Articles
A War and a Wedding Feast will have their place in Time. Are You Rehearsing?
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
September 2018
Written for Wisconsin Christian Newspaper
One day we will say:
The world has become a very strange place. Prosperity has returned for many so they are eating and drinking, celebrating, taking wives, growing their businesses. They have overcome an evil that had overtaken them and now are enjoying their victory. Yet it is not so for all.
Those who are known by the Name of Christians, Followers of the God of Israel, have been singled out for hate speech and intolerance; their reputations ruined, their businesses confiscated, their lives taken. As in the days of Judges, after experiencing hardship, begging for His mercy and receiving it, all too soon the grace and mercy of the LORD has been forgotten and downplayed. We gained this victory! You people who want to bring God into it have too many rules and you are too judgmental! They exchanged the Truth of God for a lie and became poor, blind and naked, and didn't even know it! All too many of those called Christians and those called Jews will have accepted a false messiah...of prosperity of one kind or another.
When it seems as though all is lost and the saints are all but crushed, there will come a day when the earth helps those who called on the Name of Messiah Yeshua and they are carried to a land of safety for a time, two times and a half! Like the Israelites before them, these Believers also have to go through a refining, a testing of their faith and a training time to learn to really Trust Him alone.
But what they endure is while under the covering and protection of their God, His intent is for their good, hope and a future! The rest of those in the world who had decided that all they had was from their own hand and their own effort, refusing to acknowledge God, will see another side of Him. The character of God: twelve parts mercy and one part justice. In order for that mercy to be real and significant, the justice must also be real.
The world will see plagues, fire, pestilence and death such as had never been seen before. A third of the trees, a third of the seas, a third of the earth will be consumed. Hundred pound hailstones will rain on the arrogant, yet in all this, they will still shake their fists at God and refuse to humble themselves to Him.
And then, the day and hour of which no man knows finally arrives. The Last Trumpet sounds and Messiah comes as the Conquering King, with ten thousands of His people. All the promises of God would be fulfilled to a T! As He foretold out of the beginning, so it will be!
His army is also His Family; those who had chosen long before that time to be enjoined with the family of God. They chose to take His Name and to learn His ways so they were walking after Him as best they could in a fallen broken world. Everything will be rolled up as a scroll and a new heaven and earth will be provided. A New Jerusalem will descend from the heavens, adorned as the Bride, and people from every tribe, tongue and nation who had set aside those earthly identity priorities to take up the identity of being a Child of God, will now be preparing to fully enter into the Kingdom of God, through the Marriage Feast of the Lamb!
Though this picture is simplified here, as Believers in Messiah, we do look forward to the Day when all will be re set and we will continue living in the “Lamb Light” of Messiah in Jerusalem!
What many do not understand is that we can and should be rehearsing for that day all along!
The Spring Feasts all cover the First coming of Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth, and metaphorically, indicate our desire to be set apart from the world and to come under the blood on the doorpost that will spare our lives in the day of judgment. Then, the mid summer Feast of Shavuot, which has been called Pentecost by Christians, speaks of the empowerment through the Spirit for those who have chosen to be set apart to our God.
“The Day that no man knows the hour” is a reference to the Day of Trumpets, or Yom Teruah, literally the Day of Blowing. It is the first of the fall Feasts and falls on a New Moon, thus the reference that it's exact time is unknown. This is the fifth of the seven Feasts of the LORD. It also relates thematically to the Creation week day five when the birds and the fishes were made, and began their movement throughout the earth. So will the Spirit begin to move on those who have allowed themselves to become identified as Children of God, through the observance of His ways and His Feasts.
Keeping the Seventh Day of Rest, Shabbat observance is presented in the Scriptures as being like a wedding ring; a covenant promise of relationship, a sign between God and man forever. As we progress through these times, those people that our God has kept under His wing will be released as ten thousands of His Saints, after the wrath of our God has fallen on those who resisted Him. The wrath was never intended for His Children! These thousands of people will be fully aware and taking part in that promise of atonement that has been poured out for all who will believe and accept Messiah. It has to do with Yom Kippur, or more accurately, Yom haKippurim, Day of Atonements, as there is more than one picture of Atonement. Individually, we have received Messiah and His finished work on our behalf, which is to lead us to become set apart people to His purposes, out of love for Him, not compulsion. Now the corporate work continues.
It is part of the preparation for the Marriage Feast to come. These people who have taken part in Messiah through acceptance of His work on their behalf have been being washed, sanctified, and set apart in preparation for the wedding, being built up into a spiritual house. Only those who have received Him will be able to partake. Just as only those who received the Baptism of John could recognize and receive Messiah. They come from all backgrounds, being united under the shed blood of Messiah, and brought into One family, under One Law and one Shepherd, their soon to be Bridegroom, Yeshua Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth!
The final Fall Feast of the LORD has to do with the ingathering of all those who have believed, recognizing our temporary dwellings here in this life as being but a shadow of what it means to live and move and have our being in Messiah! The Son of the Living God, was God, and is God, and came to tabernacle/live among us at this season, making a way back to unity with our Father. This same season will become the Marriage Feast of the Lamb! The Feast of Booths, and of Ingathering are additional names for this last Feast, also called Tabernacles, or Sukkoth, in Hebrew.
In Messiah, all the promises of God are yes and amen! Are you rehearsing so that you will be ready when He calls? Will you recognize the sound of the shofar letting you know that the Bridegroom, Who is also our King and Commander of the LORD's army, is at hand?
If you want to see the Scripture references from this writing, or know more about what it means for Messiah to be coming for a bride without spot or wrinkle, please contact us at Set Apart Ministries for help for your rehearsals!
www.set-apart-ministries.org (920) 634-2760
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