Living in the Resurrection: The Feast of Unleavened Bread - David Mitts

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal 2:20)

Today is a special day with a very powerful anointing present that can forever transform our lives if we enter into the realm of the Spirit of God.  We are living in very important times and we were born for this hour.  Our actions are critical to our testimony in this prophetic hour.  

One of the prophetic signs is the tetrad blood moons.  This Passover, Succoth and next Passover and Succoth the moon will be blood red.  Joel prophesied this:

And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls. (Joe 2:29-32)

We see a connection between these sign and outpouring of His Spirit, times for activations.  We also see that these are times for salvations and a period of deliverance for Israel for His called remnant.  These moons are not necessarily an indicator of any one thing but they definitely are a prophetic sign for an outpouring, salvation and deliverance.  Their occurring at the Feasts is especially important.

To enter in, we need to grasp the timing and the anointing that is specific to that timing.  Looking at Joel’s prophecy, we see:

Salvation

Deliverance

Judgment/Death

Outpouring of the Spirit.

 What I want to do is place this in the context of the cross, the death of Yeshua, and the Resurrection.

A few weeks ago, we looked at holiness through the cross.  We spoke about a holiness of intimacy versus one based purely on separation.  We spoke of a change of state from one being prepared for covenant to one of living inside of covenant.

Today, I want to look at another aspect of what happened at the cross. Let’s turn to Luke 23:33-34

And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots. Luke 23:33-34).

Listen to Message

Yeshua, knowing He was going to die for the sins of the people, asks the Father to forgive.  He makes a profound statement , “FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO”.  Now, on the surface He is speaking about the crucifixion.  But, we need to remember what that is.  The crucifixion is external expression of the shame brought on man by sin.   Whenever we are confronted by our failures, the shame of that brings about a violence.  Just look at how tense we become over even the possibility of failure, when offered opportunity.

This shame is what crucified Yeshua. Shame, the feeling ok being somehow defective and needing to control our reality is what killed Love Himself!  An outward expression of an inward reality.  Now, why is this important?  because at its root ALL sin results in shame and death, death of relationship, cutting off of life.

So, Yeshua declares that we need forgiveness for the root of our sin, and He declares that the root is “not knowing”.  Now remember that in the Bible "knowing" is intimacy.  "NOT knowing" then is isolation, separation, lack of trust, fear based reality.  All ignorance is rooted in part-ial knowing and trying to prove our perspective which leads to violence and death of love.

So, Yeshua is telling us that when we hurt one another it is because we are disconnected and have lost the unity of love.  This is “not knowing”.  This ignorance based reality is what needs forgiveness.  If we really knew God and knew each other, we would such a heart of oneness and love that we would never hurt one another.

At the cross Yeshua is making this declaration.  Then He dies as the Passover lamb to make what He has just asked for possible.

Forgiveness requires a death to be possible.  We have to die to the need for fairness for forgiveness to happen.

You see when we sin, when we hurt one another we incur a debt.  Because our sin has caused death, death of relationship or death of trust, it incurs a death debt.  Look with me at Colossians 2:11-14 to see this dynamic:

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Col 2:11-14)

In the covenant at the cross, the new covenant, the holiness brought about by His death, there is a death to us and to Him.  This death wipes out the debt incurred by our ignorance, our “not knowing” God and each other and therefore hurting God and each other through actions that are rooted in “not knowing” and fear.  This is the root of all evil.  We have to not “know” someone to be evil to them.  This creates a debt of death, which He takes from us through His forgiveness and His death which He invites to receive by faith.  Now, we are free from debt!! Hallelujah!

- In this place a new reality is possible, the reality of resurrection life!  Resurrection life of what?  Knowing.  Look at John 17:1-3

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (Joh 17:1-3)

When we embrace the Passover sacrifice, we come into a place of knowing.  This is only possible through being forgiven for “not knowing”.

What also is possible is a resurrection, a knowing of one another in a new way, called being “one”.  Look down the page at John 17:21-23

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (Joh 17:20-23)

Now, this is unleavened bread.  Oneness with one another means that we have to pass through the veil, the separation that is based in “Not knowing”.  How do we do this?  Well, we have to release others from their hurts against us, realizing that they are operating in “not knowing” or if you prefer hardness of heart.  You see the root of all suffering is “Not knowing”.  This is why it had to be forgiven by Yeshua before the cross.  In order for us to operate in the fullness of the favor of the cross in our lives we have to return people to the state of forgiveness, and declare them as having “not known”.  I am NOT saying they didn’t willfully hurt, but rather that their actions are rooted in “not knowing”.

How do I do that when it hurts so bad?  You have to die.  You don't think Judas hurt?  You don't think Peter hurt?  It had to hurt.  Yeshua was the most compassionate man to walk the earth ever.  You don’t get that way without feeling pain.  Look at the death of Lazarus. He wept.

So, we have to release people, through the grace of us seeing them as being those who operate in the place of “Not knowing” what they do.  Offense implies responsibility.  We blame them because they hurt us consciously.  What we don’t see because we look with human eyes that they were operating in the realm of being disconnected, lost in self with fear as the guideposts and shame as the identity.  They are in the realm of the “not knowing” and so Yeshua forgives them and so should we.  We need to die to the debt.  Then when the debt is released a new reality called reconciliation can happen, not as before in the realm of the not knowing but in the realm of oneness.  Then we can love our brother who we see.  Then we can love our enemy, because enemies only exist in the “not knowing”.  The we can truly be ambassadors for Messiah, reconciling the world to Him and to each other!

This is unleavened bread, because it is leaven that is the symbol of pride.  Look at Luke 12:

In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:1-2)

The hidden is the real motives of the heart that are being covered by the veil.  The veil is torn at the cross.  We operate in pride when we have shame, when we are “not knowing”.  This is leaven, ruining our relationships.  The power of this feast is to bring transparency through forgiveness.

One final scripture and then we activate. 1Cor 5:8

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1Co 5:8)

Malice and wickedness come from “not knowing” one another. Sincerity means without a mask, without a veil, transparent and truth is truth.  We need to keep or activate this feast at the blood moons by forgiving and sealing our forgiveness with Matzo.

Towards A Vision of Holiness - David Mitts

but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."
(1Pe 1:15-16)
There is an instruction in the Scriptures to be “holy” to be given to a reality that is “one with the Lord”. The Lord speaks to “be holy for He is Holy”.
Now, for most of us this conjures up images of perfection or a purity that is at odds with the nature that we “know” of ourselves. In fact holiness scares us because the Scripture also tells us in Hebrews 12:14:
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
(Heb 12:14)
So, the question that I ask in my heart, is what does God expect of me that will be called
holiness?
Well is we look in the Bible, we see that holiness involves:
-Being set apart. One example is the Shabbat.
-"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you
shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your
female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six
days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and
rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
(Exo 20:8-11)
-So the holiness spoken of with respect to the Sabbath is to set apart a day of our week and dedicate it unto the Lord. This means that of all of our time, there is an interval of time that is about the Lord. So, this is about boundaries, the separating of something from something else.

Listen to Message

-So, holiness, at least in one respect is about boundaries, learning to honor and separate things.
Now, one of the immediate problems, or challenges with that definition is that we start almost immediately operating in fear. We start erecting boundaries from things and people and situations that intrude into our holiness. Suddenly our lives go from the freedom of our salvation and the joy and power of the Holy Spirit into a life of trying to remain separate.
Yet are we wrong?? No, I don't think so. I just think it becomes a question of resource.
You see when my resource is myself and I am trying to be holy, then I have a problem in that my definitions will always be defined by my strength. SO, where is the cross in that?
You see, something fundamentally changed at the cross. What changed was resource.
Prior to the cross, there was a veil that separated us from where? The Holy of Holies.
This veil was torn at the cross.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the
veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the
rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had
fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went
into the holy city and appeared to many. (Mat 27:50-53).
What actually happened here and what are the implications in our holiness? Well Yeshua gave up His Spirit, He died. The veil, the system of holiness by separation was also torn. Now, the veil didn’t just separate man from God. It also separated man from man, represented by the dead. The dead were unholy, the wages or price for sin. They were also separated from the living. Yet resurrection life was released at the cross and
the dead came to life.
So, this changes the separation thing of holiness. We cannot remain holy by remaining separate through our efforts. So, how do we enter into holiness?? I think the use of a veil is symbolic for something more profound.
What else wears a veil? A bride. Why does she wear the veil? It represents a kind of holiness, a purity of separation from all others and unto her husband. However all of that is in an identity, the identity that is outside of the new covenant of marriage of a giving of the heart. When the veil comes down there is a giving of the hearts in "holy union".
Now, let me ask you a question? In a marriage is separation holy?? Well yes and no.
Separation from others, yes. But what about from each other?? No. What is the motivation, the source? Isn't holiness now derived from something different?? Isn't holiness now fueled, empowered by love and even more important kept by love??
Now, what if the bride fueled holiness out of duty? or out of obedience to some set of standards because she is afraid to not please her husband, her lord?? Would we call that a covenant marriage??
Look now with me at Ephesians 5:22-33:
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the
body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their
husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her
glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and
blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and
cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.
FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL
BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This
mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself,
and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. (Eph 5:22-33)
Now, most of us have been taught to use this scripture as guideline for marriage life, and so it is. But the Apostle Paul tells us that he is speaking about the relationship between Messiah and the Church. This then becomes an insight into holiness.
The key is in the word translated as church. It is ecclesia, which comes from the Hebrew kahal. In the Greek, the word means the called out from somewhere. But in Hebrew, the word means being drawn to authority. It is the picture of responding to the voice and the authority. It is actually a picture of intimacy. It is a holiness that is motivated by love.
You see holiness motivated by Law, by rules is a beginning, But holiness motivated and empowered by love is a transformational kind of holiness. Now, you can understand why Yeshua healed on the Shabbat. He was motivated by love.
You see, we began in love. We were saved by grace. But grace calls us to love. Then into this beautiful love, this honeymoon of being saturated with His Presence, hungry just to be with Him, to love Him with all of our being, not because it was commanded as the greatest commandment, but because it was all we could do. But over time, we grew calloused to Him. We exchanged the passion of the newly-wed for the life of the dutiful.
Holiness moved from what we knew from intimacy into what we learned from others.
Instead of drawing closer and closer into unity, we got busy. We got other agendas.
Most of them seemed good like Martha's serving. But what got sacrificed was holiness.
What got substituted was old covenant holiness, the struggle of separations. Some have even gone so far as to put back on veils. I don't mean pretty cloths. No I mean the
veils of facades.
Look with me at one more scripture and then we'll repent: Look at 2 Corinthians 3:2-18
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested
that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence
we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider
anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us
adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter
kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones,
came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses
because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to
be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more
does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this
case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away
was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Therefore having such a hope,
we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil
over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was
fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the
old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this
day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to
the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory
of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from
the Lord, the Spirit. (2Co 3:2-18)
You see the greater glory is glory of the bride. You see Moses needed a veil because he had to separate himself from the people. But the veil of separation is removed in Messiah, in the new covenant in holiness motivated by love.
Now, I want us to pray and ask the Lord what veils we have put on. You know veils with each other are no different than veils towards God. They are strategies of separation of trying to protect our own heart. Let's repent for the veils.

Life After Suffering - John Barksdale

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:  - Acts 1:3 KJV

Nobody likes to suffer 

Basically there are two kinds of suffering
1) Suffering for unrighteousness which has much to do with selfishness and self indulgences.
2) Suffering for the sake of righteousness is the suffering that will produce life in Yeshua!.

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For additional study about abiding in His love in the times we live in, obtain and read the book "Love versus Law, or BOTH!" by David Mitts.

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