Chag haMatzah sameach kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah, and welcome to the seventh and last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Also Shabbat Shalom as today is a special Sabbath - a High Sabbath as we sometimes call it - that falls on the sixth day of the week on this one occasion. Today is the last day of the spring festivals which, as we have seen, are all about our personal one-to-one relationship with Yah'shua (Jesus) our Messiah.

We have also begun the Omer Count. For those of you unfamiliar with this, this is the verbal counting of each of the seven sabbaths plus 50 days between Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits, and the important summer festival of Shavu'ot (Weeks, Ekatost, 'Pentecost'). This period of about 100 days is known as the 'omer period' or simily as 'the omer'. In Judaism, using their own hybrid Roman-Hebrew calendar, they count only 49 days, a practice copied by most messianics which means they observe Shavu'ot a month too early. Shavu'ot is the only dating of an annual festival that is calculated using the date of the one before it as a reference point. This means that Shavu'ot falls on a different calendar day each year. All the other festivals have fixed days. Why is that? Because Shavu'ot is all aboyut the coming of the invisible Ruach (Spirit) whereas all the other festivals celebrate visible things. Like the wind, you cannot tell where the Ruach (Spirit) is coming from. But we will leave a full discussion of this to Shavu'ot itself!

It's been five days now since we last assembled on the second day of Chag haMatzah which was simultaneously Yom haBikkurim or the Day of Firstfruits or Resurrection Day. For seven days since Pesach (Passover), the Seven Ruachot or Spirits of Elohim (God) have been manifesting to us individually. Most are unaware of this. This happens one after the other on each successive day. How does that work? Well, have you ever seen one one of those street 'flash' performances by a concealed orchestra or choir. A solo instrument breaks the silence, then another joins in, and then another, and another, until the whole orchestra is playing. They're all playing the same piece of music, it's the same melody, but each instrument type is playing a part that belongs to a different section of the orchestra - the strings, wind instruments, percussion, triangle, and then maybe a piano will be rolled in.

As violinists, cellists, flautists, basoonists, trumpeters, tympani players, triangle players, and other instrumentalists join in, so the music gets more complex, intricate and beautiful as finally all these instruments harmonise by weaving their notes in between one another like an orchestra playing a seven-part concerto or like seven dancers dancing together in perfect synchrony in a complex dance.

On each of the seven days of Chag haMatzah, one of the seven Ruachot (Spirits) leads or presides in such a way that She may be discerned and communed with, until we come to the seventh day - today - when we can experience the full majesty of all seven interacting together. This is the particular glory of the two seven-day festivals. Over the years I have taught you many times about this Principle of Seven, which is the number of completion or perfection. There are many, many different illustrations of this in Scripture, both impersonal (like the seven days of the week and the seven primary colours of the rainbow) and personal (like the seven kosher wives of King David). All of these serve various biblical models showing this sacred patterning in creation.

For those who are spiritually sensitive and attuned, there are then these subtle differences which may be perceived not only now during the 7 day-long spring Festival of Chag haMatzah but also during the 7 day-long autumn Festival of Sukkot or Tabernacles (where something similar happens but far deeper). In both of these 7 day-long moedim (appointments) Yahweh is sending us an extraordinary blessing and revelation of the deepest part of His Heart. In Chag haMatzah this is a purely personal, individual thing, but at Sukkot something is collectively experienced by the Bride as many in echad union rather than just individually as now. This same cycle is repeated on a less intense level on the seven days of each week for those who are likewise attuned to Yahweh, though we tend to not to be exclusively foucssed on just spiritual matters at those times as we are now except, of course, on each Sabbath which is Yahweh's sacred time too, not ours. On the regular seven-day week when we are going about our daily work there is this kind of weekly spiritual recapitulation of what we're doing now, as also at Sukkot in the autumn. Thus a firmly implanted pattern of being is laid in our unconscious mind rather like beating a path through the jungle of the overgrown confusion of this world.

By conscious and willing obedience to Yahweh at these two week-long festivals, we are actually being prepared for a life wholly separate from the world's fallen pseudo-life. We are being conditioned for the New Jerusalem! This is therefore a kind of training of the soul. The extent to which we manage to keep the world out during these two seasons is a measure of how much at home we will feel when Father's Kingdom finally comes to earth because we are chosing between two ways of life twice every year and once every week. We're either submitting to Yahweh by following this pattern or to the world when we're not. You'll be become more conscious of this the deeper you get in. The way we celebrate is a choice between the New Jerusalem and Babylon and at some point, if you haven't already done so, you will be required to make a clean break, much like the way we do when we die in leaving the physical world behind us. Until then it's a bit like being in a shopping mall where worldly music is blaring while you wear earphones listening to sacred music on an iPod. Only when you finally leave the mall is the sound you hear from your iPod devoid of external distraction and you will hear a pure sound without interference and perhaps even start seeing visions of the invisible angelic realm too where everything is complete and whole like the number 7 itself.

I guess what I am trying to tell you is that these pauses in our regular activity that we are commanded to take during the festivals is for our spiritual training, to develop our spiritual sensitivity so that we can commune deeper with Elohim (God) and get to know Him better. It takes time and effort to get to know someone properly - quality time - time to see and know them in different sets of circumstances: under pressure, at rest, interacting with other people, doing mundane tasks, and so on. It takes listening as much as it does speaking. It takes opening your heart up as opposed to just going through the motions. And this relationship-building is supposed to be like the connections formed with your spouse whom you love pasisonately whether as a friend, a brother/sister, a lover, a work companion, or whatever. I want you most of all to understand that observing the festivals isn't just some mundane physical 'thing' that we do and then forget when a festival ends and we return back to our regular rhythm of life. What we glean at these assemblies is supposed to 'carry over' into our weekly rhythm too with times set-aside daily for study, prayer and meditation.

I'm sure you've heard the analogy commonly used of the Sabbath being that time we rest away from regular activity in order to assemble to fellowship, worship and study Scripture. Many a time I have heard people describe it as a time to metaphorically 'charge our spiritual batteres'. And that's true. That's one purpose of the regular Sabbath which we will be assembling together for tomorrow, as if to remind us to transfer this Holy Week's activities to the regular week's ones again. But these Chag haMatzah assemblies are much more than times to charge up our spiritual batteries. These seven days of Chag haMatzah, not forgetting the 3rd, 4th, 4th and 6th days between Yom haBikkurim and the 7th day of the Feast (today) - aren't just a chunck of time to 'get through' so we can finally do something different and concrete today...like assembling to worship, pray and hear a sermon. There's something else going on that I want you to be aware of and become sensitive to because we are being offered a priceless gift, a part of Elohim (God) Himself. The 'inbetween' days - which are not Sabbaths and which we often punctuate with mundane things like doing our weekly shopping as we did three days ago, chat with fellow believers, share testimonies, spontaneously examine the scriptures together, and things like that - these 'inbetween' days are intended by Father to be far more than 'filling in time', and it's that I want to now talk to you about.

Let me unpack this for you slowly and in small increments because it's so important you understand this correctly. Our being called together for seven whole days is most intentional on the part of Yahweh. Every single one of the seven days is important even if we tend only to really focus on two or three of them. Most look upon today as a sort of 'farewell' gathering before everyone goes off home, a bit like Shemini Atseret or the Last Great Day right at the end of the Sukkot cycle. Only we can't do that because tomorrow is a sabbath and so we don't leave then (since we are not to travel then save to attend sabbath meetings themselves)...and for a reason I have already hinted at. At sunrise tomorrow a 'spiritual transfer' is made, as it were. Imagine you have been away on holiday for a week abroad and you come home with all your fond memories and some mementos. The next day you reminisce - affectionately recall your holiday memories and take those happy moments with you into your day at home before the regular week starts again. Happy times remain with us, leaven us, change us, enrich us. That's what this week's experiences, assuming you have used the week the way it was supposed to be used, in fellowship with brethren and in communal fellowship with Yahweh - is supposed to do for your tomorrow and thereafter when you all go back to your homes. We're supposed to be laden with the spiritual gifts we have received.

If you have discerned and received the anointings, however large or small, that the Seven Ruachot have brought for you this Chag haMatzah, you will find yourself carrying that supernatural presence within you from henceforth, provided you don't turn your back on it, and provided you consciously cultivate it in the way I am trying to explain. You will have drawn that little bit closer or nearer to Elohim (God) and in measurable ways, as commanded in Scripture:

"Let us draw near to Elohim (God) with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb.10:22, NIV).

Anciently, under the Old Covenant, how would Yahweh's people "draw near to worship" according to the writer of Hebrews? By making "the same [animal] sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year" which, we're told, could "never...perfect" worshippers who sought the face of Yahweh for, we are also told, "the Torah (Law)" (and specifically here the Levitical system of animal sacrifices) "is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves" (Heb.10:1, NIV). The reality, of course, is the Messiah Himself and His atoning work in our behalf which brings with it the Shavu'ot anointing of the Sevenfold Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) for those who patiently assemble and wait on Yahweh at that time, so that now we celebrate these festivals in a new, fulfilled and fulfilling way that enable us to draw close to Father Yahweh and be made perfect little by little. 'Assemble' is key here because the Shavu'ot anointing does not come privately but only in fellowship with others! Remember that. Read Acts, chapter 2. Other anointings may come privately, but not this one. So why are we assembling as a community if this is about private happenings in each soul? Because we're preparing or rehearsing for the communal moedim (appointments).

That is why I quoted, at the beginning of the week, Paul's words affirming the continuance of the Festivals of Yahweh, and in particular this one:

"Therefore let us keep the feast [of Unleavened Bread/Chag haMatzah], not with old leaven (chametz), nor with the leaven (chametz) of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread (matzah) of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor.5:8, NKJV).

That is why, with Christ in us, and with Him since His ascension, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) - all seven Ruachot (Spirits) in the order set out at Chag haMatzah and again, in the autumn, at Sukkot which was sent to the first talmidim (disciples) at the first Messianic Shavu'ot. That first outpouring of the Ruach (Spirit) was the 'priming' of your spirits for the incremental increases we receive throughout the rest of our lives as we are true and faithful servants, and most particularly at Chag haMatzah and Sukkot, a big reason we are commanded to assemble together. That is why all of Messiah's talmidim (disciples) are instructed to continue "keeping the feast", nor the old way according to the Old Covenant, but the new way according to the New Covenant in Christ. And what's why we've been here all week!

What we've been doing this last week - or ought to have been doing, as at other sacred times throughout the year - is taking hold of our initial salvation (when we first gave our lives to Yah'shua/Jesus and invited Him into our hearts), to then go further by "continu[ing] to work out [y]our salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil.2:12, NIV) and "leav[ing] the elementary teachings about Christ and go[ing] on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in Elohim (God), instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment" (Heb.6:1-2, NIV). We can't keep on serving or dishing out just "the elementary truths" as we do in the spring festivals but we must also serve "solid food (meat)...for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Heb.5:14, NIV) which is the reason for the summer and autumn festivals. The anointing has to 'work through' us as we partake of Christ as represented symbolically by the bread and wine of the Master's Supper, and at the Passover Meal as we partake of the matzah of "sincerity and truth", avoiding like the plague the leaven or chametz of sin..."of malice and wickedness" which is "the leaven of the Pharisees" (Mt.16:6,11-12; Mk.8:15; Lk.12:1). This is what the seven Ruachot (Spirits) effect in the believer when we allow Her to cultivate our spirits in the same way we should yield to godly earthly mothers as they cultivate and inculcate righteousness, sincerity and truth in us too through their instruction and example! Do you see how all the dots connect and what the festivals are actually for now in the New Covenant?

So I repeat, so this sinks in: you have hopefully become sanctified that little bit more this past week. How much you have been will have been up to you and the choices you made...what you did with these last seven days. Each of the seven days of the regular week are mini-encapsulations of the seven annual festivals themselves. So every first day of the week will remind you of what Pesach (Passover) stands for, every second day of the week will remind you of what Chag haMatzah (Unleavened Bread) stands for, and every third day of the week will remind you of what Yom haBikkurim (Firstfruits) stands for. Each day will enable you to draw upon memories and events from each of the seven annual festivals to be refreshed and edified by. Start each morning making that connection and you'll be surprised how that transforms your day. It will only take a minute. It will then become your daily contemplation. Yahweh will be 100 per cent in that. So every third day of the week will especially connect you to the resurrection! Regard these as daily spiritual exercises embedding you deeper in each of the seven divine personality characteristics represented by the seven annual festivals, with the regular Sabbath representing Sukkot, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, on which day you take the Master's (Lord's) Supper to deepen that association even more. I am hoping this year to live-stream this for the benefit of those scattered around the world to be able to join in with us once our new equipment has arrived from north America. But first you must understand the things I am speaking to you about today. These are the real spiritual fruits of discerning Yahweh's intentions for the festivals!

So, as must now be obvious, I don't just talk about these principles to merely sensitise you to the importance of the number 7 while we do other mundane and unspiritual things like entertain ourselves. Number symbolgy is a tool, not an end in itself, as someone who recently wrote in to me the other day tried to make it out to be by trying to convince me that Scripture is full of the number Pi (3.1416) and claiming that therefore the Tabernacle wasn't a rectangle but a circle! (Utter nonsese of course - we know the shape of the Tabernacle wasn't circular). As for the seven days of Sukkot, many of you travel great distances to come together for the main events of Passover, the two Sabbath days of Unleavened Bread and today, and the Day of Firstfruits or Resurrection Day inbetween these two. We do this both because we know the value of this sacred time - and want to bathe in it - and because we want to be Father's obedient children and assemble when and the way He commands.

I know of many Feast-keepers who take the opportunity at this time of year, and in the autumn, to combine assembling with holiday-making for their families away from home during the Festivals. Many go camping and indeed many groups turn Sukkot in particular - but also sometimes Chag haMatzah - into what I suppose could be described as a kind of 'Church Camp' from which they venture periodically to 'do their own thing'. That certainly works in some climates but for us to do that here so far up north in the inclement weather of the sub-arctic that is common at these two times of the year would be a most miserable experience indeed. It's only a few degrees above freezing here and it's been raining too. Sometimes during Chag haMatzah we have had snow. Climate dictates what we can, and can't, realistically do. I remember one brother somewhere up in Michigan or Wisconsin in the Great Lakes area of North America living in a booth, tabernacle or tent outtside on his balcony during Sukkot and freezing - they were a most miserable family and that exercise ruined what should have been an enjoyable spiritual exercise for them. But for the sake of being 'obedient' to an absolute literalist interpretation on how Sukkot should be done, as he supposed, he missed the spiritual point entirely, and he has since lost his faith. What some of you do outside in comfort in a Mediterranean climate we cannot possibly do here in the far north. The object is not to be miserable but to have a meaningful encounter with Elohim (God) even if that means adapting some of the pratical aspects of the moed to the climate, remembering that this moed was originally designed for life in the Middle East. We must consider the old and infirm too. So we recommend if you want to travel and have a holiday you choose time outside the festival cycle - perhaps after. For us Shavu'ot is a good time to do that because it's summer in the northern hemisphere. Be creative about this but without compromising Yahweh's set-apart time. Like the Sabbath, we're not supposed to do our 'own thing' but His.

I certainly believe that these two 7-day festivals should include wholesome family activities so that smaller children can come together too and do what they like doing best but away from all their city gizmos. Turn those phones and computers off. At the same time we need to remember that this is set-apart, consecrated or holy time, even those days which aren't sabbaths. The 5th day of Chag haMatzah, for example, is no less a moed than Pesach. We all recognise how sacred the Passover Meal is and yet we don't eat it on a Sabbath, nor does Yom haBikkurim (Firstfruits) occur on a Sabbath either. The reason for the latter should, I hope, be obvious because the Day of Resurrection was far from being a day of rest in the way the Sabbath is designed to be! They're different kinds of holy day. The Day of Resurrection is about the diametric opposite to 'resting' - it's about resurrection power, energy and movement! But it's still spiritual and not profane which is why this day is set apart for us to celebrate and with vigour if necessary!

I suppose what I am trying to say is that being restful isn't the only holy, spiritual activity there is. That should be self-evident but unless we are very careful we tend to start defining the idea of the 'spiritual' in strange and narrow ways. It's not a case of being spiritual on the Sabbath and the moedim (appointments), and 'unspiritual' at all the other times, like on the 6 regular work days of the week. The biblical word 'spiritual' does not mean 'non-physical' - when we speak of being or making something 'spiritual', what we mean is that we consecrate, devote or dedicate it to Yahweh so that we 'do' whatever it is in a godly way, be it physical or non-physical...or both. That would then include our regular labours in the home and in the work place as well the things we do at our leisure times. Having fun can either be spiritual or unspiritual. Likewise careers or professions like owning a porn shop or running a crime syndicate are most definitely unspiritual, and I'm here speaking of positive spirituality as opposed to negative, demonic 'spirituality'.

Nevertheless there may rightly be said to be two kinds or categories of the positive 'spiritual' or 'holy':

• 1. That which we do on Yahweh's moedim (appointments) in which we are individually and collectively focussed on a common task which Yahweh defines for us to do (like celebrating the Passover meal); and
• 2. That which we do in our 'own' time such as earning a living, home making, entertainment, and the like which we dedicate to Yahweh to be time in which we demonstrate His attributes to others around us, setting an example for the way to live generally. If we can't glorify and honour Yahweh in something we do, we probably shouldn't be doing it.

One of the chief characteristics of the Holy City - the Eden-Astara Garden-City that is the Millennial New Jerusalem, and to some extent the preparatory 12 'Cities' of Refuge or Final Gathering places too, something which we have yet to initiate properly - one of the chief characteristics is the holiness, set-apartness and spirituality of the activity that takes place in both of these two types of place. And because a people 100 per cent in Christ may be said to be spiritually 'at rest' or 'at peace' within themselves because they live in harmony with the Divine, the time that exists in these places - all seven days of the week - can sometimes referred to as 'sabbath-like' too. We, as born-again, spiritually-regenerated believers, should be living a kind of perpetual spiritual sabbath within, it is true, because we are spiritually at rest, but this does not mean, as so many Protestants mistakenly teach, that there is no longer a need for any regular 'sabbath day' of rest in the outer or physical dimension. Indeed, that family of 'orthodox' christians who descend from Catholicism have done away with Yahweh's 'Sabbath' altogether, without any sort of commandment to do so from Him, and have subtitiuted it for what they call the 'Lord's Day', celebrating it on Sundays as a kind of 'replacement sabbath'.

So you'll not uncommonly find Protestants 'going to church' on Sunday mornings and then going off and doing non-sabbath things afterwards like going out to some place like MacDonalds or Burger King and paying others to work (and so break the Sabbath) to provide them with a meal that ought to ave been prepared at home the day before. Some even go back to doing their own regular work afterwards. This is mixing of the sacred with the profane (non-sacred) and is not scriptural. No such 'day' partly devoted to Elohim (God) and partly devoted to man's own self-interest is ever described or authorised by Yahweh in Scripture. The Sabbath belongs exclusively to Father Yahweh. The Sabbath Day has never been abolished. It has never changed in its content and character. We're still required to rest one-day-in-seven - on the seventh day of creation calendar week - by gathering for worship and fellowship whilst abstaining from regular, salary-producing work, engaging in commercial activity like trading with money or bartering or traveling long distances.

The Sabbath is not for "doing as you please" (Is.58:13, NIV). The Sabbath hasn't substantially changed except that it does now contain the messianic resurrection power of Yom haBikkurim and now we witness of a risen Saviour too. He has been to earth the first time to accomplish the work of the atoning work of the cross and He will return a second time to end the present world system and bring to pass the Millennial 'Sabbath' of Peace within where there is no more war or strife, inwardly or outwardly. Nevertheless people will do regular work during the Millennial Sabbath! The New Jerusalem isn't a giant state-operated welfare system for the idle who don't want to work because they're too lazy. I hope you understand the two aspects of 'sabbath', one of which is an inner condition and the other consistes of the concrete things one is, and isn't, allowed to do in outer physical space and time on a particular day of the week - the 7th day.

The Bible neither speaks nor predicts, let alone approvingly or disapprovingly, of Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism or any other denominational '-ism'. These are the inventions of man. The only Body of true believers ever described and recognised is called Israel. The difference between Old Testament Israel and New Testament Israel is who its human King is. Old Testament Israel, when it was being faithful, was ruled by human kings in the genealogical line of the House of David. When Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) came, during a time of foreign occupation by Rome, He became the last in that line of Davidic kings, the absolute final one. He, as Israel's Messiah, became the King of Israel too. Hence Yahweh's people may now be called 'Messianic Israel' - the Israel whose King is the Messiah.

But because political power was not restored to Israel 2,000 years ago, and won't be restored until Yah'shua (Jesus) returns to inaugurate the Millennial Messianic Kingdom, Yah'shua (Jesus) is not sitting on any physical throne on earth just yet, but only in the heavens for now. Indeed, there is no Kingdom of Israel on the earth politically-speaking right now, so any nation calling itself 'Israel' with a territory and political power is a fake. Yes, there is a country that calls itself 'Israel' amongst the nations of our modern world but it's a secular republic and its leaders are't Israelites but Edomites (or Idumeans), the descendants of Esau. It calls itself the 'Republic of Israel' to conceal its true identity and to claim special treatment and favours from the world but in reality it is the unspiritual, ungodly Kingdom of Edom restored. It is, however, there for a purpose, because nothing is 'accidental'.

The Middle Eastern state occupying the land that once belonged to Israel is indeed an indirectly prophesied entitity for its purpose is to give the legitimate, if paganised, Esau the right to rule and prove whether he is fit or unfit, worthy or unworthy for the task of governing Yahweh's people. He was defrauded by his brother Jacob, with his mother Rebekah's prompting and connivance, and must be given the opportunity to prove himself fit to lead as the biological firstborn. He has proved he is not. He has rejected the Messiah, changed the ordinances, modified the Scriptures by altering the Torah and specifically the messianic prophecies (the dark legacy of the Masoretes) as well as adding to it (the Talmud), incorporated occultism (kabbalism) been in the forefront of satanism, conspired against godly nations, made murderous agreements with ungodly nations, and been at the forefront of wicked ideologies (such as communism), and much else besides. He has done much evil.

That is why the current State of Israel exists and why it will come to an end, and very shortly too. It's a 'trial state', as it were. When its economic and moral backer, on whom it is dependent for its very existence, collapses - and I am speaking here of the United States of America - it too will collapse, for the USA, though represententing the western half of the Tribe of Manasseh, is itself an illegitimate ruler. Why? Because Ephraim is the head of the Tribe of Joseph, not any part of Manasseh (including the eastern German part) or as a whole. That is a reason why the USA's position as the global world power must also end. And because Great Britain (Ephraim) is in apostacy too, no nation currently represents Israel. Esau has had his 70 years to prove himself and has failed in every respect to qualify as a spiritual person, let alone a ruler. The Illuminati-fashioned Zionist State has been most wicked, guilty of gross immorality and genocide. His right to rule in the Promised Land expired in 2017/8 and right now he is only clinging onto power by the skin of his teeth until it is forcibly seized from him. The current Gaza War has demonstrated he has lost his grip on power for Yahweh will no longer enable him. His time is up. The anti-Messiah Israeli Republic, once so succesful in war and in some technological areas, is effectively at an end and it is now just a matter of time before it disintegrates. That's also a reason why many Israeli Jews are leaving the country and resettling elsewhere. They will save their lives in doing so.

So we have this interesting situation as far as Messianic Israel is concerned. Messianic Israel has a community of believers scattered across the whole world (with one or two congregations in Esau's territory, Edom - aka. the Republic of Israel) so properly speaking 'the Messianic Community in disapsora' is spread out all over the place and at the mercy of the governments of the nations, a reason it is so easy to persecute. For now Yah'shua the Messiah is the King only of the invisible realm that believers inhabit even though He overpowered all the false claimant political and religious authorities at the Cross. My point is that there is no such thing biblically as 'the Church' and even though that word appears in our English translations of the Bible it is a pagan Roman word and not a biblical concept. Furthermore, the theological idea and claim made by orthodox Christians that 'the Church' has 'replaced' Israel, inheriting all of Israel's blessings but none of its cursings (known as Replacement Theology) is itself a false 'unconditional teacher's pet' doctrine and distorts biblical truth. There aren't two separate entities - 'Israel' and the 'Church' - and the self-styled 'Republic of Israel' is not - I repeat - NOT biblical Israel. It fulfils none of the biblical criteria to be Yahweh's nation and people so its inhabitants cannot lay claim to being the "apple of God's eye" (Dt.32:10). That appellation belongs alone to Yahweh's Torah-obedient, Messiah trusting Messianic Community. Anyone else claiming that honour is an imposter and a thief. So don't let anyone who is not a born-again believer in Yah'shua (Jesus) obeying the mitzvot (commandments) demand special privileges and respect or invoke the scripture saying that "whoever touches you touches the apple of His (Yahweh's) eye - I (Yahweh) will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them" (Zech.2:8-9, NIV).

Not even those stylising themselves as 'Jews' are Israelites (at least not the vast majority of them), but are a religious and cultural grouping of ethnically diverse peoples and races, mostly of Turkic origin, and those that can make the claim to actually be literally descended from Abraham are so mixed with the other races now that to all intents and purposes the original Israelite blood lines have all but disappeared. The blood of Abraham is mixed in with all the nations now, blessing the nations (on one level) as Yahweh promised Abraham He would through his seed. Everyone in this room and listening to me today probably has some of Abraham's genes in them, but that doesn't make any of us special or blessed. The only blessed ones are those who have Christ in them and are living the New Covenant Israelite way of life. So genetically the term 'Jew' is meaningless.

The modern 'State of Israel and 'the Church' are not therefore two divinely sanctioned political entities. Neither are 'Jews' and 'Christians' two different lots of 'God's people'. Yahweh has only ever had one people, Israel - now Messianic Israel - Torah-obedient believers in Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus). However, as I have been at pains to point out to you during the spring festivals and before, that doesn't mean 'messianics' are 'God's people' and 'Christians' aren't, or vice versa either. That too is bunkum. Yahweh does not recognise the claimed or pretended 'authority' of either Ultra-Messianics or Ultra-Evangelicals. He doesn't recognise the Israeli Knesset, He doesn't recognise the Vatican, or Constantinople, or Canterbury, or Salt Lake City, or Brooklyn (New York) or the physical headquarters or any Christian, pseudo-Christian or Messianic organisation as a 'Holy Organisation'. He doesn't recognise their Synods, Councils, Apostolic Quorums, Conclaves, Conferences, Beit Din's or anything like that. There is no 'Church' or 'Messianic' headquarters that He recognises as having any sort of authority other than the consentual authority given by their own denominational members to be governed by their own sets of in-house rules. There is no 'Divine Imprimatur' on any of them in spite of their fancy buildings, robes, seals, crests, logos, symbols and the like. These are all the pretensions and vanities of men.

There will be a headquarters, absolutely, and when it comes (12 of them, in fact), you'll be able to see it with your own eyes because it will have the divine pillar of fire over it at night and the cloud by day over it as prophesied in Isaiah, chapter 4:

"Then Yahweh will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering" (Is.4:5, NKJV).

Our obedience to Yahweh is attended by an existential authority given by the unmistakable presence of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). It is not a merely legal claim. Written cerificates from human authorities won't ever meet the divine requirements even if letters authenticating certain ministers who travel are at times needed. Claiming to be in some sort of a legal line of ordinations or 'apostolic succession' of bishops as Catholics and Mormons claim to be in through the ordination of the laying-on of hands is likewise no guarantee of authenticity unless it is visibly accompanied by faithfulness to true doctrine and practice. Elohim (God) authorises people by giving them spiritual anointings represented as a combination of truth-telling, character-perfection and Ruach-power. Will Satan have his counterfeits? Of course. Always. Which is why you have got to know our Bible and why we have got to learn how to discern the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). If you would like to study this matter out in greater depth, please see my teaching from three years ago, The Deconstruction & Reconstruction of Biblical Authority.

Which brings us back again both to the Seven Days of Chag haMatzah and the Seven Days of Sukkot which mirror one another, testifying of each other, as it were. We have been given a special privilege at Chag haMatzah and Sukkot to learn to recongise and listen to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in each of Her seven constituent parts. Just as the Father has His own Voice and the Son has His, so each of the Seven Ruachot have their own Voices which are separated out for us, one on each of the seven days of Chag haMatzah, so that we can learn to distinguish between them.

In the normal course of events we experience the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) as one Echad in the same way that we usually experience light as being white. However, as you know, white light can be split by a prism into 7 different primary colours, something that happens naturally in nature when sunlight passes through, and is diffracted by, water droplets suspended in the air after rainful causing a rainbow to appear in an arc in the sky. When the Flood abated, Father showed Noah a giant 7-coloured rainbow in the sky to depict His covenant never to destoy man by flooding again (Gen.9:13-16). The post-flood world was a kind of 'new creation' similar to the first which He re-made in 7 days at Genesis 1:2 and following. Before even that time in Genesis 1:1 He imprinted His sevenfoldness in the seven days of the divine calendar week, in the seven notes of the musical octave, and representationally in the seven wives of King David, David being a type of Messiah, whose wives were themselves shadows of the Seven Ruachot haElohim or Spirits of God. There is a very clear pattern throughout creation, no less in the two 7 day-long festivals of Chag haMatzah and Sukkot. Moreover, this pattern doesn't just exist for its own sake - Yahweh didn't create this pattern so we could make babyish cooing sounds over the way the number 7 keeps showing up again and again but to show us how to relate to Him and with each other. If you want to have and eat your spiritual cake, you need all 7 ingredients. Completion processes go through a seven-stepped maturation. So this isn't just Father showing us what fun it is to play around with Bible mathematics. The numbers teach us about life and living itself. He has sprinkled clues all over the place for those interested enough to play detective and find out why.

So I am going to ask you an old question and offer you a fuller answer to it than you may possibly have heard before by utilising the seven days of Chag haMatzah. The question is, "How do I discern the Ruach (Spirit)?" Or to put it another way, "How do I learn to hear the voice of the Ruach (Spirit)?" We can give our first preliminary answer to that question by making that question more general: "How do I learn to discern or hear the voice of Elohim (God)?" And another, "How does a sheep learn to discern the voice of its master-shepherd?"

The most obvious answer to all of these questions is familiarity. As practice makes perfect, so we learn to recognise the voice of a loved one by consistently and repeatedly listening to them. Add to that obedience when the voice is that of a superior giving instructions, and so the familiarity increases. But it doesn't just have to be a voice we respond to with our ears. Satan can reproduce sounds. There is an essence or substance to a person too that enables us to identify them and we can pick that up by hearing, seeing as well as feeling. And in seeing I would include reading - reading our Master's words. That's why we have been given the Bible, so we can read about and understand our Master's mind and heart - His 'spirit' or phronema. We incarnate or make those words and concepts 'real' in us by obeying them. Obeying them means translating sounds, impressions, thoughts and feelings into concrete physical actions. So listening, hearing and obeying. But I must add a qualifier. If we obey out of fear more than we do out of love, we will never really know the Master. Instead we will come to know fear. "If you love me, obey My commandments," Christ said (Jn.14:15). Our obedience is proof we love the Master, just as a wife's obedience is proof she loves her husband (1 Pet.3:1).

We have learned from today's exercise that there are two kinds of love - the 'feeling, emotional' kind of love and the 'obeying' will-based kind of love which may or may not be accompanied by feelings (ideally, by positive ones). This kind of love is called Covenant Love and is common to our relationship with Yahweh as allegorical wives and to the relationship between actual husbands and wives. It's also known as Sacrificial, Agapé Love, Chesed (Mercy) and Ahavah (Loving-Kindness). We remain true no matter what out changeable thoughts and feelings may be. In the end it boils down to will-power, a decision one way or the other. A straight-out choice.

The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is Seven Persons and therefore has seven sets of personality characteristics because by definition persons are uniquely different even if, as Elohim (God), they possess the common non-personal qualities and powers of what it means to be divine. We can experience the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) as One (in same same way we see white light) or we can experience Her as Seven sets of unique characteristics (in the same way we experience light split into its seven primary colours). I am not here, by the way, talking about the 5 personality types that psychologists recognise: (1) conscientious, (2) extrovert, (3) agreeable, (4) open to experience and (5) neurotic. I am talking about an aspect of Elohim (God). We can experience the Ruachot as 7 or we can experience Her as one. We can experience Elohim (God) as a whole as One, as Three or as Nine, in the same way that we can experience light as white, or threefold red-green-blue (the 'trinity' of light, as it were), or all seven primary colours:

The Ruach does not bypass reason, thinking, will-power or any part of man that might overall be regarded as his 'soul' or essential self. There are those who mistakenly believe that to be 'spiritual' means to be surrendered in some kind of mindless state that is pure feeling only. This is never the case. The whole person is always ministered to, every faculty Yahweh created in man. When Yahweh engages us, He engages all of us, including our physical bodies, not just isolated bits of ourselves. Thus when He imparts His love, if isn't just feelings of love or the mental idea of love, but a power that leads to loving actions, like helping people. For free agency to have any sort of meaning our choosing must come from the whole of me. To be surrendered to Yahweh does not mean becoming a senseless automaton where all moral sensibility is suspended - surrender also includes aligning our thinking in the foundational matrix that is divine tavnith or pattern which we can call 'the Way of the Messiah':

What this means in practical terms is that whilst we are all uniquely different, we nevertheless share the same heavenly morals and ethical values which means that true believers are in complete agreement about all the essentials in life that make for a harmonious working community of human beings. We have the same values and the same world-view. We obey the same mitzvot (commandments), live by the same rule book or Kingdom Constitution (the Torah), follow the same system of time-keeping and use the same creation calendar. This ensures we all assemble at the correct times for Yahweh's mandatory appointments or moedim - his annual feasts, weekly sabbaths and monthly new moons and not tomorrow (the 'Easter' of orthodox Christians) and not at various dats next month (as most Messianic Jews and non-messianic Jews do).

Likewise, we recognise what godly emotions and ungodly emotions are and where they come from. We know how to measure them. We understand what echad-unity really is. We know what it is to "be of one accord" (Phil.2:2, NKJV) not just in what some call 'the essentials' (which everyone, incidentally defines differently, depending on what they things is important and what isn't) but in everything. I am not here speaking theoretically but from personal experience, recalling as I now do for you the time I was ushhered into the presence of the Heavenly Council. The unity I experienced with them was breathtakingly beautiful. It was so overewhelming that I wept for joy and wanted to leave this world and be with them. I knew them and they knew me. It was wonderful! I saw all this in vision too. I saw the multitude of their radiant faces. To me it was quite simply 'home' and I missed it desperately. We may not be able to attain that state of perfection completely in this life but we can get jolly get close to it if we want to! Knowing also what I know about the 7 Ruachot (Spirit) has helped me enormously in realising that goal.

Yahweh wants to engage you today individually and personally, and He wants to engage us today as a community or fellowship, what the Scriptures call in Greek a koinonia and in Hebrew a kehilah, very different concepts from the idea of 'church' or 'synagogue'. Koinonia and kehilah embrace eveything I have been talking about when it comes to unity in the Body and the Unity of the Seven Ruachot (Spirits) of Elohim (God). You don't get saved by joining an organisation - 'organisation' (or more properly, spiritual 'Order') arises out of this spiritual union sponteaneously. No one should even be contemplating 'organising an organisation' before that is in place and even then organisations have a tendency to quench, suffocate, fossilise and eventually destroy such spiritual echadness when they start making idolatrous demands of the people. The Holy Order is an organic body first and foremost, not something you sign up to and get a certificate back saying you 'belong'. That's the church system. It understands, cherishes and spontaneously is all that is "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy" (Phil 4:8). All of these things just 'are' in the Remnant, the Elect, the Bride, the Firstborn...call them what you will...these things can't be faked but are real fruits of the sevenfold Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). If you love these things - and if you love them passionately, sincerely, openly and without pretense or guile - you're in right relationship with our Heavenly Father! And it will show in your deeds or works - how you love and treat people. What you feel and what you speak are what you to do too. You may not see it in yourself but those around you will.

I must end. I have said all I was bidden to say. Forgive me once more for being so long. I had to rewrite this sermon three times to get is right and even then I have still but scratched the surface. My hope - my prayer - is that I have sparked a new passion in you to be in deeper relationship with Yahweh through Yah'shua (Jesus) and that you will pursue the Ruach haQodesh in eager anticipation of what She has to bring to you as any true Mother would want for Father's children. Though Chag haMatzah and the Passover Season don't end until sunrise tomorrow, when a regular weekly Sabbath takes over, I have given you what I was supposed to give and used everything I had in me to do so. I am also very, very tired, and it is time for the next and final generation to present themselves for service. I may have to rest again for some weeks as I did last year, we will see. So Yahweh bless you all richly, may He impart to every earnest seeker who wishes to serve an ever greater abundance of light, truth and love in Yah'shua our Messiah (Jesus Christ) is my prayer in His sacred Name. Amen.