We will be looking at the two kinds of flood and their various significant on man. . The first is the flood of Noah, wherein the wind, breath, or spirit was removed from all flesh; the second is the flood of the Holy Spirit, wherein the Spirit of God is to be poured out upon all flesh. The “latter rain” of Joel 2:23 is the antidote to the flood of Noah. The basic outline of God’s plan to put his spirit back into all flesh is revealed in Noah’s actions at the end of the Flood. Genesis 8:1 says,
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the Ark; and God made a wind [Hebrew ruach, “wind, breath, spirit”] to Passover the earth, and the waters as swaged.” (Gen. 8:1)
The wind, or Spirit of God, is said to be the antidote to the flood of waters. This is a prophetic statement that has far greater implications than a mere reduction in the water level. As he resuscitates the whole earth by breathing into their nostrils the breath of life once again, we are brought into immortality and Perfection, as at the beginning. Eden and more are restored. The scripture also picture the Spirit of God as a dove. In fact, this was the original word picture in Genesis 1:2, where “the Spirit of God moved [Hebrew rachaph, “brooded or fluttered”, as a dove] upon the face of the waters.” The same picture is painted in Deuteronomy 32:11, where God is pictured as an eagle fluttering over her young, caring for the nation of Israel.
And so we find that toward the end of the flood, Noah sent out three doves to see if the waters were abated. This was prophetic. It tells us that God planned to do same in order to overcome the effects of the flood of water. Thus, the outpouring of the spirit comes in three stages, both personally and corporately. These three stages are presented by Israel’s three main feast days, wherein all the males were called to stand before God. The feast of Passover deals with the first dove sent out. It is a partial anointing that results in Justification. It is the salvation of your spirit. The Feast of Pentecost deals with the second dove sent out. It is a greater anointing that begins the works of Sanctification. It is sent for the Salvation of your soul.
Finally, the feast of Tabernacles correlates with Noah’s third dove. It is the last anointing, for it represents the fullness of the spirit poured out, wherein we see redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23). At this outpouring, you receive the true inheritance that was lost in Adam: the glorified body. This is the full salvation in the Plan of God, as depicted by Noah’s three doves and Israel’s three Feast days.
Corporately speaking however, these doves and Feast days depict three distinct outpourings of the spirit, when God intervenes in the affairs of the earth in a most unusual manner. The first was when He came down upon Mount Sinai as fire and spoke the Ten Commandments to all the people of Israel. This was something very unusual, and the scripture say it had never been done before (Deut. 4:33).
The second great outpouring of the spirit occurred in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost. The third is yet to come at the feast of tabernacles, and when it does, the earth will give birth to the sons of God who are fully in His image and likeness.The three doves that Noah sent out give us a description of each of these three manifestations of the spirit. Genesis 8:8-9 says:
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the Ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth; then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the Ark. Gen 8:8
When the spirit of God was sent to Israel at Mount Sinai, the people were terrified at the sight. They thought that if they saw God they would die. And so, after God spoke the Ten Commandments to them, they has had enough. Exodus 20:18-21 tells us:
And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightning’s, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness were God was.
God told Moses the rest of the Law, and Moses wrote it down and related it to the people. The law was thus a revelation to Moses, and having heard the voice of God, it was written on his heart, producing faith (Rom. 10:17).
The people in general, however, only received the law written externally on tables of stone. Thus, while the people were persuaded to be obedient, they did not have the faith necessary to enter the promised Land. The people were obedient because the law was imposed upon them from the outside. It took a law enforcement agency to keep order and obedience, because the people did not really want to hear His voice or follow His law. They felt His laws were too oppressive. They disagreed with God’s way of thinking, which was different from man’s. After the signs and wonders had passed, the people began to resent God’s law and chafe at its demands of righteousness. And even today, men think of God’s commands as “bondage to the Law” this kind of thinking only proves that the law has yet to be written on their hearts.
This also portrays the difference between a bond servant and a son. We certainly must relate to God as bond servants, even as Paul did (Rom. 1:1) this deals with our willingness to obey God and do His commandments. But a son goes further. A servant merely does his master’s will; a son wants to do his father’s will, because he has his father’s mind and is in agreement with Him.
Those of us who are “sons in training” differ in no way from servants, for we are yet minor as (Gal. 4:1). Our father imposes His will upon to train us in His value system, his laws. But there comes a day when we grow up to maturity. The mature son who has learned his father’s values will continue to live according to them- not because of an external law, but because those laws are written on his heart. He wants to live as he was taught, because he agrees that “the law is holy and just and good” (Rom. 7:12). He does not consider the law to be the bondage of a tyrant, but a way of life that brings life, liberty, and happiness to all.
The people in Moses’ day refused to hear the spirit of God. This was the outworking of the prophecy in Noah’s first dove, which “found no rest for the sole of her foot” (Gen. 8:9). Even as that dove returned to the Ark, so also did the spirit of God in Moses day go to the Ark of the Covenant. The spirit thus did not indwell men at that time, but remained in an external structure- first the tabernacle of Moses, and then the temple of Solomon.Noah’s second dove returned with “an olive leaf pluck off” (Gen. 8:11). Noah then knew that the floods has abated. Yet he did not leave the Ark immediately, because this would have violated the prophecy of the plan of God.
This second dove depicts the outpouring of the spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2, by which we received the earnest of the spirit. The single olive leaf represents this perfectly. While it does show that now there is new life in the earth (in the hearts of men), it is, nonetheless, only a small portion of that which is to come. Also, in that the spirit was now indwelling flesh, rather than remaining in an external dwelling place, we find that Genesis 8:10-11 does not mention the dove returning to the Ark. It says only that “the dove came in to him”. The precise wording of the scriptures prophesy that the spirit of God had now come into men.
The third dove that Noah sent “returned not again unto him any more” (Gen. 8:21) prophetically depicts a condition whereby man has no need of further outpourings, for the spirit is in him fully. At that point, Noah left the Ark to bring new life into a new world. Even so, those who receive the fullness of the spirit will be sent into all the world to bring all things under His feet. They will establish God’s New World order after God has brought man’s New World Order into dissolution.
Keep in mind that the flood in Noah’s day occurred after 120 years. The first outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred just prior to the 50th jubilee, and so this the overall hinge date by which the fullness is to be poured out. But this is an overall view of what the Lord is relating to us in the now.
May The Lord God grant us a deeper understanding in Jesus mighty name Amen!
