If we are to possess the riches of God we must be willing to be judged by the Lord and to fight against the spiritual enemies that dwell in our inheritance.

We may be comfortable and at ease in Zion (in our church routines) and would rather flee to Egypt (back into the world) than to hear the sound of the trumpet, the sound of alarm (Jeremiah 42:14).

If we are to go on from Pentecost we must arm ourselves for spiritual war (Ephesians 6:12-18). We must be ready to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ, not entangling ourselves with the "civilian" pursuits of the world. Woe to us if we "hold back our sword from blood" in the day of the Lord's battle (Deuteronomy 7:2; I Kings 20:42; I Samuel 15:8-23)!

As we are proceeding in our study past the feast of Pentecost and are beginning to think about the final three feasts, we may be traveling on ground that is new to the reader. Many of us have not passed this way before.

However, it is not a new way to some of the saints of old, just new to our generation perhaps. Surprisingly, it does not require years and years for the believer to move through these experiences in Christ. A pioneer in a wilderness territory may take five months to travel the same distance that a person two hundred years later can cover in five hours.

We do not mean to imply that redemption works in a human life in a series of neatly placed, separate steps typified by the seven feasts of Israel. Rather the seven observances may be thought of as being seven dimensions of the one salvation in Christ.

The working out of redemption in human beings does not proceed in an ordered sequence of grade levels. The feasts portray seven aspects of the one salvation. The order can be switched around. The experiences are elaborated in each believer somewhat differently depending on the Lord's working with him or her as an individual.

The feasts are woven into the fabric of our lives piecemeal, all at once, hourly, yearly, in small increments, in unfathomable crises. There is no way in which to organize the spiritual fulfillments of the feasts of the Lord into a system of theology, into a constitution on which to build a new denomination, a new division in the Body of Christ. Today is the day to strive for unity, not division, in that "seamless robe"—the Church of Jesus Christ.

Let us remember also that the saints can experience the spiritual counterparts of the feasts without understanding the doctrinal implications—in fact, while rejecting the doctrine. The love of Jesus rather than doctrinal accuracy, is the most important quality of the Christian discipleship.

To be continued.