day of atonement

Time To Be Clean and Free

by Inspiration Ministries

“Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.” Exodus 30:10 NASB

Imagine the scene. Thousands of Israelites gathered in the wilderness. Relieved and filled with joy to have been delivered from Egypt. As they began this new era, God provided the rules by which He wanted them to live.

Among the most important rules was His command that, every year, everyone in the community was to stop everything they were doing. This wasn’t to be a vacation, but a day of prayer. To take time to examine their hearts and lives.

To encourage reflection, no one was allowed to work, or even eat. This whole day was “most holy to the Lord.” This was Yom Kippur (the “Day of Atonement”).

As part of the observance, the high priest made atonement for himself and other priests through a sacrifice. Then he sacrificed a goat as an offering for sin. A scapegoat was sent into the wilderness, symbolically demonstrating how God was taking away their sins.

This year the commemoration of Yom Kippur begins today at sundown. This still is a day that is “most holy to the Lord.” It is a day to remind us of all that Jesus has done for us. He sacrificed Himself for our sins that we might be forgiven.

He did what sacrificing bulls and goats could not do. As the Bible says, “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Like the scapegoat, He took our sins away “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

Make this a day in which God cleanses you from sin. Spend time in sober reflection. Get right with God. Then rejoice in the freedom that is yours through Christ!

desire spiritual gifts

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 MEV

In the beginning of creation God said, "Let us make man in our own image and likeness" Gen 1: God was referring to the three persons , God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is not clear which part the three persons individually played in creating man. But we know for sure the Trinity worked together in forming man in their own image.

Man lost his relationship with God through Adam and Eve. God has to recreate man again but this time not from the dust but soul. 

She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21 MEV

God the Father hatched the plan, (Matthew 1:20-22.) God the Son executed the plan by coming down to live among us. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the people and offered Himself up for atonement for our sins. After Jesus' work was done, He said on the cross, “it is finished” The plan to recreate the new man is accomplished. Concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.”  The Holy Spirit  comes to empower, supervise, manage and direct the recreated man. Unlike the first creation of man, the second creation shows distinct roles each of the Trinity played. 

Since the Trinity work is inseparable it is impossible to pick or believe  just one aspect of their work and think you have been recreated as a new man. You must believe that God had a plan to reconcile man, Jesus came down to fulfill the plan of reconciliation and the Holy Spirit is present in the recreated man  directing him towards God's intended purpose.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
John 19:30 MEV
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.
John 16:7 MEV

From day one we know the Father gave the plan, the Son executed the plan and the Holy Spirit empowers, supervises, manages and directs the recreated man.  We're not going to talk about the Father's plan or the Son's execution of the Father’s plan on earth, but we're going to talk about what possibly is the “final piece of the puzzle,” the Holy Spirit. 

In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in chapter twelve verse one, he said, "When it comes to the Holy Spirit I do not want you to be ignorant" Paul went on to tell us the Holy Spirit comes with different gifts purposely designed for the spiritual growth of the church. However, he urged us to desire earnestly the best of the gifts .

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.
1 Corinthians 12:1 MEV

The Holy Spirit when He comes to live in us is just the beginning of great things that should happen to us. The Holy Spirit is loaded with spiritual gifts and He’s ready to give to any believer who desires them. Even though it is God who gives the gifts as He wills, however, God will not force any gift on an individual, we need to desire the gift, seek the gift and ask for the gift. 

But earnestly covet the greater gifts. Yet I show you a more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:31 MEV

Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
1 Corinthians 14:1 mev
Therefore, brothers, eagerly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:39 MEV

Imagine God forces a gift on someone and the person backslides because the person allowed himself to be deceived. Then this person turns back and says to God, “I fell out because of the gift you gave me” We have seen this scenario played out before in Genesis when Adam blamed his fall on the woman God gave him.

Not only does the new man created by accepting Jesus Christ as savior has dominion and power, the new man has wisdom, authority, boldness and confidence. 

God made these spiritual gifts for His children, He doesn’t need any of these gifts in heaven, in fact there’s no sick person who would require a gift of healing or prophesy or wisdom in heaven. Every gift is there for our use, God certainly has no intention of withholding them from us. They were all made to help us live His will

When we create the hunger for things that are righteous in the sight of God,  and our purpose for seeking those righteous things is to help grow the church of God spiritually and numerically, then the Lord will grant our desires.

It's a remarkable thing to possess the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you have a heart for serving people, you would be absolutely delighted when the Lord uses you to bring joy to people who come your way. 

There are 9 spiritual gifts readily available for any child of God who is thirsty, hungry and desires for them. How do you feel when you see sick people? Do you pray for them? Do you desire to have the wisdom and knowledge of the Bible so you can help your church grow? If you see yourself hunger after righteousness then it's time to seek the gift of the Holy Spirit which is given to those who fervently ask the Lord. 

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for the common good. To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But that one and very same Spirit works all these, dividing to each one individually as He will.
1 Corinthians 12:7‭-‬11 MEV

OUR FATHER

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Matthew 7:11 MEV

Jesus tells his disciples that the way to pray is to our Father. And by Father, he doesn’t mean just another title, but a relationship. So the context in which we pray is the context of family, where we as children approach a loving father. I realise as I write that for some the word ‘father’ falls as a hollow thud, because your experience of earthly fatherhood was not a good one. However, apart from finding release from the grip of that limitation you can, I trust, at least recognise that there is such a thing as good fathering, and that if the Bible is right about God being a father, then he would be a perfect one.  Fatherhood means access. In other words, I’m invited. It also means acceptance—I’m welcomed. Furthermore, it means attention—I’m heard. Do you see how praying in the context of the child–Father relationship puts the whole thing on a different footing? 

Maybe you’ve always wondered how other people manage to pray with purpose and passion. You’ve heard them, seen them, but your prayer life seems rather sterile in comparison. By praying aright, we can find that purpose and passion ourselves.  So here we have opened our hearts to our Father and renewed, as it were, the relationship with him. 

When we pray, ‘Our Father in Heaven’, we are talking to one whose power operates from the ground up or the highest point of the heavens down. In other words, there is not one part of the universe we know (and that which we don’t know) that is outside of the involvement and influence of our Father. That must have great bearing on our faith as we pray, realizing that nothing is beyond our Father’s scope. 

Notice that there are no singular personal pronouns in the prayer. It’s all ‘our’, ‘we’ and ‘us’. Many of us were brought up with a very individualistic view of faith and Scripture. It was all about me—that Jesus died for me, God has forgiven me, I’m bound for heaven, etc. When we read Scripture in the light of community, we realize that most of it is addressed to us corporately. Obviously that doesn’t take away from the personal, because the corporate is made up of individuals, but it should affect the way we believe, live and pray. 

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 7:21 MEV

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 18:19 MEV