexes for lack of consistent income to substantiate our being able to make the lease payments monthly. And we still had no money for the honeymoon and no money for our limousine. This remained our state until three weeks before the wedding, when I received a call to Freeport Grand Bahamas to minister in a youth revival. It seemed like God would always release times of giving-out in ministry and service to others at the times we needed to receive the most. GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS A NEED WITH A SEED. GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE…(John 3:16).
Is God’s Provision always Enough
When I returned from the Bahamas it didn’t seem like the Tabernacles provision and release was enough to meet our Tabernacles need. I needed a sizeable down payment to put down on an Apartment lease for us to live in, and though I had enough to put down on the place, it didn’t leave much for the limousine, and nothing for the Honeymoon. In addition to that the management office where my fiancé had decided she wanted to live had to get special approval to agree to lease to us, even with the sizeable monies towards the lease, because it was an upscale luxury living unit and they were not sure how we had made that much money to pay off the lease with no conventional job. So a week before the wedding we still had no place to live, no honeymoon, and just enough for a mid size, limousine. The stretch limousine we liked and wanted we didn’t have enough money to rent. So we settled for the size beneath that one.
To say that we were a little concerned and pressed in our emotions was a major understatement. We talked seriously about calling off the whole thing, feeling the pressure to crawl into a black hole of intimidation, fear and shame. However, at the point of giving up, we both sensed a supernatural gift of faith kick in. We both said at the same time, “WE WILL NOT DRAW BACK AND QUIT.” At that very moment a succession of miracles begin breaking forth, one right after another, that didn’t stop until after the ceremony, as we stood in the receiving line at the church.
A Succession of Miracles in a Supernatural Week
We were sitting in my Dads Church office when things finally began to break. I got a call from the Bahamas again. It was from the church I had preached at a week before. A sister in that Church called with a question. She began by saying that her and several other ladies were in prayer and one of the mothers of the church felt God speak to her that I was to come back to the Bahamas with my wife for our honeymoon. Another sister said to her, “It’s a week before the wedding, surely by now he already has the Honeymoon destination planned. Then the mother said, “I know what I heard.” So they said, “Well let’s call him and see.” So when this sister called, her question was, “DO YOU HAVE YOUR HONEYMOON DESTINATION PICKED OUT YET?” My answer was a resounding NO! At that point, she answered, “YOU DO NOW!” We’re going to bring you both to the Bahamas for a week, for your Honeymoon. I turned to my Fiancée’ and shared with her the good news, as we began to rejoice in the Lord. Five minutes later the phone rang again. It was the Apartment Complex calling to tell us that our application to their complex had been accepted and approved. “You guys can move in two weeks from today, which would be the very day we would return from our Honeymoon in the Bahamas. We rejoiced all week as we thanked God for our Tabernacles harvest, released the very week of the Feast of Tabernacles, days before our wedding.
If that would’ve been it, that would’ve been enough, but that wasn’t all. He’s a God of more than enough. After the ceremony, as we were heading out to the receiving line in the foyer of the church, we noticed the stretch limousine we wanted but couldn’t afford, parked out in front of the Church waiting for us. As we went to set up to receive our family and friends, the limousine driver walked up to us and said, “I apologize, but the limousine you ordered broke down, so we brought you this one instead.” It was the very one we wanted but couldn’t afford. IN THIS LAST HARVEST SEASON OF THE YEAR, CALLED THE RAINY SEASON, GOD DID EXCEEDING, ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE COULD ASK OR THINK.
Tabernacles would truly prove to be the greatest season of reaping of the year. And this year of 1995 would set us on course for a lifelong ride of supernaturally miracle provisions and breakthroughs in three miracles seasons of the year – Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles - that would characterize our life and ministry.
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