Day of Atonement (by Deoram Bolan)

DEORAM BOLAN, Telephone Message #86, Day of Atonement (See also Feast of Tabernacles message #87)

Recorded September 16, 2013 (complete document, not edited much yet) [Available at phone # 712-432-0379, Code 779955.  Published by Trumpet Voice Ministries, Arlington, Texas, USA,  and by Fullness of Glory Ministries, www.thechange.org also known as the ministry of Sharon Bolan Yerby.]

 

DAY OF ATONEMENT

-          A Bible Study by Deoram Bolan of Arlington, Texas

-           

Good evening to all of our listeners.  May the Lord’s blessings follow you at this special time of the year when we consider the feasts which God gave Israel to observe and [when we observe] how those feasts are not only for Israel but for the saints of the New Covenant and it is good that we flow into the seasons of God.

The Day of Trumpets was the first feast of the seventh month.  You can read all about the feasts in Leviticus 23.  You have three feasts in the first month, then the fourth feast in the third month, and the remaining three feasts in the seventh month. 

The first three feasts speak of beginnings.  We start out by embracing the Lord as our Savior and our Redeemer.  We accept Him as our Passover Lamb.  By coming to repentance, forsaking our sins, and believing in His finished work on the Cross.  Because we have, then, passed from death to life, that is our Passover.  We have passed out of Satan’s kingdom and we have been translated into the kingdom of our Lord.  That is a Passover.  We have passed out of darkness into His marvelous light.  That is our Passover.  It means to spare.  It means to leap for joy, to defend, to protect.  So when we think of the Lord passing over us, He is saying, “I rejoice when a sinner turns from sin and turns to Me.  I spare that person from the wrath of God.  I defend them from the attack of Satan."

And once you have Life, then you are ready to feed on the unleavened bread.  That bread is our Lord Himself who is bread without leaven.  Leaven is a picture of sin.  So, to eat of unleavened is to eat or fellowship with Him who is the bread of Life.

Then we see the need to yield ourselves fully to God.  Consecration is the meaning of the third feast which is a handful of barley presented in the Temple by the high priest and waved in an ascending and a descending motion.  That barley was fully consecrated to God and it was our Lord Who was fully consecrated in His life, in His death, in His resurrection, and ascension.  So once we are totally surrendered to God, then we are ready for the fourth feast which is the giving of the Law or, in the New Testament, it is Pentecost.

Pentecost was in the third month, fifty days after the ascension of Jesus.  Fifty days after Israel departed from Egypt, they came to the foot of Mt. Sinai and the Lord appeared to them in flaming fire and gave them the Ten Commandments audibly.

Now, how does that relate to us as Christians?  When we present ourselves to the Lord in total consecration – then God is willing to pour out His Spirit upon us.  The 120 in the upper room had presented their bodies a living sacrifice.  Whenever God was pleased with a sacrifice, He sent fire to consume it.  So these were set ablaze by the Spirit of God.  And God was pleased when a burnt offering was presented unto Him and He showed His satisfaction by consuming it with fire.  So He was pleased with the 120 and sent the fire to energize them, to consume sin from them, to enlighten them, and to cause them to speak as the oracles of God.

Well, it may not be a long time between the third feast and the fourth feast in our experience, but sometimes it takes a long time before we know about being filled with the Spirit and the importance of being filled with the Spirit.  And because we were not taught, it took us a long time to come there.  But God can hasten His blessings for those who are willing to be instructed.

Many believe that, once you are filled with the Spirit, this is the highest experience that one can relate to.  But that is not the case.  Once we are filled with the Spirit, now we are ready to get some schooling; we are only in grade one.  Just think about that!  But some think they are ready to graduate.  So, we need some correct teaching on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  And it all depends on how far we are willing to advance in the Spirit.  Some begin in the Spirit but end up in the flesh.  And some begin in the Spirit and operate in a mixture like the Galatians.  And we have some lessons to learn in this world.  And so the Spirit does not give us all the lessons in one day.  It takes time.  And as we learn the ways of God we make progress in the Spirit.  Like Ezekiel, we start out with the waters reaching our ankles. [Ezekiel 47:3-5].  Then we go further and the waters reach our knees.  Then we go further another 1,000 cubits and the waters reach waist deep.  But then another 1,000 cubits and there were waters to swim in.  So there is a walk in the Spirit.  And we start out at the ankles.  Then we learn the ministry of prayer [represented by water up to the knees].  We gird up the loins of our minds [represented by water up to the waist – which is the loins].  That is where the greatest areas of conflict occur as we cast down the vain imaginings and areas of disobedience to God, and we bring all thoughts into captivity to the feet of Christ. [2 Corinthians 10:3-5].  So the area of the loins speaks of the mind.  That is part of the armor which the Lord wants us to wear. Peter says, “…Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; …” [1 Peter 1:13] And as our mind is being renewed in truth and we are walking in obedience to the Spirit of God, then we are ready for waters to swim in.  That is an ocean, as it were.  That is the full life of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit in us has reached its full development.  So when we have been filled with the Spirit, we learn to walk and live in the Spirit.  And as we do so we are ready for the Fifth Feast which is the Feast of Trumpets.  And that means God has much to tell us.  But we cannot take it all in a short time. It is a progressive unfoldment of further truth to us as the Spirit of Truth Himself.  As we are willing to walk in what we hear, then He adds more to our knowledge and understanding.  It is like Peter admonished us:  to grow in grace and knowledge – or the full knowledge of God.  So the blessing of the Trumpets can synchronize with the seven times Jesus spoke to the seven churches.  “He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” [Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29, Revelation 3:6, 13, 22]

 And His voice is that of a trumpet.  Remember that in the very first chapter of Revelation. And a trumpet speaks of [symbolizes, or signifies] a message. And I am sure we have barely scratched the surface in going through the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches.  There are so many depths of meaning in each letter as we hear the message and obey it and allow the Spirit to unveil more of the words of the Lord.  Then it is like hearing the First Trumpet sounding, the Second Trumpet, going all the way to the Seventh Trumpet.

It is amazing how much God has put into the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches.  Are you willing to see that when God spoke these seven letters to the seven churches, He started out with a Garden of Eden and He ends up with The Throne?  So, there is much to learn about each promise to the overcomer and the six steps to the Throne in the six promises to the overcomer.  And Solomon’s throne had six steps to it.  “Solomon” means “peace”.  And “six” is preparing us in this age as we read in the Letter to the Seventh Church, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and am sat down with my Father in his throne.” [Revelation 3:21]. So the six promises to the overcomer have to be experienced before we qualify for the seventh.  So the trumpets of truth are hidden in the letters to the churches.  I would suggest that you take much time and go through the Letters to the Seven Churches slowly and prayerfully.  Even if you have done so, do not think you have got it all figured out.  There is much awaiting discovery. 

Well, the Festival of Trumpets ushers in the new, but it closes the old year.  God wants us to walk in the light as He is in the light.  His light is progressive and God is unveiling much to us in these last days.  He has much to reveal before this age is over.  So let us say, “Lord, give me the ear of a bond slave so I can hear and obey what the Spirit says to the churches.” [Reference Exodus 21:5-6, Isaiah 50:4-5, Revelation 2-3].

But it is easy to be puffed up with revelation knowledge.  It is easy for us to think we are superior to others.  We have to guard against that kind of wrong spirit.  The Bible says, “Knowledge puffeth up, but divine love edifieth.” [1 Corinthians 8:1 partial]  So, let us see that we do not know anything yet as we ought to know. “But then shall we know,” the Bible says, “if we follow on to know the Lord.” [Hosea 6:3 partial]  So with much knowledge comes much responsibility.  And with much truth God requires a cleansing, a deeper cleansing in the inner man, which brings us to the Sixth Feast:  the Day of Soul-Affliction, the day of true repentance and the day when Israel fasted – the only fast day.  But fasting is a picture of humbling oneself.  And it is beneficial and it is good for us whether we can fast or not.  But we do it as unto the Lord. And just as, in the natural realm, fasting cleanses the system, so there is an internal cleansing that God wants to perform within us.  This is deeper than at Passover.   Sins have accumulated from the first to the sixth feast.  And it takes time to see our condition.  And the light of God has to penetrate our inner man so we are willing to be adjusted and freed from areas that have been clogged up.  And it is a day of afflicting our souls.  That may take another message in itself.  Jesus said that if we love our soul life (the word there is psuche – our psyche) – this means the life of the soul.  If we love our soul we will lose it, but if we lose our soul we shall find it.  The Day of Atonement is when we will decide whether the soul will rule us and take our spirit into bondage or whether the spirit will rule us and the soul will be subjected to the spirit, and our spirit in turn will be in subjection to the Holy Spirit.  That is the order of God!  Not soul first, followed by spirit then body.  But, rather, spirit first, followed by soul then body.  Many times the spirit is willing but the soul is not wiling.  And that is the conflict we will find until we are willing for God to break the stubbornness in our soul.  That is why the Bible says – and it is Jesus Who said it:  “In your patience possess ye your souls.” [Luke 21:19].

I never understood that for a long time.  What does it mean to possess your soul?  It means to have dominion over your soul.  It means to win your soul.

You shall have dominion over the soul life where the soul is no more ruling but is willing to take the place of submission.  That is why the overcomers in Revelation chapter 12 are where they are.  They have gone through the six feasts.  Yes.  And they are ready for the Seventh.  But before we get to the seventh, which is the Feast of Glory and the Feast of Restoration and the Feast of Ingathering.  And there are many names for the feasts – especially the last feast.  And, by the way, the word,”feast” has nothing to do with eating and drinking.  A “feast” is a fixed time, an appointed season.  And, just as there are seasons in the natural realm, there are seasons in the spiritual realm.  So the saints who have overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, it is said of them, “And they loved not their lives unto the death.” [Revelation 12:11].  What is that?  The word “life”, again, is “psuche”.  They do not give in to their psuche or, soul life which is the seat of the desires and emotions.  And how easy it is to let our soul govern us!  That is why the Psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless His holy name.” [Psalm 103:1]  He also said, “I will bless the Lord at all times.  His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  [Psalm 34:1]. 

“I will.” That is the spirit.  “O my soul, bless the Lord.”  That is the spirit and soul in unison.  And, wherever they meet in the internal man, that constitutes the heart of man.  Now you will have to weigh [ponder, consider] that for a long time.

The heart is the meeting place of the spirit and soul.  “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind and all thy strength.” [Mark 12:30] And with unity in the spirit and soul walking together under the control of the Holy Spirit.  And the Bible says of the overcomers in Revelation 14, “these were not defiled with women…”  Some teach that those are persons who never get married.  But the Bible teaches, “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed is undefiled.” [Hebrews 13:4]. So what does it mean, “These were not defiled with women…”? [Revelation 14:4 partial]. There were two women in the Book of Revelation.  One is that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess.  And one is “Mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots.”  So, it is right to say these were not defiled with false religious systems.  They were willing to be separate from all confusion and distortion of Truth.  And, beloved, we pay a price if we settle for Truth.  “Buy the truth and sell it not.” [Proverbs 23:23 partial].  So that is one way of looking at it.

But when you find out that in the Bible the woman is a type of the soul and the man is a type of the spirit and that in every census only the men were counted, not the women, not the children, does that mean that God does not care for women and children?  Certainly it does not.  But God’s purpose for us is to come to full development in spirit.  So, to be “masculine” [symbolically speaking] is to move in the full control of the Holy Spirit working in our spirit and in our soul and in our body.  To be in the feminine rank is to let the soul dominate.  But here, “These were not defiled with women.”  What is the inference there?  They are men; they are masculine.  They are walking in the Spirit.  They include both male and female.  They were not defiled with the soul desires.  They overcome the fluctuations of the soul life (high today, low tomorrow.)  And they learn in all things to say to their soul, “Why art thou disquieted within me?  Hope thou in god, for I shall yet praise Him.  Who is the help of my countenance and my salvation.”  For that is another meaning for you to chew upon.  And this day of affliction – soul affliction was a time of deep affliction.

[DB #86… 25 minutes into message]

Imagine:  five out of seven churches were commanded to repent!  That means, as Christians when God shows us our need, we begin to repent and confess and forsake all that is contrary to His will.

Two churches were not commanded to repent.  But that did not mean that they were perfected yet.  They were instructed to go on.  The others were instructed to go back and master the foundational truths.  That is why we read in Hebrews 6, (having mastered the elementary truths, then we are ready for the next word of God):  “Let us go on to perfection [maturity] … and this we will do IF God permits.”  God does not permit us to go on until the foundation is properly laid and the foundational truths are mastered.  Then we are ready to go on.  And move on until He has finished the work that has started in us. 

So the Day of Atonement is a time of deep soul searching under the inspection of God.  Remember, “All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”  The Bible says again, “There is nothing hid that should not be made manifest.”  And God wants us to have a heart that is always transparent before Him.  That we will walk in constant union and communion with Him.  And as we go through our Day of Atonement, it is like we are willing for god to break us and melt us and remove hidden things that we were not even aware of.   And, by the way, we read in the Scriptures, “Having therefore, brethren, these promises, let us cleanse ourselves of every filthiness of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

 You see that is a scripture that links with atonement, the Day of Atonement, and the meaning of that feast.  How that day has to be worked out in us in areas in which our spirit is defiled.  Yes!  We can say the right things and have wrong spirit, a boastful spirit, a prideful spirit.  And all this is abomination in the eyes of God.  “But a broken and a contrite spirit, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

So there are pollutions even in our spirit and in our soul.  Even as we relate pollution in the outer man and we need a thorough bath, so we need a thorough bath for our spirit and our soul.  And God has provided the means for our cleansing.  The Blood, the Water of the Word, the Fire of His Spirit.  So we go through these daily cleansings and washings.  And as we do, the inner man is being set free and pliable to the rule of the spirit in our lives.  And the spirit overshadows us.  And eventually we are ready for the change in the outward man, when the lost glory that man had in the beginning is now restored as “this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality.”  That is the crowning feast:  Man restored completely in the image of God.  And our Lord came to make this available.  He fulfilled the Feasts and He fulfills them in you and me as we submit to His rule and the Spirit has come to help us and to guide us into all truth.

So if we study the Bible carefully, we will find certain things that happened on this day.

 Maybe we are not too sure of it, but that was the day when Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised.  And Abraham was 99 years of age.  And he was circumcised before he became a father.  And what is that to tell us?  That there is a spiritual circumcision that must take place in the inner man before we are to become fruitful and useful and be changed into the image of the Lord in the Seventh Feast! 

This was a day of confession and repentance.  And it was a day when the High Priest alone ministered.  The other priests were subordinate to him, because they took the backstage and he did most of the work on that day.  And, because it is a very deep message (in Atonement) as you will read in Leviticus 23, you will get more details in Leviticus 16.  That is not an easy chapter to assimilate.  So you will have to take your time and see all the sacrifices that were offered.  How many times he went within the veil.  And how did he go?  And how many times did he sprinkle the blood?  Can you imagine the blood being sprinkled forty-three (43) times on the Day of Atonement?  And there was to be a cleansing for the High Priest and his family - for the priests as well as for the people.  And there was to be a cleansing of the Sanctuary.  Oh, beloved friends, this was a day in which every unclean thing had to be removed.  And who is our High Priest today?  And does he have to cleanse us once a year or is once enough? 

Yes the blood of bulls and goats could not remove sin, but only temporarily cover sin.  But the Blood of Jesus Christ not only covers but removes sin.  “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” [Psalm 103:12]  So we are redeemed with better blood than that of bulls and of goats. [Hebrews 9:13, Hebrews 10:4].

And our High Priest was clothed in white after He surrendered His life to the death of the cross.  When He rose from the dead, He ascended in a body of glory.  That is what it means to be clothed in white.  For the heavenly realm is a realm of holiness.  And the Bible says, “Follow peace and holiness [or, sanctification] without which no man shall see the Lord.”

So, all that the High Priest did our wonderful High Priest did on a greater scale.  And you will have to make the application as you study the events of the Day of Atonement.

[[Deoram Bolan Telephone Message 86 - Minute 29 of Audio Message]

And I want to give you some men who had to go through their Day of Atonement.  We think of one of the greatest prophets - Isaiah.  The sixth chapter of Isaiah tells us what happened to him.  Although he was prophesying in the previous five chapters and pronouncing woes upon various ones, but in the sixth chapter he pronunces the woe upon himself when he confessed, “Woe is me, I am undone.  I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of unclean people.”  There is so much in Isaiah 6.  The half has not been told.  It takes time to see the depth of that chapter.  But Chapter 6 is not a chapter of Isaiah experiencing the Passover.  Not.  That is Isaiah a man who is greatly blessed of God, coming to his Day of Atonement.   He was hearing from God.  He was a man of the Spirit.  “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”  He knew the Lord, but here he is coming to a day of deep, deep cleansing.  Notice the confession.  Dear friends, confession is healthy.  Yes, repentance is needful.  And the seraph came with a flaming coal of fire.  And we have to understand this in spiritual context.  What was the seraph doing?  He was pointing him to the finished work of Christ on the cross.  When the fire consumed the sacrifice and wood!  So the coals came from the burning wood.  And it is the fire of the wrath of God that Jesus faced.  Except there is one difference:  The fire of God consumed the burnt offering on several occasions.  But when the fire of God consumed Elijah’s offering, it not only consumed the offering but the wood and the altar itself and the water in the trench and the altar and reduced everything to dust and ashes!  It never happened before or after.  But it was a picture of how Jesus would face the wrath of God against sin when he died on the cross.  And the difference is:  on Mount Carmel the firs consumed the sacrifice and the altar and then all in that vicinity.  But on Calvary, the sacrifice consumed the fire.  And the sacrifice was not reduced to dust and ashes.  Think on that for a long, long time!  He not only faced the wrath of God, He endured the wrath of God.  That is something most astounding and, yes, He could only die once.  That is altar was destroyed.  The cross was not to be repeated!  So Isaiah had a glimpse of Calvary, and it brought him to soul affliction and repentance.  And after he went through that deep inner cleansing, he became an oracle for God!  And he gave us a mini Bible with 66 chapters books of the Bible. That is another story in itself which I will forbear from expounding upon.

Who is another man who went through his Day of Atonement? The man Daniel – a great prayer for this season – but it links with true soul affliction and repentance when Daniel confessed not only the sins of his people but his own sins.  Who would have thought Daniel would mention his sins when we read hardly of any sin he committed.  But he was aware of his own sinful condition.  And he said, “We have sinned.”  He identifies with the people as he prays and confesses and goes through deep soul affliction, guess what happens. God is pleased and sends Gabriel to cheer him up and give him beauty for ashes.  That ninth chapter, you can read it many, many times. There is much spiritual gold in that chapter.  That is the chapter with the 70 weeks prophecy which prophecy has been so very much misunderstood and had so much controversy about it.  But God will enlighten us about it when we are ready for it.  So it is interesting that Daniel was heard.  God accepted his prayer for himself and his people.  Isn’t it absolutely beautiful that Daniel is of Judah and he does not have a temple to visit.  And he is not a priest according to the old covenant but here is a man without a temple!  [38 minutes into the message.] He is a man from Judah!  And yet his is taking the place of a priest in a strange land! Need I say anything more?  I will leave that for you to go and search out.  When the priesthood fails, God always has someone to fill the gap.  So consider Daniel in that light. 

I must leave Daniel and bring you o Samson – a man mighty in spirit, doing exploits but who got entangled with women.  We could say was defiled with women.  Notice in Revelation chapter 14, “These were not defiled with women.”  Scripture says, “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.”  And so Samson knew he had sinned grievously.  And he paid a big price – even to the loss of his sight.  He cried out to God and went through his Day of Atonement.  And guess what?  His hair began to grow!  And though his physical eyes were blinded, his spiritual eyes were opened and he slew more in his death than in his life.  When we are willing to die to the self-life it will be a gain and not a loss. 

So the whole story of Samson is prophetic.  If you can venture into it, the seven letters to the seven churches are hidden in the life of Samson. Selah!  That means “pause and reflect.” 

Another man that had to go through his Day of Atonement – you will read about it in Zechariah 3.  He was Joshua the High Priest.  And he is clothed with filthy garments and he is accused by Satan before the Throne.  But the Angel of the Lord comes to his rescue.  Who is that?  He is none other than the one mediator between God and man.  Prior to His coming to Bethlehem, He was seen as the Angel of the Lord.  And the Angel of the Lord is a portrait of Him prior to His birth in Bethlehem of the virgin Mary who was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.  The Angel of the Lord is the one who comes to pronounce judgment against Satan:  “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.” [Zechariah 3:2, Jude 1:9]  And the Angel of the Lord is the one who comes to defend Joshua the High Priest and who commands him to be cleansed and to be clothed. [Zechariah 3].

[Approximately 41 minutes into the audio message.]

Read it for yourself.  And how he was commissioned.  And all of that is so beautiful.  When we see that the High Priest was the best man in the nation.  And if he is clothed with filthy garments, then it was showing the state of the nation.  But if the High Priest is cleansed, then the way I clear for the nation to be cleansed.  We see a foretaste of that.  And we see a foretaste of that on the Day of Atonement. 

But if you want to look at another picture that is Jesus, Joshua of old was a picture of Jesus.  “Joshua” and “Yeshua” are the same name in the Hebrew language.  And Jesus takes on the sin of all mankind at Calvary.  The just for the unjust, the sinless takes the place of the sinful.  But after He rose from the dead, He is clothed with new garments.  That is why He left the grave clothes behind.  So, Joshua was symbolically portraying the Lord taking our sins away and rising from the dead in resurrection glory! And in becoming our High Priest to represent us at the Father’s right hand.  So that is in Zechariah 3 and has tremendous veiled truths which I cannot go into in this short space of time. 

If you want to look up another man who had to go through his Day of Atonement, you see that in the person of Jonah. 

As I have told some of you before, the seven Feasts are hidden in the Book of Jonah.  And the Lord likened Himself, but He said, “A greater than Jonah [Jonas] is here.”  [Matthew 12:41, Luke 11:32].  And in Jonah’s life the whole story of the seven Feasts is veiled.  The spirit of God will unveil that truth to you if you will take time to seek the Lord. 

And Jonah - when he was disappointed that Nineveh was not judged – God had to use an object lesson to teach him.  He was grieving for a tree that offered shade for him in the heat.  And that tree withered and died he was complaining.  He built a booth and was expecting to stay under that booth and see the destruction of Nineveh.  Instead he was annoyed that God spared them.  So God had to show him that if he mourned the loss of a tree, how much more important the lives of those souls in Nineveh who could not tell right from wrong.  Jonah stopped his complaining. 

[Almost 43 minutes into the message.]

Imagine writing a book and showing yourself in a terrible light.  It will not make the “Best Seller list!”  But this is a man who knows what it means to keep quiet when the Lord intervenes.  As the Bible says, “The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silent before Him.” [Habbakuk 2:20]. Jonah is much too argumentative.  And at times he can become that way.  And when God spoke to him, he had no more to say.  Isn’t it interesting that this book has the introduction, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah.”  How does it end?  With a word of the Lord.  Is the Lord having the last word?  Is He not the Alpha!?  Is He not the Omega?!  Is He not the Beginning?  Is He not the end? Jonah is willing to come to repentance and to acknowledge that God is always right.  Man is always wrong.  “Let God be true and every man a liar.” [Romans 3:4]. But how wonderful to know that our Lord did not need to repent of any sin.  “He was in all parts tempted as we are, yet without sin.” [Hebrews 4:15].  So here is something you can look into as we bring this to a close tonight.  And that is:  the transfiguration of Jesus took place on a certain day.  It is not given in the Scripture, but it has to be revealed to us.  I will venture to say to you, because that with an important event in the life of the Lord, and because it was the highest point in His every test from the world, the flesh, and the devil.  On the mount, by the way.  He is not transfigured in a plain or in a valley.  Where is he transfigured?  On a mountain.  This is so awesome an event!  Only three men were chosen by Him to see it!  And as I have set before you, all the end-time events are hidden in the Transfiguration of Jesus!  Did you hear that?  May I repeat it again?  May I repeat it again?  We are wrestling with how things will end and what will take place and what will not take place.  And the Transfiguration [Matthew 17, Mark 9] is described by Peter in these words:  “We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you” – two words – “the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [2 Peter 1:16].  So the Transfiguration links with the poor and coming of our Lord.  But the word “coming” is not a once for all coming and all of that is hidden in the Transfiguration. [Matthew 17, Mark 9].  It is my conviction that took place on the Day of Atonement.  Was not the High Priest clothed in white?  What happened to Jesus’ garments?  “They were exceeding white”!  And they “shone.”  Think about it.  [In that situation of the Transfiguration], He had a choice, would He go back to the Father now that He had a body of glory?  Or will He leave the mountain and descend all the way to Calvary?  Are you glad tonight that He chose to come down the mountain to die for you and me? 

So, what are we to see on this mountain?  We see a Baptism of Glory to prepare Him for the Baptism of Suffering on the cross.  That is a powerful statement you will need which you will need to hear and to apply.  I will repeat it.  He received the Baptism of Glory to prepare Him for the Baptism of Suffering on the cross.  When you read what He went through on the cross, you realize that no human being can survive that as He did.  And there was no need for Him to confess any sin – because He is sinless!  And as you study the events of the records given in the three Synoptic Gospels, there is much to learn.  And we can say, up that mount Jesus is the Ark of glory.  Jesus is transfigured.  He is the Holy of Holies – that natural temple.

[Approximately minute 46 in audio messag].

While the Temple of Herod did not have the glory, did not have the Ark.  Now you see the true Ark and the true glory.  How amazing!  What is taking place?  He is clothed in white to lay down His life for us at the cross and take it up again in resurrection.  Because the veil of the Temple was rent in twain when He died on the cross.  That was the only day the High Priest had access to the Holy of Holies clothed in white.  And that is Jesus on Resurrection Day taking His blood within the veil and making atonement for us in the heavens and descending that same day to be handled and touched and to encourage the grieving ones who did not fully understand why He had to die.

So Jesus in His transfiguration is telling us volumes.  Well, we cannot understand all of that, beloved, in a short course of several minutes or 10 months.  The things of God are very deep, but we humans think we can go through this and go through that and we have got it all figured out.  We have a lot yet to figure out.  So I keep telling you that the Transfiguration event took place on the Day of Atonement and it was Jesus getting ready to offer Himself as both priest and sacrifice.  That is why Moses and Elijah spoke with Him concerning His EXODUS on the cross.  But it was not a defeat.  It was glorious victory in His death as well as in His resurrection, as well as in His ascension.

So this Day of Atonement has many lessons to teach us.  I am simply giving you a few.  Is the Lord saying to us today that we must go through all these dealings of God?  In the previous Feasts, leading up to this one, where every idol in us is broken down, where everything unclean is removed from us.  Where are we fully sold out to God for Him to complete His sanctifying, purifying, purging work in us so we can be changed fully within and then be ready for the seventh Feast which is the Feast of Glory.  And the Feast of Joy.  And because there is so much in this feast, we cannot cover it all in one lesson or two.  I will leave you to search out the matter and may God bless you for listening tonight and may we be touched afresh by His Spirit.  And we celebrate the Feast in the power of God’s spirit.  Not as a ritual but in obedience to the Lord.  And He will refresh us – as the Bible speaks of the Lord sending us “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”  And the word “times” has reference to the Feasts.  So we know the times a flow with the times.  We can look to God to add special blessing on His people. 

[Sharon Bolan speaking:  Thank you all for tuning in tonight.  I know this is a powerful message and it is going to take some time to digest it.  I would suggest that everyone search out the Scriptures for yourself and study it because there is much yet to be uncovered.  The Lord bless you all.  Thank you again for tuning in tonight. … God bless you all. Have a good night.

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