12. The Feast of Trumpets

When I started this series, I had no idea of any direction for it. I simply had some things to write and tacked them together. As I have proceeded, however, a very clear path has opened before us. The question for us is how we get from here to there, from a church sleep-walking into death to a Church as the revelation of Jesus Christ in all fulness. And we have seen the path as consisting of two primary things, the fulfillment through us, in ever increasing power, of the third and fourth most important verses in the Bible, of Rivers of Spirit flowing out and of mighty victory over all accusation and false-speaking.

At the same time, I have realized that to a meaningful degree, I am now doing a sort of “re-write” of my two largest books prior to the Symmorphy texts, and those are Through Eyes of Fire and The Feast of Tabernacles. It’s not that I’m re-writing them, it’s that I am drawing from the same topics and source material since both are mightily concerned with us now in this transformation from one age to the next.

I do not have an outline ahead of me, however, nor do I want one in this topic. I intend to follow the wind where it blows.

The larger Feast of Tabernacles has two feasts prior to the First Day of Tabernacles itself. These two are separated by days in-between from that mighty fulfillment that changes the Christian Church forever. These two are meant by God to prepare everyone for the moment when He fills His House with all of His knowledge, that is, when God becomes known in fullness as all our connections together.

Those two “pre-Tabernacles” feasts counted as part of the larger “Feast of Tabernacles” are the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.

The fulfillment of Trumpets is not in our hands; in fact, it is already mostly complete.

But just as Gethsemane is, in actuality, more significant for us than the cross, with the cross and resurrection being the only realities that could come out from Gethsemane, so the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement is more significant for us than the rest of Tabernacles, because Tabernacles simply flows by nature out from a people who know that the Atonement is complete.

The purpose of the Feast of Trumpets is that there might be a people across this earth right now who are capable of hearing the full meaning of the Day of Atonement and to grasp the significance and practicality of its central injunction – TURN AROUND!

Now, let me make a clear delineation here. Whenever I have spoken of a “Third Feast” Church or anointing or message as I have experienced such, I am speaking entirely and only of that part of Tabernacles called “the Feast of Trumpets.”

God is a big God and He works through thousands and millions all at the same time. I do not imagine that “I” have a handle on God’s expression of Himself. Nonetheless, two further things are clear to me. First, we have not yet entered the experience of the First Day of Tabernacles. We know that because we continue in isolation. Yet we also know that God is increasing our understanding and our hearts for that moment when we step into that Day.

But the second thing that is clear to me is that, along with whatever anointing and purpose God has with thousands of others across this earth right now, seeking Him for their next step in the revelation of His glory, I know that God has given me the significant task of making the reality of the Day of Atonement known, at least to you who are reading my letters, and hopefully, to many more.

Whenever I listen to or read another ministry of Christ today who is teaching things similar to what I teach, it is not long before I see the evidence that they have not turned around in their own minds or in their teaching. They remain part of the Feast of Trumpets, which is a wonderful place to be. This is a strong claim, and I hope to show you my full reasons for saying that in this letter and the next.

The fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets in the life of the Church began in 1948, in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, in an experience that came to be known as “latter rain.” From 1948 until 2018 is seventy years, to my mind a very significant number.

The whisper of Trumpets came into my heart sometime in 1971 or 1972, I’m not sure exactly when I spent the weekend with the youth group living in the Mennonite Church in Albany, Oregon. I came away from that experience knowing that I had tasted something holy in spite of the fact that I was not walking with God at the time. By March of 1978 I knew Trumpets in full measure.

God did not take me out of the experience of Trumpets and into the full knowledge and experience of the Day of Atonement until the summer of 2013 when He sealed me fully into the certain knowledge of my union with Christ. Only after that did the words “Turn Around” make their way onto my page, and I knew what they meant.

“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:6-7).

Take heed lest you excuse yourself from the one speaking {inside your own heart}. If they did not flee away having refused the one instructing them on earth, how much less could we ever turn away from the one speaking out from the heavens. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake, not only the earth, but also heaven.” This “Yet once more,” makes clear that the things being shaken will be changed, as created things, so that those things not being shaken should remain and abide {as in abide in Jesus} (Hebrews 12:25-27).

The mighty break between Trumpets and the Atonement is the SHATTERING of heaven. Anyone who places any part or nuance, element or expression of all the fullness of God in and through us into “after we are dead” or “after Jesus comes back” has NOT entered the Day of Atonement. They remain, still, in open unbelief against the All-Speaking of Christ.

Nevertheless, they are, through their teaching and through the anointing upon them, preparing a people who will be able to receive that shattering of “someday,” and who will embrace with all their hearts that they are no longer “going into” God, but rather, that God, walking as one Pperson together with them together, is now fully made visible through them in their present humanity. God is now “going out” through them.

Nothing prevents the revelation of Jesus Christ more than the fantasy definition of “heaven” in the minds of God’s people.

But the Atonement is for the next chapter; let’s see if we can expand our understanding of Trumpets and what it means to us in the preparation of a people who will be able to hear.

A people able to hear. This is the agony of God all through human history.

Paul tried his very best, and when he had failed to turn their ears, here is what he said. – So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say: “Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you will see, and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.”’ Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (Acts 28:25-28).

Yet this same Spirit spoke to Elijah – “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). Yet the driving agony of Jesus’ own heart is this. – “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

The one who has an ear, let that one hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 2 & 3).

The Feast of Trumpets has gone forth across this earth for one purpose – that a people might be able to hear the Atonement and thus to step into all that Tabernacles is and means, God among us. I am convinced that this Feast of Trumpets is coming to the full measure of its completion. I am convinced that a people all across this earth are now ready to hear.

Now, I have traced a history of this fulfillment of Trumpets before, specifically here –  Trumpets. I would suggest that you read this article again. We are rooted in history, in the Church, in God, and in this earth.

The outpouring of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, beginning in January 1900, and proceeding quickly across the earth, opened God’s people up to the reality of the heavens and of a God who is Spirit. Yet this opening into the realms of Spirit became, then, a travail with that same Spirit for something far more important about to come out from God and to be placed inside His own ones walking this earth.

That “something more” came into a clearer view, then, in 1948, in the outpouring known as “latter rain.” And the voice of that something more is the little book titled Feast of Tabernacles by George Warnock.

George Warnock gave to the church a concrete and Biblical understanding of this truth, that just as the Feast of Passover was fulfilled in the Church age in full drama as the cross of Christ, and just as the Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled in the Church age in full drama as the birthing of the Church, so also the Feast of Tabernacles must be fulfilled in the Church age in full drama as the revelation of Jesus Christ. And that this fulfillment of Tabernacles cannot be limited to the gathering of the church into community for its first eight years.

Just as Pentecost has been restored to the Church in our day, so also must be Tabernacles, yet in its full reality and meaning.

Tabernacles itself has three parts. God among us – our being gathered together into Christ – God flowing out from us together.

The problem is “God among us.” God among us upsets the applecart, so to speak, overturns everything, right back to the garden, right back to the first words of the serpent.

The Christian church, separate from the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, is incapable of hearing, believing, or walking in “God among us.”

You see, “God among us” is the second incarnation, that is, God Himself manifest in human flesh walking this earth.

Only this time it’s not one Man, but many people together, the one Man inside of each of them, putting this whole second incarnation together, otherwise known as the unveiling, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The question continues – how do they hear? How do God’s people hear such a radical reality, let alone live inside of it?

George Warnock’s little book had much more influence throughout the charismatic movement with key individuals than most people realize. His book is also one of the most hated and spoken against, especially now with the Internet. Yet the ones who speak against it are those who refuse immersion into the Holy Spirit and who remain in the outer court, unmeasured by Christ. They want a God whom they can know only with their human intellects, a “God” and a “word” they can control.

But when we look at the Spirit-filled churches and fellowships across the earth, we see a people who are able to hear the message of Trumpets, a calling of God that points directly towards the fulfillment of the First Day of Tabernacles in the life of the Church.

And so I am aware of many across the earth who, by the Spirit and power of Trumpets, are taking God’s people right up to the Veil and showing them the wonder and reality of God among us to be found just there within reach, right on the other side of that Veil.

Let me give two specific examples I have witnessed in recent years.

The first was Joseph Prince at Lakewood church several years ago, his first visit to the United States, actually. He was wonderfully anointed of the Lord, as you probably know, with an understanding of Christ and the holy and an ability to take God’s people by the hand and lead them gently forward into the next thing God has for them.

And so he did at Lakewood. He took us by the hand and led us, step by step, towards our full and present union with Christ. About twenty minutes or so into his sermon, he had us all right there, just one step away from the universe-changing reality of full union with Christ inside of everything that is holy and of God. We could see the outline of it, through an almost transparent veil. I was holding my breath, my heart beating hard, saying to myself, “Do it, Joseph Prince, do it, there is no Veil, take them through into the Holiest right now.”

You see, up until that moment, he had been making Jesus part of us and we part of Him. But without skipping a beat, just before stepping across the threshold, he turned and pointed to a Jesus “up there” and all the congregation turned with him. The moment passed; the veil closed up; and everyone went home blessed mightily, not knowing just how close they had come to God among us.

The second experience was less than two years ago. We were visiting at the Christian community where my older daughter lives, part of the move of God fellowship of my earlier years in Christ. A traveling ministry was there, a brother whom I had not known during my years in that fellowship, who shared a wonderful word in the service.

This brother spoke of hope, of stepping into that which was right there, on the other side of that Veil. As he shared, the things of God inside the Holiest came into view. We could see their dim outline. He knew the true path forward, unlike some preachers in that fellowship. I was so excited; almost, he took us through. Yet he did not. Stepping through that Veil into God among us was just beyond his faith.

Now, I know that these two are not isolated. I know that all across this earth, the things of the Holiest are becoming visible to many, and many anointed of God are describing those things and taking God’s people up close to look upon them.

Yet none will enter, let alone turn around to remain forever seated upon the Mercy Seat.
This quality of causing God’s people to see, to perceive, and to reach for the things found inside the Holiest, that reality of our being the Ark of the Covenant as the Church of Christ together, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of Father, God among us now seen and known by all inside His creation, this anointing IS the Feast of Trumpets.

Now, please understand, I know exactly where I am in this great unfolding of the mystery and purpose of God all through His church right now, and I have known this for several years, since the summer of 2013 to be specific.

I have a job to do. And, in spite of the fact that God certainly has many other individuals across this earth who are doing their part of this same job, I take my part most seriously, for to me, there is nothing else in all the universe besides hearing, “Well done, My son, faithful and true,” spoken by Jesus inside of me, “Enter into Father’s heart.”

Let me explain. There is a barrier standing between all of God’s church right now across this earth, all who have some experience with the Holy Spirit poured out into their souls, and the reality of living inside the Holy of Holies as the Mercy Seat, the revelation, the incarnation of Father, God among us, God making Himself visible through us together.

That barrier is figured by the Veil in the Tabernacle.

And there is one thing, one experience only, that removes that Veil that is, in fact, wide open, from out of the sight of God’s people, that they might enter into all that God is and does with all boldness of faith, and that they might walk together as the revelation of Jesus Christ in absolute confidence.

That one experience is the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in the life of the Church.

The one who has an ear, let that one hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Trumpets enables God’s people to hear, but it does not enable them to enter in.

The move of God fellowship I was once a part of has lived right there, next to the Holiest, seeing it right at hand, yet never stepping through to live only inside of God and God inside of them, wanting to do so, longing to do so, singing to do so, but refusing to do so.

And my last visits in that fellowship gave me such a view of how close they are and how far. It’s been forty to fifty years for many of them, living that close, seeing right there.

What keeps them out? What prevents them from stepping through a Veil that is not there?

The short answer, of course, is unbelief. But just to give that as an answer is neither satisfactory nor fruitful. I don’t want to pass judgment on why my brothers and sisters will not enter. I want them to enter.

I made a covenant with God when I was twenty-two years old, that I would know Him in this life and on this earth AND that I would walk with a people who know Him in this life and on this earth.

The first part of that covenant cannot be fulfilled apart from the second part being fulfilled. I cannot know God for myself without knowing Him as He is together with you, and with many across this earth.

And I am not content to go quietly to sleep unfulfilled. I require a God who keeps covenant with me.

The Feast of Trumpets opens the eyes and ears of God’s people to the wondrous things of God now among us to be found as life inside the Holy of Holies. And such is happening all across this earth.

But the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement is what takes them through, never to depart from being the revelation of God ever again.

The Church of Jesus Christ cannot be the Tabernacle of God except she be rooted utterly inside the absolute profundity of the Atonement already the only thing true.

Now, the Day of Atonement is the topic of the next letter. Here, I want to continue positioning that Day in terms of Trumpets, and more specifically in terms of this task given to me.

But first, I must define “me.” “Me,” is a term that very much includes you. You see, I have thirty to forty faithful readers inside of whose lives and hearts this word of living only inside the Holiest has taken full root, and I see the fruit of Christ in your lives. Let me re-define our experience for you. You are not receiving from me. We together are receiving from the Lord. I would not be able to hear anything if you were not drawing and hearing that same thing from the Lord with me. And I would not be able to write anything if you were not reading.

Because I am a bit autistic, I am introverted and focused on what is in front of my eyes, what matters to me. Because I am filled with God and share His heart, I cannot see myself except with you, as part of us together.

And so, this mighty Day of Atonement that takes God’s people all across the earth right through the wide-open Veil into all the fullness of Father revealed through them here and now is our job together.

And thus I have studied, and you with me, what exactly is this thing that blocks our precious brethren in their minds.

My little book, Knowing Jesus as He Is, is written to show God’s people that the only reality the gospel has ever presented to us is to live right now fully inside the Holiest, inside all that God is and means through us.

And its sequel that I am writing at present, Set My People Free, is meant to set forth as clearly as God enables us to do, the breaking of every tentacle of deceit that blocks the minds of God’s precious people from knowing Jesus as He is.

As I am writing Set My People Free, I am well aware that the clarity that is coming is not my doing, not at all. And it is my great hope that God will use this little book, coming out from us together, to serve in the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in the life of the Church, to break from the minds of God’s people a Veil that is already wide-open, to cause them to enter into all that Tabernacles is and means.

God among us. God seen and known. Father’s heart revealed. Loving one another with a pure heart fervently. Rushing into all that Christ is and means; rushing into Christian Community. God Tabernacling among us. Father at Home.

And then, mighty rivers of living water flowing out to transform first our physical bodies and then all of creation.

Just as everything of the Atonement came first out of Gethsemane, in the same way, everything of Tabernacles comes first out of the Day of Atonement fulfilled right here on this earth, right now in our lives, in all that it means.

I have taught you Tabernacles, but I have done so only from within the Day of Atonement. I can assure you of this, we ain’t heard, we ain’t seen nothing yet. – Tabernacles is at hand.