The Blowing of Trumpets announces the coming of the Lord of Hosts to declare war on Satan, beginning with Satan's influence in the Church.

The Day of Atonement foretells the time when Jesus Christ deals with the worldliness, lust, and self-will in His people. We think the Day of Atonement has begun and will extend throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

The Feast of Tabernacles shows us that God's ultimate intention is to dwell in people, not just with them.

Because we are leaving Pentecost and entering the last three feasts, we are encountering the spiritual fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets. This means there will be increasing emphasis on spiritual warfare as Jesus descends to confront His enemies.

You may be in a church in which the music is becoming militant. There are songs about God being a man of war; about the Lord Jesus coming on His great war stallion followed by His saints clothed in white. We are being taught in the newer choruses about the Lord of Battles.

We also are hearing about Joel's army. We of the churches have been an undisciplined mob up to the present hour. We went where we desired and did pretty much as we wanted. If we despised the pastor we told him so and left the assembly and went where we pleased.

For those on whom the hand of the Lord is resting, the day of such willful behavior is over. Either we will obey the Lord strictly and those whom He places over us, or we will be left behind as the cloud and the fire move forward.

The Day of Atonement is the day of reconciliation. We have been reconciled to God legally through the blood of the cross. Now it is time to be reconciled to God in our personality.

If we are worldly we cannot have fellowship with God. God is not at all pleased with the spirit of the world. We cannot love God and at the same time love the spirit of the world, finding our survival and security in the things of this life.

If we are full of the lusts and passions of the flesh, we cannot have fellowship with God. God is Light. He will not have fellowship with moral darkness. If we would draw near to God we must be holy as He is holy, not by imputation but by actual spiritual cleanliness of thought, speech, and action. The Holy Spirit is able to produce such holiness in us if this is what we desire and will pursue.

If we are moved by our self-will, self-centeredness, self-seeking, self-love, we cannot possibly have fellowship with God. God has given a cross for each one of us to bear. If we will bear our cross patiently, remaining in the prisons in which God places us, our self-will shall be destroyed and we will press into untroubled rest in the Father through the Lord Jesus.

To be continued.