(tm) The Last Feast and the Christian

The last three of the seven feasts of the Lord are as follows:

The blowing of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24).

The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27).

The feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34).

The blowing of Trumpets, the observance that follows Pentecost, announces the coming of the King to raise us from the dead. Being raised from the dead brings us into judgment and spiritual warfare. As the Christian believer learns to enter the Holy Spirit he is raised from the dead in the spiritual sense, and will be raised physically at the return of Christ.

Our being raised spiritually from the dead brings us, as we have said, into judgment and spiritual warfare. The more we are raised the more clearly we can see our sins of the flesh and disobedience to God’s will. When we see our sins and disobedience we are to confess our sin and rebellion, turn away from such behavior, resist the devil, and submit to God. This is our personal experience of the Day of Atonement, which follows the blowing of Trumpets.

Confession and repentance cleanse our personality, making room in our heart for a further growth of Christ in us. Christ in is the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

As we receive more of Christ in us we are raised yet further from the dead, spiritually speaking. We continue coming to know the "power of his resurrection." The increased resurrection life causes us to become conscious of the sins and disobedience remaining in our life. We then proceed to confess, repent, and turn to God with increased diligence. Increased repentance and submission make way for an even greater growth of Christ—the Resurrection—in us.

It is the will of the Lord that this process continue until Christ has been developed fully in us, making us eligible to be filled with all the fullness of God.

The Pentecostal experience, along with salvation, is being proclaimed widely throughout the earth today. We must never let up on the task of bringing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to every man, woman, boy, and girl on the face of the earth.

In addition, it appears the Holy Spirit is ready now to bring believers who have come as far as Pentecost forward to the fulfillment of the remaining three feasts of the Lord. The Holy Spirit will not cease working with the Church until the Church is without spot or wrinkle.

The Lord Jesus through the Spirit will continue to perfect the Church until His coming in the clouds of glory. The process of perfecting the Church will take place throughout the darkest hours of earth’s history—the days of the fullness of sin which even now are destroying the earth’s inhabitants.

The Lord Jesus is coming in His external kingdom and every eye shall see Him. But the issue of the present hour, as far as the Church is concerned, is the perfecting of the internal kingdom. As soon as we are under His blood the Lord is able to have fellowship with us, provided we continue to walk in the light of His will. But the feast of Tabernacles points toward the Lord’s Presence in us.

The developing of the Lord’s Presence in us is the all-important work of the Holy Spirit as He brings us through the processes of salvation. Christ will appear in His Church, as well as visibly to the world, in order that the Church may bring the Presence and Glory of God to the peoples of the earth.

The internal kingdom must be perfected in us before the external kingdom appears from Heaven. This is how we know Christ will not appear just yet. It is because His internal kingdom has not been perfected in the Church.

If Christ desired only an external kingdom He would have returned long ago. But Christ is seeking to take up residence in the Body of Christ, and for this reason the Body must be perfected. The Body of Christ has not as yet been perfected. There is more of God for us.

As the dark clouds gather over the earth there is coming an entrance of Christ into His temple—the Christian Church. It does not matter that Satan may become incarnate in a man who will sit in the Holy of Holies of an earthly temple. God in Christ will come to the Body of Christ and His vessels will have an inner glory vastly exceeding and conquering anything Antichrist can produce.

The inner manifestation of the Lord’s Presence will take place, as we understand it, just before Christ’s coming, and is the necessary forerunner of and preparation for the first resurrection—the resurrection of the victorious saints that will take place at Christ’s appearing.

Let us look now at the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, to see what the Holy Spirit has said about the internal dimension of the Kingdom of God.

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:19,20)

We can notice, from the above passage, that this particular manifestation of the Lord can be witnessed only by the disciples, not by the world. His Life becomes our life. We see Him because we are living by Him and in Him.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)

The inner manifestation of Christ cannot be obtained by the average careless churchgoer. It can be gained only by the sincere disciple of Christ—the person who keeps Christ’s commandments.

The question that naturally would arise after hearing such a promise was stated by Judas.

Judas saith to him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? (John 14:22)

How can Christ reveal Himself to us without being seen by the world? How is this possible?

The answer is, Christ will come to each disciple in an inner Presence, in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles. If we follow the pattern of the feasts of the Lord we come to the conclusion that the inner Presence of Christ will come after Pentecost because the feast of Tabernacles came after the feast of Pentecost.

Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

It is our understanding that the "Tabernacles" experience of the dwelling of the Father and the Son in the saints will take place before the resurrection of the dead, before the change in the mortal body, and that such indwelling will enable the saints—God’s remnant—to be more than equal to anything Satan is able to bring forth on the earth during the last days.

We can find the concept of the inner Presence of Christ in the writings of the Prophets of Israel. In Joel 2:31 we have a statement concerning turning the sun into darkness and the moon into blood—two events that we know will occur just before the return of Christ in the clouds of glory.

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