UNDERSTAND TIMES & SEASONS

I’m talking about the New Moon. That’s right, it was Rosh Chodesh — or Head of the Month! While we were just enjoying our Thursday evening, something significant happened as we shifted into the next month on the Hebraic calendar. Rosh Chodesh is when in the Old Testament, the Jews were given this time to celebrate the New Moon Festival. God wanted His children to celebrate at the beginning of every month so that they could be aware of His blessings for them that month.

“Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate day from night, and let them be for signs and for seasons.” (Genesis 1:14)

See here in America, we just go from January through December chronologically. We may celebrate the holidays in certain months, but none of that really brings us spiritual advancement — just more chronological aging. The Hebraic calendar was one that God gave to His children to recognize moments of appointment and visitation! The Hebrews were given a calendar that helped them understand how God wanted to interact with them and move among them.

Now in the new covenant, we have something they didn’t have under the old covenant — we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and He guides us from within. However, the Holy Spirit will still cause us to learn and gain wisdom from the natural realm. God imparted a truth into times and seasons by setting the constellations in place, by forming the heavenly bodies and by giving them a rhythm which cause them to all be synchronized for our benefit.

Through this orchestration of events, we can now benefit naturally and spiritually. Naturally, we can tell when it’s morning, noon, evening, or spring, fall or summer. Spiritually, we can also perceive when it’s time for a new season, and how God wants us to align with His purposes in that given season.

If you think about it, the first of anything is very special with the Lord. He wants to be first in our lives and therefore wants us to honor Him with the first of everything — that includes with the first of the month. The Head of the Month is a time when we can be aware of the season we’re about to enter into, and prepare our hearts to align with God.

Now, celebrating the New Moon is only a symbolic gesture. It’s the same as how we take communion, or do water baptisms. This is not meant to be a religious mandate, but a symbolic gesture that allows us to get a prophetic revelation of the fullness that we have in Christ. So, no...you don’t have to observe New Moon: Head of the Month. The Word actually says:

“Therefore, let no one sit in judgement on you in matters of food and drink or in regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath. Such [things] are only shadows of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17)

In other words, you are free to observe what is going to help you understand your fullness in Christ. You are also free NOT to observe what you don’t want to. None of this is meant to be a religious, legalistic obligation. Yet, however, for those who are prophetic, there is a drawing to study the deep things of God because one of the highest levels of the prophetic to understand is the realm of time! Even the children of Issachar were known to be men who knew how to move in time and what God wanted to them to do in each season.

“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” (1 Chronicles 12:32)

To understand how God is moving in a season so that we could align with Him is a high expression of prophetic understanding. With the help of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to develop a biblical, prophetic picture of what God wants to do each month. This is linked with Hebraic thinking. Every Rosh Chodesh, the Jews discerned God’s plan through:

— A Tribe of Israel. Each month was connected to a tribe, with a highlight on their redemptive gifts.

— A Hebrew Letter. Hebrew letters have a pictorial quality to them. The picture of the monthly letter gave a prophetic picture of what was to be expected that month.

— A Constellation. Yep, the constellations displayed prophetic pictures of the given month.

You must also understand that every true revelation that is given by God, the enemy counterfeits. The devil is not a creator, but a counterfeiter. Therefore, God gives us ways to hear from Him, and the devil copies it.

GOD
Speaks through dreams
Speaks through visions
Sends Angels
Gives Power
Seasonal Revelation
(Issachar anointing)

DEVIL
speaks through dreams
speaks though vision
sends demons
gives demonic power
seasonal revelation
(Kabbalah, Astrology, etc..)

I know how uncomfortable Christians can become when we discuss things such as the constellations. We immediately think that it belongs to the occult. However, we fail to recognize that God appointed the stars to be SIGNS for US! The heavens are supposed to testify of the work of HIS HANDS! Yet, somehow, we have ignored the testimony of the stars and have labeled them demonic. What makes astrology demonic, is that it is a practice of divination used to tap into revelation of the future apart from the truth of the counsel of the Word of God. Astrologers are those that hold other views of who Jesus was, usually denying His divinity, and therefore, ascribe more to a new age view of the world. In that folly, they are deceived by a spirit of divination and use astrology as a way to foretell the future. That is not what I am talking about in this article.

As I admonish you to develop an understanding of the Issachar Anointing for times and seasons, I am talking to servants of Jesus Christ, who are redeemed and filled with the Holy Spirit. I am talking to those who are led by God and study the Word of God to show themselves approved. I am talking to those who believe that they are to be prophetic and daily listen for the voice of God. I am talking to those who also believe that God will use the signs in the heavenlies, as He did for the Jews, to communicate what He is doing in a given season of time. This is for those who understand that this understanding is so that we could align with Him and help advance His kingdom.

For more information on developing the Issachar anointing in your life, I highly recommend the book, “A time to Advance” by Chuck D. Pierce. It will equip you on how to add this important weapon in your prophetic arsenal.

Discern God daily!
Discern God monthly!
Discern God seasonally!
Discern God yearly!
Move with Him and ADVANCE!!!