FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR

FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR

                According to Jonathan Cahn, Jesus was born in the springtime. First of all, Shepherds did not abide in the fields in the dead of winter. There was only one time of the year when they did abide in the fields and that was in the spring during lambing season. Newborn lambs were very vulnerable to predators and so the shepherds would abide with the flock to protect the new born lambs.

                So Jesus, the true Lamb of God was born in Bethlehem when and where the special lambs were raised for temple sacrifices, even as Jesus was born to give His life for us.

                When my brother and sister and I were young children, we had a neighbor that had sheep. His name was Mr. Gillard and he came to our house and asked if we would like to watch the birthing of the Lambs. We said yes, and so somewhere around 2 AM he knocked on our door and we followed him to the stable to watch the lambs being born. It was a good education for us and I will never forget the occasion or the kindness of Mr. Gillard.

                Unlike people, lambs are always born in the spring and so, even as the Bible describes to us the shepherds and the angels and the baby Jesus, born in a stable and wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger, we now know that this took place in the spring. We also know that the Magi came to visit Jesus when He was about 2 years old and living in a house.

                So our traditions have been messed up a bit. Up until recently I believed that Jesus was born on the Feast of Tabernacles. After all God had told Moses on Mt. Sinai, saying: “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I might dwell among men.” Ex. 25:8. Well, I was wrong. He was not born on the Feast of Tabernacles… but that doesn’t mean that Tabernacles doesn’t have anything to do with it.

                The truth should give us pause, for if you count forward from the Feast of Tabernacles 9 months, you end up in the spring, around April. Not only that, but if you study it closely, it took Moses 9 months to build the Sanctuary in the wilderness.

                What this means is that, by God’s reckoning, Jesus did not enter the world when He was born, but when He was conceived in Mary. Our Savior entered this world, not as a new born Baby, but as the Seed of promise. So now we know what God believes on the subject. We are considered to be people from the moment of conception. (See also Jer. 1:4, 5, and Psalms 139:13-17)

                The world can say what they want as we slaughter 60 million babies, but in reality, they are acting the part of Herod who killed all of the new born Males 2 years old and younger in order to prevent the coming King.

                This is what Satan is doing in our day to wipe out the generation that will become the Remnant people of God. Romans 8:10- 23 tells us that all of creation is anxiously waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. This miserable condition of entropy and sin and death in every level of creation cannot come to an end until Jesus Christ has a Body that has matured to become like Him.

                This is the whole point and goal of the church of both the Old and the New Testaments. Everything points forward to the Messiah, from His conception, to His birth, to His ministry among His people, to His death and resurrection, to His continued ministry as our High Priest in the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant sits and where His precious blood speaks out in behalf of those who receive Him as Savior and Lord.

                When we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit also plants the Seed of Promise in us and we become new creatures. It is a spiritual seed rather than a physical seed. We are given this treasure in earthen vessels so that the power might be of God and not from ourselves. 2 Cor. 4:7

                Our calling is to nurture and to protect that Seed and to feed it with spiritual prayer and spirit guided Bible study and obedience to that spiritual seed. We are to live in such a way that the Spiritual seed of Christ invades our entire body, soul and spirit, so that the Lord Jesus Christ truly does become the Lord and King of our lives.

                As such, Jesus in us is forming us into His image as we grow in Him. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren…” Romans 8:29.

                The Lord has been causing me to dwell on this subject, looking at it from various angles in order that we may come to understand just what this means. We live in an age where we can no longer be satisfied to play church. The bottom line is that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Christ has been conceived in us by the same Holy Spirit that came upon Mary. The big question is this: Is He still a seed in us, or has he been allowed to grow up in us so that we are now led by the Spirit of God?

                Jude, the brother of Jesus told us plainly saying: “But you, beloved brethren, building up your most Holy Faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” Jude 20.

                Paul also referenced this same thing in our growth in the Spirit in 1 Cor. 14:4 saying: “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. “The word “edifice” is related to the word “edify.” Edifice is defined  as a structure, construction, house, shop, creation, building, pile or mansion. So, praying in the Spirit builds up our spirit, just as prophesying builds up the church.

                It is not enough to pray in the flesh, using our minds to tell God what to do with us and for us. “God is Spirit and those that worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”  John 4:23. It is that spiritual seed in us that must be watered by the Holy Spirit so that it grows up inside of us. Likewise the church is built up, being formed into a temple made of living stones… a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit until we all come to maturity and unity until we attain to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:13.

                As those who aspire to be God’s remnant Bride, it is time to take God’s Word seriously… not as doctrines that we have often wrested from Scripture, but as the Holy Spirit breathed Word of God that is sharper than any two edged sword, able to pierce as far as the dividing of soul and spirit…” Hebrews 4:12.

                Just as the tabernacle of Moses showed us, the prayers of the people were mixed with the incense of the Holy Spirit as they went up to God within the veil. We must now pray prayers that the Holy Spirit can mix with His incense and those prayers are spiritual prayers and not fleshly prayers.

                “For we do not know how to pray as we should but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26, 27.

                There are many things that we have overlooked in the Scriptures, being satisfied to maintain the traditions of our forefathers and the reformers. We owe everything to them for they built the foundations upon which we now stand. But we also owe it to them to continue to grow out of darkness and into light just as they did in their day. The sons of God are now forming in the earth. It is left for us to carry the baton to the finish line and to do so not as mere survivors, but as those who overwhelmingly conquer through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                As true followers of Christ Paul says of us: “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

                It is also said of us in Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they did not love their life even to death.” Rev. 12:11.

                Don’t be surprised and dismayed by the fiery trials that often assault you. Satan is only trying to prevent the birth of the man child. If we get caught up to heaven, then he loses, for we are destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron as co-rulers on the throne with Christ.

                We need to begin to realize that we, who live by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, are brothers and sisters. The true remnant family of God is not marked by denominational lines. His sheep hear His voice and we are either being formed into a living temple of the Holy Spirit, or we are falling away from the faith and preparing to worship the Beast and His image.

                As we remember Jesus Christ at this season of the year, regardless of whether it is the right date or not, let us determine that Christ will be born afresh in us and that we will guard and feed that treasure until He has become the Lord of all in us.

                Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. Quite apart from the tinsel and lights and commercialism, some of the most beautiful songs in earth history have been written about the birth of our Savior and those songs continue to be a light in this dark and dying world.