T’SHUVAH

9TH of AV

(5766    -    August 3, 2006)

            The Word, T’shuvah, means “Repentence.” Repentance before the Most High God, Who is Supreme.  He is above ALL His creation.  Absolute.  Perfect in His Being.  His Prophetic plan from forever to forever is also Perfect.  His Declared Word, His giving of Life, His Power to change things, His giving Life to the dead are manifestations of His Perfection.  He is love.  He is truth.  His perfection is revealed to us through His Holy Spirit.  He is the Ultimate Timer in application of all to His purpose and to our awareness, because His Prophetic plan to fulfill ALL is Eternal.

            This Most High God, Who created us in His image, desires a relationship with us through the conviction of His Commandments, which make us starkly aware of our need for a Redeemer Who can save us from this generationally cursed realm.  Y’shua Ha Meshiach (Jesus the Messiah) is the manifest Word of our Redemption, of our Salvation, and of our Restoration.  We must choose to receive this revelation of truth in our heart faith, because our heart is the only place where we can plant the decision to fully believe, and to prepare to receive this Spiritual truth.  Repentance shall not surely be limited to T’shuva—which is but a Seasonal reminder of our need to be humble and our need to line up our lifestyle with His Word.  Repentance is remorseful sorrow for sin; for disobedience to God –at any “time.” 

            God’s Order is also Perfect.  He begins with our free will to believe, by faith, and to receive Him; to choose whether or not we want to respond to His gentle invitation by His Holy Spirit.  There is no other way to the Truth.  It must come to our heart consciousness only from the Holy Spirit of the Living God.  As Y’shua said to Simon Peter when he asked Who Y’shua was in Matthew 16:17 –“And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this (truth) to you, but My Father, Who is in Heaven.”  Y’shua did not take “credit” for revealing His own identity, but rather, to honor God’s Order of Authority which was through the power of His Holy Spirit from His Father.  That is, through Y’shua from the Father’s will, it was made known to Peter, and to us, by this process as well.  By this we can see a Perfect example of humility through the Shamash, the Servant, the Father’s obedient Son.  He was made flesh to do the Father’s will, not His own, here on earth.  The Father’s will, through the Blood of His Son, brings us back to a relationship of holiness with Himself, Who sees us only through the Blood of His Son.

             Religion becomes a very rigid, limited, and heavy burden.  God’s “Times” are not a focus to become more religious and deafly observant of traditional rituals.  In Matthew 11:29-30, Y’shua invites us to a relationship with Him to “Sh’ma” (to listen and to hear Him with understanding) to learn of Him:--“Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.”—vs 30) “For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”  Y’shua even desires that we listen to Him as a child would listen.  A child doesn’t listen from religious “doctrines.”  This is “easy.”  Matthew 18:3—“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

            God’s purpose for the Seasonal Appointed Times is to reveal through their meaning how much more deeply His love for us can penetrate our heart ground, which needs preparation for His return when the “trump” sounds.  One very real way to grow stronger from within is to reflect on their meaning continually, as a flow, from one Season to the next.  We do this in the natural.  We need to prepare in our spirits wisely as a very real priority.  To see how that it all makes connective sense spiritually and naturally as well.  Since His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, in these times of reflection we find ourselves overwhelmed that He cares for us so completely at every level of existence.  He is, in fact, a very Good and Loving Father, Who attends to each of us individually as well as our being Spiritual family and community.

            The Ninth of Av is also called The Fast of AV.  It is not a “commanded” one.  To the Orthodox, it reminds that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed on this same date.  It is a morose and somber remembrance.  To the believer in Y’shua Ha Messiach, this reminder goes beyond these destructions to include the dimension of realizing that our “religious” temples must be destroyed: not to come against places we go to worship then or now, but to understand that even though there are destructions at times in our histories, the relationship Y’shua purchased for us with His Blood is not about buildings or temples, but that God lives in each heart.  Thereby, the Lord makes believers in Y’shua the temples of His Holy Spirit.  We literally become His temples.  His vessels, as was Y’shua’s example for us.  His instruments for the Great Commission He left to us to accomplish by His Power and in His Name.  Namely, the Harvesting of Souls.  It says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17—“Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”—vs 17) “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of the Lord is holy, and that is what you are.”  With this realization, each year as the long hot summer draws to a close, and just before the Harvest time and the High Holy Days begin, it is fitting to stop at this break between the Seasons to reflect seriously upon the relationship of exactly who we are and where we are before this God of Love, Mercy, Forgiveness, and Goodness.

            Humility demands of us a total submission to Him in all honesty, genuineness, and sincerity, for God resists the proud.  So, when we come rightly before Him with all our heart, He will teach us to prepare and to grow before Himself, even as seeds of our planting are harvested before us.  This is Whole provision for us and about us.  It says in Deuteronomy 30:6—“Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.”  That surely cancels mere “religious observance” as a prerequisite to “life” along with religious pride.  It does not, however, cancel the necessary provisional Seasons by which to become more and more provided for, enlightened, blessed, and thankful for the abundance we receive out of His Covenant Love.  To love Him in return, return and repent is what we must do!  T’shuva.  Return.  Repent.  To become humble and childlike in our spirit before Him is necessary, but not without a willing heart that means to develop a real relationship with Him as He defines one.

            He receives us where we are and just as we are.  Then, He requires us to continue to learn of Him—to remain “teachable.”  11Timothy 2:15 states:--“Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth. (NAS)---(The KJ version says:)—“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”  Also, we are to live by….”every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).  We must approach Him humbly, thoughtfully---if we love Him, we will respect His expectations of us and prepare to approach Him as would please Him truly---“as children.”  His children.  God has no grandchildren!

            Everything we do requires preparation!  Every Season, every occasion, every profession, every work day, every meal, every relationship, to mention a few.  All we “choose” to do requires consideration and preparation.  Especially a serious involvement with someone, whether business or personal, requires careful “counting the cost” decision-making.  God’s Word admonishes us to do so.  Since we exist to glorify God, we must seek out how to prepare to please His Majesty.  We must start with the ground we prepare, for a relationship with Him, our heart.  We must start there.  If we have gone off the path, we must get back there.  Return.  Repent.  Jeremiah 29:13—“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”  And, in Matthew 24:36-37—“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” –vs 37) –“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like in the days of Noah.” –vs 44)-- “For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

            As Rosh Ha Shanah approaches, one might think how fitting a time it would be for the trump to sound at this Feast, and the Harvest of Souls would instantly occur.  Of course, only the Father knows when this will happen.  Obviously, it seems wise and eternally worth it to PREPARE.  The Holy Days will approach, whether or not we notice.  And the Lord will return for His own.  Distractions abound, and HaSatan uses them against us, cleverly.  Our Most High God is not a Distraction from our distractions.  He deliberately promises the Son of Man’s return.  He makes it clear that we need to be “ready” when He does return.  This is not a game, fiction, or fantasy.  This is REALITY!  We need to respectfully, humbly, deliberately prepare ourselves to approach our Most High God with an exceeding heart attitude of love, and gratitude, filled with praise, complete appreciation, and WORSHIP—in Spirit and in Truth.

Baruch Ha Shem

Katherine Khizkyos

Deaconess

SHAVUOT

(Pentecost)

4 June 2006 – 8 Sivan 5766

            Shavuot is the Time of the last day, the 50th Day, of the counting of the Omer; the sheaf.  It is the time of the “latter First Fruits harvest.  It is the seven full weeks distance from the time of the “early First Fruits harvest – the barley harvest.  Shavuot is the time of the wheat harvest.  Because of this “time” – the 50 days in between, Shavuot is also called “The Feast of Weeks.”  For historical background, see Leviticus 23:15-21.  Also, see Deuteronomy 16:10, v16.

            For all believers, this is a time to thank God for His faithfulness; for His continual provision Seasonally for us from harvest to harvest; and then, for hopeful expectation of looking forward to the Fall harvest, the third harvest of the year, Sukkot, the final harvest of the year.  These are the three provisional harvests sustaining us, and the Times which are celebrated as Seasonal Feast Times.  They are referred to as “shelosh regalim”, for which, traditionally, if it is possible, every Jewish male goes to Jerusalem to worship.  God literally physically sustains us through these times of each year.  By focusing thankfully, appreciatively, and obediently on God’s abundant faithfulness, we can know He will always provide for His obedient, faithful children.  God wants to Bless us.  See Philippians 4:19.  With provision comes relationship, that during this Time of contact   with Him in celebrating the Feasts, a relational bonding occurs, and it deepens with each succeeding Seasonal awareness.  When His Spirit reaches our hearts and we are able to respond not just naturally, but supernaturally by His Power bestowed at this Time of remembrance, it follows that more than anything else from then on we desire to become continually closer to Him  by  focusing and by reflecting on the purpose of the Feast at hand. 

            Even when we are not Biblically or historically aware of the Seasons as His source of provision for us, we can surely admit “we” are not in control of the crop cycles or what they produce.  Even farmers---especially farmers---must trust God (not insecticides or weather problems) for things to go well seasonally from harvest to harvest.  God makes it happen.  Man must work the land.  Only unbelief can cancel my appreciation of God Himself and of all His provision and blessings.  I can look, for example, squarely at the moon and deny that it is the moon.  It won’t change the fact that it is not a neon blimp a computer genius pops up there nightly---it really is the moon.  Men have been there.  That’s not fiction.  Men have been with God, too.  That’s not fiction either!  But it is popular to make up stories about both the moon and God, if the price is right.  But when instead we make it more popular to choose to tell the truth about both as they actually are,  then it makes it possible to realize and enjoy and appreciate both.  And it also makes me thankful and grateful to the Father who placed them for the real purpose they are there.  Perverted or Scrooge-like attitudes or faulty belief systems won’t make the truth “go away,” or the seasons either. 

            Pentecost is a powerful Prophetic relational fulfillment.  It goes beyond our spiritual infancy, childhood, and leaves us with His Power to mature in our faith.  The Seasons provide for us naturally.  Shavuot/Pentecost provide for our spiritual growth and endues us with His Power, which is beneficial for all we do.  When we become believers, spiritual babies; that is when we are first Born Again, we feed on the milk of the Word; babble a lot for being so excited about our new state of being; and use training wheels (or whatever International equivalent fits).  The point is, first God cares for us long before we are expected to know anything much, or have any responsibility or accountability, not even for ourselves.  As we grow, more is expected.  When we are taught, in love, we take responsibility for what we know.

            The word Pentecost also refers to the same 50 Days from the Time of the early First Fruits at Passover (Resurrection Day) to the giving of the Power of God’s Spirit to all men who believe.  Joel 2:23, Acts 2:1-4, and the rest of Acts 2: is just some of the undeniable historical record about when Y’shua/Jesus left this earth.  He did NOT leave us alone!  His Apostles had lived, walked, and talked with Him, and had been carefully taught by Him all the things that the Father sent Him to impart to them and to us all through them.  He came to save and cover the entire earth with His truth!  When the Holy Spirit descended as He left---ALL Spiritual provision was given to the hearts of ALL humanity---the Power of His Authority on earth.  See Acts 1:1-11.  The Spirit of God was thus imparted to man.

            After the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., the Jewish observance of Shavuot necessarily changed.  But it became obvious to Rabbis that it was in the third month after Passover (Exodus 19:) that the Israelites came to Mount Sinai.  Shavuot is the very Day that Moses received the Law from God to give to the people (The Commandments).  So, the rabbinic name for Shavuot is “Zman Matan Torateynu”, or, the “Time of the Giving of our Law.  It is also a time of celebration of Torah (The five Books of Moses).  Our love for the Lord deepens when we realize that ALL of Scripture is our roadmap.  The whole Word of God is prophetically being played out continually until Y’shua returns for His Bride.

            My journey after Passover, early First Fruits (Resurrection Day)—from Egypt to Sinai has taken 50 days.  When I accept the privilege it is to realize that God has a reason and a purpose for all His Times and Seasons, I am able to securely know in my heart of hearts that He has an equally special reason and purpose for His timing with me; with my life.  He wants this special relationship with me for the exact purpose He created me; just as He has for the Seasons.  In fact, I am a vital part of His Appointed Times and the Seasons He has appointed to me.  All I have to do to receive Him in my heart is to believe and to tell Him He is my Lord.  The Master of my life.  He will direct me from then on.  When I renounce Satan and all his ways, and acknowledge Y’shua in all my ways, then His Power is within me and He will “order” my “steps.” 

            Celebrating and reflecting on God’s Appointed Times brings me ever closer to Who He is.  The Great I AM Who really cares about me.  It brings me ever closer to how He is; to what He has done; to what He is doing: and to what His Word declares prophetically that He will do.

            The focus here as always becomes just one word, RELATIONSHIP!  This is why God made man in the first place, and it is surely the emphasis and purpose of all His Appointed Feasts celebrating the Times of each year.  How can One celebrate without anyone to share it with?  The Seasonal Feasts are so precious for so many basic relational reasons as well as provisional.  They go together.  He uses His Prophets to relate His orderly fulfillment within His structured timing.  God obviously likes celebrations and feast times even as a way to just enjoy us whom He made by His Supreme Love.  We need to learn how to party His way!

            Here are some Scriptures which shed His light on prophetic fulfillment:

                        Romans 11:26

                        Acts 2: (v15)

                        Ezekiel 1:4, 36:27

                        James 1:1, 1:18

                        Zechariah 12:10

            There are many varied resources and sources regarding the various ways God’s Times are celebrated:  traditionally, as believers in Y’shua, as Christians who recognize their Hebraic roots, etc. (some of which I have noted in past articles still on this website).

They explain what the many varied observances exactly do, or don’t do. 

            My only desire right now is that souls are being saved and quickly nourished to maturity before our Lord returns.  All who know the signs realize that will be soon.  However, even though one my be saved, delivered, rooted and grounded in the sober-minded study of God’s Word, and in a place of worship whose teacher is anointed to rightly divide the Word, it would still be a good idea to seek the Lord and ask Him the way for you to pursue the meaning, the essence of His Appointed Times, and how He will Bless you for the effort.  Remember, His Word tells us to “study” to show ourselves “approved” by Him.  If you really “study” His Word, you can’t miss what the Feasts are for.  You will be richly blessed.  He greatly loves you!  Those who stay focused on Him will “not be disappointed!”

Baruch HaShem

Shalam Shalom

Katherine Khizkyos

Deaconess, KCKA Ministries 

April 2006---Nisan/Iyar 5766

Passover

April 12---Nisan 14

           The month of Nisan is the Biblical New Year’s Day on the Hebrew Calendar (March/April).  Refer to the Scripture, Exodus 12:2.  From verse 3 and on down, through the rest of Chapter 12, the Lord instructs Moses and Aaron about the specific order of the Passover.  Verse 18, confirms the exact timing the Lord specified.  I emphasize, THE LORD specified.  Not synagogues, Rabbis, Priests, or “traditional” Bible “scholars” or anyone else’s “speculations.”  It is hardly necessary to reiterate the Word of God that even an eight-year-old child can read and understand about what God wanted Moses and Aaron to implement by His instructions to them.  The Scriptures clearly describe and instruct what God declared Israel to do through His servants, and that He expected them to establish the first Passover for their deliverance from the slavery and bondage of the world (Egypt), that they should become completely dependent on God for all their needs, which He would supply.  That, beyond deliverance, a genuine relationship with Him would be forever established.  Relationship is the reason for Passover, and for all of God’s Appointed Times.  That is why the Lord will have us remember them in all our generations FOREVER.  We are to live “…on every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God…” this is not a religious or traditional seminary (or cemetery) replacement pick ‘n’ choose doctrine of man’s mistranslation of God’s Holy Word.  The Book was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, not in speculative English.  By studying what it says, it is clearly possible to know what it says.  (NO offense intended!)

            Y’shua, (Jesus of Nazareth) completed what the meaning of Passover is by literally BECOMING the Passover Lamb HIMSELF---by His stripes suffered, by the Cross He carried, and by His Crucifixion.  In the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 23:5-6, the Lord also said to Moses, when and how to proclaim the Feasts in their seasons beginning with Passover.  (The Sabbath having already been established, and that not seasonally, but every seventh day.)

            The Bible is clear as to what is expected regarding the Feasts “in their seasons” and that the reason is surely not just “religious observance.”  Rabbi Saul, the Apostle Paul, admonishes believers in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, what the “keeping” of the Feast by Christ’s work on the Cross as a final completion means.  As all the rest of the feasts, this personal redemptive work that Y'shua did on the Cross was for each and every one of us “whosoever” will call upon Him and acknowledge this sacrifice.  The timing of His sacrifice at Passover was Appointed by the Lord, not an accident, nor a mere coincidence.  To a serious believing Christian, this connected timing is Scripturally as well as Spiritually obvious.  The point of this and every feast honored is to have a closer relationship each next new Season.  Our precious, caring Lord has designed and timed them so.

            Passover basically:  Remembers the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt---but, also, the born again deliverance by Y’shua’s shed Blood for all mankind---for the whole world---by His becoming the FIRST FRUIT raised from the dead by His Resurrection on the third day for our salvation and our healing.

            This is a time of thankful remembering.  A time to remember God’s faithfulness to His Word; and especially to be humbly thankful to Him for the ultimate price He paid for our sins; to free us from our generational cursed condition without His redemption.  Through the Word made flesh, and being slain once for all, replacing the sacrifice of animals forever.  They could not save man.  Y’shua, our atonement, Who alone is the WAY, The TRUTH,  and the LIFE, makes us, not only whole and complete in Himself, here on earth, but beyond here for ever.  As our Resurrected First Fruit, He made it possible for us to have a relationship with Himself and with our Father God.

            So when asked what Passover means:  It means Divine deliverance.  It means Miraculous healing.  It means Eternal life.  It is the prophetic fulfillment of God’s Divine purpose in all and for all by His Holiness, His Goodness, His Mercy, and His unending LOVE.

            Below are some references to help learn more about the Feasts of our Lord.  The word of God in II Timothy 2:15 says that we should “study to show ourselves approved unto God”…This means, that although we need pastors, teachers, we are also to “study” for ourselves as well.  To study God’s Word, not man’s.  He, the Lord, is our Approver.  We shall not be men-pleasers.  So I give you these sources as most helpful tools, because so many folks do not have a background or any frame of reference to the Hebraic mentality.  And, I assure you, the Bible has an Hebraic mentality.  Why else would be have to “study” God’s Word diligently.  So often we expect Him to fit into our mentality.  He already knows what that is.  Rather, we need to clear our hearts and minds and take a sincere interest in HIS desire for an eternally JOYFUL relationship with Him.  The Feasts are Celebrations of The JOY OF THE LORD – OUR  SRENGTH by Torah, His instructive word.  

    The very best place to learn of these times is certainly God’s whole and undivided Word.  When the Spirit of God imparts to us the Rhema knowledge of walking closer to our Lord through His Word, we begin to understand what it means to become Spiritual Israel who desires to return our love to our Abba Father, Adonai Echad, our One True Lord of all.

References:  Celebrate The Feasts Of The Lord

                                  By, William W. Francis, Crest Books, 1997

God’s Appointed Times

                        By, Barney Kasdan, Messianic Jewish Publishers 1993

The Feasts Of The Lord

                        By, Ron Cantrell, Bridges for Peace, Jerusalem 1999

The Feasts Of The Lord

                        Kevin Howard and Mary Rosenthal, Zion’s Hope

                        and Thomas Nelson, 1994              

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