Jeremiah 31:31-33 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Last night marked the beginning of Shavuot–a feast that many Christians recognize as Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit was poured out in Acts 2. But the roots of Shavuot stretch back much further. Long before that upper room encounter–about 1,500 years earlier–Shavuot was the day God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, writing His commandments on tablets of stone.
Fast forward to fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, and we see God once again writing His law–this time, not on stone, but on hearts. Just as the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah foretold, God was doing something new: giving His Spirit, transforming lives from the inside out.
Shavuot is both a celebration of God’s faithfulness in the early harvest and a prophetic picture of the greater harvest yet to come. On that first Pentecost, 3,000 Jewish souls came to faith in the Messiah. That was just the beginning. A day is coming when the prayers and tears we’ve poured out for our loved ones–and for Israel–will be answered. “All Israel shall be saved.”
So today, let’s ask for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. Let’s believe for a breakthrough. Pray for eyes to be opened, for hearts to be softened, and for the salvation of Israel. The same Spirit who came in power still moves today. Let’s pray with expectation.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]We’re living in some pretty wild times, aren’t we? Over the past few weeks, we’ve watched a political earthquake shake America, sending ripple effects all over the world. Some people see it as a positive change, others think it’s for the worse — but one thing is clear: we are in a season of shifting. And the big question is, will we take this opportunity to boldly stand for truth while the doors are open?
In the 4th century lived a Christian named Telemachus, in a remote village, tending his garden, and spending much time in prayer. One day, he believed he heard the voice of God telling him to go to Rome, so he obeyed, setting out on foot. Some weeks later, weary from his journey, he arrived in Rome about the time of a great festival.
One of my heroes of the faith, Watchman Nee, once said something profound about entering the rest of God. He said, “Carnal Christians crave works; yet amid many labors, they are unable to maintain calm in their spirit. They cannot fulfill God’s orders quietly as can the spiritual believers… their hearts are governed by outward matters. Being “distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40) is the characteristic of the work of any soulish believer. They have not yet entered the rest of God.”
Thousands are gathering in Washington D.C. today to pray for the inauguration of the new president of the United States. I know a number of people who will be there and I think it’s a good thing, but this reminds me of a story I heard once.
We arrived at the airport late Thursday night with our bags and our kiddos only to find out that our flight was canceled because of a freak accident — a tractor ran into the plane, of all things! So we repacked our ourselves tightly into a small rental car to make the two hour drive to get back home to Arad in the middle of the night. Our flight was postponed till Sunday.
The Hebrew letter mem, equivalent to our English letter “M,” has a fascinating characteristic: it has two forms. The “open mem” appears at the beginning or middle of a word, with a small opening in its design. The “closed mem,” however, is used exclusively as the final letter in a word, fully sealed in its appearance. This distinction is consistent throughout the Hebrew language—except for one extraordinary exception found in the Bible.
Yeshua (Jesus) gave a remarkable parenthetic instruction in the middle of His Olivet discourse on the time of His coming and the end of the age. While it is unlikely that He himself said this, He certainly inspired Matthew to insert, “..let the reader understand”, concerning this critical event prophesied by Daniel, the Abomination of Desolation. His exhortation intended us (the readers of Matthew’s gospel) to learn what this means.