We are in the midst of a Cosmic Shift…. one that is so huge the world hasn’t seen anything like this for several thousand years! Even the heavens, which preach the Gospel, are speaking of what God is doing in all of creation right now. In part 1 of this series, you’ll learn what that means for you as an individual, and you’ll learn how to recognize and break free of limiting cycles and patterns. Today, you will learn about an upcoming redemptive season that the Father has woven into the fabric of time, and you will learn how to cooperate with Him to REDEEM TIME supernaturally!
Next week, in part 2, we’ll talk about the transition the Body of Christ is currently experiencing. You’ll learn why the old religious structures have to die away and will learn what you can expect in this next season of OUTPOURING! And in part 3, you will learn some fascinating things about the Mazzaroth and our 26,000 year journey through the 12 constellations. You will be amazed and encouraged to know that you were chosen to live during such an exciting time in history.
THE HEBREW MONTH OF ELUL
Did you know that the Hebrew month of Elul begins at sundown on Friday, August 30th, 2019? And did you know that there is something very significant and practical about that for YOU personally?
The 6th Hebrew month, Elul, begins a Jewish tradition of 40 days of repentance in preparation for Yom Teruah and, ultimately, Kippur (the Day of Atonement). It is parallel to the 40 days of spying out the land (Numbers 13). Elul, which literally means “search” is all about evaluating and allowing God to show you what your Promised Land is and what resistance (giants) you need to overcome to possess it. Then, on Yom Teruah, you have the opportunity to trumpet your YES to Him, like Caleb did:
“Let us go up at once and take possession,
for we are well able to overcome it!”
-Numbers 13:30
On the other hand, we can be like the other 10 spies who gave a negative (what some would call “realistic”) report:
“If only we had died in the land of Egypt!
Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
Why has the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword
that our wives and children should become victims?”
-Numbers 14:2-3
Every year, God gives us these 40 days, which function as a transitional, “flex” time in the Spirit. During this time, He pours out abundant grace to help us break free from negative cycles.
RECURRING CYCLES ARE A MANIFESTATION OF THE LAW OF RESONANT FREQUENCY: WE DON’T GET WHAT WE WANT; WE GET WHAT WE RESONATE
Natural and spiritual laws apply to everyone, whether we believe in God or not, or whether we understand them or not. Is God cruel because I hit the ground after jumping off of a 10-story building? Did He throw me to the ground? No, I am just subject to natural laws….. Until I discover and begin operating by a higher law. Basically, we draw to ourselves the strongholds in our soul.
The Biblical term “stronghold” is just that – a strong hold. THEY HOLD US IN A CYCLE! It is the structure that gives the enemy legal ground, and it is the place of agreement that allows demonic oppression. The Greek word for stronghold, taken literally, means a fortress.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God
for pulling down strongholds,
casting down imaginations and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
– II Corinthians 10:3-5
The process of tearing down strongholds is basically the process of maturation, of being “changed from glory to glory” (II Corinthians 3:18), of “bring transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Strongholds consist of:
1. What is in our DNA; our generational memory.
This law was created for blessing, to pass down good from generation to generation. But it also works negatively.
2. Our life experiences, positive or negative.
3. What we think (our core belief system, which includes our subconscious and unconscious minds—not our religious correct answers).
4. What we feel (even emotions that have been repressed or shut down).
Emotions resonate strongly from any place there has been a hurt or trauma, and emotional thoughts are far more powerful than rational ones.
5. How we see ourselves (generally a result of life experiences, how our parents saw us, what they said, how they taught us to see ourselves and what they modeled for us).
6. Habits and patterns (usually survival mechanisms).
These habits and pattens may have been the only way we knew to cope or to survive, but at a certain place of maturity, they become a hindrance to our destiny, and we must let them go.
WHERE THERE IS FRUIT, THERE IS A ROOT!
God knows that we will sin (miss the mark), so everything about His interaction with us is redemptive, as we see from Revelation 13:8, which calls Jesus “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God has also built a redemptive rhythm into His created world, and into His seasons and feasts.
THE KING IS IN THE FIELD
In Hebrew, the letters of Elul (alef, lamed, vav, lamed) are an acronym for the phrase “Ani ledodi vedodi li” which is “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon 6:3). In Hebrew tradition, Elul is the time when “the King is in the field rather than in the palace,” a time when He is easily accessible to all. Of course we know that the veil has been torn, and, because of Christ, we can approach His throne boldly. But the point is that during this season, God is especially near, speaking to us about what needs to be redeemed from past cycles and seasons.
In the Spirit, this time can feel like everything is loose, uncertain. But that is intentional on God’s part, because, before each new cycle, He gives us the opportunity to properly align.
During this month, I usually set aside specific time to listen and to pray through things I am struggling with, as well as past dreams, revelation and prophetic words. After doing this for the first time, I looked back two years later and was amazed to see that Holy Spirit had uprooted almost all of the things He had highlighted to me!
YOM TERUAH (FEAST OF TRUMPETS)
The first day of the following month, the month of Tishrei, is Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets. This year, it begins at sundown on Sunday, September 29th. It can be viewed as a prophetic wake-up call, as well as the traditional trumpet call blown to announce the King. In other words, on this day, we are choosing to make Him King over our lives, especially the areas He has highlighted to us during Elul.
YOM KIPPUR (THE DAY OF ATONEMENT)
Yom Kippur is October 8th, 2019, and the 10 days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) are called the Days of Awe. There is much to say about this day, but in the context of this teaching, I just want to mention that, at Yom Kippur, we will be sealed for another cycle and we will eat from the fruit of what we have said “yes” to and what we have said “no” to. I believe that many times, this fruit manifests in the earthly, tangible realm by Passover, in the spring.
Now we know that there is no time in God, and that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the feasts. In Christ, we are not limited by time and space, and through Him, we have legal access to God the Father and to dimensions beyond time. Yet in the earth realm, God has put a rhythm in the very fabric of His creation, like the way that there is a certain time to plant and harvest crops. We can rise above the laws of earth, but we must understand and honor them first. If we break these laws due to ignorance or lawlessness, we will pay the consequences and may miss some wonderful things the Lord has given us. But if we align ourselves with His established rhythm, we will have an added grace propelling us into His plans and purposes.
Here are some keys to remember during this amazing time of the year:
1. Don’t get legalistic or trade with a spirit of fear. Just realize we have a God-given opportunity where He is pouring out abundant grace to break free of negative cycles, so that they do not become more deeply entrenched.
2. Don’t strive or try to figure it out or fix yourself. In John 6:63, Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” We should never fear a corrective word from the Lord, because there is always an abundance of grace (Divine empowerment) that comes with every word He speaks.
3. Our part is just to be sensitive and yielded to His voice, and to agree with what He is doing in us. Listen to the Lord and write down places where there is fruit you do not want to take into the next season.
Declare this: “This work in my soul is not done by my own strength, by working or striving or figuring it out. It is all by grace through faith by revelation. As I agree with God and co-labor with Him, I will break free of every ungodly cycle and will produce abundant fruit in this new season!”
SUPERNATURAL REDEEMING OF TIME
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says that there is a “time for every purpose under heaven.” So, there is an “appointed time” for everything in the earth realm, but as a spirit being seated with Christ in heavenly places (above time), I have been given dominion over time. I am not subject to its limitations.
Several years ago, a very prophetic friend of mine dreamed that I was worshipping and interceding on the keyboard, and she knew that it had something to do with the alignment of the stars and some promises of God manifesting on the earth. A few weeks later, I had the first of a series of encounters where Jesus spoke to me out of Song of Solomon 2: “Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away.” He grabbed me by the hand and we flew into the stars, where together, we rearranged them. He began teaching me about the authority He has given His sons over time and creation. Genesis 1:14 says that the heavenly lights were given to us for signs and seasons. The Hebrew word for seasons is “moed”, which literally means “APPOINTED TIME.” It is the same word used when referring to the Biblical feasts. So, the heavenly lights govern God’s appointed times, and, because Jesus gave us back the dominion over creation that Adam lost, we govern them. Literally, through Jesus, we have been given power to supernaturally redeem time!
It is no coincidence that God took Abram (a Chaldean, who understood the stars) outside to look at the stars when He made a covenant with him promising him descendants (Genesis 15:5). Thirteen years passed, and, again, God appeared to Abraham saying, “At the appointed time (Moed),I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:14). And we know that God kept His promise, returning a season of fruitfulness to one who was long past the age of childbearing.
In Joshua 10, God had the sun stand still until Israel had completely subdued their enemies. And in Judges 5, Deborah, a prophet and worshipping warrior, acknowledged that the stars themselves were fighting on Israel’s behalf.
From the heavens the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
–Judges 5:20
WORSHIP AND INTERCESSION
Worship and intercession are portals through which we can enter another dimension, a dimension outside of time. From a place of submission to God and authority over creation, we bring the seasons into alignment with the will of the Father and things that were done or not done in past seasons can be supernaturally redeemed and brought back into alignment. And, with the beginning of a new season, those things are sealed and solidified to bring forth fruit. It is a redemptive cycle created by God for our good, but, like any other natural or spiritual law, works for good or for evil. If cycles are not broken, they will become more deeply entrenched.
Again, we know that Jesus is the embodiment of Jubilee and of all the feasts, so we can access His redeeming power at any time, but I would like to encourage you to utilize the abundant grace of these 40 days to break free of negative cycles and to redeem all that has been lost in past seasons. Set aside some extra time to spend with the King as He walks in the field…
“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied)
are the people who know the joyful sound
[who understand and appreciate the spiritual blessings
symbolized by the feasts];
they walk, O Lord, in the light and favor of Your countenance!”
–Psalm 89:15
Click HERE to watch a mini version of all 3 parts of this teaching as it was released at All Things Restored last week. The teaching begins around 1:10:45.
And click HERE for a free audio download of Part 1 of this series: Breaking Cycles and Redeeming Time.