The feasts are a divine time in which we can break through into things that are available to us. And I believe that Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, this year is one of those times. As we celebrate these days of Sukkot, let us finish them with a drive of spirit that says we will walk with God, we will obey His Word, and we will love Him with all our hearts and souls. We are able to do this because His provision and equipping has enabled us.

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Show Notes:

In the previous podcast we discussed how the Feast of Tabernacles is a time to celebrate the preparation God has for us in this life, just as Israel observed the feast as a remembrance of their preparation in the wilderness. A major aspect of that preparation was the Lord commanding His people to love Him with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their might. He also told them, “This commandment is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.” God was not commanding them to do something that He was not also enabling them to do.

Now apply this to yourself as a believer in Christ today. John reminds us that we do not have a new commandment. It is the same commandment we have heard from the beginning. We know that we are to love the Lord with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves but obeying that sometimes seems too difficult or out of reach. We need this realization that if God tells us to do something He also equips us and enables us to do it.

Therefore, we cannot continue making excuses for not loving God and observing His commandments to us, especially in these days in which we live. There is an urgency on this age to obey God, just as He spoke to Israel. So as you continue to celebrate this great Feast of Tabernacles, I encourage you to reach in with an even greater faith that God will enable you to love Him with all your heart in order to please Him and be capable of performing the works that He has prepared for us.

Key Verses:

• Deuteronomy 30:5–8. “God will circumcise your heart … to love the LORD your God with all your heart.”
• Deuteronomy 30:9–14. “This commandment … is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.”
• Deuteronomy 30:15–20. “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live.”
• 2 John 1:4–6. “This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning.”
• Leviticus 19:18. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
• Romans 10:6–8. “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART.”
• Deuteronomy 6:4–13. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
• Jeremiah 31:33. “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.”

Quotes:

• “God doesn’t command you to do something that He doesn’t also equip you and enable you to do.”
• “We can do this. He’s putting it in our heart. He’s putting the words of faith in our mouth that we may speak them into existence.”
• “This promise comes not because you say, “I’m saved,” and you go on and live your life in some other way. It comes because we literally live a life in which we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and we obey His voice.”

Takeaways:

1. This is not out of reach for us. We can do this. We can come into the reality of loving the Lord with all our heart and with all our soul. This Word is near us. It is in our mouths and our hearts that we may observe it.
2. There are Words that He has commanded us. There are the Words that He has put upon our hearts. And we have to stop saying, “This is too difficult for us.” It is not too difficult. God has made it possible.
3. This idea of loving God with all our hearts and observing His statutes and His instructions to us really is life or death, prosperity or adversity. I am ready to celebrate this Feast of Tabernacles in such a way that we come out of it living in days of life and prosperity, and we walk away from the age of death and adversity.