Chapter 8: Going Beyond Pentecost

Israel came out of Egypt on that first Passover (Ex. 13:3, 4). They left Egypt and came into the wilderness for Pentecost at Mount Sinai. They were supposed to enter the Promised Land at the Feast of Tabernacles, but were unable due to their lack of faith.

Israel’s trip to the Promised Land is a historical allegory for us all. Nearly all of Israel’s wilderness training reflected the Age of Pentecost from Sinai to Canaan. We see in this that the wilderness is the place of Pentecost. Pentecost is what Acts 7:38 calls “the church in the wilderness.” Thus, Pentecost is not an end in itself, but a purpose to the end. The purpose of Pentecost is the Feast of Tabernacles. The end of the Pentecostal Age is not the end of history; it is the beginning of a tremendous new ministry. It is a New Covenant ministry that will begin to bring all things into completion in the divine Plan.

The Tabernacles experience is, I believe, the graduation from Pentecost, where we are truly qualified to return to the Promised Land—the glorified body—that we all lost through Adam’s sin. This is our true inheritance, the body made of the dust of the ground and yet it was glorious. Paul says we shall all be changed (1 Cor. 15:51), but yet he did not seem to know precisely with what body we would be manifested in that day (1 Cor. 15:35). Even so, Paul knew that we had at least two examples to show us what it would be like. First, Moses’ face was glorified (2 Cor. 3:7), but it was a fading glory, because he was experiencing something that was out of time and before the coming of Christ. Secondly, though, there is Jesus Himself, who shone like the sun before the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:2).

This is our inheritance, our Promised Land. But until that glorious day, we see the sun setting on Pentecost. The old is passing away; the new is dawning brighter. Saul is getting weaker and weaker, while David becomes stronger and stronger (2 Sam. 3:1). Meanwhile, as we go through our Pentecostal wilderness, we learn the laws of God in our hearts. He is writing them on our hearts, so that we can minister and judge all things. He is writing His laws upon our hearts, so that we may minister to others.

This outpouring of the Spirit at Tabernacles is going to be a fresh anointing that the world has never seen, except in glimpses and from afar. It will be far greater than the Feast of Pentecost ever was, and here is where we can finally have the full authority, anointing, and opportunity to complete the work that He said He would do. He is going to do it through us. That is the purpose of our training.

The purpose of the wilderness training is to train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old (mature, trained) he will not depart from it. If God does His work properly as the perfect Parent, then when it is all finished, He will bring His sons into maturity.

He started this work, and He will finish it. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is responsible to cause us to grow up often by hard experiences. Often He brings us by way of discipline, but it is all for the purpose of correction. God’s law is the thing that serves this purpose of discipline, to bring us into Sonship and maturity. The law cannot save you, nor can it justify you; but the law is what God uses to teach us and bring us to maturity (Gal. 3:24). Then the fullness of Sonship, the placement as Sons, is the reward, the inheritance, where we fully become joint heirs with Christ.