The Wedding Day of Christ
The Most Holiest Day of the Year, Yom Kippur – the Day of Awe that was, and still is challenged to BE the end of Time, and Eternity transforms mankind. This day is upon us. The church says it is when Jesus will return again. The Jews wonder if they will be accepted in relationship with God for another year. A day on the Biblical calendar that forgiveness is released upon a corporate people.
The prophet Hosea made a statement for all generations that must still be asked today. "What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals, on the feast days of the Lord?" (Hosea 9:5).
Most of today's Christians do not even know that our Heavenly Father is still asking this question to His children. However, the caution of asking is to embrace the invitation of a welcome into the Father's presence, not a fear of condemnation and judgment wondering if there is an eternal sentence awaiting the sinner.
When we come from a position that Jesus Christ spoke while on the cross saying, “IT IS FINISHED” (John 19:30), we must ask, “What was finished?” Jesus was accused unto death by His own words, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (John 2:19).
Here is a mystery – keys to the kingdom of Heaven – which Jesus has given to each of us, not just those that believe, and not just a particular people.
“He/Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) “God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world, but when He completed this work as the fulfillment of the Passover Feast – Day One, He also released the presence of the Divine Holy Spirit into the earth fulfilling the Day of Pentecost – Day Two, and He also went into the Holy of Holies as our High Priest for Yom Kippur – Day Three. Three Feast Days of the Lord fulfilled and restored back to their original presence before God Almighty through His Begotten Son Jesus Christ.
Instead of coming from a position of receiving forgiveness from God, let’s consider the possibility of how God as our Heaven Father chose to create or introduce forgiveness for us to be a part of today.
In the Book of Leviticus in Chapter Sixteen, God goes through a long detailed outline of how the High Priest would enter into His Holy Presence in the inner court of the Tabernacle on Yom Kippur. After reading most of the chapter we come to verses 29-30 which tells us when the high priest will come into the Most Holy Place, the presence of God, and WHY he would enter this place.
“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you— because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a day of Sabbath rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.” (Leviticus 16:29-31).
Please take note that the answer to the “why question” does not come until the end of the chapter, not at the beginning of the instruction. Most parents will agree that when we explain to our teachable children and students the “why” before the detailed instruction, there usually is better clarity and cooperation in completing the project. In this case, God tells Moses with detailed instructions for the High Priest, and then tells him why this must be done.
Since the instructions of coming into the Most Holy Place are so detailed and the purpose of the detailed is for forgiveness of sins, for without forgiveness from God death enters in, logic would say to give the “why” response at the beginning of the chapter for better clarity of how to get the fullness of forgiveness from God. If we were told instructions on how to defuse a ticking item, it would be nice to know beforehand if the item was simply a clock or a bomb. If the High Priest does not do everything to the detailed instructions he will die when he enters into the Most Holy Place before God. This is how serious this moment in time is, yet it is very rarely discussed or talked about in the body of Christ today.
Since God does not present His instructions in the logical order of man’s format let us assume that maybe there is more to the Day of Yom Kippur and the forgiveness of sins. Did Jesus Christ fulfilled more than the Grace realm of forgiveness to a people living a sin nature?
“The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord. The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.” (Leviticus 16:1-2).
We read at the beginning of this chapter that God is addressing Moses about Aaron entering into the Most Holy Place after Aaron’s two sons had made an attempt to do so and they both died. Where was God when they tried to do this? God was in the cloud over the atonement cover. Is there another place we can find God aboding in a cloud?
“The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.” (Exodus 24:16). On Mount Sinai is where the Ten Commandments were given. In the Most Holy Place is where those same Ten Commandments are placed inside the Ark of the Covenant when God is in a cloud above the Ark. Selah.
Aaron’s sons where trying to recreate the Mt. Sinai experience as they came into the Most Holy Place. However, they did it in a way that God did not command.
God understands our heart and created a way that man can come into His presence, the Most Holy Place today. In the Old Testament, God gave instructions for Aaron to take the incense and put it on the fire before the Lord, so that the cloud of the incense would cover the mercy seat that is upon the Ark of the Testimony, lest he die (Leviticus 16:13). God was in a cloud over the Ark and Aaron was invited to come into His presence bringing an incense with fire to create a cloud that would mingle with the glory of God’s cloud.
This is a moment of contact as the most dangerous moment in time – when the human cloud merges with the Divine cloud in the Most Holy Place engulfed together above the Ark of the Covenant upon the mercy seat. This was NOT the place of intimacy with God to bring anything of our worldly issues or concerns, but simply the incense of a sweet love language fragrance that is filled with the passion and fire of the Holy Spirit in us.
Coming into His presence in this manner does not bring death but creation LIFE. This is a moment in time that is not about seeking forgiveness, but intimacy in oneness with the Divine source of ALL. Our hearts desire is to have our cloud merge into the cloud of the Almighty Father God so that two become ONE NEW MAN.
This moment, this Day of Awe, is such an intense moment of LOVE and LIFE filling our spirit that is unveiled through our soul and body causing a transformation of Christ in us as us for the world to see. When we have truly been blessed with “born again” awesome moment of time, it is not a “sinner saved by grace” encounter. Instead, it is a consummation moment of oneness in Holy intimacy.
In the Old Testament this was an annual event. Today, we have the ability to experience the Day of Awe through Jesus Christ, our High Priest and only Begotten Son of God. When we desire as a heart love language to merge our humanity as a sweet fragrance of our ALL, spirit, soul, and body into His Holy presence, our cloud of Christ in us is released as Christ AS US with His NAME, NATURE, and AUTHORITY as a royal priesthood and Holy Nation in the earth.
Our Heavenly Father, God Almighty, desires an intimate relationship with you and me for He created each of us as HIS LOVE CHILDREN giving us the earth as our inheritance. In this kind of relationship, forgiveness becomes the by-product of the true intimacy of oneness with Jesus Christ. We learn to forgive ourselves for devaluing who we truly are according to Our Heavenly Father, and in turn we are able to forgive others with the same unconditional love our Heavenly Father gave us.
“For God, your Heavenly Father, so loved you, that if you will believe, trust, and cling to that cloud of His LOVE that He released into the world through Jesus Christ, you will know with intimacy today of His Eternal presence while in your natural body.” (John 3:16, Philippians 3:10).
“On this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.” (Leviticus 16:30).
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.” (Hebrews 10:1-3). The Old Testament was a shadow and pathway, but not the finished results. They needed the annual sacrifices to remind them of their sins. How often are we using this same method as Christians, believers in Jesus Christ as a pathway to devalue us as retched man, never good enough, and always falling short of the glory of God?
Jesus said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:9-10). Jesus fulfilled the sacrifice for all of our sins and today has made us HOLY whether we believe it or not. When we do receive this amazing blessing and gift from our Heavenly Father we find that forgiveness of God is not just about cleansing, but also about covering us.
Again, this is an intimacy between Jesus Christ, the Beloved husband of His bride, the church, and His covering over her with His ALL in Christ as Christ in us – spirit, soul, and body- as His seed is impregnated into our heart, the Ark of the Covenant. “I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Hebrews 8:10).
When the cloud of God covers our cloud in intimacy over the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place, we become enveloped by God Himself. We are purified, washed clean, and made whole as Holy. Forgiveness took place in the process and Christ AS us is unveiled when we emerge from this moment for the world to see a godkind of creation, Christ in us – a new creation in Christ Jesus in the world (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Forgiveness of our sins is more than just confessing and repentance. It involves coming boldly to the throne room of God, the Most Holy Place of intimacy and be willing to BE transformed as His presence for others to see. When the two clouds become one cloud of the Divine glory, it is seen on the face-our human face- the LIGHT of God.
The covering of God is like pure water from a Mikvah cleansing. It covers us as the amniotic fluid does for a baby in a mother’s womb while the baby grows in rest and peace until the time of being born.
God created a means of forgiveness to ALL mankind through the sacrifice of His only Begotten Son Jesus Christ. This process was more than the spring feast of Passover, but also fulfilled the fall feast of Yom Kippur. Today we can enter into His presence, the Most Holy Place with boldness and desire to be covered with His glory cloud. When we emerge from this union, we should know in our hearts we have not only been forgiven, but transformed into our husband’s NAME, NATURE, ESSENCE, and AUTHORITY as Christ’s many members of His one body ruling and reigning today on the earth. The earth belongs to Our Heavenly Father, and He gave it to us as our inheritance to take dominion and authority over in HIS NAME. Selah!