GOD PART:
Shavuot – “Weeks” – 7 weeks after Passover
The fourth and final spring festival is called Shavuot, which means “weeks” in Hebrew. Beginning with Passover, Israel is commanded to count seven whole weeks until the 50th day at which point Shavuot is observed.
Exodus 23:14-16:
Details the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost)
Deuteronomy 16:9-12:
9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lordyour God has given you. 11 And rejoice before the Lordyour God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.
LEVITICUS 23:15-21
(15) You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths.
(16) You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.
(17) You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an [c]ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.
(18) Along with the bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.
(19) You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
(20) The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest.
(21) On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
(22) When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.’ ”
BOOK OF RUTH READ
There are many HEBREW traditions associated with Shavuot:
- reading the Book of Ruth.
- spending the entire night studying Torah until dawn.
- decreeing the Ten Commandments
- decorating synagogues and homes with aromatic spices, and partaking of a dairy meal and dessert.
The Book of Ruth is traditionally read during Shavuot because the biblical account takes place during the summer harvest.
The book of Ruth celebrates God restoring honor and dignity to Naomi and her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth.
Ruth is a gentile who identifies with the Jewish people by committing herself to Naomi and Naomi’s people, the Jewish people. King David, Ruth’s great-grandson, was born and died on this festival.
PENTECOST MEANING:
pentēkostḗ (from 4002 /pénte, “five”) – properly fiftieth, referring to the festival of Pentecost – a one day festival celebrated at the end of the barley harvest. This was a joyous time of giving great thanks to God.
[The workers could only spare one day at this season of the year because the wheat harvest was already in process.]
FEAST OF WEEKS
Leviticus 23:15-16 instructs observers to count 50 days from the day after the Sabbath (the day the sheaf of the wave offering is presented) to the day after the seventh Sabbath, marking the Feast of Weeks
This 50-day period is also known as the “Counting of the Omer“
The Feast of Weeks commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and, in the New Testament, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.
JUBILEE YEAR:
The Jubilee year is mentioned in Leviticus 25:8-13 and occurs after every seventh Sabbath year (49 years), making it the 50th year.
Jubilee involves social and economic resets, including the release of slaves and the return of ancestral lands.
Jubilee is a complete reset, a release from captivity, with themes of freedom and restoration.
2 Pentecost Thoughts:
Signs and Wonders
EXODUS 19
16 On the morning of the third day there was thunderand lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.
17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke,because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.
19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
20 The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up
EXODUS 20
1 And God spoke all these words:
ACTS 1
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)
ACTS 2
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
ACTION:
They Obeyed: followed, waited.
God’s Promise:
They Received
They Spoke
FIRST FRUITS BLESSING:
- First fruits reminds us that God is the source of ALL blessings and disciplines us to seek his kingdom FIRST and that he is to be our FIRST love!
- First fruits gives us confidence that our Father will always provide and creates an EXPECTATION of VISITATION as we watch our inheritance and promises be mature!
- First fruits releases revelation that directs us from the Wave offering to gathering the HARVEST and develops the final INGATHERING in our hearts.
- Hebrews 11:13-14
- Ephesians 1:11, 14, 18
- Colossians 1:12
- 1 Peter 1:4
- First fruits giving honors God as your source … a declaration that your blessings come from God!
- First fruits giving sanctifies (makes holy) the rest of your income!
Romans 11:16 NLT
“And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.”
- First fruits giving releases the fullness of God’s blessing.
Ezekiel 44:30 NLT
“The first of the ripe fruits and all the gifts brought to the Lord will go to the priests. The first batch of dough must also be given to the priests so the Lord will bless your homes.”
- First fruits giving opens us to receive God’s overflowing provision.
Proverbs 3:9-10
“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.”
PENTECOST DECLARATION:
Today as we celebrate the Lord’s Pentecost, we rejoice that God has given His Word, poured out his Holy Spirit, and has brought us into an abundant provision.
We recognize the Lord in His extravagant giving, has provided all we need to accomplish His purposes and fulfill our destiny.
In gratitude and faith, we give our first fruits offerings knowing our supply comes from the Lord most high.
Therefore, we declare and decree that we will walk in the power and spirit of Pentecost, that God’s kingdom might prevail for the glory and honor of the King of Kings!
We decree the Right to take out enemies we’ve never taken out before because of honoring the Blood.
We decree a New Supply has opened.
We decree a New anointing is Here.
We decree New empowerment is mine!
AMEN!