Walking in Spiritual Reality and God’s Freedom by Relating with God through the Lord’s Feast of Pentecost

TRUTH AND PURPOSE

Shavuot, a/k/a the Feast of Pentecost, points to an exciting way of experiencing real freedom in a relationship with God through His Word and Holy Spirit. The feast was originally established to mark the day Moses received the Ten Commandments. It also looked forward to celebrating the fullness of the harvest once in the Promised Land.

However, God intended to impress upon humanity more grace and truth. How so? Embracing His Word and Spirit by faith is essential to being guided successfully through life. So, on the one hand, you become dependent on God. However, at the same time you, become independent in God. As a result,  you experience more freedom and success in life than you think!

How so? Your Heavenly Father is able to keep you in His grip. His Holy Spirit is the source and sustainer of life. The Lord, Yeshua-Jesus is your Redeemer. So as the sovereign Creator and Lord of the universe, God is your best provider.

The Law of Moses, however, demanded performance of all kinds of works to be justified before God. However, Messiah Yeshua-Jesus came in the power of God’s love to reveal an upgraded dimension of grace and release the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit enables you to experience a new kind of freedom– the new life of the Spirit— real liberty in the Holy Spirit!

RELEVANCE

As the disciples were celebrating Shavuot in their customary manner, they experienced a huge pour of God’s love as the Holy Spirit fell upon them as recorded in Acts 2. In essence, God’s covenant Word connected with His Spirit and brought completion—or fullness—to the revelation of God’s covenant.

It, therefore, brought fulfillment to Isaiah’s prophecy expressing the fullness of God’s covenant: “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth…”  (Isaiah 59:21)

So, full independence in God would be expressed by depending on God’s Word breathed by His Spirit—the Holy Spirit. This is what the Lord revealed towards the end of His ministry in the upper room.

I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own initiative but will say only what he hears. He will also announce to you the events of the future. 14 He will glorify me, because he will receive from what is mine and announce it to you.  (John 16:12-14 JNT)

This is also what Paul had in mind in expressing what liberty in the Lord is about:  standing free; not being “entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

Truly, the Lord has discharged you from the debt to the law of sin. In addition, He has fully acquitted you from the guilt and shame of sin. As a result, you have the capacity to be empowered to walk in the true Spirit of liberty!

That capacity is realized by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. So you have a real enabling power to resist worldly influences and carnal impulses so the Lord’s nature can dominate your thought processes and actions.

So this happens as you allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen you and enable you to resist the ways of the world and sways of sin. What ways does this include? It includes the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life. Consequently, the more you yield to the Lord’s nature by the power of the Holy Spirit, the more you appropriate His victory in your life.

This is what the Lord meant in declaring, “He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it safe right on into eternal life!” (John 12:25 JNT) He was referring to a real kind of life transformation. So your nature once bent on satisfying the desires of the flesh, becomes renewed.

As a result, you become more focused on satisfying the desires God imparts in your heart to fulfill the purposes He has for you. So truly, you have the capacity to experience greater measures of liberty and the real joy and peace of God.

This transformation comes as the Holy Spirit enlightens your mind and heart to truth, bringing God’s real refreshment and liberation!  The more you yield to the Holy Spirit, the more you are able to resist harmful temptations. Consequently, you become free from the pulls that lead to anxiety, fear, depression, and despair. So this is how God can bring you to His rest, His settling state of peace.

REFLECT AND RELATE

What good desires and purposes do you think God has towards you?

What thoughts can you release to the Lord so the Holy Spirit can empower you to greater measures of freedom, peace, and joy?

What new values has God impressed you to embrace this season?

What new vision has God imparted in you to give you greater insights?

What virtues of Christ have you received to walk in the new life in Him?

REFERENCES

John 12-17; Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 2; Galatians 5-6

NEXT STEPS

Vertical movement: As you come to appreciate the true freedom you have in God, the Holy Spirit draws you deeper. You come to appreciate the full value of God’s covenant. You come to value not just His Word, but comfort, full consolation, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Horizontal movement: The more you realize and value the freedom you have in the Holy Spirit, the more you experience God’s redemption and reclaiming things lost.

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