Mt. 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, [Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the LORD saves.] because he will save his people from their sins.”

God’s purpose in bringing Jesus Christ into the world was clearly stated by the angel in Mt. 1:21; to save the world from sins. Sin is rebellion towards God.

Mt. 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mt. 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Church is supposed to fulfill the Great Commission, which is all about teaching the world to obey every commandment of God.

2Ti. 1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
2Ti. 1:9a who has saved us and called us to a holy life.

Every member of the Church has been called by God to a holy life.

The origin of sin

Ez. 28:14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.
Ez. 28:15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

How did wickedness enter the former guardian cherub? In the early days of man, when God transformed man into a living soul (Ge. 2:7)—a soul that can grow towards the level of God or decay towards the level of animals, angels became alarmed that God had favored the new creation above them. One third of God's angels, led by the former guardian cherub now called Satan, rebelled against God because of the elevation of mankind. But in reality, it wasn't God's plan to arbitrary raise man towards His level. There's a condition attached, which is that man must be obedient to all commandments of God.

As soon as some angels rebelled against God, the next thing they did was to get man to disobey God's commandment. Since then, the rebellious angels have been in the business of getting mankind to disobey God's commandments. The big problem with accepting to follow the path of rebellion towards God, like Satan, is that the rebellious person instantly loses godly spirit and acquires the spirit of rebellion, which is called sin. This was what happened to Adam and Eve. Their nature changed instantaneously, the moment they chose to disobey God’s commandment.

Ge. 5:1 This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
Ge. 5:2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man”. [Hebrew adam]
Ge. 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.

God created Adam in His likeness. Along the way sin entered Adam and he became the likeness of sin (rebellion). All the children that he had were in his new likeness—likeness of sin. The human race is therefore in the likeness of sin.

The Son of God appeared to destroy the devil’s work

Ro. 7:19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.
Ro. 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Sin enslaves mankind. Most human beings want to be known as good people and they would want to be always seen doing good deeds. Unfortunately, they are often not doing the good that they want to do, instead they do the evil that they do not want to do. The sinful nature within overwhelms them.

Ro. 3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

Jesus Christ died as a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of mankind. He thereby redeemed mankind from the power of sin. Jesus came into the world as a new man—an Adam. He was therefore the beginning of a new human race. He was qualified to save the fallen old human race because he himself is a full human race. After dying as a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the old human race, God raised him back to life, to build a new human race out of the old human race.

Mt. 13:31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.
Mt. 13:32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
Mt. 13:33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Mt. 13:31-33 is about the old human race. It started with one man—like a mustard seed, but has grown into a huge tree with billions of branches. Unfortunately, evil spirits lodge in the branches. A woman (Eve) mixed sin into the whole of human race.

Jn. 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus Christ begun a new tree of mankind—the vine. Quite unlike the old human tree into which we were all born biologically, people are born into the new human tree (born again) spiritually, by being baptized into Jesus Christ in water and in the Spirit. Water baptism unites a person with the death of Jesus Christ (Ro. 6:3), so that the law which says that the soul that sins must die (Ez. 18:20) is fulfilled by the death of Jesus Christ, and the person transitions from the old human tree to the new human tree, spiritually.

A member of the new human tree is qualified to receive the Holy Spirit.

Getting rid of sin

We have seen that Adam’s disobedience to God’s commandment made godly spirit to exit from him and spirit of rebellion (sin) to move into him. Getting rid of sin means causing the exit of the spirit of rebellion so that godly spirit could come in. In order to cause the exit of the spirit of rebellion, we must remember how the godly spirit was driven out. The reverse will drive out the spirit of rebellion.

Ge. 3:4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.
Ge. 3:5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Ge. 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Driving out of godly spirit from man involved Satan speaking a word that contradicts the word of God. Man took some time to examine Satan’s word; while doing that, man could not have the word of God in view. During this short period of focusing on Satan’s word, man became enticed by the spirit of rebellion to go ahead and act on Satan’s word. And man finally disobeyed the word of God.

1Jn. 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

We must bear in mind that the whole world is currently under the control of the spirit of rebellion (the evil one). The evil one enslaved mankind with lies and continues to do so to this day. Many of the things people in the world think are good life are the opposite. In order to drive out the spirit of rebellion so that the godly spirit could come in, man should focus well enough on the commandments of God; while man is doing that, he will at least temporarily not focus on ways of Satan. Once man loses focus on the ways of Satan, the grip of the spirit of rebellion upon man weakens. It now becomes possible for man to act according to God’s word.

Ep. 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

The starting point in the process of driving out the spirit of rebellion from a human being is to receive the seal of God, the Holy Spirit. In order for that to happen, the human being must believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and then submit herself/himself for baptism into Jesus Christ in water and in the Spirit. Once a person is in Christ Jesus, s/he has been grafted into Israel, therefore every promise of God to Israel is applicable to her/him.

Ez. 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
Ez. 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ez. 36:27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

God promised the people of Israel purification from sins. The promise is also applicable to every person that is in Christ Jesus. But how does a Christian get this promise to be fulfilled in her/his life?

Ep. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Ep. 5:26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.

Ep. 5:26 shows that washing with water of Ez. 36:25 is done through the word of God. Washing with water of Ez. 36:25 is done by God, using the word of God spoken by the Christian. How does this work?

Is. 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
Is. 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

In Is. 55:11, God says that His word cannot return to Him without accomplishing what it says. So, when a Christian returns God’s word to Him, the Spirit of God accomplishes what the word says in the life of the Christian. Let me show you an example of how I remove the spirit of rebellion from my life and receive godly spirit as a replacement.

Mt. 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Mt. 22:37 Jesus replied: “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Mt. 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
Mt. 22:39 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Mt. 22:40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Lk. 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

By your grace, Holy Father God Almighty, I shall be perfect, even as you, our heavenly father are perfect. I shall be holy and blameless. In the name of Jesus Christ.

By your grace, glorious Father God, I will always love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength. I shall love my neighbor as I love myself. In the name of Jesus Christ.

By your grace everlasting Father God, I shall do to others as I would have them do to me.

The above example shows how I return specific words of God to Him. I do this every morning and evening. As I continually return God’s words to Him, I see my heart becoming cleaner and cleaner. God’s righteousness is increasing in me. This is not mere story or theory. Practice continually returning God’s word to Him as illustrated in the above example and see yourself becoming free from sin.

1Co. 10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
1Co. 10:2 They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
1Co. 10:3 They all ate the same spiritual food
1Co. 10:4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

1Co. 10:11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come.

Jewish tradition has it that all the things that happened to the Israelites in their movement from Egypt to the Promised Land will be replicated before the coming of the Messiah. That is what 1 Co. 10: 1-11 is telling us. The Israelites made their exodus from Egypt on the Passover day. The Passover day came after a full-moon night, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Close to fifty days after the Passover, the Israelites drank water from the rock at Horeb.

Ex. 17:3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
Ex. 17:4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
Ex. 17:5 The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
Ex. 17:6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Our redemption in Christ Jesus began just before a Passover day, a day that commemorates the Passover that happened in Egypt, with Jesus Christ offering himself as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins on the cross of Calvary. This was followed by the resurrection on the day of Feast of Firstfruits. Forty-nine days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came on the day of the Feast of weeks (Pentecost), the day that commemorates the drinking of water from the rock at Horeb. Since that day, the Church has endlessly awaited the return of Jesus Christ to take the worthy ones up to heaven.

Nu. 19:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:
Nu. 19:2 “This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke.

Nu. 19:9 “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin.

Sometime in the 39th year of the movement of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, God instituted rite of purification from sin. This was obviously in preparation for the 40th year.

Nu. 20:2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron.
Nu. 20:3 They quarrelled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD!

Nu. 20:6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell face down, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them.
Nu. 20:7 The LORD said to Moses,
Nu. 20:8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink.”

The 40th year of the movement of Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land arrived. By the 39th anniversary of Israelites drinking water from the rock at Horeb, God led Moses to bring water out of the rock again. This second drinking of water from the rock ended the seeming aimless wandering of the Israelites in the desert. They began the final directed movement to the Promised Land and in less than one year they entered the Promised Land. The second drinking of water from the rock by the Israelites was a type of the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. Just as the second drinking of water from the rock happened on an anniversary day of the first one, the latter rain of the Holy Spirit will also come down during the Feast of weeks (Pentecost). The rapture will take place less than one year after the latter rain of the Holy Spirit comes down.

Jo. 4:19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

The Israelites reached the Promised Land roughly ten months after the second drinking of water from the rock. Can we then say that the rapture will take place roughly ten months after the latter rain of the Holy Spirit comes down? We can’t really say that, for some reasons. Moses and Aaron died within those ten months and each of them was mourned for one month. The equivalent of Moses for New Testament Church (Jesus) will not die and so will not need one month mourning. There is no equivalent of Aaron for New Testament Church. If we subtract the two months spent mourning Moses and Aaron, we have roughly eight months from when the latter rain of the Holy Spirit comes down to entering the Promised Land (heaven). Incidentally, rapture is not synonymous with entering heaven, because the Bible says as follows:

1Th. 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th. 4:17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.

The rapture is all about meeting the Lord in “the air” and not in heaven.

2Co. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

It is believed by many that appearance before the judgment seat of Christ will take place in “the air” before Jesus Christ takes his people to heaven. That will take some time. “The air” is possibly the second heaven. By this time, Satan and his angels have been sacked from the second heaven and have been sent into the world (Re. 12:7-9), and so the second heaven is free to accommodate Jesus Christ and his people before they go to the third heaven where the throne of God is.

The implication of all these is that the rapture most likely will take place less than eight months after the latter rain of the Holy Spirit comes down.

There are strong prophetic indications that end-time events will commence in 2024. This would mean that the latter rain of the Holy Spirit may come down by Pentecost day 2024. The big problem is determining the true Pentecost day of 2024. The Christian Pentecost day is Sunday 19 May 2024. The Jewish Pentecost day or Shavuot is Wednesday 12 June 2024. The true Pentecost day is that of God’s calendar or the ancient Hebrew calendar.

Few years ago I began to think that the traditional calendar of my village of origin could be the ancient Hebrew calendar. Then I saw a page on the Internet that says that the modern Jewish calendar is not the ancient biblical calendar.

https://www.yaiy.org/literature/biblicalvsjewishcalendar.html

I later learned that Flavius Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews, volume 3, chapter 10, verse 4 (3.10.4) wrote that the Feast of Tabernacles in the ancient Hebrew calendar took place when the season of the year is changing for winter. This should be late November to early December. This exactly corresponds with the timing of the seventh month in the traditional calendar of my village of origin. If the traditional calendar of my village of origin is the biblical calendar, then Pentecost of the biblical calendar in 2024 will hold on Sunday 11th August, 2024. That will be the day the latter rain of the Holy Spirit comes down.

I think that the arrival of the latter rain of the Holy Spirit coincides with the opening of the first seal of Revelation 6. The sealing of the 144,000 Israelites takes place; they will be the first to receive the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. The 144,000 Israelites constitute the woman of Revelation 12.

Re. 14:1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Re. 14:2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.

Revelation 14 contains the correct sequence of key end time events. End time begins with the sealing of the 144,000 Israelites. Notice the “roar of rushing waters” in Re. 14:2; that is the latter rain of the Holy Spirit.

The second seal of Revelation 12 will be opened sometime in September 2024; peace will be taken from the world and several major wars break out in the world. The third seal of Revelation 12 will be opened sometime in October 2024; great famine begins all over the world. This is very likely when the US dollar will collapse. The fourth seal of Revelation 12 will be opened sometime in November 2024; there will be some exchanges of nuclear weapons and Babylon (USA) will fall. The collapse of the USA dollar will greatly weaken the USA and embolden the arch enemies of USA to attack her. The fifth seal of Revelation 12 will be opened sometime in December 2024. It is at this time that the enormous red dragon of Re. 12:3 appears in the world as Satan and his angels are hurled down to earth (Re. 12:9). It is in this month that the Antichrist will arise. Satan and his angels will instigate massive persecution against followers of Jesus Christ, at a time of extreme hardship in the world. Many followers of Jesus Christ will fall away from faith in Jesus Christ.

Mt. 24:9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.
Mt. 24:10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,
Mt. 24:11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Mt. 24:12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,
Mt. 24:13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Re. 3:10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
Re. 3:11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no-one will take your crown.

The sixth seal of Revelation 12 will be opened sometime in January 2025; great hardship continues all over the world, with zero world economy. The seventh seal of Revelation 12 will be opened sometime in February 2025; the adoption of the sons of God takes place, by the resurrection (Ro. 1:4). The rapture takes place some days after the resurrection—maybe 40 days as in the case of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If the latter rain of the Holy Spirit will come down in 2024, now is the time for the people of God to purify themselves as per Nu. 19:9.