This is the day of the fire – Shavuot, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the church. These are the first fruits of the church of Christianity after Christ on earth. These are the fruits of Christ. First fruits.
One hundred and twenty disciples stood before the Lord when Christ in the Body had already left, they did not see Him, but they abode in prayers and supplications for about ten days, and this was not “arranged” for Pentecost. The Lord waited for this very day and poured out the Holy Spirit on them, testifying by the fire of God that these first fruits were good, like Abel’s. That is, they brought those gifts, instead of Cain, whom God rejected, and He accepted these fruits. This is a very powerful prophetic sign, and when we penetrate it, we receive an empowerment.
A dream came, where a huge banner was shown, like a blazing fire, in the hands of the man of God. When he waved it, a whirlwind was created, which ascended upwards, opening the heavenly space through which a heavenly portal opened. Those brothers and sisters who were close to the man of God could see what was inside this portal, as they were under one cover and one spirit.
There were curious people who wanted to look, but they were not allowed to see.
What is happening now – I’m in an interesting season – when I can communicate what I have been holding back for a long time. In fact, I am learning to speak less than I know. Unfortunately, formerly I spoke what I didn’t know. And I see a lot of preachers doing the same thing – they speak things they don’t know. He gets a superficial experience, an impression – and immediately speaks it out, but he neither knows the subject, nor has he penetrated, nor kept it inside – he has not received knowledge.
I’m learning the opposite – to speak what I know. And there are many things that I would like to talk about, but I understand that now is not the time.
When the first fruits came from the marginals, I realized I couldn’t speak many secret things, because they were too precious for me: those people were not interested. In particular, now we are studying the cloud of witnesses in the Mantle school – there are dozens of people in the cloud who were my teachers. But I met with an audience that doesn’t like to read, they are not interested. Therefore, greater emphasis was not on the mystical, but on the Apostolic work. I mean “to do things on earth” – planting, people, conversations, words, deeds, and so on.
But the Apostolic work also requires balance – so that on the other side of the scales there is mystical work. These two bowls must be in harmony. If a man dives into mission only, carries out labor only on earth, then one day he will come to the conclusion that he has nothing to give. “From the depths I cry to Thee, O God!” says David. But if there is no such depth, from where will you cry? You must first descend to the depths in order to cry out from there.
The Church of Christ provides both. We are in this struggle – the search for integral holiness – not behavioral, but integral, when man actually is saint. You can look like a saint on the outside, and everyone thinks that this is exactly how a saint should look. This is such a stupidity that gave rise to Christianity – robes , crosses, white collars … It’s incredible how this can turn into a distorted idea of holiness. Is this the idea of holiness?
We are in Shavuot today. It is said that the Holy Spirit descended on the church, and she received something into herself – when they came out with this power, Apostle Peter spoke on their behalf, and they spoke about the wonderful works of God in other languages - there were about seventeen nations that listened and understood them . Peter spoke from Joel, and everyone else prophesied in different languages to the nations that were there.
It was a gathering of fragments of peoples after the Tower of Babel into the one Body of Jesus Christ. Instead of a tower – the Body of Christ. The tongues were scattered, but after the descent of the Holy Spirit, through other tongues, everyone understood the message of the wonderful works of God. This is how the Body of Christ was built.
The Heavenly city. The City of Heaven.
But the Spirit of hope also poured out along with the divided tongues. It is written that “…hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). That is, something entered in us with this Spirit.
One of the things is hope. Compassion, true unity. Although the hundred and twenty were together, they were never so united as they were when they received the fire. They were united into one Body. It was dough, but when the fire came down, that dough became bread.
Today we must bring hope to the people around us. Hope is that which never disappoints. A man who hopes, the most hopeless, on his bed, dying of an incurable disease, a wounded soldier – the most terrible pictures can come – but if a person still hopes that he will live, it is never a shame. Hope never brings shame.
Anyone can hope – never deprive a single person of hope. Never. Hope doesn’t disappoint. Any person, in the most terrible situation, at the lowest bottom of hell, has the right to his own hope. Give it to him! Don’t take away, don’t bring doubt – bring hope!
Imagine if the church armed itself with this mighty weapon of hope as a sign, it would save the world.
Why did the son of the donkey under the yoke become the means by which the Lord wanted to enter Jerusalem? The Lord had to find a means to sit on. He wasn’t to set foot in Jerusalem. He had to ride into Jerusalem.
Why did Jesus send for the one on whom no man sat? Why did it have to be a foal, a “colt of the one under the yoke” – that is, the son of the donkey, which was under the yoke, but her son wasn’t yet taken under the yoke? Why did Jesus take such a donkey, which was virgin in its kind – which was not submitted, its back didn’t know bondage and yoke?
If they sat on him, he would manifest other people’s habits to Christ. It would be hard for the Lord to drive him, because he would do as he was trained.
The same thing happened with the Apostles, on whom He “travelled” to the Kingdom – they were not religious people. They were the same kind of donkeys, on which no one sat – they didn’t know what religious life was. Take Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Matthew the tax collector, and so on. I imagine if this donkey had already been accustomed to proper driving: he would have resisted and not received a command. This would prevent us from allowing Christ to work through us, we have caught a religious experience, a religious “contagion”, we have picked up heredity.
This is a terrible thing – as soon as you put “labels” on yourself, you fall. Christ sails off like a ship disappearing over the horizon. Because He can’t be stopped.
So this donkey, which could have already been used by men, would communicate his opposition to Christ. Christ could not drive him, because he would not walk new ways, he was enslaved because his mother was a slave.
I see that although we were in bondage, in the system, we were born of Christ. This mother-slave is a church system that has given birth to a donkey in the spirit of holiness, and Jesus takes it to Himself – from a donkey mother with a corrupted mind. And the mother donkey claps her big eyelashes, sheds a tear and says: “Go, son, I don’t wish you the same life as mine.” But the other mother, mean, as in the parable of Solomon, doesn’t let him go of herself, saying: “Do as I do.” So she makes him a slave to the system.
Christ wants today these sons of the one under-yoke, but on which no one sat. The church, born of a slave system, must be free for Christ. We must be those on which no one has sat and will not sit. How powerful it is! But among us there are those who have allowed to sit on them. This is what you desired. Fear, torment from the unknown – you said: “Just give me your name, give me your last name.” I want to ask you: “What is your reason for being here?” Is it because you love, or because you fear being alone?
I see that people come again, they are here not because of love, but because of the fear of losing victory over loneliness.
I will share from the book of Ruth.
One day Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, said to her, “Shall I not seek security for you?” Wow! What a mother-in-law! All my life I can not find security for myself – and there an elderly woman will find security … Usually mothers-in-law use people – one for their daughter, and the other for their son. Who wants to find security for a strange woman so that she feels good?! For a single woman with no husband or children. One Moabite stayed in her land, and the other went with her mother-in-law.
“Isn’t Boaz our relative?” – Naomi’s “optical sight” found a man. That’s it. The “Bitter” has taken hold of him. It’s worse than witchcraft, because the stolen blessing is coming back. When God is about to return the blessing to you, no one stand in the way. No one stand in the way of this man, you will simply be blown away. You don’t have to do curling – everything will be clean.
“Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative; in fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor, – Naomi went on a strategy. How did she know about this? – therefore wash yourself and anoint yourself, put on your best garment and godown to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Then it shall be when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies; and you shall go in, uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do. Rut said to her: All that you say to me I shall do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law instructed her.” (Ruth 3)
Why anoint yourself with expensive perfumes and put on the best clothes if you are going to the field? Look what Naomi brought to them. Today I’m talking about a donkey that no one has sat on. Nobody has ever done that! But it was a battle for blessing, a battle for your blessing.
It’s all about Naomi. And Ruth did not resist. And she says, “Yes!”
Naomi understood the status of her position: she returned to Israel, she lost her sons – but the time of mourning has passed, and now she has Ruth – young and beautiful. Everyone else has land, and she and her daughter-in-law gather after reapers … What is happening? She saw that she had a lineage in Israel, she is a direct heiress, yes, she made a mistake before, but now she is returning, God is merciful, and she decides to fight for her blessing.
Hey, God’s saints! Shard cities, join back, scattered tribes, get back together! That is, she decided to find security for Ruth, so that she would “feel good”, but you can read between the lines that this is for her as well, because then Naomi nursed her grandson – forefather of David. She gained an understanding of her position – status in the truth. And developed a strategy for returning blessings in the law of the Almighty. She sent her daughter-in-law to gather everything. In fact, so that Ruth would bring the bridegroom in her arms – this is exactly what happened. She also prepared her – cleansed her and sent her. She washed her, changed her clothes and sent her away. This is the mother-in-law’s blessing.
We need to prepare ourselves for a new transition. Some of us can’t cross over, get empowered. We need to renew our thinking. Christ may be among us, but we do not see Him. Jesus can speak through anyone. There are a lot of such cases, but we don’t notice, don’t see this – we are earthly, carnal, worldly. When will we learn to see the Lord? In these signs of life He flickers everywhere. We are built on materialism, we have seen enough worldly videos, we know something, and then we get skeptical.
There must be a mystical faith – supernatural. Here there should be a feeling of miracles, a feeling of expectation of a miracle, and not material thinking, which is built on the experience of human life, where there is no place for miracles.
Ruth prepared. And we need to prepare for the transition – to this knowledge, where we wanted to look, but did not see anything. Because only those who are empowered can see.
It doesn’t matter how far we are – we may see each other often, but in the spirit – be millions of kilometers apart, and with people whom we haven’t seen for years, go “nostril to nostril”. This is how it happens, and this is how everything is arranged, because the eternal spirits move round in the Universe – dancing in harmony where they are empowered with one voice.
It is very important to prepare today for the transition – for an encounter with the Lord, with His princes. Can you imagine what he risked? He put everything at risk. Ruth could have been stoned – she was a Moabite, she would not have entered Israel even in the tenth generation. Naomi took care of the next generation.
Find your own security. Today we need such fathers – not pastors who give commands, who for the sake of their success trample on love. And who will say: “I must find a place for you”? This is much more important. And it doesn’t matter whether they understand you or not, whether they thank you or not – it doesn’t matter. You do your duty of love in Christ. And that’s it. No one is supposed to understand you, no one is supposed to thank you – eternity will reward you. And you should convey not ideas, but true upbuilding – when you convey life, growth, the power of unceasing life. You pass on to a disciple, son or daughter who will survive because they have adopted a victorious spirit.
You can live your whole life in resentment, in search of justice. In your old days, turn into a grumbler and a gnat. Or you can live with completely different kind of goals – elevated, beautiful. Who can make you stumble or tempt you if you are walking with Christ? And not in the position of “resistance”, but free – in love and compassion, when you move with Him.
What is given to you – do you have to fight for it? The Lord gave me to you and you to me. No need to fight for the authority – it is given from heaven. You can seize it, but it won’t do good. Take up your cross. Move and develop your vineyard.
“Go to the threshing hold!” – two women stand in the night, one is sending the other. This other one “has perfumed herself” and is on the way! “… but don’t show yourself to him until he finishes eating and drinking” – for her it was like death, that is, waiting for him to lose his control.
Here it is important to understand what the Lord wants to tell us. She took the path unknown. Straight. With the blessing of “senior curators”. We need to develop a deep intimate relationship with the Lord. A process of global nearing. This is a total dedication and risk of your whole life!
Can you shift from your religious experience, the circle you keep walking, – into a global vertical movement? To risk your whole life and make the transition to a different nature of walking with Him?
Why were many saint mystics burned at the stake? – For their deep relationship with Jesus. The same Teresa of Avila – she was literally one step away from the fire when she called Jesus “the sweetest” and experienced a strong deep relationship with Him, like the Bride of Christ.
Today the Lord is calling us deeper. When we began to worship in such a way that we broke the taboo, there was no longer any need to struggle for trance. Trance is always. Every time. It is like Divine ecstasy, the sweet embrace of the Lord: you enter there, and that’s it, He doesn’t reject you. You enter there freely. I walk with Him, but I don’t always experience ecstasy or trance – it depends on my desire. It’s like love. It’s not just physical intimacy. If it is unrequited – this is not love. This is desire.
Today the Lord is calling us away from the system, from religion, from rituals – into the real living flow of the river. This is not Christianity. It is walking in the stream of life. This is immersion in the Spirit. Life immersed in the Spirit.
“He will tell you what to do” – wow – that’s trust! Today there are so many people around whom you say things, and they won’t believe. But there are those who believe. They will look and say: “All right!” How many skeptics I meet among the brothers – they begin to resist immediately, they are hopeless. It’s such a pain! It is so sad, bitter and lonely for me to live in the middle of such a garden – withered. You hear the Lord, you speak – but he won’t believe and just opposes. He doesn’t believe!
Ruth told Naomi, “He will tell you what to do!” And Ruth agreed: “[Ruth] said to her, ‘I will do whatever you told me.’ And she was a godly woman; she wasn’t a harlot in the past. She was a pure widow. She had no experience of men betraying her, but she does an act that was characteristic only of some brave harlot or a desperate woman who has nothing to lose. She just agrees and says she will do everything.
Lord, teach us to believe this way! She went and did everything her mother-in-law told her. “So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law instructed her. And after Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was cheerful, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain; and she came softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down” (Ruth 3:6-7).
The daughter of the spirit. And Naomi was the mother of the spirit in faith, just a lioness, the leader of the pride – she restored her blood line, she released David from her womb, she saved the royal blood line, she made Judah raise the banner! This is an old woman with a bad, negative experience, who had nothing – except for a Moabite woman – this is the last ruined instrument – the daughter of shame – she gathered after reapers, like a beggar, she walked along the outskirts of the field, gleaning what was left for her. What could be more humiliating?!
And now she breaks through – like a female leopard. Have you seen how a leopard leaps – head down, a hundred meters, into the darkness, how it grabs a goat and rolls along with it over stones, and then drags its prey in its mouth?
Can you imagine if we all go for our blessing today like Naomi?! The daughter of the spirit has the same risky faith as her older sister. She risked everything, but she was full of trust in obedience. She entered the sphere of intimate relationship with the Lord. What no one ever did, what was considered a shame, she did it by faith.
Why does the Bible give us such “unsafe” places? Why do we need such “traps”? Now let’s all go and do it. You won’t get anywhere, you will return even more scared.
“And Boaz said to [her], “Who are you?” She said, “I am Ruth, your servantю Такe your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative.” Then he said to her, “Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning in that you did not go after young people, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you everything that you request; for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman” (Ruth 3:9-11).
These were new ways of finding God. I look at mystics who have experienced a unique relationship with God. It’s amazing – directly, straight to Him – to love. To say, “You!” to Jesus like to a close one. It’s straight to Him. Become one with Him. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Being far is more dangerous. Close is also dangerous, but the Lord will help.
A worthy answer of a faithful servant of God. As she called herself a maidservant and asked for a covering from Boaz. Complete dedication and surrender to the one. She didn’t go to anyone. So Boaz answered her with a blessing. He called her daughter, because she is a daughter by faith, because his faith is even higher than hers – after all, he was the one to take care of this problem: a poor woman, a Moabite – she could immediately be stoned. And he was a respected person. His faith was even greater than theirs combined. And he discerned the Lord in it. It wasn’t her beauty. There was no other fire – he discerned it was the Lord and said: “May the Eternal One bless you, my daughter!”
“Now it is true that I am a close relative, there is still a relative closer than I. Stay this night, and in the morning it shall be that if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you – good; let him do it. But if he doesn’t want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you, as the Lord lives! Lie down until morning” (Ruth 3:12-13). See, there is no lust here. Boaz was ready to give it to the closer one according to the law. What a restraint!
This is a courageous man. He didn’t get scared, but covered her. This is beyond our understanding. We don’t understand what tradition in Judaism is. It was unacceptable on any account. No trial would have acquitted him. It was just a blessing! Only grace! Which is higher than Judaism and paganism, higher than the church, higher than Christianity, higher than man. These are God’s ways.
Today we preach on Shavuot about God’s ways – unpaved and unwalked. Dive and immerse straight into the love of the Lord, completely surrendering to Him.
This is a righteous man. He bestows dignity to the worthy. Godliness is the nature of the righteous. There is someone who has a right for my blessing. That is, perhaps in your life there is someone who has more rights than you. Like that kinsman of Boaz. And I’ll take both his and my blessing.
“So she lay at his feet until morning, and she arose before one could recognize another. Then he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor” (Ruth 3:14). It was unusual, strange, but they kept holiness. This is amazing beauty! And I will say: the Lord never doubted it! The Lord never doubted her, neither did the Lord doubt him. Those were two civilizations swept past each other to make another new run.
Great things are born in mystery. The mystery was needed in order to bring the matter to the end. The master risked no less than the servant.
“Also he said: “Bring the shawls that is on you and hold it.” When she held it, he measured six ephahs of barle, and laid it on her, then she went into the city” (Ruth 3:15). I imagine how he was measuring: one, two, three… he looked at her, and she – at him… four, five, six.
The righteous fills the hands of the faithful. The six measures are the fullness of the human good. He gave her the fullness. All the rest depended on God. After that, he returned to the city. I imagine: he came to the field for the night, which he winnowed, ate, had fun. It’s wonderful – to sleep on a reaped field – when everything is done – to sleep on a reaped field. This is a strong tradition. Then he returns to the city, but this is a different Boaz. I see a twinkle in his eyes. He get straight to business. He goes to his relative. This man is “charged” with thought. This is how we should walk. We must not walk empty and deaf.
I like this: “After that, he returned to the city.” The man of God returned to the city on a mission that will change the history of Israel!
“When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, she said, “Is that you, my daughter?” Then she told her everything that the man had done for her. And she said: “He gave me these six ephahs of barley and said to me: do not go empty-handed to your mother-in-law.” Then she said: “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day” (Ruth 3:16-18)
A faithful daughter is honest, without manipulation. Faithful in everything. The daughter of God doesn’t come empty-handed. How wonderful! How good it is to be a daughter or a son in the Kingdom of God! Why it was also said about Christ: “Son of God” and “Son of Man”. The Lord is the Son! How wonderful it sounds!
Both Boaz called Ruth his daughter, and Naomi called her daughter. Be daughters and sons in the Kingdom! There is no need to fight to be a father or mother … Have you yourself been daughters and sons? Maybe you need to go back to the course below and take the exam? If you don’t have a pastor over yourself, you are uncontrollable – how can you demand others to call you mother or father? Let’s start over.
Here is the speed of the decision in Boaz – “he will not rest until he completes things today.” Complete things today! The more important the issue is, the sooner you solve it. It was a testimony of a man of God.
The strength of the mother-in-law was that she was the main warrior in the cause of God. In a great cause, she led an army of Angels. Boaz is a man of wisdom, speed and fateful decisions.
These three heroes are statuses. Naomi is the administering priesthood that builds up people and sends them out for victorious battles. Ruth is a prophetic ministry in complete dedication and obedience. She moved like Joshua – in the valley, she “cut” the road through “with swords.” Boaz is Apostolic covering and provision. He took them into his world and changed the lives of these women. He did not build anything – he brought them into his world. This is Apostolic ministry. Full provision in God.
We are in Shavuot today.
Receive from the Eastern Gates this high spirit of the new paths – straight into the heart of the loving Jesus, directly into the love of Christ, straight path of love into the heart of Jesus – without rituals, without traditions, as these people did, they took the shortest way – directly into the heart of Jesus’ love, blazing with the fire of Pentecost!