Our Guest Rick Neill
Sid: We want everyone everywhere to understand that the Biblical festivals are appointments with God so that we can get insight into the final play that’s on the scene right now. The way to get insight is to take a look at the rehearsal, take a peek. How would you like a book from God that gives you a peek into what’s going to happen in the last days? That’s the Biblical festivals, that’s what God’s trying to tell us in the book of Leviticus. I have on the telephone Rick Neill I’m speaking to him at his home right outside of Akron, Ohio about his brand new book literally just off the press “Ultimate Glory.” In which we take a peek at these Biblical festivals… those that have been listening earlier this week we found out that the spring feasts were fulfilled to the decimal point. I mean the first Jewish people before Jesus came if they could have just examined with an open mind these Biblical festivals they would have seen everything that happened at the first coming of Jesus. Same thing is true today, if the church will just take a peek without the blinders on at these Biblical festivals they’ll find rehearsals of the return of the Messiah. Let’s take a look Rick at Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets. What does this mean to us?
Rick: Okay to the church this is a time that the Lord is calling us to repentance. There’s really 2 keywords that we need to address with the Feast of Trumpets:
- Repentance
- Grace
To understand what the Lord is calling the church to here, we must understand that the Lord’s perspective on repentance is that we are to turn from the things that are hindering. We are to turn from them, we are to from dead works, and we are to turn to the Lord.
Sid: Now when I think of the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah, coming from a traditional Jewish background, I think that those were the 10 days leading up to the day of judgment, Yom Kippur. Those were the days that we had to be really introspective and determined what areas might stop us from having our sins forgiven on Yom Kippur and to repent over it. We used to call it the 10 days of awe and repentance.
Rick: That’s exactly right, the feast of trumpets is a 10 day feast. The 10th day of that feast is the Day of Atonement which is the most holy day of all the feast days. It is the most awesome day of all the feast days. The Feast of Trumpets is a call to believers to check our hearts to make sure that we’re right both with the Father and with our brothers. It’s really a call to get the 1st commandment and the 2nd commandment functioning correctly in our lives. That we are to be loving the Father, we are to be loving the Lord our God with all of our heart mind, soul, and strength. We are to be loving one another as He loves us. There are so many people in the church today say that “I love God” yet they don’t love their brother. These people are in a really dangerous place because the Lord says “If you can’t love your brother who you have seen you can’t love God who you haven’t seen.” The Lord is calling His church now together in love to be in love with the Father, to be in love with one another, it’s a time of repentance not only before the Lord to get right with what we need… we need to get right with the Lord, but we also need to go to our brothers and sisters. Anyone who has ought against us we need to make that right. Anything that we’re holding against others we need to forgive. This is a time of… if your coming in on the wrong side of this this is the most terrible time in all the feast days. This is a… you don’t want to be out of fellowship with God. You don’t want to be playing with hidden sin coming into the Day of Atonement. It is a terrible time for that, but on the other side of this the same identical time period if you heart is tender towards God, if you have a heart that is repentant before God and loving your brothers this is the most exciting time, the grandest promises in all of scripture are about to be fulfilled in your life.
Sid: So in effect if I’m understanding your analysis in your book we have a window to repent and the window is called Feast of Trumpets.
Rick: Precisely. We’re in that window right now.
Sid: You really believe that?
Rick: I believe that with all of my heart. I believe there’s never been such preaching of repentance to the church, in the church, to the church as there is now. The Holy Spirit is raising up this call of purity. He’s raising up a call of love, there is a call right now… the word of the Lord underpinning much of what’s going on right now is the release of the love, the deep love that the Father has for us; the Father’s heart message, the message of the bridegroom and the bride. This overwhelming love that the Father want’s us to respond to His love so powerfully that he’s opening His heart and calling us to come into this deep love and the enemy has tried to keep us out of that love through guilt, and shame, and fear and different things. But now the Father is ripping apart all of this and He’s saying “Please get ready the time is here. If you’re on the wrong side the Day of Atonement is your worse nightmare coming through. But if you’re on the right side, if you’ve made things right with the Lord this is the greatest day imaginable.”
Sid: Some of the suggestions you might have for our Mishpocha to do things right… if we’re being nudged as you said on yesterday’s broadcast by the Holy Spirit as in your case it was, and that’s not everyone I want you to understand, it’s whatever is your idol. In Rick’s case he was spending too much time and had too much of an interest in sports, and as I understand it the Father was jealous.
Rick: Precisely (laughing). Father really loves me and He loves all of His kids. He wants to have fellowship with us everyday. I had a dark spot in my relationship with the Lord that I didn’t even know it was there. It was a long experience I’ll make it short. He took me, the Lord just took me in His arms and loved away all guilt and shame that was in my life. It wasn’t guilt and shame from the time before I was saved from things I did back when I was a sinner. It was guilt and shame for things that I compromised on since I was saved. I’m not backslidden, I don’t have any deep hidden secrets in my life for sin, it’s just things that I didn’t do as well as I should have I could have done better. All of these things over the years kind of built up a wall of guilt and shame. The Lord came and tore that down to let me know He loves me and that He accepted me and He likes me just the way I am. Now He’s calling me to come and let Him wrap His arms around me and love me into wholeness.
Sid: What would you suggest someone do that knows that they don’t have the intimacy that is available that God wants for them? What steps would you suggest they take during this season of the Feast of Trumpets where we’re suppose to be getting rid of all the junk that’s separating us from this intimacy?
Rick: I’ll take you down the path the Lord took me down. Several years ago the Lord spoke to my wife and I, and our family and He called us to begin taking communion everyday on a daily basis. Not to make a law out of it we don’t do it everyday but we try to do it quite often. It has become a source of intimacy in life for us.
Sid: You know the Lord called me to do this also and I never cease to be amazed that when I take the elements I’m feeling such a presence of God come on me.
Rick: Yeah.
Sid: It must be a supernatural thing in the spirit realm it literally causes the devil to shake and God to be pleased.
Rick: Exactly. In the scriptures Jesus Himself said that “If you eat My flesh and drink My blood I will abide in you and you will abide in Me.” That is a pretty good working definition of communion, it’s also a pretty good working definition of intimacy…
Sid: Now just out of curiosity, we’re talking about the positive things to do, what if the Holy Spirit keeps coming gently, and He does come gently, and He is saying “I want you to stop this because its time for your separation, it’s time for you to prepare for the great Jewish wedding” and you keep saying “No” during this particular season of Feast of Trumpets.
Rick: The Lord will continually work with us and what we can’t afford to do is to allow our hearts to be hardened. You can see the exact scenario that you just described played out in the 7 churches in Revelation. Where the Lord would come to the churches and said “I am aware of your works I know your works now this is what you’re doing good, this is what you’re doing bad. Hold on to doing what you’re doing good, get rid of repent of what you’re doing bad, or I will come…” and there are several different things there. He said He will remove their name from the book of life, He will remove their candlestick, He will come and… those who don’t repent there are list of things that you can see in those 7 churches that you do not want to experience. The Lord has called us, and the very first church concerning loosing our first love, they lost their first love. They were doing a lot of good religious stuff but they had lost their first love and if they didn’t repent He was going to come and cut them off and that’s the message of the Day of Atonement. The Feast of Trumpets is a time preparation shouting the good and the bad…
Sid: Alright but those that haven’t repented now comes the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. What’s going to happen to those?
Rick: The picture of that, I believe the perfect picture of that was in the book of Joshua with Achan where Achan had seen the power and the glory of God. That he had been with Joshua, they had come across the Jordan, he had been circumcised, found of covenant, he had seen the miraculous power of God with Jericho and God had said “Don’t do this, don’t steal don’t take this stuff” but he took the stuff and hid it in his tent. That act stole the power of God out of the camp of God…
Sid: Not just the power…
Rick: Yeah.
Sid: It cost him his life.
