Perhaps the most significant celestial event in history —the Star of Bethlehem—is recurring in our lifetime—just in time for Christmas 2020!

“On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will be so closely aligned that they will appear as a ‘double planet,'” announced Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan. The double planet will be visible December 16 – 25. The last time such a close conjunction was visible from earth was in 1226, almost 800 years ago.

“Call 2020’s conjunction a unique, holiday gift to the world,” says the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Interestingly, the event is dubbed the “Christmas Star” or the “Star of Bethlehem.” ¹

“The skies proclaim the work of His hands,” the psalmist sang. “They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth” (Psalm 19).

Celestial signs and events have always signaled messages about earthly events.

God’s first arrival to the earth in human form was an event to be heralded by a phenomenon never seen before.

Scientists, scholars, even theologians, have called the Star of Bethlehem a myth, a symbol, or a spiritual metaphor. But all that has changed. With new historical knowledge and technology, we can create models of the universe as it existed 2000 years ago. The Star and the famous wise men who followed it are proving to be real!

The ancient magi, or “wise men,” were often court astronomers. Such a dramatic cosmic event drew them to investigate.

“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him,” they asked, arriving in Jerusalem (Matthew 2:2).

The wise men most likely saw Jupiter (known as the King planet) and Venus (known as the Mother planet) merge in the eastern sky, creating a super conjunction of planets.

As one of the closest conjunctions ever to occur, it would have astounded the ancient world. What the magi saw from their home in Babylon was a super star shining in the west, directly toward Jerusalem. ²

The magi knew that a momentous event had been announced in the heavens—like the birth of a king.

As they traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, they would have seen the Jupiter-Venus pair moving from the east toward the south (the direction of Bethlehem) due to the earth’s rotation.

Looking directly over Bethlehem, they would have seen Jupiter, appearing to have stopped, stationary in the heavens, mid-bodied to the constellation Virgo the Virgin, shining directly down on Bethlehem. There they found Jesus and gave Him their gifts.

And now, we are about to see a similar celestial event.

Once again, the heavens are speaking.

“There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars,” we are told (Luke 21:25-28).

We’re about to see a great sign!

Like poetry written in the skies, the stars and heavenly bodies proclaim His glory, declare His intentions, cause us to look up and watch for His coming.

_NOTES:

_{¹ EcoWatch, “Jupiter and Saturn Will Form ‘Double Planet’ This December for the First Time in 800 Years,” December 4, 2020.}

_{² The Star That Astonished the World, by Dr. Ernest Martin (1991), and The Star of Bethlehem website are excellent resources for more details.}

_{This article originally appeared on calvarychapel.flywheelsites.com on April 17, 2019.}

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2).

“Come now; let us leave,” Jesus beckoned His disciples, leading them from the upper room where they shared their last supper together.

It was the day before the Cross.

He knew what was coming. He washed their feet, shared communion, taught them, reassured them, then stood up and led them down to the Garden of Gethsemane.

As they walked past acres of vineyards in the light of the Passover moon, I can see Jesus stopping to lift up a length of the vine as He began to reveal the mysteries of spiritual gardening.

“I am the vine,” He began.

It starts with Him. The Gardener is God the Father, and believers are the branches of the vine. There are only two kinds of branches: fruitless and fruitful. Which means there are two kinds of believers: fruitless and fruitful.

One of the great principles of gardening is pruning. Vine keepers cut off the sucker shoots, the cane like branches that produce beautiful leaves, but bear no fruit. If they remain, they will sap the life of the vine and reduce the amount of water and nutrients that reach the fruit. Everything suffers.

Pruning directs as much water and nutrients as possible to the branches bearing fruit, increasing the quantity and the quality of the harvest.

Jesus needed them to know that pruning is necessary.

Sometimes it is painful. Sometimes it is a relief! God will remove things from our lives that we simply don’t have the courage or strength to remove ourselves.

Even fruitless branches can bear deceptively beautiful foliage. Just because things look good and sound good, doesn’t mean they are part of the heavenly Gardener’s plan for your life.

God may be pruning something out of your life. Let it go. Trust Him. Don’t fight it. Welcome it, for His pruning will ultimately enrich your life.

Jesus said that He came that we may have life and have it “more abundantly.”

He came to give us rich, full, productive lives that are not distracted, weighed down, diluted or hindered by activities, relationships or unnecessary obligations. He waters, nourishes, weeds and carefully prunes our lives to allow our gifts and talents to flourish so that we can be a blessing to others and glorify God.

He was about to face Gethsemane but knew it was important to leave His beloved disciples with these life-giving lessons.

Saturday, April 27, a tragic shooting occurred at Chabad Synagogue in Poway, California, —just a few miles down the road from our church, Maranatha Chapel. One woman died, and three other people are wounded, including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, whose hand was torn by bullets. Worshipers were celebrating the last day of Passover.

Rabbi Goldstein is a friend of mine.

We met in the early 90s shortly after I had traveled to Israel. I brought home a bumper sticker that said, in Hebrew, “The Messiah Is Coming Soon!” and put it on my car. The Rabbi was driving behind me one day and saw it; he followed me and pulled into the parking lot of our church right behind me.

He got out of his car, walked over to meet me and introduced himself.

“Where did you get that bumper sticker?” he asked.

“Israel!” I answered.

“Why did you put it on your car? You are a Christian!?” he asked, assuming so since I had pulled into a church.

I told him, “Not only am I a Christian, I’m the pastor here.” He broke out in a huge smile, and said, “Let’s go to coffee and talk!”, which, of course, we did. We have been friends ever since.

I shared my faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and that I believe He is coming back soon. He shared with me that while He doesn’t believe in Jesus, He does believe the Messiah is coming soon. He said, “We will know who Messiah is then, for sure!”

That was the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship. His congregation holds an annual fundraiser called “The Friendship Circle,” which goes toward helping disabled children in our community. Our church has helped support that cause for years.

Rabbi Goldstein is in stable condition after extensive hand surgery and has been released from the hospital.

I texted the Rabbi and received a text back, in which he said, “Ray, tell your congregation thank you for their love and prayers. It is a miracle by God’s grace that I am alive.”

He is grieving over the loss of a long time friend and pioneering member of Chabad of Poway, the woman who died from gunshot wounds. He is very concerned for her family, the other two wounded victims, as well as the trauma suffered by his congregation. But he vows to stay strong!

We are shocked and horrified by this act of anti-Semitism in our beautiful county of San Diego. Please continue to pray with us for the Rabbi as well as his family and congregation.

Love and blessings from Maranatha Chapel.

Most of us are living on the edge of a great secret.

God has been speaking to me about my prayer life. As a believer who has walked with the Lord for many years, taught the Bible and served in ministry, one might think I have achieved a certain level of closeness and deep understanding with the Lord. I certainly feel close and loved by Him, but He has been inviting me to something deeper, following the example of Jesus.

Jesus had just heard some terrible news. King Herod had ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place” (Matthew 14:13).

Faced with tragic, heartbreaking news, Jesus knew He needed to get away to be alone with His Father. But the crowds continued to follow Him by foot, so “He had compassion on them and healed their sick.” He took care of them, ordering His disciples to feed the people a miraculous meal that fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

After Jesus had prayed for the people and fed them until they were satisfied, He finally did what He needed to do:

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd. After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray.”

During His time of ministry, Jesus often went away to pray.

He needed to temporarily escape the press of the crowd and the multitude of needs. This is the secret of His life and strength! He had a “secret place” of daily intimacy with the Father.

Psalm 91:1 promises us that, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

Oh, to rest in the shadow of the Almighty! Think of yourself at a beach on a hot, sunny day. Sure, it’s great to be out there basking in the warmth of the sun—until it gets scorching hot. So you run to your shady spot, under an umbrella, and feel the relief and comfort of being sheltered from the heat.

God wants to do that for us in the “shadow of the Almighty,” that secret place of prayer where we can find comfort, peace and get recharged for what’s next.

The disciples recognized that.

They saw Jesus retreat, then come back strengthened and refreshed in a powerful way. They knew something happened to Him when He stole away, so they asked Him to teach them to pray (see Luke 11)!

They wanted what He experienced in the secret place of prayer. I want that too, and I’ve been hearing God tell me that there’s more to prayer than what I have been experiencing.

While we are sheltered under the shadow of the Almighty, we are also lifted up. In the writings of apostle Paul, author of much of the New Testament, a golden thread runs through his epistles. “I press toward the goal,” he said, “for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

The upward calling. The secret place of prayer lifts us up into “heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6)!

There is a call in the Spirit to literally ascend and by faith enter into the heavenly realms. To see life from heaven’s perspective and enter into the presence and throne of God. Part of growing in our prayer life is not just doing battle every day here on earth, slogging away at the cares of the world that hurt and break us. No, we are told:

“Since, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” Colossians 3:1-3).

While we physically walk on earth, we can have the mind of Jesus (Philippians 2:5-8) and live with His attitude, faith and prayers.

How do we do this? How do we approach the heavenly places, this secret place?

Hebrews 4:16 tells us: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

We are to come boldly, with confidence. Hebrews also urges us to be, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We can enter into the secret place with boldness and confidence when we look to Jesus and set our gaze firmly on Him. This can be a new way to pray for many of us. We seek God, worship, come to Him with our petitions and intercessions – all good. Then He asks us to follow Him deeper.

“Be still and know I am God,” He says. Stop for a moment in time, see yourself seated in heaven with your Lord, and listen, feel yourself drawn up into His presence. Feel the wind of His spirit lifting you up. Be quiet, be still and know.

Know, perceive, learn and experience the presence of God.

We can read and picture heaven in Revelation chapters 4-5 and other places in Scripture. We can go to this place of prayer, be filled with His Spirit and experience being with Him and hearing His voice in the heavens.

Are you weary? Discouraged? Worn out? Remember what He promises you:

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

When we wait upon Him, when we are lifted into His presence, heaven touches our earthly hearts. Our praises and hearts go up, and His glory comes down to meet us, then lifts us up with Him.

This is where we experience divine revelations and visions, as we enter into His presence in a new and profound way. This is where we find the strength and courage to carry on.

You’re right on the edge.

Enter into the secret place, and His love will overflow into you and out into the world. Be still and know He is there, waiting for you, wanting to bless and fill you with His love, comfort, power and love.

When a spiritual revival swept through England in the 19th century, it also revived a love for the Jewish people and prayers for their restoration. One brave mother, a product of the earlier Great Awakening revival, taught her young son to pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem and those who love Israel: “May they prosper who love you” (Psalm 122:6).

Daily they knelt by his bed and prayed, “O Lord, we would not forget Thine ancient people, Israel; hasten the day when Israel shall again be Thy people and shall be restored to Thy favor and to their land.”¹ On December 9, 1917, on the eve of Hanukkah, an answer to their prayers began to unfold. A phalanx of British officers led by General Edmund Allenby (1861-1936) entered Jerusalem. As a gesture of respect, Allenby stepped down from his horse and walked in. He deliberately chose to walk, he stated, because only the Messiah should ride into the Holy City.²

The grip of the Turkish Empire, which had ruled for some 400 years, crumbled, and Jerusalem was now in the hands of Britain, a nation sympathetic to their plight. Israel’s restoration had begun.The young boy who prayed with his mother by his bed grew up to be General Allenby. He not only witnessed this miracle, but also became part of the answer to his boyhood prayers.

The Stage Was Set

Earlier, November 1917, the Balfour Declaration had been issued by the British government and adopted by the League of Nations, establishing the boundaries of a new Jewish state in the Palestine area.

Thirty years and another World War later, on November 29, 1947, Resolution 181, the official UN act to partition Palestine, allotted the new Jewish state a small part of western Palestine. The resolution recognized the right of the Jewish people to a state, not just a “national home” as the Balfour Declaration stated.

My close friend, the late Mayor Ron Nachman of Ariel, Israel, told me about the night Resolution 181 was celebrated. “I was five years old, but I remember everything. The celebration, the joy, the happiness, the dancing in the street. Then the next day, the riots began.” Ron experienced the joy, followed by the terror of continuing conflict as he literally grew up with the state of Israel.

On May 14, 1948, the British mandate over Palestine expired. A proclamation was approved, declaring the establishment of the state of Israel. The United States recognized the new nation that same night. The dry bones of Ezekiel’s prophecy had come together (Ezekiel 37). “Sinews and flesh” gave the bones physical substance. The nation was restored to its physical state. But there was “no breath,” Ezekiel observed. Then God began breathing life into the Holy Land, through men and women like Ron Nachman, his family and fellow citizens.

Patterns

J. Vernon McGee once commented, “Prophecy is the mold into which history is poured.” The Hebrew mindset identifies patterns in Scripture and history. Prophecy is best understood when we recognize those patterns. On the world stage, with Israel’s re-birth, God was moving, revealing some interesting historic patterns.

Consider this:
Jesus connected His coming Kingdom to the Genesis flood saying, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Noah, whose name means “rest” or “comfort,” spent 120 years building an ark according to the Lord’s instructions. He was no doubt jeered, questioned and ridiculed as he warned people of impending judgment. His ark provided safe shelter for his family and prepared them for the task of rebuilding their world after the flood.

Jesus, the One who offers rest to the weary, made the connection to Noah (Matthew 11:28). His Kingdom will finally bring sanctuary and comfort to the world.

A New Ark

In 1897 Theodor Herzl, known as the father of Zionism, began to build a new “ark” by organizing the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. Zion is the ancient name for Jerusalem.

The stated primary goal was to aim at “establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and assured home in Palestine.”³ The year 2017 marks 120 years since Herzl began to build the new ark, Israel, a sanctuary and homeland for a weary chosen people.

A 50-Year Pattern

Fifty years is significant in the Jewish calendar. The 50th year was the Year of Jubilee, when bond slaves were released, land restored and debts forgiven. A holy, life-giving year. Herzl wrote in his diary, “In Basel I founded the Jewish State…maybe in five years, certainly 50, everyone will realize it.” Resolution 181 and the historic night Ron Nachman recounted to me, was passed exactly 50 years later in 1947.

The Six-Day War that put East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount back into the hands of the Jewish people followed the miracle of General Allenby’s liberation of Jerusalem in 1917 by exactly 50 years, in 1967. The Six-Day War was a milestone for me, when at age 11 I saw the dramatic headlines of Israel’s miraculous victory. My interest in Israel and prophecy grew as the ancient land of the Bible took on flesh and bones.

The 1967 Six-Day War is as miraculous as the story of Joshua and Jericho. In one week, both wars saw the political, military and geographical walls tumbled down by supernatural power! It was an emotional, powerful episode in Israeli history described by reporter Mordechai Twersky: “You hear the sounds of gunfire. You hear the footsteps of Israeli soldiers, as they draw closer and closer…We hear a triumphant Brigadier General Shlomo Goren, later to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as he recites the memorial prayer and sound the shofar, as Israeli soldiers weep with sorrow over their comrades killed in combat.”

Amidst the sounds of weeping, gunfire and shofars, the Rabbi cried, “This year in a rebuilt Jerusalem! In the Jerusalem of old!”⁴

Fast forward 50 more years to 2017. President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and directed the State Department to begin preparation to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem 100 years after the Balfour Declaration and 120 years after Herzl began to build the new ark, Israel, as a homeland for a weary people. God is calling His people back to the Promised Land, from all over the world, beckoning them to “the ark.”

No matter how you slice it–120 years, 100, 50 or 70–all are converging in 2018 to celebrate the anniversary of God’s chosen land for His chosen people!

Spiritual Explosion

A significant spiritual principle pervades historic events involving the Jewish people. God promised Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Every time God fulfills prophecy concerning the Jewish people and Israel, He pours out His Spirit in a fresh way upon the church. Within seven years of the Zionist Congress, God began to move through revivals like the Welsh Revival and Azusa Street in Los Angeles. The 20th century progressed through two World Wars, “nation against nation.” The prophet Isaiah’s question, “Can a country be born in a day?” (Isaiah 66:8, NIV), was answered when Israel was recognized as a nation on May 14, 1948.

In 1949, 29-year-old Billy Graham conducted a crusade in Los Angeles that launched his evangelism ministry. Two years later, Bill Bright, also 29, launched a worldwide ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ. Right after the Six-Day War in 1967, the Jesus Movement revival captured a generation’s heart, including mine, and the modern Messianic movement was born as thousands of Jews accepted Jesus as their Messiah.

Window of Time

As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of Israel on May 14, we will have entered a historic and unique window of time, one that overlaps 2017-2018 (this is the Hebrew year 5778, which started in September 2017 and runs to September 2018). We are living in a time of unprecedented growth for the Gospel.⁵ The outpouring of God’s Spirit will continue to reach deeper and wider into the world as people hunger for the truth.

The prophet Joel made a promise that Peter repeated in his Pentecost sermon:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy” (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-18).

The Hebrew word used for pour means to “spill, mound up, intensely gush out in abundance.” The promise, however, hinges on an era–the last days. We have entered that era, a window in time when Israel is celebrated, and God is pouring out His Spirit upon the world. No more business as usual! Our sons and daughters will see visions and prophesy. The older ones of us will dream and see the future!

Jesus said this to His disciples about the fig tree, a symbol of Israel: “When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-at the doors!” (Matthew 24:32). “It” refers to the end of the age and His Second Coming.

We do not know the day or hour, but we know our Lord is coming soon (Matthew 24:42). And Israel is the sign that we need to be ready. For 70 years, the fig tree has blossomed into the beautiful homeland and the ark God promised-120 years from the dream of Theodor Hertzl. We celebrate this anniversary and this season with great joy and anticipation!

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King” (Psalm 48:1-2).

¹ Barry Shaw, “1917 and the Liberation of Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Post, November 19, 2017. Web.
² Ibid.
³ Gotthard Deutsch, “Basel Program,” Jewish Encyclopedia. Web.
⁴ “The Six-Day War,” Jewish Virtual Library. Web.
⁵ Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, 3rd Ed. New York. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 2-3.

At the beginning of every year, every season of life, or every day, we can say, “We have not been this way before.” A new adventure, a new way, things that never happened to us before give us the opportunity every day to experience God’s presence and power.

The question is, are you ready?

Are you willing? Do you believe it? The children of Israel, after 40 years of wandering in the desert, stood on the river shore, the Promised Land in front of them. All they had to do was cross the wild and dangerous Jordan River.
You can imagine the fear, uncertainty and hesitation that murmured through the people. Joshua sent instructions through the camp to follow the ark of the covenant being held by the Levitical priests because, “Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before” (Joshua 3:4). Joshua also instructed them, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

It was harvest time. The river was at flood stage and not easily navigable. Enemies could be waiting for them on the other side. Did God order the soldiers and strongest men in the camp to lead the way? No, he put the priests and the Ark on the front lines. God fulfilled His promise to the children of Israel, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Like the Dad that He is, He goes before us, urging us to join the adventure, get our feet wet and step into the river, because He plans to do amazing things.
The priests stepped in to the river, and immediately, the water ceased to flow from upstream. Just like the stories of Moses, the elders remembered and the young ones heard told! It was the beginning of Joshua’s “amazing things.” The whole nation crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

You and I have been born in this particular stage of history, this hour in the history of humankind.

This is not an accident. God knows you, designed you and planned on your life being here at this time for specific reasons. We are another Joshua generation. We need to accept and understand our true identity. When we put our faith in Jesus, we inherit a new identity. We become His children, His son or daughter. But too many believers don’t realize this, nor are they seeing it manifested in their lives.

We need to engage and enforce our inheritance. The inheritance became reality the moment the Israelites stepped into the river. Passover was the night the nation was born. This day, the nation was baptized and revived as they stepped forward in obedience. Jesus taught, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The word repent implies a change of action, to change your mind, to go in a new direction.

On this day, Israel received a new identity and headed in a new direction.

In Egypt they lived under a slave mentality. In the wilderness they held on to a survival mentality. Now it was time to embrace their new identity, as the recipients of God’s love, blessings and promises. Time to claim their inheritance. Time to develop an inheritance identity.

When we repent, we are changed. When we turn from the ways we have been thinking, living, believing and begin to follow the Lord into new territory, then and only then, do we experience what God promised.

We are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). We are “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t have to live with fear, worries and anxiety. These are the idols of a past without God. The more we accept and believe God’s great love for us, the stronger our identity as His children is established. The false identity is removed, and the power of God’s kingdom can be manifested in our lives.

I’ve been a teacher/preacher for a long time and am disturbed by what some of my colleagues teach. We are indeed sinners, for “all have fallen short of the glory of God.” That fact has been drilled into the church for centuries. We are not just sinners, but worthless sinners, and God doesn‘t really like us all that much.

After all, when the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, he opened his letter with, “To the dirty, rotten, worthless sinners who live in Ephesus,” right? No! He wrote, “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace.”

The truth is, God found us valuable and loved us even when we were yet sinners.

Jesus taught, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). We are His treasure.

“Sinner” is no longer our true identity. We have been forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness the moment we repent. We are God’s treasure, His beloved. Despite our failings, weaknesses, disobedience and acts of rebellion, He treasures us enough to send His Son to sacrifice Himself for us. We are His brave and triumphant children who follow Him into the river, unafraid, ready to face giants, smash idols and receive our inheritance.

We have not gone this way before…but we are ready when we follow our Lord. We can move ahead with confidence and in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us. We can be a Joshua generation.

Pastor Ray Bentley will be speaking at the 2017 CCCM Pastors & Leaders Conference, happening June 26-29!

Do we know what worship means and does? Singing in church with fellow believers, raising your hands and feeling emotionally moved by the power of the music is just the beginning. Sometimes, we worship because we are in church and, well, it’s what you do – it’s the right thing. Maybe we worship out of habit, and there is nothing wrong with having such a worthwhile habit, unless that is where it ends.

Worship is more than a weekend church activity.Worshiping the Almighty by an individual or a gathering can shift the atmosphere and dramatically change the environment in which we live. We can worship through our expression of praise and with our actions.

I’m not sure we understand the power of worship to change our surroundings.

The story of Joshua and Jericho is more than a story of walls tumbling down and military victory. It is a powerful example of what worship can accomplish.

The story actually starts with worship. Joshua chapter five says that as Joshua prayed and prepared to enter into the Promised Land, a “Man stood opposite him with a sword drawn” and identifies Himself as the commander of the Lord’s army. As Joshua “fell on his face and worshiped,” the Man did not stop him but told him to take off his sandals, “for you are on holy ground.” A clear parallel to what Moses experienced when he faced the presence of God in the burning bush.

Jericho was sealed; the people inside were afraid of the Israelites and hoping to resist. But the Lord told Joshua the outcome of this battle right from the beginning: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand.” No details, just believe Me; you will win. All that matters is the confidence to obey the Lord and know what He promised, and that He will get it done just as He always has:

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:10).

Military strategy doesn’t matter. The victory is already promised! God gave Joshua some unusual instructions, certainly not the typical military strategy for conquering a walled city under siege. The plan was for the Israelites to march around the city once every day with seven priests blowing seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Ark, which symbolized God’s presence. On the seventh day, they were to march around seven times, followed by a long blast on the horn, and the shouts of the people in one mighty, united voice!

I know this is the stuff of Sunday School stories, but think about it. What kind of military operation is that? No siege, no weapons. But a promise from God, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you.” That was God’s first clue.

The promises of God remain theoretical until we appropriate them and take those steps of faith to walk the ground He put before us.

They were to literally put the soles of their feet on the ground and claim His promise. We know the end of this familiar story. They marched and on the seventh day shouted to the Lord and the “walls came tumbling down,” as the old spiritual says.

But what was really going on was worship. Joshua obeyed God’s order as act of worship. That marching in silence for seven days must have unnerved Jericho’s residents. They could feel the ground trembling, hearing only the steady beat of footsteps. That final seven times around built the suspense, followed by the loudest shout you can imagine.

I had the thrill of going to the Rose Bowl one year, which seats 100,000 people. The sound of cheering during that game was like sitting in front of a jet plane – deafening to the core of your body. The Hebrew word for shout is ruwa, meaning, “to break, to split the ears (with sound), shout for alarm or joy.” Imagine two million people shouting, splitting the atmosphere and unleashing the supernatural into the natural world. The army of mighty angels and God’s presence were unleashed by shouts of faith, an ultimate act of worship. That is what worship does.

Worship shifts the atmosphere and releases the manifest presence of God.

We need to understand that Jericho was not a town of nice, normal people. No, it was host to a demonic realm of evil and suffering, human sacrifice and torture. A demonic stronghold. Something we cannot ignore. We forget sometimes that we are engaged in real spiritual warfare.

Jericho represents the strongholds in our lives. Hurts, addictions, anxieties, fears, marriage problems, family issues—everything the enemy uses to prevent you from walking in faith, to stop you from receiving the inheritance God has for you as His son or daughter. When you accept the devil’s lies, you enter into an agreement with him that you are not worthy of God’s love, forgiveness and blessings.

Why does God allow this? It is because He wants us to mature. How does a muscle get stronger? Resistance. God wants us to be able to stand strong against the enemy’s attacks and to walk with confidence in healing and faith. How? Begin by worship. Take God’s hand and let Him lead you deeper into faith, into understanding that you can be free of strongholds that hold you back.

Call upon Him and worship Him for who He is, and how much He loves you. Worship is an expression of faith. Obedience exercises our faith. By worship we shift the atmosphere as we come into agreement with what God has declared, and change the darkness, oppression and battle fatigue into victory and triumph! “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down” (Hebrews 11:30).

My belief in the rapture of the church is strengthened by an often overlooked, prophetic passage in the book of Leviticus. It is prophetic because it completely outlines and foreshadows the life, death, resurrection and Second Coming of Jesus. It is a blueprint of the Messiah, given to God’s people centuries before Jesus was born on this earth.

These words impacted the way I view prophecy, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts”’” (Leviticus 23:1-2).

“My feasts,” the Lord said. Not just Jewish feasts, but feasts that God ordained and designed to tell the richest story of all time. The word feast in Hebrew is moed, meaning “a divine appointment.”¹ The Hebrew word for convocation is miqra, which means “a public meeting or dress rehearsal.”²

The seven feasts are dress rehearsals for the most important events in creation!

Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles tell the story of the First and Second Coming of Jesus. That is why Paul wrote, “So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new-moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, Christ Himself” (Colossians 2:16-17, NLT).

The four spring feasts rehearsed His first coming. Jesus was crucified on Passover. He was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He rose from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits, and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first believers on Pentecost.

The spring feasts were followed by a summer harvest, then the fall feasts were celebrated, rehearsing the Second Coming. The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles are dress rehearsals for the Messiah’s return. Trumpets is also called Rosh Hashanah.

Which leads to why I believe in the rapture.

After the summer harvest, often interpreted by Christian scholars as the Church Age, the Feast of Trumpets signals the moment for all the workers to come home. “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing the trumpets, a holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24).

I love what Zola Levitt, a Jewish believer who is now with the Lord, wrote:

“The trumpet was the signal for the workers to come into the Temple. The High Priest actually stood on the southwest parapet of the Temple and blew the trumpet so that it could be heard in the surrounding fields. At that instant, the faithful would stop harvesting, even if there were crops, and leave immediately for the worship service.”³

The Feast of Trumpets foreshadows the rapture of the church!

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The Feast of Trumpets is unique because all the other feasts are celebrated later in their respective months, when the moon is bright. Trumpets occurs on the first day of the month, at the new moon, when the moon is dark except for a thin crescent. After the Diaspora, the time when Jews were scattered throughout the world, Rosh Hashanah began to be celebrated over a two-day period, so that Jews living in different time zones could view the new moon and participate. It became known as “one long day” and the Feast of Trumpets became mysterious. Another idiom for it was the Hidden Day Feast or the Feast which you do not know the day or the hour. Sound familiar?

The feasts tell the story.

After the Feast of Trumpets, which foreshadows the rapture of the church, the next feast is the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, which foreshadows the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah. The Day of Atonement recalls when Moses came down from the mountain, his face shining, and all Israel was saved. In the Second Coming, John saw Jesus appearing, His “head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire” (Revelation 1). Once again, Israel will be saved as the kingdom of heaven comes to earth.

The final Feast of Tabernacles foreshadows the millennial reign of Christ, and the people celebrate and recognize what God has always intended: to dwell—or tabernacle —with His people. There are many places in Scripture that give us evidence of the rapture, and the timing has been discussed and disputed among the best of Bible scholars and teachers. But nowhere do we see such a clear portrayal of God calling His people home as we do in the prophetic story told by the Feasts of the Lord. One of the best books I’ve read on the feasts is The Feasts of the Lord by Marvin Rosenthal and Kevin Howard who wrote, “Each feast is part of a comprehensive whole. Collectively, they tell a story.” They certainly do tell “the greatest story ever told,” the story of God’s love, redemption and promises to His people:

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet… the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

¹James Strong, Abingdon’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1894, reprint, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1986), 83, ref.4150, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary.

²Strong, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, 94, refs.4744, 7121, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary

³Zola Levitt, The Seven Feasts of Israel (Dallas, TX: Zola Levitt Ministries, 1979, 2012), 12.

Eschatology: Noun / es-kə-ˈtä-lə-jē: A branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind. – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I recognize the look on the faces of some “Millennials” and “Gen-Xers” when prophecy and current events are discussed.

Their eyes either glaze over, as if to say, “Heard that … too often.” Or they become uncomfortable and clearly communicate, “I don’t want to hear this.”

They might smile and say, “Yeah, come quickly, Lord,” but what they are really thinking (I’ve been told) is, “Hey, I’m young, starting a family or career or just getting out on my own. I’m still figuring out my faith, and what all this means.” If they were raised in church in the past three decades or so, many feel like they grew up with the expectation of the Lord’s imminent return, and they just don’t quite buy it anymore. Many still believe and want to be ready; they just don’t want to listen to “the end is near” for the rest of their lives.

And many people who long and wait for the Rapture of the church are so weary and broken down by life, their attitude is, “Just get us out of here.” The Late Great Planet Earth was a best-selling book in the 70s that ignited a passion for prophecy in many young people, including me. A movement was started with other like-minded literature. But unfortunately, some Late Great veterans have helped foster a mindset and an eschatology (the study of prophecy) that has engendered fear, gloom and doom, and discouragement, as if the world is just simply falling apart and we need to get out of here. I think some even resent it when “prophecy enthusiasts” seem almost giddy about some natural disaster or war that seems to be another piece of the prophetic puzzle falling into place. They need encouragement and hope for themselves and their loved ones.

I believe it is time for the church to pivot, to turn around our thinking.

Not change what we believe, but how we view it; and how we present the hope of the Lord’s return. The world is not falling apart. The world is falling into place!

Jesus said to us, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28). He didn‘t just say, “ Look up.” He also said, “Lift your heads.” Christians have had their heads down too often for too long.

We need to realize that we believe in an eschatology of hope and victory.

God is doing great and mighty things among His people and in the world. There is a great harvest coming in which are we are called to participate.

I feel for young people whose lives are just getting started, as they hear a constant drumbeat of danger, troubles and a hostile world. No wonder some ask, “What have we got to look forward to and why should we even have kids?” I believe this last out pouring of the Spirit will be multi generational. As the prophet Joel predicted, and Peter repeated in the book of Acts:

“And in the last days … I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17).

We need the energy, passion and vision of the younger generations and the wisdom of the older. But we also need to view and present what God has revealed to us through His Word with hope, victory, compassion and joy. Remember, The world is not falling apart. The world is falling into place! Lift up your heads!

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright” (Leviticus 26:13).

A remarkable young woman named Amy, who I met in Singapore, told me her story. Hers is a story of heartbreak and confusion, as she was drawn into a lesbian lifestyle and a series of painful relationships, including one with a man for seven years. She bravely and simply describes her journey.

But what struck me the most about her story is her courage and her humble and sincere way of explaining what it means to “come home” to the Father’s love. After her last painful break up, she said, “This was one of the toughest things I have had to do. I questioned God in my heart as I cried out. The pain was real.”

It can feel impossible to leave behind a lifestyle and mentality that has captured your heart and mind, and that has become a way of life.

This verse in Leviticus where God said, “You should not be slaves; I have broken the bonds of your yoke,” was a reminder. Nine times in the book of Leviticus the Lord reminded the people how He delivered them from Egypt. After 400 years in captivity, slavery had become a mindset, a learned, generational way of life.

Sin and deception can do that. They trap us into a mindset of slavery that not only shackles our lives but is passed down from generation to generation.

The young ones held in captivity in Egypt learned from their elders, “Never lift your head or make eye contact. Never be yourself or speak your mind. If you do, you will suffer consequences.” After Moses pleaded, “Let my people go,” over and over on the night called Passover, freedom came. In one night God delivered them from Egypt. But their mentality, their perception of life and the way they thought of themselves—that would take a lifetime. To realize they were elevated to being God’s chosen people, the sons and daughters of the Almighty – that’s a radical change of life and thinking.

Many of us live in a slave mentality.

A slave to habits and broken lives, slaves to past wounds, slaves to our flesh or the false peace the world offers. It takes time for your mind to start thinking like a free person. But first, you need to know two important truths: Know your identity and know the authority God has given you. You are the sons and daughters of the living God who uses His power to love and bless you. The enemy doesn’t even have to work hard to discourage and deceive if he can lie to you about who you really are. Then the devil wants you to doubt the authority God has given you. You need to remember —you are the living, breathing mobile carrier of the Holy Spirit of God. Your presence in the world breaks up spiritual darkness wherever you live and walk and proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

My friend Amy described her newfound freedom like this: “I hardly know best how to describe it. I felt God literally gave me His heart. There was this heart wrapping around mine. It is a heart filled with loving tenderness, forgiveness, and I could feel His pain for me. He knew of all my painful relationships. Then He spoke into my heart. Why have you put all your time and affection into one person after another, thinking they can heal or restore you?

It was at that moment that I knew no man or woman could ever heal me or restore me. It was this love, this forgiving heart, that deep conviction that I knew I had to surrender my emotions to Him, to take God’s heart and walk back into His arms. And that is what I did and have never been the same. ”

Amy describes her surrender and her freedom as “coming home.” “Coming out is never easy,” she says, “But coming home is worth it. Coming home is coming back to the Father’s heart, a heart that is filled with love, embracing you. A Father whose arms are wide open, waiting to receive you home. I know it is tough, and that many of you are struggling. You think you need the courage, or to be in the right setting in order to do things right. You don’t need to do that. Because God will put that courage in you already. He has. So let’s come home together. Let’s come home together.”

Amy struggled with a specific lifestyle, just as many of us are caught up in things that are destructive and enslaving, even as believers. That’s where God wants to remind us: You are free! You can come home! It has been said that salvation takes a moment, but sanctification takes a lifetime.

You can step into your true identity.

You are God’s precious son or daughter. Walk in the power and authority of your true identity. Learn what Amy discovered: The power of being free in the embrace of your heavenly Father.

The Jews asked Jesus how He dared to promise freedom and He answered, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. A child of God abides forever, free. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). We are no longer slaves.

Israel is a people, I realized. Not just “the Holy Land.” Not merely a prophetic clock on the wall.

Israel is a people whose history is the foundation of our faith and whose future will help determine our own.

Israel is a nation of people with a story, and God was telling me to “step into the story.

The Church, over the centuries, has been systematically removed from her Hebrew roots, at great loss to our understanding of Scripture. It is time to reconnect. I ended a chapter of my book, “The Holy Land Key,” with this observation: “My journey to understanding Israel is far from over. I recently learned that Hebrew rabbinical traditions teach there are seventy layers of meaning to sacred Scripture—‘seventy faces of Torah’—and that we really only dabble in the first few. I am eager to go deeper.”¹

To overcome this loss and to go deeper, I began to study scripture, from a Hebrew point of view, to a degree I had not done before. As I added The Complete Jewish Bible as well as Jewish and Messianic commentaries to my resources, I began to examine not only the original language but more of the context and history as well. I learned the significance of Jewish feasts and holy days ordained in Scripture. As Christians, we are not under a law, nor obliged to observe any of these practices. But some, like the seven Feasts of the Lord ordained in Leviticus 23, are filled with prophetic meaning and revelations of Jesus the Messiah.

To ignore them is to miss out on a significant part of God’s Word!

Leviticus 23: 1-2, “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.” God’s appointed feasts. The word feasts in Hebrew is moed, meaning, “ A divine appointment; also a signal, appointed beforehand.”² The Hebrew word for convocation is miqra, which means, “A public meeting or [dress] rehearsal.”³ Do you know that four of the seven Feasts are exact dress rehearsals of Jesus’ death and resurrection, followed by Pentecost and the birth of the Church? The other three feasts foreshadow the rapture of the Church, the Lord’s return, and the bringing home of a harvest of souls.

Every year now, September finds our congregation and hundreds of guests blowing shofars and dancing to Middle Eastern music, as we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets, a joyous celebration of what is to come.
The feasts have been dress rehearsals for centuries of the first and second coming of Jesus the Messiah.

Signs and Signals

Even the story of creation takes on added layers of meaning with deeper study. At the dawn of first light, God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky…and let them be for signs and seasons” (Genesis 1:14).

What signs was He referring to?

Signs in Genesis comes from the Hebrew, oth, which means, “Signal” (literally or figuratively), a distinguishing mark or miracle, a remembrance, omen, banner, warning or proof.⁴

” In the ancient Hebrew pictorial language, the word oth was interpreted as the “leader nailed to the cross.” The signs in the stars were always meant to point us to the redemption of the human race. God declared that Yeshua, the Lamb of God, was slain from the foundations of the world (Revelation 13:8). The story was always there, and from the beginning; God put the story in the heavens for us to know.

When I first taught the book of Genesis as a young pastor, I relished in creation and was satisfied to know that God created heavenly lights to order the universe. But I didn’t realize that they had an equally important job: To communicate, to signal creation when something important is happening. To be part of God’s revelation before the written word came through Moses. Some traditions and historians credit Seth, the son of Adam, as the first astronomer.⁵

A Day of Mourning

A significant Jewish holy day is the Ninth of Av on the Jewish calendar. Also known as Tisha B’Av, it is the day observant Jews around the world mourn and remember the drastic events that have shaped their national consciousness—and their faith. The list of remarkable events that have afflicted the Jews on this date begins with the destruction of the Temple on the Ninth of Av, 586 BC, up to the recent expulsion of Jews from Gaza on the Ninth of Av 2005.

These events not only altered the course of Jewish history, but also set the Jews on a path that would coincide again and again with world changing events.

In close proximity to the Ninth of Av, on the Hebrew calendar, is Elul, the 30 day period of meditation and repentance that precedes the 10 days between the Feast of Trumpets and the national day of repentance, the Feast of Atonement—totaling 40 days.

Moses spent 40 days on the mountain, receiving God’s Word.

Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. Forty days is no coincidence.

Then there is the mostly forgotten (until recently), Shemitah year, set apart by God as a Sabbath year for the land and finances (see Deuteronomy 15:1; Leviticus 25:3-4). My congregation has responded enthusiastically to “going deeper” in studying familiar stories. I hear things like, ”Now I get it!” For example, the story of Abraham and Isaac where God said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love… and offer him as a burnt offering ” (Genesis 22:2).

How can we grasp what God asked Abraham to do — or Abraham’s willingness to comply?

Even the most faithful believers struggle with what today would be labeled insanity or worse. In Hebrew commentaries, the rabbis emphasize that Abraham lived in a culture immersed in the idolatry of human sacrifice. The story of Isaac becomes a striking demonstration against human sacrifice.

The divine intervention to stop the sacrifice was more astonishing than the order to carry it out. God was showing Abraham and his descendants how God abhors human sacrifice. A slightly different twist to the story, as told from the rabbis’ point of view with a context that surprised a lot of my congregation and helped them understand Abraham’s behavior. Yet, not detracting from the powerful foreshadowing of the only human sacrifice God ever allowed, His only begotten and beloved Son.⁶

As I continue to go deeper into the layers of God’s Word, my Jewish brothers and sisters have blessed me with their perspective of our faith and our Messiah.

This article barely dips into the spiritual treasures waiting for us in the Hebrew language and culture.

I encourage every believer to “step into the story” of our faith and of the people God chose. Read Scripture with an eye for the Hebrew context and meaning. Study the holy days and feasts (“Feasts of the Lord” by Rosenthal and Howard is a good place to start). Visit sites like Hebrew for Christians or Maranatha Chapel’s website and learn about the Nehemiah Project, our outreach and support of the Jewish people.

Jesus was born and nurtured in Jewish tradition. I want to embrace what He knew and understand the promises and prophecies He alone fulfilled. I have a ways to go, but what a wonderful, rich journey it is.
A more in-depth discussion of these topics and more can be found in Pastor Ray’s book, “The Holy Land Key.”

¹ See Stephen M. Wylen, The Seventy Faces of Torah, the Jewish Way of Reading the Sacred Scriptures (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2005). See also John J. Parsons, Seventy Faces of Torah.
² James Strong, Abingdon’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1894, reprint, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1986), 83, ref.4150, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary.

³ Strong, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, 94, refs.4744,7121, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary
⁴ James Strong, Abingdon’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1894, reprint, Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1986), 11, Hebrew dictionary section, ref. 226.
⁵ Flavius Josephus, The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston (Philadelphia, Pa.: The John C. Winston Company, 1737), Book 1. Ch. 2, 36. ⁶ https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Scripture/Parashah/Summaries/Vayera/Akedah/akedah.html