© 22 May 2015 Revive Israel Ministries

Feast of Shavuot

By Eddie Santoro, Ahavat Yeshua Congregation

In a few days Israel will be celebrating the last of the spring Feasts—Shavuot also known as Pentecost. In our congregation, we have been “counting the Omer”, the fifty days between the Feast of Passover and Shavuot and anticipation has been building for next week's celebration.

According to Jewish tradition, it was on this same day of Shavuot that the Torah was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai—not long after this nation of slaves had been miraculously delivered from our bondage in Egypt. In many ways this event has always been the defining moment for the Jewish people, the revelation of God that set apart the nation as God's chosen people. It was the Torah that instructed Israel on how to live and on how to approach God.

Amazingly, it is also on this day of Shavuot two thousand years ago that God chose to pour out His Holy Spirit on His newly created Church.  And even as the Torah, written on tablets of stone, came to define Israel; so the new life of the Holy Spirit, written on the tablets of men's hearts, would come to define the Church.

We will be observing the Feast, beginning this Saturday night, May 23 with an all-night prayer meeting. During this time believers from around Israel will gather together to worship, pray and intercede as we seek God's heart for all that lies before us. The prayer meeting will begin at 10PM and continue until 6 AM (Israel time). We encourage you to join us for this important event.  The prayer meeting will be live streamed with English translation. To access the live streaming at the time of the event, go to: reviveisrael.org

The unusual spiritual experience of Acts 2 came on the heels of the Great Commission to go into all the world (Mt 28:18-20).  In this critical moment of empowering to fulfill that commission, it is significant that the very first expression of Holy Spirit baptism was the ecstatic utterance of the languages of the nations under heaven.

Shavuot-Pentecost represents the empowering of the first Jewish believers to become a light to the nations –the fulfillment of an ancient promise (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; 60:3).  It was as if this light, this spiritual fire of God that came upon them contained within it all the colors of the rainbow, representing the different peoples of the world.  Thus, for us as a Messianic Jewish movement to not value the languages, cultures and ethnic groups of the nations would be in effect to forsake our own original, global calling.

This brings us to the scene of devout Jewish men from every nation under heaven gathered in Jerusalem. This gathering is specifically mentioned nation by nation, including proselytes, Greeks, Asians, and Arabs!

Acts 2:5 & 9
There were dwelling in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every people and nation under the heavens....  Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs; and behold we are hearing them tell in our own tongues the greatness of God.

When they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the outward expression was not a random show of supernatural power but extremely purposeful. It signified clearly that this message of the kingdom and of His love was to be for all the nations.

In modern history, the restoration of the gift of tongues to the church parallels the restoration of the Hebrew language to the Jewish nation.  On Shavuot, we can witness and celebrate this re-establishment of Hebrew prayer and worship among the Messianic Remnant in Israel.   At the same time, it is critical to establish the significance of the languages of the “olim” (devout Jewish men from every nation) and those who are visiting from the nations.  In this multilingual and multicultural expression of united worship, we become an extravagant display of the prophetic expectation of His soon return.

In this message, Asher shows how Yeshua came down to give the moral law on Mt. Sinai, explains the heart behind the law on Mt. Beatitudes, gives atonement for the breaking of the law on Mt. Calvary, empowers us to obey His laws by giving the Holy Spirit on Mt. Zion and is the one who will come back and judge the nations who break His laws from the Mt. of Olives. To watch in English, click HERE!

By Troy Wallace, JVMI

At the end of April, Jewish Voice Ministries International, led by Jonathan Bernis, sponsored another Leadership Training seminar in Zimbabwe. This event ran concurrently with a successful Medical Outreach in Mberengwa that led to over 600 new confessions of Yeshua! We spent time with 62 leaders from 35 congregations that have been planted as a result of God’s move among the Lemba that our Medical Outreaches served.  We were able to assess that we currently have around 1,500 Lemba meeting each Shabbat for services in this fledgling network of congregations.

The seminar included two days of basic Bible teaching built on the theme “The Call to Leadership”. Jonathan, Mezmur, Jack Zimmerman and I covered teaching topics ranging from “Standards of Leadership” to “Commitment to Confront in Love” to “Personal Devotion.” The time was intended to equip congregational leaders to lead more effectively and make better decisions to promote healthy congregational life.

We also met with many of the local leaders after the meetings to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the work.  Our time together with the local leaders culminated with the ordination of Alfius Matandu as National Lemba Congregational Overseer.  We witnessed this as a key moment in the development of the body of Messiah in Zimbabwe.

Here is one song in English from the 12 hour day of worship and prayer during the Esther Fast (March 4th) hosted by Revive Israel. To watch, click HERE!