The "Tabernacles" experience. The feasts of the Lord (Leviticus, Chapter 23) reveal that there are three great platforms of redemption: basic salvation through the blood of the Lamb; the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer; and the coming of the Father and the Son to make Their eternal home in the believer.

The feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) typifies basic salvation through the blood of the Lamb.

The feast of Weeks (Pentecost) portrays the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

The feast of Tabernacles (Booths) symbolizes the coming of the Father and the Son to make Their eternal home in the believer.

Since the time of the Protestant Reformers the Church has passed through the feast of Unleavened Bread (basic salvation) and the feast of Weeks (the Holy Spirit). God has kept the greatest feast for the last days, knowing that the tares of wickedness would come to maturity at that time. The greatest and climactic event, the actual coming of the Kingdom of God to us, for which all prior experiences are the necessary foundation, is the feast of Tabernacles.

The spiritual counterpart of the feast of Tabernacles is at hand. This is the provision God has made for survival and fruitfulness during the closing days of the present age. The believer dwelling to this extent in the Presence of God and Christ is able to overcome Antichrist and the great tribulation. But the believer who refuses to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow the Master, will be deceived by the Antichrist spirit and overcome by the pressures of the great tribulation.

In order to pass from the "Pentecostal" experience to the "Tabernacles" experience, if we wish to assign such titles, it is necessary to die to self. There must come a time when we tell the Lord that we wish to "die in the Lord," that we desire to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him wherever He may lead.

It is not enough to approach such a consecration in a vague manner, hoping to glide into it somehow. In order to be forgiven our sins we must make definite statements and take definite actions. In order to receive the Holy Spirit we must make definite statements and take definite actions. In order to die to our self-will and self-love we must make definite statements and take definite actions.

God deals with our self-love and self-will (the desire to save our life rather than to lose it in the Lord) by means of suffering. Suffering often takes the form of withholding from us that which we ardently desire or compelling us to continue in some situation that is painful or distasteful.

In order to withhold from us what we want, or to keep us in the prison of painful or unpleasant circumstances, God uses people or some other instrument of His choice. Whether we die to self and pass into the fullness of God depends on our reaction to the tools God uses. If we complain, blame people, force our way out of the prison God has placed us in, we can "save" our life (only to lose it later). We may become bitter against the people or tools God uses. But the worst result is that we open the gate for Satan to enter our personality and make us part of his synagogue.

To be continued.