2012 Feast of Trumpets

Ron Weinland

September 17, 2012

One year ago I believed, we believed, that we were observing the last Feast of Trumpets in the 6,000 year age of man’s self rule, and now we find ourselves observing another Feast of Trumpets in what we presently believe is the ‘Day of the Lord’ that began on Pentecost this year and will end on Pentecost next year.  We are currently right now observing part of the spiritual instruction contained in the meaning of this Holy Day...and that’s awesome!

We’ll come back to this point a little later in the sermon, but this Feast of Trumpets also carries greater significance and meaning than ever before for God’s Church and for this world.  Little did we know a year ago that we would be observing this year’s Feast in what we see and understand and believe as the ‘Day of the Lord’, and I believe that, we believe that, I believe we all believe that with all of our being indeed, and we live that by faith as much as we did in looking forward to May 27th of this past year, and we continue to forge forward, to move forward in the way that God leads us.

And again, that has a great deal to do with the meaning of this day.  But to begin we need to go back and look at what we always do during every High Day and that is to go back to Leviticus 23 where God gives us instruction, and this is, obviously, a basic outline, basic instruction concerning the meaning of the Holy Days and the observances that God has given us and instructed for us to keep.

Going back here to Leviticus 23:24 on why we’re gathered here today on this Feast of Trumpets. Speak to the children of Israel saying, In the seventh month, that is in God’s calendar.  Obviously the first month, being reminded, is the period of Passover, because Passover comes on the fourteenth day of the first month of God’s sacred calendar, and then on the seventh month it says in the first day of the month you shall have a Sabbath. That’s today!  An annual Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

So again here, to note that it’s plural, and there is so much meaning, and we’ve talked about this in times past, the blowing of trumpets and all the things that are meant here of what it means.  And we’re going to do some of that today but again, some of the specific meaning in various places, looking at some of the various kinds of horns, but even shouting that is used in some of those things that are used about this very day and the fulfillment of when Jesus Christ does return to this earth, because it announces His coming, it’s about His coming, and all the shouting and those things that are involved there.  And even the word ‘shouting’ in the Old Testament and with the meaning in the New, has to do with trumpets and trumpeting an announcement, the various things that have to do with the very meaning of the things contained in the Feast of Trumpets, and that’s why we’re here, a blowing of trumpets.  And that has so much meaning in this day and in this ‘prophetic day’ that we’re in.

So nearly every Feast of Trumpets where I have given a sermon on the meaning of this day, God has inspired me to make some mention of the three primary purposes that Israel blew trumpets, and all three uses are contained in the deeper meaning of this Holy Day.  That’s why we do it year by year by year, because there is so much to learn from the three basic uses of trumpets and how Israel used them during that time, that all that meaning that’s wrapped up in and contained in greater depth and purpose and revelation for what the Feast of Trumpets is all about and what it pictures.

So again, when focusing on the meaning of this day it’s important to understand these three uses of trumpets in ancient Israel, and it’s important that we review them year by year.

The first use – to call to assembly.  There is a specific sound and they heard that sound and it gave them guidance, direction, sometimes even literal direction of where to go and what kind of an assembly it was or what they were to assemble to do and accomplish, and all the different sounds of those things that they could hear and understand by trumpets being blown.

And so again, the meaning here to call to assembly: there was a specific blowing of trumpets that when Israel heard them they knew the instruction they contained concerning specific direction they were to follow.  It was to always be organized and unified in how they did it, and those trumpets gave that, in that sense, direction and instruction so that it would be done in an orderly fashion, in a unified fashion.  And that means so much for us in God’s Church and what we’re learning and what we learn from the very beginning all the way through our lives.

Sometimes this matter of the call to assembly – sometimes a matter of breaking camp and moving in a specific direction, or certain people being called to an assembly, or the entirety of the people being called to a specific assembly.  Again, instruction and direction that was being given, and there is so much spiritual meaning then in that for these days and what they picture for us and our relationship with God and what it leads to.

And then a second use – to sound an alarm.  They knew that piercing sound!  They knew if there was an alarm and what it was, especially if it was to war.  Again, various sounds, but even in that giving instruction and direction, but an alert and that which would alert them, to very specific things that they could understand and grasp just by what they heard.  Again, going back to what they heard in the sound of the trumpet.

And then finally a third primary use – to proclaim a time of rejoicing, a time of thankfulness, especially when it had to do in their relationship with God in praising God, as a praise to God, and especially in the announcement and the heralding, or the trumpeting, if you will, of a new king.  Tremendous ceremony there and gratitude and thankfulness they had...and toward God, to whatever knowledge they had at that particular time.

The sermons we’ve been going through since this ‘Day of the Lord’ began are very much the meaning contained in this Feast of Trumpets on a spiritual plane to God’s Church.  One of the first things we began to do was to reflect on some history and our spiritual journey.  We have done a lot this time around, even more so than normal, and so I have never known a time really where we have gone back and been reminded to, at least, so often to go back and look at history, whether it be a short history or a long history.  But God has really been having us do that, we have been doing that a great deal of recent time, and you will find in the Feast sermons this year that there is more of that, because by using that, by doing that, God is helping us to have a greater vision, if you will, or an understanding of those things that have happened so that we have better vision even for what is ahead, vision in the sense of being able to see and understand the big picture, in other words, being able to see the big picture, because that reveals purpose and direction then and it gives us motivation as a part of that, of having direction and desire to push forward and drive forward in those things that God is revealing.

And so we have been doing that a great deal in recent weeks and months, especially, and even some of the sermons that were leading up to May 27th and especially those that have continued on since that time.  There is much to learn from that because God is showing us in a very powerful way how He’s leading us and His desire for us is that we have the ears to hear. The trumpet, the sound...what we’re being instructed and what we’re being given – driving these things home in our minds and in our being, to live them more fully, more completely than ever before in our lives.  Great purpose in what God is doing during this ‘day’, His ‘day’, this very special ‘day’ that we’re blessed to live right now... blessed to live right now, to be a part of something so great, so mighty that it’s difficult for us to grasp it, because generally we focus more upon our woes and our problems and our trials and the sufferings.  And indeed, we have them, but we need to be focused upon these things and that’s why God is allowing us to see them so much more powerfully and so much more clearly in our lives.

And so again here, the sermons we have been going through since the ‘Day of the Lord’, and since it all began, are very much about the meaning contained in this Feast of Trumpets on a spiritual plane to God’s Church.  One of the first things we began to do was to reflect on some history and our spiritual journey.  Some of the sermons that we went through, we went through a fairly long series on that, talking about our journey in the wilderness, things that God wants us to grasp and see the big picture of, and we’ll be doing that, much of that, during the Feast of Tabernacles, building upon our history.  It’s a powerful tool and God is using it in a very powerful way to lead us and teach us right now at this time.

So today we’re going to do a little of the same and that’s so important as we consider where we are in time.  We’re living a very unique ‘day’ in history, and this day has everything to do with the history of the Church and the history of mankind over the past 6,000 years.  So let’s work back a little as we consider the use of trumpets and how God has been leading us in this ‘day’.

As was mentioned, the third use of trumpets was to proclaim a time for rejoicing, thankfulness and praise to God, especially in the announcement and heralding (or trumpeting, if you will) of a new King who is coming, for us, in this ‘day’...in this ‘prophetic day’.  God wants us to have a great vision of that to motivate and move us far more than what May 27th did, far more as we grasp and comprehend the meaning and the purpose of this ‘day’ more and more and more as we go forward in what God is doing in such a powerful, powerful way.

Let’s be reminded again of how this ‘day’, how this ‘prophetic day’ began.  The first sermon... isn’t it amazing we had a sermon where we went back and we looked at all the first twelve sermons, that which had to do with perfection and looking at those things and how they were to apply to our lives in a matter of judgment and how we’re to judge and discern and make measured judgment, sound judgment in our lives.  And as I’m saying this the title of that sermon just isn’t coming to me at the moment, but it has to do with measured judgment [‘Reasoned Judgment’], sound judgment, being able to do that and being able to move forward then with what God gives us, to apply these things more fully in our lives, to grasp and comprehend how God was leading us and guiding us and directing us in those things He wanted us to bring into in a greater picture in our lives so we could grasp those messages in a more powerful way.  And so even now He’s having us go back and look at this a little bit more again in the context now of the Feast of Trumpets and what trumpets is all about.

The first sermon on this day was entitled (speaking of this ‘day’, this ‘prophetic day’, when this ‘prophetic day’ began) ‘Pentecost to Pentecost’.  God was revealing to us this ‘day’, an awesome ‘day’, a mighty ‘day’, a powerful ‘day’, a transition in time that we didn’t even know was here; candidly, a hidden treasure.  It might not have been received like that in the beginning because we think about ourselves first, we think about what we’ve told others and what it makes us look like, and then it may cause us to question somewhat where we are, what do we believe?  Which is healthy and good in the long run because that’s what it did when it produced fruit in people’s lives who exercised that, to come to the conclusion, the understanding, this IS God’s Church!  We are God’s people!  ...and to receive strength from that, confidence and boldness from that, to realize there is more ahead of us for great purpose that God is working out and will continue to work out and reveal more and more and more to us.

And so that sermon entitled ‘Pentecost to Pentecost’ – God revealed to us a gem, a treasure, if you will, that wasn’t received that quickly in that light, but as time has gone on we can begin to see that treasure and that jewel that much more.  Now, the world didn’t receive it that way, on the contrary, we’re made to look more foolish, more ridiculous in front of them than ever before, but we’re ever learning the lessons more and more that only by God’s spirit, by God’s life living within us, can we see and understand.  And man is helpless without that help, and that’s the way the world is!  And so that point being driven home even more so in our minds.

And so it was stated at the outset of the introduction of that sermon, ‘Pentecost to Pentecost’, quoting here what was stated:

“You have gone through a lot of thoughts and emotions over the past day, and although disappointing that Jesus Christ has not yet appeared in His return to this earth, He is still coming!”

That’s powerful!  ....and has great purpose in this very day here and what this day is all about, because this day is about the trumpeting to this world and what God is accomplishing and what God is going to continue to accomplish from here on very powerfully so, to usher in His Kingdom, and to send His Son as King of kings and Lord of lords – finally!  ....in God’s ‘day’, in God’s time.  And God is letting people know, and even us in the Church to understand in a deeper way, this is His time, finally!  His time!  ...and He will do what He said He will do; that’s what He does, ‘And I will perform it’.  And so because I’ve added a few things to this I need to go back and read this statement again that was at the introduction, the outset of that sermon ‘Pentecost to Pentecost’.

“You have gone through a lot of thoughts and emotions over the past day, and although disappointing that Jesus Christ has not yet appeared in His return to this earth, He is still coming, there is simply more that we have not understood that God will reveal to us for we are God’s people and He does love us so very much.”

And it was further stated in the introduction of that sermon, a little bit later here, just part of the introduction as well it said, it was stated here:

“At first, as a stark reality drew near, my heart was very heavy because of you, all of you in God’s Church, and all who are in your families, children, and so forth.  But as the time has gone forward I’m becoming more excited about what God has led us to experience and what we are experiencing is important to God and it is important to our moulding and fashioning.

Yes, we move forward, and God will grant us even more strength, power, and inspiration to continue the path we are travelling.”

And so again, for those who have had and still have ears to hear the trumpets and understand, we are to rejoice in the coming of the King of kings, because that’s what this day is so very much about.  That’s what we were looking forward to on May 26th, it just didn’t happen in the way we had thought to that point in time, for we live by a present truth to what God had given us to that point in time, and God reserved more for us, gave more to us then at that time, reserved to Himself the revelation of the timing of the ‘Day of the Lord’ and its meaning and what was going to yet take place in His time, a ‘day’ so important to Him!

We can’t even begin to comprehend how God has looked forward to this time and to revealing it as well, because through the process of revealing it, it isn’t about the world, it’s about the Church!  It’s still about how we are moulded and fashioned and the things that are moulded into us that really can become a part of us in no other way but to go through some of these kinds of situations and trials in our lives that cause us to dig deep into our lives, into our mind, and to see things so deep inside of us that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to see or address.  And how we address them is so very important then as to what can be moulded and fashioned in us.  These things are such powerful tools to mould and fashion character and a mind within us that one day we’re going to be able to look back and say, “Ah, now I understand.  Now I really see the beauty of it far more powerfully so.”  But along the way we can see it a little bit here and there and God is giving us that glimpse to grow in it, so it’s a matter of growing and being able to be moulded and fashioned again with growth!

So it’s good that we go back and remind ourselves of some of what was covered in that sermon on Pentecost as Pentecost and Trumpets are so closely tied together, especially this year....especially this year in the meaning of those things, just as we began, Pentecost to Pentecost, the ‘Day of the Lord’.  God’s time!  A ‘prophetic day’!  Awesome, it truly is, when we understand.  And then as we think about the relationship, Pentecost to Pentecost, all about a very long ‘day’, a year in time as far as man is concerned, as far as this earth is concerned, but a ‘prophetic day’ and a ‘day’ that is all about the coming of Jesus Christ, about the return of Jesus Christ, about trumpets and all those things that have to do with leading up to that final day when He does return on Pentecost!  It’s powerful, meaningful!

I thought that last year’s Feast was so meaningful because at that time we believed that was the last Feast in the 6,000 year age of mankind, but it wasn’t.  This one is, and this one has so much more meaning to it now, so much more that we can see and grasp and comprehend in the depth of God’s plan and what He’s doing and what this day so powerfully means and how it’s contained here within a particular period of time, Pentecost to Pentecost.  I mean, how beautiful!  Really, the more we see it the more in awe we will become!

Let’s turn over to some of the verses we looked at in that sermon on Pentecost in the book of Acts, because there is always more that we can glean and grasp and comprehend, and by reviewing some of these things, by looking at them, we’ll actually be building upon some of this and being able to receive things at this time that we couldn’t receive at that time.  And that’s what’s such a marvel about construction and building something, and there is that which has to be laid down and you just continue to build and it becomes greater and greater, but there’s that which you had to initially build in order to build upon it even more so.

Acts 1:1 – And so Luke is writing here.  It says, In the former treatise, in the former book, in other words, that he wrote – again, the book of Luke that he wrote much earlier.  It says, In the former treatise, O Theophilus, I gave account of all that Jesus both began to do and to teach.  And so he’s referring back to a time when he wrote the book of Luke and how that there were those things there that were written then that had to do with the life of Christ, of the things that he witnessed, just as Matthew, and Mark, and so much of what John had to write.  They were witness of these various accounts and gave account of these things from their perspective and different incidences and instances of life...and they did it from their viewpoint, from their vantage point, with what they saw, by their definition...and all accounts then agreeing, in agreement in such a powerful way.

Verse 2 – Until the day in which He was taken up, it’s speaking of Christ again here and talking about how that there were those things that Jesus began to do and teach and he wrote about those things and it says, until the day in which He was taken up; and so Luke now continues to write from that period of time and some of those early things that took place there and then continues to build throughout the book of Acts, of a history of things that happened in the Church, a history of those things that he’s looking back upon now, as he writes this around 61 AD, talking about the things of Paul and talking about things that he’s heard from Paul and learned from Paul and others as well, Peter and different things that have transpired as a matter of a history of the beginning of the early Church.

And so again, he says here in verse 2 – Until the day in which He/Christ was taken up, that He through the holy spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen; to whom also He showed Himself alive after His endurance/sufferings by many infallible proofs, and so Christ was with them that forty days after the resurrection there, spent time with them, visited with them, the miracles that were performed, driving the point home even more so that ability in the very beginning there as He showed Himself in the midst of them and the doors are locked up and here all of a sudden He appears in the midst of them and they were afraid because they thought... “How could this happen?”  It was like a ‘ghost’, like what we might think of something all of a sudden is appearing there and scare the tar out of you.  That’s what they experienced, and so He revealed to them so many things, that He had now been with His Father, been with God, and had been received by Him as the wave sheaf offering and now He’s with them and visiting with them.  And so, incredible story here!

So he says, to whom also He showed Himself alive after his endurance, what He endured, His sufferings, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of those things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.  And so He began to prepare them, even more so, for what was getting ready to take place, for what was going to happen, and they didn’t fully grasp all that yet but they were able to grasp more now as more of a picture of what was going to transpire was being given to them.  Because when Jesus died they thought everything was over with.  They thought all had gone down the drain, so to speak, and they were deciding what they were going to do, go back to fishing and so forth, whatever.

Then verse 4 it goes on to say, And being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from me. And so we know what that was, speaking of Pentecost.  We understand the pouring out of the holy spirit was going to begin on that day.  That was going to be the beginning of the Body of Christ, the Church of God on a spiritual plane, the Body of Christ, the Church of God, and those who would become a part of a spiritual organism now in the sense of, as Mr. Armstrong used to refer to the Church, as the embryo, if you will, of the Kingdom of God.  We are the Kingdom of God in embryo!  And very well put!  We’re not yet born into that Kingdom but the process has begun, and that process was about to begin on Pentecost of 31 AD.

But what a powerful thing to learn from here, because we were given the same thing, just for a different purpose and for different things that were going to be fulfilled and accomplished, and I think of the importance of some of what was given to us.  We were given a period of time.  God gave us a day, May 27th, Pentecost 2012, to wait for that day, to look forward to that day, to the return of Jesus Christ.  Our eyes were very much upon it.  There were individuals who were looking up in the sky.  I’ve received emails of individuals and families who were out looking up in the sky.  Incredible here of what people went through and what they did as everybody was anticipating, believing with all of their being, looking forward to something that the time wasn’t quite yet on a physical plane.  Something else was to take place... we didn’t know, God hadn’t shown us what it was.

And even the disciples at this time here, they were being told to wait.  To wait!  And there is a promise from the Father that’s going to be given to you.  Now, they didn’t understand what all this was yet, they hadn’t yet experienced it.  They didn’t know exactly what all that meant; as much as us in the Church, all of us in the Body – there are things that God is teaching us now about this ‘day’ that He hadn’t given to us yet.  We didn’t know this ‘day’.  We didn’t know what the 27th was all about; we didn’t grasp it all by any measure.

And so for us, on the 26th, being assembled together as God’s Church around the world, looking to a day, looking to a moment in time, looking for the return of Jesus Christ, or the coming of Jesus Christ as King of kings.  And we didn’t understand that it was something that was going to be fulfilled in a period of time, a ‘prophetic day’, Pentecost to Pentecost.

And so it says, being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem; and as soon as we entered into this ‘day’, as soon as we entered into it, Pentecost, those admonitions...   What were we told to do?  What was it that was the message so loud and so clear of what we were to accomplish?  We move forward!  We move forward, and to stand, to stand firm, to stand fast, but to move forward.  To stand firm, to stand fast in what God had given to us. That became a very powerful message even in sermons to follow, and the matter of moving forward, to follow God, just like the trumpet giving direction, the sound of the trumpet reminding us what we’re to do at a moment in time, and this was a moment in time we need to be reminded of that, that this isn’t yet the time of the literal return, of the exact date of the literal day, but now we’d entered into a ‘day’, and He’s going to return on this ‘day’, on this ‘prophetic day’, but not on this literal physical day.

And so we have learned from that, we are still learning from that and it’s a very moving and a very inspiring thing, and in time we’re going to look back upon it and there are going to be people who read about this as we’re reading right now about this story in Acts, and be moved and inspired by what they read.  You’ve lived it and it wasn’t always exciting, as it wasn’t exciting for the disciples at the very beginning when they didn’t know what they were going to do, until Jesus Christ was there standing in their midst.  And yet because they weren’t a part, they didn’t have God’s spirit living in them yet He was able to be with them, the comforter, literally Jesus Christ being able to be there with them until the comforter of the holy spirit could come and live in them, where God the Father and Jesus Christ would be dwelling in them through faith.

And so we have that blessing in a very powerful way; and so God is teaching us along the way, but teaching us to move forward, to hear the sound of the trumpet and to do what we need to do, to understand that His Son is coming, that that’s what this day is all about from Pentecost to Pentecost.  It’s still about the return of Jesus Christ, but now how God is going to accomplish it in His ‘day’, in His time, in a very powerful transition in time... that this Feast of Trumpets has the greatest of meaning of all the Feast of Trumpets that have ever been observed by God’s people!  That’s powerful and awesome to understand!

And being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait.  And we’ve had some who have departed from Jerusalem, who’ve departed from what God has called them to.  And I think, “How horrible!”  Couldn’t wait?  Couldn’t wait for the promise of the Father, because it’s still God’s promise that His Son is returning, that His Son is coming to this earth, that He’s going to fulfill it and He’s going to accomplish it?  And so much of it is revealed by Trumpets and the sounding of trumpets that are going to resound on this earth powerfully so until the very last one, the seventh one on that very day when finally Jesus Christ does begin His literal return – finally!

And so we are told to wait in Jerusalem, to stand firm, to stand fast, and to move forward spiritually...which we have heard from Him, because Jesus Christ leads His Church, He is the head of the Church!  He gives us those things we need when we need it!  He works with us and teaches us and gives us Sabbath by Sabbath and Holy Day to Holy Day the messages that we need at that moment in time that mould and fashion us as we yield ourselves to that process.

So when I read a verse like this, verse 4, I think of those who are identified by, those who have come to a point in time...as even some throughout this period of time and even during those twelve sermons and beyond, even this past week another one who has left – pulls of the world, pulls of family, just can’t do it!  Knows this is the truth, believes this is the Church of God, but just can’t do it.  And I think, “How many times?  How often?  What does it take?”  And yet the examples are there for a reason and for a purpose – so we can learn from them, so we can grasp the damage and....  Well, I’m not going to get into that because it’s something for the Feast so I guess this is a carrot, I haven’t been giving many carrots recently, but Feast is coming up and we’re going to hear about some of the things we’ve gone through and some who have not waited and remained in Jerusalem like they were told to, instead went someplace else.  Some have gone to Rome!  Some have gone back to Rome!  Awesome!  Incredible to understand that!  That which identifies their life; that which their life will be known for, written about, spoken of.  What a horrible thing!

And so again here, very powerful verse; verses that can be applied to, have meaning for different periods of time, and this one certainly applies to us.  God, through His Son Jesus Christ, once again told us to wait upon the promise of our Father.  They were promised about the coming of the holy spirit, and we have come to understand that Pentecost has greater meaning, it has another meaning added to it, it’s the 144,000, the wave sheaf offering, and at a time when Jesus Christ comes to this earth with the 144,000 on a Pentecost.  Awesome things that God teaches us and just builds upon things making them more powerful all the time.  And so some were told to wait upon the promise of the Father, because that’s another one added to the story, the coming of God’s Kingdom, the coming of the 144,000 on a different Pentecost, on a specific Pentecost we understand now in a very powerful way, and that we should not depart from spiritual Jerusalem...and yet some have, and this is a time to be stirred up more than ever before, to do more than you’ve ever done before in your life, more than you did last year, far more than what you did last year, and to understand, to seek to understand and to cry out to God to understand this ‘day’ and to yield yourself to this ‘day’, to this great moment in time that we are so blessed to live and to be part of.

And so the first use of trumpets that was mentioned earlier is that they were used to call to assembly.  There was a specific blowing of trumpets, that when Israel heard them they knew the instruction they contained concerning specific direction they were to follow, and we have been given direction, as I mentioned, always in an organized and unified manner, because that’s what God’s Kingdom is so much about.

Acts 1:6 – going on here – Therefore when they had come together they asked Him saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom of Israel? On a spiritual plane we wondered, “Why hasn’t He restored the Kingdom at this time?”  And we were to learn from that. We were to ask the question, and we were to be led to the answer.  We were to indeed hear the sound of the trumpet, and some just wouldn’t listen to the sound of the trumpet and what God was telling us.

Verse 7 – And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father has put/set/appointed in His own power/in His own authority, ‘the power to act’ is what this means in the Greek.  And so as we see this and what it’s saying here, to understand and going back in time, it was not given to them at the beginning.  It wasn’t for them to know the time and the seasons.  It wasn’t for their time!  There were things that had to be reserved in time.  There were so many things that had to take place over 2,000 years, especially in the end-time, that God reserved, kept in His own power – His power to act – and even the last ‘day’, the final ‘day’, the ‘prophetic Day of the Lord’ He reserved in His own power to act according to His timing for His time, literally.  But it has been given now to us at the end, within God’s time to act in His own power.  He gave us what we needed to grasp and comprehend a work that was to be done – primarily over a period of, well, 1335 days and then 1290 and then 1260.  And that time was fulfilled, that time of what was to be accomplished as far as a witness, as far as things that were to happen has been accomplished.  It was done.  We did our work at that time.  We have more work to do; there are more things to be accomplished!

Some seem to think, on occasion, if a person’s not careful, they can get all twitter pated, all bothered  about not being able to grasp everything!  Well, just wait for the sound of the trumpet!  Strive to hear what God gives and He’ll give it!  How many times have you been given a trumpet blast and shown what to do?  Has God ever let us down?  Has God ever let you down if you’ve followed Him faithfully so?  No.  God has always been faithful to lead and guide and direct us and to give us clearer guidance and direction, clear sound of a trumpet – not one that couldn’t be heard, not one that the sound wasn’t... we stood there and wondered, “Well, what was it saying?!”  God makes it clear in His time!  In His time He reveals it all!  He leads us and we’re to follow and we’re to go forward, we’re to listen to the instruction, we’re to hear the sound of the trumpet when the trumpet sounds.

And so we were given what we needed for 3½ years, for 1260 days, to accomplish a work.  We were all part of what two witnesses were given to do, in sackcloth, to wear sackcloth, and everyone was to wear that sackcloth during that period of time.  And then we came to another period of time where things are going to be accomplished in a very powerful way and a work is going to continue.  Not the work of the witness of mankind and the way he’s been over the past 6,000 years, ours is still in front of us!  Ours is still in front of us! But choices and decisions and things that are being moulded and fashioned in us have been prepared in the period of time beginning with Pentecost of 2012, beginning on that day, a preparation for work that we’re to do.  Not the type where we’re doing a witness any longer – that part has been done!  That doesn’t mean we’re no longer witnesses.  We did that work but there is what is going to follow that is powerful and mighty, the result of some of that then in the world is going to be powerful and mighty, and things are going to be accomplished, are going to be powerful and mighty all the way to the coming of the day when Jesus Christ does finally then literally return – on this day, on this prophetic day.

So again here, things that were written to them on Pentecost that were given to us as well, literally on Pentecost, the beginning of promises from God, to enter into His ‘day’ finally, and Him revealing to us the importance and the magnitude of the meaning of that day, and a time of refining, and a time of sifting. God’s Church has always had a time of sifting within it to get rid of chaff, to get rid of that which is not genuine, to get rid of that which is not fully a part of...because that can’t be a part of it, it can’t share in the joy and the beauty and the glory and the blessings that God has placed before us...if we don’t listen, if we don’t do our part. Because it does require work, it does require effort, it does require response from us and choices from us.  God isn’t going to cram it down our throat, He lets us choose.

Acts 2:1 – And when the Day of Pentecost had come they were all with one accord in one place; and when this is all done that’s where we are – still some sifting going to be done... still some sifting going to be done.  I would take this as a great warning, truly!  Still some sifting...this is still going on.  Are you going to be there when Jesus Christ returns?  Are you going to be able to live into a new age, or are you going to yield to the pulls of this world, to the pulls of whatever it is that will pull you away from your dedication and your determination to see this through to the end?  ...whatever that end is, even if it goes beyond.  I really don’t care, this is a commitment for life – yet I believe with all my being, as I did about May 27th, that we are in the final ‘day’.  Time will show it.  Time will reveal it.  And, God will lead us, He always has.  This is God’s Church!  We ARE His people!  The evidence is in what we see and what we know and what has been given to us that is so powerfully true that sanctifies us and sets us apart from the world and from all that’s scattered out there of the scattered Churches.  We are so blessed, brethren.  We truly are so incredibly blessed!

And so when the Day of Pentecost had come they were all with one accord in one place.  And I know that the vast majority of us are going to continue to be of one accord in one place throughout this period of time, Pentecost to Pentecost, in God’s ‘day’, the ‘prophetic Day of the Lord’, in this ‘day’ that we’re living in that is the time for the return of Jesus Christ, the coming of the King of kings, which this day announces and broadcasts and trumpets so powerfully so.

Then that sermon ended, again, with the admonition that was already mentioned.  We are simply to move forward.  How apropos, how beautiful that is when considering the sounding of the trumpets.  Time...a time for assembly, a time to pick up camp and go forward wherever God is leading us, whenever God leads us we follow God, we follow His Son, we follow His Church and the leadership of His Church.  That’s just the bottom line, that’s what we do and we seek to do it faithfully so in a right spirit and a right mind, obediently so, yieldedly so.

And so far we have addressed two of the primary purposes for which trumpets were used by the Israelites.  The third one, which we have not yet addressed, is when trumpets are used to sound an alarm – especially to war!  And shortly after Pentecost we had a two part sermon series entitled ‘A Day of War’.  I tell you, I have chills going up and down my spine just thinking about this and thinking about how God has led us, and I was in awe giving the sermon looking back over the first twelve sermons that have been given to us, and in awe of what we continue to see as we continue to move forward and how God brings everything together, of what you’re going to be given during the Feast of Tabernacles and what we’re being given today.  This day is a powerful day; it has such incredible meaning to it.

So it would be good to be reminded of some statements made in the very introduction of that sermon series as well.  I’m going to read this to you:

“The Church has adjusted well to the knowledge and reality of how God has led us into the final phase of this end-time, into the ‘Day of the Lord’, the year of God’s vengeance, of the Eternal’s wrath upon this world for all her ways over the past 6,000 years.  And all for the recompense, the retribution, of the cause of Zion, because of Zion, for Zion, for His people through time, and especially at this time.”

In the very beginning there made comment how that the Church overall has adjusted well.  It wasn’t easy, it pulled at us, it forced us to look at things, but I think of the resolve of people that is far stronger today, of those who have yielded themselves to the process – not everyone has yet, not everyone has fully gone through that.  It’s like the one and ninety-nine, and you have a hundred out here, and it’s that one.  When the ninety-nine are doing fine (we all have battles), at least fighting those battles and yielding to the process, but it’s the one here and there that we worry, that I worry, that I have concern, that I have desire for, that I have desire will change and respond and get their life together and get their act together.  Because in this ‘day’, before it’s over with, they have to; it has to be in this ‘day’ indeed.

And then another, going on here, more that was stated in the introduction of that sermon:

“There has been much suffering at the hands of this world and God is going to bring that suffering to an end for His people.  Brethren, this is a ‘day of war’!  It has already begun and you need to understand what that means!

God is revealing that we do not fully grasp the urgency, the danger, the seriousness of this time!”

And so I think of that.  I think of that use of the trumpet blast that is about a warning of war and what God did for us in the very beginning.  So many trumpets, so many things having to do with the meaning of this ‘day’, so much that has to do with the fulfillment and the meaning of this day, the Feast of Trumpets contained in this period of time of Pentecost to Pentecost, the ‘Day of the Lord’.  So I think of the fact that not all had ears to hear, and did not receive the direction, the instruction given at the sounding of the trumpets and this trumpet here, not realizing this was a time of war, not realizing what was going to happen in one country alone, in New Zealand, what was yet to take place there!  Seemed like everything had gone through quite well and then... wow... war!  And people who were not prepared for the war.  Thankfully there were those who were prepared and those who fought and those who have continued on fighting the fight, being defined by this ‘day’ in a very powerful way.

And so again here, in the introduction stated;

“WE ARE AT WAR! This is a ‘day’ of war!  If you do not grasp the magnitude of what we have entered you can become a casualty!”

And we’ve had a few...and it hurts.  But if people don’t yield to and fight in the war, and instead do something else, begin to engage in it in a different way, in a distorted way, to fight against God and God’s purpose...   Because either we fight in this war God’s way or we fight against God.  There is no middle ground!  And that’s happened and there have been casualties, sad to say, but it’s far better that the Body be purified and cleansed indeed, which is happening through this ‘day’.  God is purifying and cleansing us and strengthening us.

So again, we are in a ‘day’ of war.  This is a ‘day’ of war!  It is the ‘day’ of the Eternal!  It is the ‘Day of the Lord’.  It is God’s ‘day’.  It is a ‘prophetic day’.  Awesome indeed what’s contained in the meaning of this.

It’s proven to be true, that we are at war, and it’s good to be reminded of it again because there is still war going on, it’s just now that we’re getting closer to a literal war in this world.  You need to realize the uniqueness of what we’ve gone through because so much of what we’ve entered into in this ‘day’, the focus has been very powerfully about God’s Church.  It’s what it always is, but at a point in time here, in this ‘day’, that begins to shift far more so.  It’s always going to be about us and about our part in all of this, but the war, that phase of it, is going to very soon turn toward the world and more and more the rattling of sabres in the world, just more and more it’s happening.  Israel, the focal point of what God has always told us for the end-time; literally that part of the world, the country, when we think of Israel, the country and the Middle East, all that’s going on, in Lebanon, in Syria and Iran, in Egypt and Iraq, all around there, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, all along there, all through there, all the different countries and the choosing of sides, and some of those more so than ever before because they’re not at one by any measure, even those who say they are of the same belief and same faith, they are not at one by any measure.  They are at war with each other and it’s getting ready to enter into an even larger war.  It’s just an absolute nightmarish mess.  War is such an ugly thing, and especially in the world and mankind when he fights it in a physical way.

And so again, we’re at a point in time where we’re so close to a world war that’s going to begin very soon.  It’s coming in this ‘day’.  So how real was the warning given, what we read in Ephesians 6 in that particular sermon, about being at war?  Let’s go back there and look at that, because we need to think about these things, it’s how they apply to us.  We know that there is coming that period of time for this world, but all the way through this period, all the way through this ‘day’, and even into the Millennium, but it won’t be the same, it won’t be as it is now.  You’re always going to have to fight your human nature, but now you have to fight it more because Satan and demons are still around and this world is still not God’s world yet.  It’s coming.  The Kingdom is coming to rule this earth but it’s still man’s age in that respect, as far as a system that exists out there.  And so this is something we have to do continuing on throughout this day.  Let’s go back there and read it because there is such a powerful message contained here in what we’re to continue to do in how we fight, because we’re not going to be involved in that world war, we’re going to be involved in this war all the way to the end because it’s spiritual, it’s about us, it’s about what we have to do, how we fight, how we engage in this war, which we are to be engaged in - we’re told to do that - and more so now than ever before in our lives!

Let’s go over there and review these again: Ephesians 6 – and hopefully it will mean a little more to us today than it did in that earlier sermon that was given, entitled ‘A Day of War’.  If we’re not careful these can just be nice sounding platitudes and expressions that would be nice – but no, they’re not to be nice, they’re to be lived, and they’re to bring change in our life, and they’re to be engaged in as in warfare!  That’s how we need to look upon it and ask God to help us to look at it in that way, to realize we’re very much at war!  We have to be engaged in this more now at this time than ever before in our lives on a spiritual plane.

Ephesians 6:10 – Finally, my brethren, be/become strong, stronger, if you will, a better way of saying it, become stronger; that definitely is what is meant by this, become stronger in the Lord;  That’s where our strength is and God wants to give us more power!  That’s what this also means!  He wants to give us more power to fight in the war!  He wants to give us more strength!  More power, more might, more of His holy spirit.  He wants to give us more of His spirit but there are things we must do in order to receive more of that spirit.

So it says, be/become stronger in the Lord, and in the power of His might.  You don’t want your might!  You don’t want to look to yourself!  You don’t want to rely on your own self!  You don’t want to try to do these things yourself!  We literally miserably fail as human beings!  We have to cry out to God and just in that alone we should be praying more – just in the belief of that, the conviction of that should move and stir us to crying out to God more.  It has me.  It’s stirred me up more, the reality of these things.  More prayer, more meaningful prayer, more heartfelt prayer – laying ourselves out before God, if you will, opening ourselves up before God more.

It goes on to say... so again, it’s a matter of being in the power of His might.  That means we have to draw closer.  That’s why we draw closer to God.  That’s why we drop to our knees more.  That’s why we cry out to God in greater earnest and greater desire – for one another as well, not just for ourselves, but having the big picture of what this is all about.  We’re all at war together, we truly are!

Verse 11 – Put on the whole armour of God; not a part of it, not trying to put on one piece and be stronger in the Lord, it’s a matter of all of it, of striving to focus on all these things.  This should be our prayer from time to time throughout this ‘day’.  You should be turning over here from time to time.  If you aren’t, if you weren’t doing it, start doing it – turn over to Ephesians 6 on occasion – month by month, whatever it takes, and just to be reminded of this.  This is why God has inspired this!  Jesus Christ has moved us, for this to be given again, to review this again, even though we reviewed it and just looked through this in that sermon about this being a ‘day’ of war. And so we’re looking at it on the Feast of Trumpets because trumpets are being used as an alarm to war, being reminded of the importance of this!  And we need to do it ourselves.

Verse 11 – Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles, a word that means ‘the strategies’...and he has a lot of them in his little bag of goodies.  So again, powerful what it has to say here: Put on the whole armour of God; not to be satisfied with one or two pieces and maybe focusing upon them once in a while.  And that’s why it’s good that we just open up our Bible to these verses on occasion, every few weeks, every month or so, whatever it is, and to be reminded and open up and recognize and be sobered by the reality of being in war...and to look at it in this light, to realize this is urgent upon us!  A sense of urgency... You know, when people are in a physical war, the timing upon them is urgent!  If you’re out there on the battle field there are things you have to do to stay alive.  We don’t tend to think that way on a spiritual plane because we’re weak as physical human beings, but god wants us to look upon it with that kind of importance in our mind on a spiritual plane, that we are in war, that we are engage in war and we better be engaged in it or we’re going to get run over or we’re going to be destroyed, we’re not going to grasp the enemy, we’re not going to recognize the danger of the time we’re in and so forth.  On and on and on – we could have an entire sermon just on that vantage point alone, of considering those kinds of things.

Verse 11 – Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand, to withstand, that’s what it’s talking about, to stand against, means to withstand the power that comes at you, those things that are thrown at you, those things that happen in war, so that you can stand, not be killed, not become a matter of some great wound that is inflicted upon you and slowly die, or something that happens quickly where you die quickly on a spiritual plane – but to be alert, to be on guard, to be fighting the fight, to be doing these things – that you might be able to stand against the wiles/strategies of the slanderer/the false accuser.  That’s how he comes at you, through family members, through relatives, through people at work, through people in the community, wherever it might be, as they throw things at you.  And you’ve got to be strong to stand against that, to where those hit you and don’t do a thing to you, to where you respond in a godly manner, to where you respond in your mind in a right way, with clarity, with focus, with conviction, and to understand they don’t.  To have peace when you know they don’t understand, and don’t get caught up in it then and it doesn’t affect you because it’s not about you, it’s about God, it’s about the coming of His Kingdom, it’s about what’s going to happen on this earth.  You don’t have to prove it to anybody!  You don’t have to be made right!  That’s in God’s time and it’s not something to use in a wrong way then when it does happen and I know you won’t, we won’t, because we’ll be far more humble when those things happen then, far more merciful when those things happen.

But these things are written so that we can understand how he works and to understand he doesn’t quit, he doesn’t give up, and the closer he gets to his end, the closer he gets to being put away for a thousand years the more stirred up he becomes, the more evil in his practice and his attacks and you have to become stronger in God, truly.

So during this final Feast of Trumpets it’s wise that we again review all these verses in Ephesians 6, because the trumpet is sounding far stronger today than it was when this sermon was given a few/several weeks ago entitled, ‘A Day of War’.

Verse 12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, not like in a physical war, and if that can be somewhat real in our minds perhaps then we can grasp the magnitude and the danger and the importance of something far greater on a spiritual plane.  But we wrestle... against principalities, against those things that are already established in the world, the way the world is, the way the world is established.  It isn’t established for God’s people!  It isn’t established for God’s Church!  Companies are not geared and fashioned toward right practices, toward how to properly conduct business; they’re not geared toward right practices at all and that which would be a matter of right principles in dealing with people and anything else you look at that has to do with integrity and honesty and truthfulness.  That’s not the way the world is set up and established.

And so, against principalities that are there already, that work against us, that work against God’s people, that work against the Sabbath, that work against the Holy Days and your observing it – and on and on it goes, those battles that exist out there.  ...against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness/wicked spirits in high places; meaning they have power!  Not to be taken lightly, to realize they have power to come at you and to stir things up around you and then in you if you’re not careful, that stir a wrong response in your life.  That’s why we have to be ever so close to God and realize this is a spiritual battle and know the kind of responses and the kind of things to exist in us.

Verse 13 -  Therefore, take unto yourself the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand; that word again here, meaning ‘to set against’, ‘to resist’, ‘to stand against’, ‘to oppose’ in the evil day – against that which comes against you.  Since this ‘day’ began every day has pretty much been an evil day as far as the world is concerned around us and how it comes at us and the battles we seem to have out there, because there are just a lot of battles out there.  There are a lot of things people are fighting in God’s Church – truly – just coming at us from all different directions and we’re being made stronger, if we can see it.  And I believe we can.  We’re to see how we’re being made stronger, because it’s those things there that can help us, that can help us to be focused and take soberly, to realize, we are at war, there are incredible battles going on.  If things were smoother we could become victims so easily to the time we live in right now, truly, but it’s because of these things and God allowing them in our lives that we’re actually being made stronger, that we’re actually being able to be kept stronger during this period of time, to fight in a fight, to fight the war, to recognise that these battles are all around for a purpose and for a reason, because these are not good times, these are evil times we live in and a transition in time, and it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better in this world around us as things are stirred up very powerfully so – on a physical plane and a spiritual plane – in a physical world around us.

Therefore take yourself the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand/withstand/to resist/to be able to stand against/to oppose/to fight in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. All that we’re instructed and directed to do, the sound of the trumpets, what we hear Sabbath by Sabbath and Holy Day to Holy Day....and having done all, to stand: Isn’t that what we started out with talking about, the need to stand fast, to stand firm in God’s way and He will bless us to stand before this world? He will finish it all, fulfill it all, brethren.

Verse 14 – Stand therefore; that’s what God tells us to do and that’s what we should do!  The word meaning ‘made’ or ‘make’ to stand.  You have to do something then!  It’s not something that just happens.  It’s something you have to be actively involved in.  And when we think of someone standing I see someone just standing both feet planted on the ground in one spot.  Well, that’s not what this is really all about – that doesn’t take much work – but to stand fast in something, in a way of life, means there’s a lot of work, means there’s a lot you do to stand in God’s way of life.  There’s a lot involved in it, and frankly, everything we’re going through here about this whole armour, it’s about standing and doing those things to stand, to withstand, to stand firm in something as far as fighting is concerned.  That means there is activity and a lot of it...and it’s a matter of being in God and God in us and fighting it on a spiritual plane.

So Stand therefore, having your loins gird about, as you fight the fight, as you fight the battle, having your loins gird about with truth. How often have we been told to go back at times and to review and to think about the things we see and the things that have been given to us?  That’s why it blows my mind sometimes to think that even people who have been with us from almost the very beginning, almost the beginning of when PKG started, and those who were a part of Worldwide, who saw the apostasy... and how on earth after being given all that they’d been given, like in 2005, to know, to be convicted very powerfully so that Jesus Christ has not eternally existed, that God’s word is truth throughout the Old Testament when He says that He alone exists and there is no one else.  He makes it clear about Himself, Yahweh, and about Elohim, and He says there is no one else...and yet people can go back to that, or play a game with others who believe that, that He’s eternally existed, and somehow they keep a lie in their heart, “...that ,well they know better,” and they lie, and that leads into a lot of other truths being twisted and distorted and lying.  What a horrible life, to live a lie, to live in lies!

That’s why God hates lying and hates a lie, and we should too, and the more we grow the more we hate that kind of thinking and that kind of a mind and those kinds of things.  That’s all the world understands.  They believe that everybody is lying all the time, that everybody just lies and that’s the way it is.  Well, there may be things we’re deceived about or we don’t understand fully, but to lie, to outwardly lie and know that you’re lying?  Come on! Amazing!

Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth, in other words, we’re to wear truth as a belt around your waist.  That’s what it’s saying here, just like a belt that can hold, that holds things together, that holds weaponry and so forth that you can use, that which keeps you clothed and strong!  So it gives the example here, just like a belt that’s tightened around your waist to keep everything together, to be well clothed.  Truth!  The truth that sanctifies us and sets us apart, the importance of going back...the truth doesn’t just happen in your mind and you don’t just hold onto it.  There are times you have to review it and think about it and pray about it and seek to be at one with it and convicted about it. And what you don’t understand, you cry out to God for help to see and understand because you know this is God’s Church and you know the truths that He’s given to you that others don’t have!  They aren’t anywhere else!

...and having on the breastplate of righteousness; a breastplate, you know, to protect yourself!  A breastplate!  That which is thick and every object that comes at you it doesn’t affect you because you’re in God and God’s in you and He will give you the strength you need and it has to do with right living and righteousness and how you deal with others – that that is your breastplate and keeps you from being able to be attacked and anything hurting you that’s thrown at you.  But you’ve got to be active in it!  You’re in war!

Verse 15 – And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; I love this one.  I love all of these, but I think about what we’ve just gone through and what we just talked about, and I think about what Jerusalem means and the whole purpose of it and the Prince of Peace who’s coming and why He carries that name and what God gave up from the very beginning – the sermons He gave to us at one time there, even at the Feast, and what God gave up at the very beginning – peace.  He gave it up willingly so, He sacrificed it in order to have a Family, Elohim, and a beautiful sermon at the Feast about that – Elohim and how it comes about and the purpose and the beauty of it and what God is doing and how He’s been doing it – magnified even more so, building upon things we’ve known and giving us more.

And so this here, this matter of feet shod with the preparation, it’s like another way of translating it, and perhaps in a better way, like wearing shoes as being prepared with the good news of peace, the gospel of peace.  The good news is about the truth that’s given to us that’s preached, the word of God – about peace, about how to have peace.  It doesn’t just happen!  You’ve got to do certain things for peace to exist!  You have to work at it!  You have to fight for it!  You have to fight in yourself a spiritual battle!

And so again here, over and over again, things that are given to us here.  So I think about, what are some of the sermons that followed, that admonished us in our relationship with God and one another that we’ve gone through recently?  We’ve had different sermons here.  I think about ‘Love that Transforms’ that we went through, and then the series about ‘Going to a Brother’, and all about a way of peace, peace with God, peace toward one another, peace, a life because of how we live in a way of life that God’s revealed to us and given to us.  And so even this one here about being clothed with shoes – peace!  ...that are comfortable wherever you walk, wherever you go, it’s there with you: peace.  ...and it gives protection, it protects the Body from the bottom up.  There are so many things to learn from some of these things, but it’s about a way of peace, something we’re to be clothed with, having to do with the armour that God has given that’s about something we have... it’s about a fight.  It is about a battle!  These things don’t just happen!  And what God sacrificed so long ago, that’s what we’re working toward – Jerusalem – spiritual Jerusalem, more and more peace coming to this earth and a city of peace that we’re looking forward to, that we’re a part of building, that we’re a part of ourselves.

I want to go through a few verses here, a few scriptures that talk about some of this, because again, there is so much meaning here.  You can just jot these down, I’m just going to read them to you because they are just short verses, but they mean so much.

Psalm 34:14 – because it’s about a battle, it’s about a war, it’s about fighting, the right kind...the right kind, not as the world fights, not as the world wars but in the way God said we are to enter into warfare and battle and fighting – Depart from evil, that’s a fight, that’s a battle.  That’s not the way of man; the way of man is the way of evil, it really is.  Selfishness!  Selfishness is evil, taking care of and pampering self at the expense of others, because that’s what selfishness does, it’s at the expense of others, to get our way, what we want, and when we do that others get hurt along the way, something is taken from someone else.  Depart from evil, and do good; that doesn’t just happen, we have to pray about it, we have to grow in it.  There is a change in mind that has to take place in order to think right thoughts, in order to do the right things towards others.

...seek peace, and pursue it.  Seek peace!  So there is a way of thinking, just as one thing alone here – if you want to look at all these things that God says we’re to be clothed with and the matter of armour and a matter of battling and being in war, and this one here is such a beautiful one because of what it produces, this is what it leads to, to seek peace, to not want war to exist any longer.  Isn’t that what we want?  To get through this?  To fight the right kind of warfare?  To fight the right kind of a war?  ...not man’s way that’s built on selfishness and greed and get and slaughter of others.  But in ours it’s the killing of self, putting the old man to death.  That’s what we started at baptism, putting to death the old self.  That’s so much about the mind being transformed and changed.  So much of the battle is just in ourselves, it really is, because even the fiery darts and the things that are thrown at us, the battle that takes place there then, the way Satan comes at us, the strategies and the ways of this world and it comes at us, and relatives and on and on it goes, people at work and how they attack, and sometimes they’re stirred up by a spirit world they don’t even grasp and comprehend.  And yet to come back in this manner, to fight a war on a spiritual plane – that’s what it’s all about, a different kind of war, and if we fight self then it’s just the opposite of the way the human mind is, it truly is.

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. You have to pursue it!  You have to work!  You have to move in that direction!

Psalm 119:165 - another verse here, Great peace have they who love Your law: and nothing shall offend them.  Nothing shall cause them to stumble!  We’ve just gone through a part of that in talking about those things whereby people are offended, to cause a little one to be offended or to stumble, that we don’t want to be the cause of that in our life and to come to understand that peace comes as a result of embracing God’s law and the love that’s there – because His law is about His love.  And so again, Great peace have they who love Your law; and the more we embrace God’s law the greater peace that exists because the more we’re able to obey and live a right way that produces peace; and nothing it says, then, nothing will cause them to stumble. What can cause you to stumble if you love God’s law and God’s way?  Because stumbling comes from not loving God’s law and through disobedience and doing the wrong things.

And then there is in the New Testament here, Romans 14:19 - Let us therefore follow after those things which make for peace, to pursue peace. It’s saying it in just another way!  Let us follow/pursue/go after those things which make for peace; and so a sermon in itself, many sermons about what this means, and we hear it in different ways and different sermons on a continuing basis, but all for the same fruit and the same purpose. Jerusalem, the city of peace and what’s revealed to us through the Prince of Peace, the one who brings peace, the one who shows the way to peace for all mankind, in and through Him, in and through Jesus Christ, being able to be forgiven of sin and that process that leads us into unity and oneness with God – peace in the Kingdom of God.

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and the things wherewith one may edify another. Beautiful!  It’s about others!  It’s about thinking of others, and that’s what God’s love is, it’s about others, it’s about the Family.  It’s not inward and selfish, it’s outgoing.

II Corinthians 13:11 – Finally brethren, farewell.  Be perfect/be perfected, yield yourself to the process.  Isn’t that what we should desire for each other and to have patience with each other?  To realize none of us are there yet!  What do we have to look down upon anyone else about?  What do we have to be lifted up by and to look down upon someone else?  Have we never done anything wrong?  Have we not been there before in some way spiritually, where someone else is at some point in time?  Do we not yearn for and desire that people be able to break free from something if we’ve been blessed to continue on?  ...that they break away from that which may be pulling them away or pulling them aside and pulling them down?  Can we not be there for them and desire things for them?  And yet we tend to be harsh in judgment, without mercy, having high standards for everybody else – because we do it, they can do it – that attitude of being lifted up by self and not understanding, not seeking to understand, not being patient.

And so it says here, Finally...  Be perfect, be of good comfort; where do we get that from?  From God, from God’s purpose, from God’s plan, from seeing it!  ...be of one mind, beautiful!  That’s what Elohim is all about.  Truly, being of one mind, the mind of God, Him in us and us in Him for all eternity, that mind, that oneness, that unity, the Word, being in agreement and oneness with the Word of God, the way of God, because there is only one way that produces all this.  ...live in peace...  be of one mind, live in peace; can’t be of one mind if we don’t live in peace, if we’re not at peace with one another.  If we’re not seeking and pursuing peace and following after peace then we’re not of that one mind and we have to repent of that because that’s sin.  When we’re not at peace with others, the fault isn’t them, the fault is us!  If only we could see that truth, the fault is us, not them.  So often we see the fault in others.  It’s one thing to deal with faults of others, but the person and how we feel toward them and how we think toward them and how we treat them as a result, that’s another matter, and it’s to be done this way.

...to be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.  That’s how that exists, that’s how that happens, that’s how God’s love will be more in us and His peace will be more in our life, because we’re more of that one mind.

And then finally here, another verse about peace.  There are so many, there is so much to grow in, so much to learn, so much about this armour that God wants us to be clothed with, to have on all the time, to realize we’re at war, and how much more in this ‘day’, this one ‘day’, this ‘prophetic day’ that we’re now in, which is a ‘day’ of war indeed, more than so many others that we could ever consider or think of for us and our lives.  That’s why this year, this time, this ‘day’ is so very important, because of where it is in time and all that’s going to take place in it and has already started taking place in it within the Church.

James 3:18 – And the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of righteousness, something that is reaped, something that you’re able to partake of, fruit.  And the fruit of righteousness, right living, right thinking, right ways, is sown in peace of them who make peace/with them/of them who make peace. You have to make peace.  There are things you have to live and do in life to make peace, to make peace with others, to be at peace with others.  So again here, it has so much meaning to it.

Then Ephesians 6, going on here.  Let’s continue on about this whole armour.

Ephesians 6:16 – And above all, taking the shield of faith- a shield, just like other armour but a shield you can move around to other parts of the body and hold up against something that’s coming at you.  And it is a matter of faith, what you believe, and since this ‘day’ began, this ‘prophetic day’ began, we have had the opportunity to be of stronger faith, greater belief of the truth; we see truth that we didn’t see before.  We understand now, we are in the ‘Day of the Lord’, and that should strengthen us and give us power.  It’s a shield to be a blessing to us and the fighting that we’re doing, and that other things just roll off of us because of that.

We’ve learned a lot, and so much of it has to do with humility – so much of it has to do with humility and getting rid of the pride.  Above all taking the shield of faith whereby you will be able to quench/to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked, everything that’s thrown at you that it just bounces off, that gets rid of it.

Verse 17 – And take the helmet of salvation, that which covers the head, the knowledge, the knowing of where we’re going and what it’s all about, that which protects us as a part of life as we go through it, a process of salvation, of why we’re fighting this great war.

...and the sword of the spirit; to realize this is a spiritual war.  You can’t do it physically.  There are things you have to physically do – sometimes the words that have to come out of your mouth, to tell someone you’re sorry, to make things right, to speak right things, to not speak lies, to speak the truth, to be honest, to speak kind words, to speak merciful words; to do all those things there are things we have to do, physically there are things we have to accomplish physically, but it’s about relying on God’s spirit.  It’s about God’s spirit and the sword of God’s spirit, that which the words that come out should be a matter of that which is inspired by God’s spirit, the sword, the truth, the word of God that should live in our life and rule in our life.  It says here, which is the word of God.  That’s what it’s about.  Those are the words that should come out of us – that sword, those words, the way of life, that which we reflect, that which we speak, that which reflects a unity and a oneness that we have with all the 57 Truths that God has given to us an magnified even and made stronger.

Verse 18 – Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, meaning we can’t be cut off from God, meaning we’ve got to be repenting of sin so that we don’t get cut off from God, realizing that this is our power and our strength and our life to be able to fight the fight, to be able to do the things that we’re shown that we must be doing in putting on the whole armour, those things that reflect the activities that are involved in our life in this battle in this fighting, that we’re able to hear the sound of the trumpet indeed over and over again in our life, so that we can continue to know what direction to go, what instruction to follow, to turn left when God tells us to, to turn right, to stop, to go forward, to be there quickly, to respond mightily and quickly to whatever God gives us, because we know this is God’s Church and we know how God speaks to us – we’re convicted of that.  That’s why we’re called, that’s how we were called, that’s how we were brought into it, that’s how we came to see the things we came to see.  But I’ll tell you, sin is powerful and can lead people away and astray.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit; supplication, that’s pouring yourself out before God when it’s a matter of supplication before God, not just general prayers but things that are felt because you feel them deeply, because you’re pouring yourself out before God.  And notice there is more to this.  It isn’t just about us, it isn’t just focusing on us and our woes and our problems and our trials and our battles.  ...with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto, being spiritually alert and spiritually on guard with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, for all the Family.  We’re all in this together.  We are a Family, and our care and concern and desire in fighting this war should be that we’re all in this war together, and to understand that about one another, to be patient with each other, to love one another, to encourage one another, sometimes to admonish one another, whatever it takes so that we can continue to go forward and fight together.

So all of this has been reviewed and stressed again on this Feast of Trumpets, just this matter of war itself, the sound of the trumpet of war, so that, again here, this has all been stressed again so that we might take God’s warning of trumpets in order to more fully address these matters of a real war that we are to be fighting.  We’re to be fighting this.  It doesn’t just happen, it’s something we have to think about and pray about and that we should be fighting and to recognize it as a fight, as a battle, and not let things drift like they did last year – because they drifted last year.  You have to look at your life and acknowledge that and admit that before God, that you were doing some drifting last year, and if nothing has changed between last year and this year, then you’re still drifting.  That’s the reality.  That’s the truth!  Because we should all be stirred up.  I know we should all be stirred up more than we were last year – every last one of us, every single one of us, to be stirred up more before God.  And if that isn’t happening and if we aren’t then we’re not fighting as we should be and that’s very, very unhealthy and where are you going to be before this ‘day’ is over?  So again, things we must face and address in our lives.

Having addressed the importance of hearing the sound of the trumpets in this day, both in this message of this Feast of Trumpets and in this ‘prophetic day’, hopefully we’re grasping a stronger sense of the spiritual depth of importance that this Feast of Trumpets carries with us.  This is a powerful day of revelation to God’s people and to the world and for time...this one here in the midst of Pentecost to Pentecost.

We’re to hear the direction, the instruction, and what this period of time is all about; receiving direction and instruction in this ‘day’ is crucial to what will ultimately identify us – define us more than all of our past in the Church.  But to be identified as standing with God, His Son, and His Church – in order for this to happen we must be actively involved in this war that identifies indeed this ‘prophetic day’.

For as for the meaning of the sounding of trumpets and the hearing of direction, instruction given, and grasping the magnitude of the war we’ve been called to engage ourselves – because we have been called to engage ourselves in war.  The purpose has been magnified many times over since Pentecost when we entered the ‘Day of the Lord’, because all is about the trumpeting and the entrance, indeed, of the King of kings.

Looking back, I looked back at some of the sermons, just thinking about some of them as I do from time to time and see how God has led us at various times, what we’ve focused upon at different times, and I think of the Feast of the Trumpets of 2008, how it was a powerful revelation...a powerful revelation to God’s Church of the beginning of a final countdown to this ‘prophetic day’ that we’re living right now.  That was the day of the final sealing of the 144,000 who will come with the King of kings at His return, that this day is very much about, this Feast of Trumpets, the trumpeting of that occasion.  And it was the beginning of the prophetic calendar, the 1335 days to bring us to the prophetic ‘Day of the Lord’.  So that was a prophetic period of time to bring us to another prophetic period of time.

I think of a scripture I’m going to read to you in Daniel 12:12, because it really says a lot as we begin to focus on the end of this particular sermon today.  In Daniel 12:12 it says – Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1335 days... Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1335 days, or as it says there, the 1335th day, or ever how it states it here.  Let me turn over here to Daniel just to read this specifically in the King James because it’s a little more awkward sometimes in old English, and sometimes we miss some things that are stated because of that, but it says here, Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, 1335 days.  Very awkward.  And so just getting down to what the words are saying here specifically, there is more that’s being said here.  It’s beautiful, it really is!

Indeed, this is about those who became part of the sealing – that’s what it’s about – but for those yet alive who are part of that sealing, the training, the trials, and battle isn’t over yet, it continues on.  We’re still being moulded and fashioned, but there was just that which was set and sealed at that particular time – God’s determination and by God’s sealing, if you will.  2008’s Feast of Trumpets was all about finally a revelation in a very powerful way of a countdown that had begun.  To what?  To the coming of Jesus Christ, the King of kings.  Indeed, a very powerful trumpet that was sounded, an announcement, if you will, and so it began.  We didn’t know about the additional ‘day’, the ‘prophetic day’ that was to follow, but we entered into a period of 1335 days that was leading up to the return of Jesus Christ, and there is more to this verse, there truly is, that God is showing us, because I think about how that there are prophecies. You know, there are so many prophecies that aren’t just applied to one moment in time; there are prophecies that have more fulfillment and more meaning to them.

I think of what is read in the book of Acts – matter of fact, we didn’t read it today, but in that original sermon that was given that I mentioned, that when we went back to and looked to things that Luke was saying there in the book of Acts, and they came up to a period of time there when they began to, Peter began to quote some things that were happening that were quoted out of the book of Joel, about what was happening there when the holy spirit was being poured out.  But there was more that was given in the book of Joel that was for later on, but they said this is what this applies to, is right there and now.  Well, it did in part, it was a fulfillment, but it wasn’t the only fulfillment, there was more to come later on.

And so it is with a lot of different kinds of prophecies and prophetic things, there are moments in time where something prophetic applies to another moment or to another portion of God’s Church at a moment in time for them. And there is much then that applies to things having to do with this time, the end-time, that have had another meaning at another time, and we’ve gone through that so often in things that we’ve gone through when we’ve gone through various prophecies throughout the Old Testament especially, and even in the book of Revelation, but especially in the Old Testament.

But I think of the primary fulfillment of this, again, being the sealing that took place on Trumpets 2008, but there was more to learn and it’s inspiring.  Being blessed, indeed, and there are different ways that this is translated sometimes, it’s ‘happy is’ or the person is happy and blessed who sees certain things or lives certain things, experiences certain things, and being blessed indeed applies to all who were sealed at that point in time – very blessed!  Those who are dead, they don’t even know it, they’re very blessed indeed, but what about those who are alive?  Well, stark reality, indeed an awesome blessing to understand that there was a sealing that took place and not even knowing who they all are and yet learning lessons from that, because I’ve heard different ones explain, not knowing what was going to come on the 27th, are they are part of that or not and what does that mean in life?  That’s not an easy thing, it carries some stress with it – but we leave it in God’s hands and learn to be at peace with that and realize that’s where our peace is, in God’s hands.

And I think of what it says here about this.  I want to read a scripture to you – you can turn over there if you want – because we’re going to build upon something that was stated here.  Very powerful!  It’s in the book of Exodus, Exodus 29:36.  We’re going to look at some words here and a context of something that is stated that we can learn from.

Exodus 29:36 – And you shall offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement: and you shall cleanse the altar, it’s showing a process here of how things were to be cleansed, holy things that were to be set aside for holy use and purpose and some of these things that were being done at this particular time, the building of various instruments and so forth, the altar, and how they were set apart for holy use and purpose.  But it’s interesting here how some of this is stated...so going back there talking about the altar, how they were to cleanse it, and it says, and when you have made an atonement for it, and you shall anoint it, so all the things of the tabernacle, this is when they were in the wilderness and some of those things that God was giving them to build at the very beginning there.

It says, and you shall anoint it to sanctify it, to set it apart, in other words, for holy use and purpose.  So here are physical things being built, constructed, made, that were going to be set apart for holy use and purpose and all the instruments and different things that were going to be used in the tabernacle and here the altar itself and it being set apart for holy use and purpose in serving and worshipping God and so forth.

And then it goes on to say in verse 37 – Seven days you shall make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; set it apart, again, for holy use and purpose by God and for their relationship, the children of Israel, with God.  ...and it shall be an altar most holy; and whatsoever touches the altar shall be holy.  So again, in talking about those things that were going to be offered up, sacrifices and so forth...and I think of what this means spiritually – that which touches the altar – and they gave other things as well, and it talked about whatever touched it, anything that was set apart was set apart for holy use and purpose as well because everything that God was doing.

I think about our lives.  You know, God says we’re set apart, even the truth, we’re sanctified by the truth, we’re set apart for holy use and purpose by the truth of God, because it’s the very Word of God that comes into our life.  The point is we go so far above and beyond the physical things of a physical temple!  Our lives are spiritual and God dwells in us!  And that was just a very physical relationship on a physical plane with Israel to teach lessons and so forth, but I think of how we’re set apart by God literally dwelling in us and we in Him and what touches our life – that which touches our life that is so powerful and has such a powerful impact, all the things that God gives to us. But this word ‘touches’ I found very interesting because of where it’s used in another verse and I think of that, I think of the sacrifices that are a matter of our lives, that which we offer up before God that’s a sweet smelling savour to God, that which we do when we live a right life before God and sacrifice self.

That’s what we choose to do so often in life and how we draw closer to God, and that which touches our life in those things and yet this word has a...  I’m using this to give you an example of how this was used in the Old Testament, this specific word, because of how it’s used here, as we’re going to look at in a moment, because it’s also contained in Daniel 12:12, which hopefully will carry some more meaning in our lives of a closeness to God, of a relationship with God, of something that He wants us to see and understand...and it is this:

Daniel 12:12 – Blessed is he who waits and comes to – ‘touches’ – the thirteen hundred and thirty-five days, because you see, indeed we understand those who came to a moment in time, whose lives ‘touched’, if you will, that moment in time of a sealing, of a sealing that touched their life, of something that took place... but we don’t even know who all of them are yet, only a couple.  And yet that has touched my life in a profound way, and truly those days, and I feel I am so blessed – I know that I am – and it is so awesome to have whatever part we have in life with God, truly.

And the reason this is mentioned because I think of how those days began to touch other people’s lives, not just the sealing, not just those who were sealed, but how did those days affect your life?  Are you blessed?  Blessed is he who waits and touches these literally in that respect, touches these days; these days touched your lives and had a great impact in your life.  Maybe when you were first called within these days – how powerful, how mighty, what an awesome time to live, at the end-time, of all those things!  We are so blessed!  We don’t comprehend how blessed we are, whether we live on into the Millennium in a physical life or whether we’re changed in spirit life.  We’re so incredibly blessed to have experienced this time!  A period of time that all the prophets from Daniel on wanted to know more about, and yet we have been blessed to live it - and God says we should see it that way!  Happy, blessed are we...  How blessed are we?

And I think about some of this then, of how we respond.  So how blessed have you been to consider this at the close of this sermon today, at the end of this sermon on this Feast of Trumpets, this most awesome Feast in this ‘day’, in this ‘Day of the Lord’, the only Feast of Trumpets ever in the ‘Day of the Lord’.  A profound time, a meaningful time for God and for us, and indeed we should grasp how blessed we are to be living it.

So how blessed have you been to have seen any of those days?  ...to have touched any of them?  ...for your life to have touched them?  How blessed do you feel?  Because the more you realize how blessed you are the greater the gratitude, the thankfulness that exists in life.  So how blessed are you to now live in the ‘Day of the Lord’?  ...the ‘prophetic day’ that God has longed for?  ...of which the 1335 days has led us to experience, because they led us up to this ‘prophetic day’ indeed, the ‘day’ of the return of Jesus Christ as King of kings?

There are so many scriptures we could look at and add to this, but I’m going to close there, enough food for thought, to recognized how blessed we are, to think about that.

This Feast magnifies the Trumpets of God that lead to His Son coming as King of kings.  The 1st Trumpet blew on December 14, 2008, and it’s affect has continued ever since, and candidly, was even magnified on a physical plane at a period of time beginning after this ‘day’ began, and it’s leading up to the effects of everything has started with the 1st Trumpet from the first time it sounded.  We know when the 1st Trumpet sounded and we know when the last Trumpet will sound, but the rest are yet to come.  It has so much meaning because it’s all about the Trumpets and the time of their sounding on this earth that lead up to the coming of the King of kings that this day is so very much about, and the 1st Trumpet leading up to the 2nd.  That’s what leads up to the 2nd. That’s why the 2nd one comes, because of the 1st.

We’re going to learn that in time, of how one leads into another.  It’s like the Seals, the 1st led to the others that followed.

So how valuable is this ‘day’ to you?  It is the ‘day’ that this very Feast day, the Feast of Trumpets is all about; the announcing of the King of kings and the entrance of His reign, of the Kingdom of God upon this earth.

~~~end