A personal testimony. Chris Foster shares about how she met with God while celebrating Passover for the first time.

I had an amazing encounter with God recently, which I wanted to share!

I was in church one Sunday, listening to the sermon. The preacher said that in the Book of Leviticus there are a number of feasts listed, which Jesus celebrated, and that significant things about His life, death and resurrection occurred at those times (Lev 23).

She said, although those times are translated ‘Feasts’ or ‘Festivals’ in our Bibles, the Hebrew actually means ‘God’s appointed times’, and that God has ordained ‘appointed times’ throughout the year when he ESPECIALLY wants to meet with his people!

As the preacher was saying that, something stirred in my spirit - I wanted to explore this some more.

God’s Appointed Times

A few days later, I had a book put into my hand, The Messianic Church Arising: Restoring the Church to Our Covenant Roots! by Robert D Heidler.¹ It’s a book about the biblical Feasts, written for modern-day charismatic Christians.

The book says this:

From my studies in seminary, I knew the Bible devoted a lot of space to a series of feasts, but I had never taken the time to study them. I had always assumed these feasts were just for the Old Testament era, and had no relevance for Christians today. For the first time in my life, I began to seriously study the feasts. I WAS AMAZED at what I found! As I began to study the feasts, I discovered that…they were not just holidays or Jewish rituals. God called them His “appointed times”. In a very real sense, these feasts are “appointments” with God: times set by God to meet with His people…

As I studied the feasts, I was surprised to find that these appointed times were not just for the Old Testament era! God’s Word repeatedly tells us that these appointed times are eternal, “for all generations”, and cannot be changed. (p100)

The Hebrew Feasts actually translate ‘God’s appointed times’ – times throughout the year when he ESPECIALLY wants to meet with his people!

Now some might say, ‘We have the Holy Spirit inside us, to be with us ALWAYS, so why would we need Appointed Times now?’ And I would say: yes, He is ALWAYS with us, whatever we’re going through. Psalm 23 tells us that even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, HE IS WITH US!

But I would put it like this – I have been married for almost 43 years, and my husband is around a lot of the time. But we also enjoy special times, when we escape the demands of life, dress up a bit and go out for a meal or something, and we sit and talk and talk – and that’s special! I thought, maybe these ‘appointed times’ are like that!

Getting Rid of Hidden Leaven

While musing over this, I suddenly realised that one of the appointed times, Passover, was just a couple of weeks away. I thought: I’m going to be aware of this date.

In Heidler’s book, it says that one can make preparations for Passover by cleaning your house and getting rid of any ‘leaven’ (symbolic of sin), showing that you want to get rid of sin in your life. Leaven is yeast, used in bread-making, but as I don’t make bread, I didn’t think there was any yeast in the house, except in the bread we were eating at that time!

However, I realised that yeast is a type of mould and, as I stood in our bathroom, I spotted some mould getting into corners of the room where there had been condensation, so I cleaned that out. Then it seemed right to start a thoroughly good spring-clean. As I was vacuuming under the bed, I realised that I was cleaning places that are hidden from view to most people, and that this was about saying to God “I want to get rid of any hidden sin in my life”.

Passover involves getting rid of all leaven (sin) – even that which is hidden.

Being Met by God

The book says that before Passover it’s also good to go round your house, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal anything ungodly and anything else which, though not overtly ungodly, may be a distraction to you in your worship of God. So I went round my house praying and asking Him to show me those things. There were a couple of things He pointed out to me, so I got rid of them. Finally, it was suggested that you go round each room in the house, and pray a blessing on each room, and on the things that happen there.

So as Passover approached, I started praying round the house, to pray a blessing on each room. As I did so, within a minute or two of starting praying, suddenly there was a sort of WHOOSH, and an overwhelming sense of the presence of God THERE and WITHIN ME, showing me what to pray, and getting me to pray about things in my life that I had NEVER thought to pray about before!

For the rest of that day and in the ensuing days, throughout the time of Passover, I felt an almost unprecedented sense of God’s presence and blessing upon my life! I had several big answers to prayer, and I felt God’s Strong Presence and anointing on me as I was able to minister to people I encountered. The things that I had never thought to pray about before – yes, they were answered in miraculous ways too!

Throughout the time of Passover, I felt an unprecedented sense of God’s presence and blessing upon my life.

Wow! It was special! And the good news is, these ‘appointed times’ occur at other times of the year too! I’m looking forward to remembering these times more regularly, waiting on God and letting my life be more enriched as I celebrate those times in the future with Him!

References

1 Click here to read our review.