In the natural there is a set time for the church to celebrate the feasts. In the supernatural, the feasts will be experienced in our personal lives when God sets the time for that as well. Notice I used the word experienced.

The first feast was instituted at the close of God's creative week. All things were actually finished before this week began. But, the beginning of their reality on this planet was accomplished during this week and would continue to be manifested into being in God's timing. When we first discover God, we enter into this resting period and begin to take our part in manifesting these previous works to this realm. We memorialize God's rest at the end of His week by our rest at the end of ours. It also shows the powers and principalities that the works we do are His, not our dead works, right down to His rest.

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This is why it is so important to wait on the timing of the Lord to bring someone into the Kingdom or as tradition says, "get them saved". If God has not set the appointment for Sabbath in their life, they will not be ready for the change of going from their works to His. Everyone comes to the Kingdom concerned mostly about themselves, and He will not have things in place to change them! Remembering now that the physical feasts are all a shadow of things to come, let us look at the second feast, the Feast of Passover.

The feast of Passover was first instituted at the time of Moses. The Egyptians had enslaved Israel, (much as the world has us enslaved today). For this reason God sent plagues on the people of Egypt. The world today is, and will continue to experience God's wrath also. The last plague Egypt experienced was that of the death of all the firstborn of man and animal. I surely hope this is not repeated! However, if it should be we can be comforted that God warned Israel, and told them what to do to save their firstborn from the judgment and His wrath. They were told to kill a lamb without blemish and spread its blood on the doorposts of their homes. When the death angel went through the land, he saw the mark of the blood alerting him to "pass over" them. The children of Israel were later commanded to remember this day in Exodus chapter thirteen verse three and to celebrate it forever.

However, did you know that this feast was foreshadowed much earlier? In Genesis chapter three verse twenty-one, we read that God made "coats of skins" for Adam and Eve.

So what does this have to do with Passover? The coats of skin or covering did not just appear out of nowhere. The blood of innocent animals who had never sinned was shed to cover Adam and Eve's transgression. We see the shadow of the feast of Passover fulfilled further in the life of Jesus Himself, however. He was made the Passover Lamb and His blood was shed to cover us from the coming wrath of God that is soon to be loosed because of the sin and iniquity of the Adamic race we were born into and the religious systems that allow it.

So you see, the feast of Passover is experienced when we ask Jesus to save us from the world and its people and choose to begin walking with Him. He never refuses us, and supernaturally His blood is placed on the doorposts of our heart. We are set aside.

This is the only feast that many in the religious church have ever experienced. They do not understand entering into God's Sabbath first, nor do many even meet with God to memorialize it at the correct time, mainly because of improper evangelism, but yet they claim to have experienced Passover. This is also why the lie "Once Saved-Always Saved" is so accepted. They are not told the feast of Passover is only the second little step in making their walk. There are eight more feasts to go!

Much of this lack of interest and misunderstanding is because the people of God do not understand that they are Israel if they are born again correctly. They think the feasts are only for Judah or the Jews. Wrong! We, as new Israel, must experience all of them, also.

So you see, we are new Israel - The old bloodlines only establish who old Israel was. Jesus says we must be born again to see the kingdom and if we are born through God we are heirs to that Kingdom. All that is a part of that Kingdom affects us. Therefore the King's feasts must be attended and the meals experienced.

Each of the feasts are attended over and over in our lives, and each time we experience them we pass over from one place of maturity to another, until we, as individuals, and as the body of Christ, pass over from mortality to immortality. As the scripture states, these are those that won't sleep, but will be changed in a twinkling of an eye. These are people who experienced all the feasts so, let us go on to the third and fourth feasts, the feasts of unleavened bread and first fruits and second holy convocation.

The feasts of Unleavened Bread and First fruits were also instituted in the book of Leviticus. God commanded the Israelites to eat bread without leaven in it.

Seven is the divine or sacred number of God. So at the divine or sacred day appointed by God and set aside for your salvation from the world, you must eat of the truth that you are a sinner and in need of a savior. You have answered the call of Christ to His rest and have experienced the feasts of Sabbath and Passover, but now you must repent of your personal sins to become unleavened bread.

Notice we can't just come forward in a crusade or answer an altar call, there is more.

But we have to eat of this truth or eat all of the Lamb as commanded by God to Israel in Egypt. You must partake of His gift of forgiveness and renounce the cursed race you were born into and sever all cords of iniquity and soul ties to its people. As you repented and chose to purge the sin from your life and walk in holiness through God's grace and the gift of repentance, you experienced the feast of Unleavened Bread, and are now ready to be born again through baptism and experience the feast of First Fruits. We see these first fruits, or the born again at 1 Corinthians 15:49.

Remember Galatians 3:27-29 now.

Through baptism you have just experienced the feast of First fruits. But we cannot quit here, now is not the time to stop! You have only experienced the second holy convocation. There are six more feasts to go, or five more holy convocations. This is not even counting Hanukkah or Purim! Although not a part of the appointed ten and not a holy convocation, they are held in remembrance of the miracles God performs for His people. They are to be celebrated by the remnant in the last days as they are highly significant for these end times. They are confidence builders.

Now that you are first fruits, and new creatures, you MUST mature and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to experience the feast of Pentecost and the third holy convocation. It is at this time that Jesus empowers you with His supernatural abilities and gifting to better accomplish His works.

After that comes the feast of Trumpets, the fourth holy convocation. This is where you will find out what it is you are called to do for the household of God so you can walk worthy of your vocation. It is also a time for God to show you where you are stumbling or are in need of a deeper Isaiah 61 deliverance ministry. It's a time of self-inspection. Then the hardest of the feasts to experience is next.

The feast of Atonement, the fifth holy convocation. This is when we must allow the complete circumcision of our hearts to take place. We must die to whatever is left of us, so the veil that is over our hearts can be rent top to bottom, allowing Him full access to the holy of holies, our hearts. We are the temple of God and He reigns from our hearts. We must truly submit our will to Him, die to ourselves and allow Him to live through us. On the negative side, we have all seen the enemy living through people as they destroy their lives through alcohol, drugs, anger, etc. They are literally in bondage to Satan. On the positive side, there are those that allow the Holy Spirit to live and move on behalf of humanity through them or He Tabernacles in them.

At this time of total circumcision, when He can fully occupy our hearts, we will have experienced the feast of Tabernacles and the sixth holy convocation. As individuals He comes to dwell in us, but as we unite and move in one accord, we become His body, His house, His Tabernacles, the Palace of the King. From this house He extends His hospitality to the nations to come, enter into His rest, and begin their walk. Come to Sabbath. Come through the gates of the courtyard with singing and praising and pass over from death to life as you enter the King's household.

This is really a thumb nail sketch, so to speak of God's feasts and His set appointments. There are still another two wonderful feasts, Shimini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, or the seventh holy convocation to go. Perhaps from what you have read so far you will have a better idea however of why we must study the feasts and personally experience them. Hopefully you have gained a better perspective of how we must go forward and mature as a child of God and understand what the church as a body must experience to become the church of the next week of God, the church of the 8^th day. The end of this age is near completion and the new beginnings God promises are in sight. Shimini Atzeret means the 8^th day. To be invited to this feast we must be, as people and church, perfected, united and enlightened as to the truth released from the seals. We must be anointed and perfumed with the precious miracle oil. There can be no spot or wrinkle and we must be wearing our beautiful robes of righteousness bought by the blood of the Lamb. All lawlessness must be subdued forever, for those that attend this feast will have become the law over all sin and wickedness. They are the overcomers that rejoice in the laws of God rather than resist them. They also rejoice in each other in all love. Incidentally, Simchat Torah means in Hebrew, "rejoicing in the law", so when we can honestly meet the qualifications to enter the 8^th day we will be seated at the eternal feast of Simchat Torah, and we can do it through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, and by resting in His Sabbath.