The cycle of life, both physical and spiritual, continues and as we remember the reason for this Appointed Time /Moed/מוֹעֵד/Festival.
As well as rejoicing in the fulfillment of prophecy recorded in Acts by the outpouring of His Spirit of Holiness; let us take the time to examine our lives and see if our lives truly are a grain of wheat.
Brief summary of the Spring Moedim.
In Leviticus 23, there are two different Hebrew words that translate feast. The first word is Mo-ahd, and is often translated appointed time. Mo-ahd means to set an appointment, as in a set time or season, for a specific assembly or festival. The plural form of mo-ahd is moedim. This particular word for feast refers to the weekly Sabbaths and all the Levitical Holy Days.
Mo-ahd also has a root meaning:
to repeat, and can mean
a signal as appointed beforehand.
There are things that are to be repeated each time the preset appointed time has come. For example: When there is an anniversary, the signals or signs that this date has come is to have a celebration, usually repeated every year. It is the same with the Father’s Appointed Times. The feasts are signals and signs to help us know what is on the heart of the Lord. There’s a large difference in how believers observe the Spring moedim (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost). These holidays have been fulfilled in the life of Yeshua/Jesus.
In dying on the cross, Yeshua fulfilled the first two festivals. Passover deals with redemption through the death of a lamb.Unleavened Bread is about removing leaven/sin.
The death of the Lamb of God /Passover,
paid the price for our indebtedness and gave us
freedom from sin (Unleavened Bread).
Yeshua’s resurrection from the grave fulfilled the festival/moed of First Fruits. This holiday deals with offering YHVH the first of the produce.
1 Corinthians 15:20“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep
Finally, Pentecost /Shavuot was fulfilled in Acts 2 upon the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
Shavuot/Pentecost deals with the seal of covenant relationship with God as the people received the Law on Mt. Sinai. Yeshua gave us the promise of His Ruach haKodesh/ Spirit of Holiness.
Ephesians 1:13 says, In him you also… were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit living inside of us is the fulfillment of Shavuot.
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24-26
His statement conveys a powerful and enduring message about life, death, resurrection and transformation. Yeshua/Jesus was speaking in response to the request of a group of Greek seekers, however the time for meeting people and talk had come to an end.
Messiah uses the metaphor of a grain of wheat to illustrate a deeper spiritual truth, because one of the key realities of the Kingdom of the Heavens is that
life springs forth from death.
Yeshua/Jesus was telling those with ears to hear, that the hour had come for Him to be glorified, and that meant He was to die….
…like a kernel of wheat.
He compared His death to
a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies,
but produces much fruit.
He uses this metaphor to explain the need
to lose one’s life for His sake and the gospel’s.
John 12:24-26
If a grain of wheat….
Are we a generation of the undead?
Because if a grain of wheat falls to the ground and
does not die
it abides alone.
We are nourished daily by His Word, we eat and we drink in the comforting presence of His Holy Spirit/Ruach haKodesh.
We grow, flourish, and seek to please our Lord and Master. We humble ourselves before our maker, bowing in worship, praise and thanksgiving.
We have been delivered from death forever through the atoning blood sacrifice of the Son, and yet the life we live is lost as long as we remain alive to our old ways and to our self-serving lifestyle.
Has the grain of wheat reached its goal and final destiny?
After standing among the ripened stalk, once it is cut down and bound for the threshing floor, will it attain its full potential if it falls to the ground unnoticed, just laying there, and doing nothing?
Like the grain of wheat, we too have a destiny in Messiah, and it is certain that we will die one way or another; and we cannot go on to fulfill the purpose of our life in Messiah/Christ unless we die to self…. but if we, as that seed, do die, we will bear much fruit.
2 Corinthians 4:10-11 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
As disciples of Messiah we must be
more than fallen grain
because He teaches us that…
He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world to life age enduring will keep it.
If all we have become is mature, great looking, immaculate stalks of wheat, we have failed to fulfill our final destiny and goal in Messiah. Growing and maturing in Him is not the ultimate goal, it is and always has been a process, a means to an end. Our end then is to die to ourselves so that we may live for Messiah.
By yielding to His process in us, as we, the old us, decays in the ground like the seed, being tended to by the Master Farmer, our life will bear much fruit. Only in this death will we live and that happens when we give ourselves away to serving others, in turn producing a new crop of grain that will soon be ripe for the harvest.
Messiah teaches us that if anyone serves Him,
let him follow me and where I am there also my servant will be.
John 12:26
Yeshua/Jesus was the first to die and He was also the first to bear fruit, us, we are the fruit; and that includes every one who trusts in Him from that resurrection day until He returns. As we serve Him, let’s accept the invitation to follow and be with Him, including being buried with Him in His death and as much as we are raised from the dead in His life. Let’s no longer be the undead following Him, those who are still abiding alone and yet failing to live, by not pouring into others the resurrection life that was given for us.
Let us serve the master, not so that our Heavenly Father will honor us, but instead let’s fall to the ground and die, so that we will finally be the generation that bears much fruit.
We must allow him to make us useful so that we will be
more than a fallen grain of wheat
and let Him show us how to follow Him into death of self that we may finally live the life we have been raised with Him to live.
For new readers there are many posts on Shavuot which can be accessed from homepage.
Chag same’ach.
(pronounced: KHAHG sah-MAY-ach)
Shalom aleikhem
chaverim and mishpachah!
Peace to friends and family.
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week.
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
Not sure ..you can be…
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute,
SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
Having counted from the Omer, 
