THE NEW YEAR FOR TREES
THE NEW YEAR FOR TREES
Bonnie
and I stood out on the front deck gazing into a spectacular night sky. The stars
were there to touch and among them a blood moon. We didn’t stand outside for
very long since it was a cool 18 degrees out here in Tennessee.
This
blood moon fell on the Hebrew day called Tu,B’Shevat. It is the New Year for
Trees. It is a time when tithes are figured from the previous year’s crop and
it is a day when it is determined if the fruit of newly planted trees can be
eaten. In Israel they were not allowed to eat the fruit of the trees for four
years after planting them. Three years were allowed for the tree to mature and
produce fruit and the fourth year was for the Lord. Then on the fifth year they
could eat the fruit and so the age of all trees was calculated from Tu B’Shevat.
So the
longest blood moon in a century hung over America and over our Capitol on the
eve of Tu B’Shevat to determine which trees were ready for harvest… and so we
watch and wait to see just what this might mean for America and for the world.
One thing
is certain. The Holy Spirit is speaking into the hearts of everyone listening
concerning maturity and sanctification in the body of Christ.
Interestingly,
we as the Body of Christ are at a Y in the road. Part of the Body is pressing
on into sanctification and holiness and preparing as a Bride adorned for her
Husband, while another part of the Body is abandoning nearly everything that the
Bible has to say about anything in order to apply for the coming New World Order
and the global religion of the beast.
We see
this point of separation more clearly in a place like China where there are
state run churches that preach only what the state allows and then there are God’s
remnant people meeting in home churches. Right now, these Remnant Christians
are being rounded up, dragged out of their homes and thrown into prison or
taken to retraining camps. The last few years have been bad for true Christians
in many places as millions have been slaughtered, tortured, beheaded, enslaved,
forced to become child brides in foreign lands or captured and sold as
prostitutes.
But
this kind of persecution around the world is forcing some Christians into
maturity. That is to say, their decision to follow Jesus Christ is often a life
or death decision and their faithfulness may land them in a retraining camp or
worse. As such they are being “purged, purified and refined” as Daniel said in chapter
12:10. And Daniel describes the church perfectly in our day saying. “Many will
be purged, purified and refined; but the wicked will act wickedly and none of the
wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand. And from
the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of
desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days.
I don’t
know if we can say with any certainty yet exactly what this means but it most
definitely points to our day. Jesus makes the Abomination of Desolation an end
time event, and in Daniel 8 the angel says to Daniel, “Son of man, understand
that the vision pertains to the time of the end.” Daniel 8:17b. Again the angel said in Daniel
8:19, “Behold I am going to let you know what will occur at the final period of
the indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end.” Again in Daniel 8:26 the angel says: “And the
vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true; but keep the
vision a secret for it pertains to many days in the future.” Dan. 8:26.
So, all
of these prophecies pertain to the very end of the age where they will be
fulfilled in literal days and not in prophetic years. I believe all of these
events are tied in with the 42 months, the 1260 days and the 3 ½ years, all of
which pertain to the same length of time (3 ½ literal years) and the Lord had
this time period described in three
different ways specifically so that we
wouldn’t try to make it into prophetic years. It will occur in literal time
over a period of 3 ½ years just as stated.
In
other words, we are now entering into, or approaching crunch time… a 3 ½ or 7
year period of time when all prophecy will be brought to completion and our
Lord will return to put an end to Satan’s kingdom. This is also why Daniel’s 70th
week must occur at the end of time, for it is the week listed in Daniel
9:24-27, when all of the mandates given to Daniel and His people will be
completed and they can’t be completed without their Messiah… which is why this
coming period of indignation is called “The Time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble.
Israel’s
prophetic clock stopped at the crucifixion of their Messiah and according to
Romans 11, it won’t start ticking again until the fullness of the Gentiles has
come in. Romans 11:25-30
Many
have tried to apply these prophecies to their own day and they may have had
some meaning through time since prophetic cycles tend to repeat over and over
again like birth pangs, but now we are entering a time of intensity as the birth
pangs are increasing in frequency and intensity in order to bring forth the man
child of Revelation 12. Of this man child, Jesus was the first fruits, but He
did what He did in order to bring many sons to glory. Heb. 12:10, Rev. 12:17,
Rev. 14:12 and so on.
Since
2014 we have seeing many signs in the sun, moon and stars and they have all
occurred on the Lord’s appointed times so that we may know that the fulfillment
of the Fall Feasts of the Lord are about to come to fruition to usher in the
end of the age and the coming of the Lord.
And we
have every reason to believe that the Fall Feasts will be fulfilled by Jesus
just as accurately as were the Spring Feasts at His first coming.
I
believe that God brought Israel back into their own land in order to fulfill
all last day prophecies as well as to provide a time clock of events that will
bring Satan’s reign to an end. The final climax will come when Satan enters
into a man (The Antichrist) and enters into the temple of God, claiming to be
God as described in Daniel 11:35-45 and elsewhere.
This
same antichrist king is the one who will also set up the global kingdom of the
Beast described in Revelation 13 and as a final act of defiance he will enforce
the Mark of the Beast, so that no one may buy or sell unless they have the Mark.
And it is becoming very apparent in our day that this global network, of global
communication and surveillance is quickly leading to the point where they can
literally control every human on the planet. We will either be in the system or
out of it and if out of it; no transactions of any kind will be possible.
This is
the trap into which Satan is bringing both Christians and faithful Jews and we
will either take the Mark or we will face death just as Rev. 13 says.
This
will bring complacent Christianity to a sudden end. And so we gazed at the blood
moon on TuB’Shevat and we wonder if it contains a final warning for the church
or for Israel, or for the whole world. Is this a time for inspecting the trees
to see if they are ready to produce fruit for the Lord? Only time will tell. But
I can say this: A vast majority of Christians missed the messages of the 4
blood moons in 2014 and 15 and dismissed them as meaningless, along with the reappearance
of the Star of Bethlehem and the celestial sign of the virgin giving birth (Revelation
12) in 2017 and so many Christians remain blind to the plethora of events that
are taking place in the world right now.
And while
it is not necessary to fully understand the signs of our times or certainly to
agree with my assessment of them or anyone else’s for that matter, one truth
remains unchallenged and unchanged. We must be maturing in our relationship
with Jesus Christ. We must be coming out of the world system and partaking not
of her sins. We must be advancing in sanctification without which no one will
see God. (Heb. 12:14) We must believe that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to
be and that His Word is exactly what it claims to be. As such we must also obey
His Word for it is the instruction manual of our Creator and soon coming King. And
we must live by His Spirit who has been planted in our hearts to bring for the
fruit of maturity in us… for all who are led by the Spirit of God; these are the
sons of God. Romans 8:14-29. We have been predestined to be conformed to the
image of God’s Son. Rom. 8:29
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