SHAVUOT PENTECOST

Chag Sameach Shavuot & Pentecost

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒

Pentecost was not a one-time event 2000 years ago from the Book of Acts. Pentecost is the Greek way of referring to the Feast of Weeks (known in Hebrew as “Shavuot”). 

Pentecost is a 3500-year-old Biblical Holy Day found in Leviticus 23:15-21 that is still recognized in Judaism today.

𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐔𝐎𝐓 5783 

Shavuot 5783 is from
sunset Thursday 25 May 2023 to nightfall on Saturday 27 May 2023. Pentecost is celebrated on Sunday 28 May 2023. The time difference is due to an altered starting point of Easter and not Passover.

Both Shavuot and Pentecost occurs during the same time. Shavuot, also called the festival of weeks, happens from counting the omer (an ancient measure of volume) for a period of 7 weeks (49 days) after the Priest waved the Barley offering on the 2nd day of Passover. 

These 49 days is a journey of waiting and trusting God to transition us from containment to Holy Spirit expression, in the joy and purpose we find in the Harvest and in Summer. Pentecost is 50 days after Passover, which happens to be during the same time as Shavuot.

At Shavuot the Barley harvest is concluded and the wheat harvest commences.

Passover and Shavuot is two of the three major (although there are 7 in total) God 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬 (the Moedim), the third being Sukkot (the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles).

𝐆𝐎𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑

Pentecost/ Shavuot celebrated (1)God’s 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 of the all-important grain harvest (specifically, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭). Pentecost also commemorates (2) the giving of the law. As according to Jewish tradition, Israel got their first revelation of the Torah on that day, and (3) celebrates the sending of Holy Spirit.

𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓

In Matthew 3:12 we learn who is the wheat – “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out His threshing floor; and He will 𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓 («𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔») into His barn (kingdom), but He will burn up the chaff (the unrepentant) with unquenchable fire.”

The winnowing fork thresh grain by throwing it into the air so the wind blow away the chaff. As I’m writing here, I can sence that God is standing now, in this season, with His winnowing fork to seperate the chaff from the wheat. But even in this last final hours, He is winnowing more intence, not only the chaff from the wheat but removing even the religious from the righteous. 

𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐄𝐖𝐒

Many Christians wrongfully believe that the Holy Spirit was poured out on both Jews and Gentiles at Pentecost in Acts chapter two. It wasn’t. The Holy Spirit was only poured out on the Jewish people that day. People who were Jewish by birth and people who were proselytes to Judaism and thus were counted as Jewish (Acts 2:5-10). 

All 3000 souls saved that day were Jewish. The first believers who “were together and had all things in common” were Jewish (Acts 2:44). The ones who “continued to meet daily with one accord in the Temple” were Jewish (Acts 2:46). Those the Lord added to the Church daily were Jewish (Acts 2:47). And those homes that the first believers met in daily were Jewish homes – as Jews did not go into the homes of Gentiles yet (Acts 5:42).

But all of this was soon to change.

In Acts ten, approximately 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 after Pentecost, Peter received a vision from God and He showed Peter a sheet containing unclean animals and told him to eat. Peter was confused as to why God would tell him to violate the kosher dietary laws found in Leviticus eleven and told God, “No.” Shortly thereafter, Peter was visited and summoned to the home of a Gentile named Cornelius.

Somewhere along the road to Cornelius’ home, the Lord revealed to Peter the meaning of the vision that he was grappling with. The vision had nothing to do with food. The unclean animals were the Gentiles! Peter then said to Cornelius and his household:
“Then he said to them, ‘ You know how unlawful it is for me a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)

Peter then preaches the Gospel to the Gentiles present, and much to Peter and his Jewish friend’s amazement, they saw the Holy Spirit pour out on the Gentiles (Acts 10:44-46)!

Well, when word of this reached Peter’s Jewish brethren, they were shocked and upset. They questioned Peter and Peter then told them the whole story. They all then determined that God was including the Gentiles and bringing them “into the family.” (Acts 11:1-18)

Beloved ones don’t underscore the importance of this. The first Spirit filled believers were Jewish – for at least the first seven years after the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost. 

They did not consider themselves 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧. They believed Yeshua was the Messiah and continued to be Jewish. They 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬. They continued to 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡 and 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐒. They saw Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah as foretold by the Jewish prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures – 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐎𝐍. It is not about Judaism. It is not about Christianity. It is about 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐇 and being 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐓 – Jew and Gentile alike!

Jan Otto
“There is, as I’m writing, a deliverance of God at work in much of what we call “church”, to rid them of what is not Christ. These are for both the spiritual influences and their influencers. They are containing God’s people in useless programs, designed to program them, and keep them occupied in dead religion and in the precepts of man. This is witholding them from manifesting the power of Christ’s Kingdom.”

SHAVUOT IN THE MONTH 𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍

Sivan is a time for 𝐄𝐍𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒.

The Hebriac Letter associated with Sivan is 𝐙𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍. Zayin is the 7th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and therefore carry the numeric value of 7. The pictograph for Zayin looks like a 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 with a large 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 on its head. 

Zayin means “𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐍” or “nourishment”. 

𝐙𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍 or mattock, is a farming tool to prepare the ground, or a tool to cut out roots or can also be used as a weapon to fight with. 

𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐔𝐎𝐓 𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐒𝐓

𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍 𝐙𝐀𝐘𝐈𝐍

𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆

May Yeshua enlarge your boundaries and your Kingdom influence during the month of Sivan and anoint your Zayin (mattock) so that you can prepare the new ground your feet will leap on with joy. That He will show you what roots you need to cut out and be equipped with His sharp Sword of 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇 to fight against the enemies. Your crowns are with Him. My prayers are that Yeshua will FRESHLY rekindle you with His Holy Spirit during 5783 Pentecost.

Chag Sameach

𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒉