Sukkot was incredible...

Sukkot (also referred to the Feast of Tabernacles) is a biblical feast for all believers.  All the biblical feasts, including Sukkot, are in Leviticus 23.

In the last few years our family has come into a fuller understanding of a whole bible belief and our identity in the family of God.  We knew we were grafted into Israel (people, not country).  A newer friend reposted this on Facebook today and it really captures our story as well and the anonymous author says it better than I could.

"What I wish my friends who don't understand what I believe knew about my Whole Bible Belief:

I get asked questions about my faith and why our family does what we do but what I think happens the most is the silent misunderstandings without the questions. So here are a “few” things (loved this idea from Land of Honey blog!) I wish my amazing friends knew about our walk and our obedience to Yah (God) and HIS ways. It’s long but I couldn’t narrow it down easily.  

Yahusha (Jesus) is the Messiah!!! Praise Yah!! Yes, we fully believe that He is our Messiah. Our salvation comes through Him. He redeemed us and He is our atonement for our sin, taking away the curse we deserve: death. This has never changed and never will. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

We have many things in common! We are both reading our Bibles and desiring to know Him more intimately! I do recognize and choose to occasionally read the books that were removed from the Canon.

We’ve given up a LOT of worldly things. We feel strongly about not mixing our lives with the ways of the world. Not because of judgment of others but because we are called to look and be set apart as HE is set apart. We are not to look like, read like, act like, watch things like, or be like the world. We are a NEW creation.

We are NOT Jewish or trying to be. Seriously, if I had a quarter for every time we’ve been asked if we are or told we are Jewish..we’d have a heavy pocket.

Truly, we are not. We have not converted to Judaism. Judaism means you are agreeing to the Talmudic teachings and following the oral traditions of MAN and often times not following Yahusha (Jesus) as Messiah. That’s exactly what we are working away from.

We believe the WHOLE Bible is FOR today. We are whole Bible believers. We ARE ISRAEL—Israelites! (This was a HUGE game changer!!!) The whole Bible opens up in an amazing way once you understand this! John 10:16 Yeshua is saying that there is ONE flock and ONE Shepherd. There isn’t a flock of Christians and a flock of Jews. ONE FLOCK. When we believe in Yahusha our Messiah and join His covenant—we are GRAFTED IN (Romans 11:16-27) TO ISRAEL. There is neither Jew nor GREEK. There is ONE FLOCK. Ephesians 2 references how we were once FAR OFF (without Messiah) then through Messiah we were brought NEAR (with Messiah) and this bringing us NEAR. We are adoptees INTO ISRAEL. When far off we are EXCLUDED from citizenship of Israel. When we are brought NEAR—we become Israel! The people... NOT the nation state.

We are grafted in—which means we are Israel—which means when He says “Hear Oh Israel!” That’s us.

Once we have our belief in Messiah, we then “work out our belief with fear and trembling”. We then show our love to Him by keeping His commands (John 14:15, 1 John 2:3). Yahusha said “Follow ME” and "if you love me keep My commands" He wasn't here teaching anything but His Father's ways so His commands are His Father's commands.

 

So some of the big changes we’ve made is we keep the Sabbath on the seventh day (Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset), we observe the appointed times, completely gave up man-made holidays, and eat Biblically clean (Lev 11).

We are NOT living in bondage or with a burden. I’ve never felt more FREE.

We have an inner peace in our lives we can’t even explain. I’ve never felt closer to HIM than I do today. I have all the abundance I could need—spiritual abundance!! It’s like I was looking for a missing puzzle piece my whole life and it’s FINALLY in place. I still stumble and struggle but it never takes away the completeness I now feel in my life.

We wholeheartedly LOVE this journey we are on.

I still love and appreciate YOU. I KNOW there are many people and things that played a role in Him leading me to where I am today. Even things I disagree with now have helped me be where I am today. I am grateful for every person in my journey and just pray to encourage others along the way.

Please ask me questions. I won’t try to prove anything to you but I will talk and share scripture! I’d love to! Talking scripture and about Yah fills me with JOY.

I’m incredibly grateful for where we are today. Yah's timing is perfect and HIS mercy and Grace are so humbling! I know we aren’t perfect and we pray DAILY for discernment and for HIM to show us the way and keep us on HIS PATH!"

Part of our journey/adventure was to visit Jacob's Tent in Tennessee. We have been watching the livestream for a few years and concluded that we would for sure make a stop on our trip. We wanted to be there for Sukkot and thereafter we thought we would visit Florida and then pray and figure out where God was leading us from there. We truly had no idea where we would end up. All we heard from the Lord was 'sell everything and follow me'. As we did!

It was a very interesting emotional journey for me wrought with some heartache. We visited some beautiful landscapes as we made our way across the USA but I was missing the dogs and begging God to find a way for them to join us, then realizing that was selfish on my part and not the best for them due to their anxiety issues, then realizing that we wouldn't be back before the end of October to get them. This meant ultimately having to rehome them. I didn't anticipate that when we set out on our journey and I cried buckets of tears for weeks. I remember asking the Lord "will I ever be happy again?". There were many dark, difficult days, but I knew we were on the right path. It was just my flesh screaming and I needed to learn not to be led by my emotions, but by the Holy Spirit.

This also all was happening during the month of Elul which is a time of repentance, reflection and preparation leading up to our 'season of joy', Sukkot. It's a time when I was asking the Lord to sweep out any darkness from the corners of my heart. Then came Yom Kippur, and a service at Jacob's Tent. It was an amazing service but I can't say I felt anything emotionally change that day, but the next day I remember telling me daughter, "mark it on the calendar, I'm actually happy". That day I turned a corner and my heart remains settled that we are in the right place. We anticipated Sukkot with great joy and were not disappointed. So many times, I reflected on the journey here and this scripture from 1 Corinthians 2:9 says it best "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him".

During our time at Sukkot it became very apparent that what we are experiencing is actually a revival of Spirit AND Truth. Jacob's Tent is not the only Sukkot gathering where the Holy Spirit poured out. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is awakening His remnant people to the truth of their identity which was stolen from them back during the time of Marcion and the dispensational teaching that he and others like Scofield added to the church. If you don't believe me, study it for yourself. The shortest way to describe it is this: Jesus didn't come to start a new religion (Christianity), He came to complete an old one (The Way of the early Apostles). Doctrines of man have been added to the Christian church, and doctrines of man have also been added to Judaism (Talmudic teachings). The Apostles had the Old Testament scriptures only. The New Testament hadn't been written yet, so all references in the New Testament are referring to the Old. This was a lightbulb moment for me.

At Sukkot, we experienced great joy and an outpouring of His Spirit and more blessings than we could contain. It was incredible and life changing. Our hearts have been knit together with the local Jacob's Tent family. We are learning to walk in the whole truth of Scripture and now the Holy Spirit is moving in a similar way to our experience in my early church experience but without the things which caused me concern and sent me searching for the full Bible truth.

And as an added blessing our daughter met her future husband here in Tennessee and it has been a game changer for her. They are now engaged. He made a similar journey to Tennessee from California. I won't share here their love story as it's their story to share, but suffice it say that we are feeling blessed beyond measure and very happy for them to have found each other. As we passed through California, specifically Joshua Tree for that sunset adventure, we learned that he was there the same day but earlier in the day. Their paths didn't cross until Tennessee. This had all the feelings of "Sleepless in Seattle" and that gave me goosebumps.

This was the night he asked for our blessing to court her.

Worship jam around our campfire

Blessing the children under the chuppah

Davidic dance during worship

Beautiful scenery at our Sukkot camp

Little boy is all about snacks and bare feet

The final night and the kids doing their presentation

Building candy sukkah

Another glorious sunset

Our Sukkot site

Aidan helping fetch firewood

More scenery during my 'walkabout'

Reflection of the fall colours on the lake.  Gorgeous!

I only got videos of the actual worship services which were amazing but unfortunately I can't seem to embed them here. But if you're intrigued enough to see what I'm talking about, check out this link on YouTube. There is a whole playlist of all the videos from Sukkot. I'm happy to share the joy we experienced. Jacob's Tent 2022 Sukkot

We have had a lot to absorb since Sukkot so only today have I thought it's time for a blog update.  We are continuing to seek God on this journey and are awaiting His leading for the next steps.

Stay tuned!

Mavis