SEASONS - DAY 50 - ARRIVING AT PENTECOST

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Jesus knew that after His resurrection and ascension into heaven we would feel lost without Him.  The Holy Spirit resolved that problem, connecting heaven and earth, the Messiah and His Bride even when they were apart in time and space.

June 11 at sunset begins the time of Pentecost for those of us who follow the Hebrew calendar dates.

For 50 days now we have been counting from the days of the time of the offering of the omer, the first of our first crops for the year, counting from Passover to Pentecost just as God showed our ancient ancestors to do.  

In ancient times the offerings were only physical, but in today's world and in the time of our living, those who faithfully observe this traditional custom are offering up the best of the best of our spiritual AND physical offerings beginning during the week of Passover and observing the count of the days until Pentecost.  

We offer from what we have to offer to The One God of Heaven and Earth, the One who came down in the form of our Savior, Jesus Christ to save us from ourselves and we begin during these next 50 days to examine in a closer, more intimate way, how this works in our lives as we count up the time, waiting on God's greatest gift until The Son of God returns, the giving of God's Holy Spirit. 

We have been counting through seven weeks and seven holy Sabbaths, trying to open our eyes wider to the will of God in our daily lives.  Seven times seven days of counting from the time of the omer offering, just waiting to come to the day that God has appointed and made sacred which we now know as Pentecost, or as the faithful Jews call it; Shovout.  

Each day of the counting we have been studying the attributes of God and attempting to apply His goodness and the holy traits of His character to our lives in a daily, routine manner.  

We have been on yet another journey of considering and examining our lives before a Holy God, listening to God, thinking of the fact that He IS God and we are made from the dust of the earth, learning to live dependent and in awe of Him, and waiting on the day of celebrating the giving of The Torah first, then the completion and fulfillment of that by the giving of The Holy Spirit.

The first event gave us God's advice on the best ways to live.  We received the Torah containing The Ten Commandments of God.  The second event gave us God's solution to how mankind can achieve this.  We received abundant LIFE through the holy offering of Jesus Christ on a cross.  He died on what He created for the ones that He created and He rose to new life!  The greatest offering, given on Passover just as the story has always unfolded, brought it's fulfillment as an engagement gift on Pentecost!  His holy death and resurrection took away our guilt and inability to fulfil the first requirements and made the blessing abundant and possible for us!  It is only by these two precious gifts from our Beloved that we can do anything at all worthwhile on this earth.  

We have been counting and waiting and learning and growing all the while.  We have also been preparing our hearts for a wedding to the Son of The King!  Now we reach day 50.  We have reached the Day of the celebration of Pentecost!  It is just the same as becoming engaged officially and announcing the wedding plans to the world!  The Son of God has proclaimed His Beloved Bride; His one true holy church.  Those who have God's Holy Spirit living inside of their hearts and bodies belong to Him now.  He has officially proclaimed us as His own, and He will return for us one day to take us to The Marriage Supper of The Lamb.  The Passover is our way of rehearsing this moment.  We have all been schooled and are now simply like the ten virgins in the parable who were told to keep oil in their lamps and wait on the groom.  He is coming back for us!  We must be ready.    

Pentecost is a glorious day!  At first we received the law, then we received a gift from the one who has overcome the dependency we had on the law.  We have received a huge, loving package from heaven from our Groom!  He has sent us by special delivery a very special gift that will help to keep Him safely inside our hearts until the wedding feast.

Can you see the symbolism?  Those who count the days cannot help but see, it is hard to miss it when you are waiting on the times to be fulfilled.  Pentecost is full of symbolism.  We were told that Jesus asked his disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait on that first Pentecost after the Ascension.  When the Holy Spirit came down from heaven men were filled with God's Presence from within and it appeared as if flames of fire were resting on their heads as they spoke the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all languages to all people groups.  This reversed the tower of Babel.  For the first time, everyone heard each other and understood without a language barrier!  It was the language of the heart of God speaking to those whom He loves very much! It was an amazing day!  A day we celebrate constantly, not just once a year, but a day definitely to be commemorated and exalted above all other ordinary days.   Many wear red on this day to remember the flaming tongues of fire.

Many people also relate the symbolism of a dove to the day of Pentecost.  Do you know why? 

When you release a dove it returns to its home; if it is at all possible the dove does not return ANYWHERE ELSE but home.  If it can't find home, the dove will always be seeking home.   

Remember the story of Noah, when he released the dove in order to search for land?  Perhaps Noah released the dove from the ark to see if it could find their old original home prior to the flood.  We don’t know how far away the ark landed from Noah’s old homestead.   When the dove could not find home, he returned to Noah.  Personally, I don't think God wanted Noah to find the old because He had made everything new.  Noah gently and lovingly took the dove back inside the ark and waited seven more days.
  

After Passover when we came to know and believe in how Christ died and was resurrected to new life, we also began to feel the change and renewal He brings to us.  It is our belief in his death and resurrection that makes this possible.  Like the dove; God’s Holy Spirit is always seeking a place to land inside our hearts.  He searches and searches until He finds it.  We begin to prepare for this by believing and repenting of our sins.  Our souls start to change, and begin to be renewed, like the land of the earth after the flood.  The first seven days are a time of considering what it means to change, to be renewed and refreshed by the power of  a Holy God. 
   

Noah knew that doves always return home.  This was just one of the reasons for sending out the dove from the ark, just as Jesus ascended into Heaven, yet through The Gift of God's Holy Spirit he remained at home with us.   

Another reason Noah had for using a dove was that he knew that the dove would always return for his mate, just as we know Jesus Christ will one day return for us and take us to that heavenly home that The Father has prepared for us.  

If the dove had found home; he would have returned for his mate to take her back home with him.    Not only would the dove return to the ark and Noah, but when Noah took the dove back inside the ark it would go straight to the cage of his mate and if the dove had found green food it would regurgitate a portion for her.  

In the second of the seven weeks we have realized that Christ our beloved is going to return for us, the church, His bride.   In our dwelling on this thought, we have begun to prepare; to do the things that brides do when they are waiting on their wedding.  Like the mate of Noah’s dove, we wait and count the days.  God is feeding us all the while on His Word, teaching us on our journey as we wait on our marriage to Christ.  


Doves will not touch unclean things.  They only eat the good green food preferably grown

from the best fruit trees of the land.  Noah could observe the dove feeding his mate and know if the dove had found dry land in the vicinity of home.   

Also Noah could tell after a while by the droppings of the dove if greenery had been eaten on the journey.  

So, when the dove returned Noah took it in and watched it as it flew back to it's mate.  Noah observed that the dove was not able to feed its mate indicating that it had not found enough green growing food in the land to eat and it was not yet time for Noah's family to step out of the ark onto their new life.  Noah waited patiently, as did the dove.  When Christ returns; what will he find on this earth?  Will it be ready? 

 In the third of the seven weeks we are still not yet ready for strong food.  We are still gaining the strength of believing and being cleansed from the inside out, still repenting, still longing for our mate to return to us.  On the third week we know we are halfway through the waiting and we must become more acutely prepared for the return.  We begin to ponder and think through the things that are most important for our upcoming marriage to The Lamb of God.

The old sages talk of how the earth grieved as the flood waters went down.  Legend has it that the earth was ashamed because it would not yet have crops grown when the appointed harvest times arrived for the next offerings to God.  The earth had to start anew with growing things.  When we give our hearts to Christ, we too have to start anew with a growing process.  It takes time, we must be patient and wait on God.  Fruitfulness does not come to one instantly after salvation; there is a process of sanctification involved in our growing in The LORD.  These fifty days that we count and wait remind us to be patient and keep pursuing the One we love with all our hearts.  Sanctification is a process.  We fall and we get up and we repent and we start over again and again.  The fifty days of counting remind us not to give up!
    

Noah saw the dove's mate that faithfully waited in the ark for the return of her beloved, and he saw the dove's mate's sure return with nourishment and strength and hope for the one he loved and cherished.   Noah knew the returning dove brought hope of home again.  
   
In the second month and the twenty seventh day of the month God spoke to Noah and said “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your son’s wives with you.”   And God told Noah to bring the animals out of the ark too.  They all came out and back onto the earth.   It was time!  New life was beginning!  

Today many in God's church are grieving.  Our hearts grieve because we are not yet ready for our groom.  Our hearts have to start anew with growing.  We have a growing process to go through in order to be ready.  We must start!  Time is passing.  Everyday is precious. 

The fourth, fifth and sixth weeks are huge growing times in our waiting on Pentecost to come.  We realize the urgency of time; just like a bride seeing the days of the calendar unfold.  In these times we experience the putting into practice of the things that God has shown us.  We can't just think it; we must be DOING!   Our hearts are getting stronger, more able to respond to God, ready to be filled in the seventh week with an extra blessing of God’s Holy Spirit.  

We have prayed for The Holy Spirit to come and on this very special day we receive that wedding gift that says, "keep this until I come for you, it is to remind you that I am close, that I am coming!  It is to help you know that you have My heart at all times, even when you are in the storm, even when the water is deep and you cannot walk on your own, even when you are not sure that the water is receding."  

Pentecost comes as a special wedding gift from our Groom in Heaven.   It is to encourage our hearts and make our lives better!   We come to it at the end of  the act of counting our days, hoping, studying the Word, having faith, waiting on God's timing.
  

When God sent out The Holy Spirit for the first time after the Resurrection on The Day of Pentecost, The Holy Spirit found God's followers very similar to a dove seeking his mate. The intention was to gather and eventually bring back home a whole and perfect bride for the Messiah.  This day from God, which He had appointed long ago was like sending out an invitation for mankind to come inside the ark of heaven and find rest with God forever. No need to worry.  We are safe until the flood is over.  No more tossing and turning through the seas of life and floods, but it was an offering of peace, a time for renewal!

Like Noah standing and waiting for the dove's return from the bow of the great ship, the Messiah would be waiting for the Bride in heaven.  The disciples were told to wait in Jerusalem, much like the dove's mate waiting faithfully in the ark.  Often in the refining work of God’s Holy Spirit a process of waiting is involved.  This is why we take the time to count the days!  We, like Noah, must be sensitive to this fact.  Noah had to wait patiently for seven more days before he sent out the dove again.  

Why seven more days?  

Why not eight, or nine or ten, or only one?  

Because; Noah was a faithful keeper of the Sabbath.  Every seventh day was a day of corporate worship, a time that Noah and his family set aside to spend with God.  They put aside their work and chores and they focused on God’s will for the next week of their lives.  Together they worshiped and rested and the animals rested and worshiped with them.   

As they rested, they listened to what God had to say to them without any worldly distractions.  This was a special set-aside time for seeking God’s face.  
To miss a Sabbath would be unthinkable to a man like Noah.  He understood that God had appointed sacred times and seasons.  He was always counting and waiting on the Seventh Day.  This is why many believe that the dove was being sent out on the Sabbath day, maybe as a type of thank offering from Noah to God and also a way of seeking an answer from Him on what to do next.  

Noah would make his offering and wait on God to answer.  This happened like clockwork, every seventh day.

The second time that Noah sent out the dove it came back again, but this time Noah saw the dove feed it's mate little green olive leaves by regurgitating his food and sharing a portion with his mate.  This strange process brings to mind a picture of a godly man who would never just hand his wife and children a bible and tell them to read it and understand it on their own.  He ingests the word into his soul and lives it out himself first, taking it into his own heart before giving it out to others.  He chews on it, digests it, and when the time is right, he pulls the nutrients out of it for his own family.  It is the same in sharing God's Holy Spirit with others.  The Spirit must first live inside of us before we have the ability to pass it on to others.    

I smile each time I think of this and remember that my granddaughter is named Olivia.  I have prayed for her from the time she lived inside her mother's womb, even before that, and her name is so symbolic of Pentecost and the receiving of God's Holy Spirit.  I know the root word "olive" means so much.  I am thankful that she was given this name.

This practice of feeding used by the returning dove to bring nourishment to his mate told Noah that there was dry land once more and that land contained olive leaves.

Olive leaves were such a wonderful sign!  To this day the people of God often go out during The Feast of Tabernacles and bring back olive branches to build the temporary shelters they inhabit for the feast.  They probably think of Noah and remember the faithful dove when they do this act.  These olive branches used for building during the feast days are symbolic of Jesus sending The Holy Spirit to dwell with us in the temporary shelters of our physical bodies until he could return to us again.  I love how the Holy Days of God are all interconnected with one another.  Passover leads to Pentecost and Pentecost is still celebrated in The Feast of Tabernacles at the end of the sacred year.  One lesson of God builds on the next.  God was so wise in teaching us these things this way; humans can be so forgetful, but when we live them out through celebrating these Holy Day, we remember!
  

Jesus knew that after His resurrection and ascension into heaven we would feel lost without Him.  The Holy Spirit resolved that problem, connecting heaven and earth, the Messiah and His Bride; even when they were apart in time and space.    They were always beloved to one another, connected in their hearts and souls.  It became official on Pentecost!  This is what is achieved by the gift of The Holy Spirit dwelling inside of each of God's children.  This Holy Spirit living inside of someone is how you will recognize them as a child of God.  The indwelling of The Holy Spirit is what causes people to be resurrected from their graves into new life in God's Kingdom.

When the Holy Spirit comes to us, our bodies become temporary shelters; little temples or tabernacles created and designed especially to house The Spirit of God; just as the ark was the temporary shelter of the dove and Noah.
  

How significant that the dove brought back an olive leaf to give to his mate who was faithfully waiting inside the ark, never doubting his return.  This is one reason why Olive oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.  It is always used for anointing people with the power and healing strength of God.

Many, many years later, after the flood of Noah, God gave his prophet Zechariah the ability to see into the future.  Zechariah spoke and wrote of two olive trees and olive oil and olive branches that he saw in visions from God.  His visions helped the church (the dove’s faithful waiting mate) to see and understand that Jesus (represented in our story by Noah) is the source of that great old Olive tree and through His Holy Spirit (represented by Noah's Dove) the golden oil of grace flows out to believers that keep their lamps burning and/or those who stay filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  

God's people, much like Noah as he prepared the great ark, must stay ready and be prepared for whatever God tells them to do and where ever God leads them to go.  This is true of the church now in this day and time more than it ever has been in His-Story (history.)

Noah witnessed God at work through the dove just as we witness God at work through His Holy Spirit.  

It must have been hard for the dove to leave his mate behind.  He must have wanted some way to comfort her as she rested and waited for him in the comfort of the ark.  Jesus must have felt the same as He left the earth full of his followers and returned to His Father to complete his purpose.  He gave us The Comforter, The Holy Spirit to help us while He was away from the earth.  The Holy Spirit is our connection to our Beloved, Christ.

The Olive branches symbolized hope of a better future and hope is always the beginning of a new and better life.  

Noah’s family had hope, but they were still inside the ark, so Noah waited seven more days and sent the dove out again seeking an answer from God on when to leave the ark.  This time the dove did not return.  This must have told Noah that the world was once again ready for habitation.  However, Noah and his family did not leave the ark until God said for them to leave.  Noah again waited seven more days. 

Are you prepared to leave the ark of this earth and meet your Bride Groom in heaven?  Are you ready, filled up with the oil of God's Holy Spirit?  If not, you simply need to ask of God and it will be given to you.  Hold up your clean and believing hands (cleaned from repentance and as an act of believing faith) and receive God's greatest gift into your life today.  This is the oil that never runs out.  All you have to do is ask with a true heart.  God is waiting on you to ask.  

With Pentecost accomplished, just like that new world that Noah's family stepped into, a whole new beginning comes to God’s church.   My favorite quote from the lips of Jesus is:  "I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW."

Praise to Almighty God for The Sacred Appointed Day of Pentecost!