hroughout the Old Testament there are many examples of what God desires from His people and for His people. Time and again there are shadows, or types of what was to come in the New Testament. When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, God's redemptive plan went into action. It was as if God knew our inability to understand spiritual matters, so He would draw us a picture using things that we could see.

Jesus, our Redeemer who was to come, is shown to us through every sacrifice of every lamb that was offered on any altar. The fire that burned on the altars pictured the Holy, purifying, presence of Almighty God. The oil that was used to anoint the priest or kings was the picture of God's Holy Spirit.

Every offering, whether it was a sin offering or guilt offering, or grain offering or fellowship offering pointed to the sin issue being dealt with and the worshiper committing themselves completely to God.

In all the feasts and festivals, Israel remembered its past and renewed its faith in the Lord. In the feast celebrating the Day of Atonement, the sacrifices provided a covering over of sin, pointing to a day when Christ's blood would provide a permanent remedy for the sins of all mankind.

In the feast celebrating The Passover, each family would offer a lamb and would retell the story of how the death angel had "passed over' them when he had seen the blood that was on the doorposts. The lamb that was sacrificed pointed to the lamb that John proclaimed as "the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29)

The Feast of Weeks, also known as the Feast of Harvest and Pentecost, was a time to offer the firstfruits from the wheat harvest as a sacrifice back to God thanking him for his provisions in their lives.

As Oswald Chambers wrote in his book My Utmost For His Highest, "God speaks to us through the circumstances of our lives." In the pages of the past, we see God writing his Law on the tablets of stone while he longed for a day when he could write them on the tablets of our hearts. With ever stroke of the Master's pen, he writes his love on the everyday lives of his chosen people. With every sacrifice and every offering and every feast, he paints a picture of his redemption story that will be told over and over again for generations to come.

Can we learn from the past or have we come so far that we now know it all? The revelation of God is so vast that it will take eternity just to begin to know the depth of his wisdom and splendor.

Hebrews 10:1 says "The Law is only a shadow of the good things that are to come." Hebrews 10:16 continues "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Even David writes by the Spirit and says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Romans 12:1 says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual (reasonable) act of worship."

We tend to forget the imagery of the past that God used so dramatically for the purpose of revealing the future. Many people like to say that the sacrifices were done away with after the New Covenant and now since Jesus has offered himself as the supreme sacrifice, there is no longer a need for them. What about that verse that says, "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice"?

As we turn back to the title of this article, "How To Receive The Holy Spirit", let us look at similarities between the old and the new. We all agree that the Feast of Passover and The Day of Atonement revealed the Lamb of God that would come. The feast of Pentecost, or Harvest, was to reveal our response in presenting ourselves back to God and thanking him for his act of redemption.

Is it any wonder that after Christ's ascension that the very next feast was the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost)?

Jesus told his followers to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. They were waiting in prayer and consecration as they presented themselves back to God for his will and service. As these waited in prayer before God, the priests were preparing to offer the grain offering of Pentecost in the temple on the altar of fire. (There is fire that is holy and there is Holy Fire from God's presence.) The priest, under the old covenant, offered the firstfruits offering of grain while in the upper room there was a firstfruits offering of living sacrifices.

Years before, Abraham had entered into covenant with God and God promised that his offspring would be as plentiful as the stars of the heavens and that he would receive the land that God promised him. Abraham asked "how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" The Lord instructed him to bring an offering and to prepare it. Abraham did as God had instructed him but did not provide the fire for the sacrifice. God himself came down in a flame of fire and passed over the offering, confirming his covenant with Abraham.

There was now a New Covenant that had been cut in blood. Jesus, himself, had become, not only the sacrificial lamb, but also the mediator of the New Covenant, and the High Priest. If Jesus is the High Priest, then who are the "lesser", or lower priests that are under him? Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

Did you know that you were called to the priesthood? I'm speaking of the priesthood of all believers, in and through Christ. As priests to God, the first offering that we should bring is that firstfruits offering that is the offering of our very own selves back to God in thanks for what God has brought about through the atoning sacrifice of his son.

In the first covenant, all of the priests were dedicated to the work of the Lord by the anointing of oil that represented the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave this command to his followers. "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1:4-5) "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) As the Feast of Pentecost came, there were two events that were taking place. In the temple there was a grain offering being offered up as a firstfruits of the seed that man had planted in the soil of the earth. In the Upper Room, there was another offering that was being presented before God and that was a living sacrifice that consisted of one hundred and twenty firstfruits of the planting that God himself had planted in his son. This was the fruit of his labor. There was the altar; there were the sacrifices; there was the fire.

The old was not done away with but found fulfillment in the new and living way. They were not consumed by the fire, but endued or infused with this anointing power and presence of God the Father, through the Holy Spirit. This is the Comforter, the Counselor, the Advocate, the one called along side to be the Helper. This is the third person in the Trinity of the Godhead.

Without the Holy Spirit, Jesus' disciples would not have been empowered, or anointed for the work, or office as priests, that they were called to enter. Jesus, himself, had received this same anointing as an example for us to follow. If Jesus, the man, needed it for his ministry; the early church needed it for power and service, then where will we be today if we neglect to follow this command and example?

If you desire to follow him; if you desire to please him; if you desire to walk in all that he has planned for you; then follow his footsteps, and the footsteps of the disciples and the early church. All it takes is a willing and obedient heart. Hunger and thirst for God. They that hunger and thirst shall be filled. In Luke 11:13 Jesus said, "If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"