E eis que passou o inverno...as figueiras dão seus figos e as mandrágoras já dão bom cheiro. Chegou a festa das Primícias. De dedicação ao Elohim, Eterno D-us, pela provisão que nos é dada.
E um dia tão importante como este estava esquecido para mim. Completamente. Quando minha grande amiga me ligou eu me toquei que faltavam pouquíssimos dias. Por onde andei este mês?
Bem, lendo sobre a festa encontrei este texto. Vou publicá-lo em inglês e breve coloco a tradução porque estou sem tempo de escrevê-la agora.
O link é: http://www.mim.net/
Reflections on Shavuot
By Elizabeth Janicki Originally published in July - August 2005
Luke 24:49; “Behold, I send the promise of Abba upon you; but tarry in [Yerushalayim] until you are clothed [or endued] with power from on high.”
The celebration of Shavuot has once again come and gone. I find myself thinking about a statement that my son, Toby, told the congregation that day. He said, “If you have celebrated Shavuot or any other festival of Yah and have not been changed, then you have not really celebrated it.”
So what happened to you and I as we celebrated this festival? Did we receive a renewal of the immersion (baptism) of the Spirit? Are we changed? What does it mean to be “endued with power from on high?” What did it originally mean when the Torah was given to Moses and the children of Yisrael? Why did they need anything more than what they were given at that first Shavuot celebration?
During the 50 days of counting the omer this year, I found myself studying the Scriptures and praying about what this “power of the Ruach HaKodesh” really is. In Acts l, Yahshua said to wait for the promise of Abba which He said, “... you have heard from me: for Yochanan truly immersed with water (for repentance) but you shall be immersed with the Ruach HaKodesh, not many days from now.”
Verse 8 says, “You shall receive power [in Greek, dunamis] when the Ruach HaKodesh has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses.” That word, dunamis is #1411 in Strong’s Concordance and it is defined as “energy, power, might, great force, great ability, and/or strength.” In it’s context, it is essentially the Divine power to overcome all resistance. So, we are to wait for the Promise of Abba, which is dunamis or great power, but for what?
“And you shall be my witnesses.”
Remember what happened after those who waited in one accord during the last days of the counting of the omer?
Acts 2 says, “When the Day of Pentecost [which is what the people were already calling Shavuot] had fully come [the last day of the counting of the omer], they were all together in one place [if it was 9 AM, it had to be in the Temple]. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each. And they were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (See corelation to Ex. 19:16, when the Torah was given).
Now my interpretation of Acts 2 has become clearer over the years that I have been studying Hebrew roots. I have come from a “raving” Charismatic background where I admit to placing my hands on a lot of people and admonishing them to “just open up your mouth and allow the Holy Spirit to give you tongues.”
Hear me, I still believe in the gift of tongues as mentioned in I Cor. 14, but somewhere we got off track by not heeding to the Scriptures where it says, if tongues are given in public, there must be an interpretation. This is what I believe happened to those early believers who were given “tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each.” I believe they were speaking in other languages as a sign to the Jews that they were of the Elohim of Yisrael.
But what was heard in those various tongues by those who were in Jerusalem? Acts 2:11 says that the people, “[heard] them speaking in [their] own tongues the wonderful works of Elohim.” What came out of their mouths was each one hearing in their own language the wonderful works of Elohim. Praise to our Elohim!
It was for the understanding of Scriptures that the gift of tongues was given. It was to be prophesied by those disciples so that 3,000 people would be led to believe. The disciples were witnessing to the public in their own tongue so that the full understanding of the Word could come. But before the gospel was preached to them, they had to first proclaim His praises in tongues to get their attention!
Acts 2:11: “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of Elohim.”
That is the revelation that I have received of what happened on that day and should still be happening as we renew our Shavuot experience every year. The dunamis power is given for us to be bold witnesses of our faith in the Elohim of Yisrael. Opening our mouths and daily proclaiming the wonderful works of our Elohim to the nations around us has to precede that proclamation. To be continually in a state of praise and thanksgiving for what He has done for us makes people wonder about what we have that they don’t!
Then we are empowered to speak in our own language, as Peter did, proclaiming the full gospel message to those who do not know Him. First must come the praise, the joy (many people actually thought that the disciples were drunk), and the declaration of what He has done for us. Then the world will ask us, like the disciples were asked: “whatever could this mean?”
I personally received the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” through a book that I bought on sale called “Power in Praise” by Merlin R. Carothers. I was a fairly new believer of about two weeks. It was a woman who exuberated the baptism of the Spirit that prayed for me to receive Messiah. This woman even prayed quietly over me in her private prayer language asking God to give me everything that He had for me. When she prayed such, I remember weeping and weeping for my sins, truly having a Holy Spirit experience, as I confessed out loud my sins and things that I hadn’t even known were sins. That went on for quite some time until I felt washed in His blood. I remember being so happy, so free.
I came away from that prayer time as a new creation in Messiah. Yet I hungered to be given what that woman had. For two weeks I was obsessed with getting the Holy Spirit Baptism. It wasn’t until I started reading that book on praise that I was able receive it. So easy, just like asking Jesus into my heart, I prayed alone in my bed to receive the gift.
I was immediately filled with unspeakable joy. I ran around the house singing praises to Him, feeling free from the fear of staying in the house alone (my husband Harry was on a business trip). I opened all the downstairs windows and shouted out. I even opened up the front door and shouted praises to Him. I believe I saw angels surrounding my house in every window of my upstairs bedroom as I came back to bed.
For a long period of time, I stayed in that state of joy. I would do my grocery shopping, while singing out praises to God as I went down the aisles. I found myself witnessing to anyone who would hear. I wanted to tell the whole world what had happened to me; how my fear and depression left me, how He was my fortress and my redeemer, and how there was no one like Him. In short, I couldn’t get enough of praising Him.
Our son, Toby, was five years old when he asked Jesus to come into his heart. I remember praying for him and seeing this manifestation of joy washing over him. I believe at that time he received the baptism as well. I thought at first, he wasn’t taking what had just happened to him seriously, but it wasn’t that at all. For days, he told me, he would be in school and just burst out in laughter until the teacher would reprimand him for the disruption.
Over the years, I have let the cares and troubles of life slowly creep in. I became less and less a witness of Him to the world. It has been through this year’s spring Feast season that my joy has been renewed. I have been changed this Passover/Shavuot season. I have become someone who knows the “power in praise” once more. I am changed. I will not go back. I will wait for Him to endue me with power from on high over and over again so that I may be a witness of His wonderful works in my life wherever I am sent.
What is the promise of Abba? John 15 tells us, “If you abide in me, and my words (Torah) abide in you, ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you ... that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” The verse then goes on to say that, “in that day, you will ask of me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be full.”
Do you think that Yahshua when He walked on this earth was not filled with the joy of the Ruach HaKodesh? Do you think when He stood up on the Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles and declared, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,” that he was somber and did not express the joy of Yah? What were the rivers of living water that He was talking about? Was it not unspeakable joy?
The children of Israel were rebuked by Yah in Deut. 28:47, “Because [they] did not serve Yah [their] Elohim with joy and gladness of heart...” They were later cursed for this same reason in verse 48; “Therefore, you shall serve your enemies, whom Yah will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.”
Those are pretty strong words, but I believe that they are still relevant today. The children of Israel had lost the joy of their Salvation! That’s why the Ruach HaKodesh had to come in dunamis (power) from on high; to rest on each of us.
It is not too late for any of us to change our attitude toward life. To begin to walk in the spirit of praise; empowered to proclaim the gospel to the world. And then someday soon, He will come for His Bride and we will live with Him in joy forevermore. Perhaps it will be next Shavuot. Perhaps sooner. Ultimately, we will be forever changed in the twinkling of our Father’s eye.
Elizabeth Janicki serves as a member of the MIA’s Advisory Council.
