Tishri: A New Beginning

Tishri: A New Beginning

The 7th month of the Biblical Calendar is a month to be prepared for, to understand according to the times and seasons we are living in, and for the birthing of promises. Expect this to be a month of fruitfulness, justice, uprooting, transition, flowing, and celebration. The month of Tishri meaning “beginning” was only used to refer to the 7th month after Israel’s exile in Babylon, but fits perfectly as Tishri is also the beginning of the new year according to the calendar of creation. Tishri marks the entry into the new year of 5782, a year that promises to be unprecedented on a number of levels across the spectrum of society and on a global scale. It will be a year that people did not see coming. For the prophetic meaning and revelatory writing for 5782 continue here.

In Scripture the actual name used for the 7th month is Ethanim (1 Kings 8:2) which means living or everlasting waters. With Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and Sukkoth (Feast of Tabernacles) all being celebrated back to back this month, there is a lot to unpack, but Adonai is speaking clearly and plainly for all to understand. What you may have thought was simply the beginning of the new year is far more profound and complex, and understanding the prophetic significance is essential to aligning ourselves with the Biblical timing of Adonai. To best understand this month, however, we must first have a solid foundation for the reason we as believers celebrate the High Holidays, what they were for, the prophetic meaning of each feast today, and what they are a rehearsal for in the future. Time to get launched into 5782!

The High Holidays

Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) Sep. 6-8

Was celebrated in remembrance of the laws and covenant that Israel made with Adonai at Mount Sinai that began with Elohim descending on Mount Sinai with thunder and flashes of lightning, and a thick cloud was on the mountain, and a very loud blast was sounded on a ram’s horn (Exodus 19-24).

Today it is a celebration of the coming return of Yeshua as King over all the earth and the first resurrection of those dead in Christ who will be made incorruptible and the living who will be changed at the final trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Revelation 11:15).

Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) Sep. 16

Used to be the day that the Israelites sacrificed one goat for the sin offering (Scapegoat) of the nation and let the other goat go into the uninhabited wilderness. (Leviticus 16:10).

Yeshua came as the sin offering to atone for the sins of the world (scapegoat) and was resurrected to the right hand of the father while satan continues to roam and be the ruler of the earth. (1 John 2:2, Mark 16:19, 2 Corinthians 4:4), but Yeshua has authority over satan as do we through His blood which defeated sin and death.

Yom Kippur is a rehearsal of the day after Yeshua returns to rule and reign and will banish satan into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1-3).

Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) Sep. 20-27

In Old Testament times, the Israelites would gather in Jerusalem and dwell in small huts or tents made from the leafy branches of trees, and rejoice in the worship of Adonai (Leviticus 23:40) commemorating the times in the wilderness after the Exodus of Egypt. This is still practiced in Israel.

Yeshua told His disciples to celebrate Sukkot and He himself did as well (John 7:2-14) declaring on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles in the temple, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘From his innermost being will flow continually rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

Today we celebrate that Yeshua promised He will never leave us nor forsake us and celebrate the everlasting waters He promised that day (The Holy Spirit) in us.

We are celebrating The New Millennium to come when Yeshua reigns from Zion.(Zechariah 14:9,16-21 and Revelation 20:1-6).

Ephraim: Fruitful

The tribe of the 7th month is Ephraim, the youngest of Joseph’s two sons, who although being the youngest received the inheritance of the firstborn when Jacob prophesied over them (Genesis 48:16-19). The meaning of Ephraim is “fruitful” and is speaking directly to the remnant in this day and hour. Joseph said he named his son Ephraim because Adonai had made him fruitful in the land of his suffering (Genesis 41:52). We as believers, though this is supposed to be a time of suffering with COVID 19 are receiving kingdom strategies, boldness, understanding, and provision now for the times that are coming like the 7 golden years of Joseph when he stored the record harvests for the famine to come that enabled him to feed a starving world. While the world says recession, Adonai is saying be fruitful. The Shmita Year has begun with the beginning of the 7th month, and a triple blessing is in order to bring us through the next three years. Adonai knows what he has prepared for you even if you do not and like the wise men bringing precious gifts which prepared the family of Yeshua to flee to Egypt soon thereafter, Adonai is sending gifts fit for royalty to you too. Believe it and receive it in Yeshua’s mighty name!

Gathering the Nations

Jacob prophesied that Ephraim would become a multitude of nations (Genesis 46:19), and Moses prophesied that Ephraim would reach even to the ends of the earth (Deuteronomy 33:17). Not only has Ephraim made it to the ends of the earth but so has the Gospel of Peace. Knowing it has reached the ends of the earth, it must also return to Jerusalem from where it came. Now, however, during this coming Sukkoth, Israel has continued to close its borders to the nations due to COVID, meaning that once again, all the nations of the world who normally come up to Jerusalem from the ends of the earth will have to do so digitally. It will however allow more nations than ever before to celebrate together at the same time online hosted from Jerusalem, spreading awareness to the global Body of Messiah just how important this gathering of the nations is, and the fact that it will be celebrated even in the millennial reign of Yeshua (Zechariah 14:16). Even when the world says shut down, Adonai says gather, so we shall gather and worship the King of kings in Spirit and truth. Pray for all of the remnant in Israel this month as we gather together in our houses with one another, and for salvation to continue spreading throughout Eretz Israel to Jews and Arabs alike for the entire nation to be saved.

Ephraim was raised in Egypt but was an Israelite by blood, then became a part of Israel’s inheritance with his brother Manasseh. In parallel, we have all been raised in the world (Egypt), but redeemed by the blood of Yeshua and grafted into a global kingdom family. We live in this world but not of it, and are spiritual beings in a human body, not the other way around. Our reality and perspective is seated with Yeshua at the right hand of the Father, and our mind is no longer trapped in the worldly paradigm, but knowing an understanding every spiritual blessing we have in the heavenly places to bring it on earth as it is in heaven. We no longer agree with the fear, worry, doubt, division, anxiety, and hatred that the world tells us we should live in. THAT IS NOT THE KINGDOM MINDSET. As citizens of heaven, our love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control does not come from the world, but from the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). This month as we celebrate the present victory we have in Yeshua’s death and resurrection, and as we look toward the prophetic future of satan banished while Yeshua rules and reigns for 1,000 years, now is the time to get our perspective straight, heaven down. Now is the time to blow the trumpet, to break through the airwaves with true worship declaring YHWH’s kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Mozanaim: Justice

The heavens proclaim the glory of Adonai, and this month is no different. The main constellation in the night sky this month is Mozanaim, the weighing scales, which symbolize justice, but what is justice? Is it the thunderbolt that strikes the sinner or the fire that falls from heaven to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Yeshua gives us a perfect example during Sukkoth (Feast of Tabernacles) of how to be a good judge. As opinions and accusations get louder and louder we need this now more than ever. In the middle of Sukkoth, the crowd was accusing Yeshua of having healed a man on Shabbat, and He said, “If, to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, a man undergoes circumcision on the Sabbath, why are you angry with Me for making a man’s whole body well on the Sabbath? Do not judge by appearance [superficially and arrogantly], but judge fairly and righteously” (John 7:23-24). Yeshua did not rain down fire on them for accusing him of a crime, that’s not why He came, but simply pointed out their hypocrisy which made the whole subject moot. In the same way, Yeshua is our advocate against the accuser of the brethren, satan. Yeshua is in a sense our lawyer, and the Father is the judge whose weighing scales are righteous and just. Every time the devil accuses us in the courts of heaven of one sin or another, if we have repented, the blood of Yeshua erases that sin and keeps the enemy powerless. We have not been called to act in wrath like James and John who Yeshua called the sons of thunder due to them wanting to call down fire on the Pharisees for insulting Yeshua, but instead to be like Himself, to bless our enemies and to pray for those who curse us so that they might join the ranks of the saved.

The Mozanaim, the weighing scales, remind us of the price Yeshua paid for our sins to be forgiven, and that price was paid so that we wouldn’t be slaves to the world, but slaves to Him (1 Corinthians 7:23). In other words, don’t live according to man but according to Yeshua. Lastly, in order to live like Him, we have to be kings in the way that He is a King. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom to many” (Matthew 20:28). This is our King whom we have been called to emulate. To operate as priests and kings is to be ones who serve, not entitled to better treatment, nicer things, or greeted with a smile, but to serve people in the perfect love and power of the Holy Spirit knowing their salvation is on the line.

Ethanim: Everlasting Waters

Don’t underestimate the timing of Adonai. He is always on time and His feasts are fixed, markers of the times and seasons we are living in, and Ethanim the 7th month has always been a time of great happenings in the Word of God. King Solomon transferring the Ark of the Covenant from the Tabernacle of David to the First Temple (1 Kings 8) happened this month, a similar but opposite transition of the Body of Messiah today. Instead of inviting us into a fixed building like the First Temple, the Father is inviting the church to the people instead of the people to the church. He is calling us to be the moving Body in the Tabernacle of David once more, conquering the land one saved soul at a time. This is the month that Ezra, stood in front of the Water Gate reading the people the Law which they had long turned from during the exile in Babylon, reminding them not to weep because today there is a feast to celebrate and to rejoice as Adonai has called us to do so (Ezra 8). The world is weeping and in bondage, but the Truth will set them free. All of the thousands of feast days celebrated during Ethanim pointed to one especially important day. Yeshua stood up in the middle of the Temple complex and addressed everyone during the biggest celebration of the year, and spoke about the rivers of water that would flow continually from those who believed in Him. He was speaking about the Holy Spirit that was to be given once He had ascended to the throne (John 7:39).

This is the month of the promise of the Comforter, the Counselor, the Revealer, the very Spirit of YHWH dwelling within us. For many believers, the Holy Spirit is just something required to have and when we get it, that’s it, we are good to go. This could not be farther from reality, especially because this is no time to live off of the teachings of men, but of the Holy Spirit. Why? “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the [Holy] Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the [wonderful] things freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:11-13). Truly everlasting waters. Paul goes on to tell us that “the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Believer] judges all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals]” (1 Corinthians 2:15). There is a lot of noise out there, plenty of tradition, lots of religion, each person, politician, business, corporation with an angle, a scheme, and plenty of prophets saying a hundred different things. There is One we can trust to give us the whole Truth though, the One who knows the Mind of the Creator. Now more than ever, brothers and sisters, we must be in constant communication with the Holy Spirit with the teachings and prophetic words, dreams, and visions being confirmation instead of the absolute voice of truth. Since the time of Adam until Yeshua, the Father has been eagerly waiting to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now 2,000 years have passed and before we know it Yeshua will return. In this month of the Holy Spirit, when we celebrate the miraculous promises of Adonai of the past, present, and future, be sure to turn the everlasting water on full blast. Let the river flow from within you like the River of Life that will flow from Yeshua’s throne in the new millennium to come. Drink the spiritual “drano” to unclog anything that is stopping the flow, repent, move forward, and watch the gardens around you grow as the river goes with the flow of the Mind of YHWH Himself.

The Call

Like Ephraim, be fruitful this month living the reality of the promises of Adonai, like Joseph living in Egypt but not an Egyptian, like Ephraim raised an Egyptian, but adopted into Israel. You are a citizen of heaven. Be a beacon of justice, do not judge by appearance [superficially and arrogantly], but judge fairly and righteously (John 7:23-24). Take this time of transition in your life in stride, don’t try to work against it even though it may be uncomfortable, but embrace it knowing it is leading you into your destiny. The transition is not only individual, but for the global Body of Messiah as a whole. Will we ever go back to “normal” or is it pretty clear Adonai is telling us we are transitioning into the new normal? Not the new normal of the world, but the new normal of the Kingdom. Both will happen, but which one will you be a part of? It is time to celebrate the feasts of Adonai, not in a religious way, but led by the Holy Spirit according to what they mean now for the Body of Messiah and prophetically for what is to come. Whether it be online or in-person let’s go up to Zion, every tribe, tongue, and nation to celebrate! Lastly, if you didn’t know before, now you know, of all the months on the Biblical calendar, Ethanim is the time to flow, like blow up the dam type of flow, when the Holy Spirit and yourself are best friends instead of an acquaintance from a long time ago. Get alone with Adonai, then get together with at least two or three in His Name to worship Him in Spirit and Truth, get in the Word, and be activated in the 9 Fruits and gifts of the Spirit. There is an army rising up in the nations, shaking off the dust, and being revived preparing the way for the return of Yeshua. Are you amongst them? Yeshua is alive and He is coming soon! Adonai bless you and keep you!