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Many Christians don’t experience God’s blessing because they are “out of sync” with God’s timing

By Robert Heidler

Throughout the Bible, God placed great emphasis on establishing a “cycle of life” for His people. A cycle is something that goes around and moves you to a destination. Some cycles are used by the enemy to bring us into a place of loss and destruction.

God uses cycles to bring us up to new levels of his blessing and provision. At Jericho, God put Israel into a cycle of victory. As they walked in obedience around and around that city, He brought them into a place of victory!

God wants to lock you into cycles of blessing, growth, and increase. He has a cycle of victory for you today! God wants you to break out of satan’s cycle of destruction and into His cycle of blessing!

In the Scriptures, God established some very important cycles for His people. These were designed to draw us ever closer to Him. The first of these cycles was the weekly Shabbat (Sabbath), established by God at the creation of the world.

God also gave us a yearly cycle, moving through a series of “feasts” or “appointed times.” These feasts were designed to take us through key steps to deepen our walk with the Lord, break the power of the enemy, and release the power of God in our experience.

As I began to study the biblical feasts, I discovered that they were part of a cycle of life that actually made up a biblical calendar . They were not just holidays or Jewish rituals. God called them His “appointed times.” In a very real sense, these feasts are “appointments” with God: times set by God  to meet with His people and accomplish specific spiritual transactions in their lives. Taken together, these appointed times form a yearly cycle designed to bring God’s people into ever increasing blessing.

I was surprised to find that these appointed times were not just for the Old Testament era! God’s Word repeatedly tells us that these appointments are eternal, “for all generations,” and cannot be changed. I was also amazed to discover that these feasts were not just for Jews. Zechariah promises blessings for Gentiles who would observe God’s feasts.

I learned that Jesus and His apostles regularly observed these feasts. In fact, many important New Testament events occurred in the context of the feasts: Jesus was crucified on the Feast of Passover. He was raised from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits. The Holy Spirit fell during the Feast of Pentecost.

There are a total of seven appointed times in the yearly cycle, but they are grouped together into three yearly celebrations:

PASSOVER celebrates redemption from sin and cleansing from impurity. Each year when Passover is celebrated, we experience again the joy of being “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!”

PENTECOST is a celebration of God’s provision. Each year at Pentecost, we thank God for His provision in the past and gain faith to experience His full provision in the year ahead!

TABERNACLES celebrates God’s Glory—His presence—dwelling with His people. In the wilderness, Israel dwelt in tabernacles (temporary shelters). God told Moses to make a tabernacle for Him also, and He came down and lived in their midst! Each year at Tabernacles, God wants to lead us afresh into the joy of life in His presence!

Why is it important to retrace the steps into God’s Presence each year? It’s because each of us is surrounded by temptations and influences that try to draw us away from God. Living in the world is like standing on an escalator going down. If we don’t make a conscious choice to resist, the natural tendency is to sink lower and lower and end each year further from God.

That’s the experience of many Christians! Most Christians who are far from the Lord didn’t get there intentionally. They just drifted away, gradually succumbing to the temptations of life.

God’s appointed times were designed as an antidote to that “spiritual drift!” Meeting with God in His appointed times puts you on an escalator “going up”. Each year the feasts take you through key steps that draw you ever closer into God’s presence.

For the early church, God’s appointed times formed a rich tapestry against which all of life was played out, teaching and reminding them each year of the central truths of life with God. The blessings they enjoyed were intended for you also!

God’s yearly cycle of feasts is designed to be a great blessing in your life. The feasts are not commanded for Christians, but are given by God as gifts for His children.

Many Christians don’t experience God’s blessing because they are “out of sync” with God’s timing. Because they have not kept their “appointments” with God, they miss many windows of opportunity in their lives. Most frustrating of all because they have not been taught about the feasts, they don’t even realize what the problem is!

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I would encourage you to begin celebrating the biblical feasts. If your church has a celebration, that’s wonderful. But remember, the feasts were not primarily designed to be “church” activities. They were intended to be celebrated in the home! Why not invite some friends or family to join you in a joyful celebration of God’s feasts? This year, allow God to restore you to His yearly cycle of life and blessing!

Dr. Robert Heidler is an apostolic teacher with Glory of Zion International Ministries. Robert and his wife, Linda, have three grown children and live in Denton, Texas. Excerpts from the Messianic Church Arising.

Dear Mishpochah

By Sid Roth

The American evangelist F.F. Bosworth taught and successfully demonstrated healing throughout the first half of the 20th century. As he approached his latter years, the hunger for the supernatural had begun to decrease in the United States. Then, when Bosworth was nearly 75 years of age, he was invited to minister healing in South Africa. When he saw the hunger and the multitude of miracles and salvations, he asked God to give him the strength to minister to the spiritually hungry overseas. the next six years were Bosworth’s greatest years of ministry. God supernaturally restored his strength. His vision and health were totally renewed.

Now I am 75 years young. And I have seen in the Spirit what is not yet visible to the natural eye. I have seen the greatest revival in history that will hit the entire Middle East. Watch for fiery young Jewish and Arab evangelists taking the Gospel to all four corners of the earth! Watch for the same miracles as Jesus did—and even greater—to happen. Watch for amputees to have their limbs restored before your eyes!

My call is to bring these miracles into your living room through television. My call is also to reach hundreds of thousands, even millions of Jews and Arabs and train them in the supernatural.

Recent U.S. Presidents have thought their legacy was to bring peace in the Middle East. It is an impossible task. Eventually, the anti-Christ’s system will bring a false peace. But I know how to stop terrorism! I know how to buy us time before the anti-Christ’s system comes. In fact, it is the only way. Dream with me and pray with me as God does it!

God has given us His firstfruits. Our TV show is already on secular television in Israel and the West Bank. I have held the largest and most fruitful evangelistic meetings in Israel in 2,000 years. As I write this, I am scheduling more. But in the Spirit I can already see our television studio in Israel. I see our own TV network throughout the Middle East broadcasting in Hebrew and Arabic. I see all Israel saved! If you can see this too, please let me know and partner with me in prayer and financial investment.

Support Jewish Evangelism – get Sid’s personal testimony here.

I believe God has shown me our next great evangelistic tool. The strongest witness I know for reaching Jewish people is the message I give in my “lectures on the supernatural.” It includes my supernatural testimony of being rescued out of the New Age with Scripture worked into the story line. This is how I have had such amazing results with unsaved Jews throughout the world. My testimony, There Must Be Something More!, is now available as a 29-page booklet. We are presently distributing this new booklet in Ukraine in their language. This is the best tool I know to reach both Jews and Gentiles! A Gentile has never seen this fresh Jewish approach.

This booklet is like taking me with you! If the people you give it to are sick or in pain, always offer to pray for them. God is doing a new thing. You will see more people healed in the marketplace than in the churches. Let’s turn Jesus loose to show off through us!

I pray that as you partner with me with your special Pentecost offering, it will be a catalyst to cause the greater spiritual works that Jesus promised to flow like a river out of your life.

Soon America will be ablaze with the Glory of God and the same hunger F.F. Bosworth met in other countries will sweep the globe!