JoAnn McFatter: "The Times, They Are a-Changin'"

The following article is courtesy of elijahlist.com

The times, they are a-changin'. Bob Dylan said it well...and nobody really listened much to him either. It's simply a musical phrase that has been going around in my head for some time now, so I thought I would look up the words of the song. Sometimes it's a Bible verse that keeps coming to me over and over, but sometimes it's just a line from a song such as this. I know to pray about it and ask the Lord what He's trying to say.

When I peer into it and consider the matter with God, He will expand on what He is drawing my attention to. The message in Dylan's song is as applicable today as when he wrote it a generation ago, but the song itself (though interesting to revisit) is not what I am wanting to highlight here.

I believe it has to do with the "shift" that has been prophesied over and over by many a prophetic voice that is now upon us. Not that it really took a prophet to declare that as of late, but there were those who were prophesying the shaking in years past when we had no obvious reason to think in those terms. So here we sit with much to ponder in our own lives, even to the extent of revaluating the standard at which we have lived our lives up to this point.

Let Us Be Influenced by the Mind of the Spirit in These Times

The attachments we have had to this world's economic system, mindsets, etc. have truly influenced us by way of what "makes sense" to the mind of man much more than we who have been born of the Spirit should have allowed.

"Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again." The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'"—John 3:5-8

He made the distinction between the flesh/mind of man and the Spirit/mind of Christ over and over in Scripture. I researched verse 8 a bit because it has always intrigued me. What I found was reference to the wind as something that we can hear and see the result of, yet are not able to explain where it comes from or where it is going. It's a mystery, as is the rebirth of man by the Spirit. We see the result—the new man—but we can't really explain how it happens. Oh, that this were the testimony of our lives! Unfortunately, we have so mixed the mind of Christ with the things we have hung onto from the mind of man, that it's hard to even sort it out anymore.

Someone recently mentioned that we, as the Church, have become a thermometer that reads the climate of the culture as opposed to a thermostat that sets the climate of things. I even remember Bill Gothard giving a teaching 30 years ago showing how the pendulum of the Church was shifting as the pendulum of our culture was shifting. Always staying a certain distance from the world's pendulum but, nonetheless, moving along with it. I don't believe this to only apply to morality but to our way of thinking as well. We hold to the ways of the flesh as we hold to the mind of man.

I am not trying to throw criticism, but simply trying to suggest that we have GOT to get back to looking at the pattern laid out to us in the Scriptures...to come up higher in our thinking. The times ARE truly changing as the Kingdom of God is being made manifest on the earth. However, we will be lost if we are trying to navigate by the mind of man through it all.

Having lost the fullness of our miraculous rebirth, as we are born of the Spirit as a new creation in Christ, we are stuck in the mentality of sins that we battle because we have not had a revelation of Christ crucified once and for all to take care of the very nature of sin. We need the renewed ability to have our eyes and ears opened with hearts of understanding to the mind of Christ, as we put on the Lord Jesus Christ!

"And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."—Romans 13:11-14

Be Encouraged: Christ Has Done More on Our Behalf Than We Have Ever Believed Before!

My point is not even this. What I urge us to press into is the revelation of what happened when Christ gave His life freely on the Cross, shedding His Blood as the final act of sacrifice for sin—the whole lump and sum of it! The very nature of sin that would even allow us to be pulled into the sins that have beset us, has been lost, however we have so focused on individual sins that we have lost the revelation of the real beauty of the mystery: that Christ freed us from the very nature of sin itself—and, yes, it must be a revelation.

We have become so concerned with the sins that we have forgotten, or perhaps never even come into the illumination of, the Blood of Christ washing over our sin nature so that we would not even be pulled back into the mentality of struggling with sins. What I think we have missed is the fact that the curse was broken and we no longer live under the curse that was given to Adam and Eve. It's more miraculous than we ever believed what this Christ of ours has done on our behalf!

As that revelation is granted us, we can then step into the place that we need to be walking at this time in history. All of Scripture has led us to this point in time that we, as the manifest sons of God, are to be walking above all of the things that we struggle with. Let us look to the Light as we are in the Light and the Light is in us! Christ in us the hope of glory!

As we move into this position of revelation that He has granted us, we will begin to walk in the mind of Christ to hear the voice of the Spirit. As the voice of the Lord comes to us to show us how to navigate through this hour we have embarked upon, we will have ears that hear because we are walking by and in His Spirit and not in the mind of man.

"And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."—Galatians 5:24-25

A Call of Love to Come Up Higher

Instead, we seem to still be suckling on milk as babes rather than eating of the meat of the Word to build up our spirit man in wisdom and understanding, to be able to determine what the leading of the Holy Spirit is.

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."—Hebrew 5:12-14

The visitations, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the voice of authority, and much more that will be given in this hour by God will not be given to those of us who are still struggling with the milk. The veil between Heaven and Earth is truly at its breaking point. The invitation is there for whosoever will; He is not a respecter of persons, as He has declared by His own mouth. BUT, He loves us too much to release us in what we are not prepared to walk in. Many are called and few are chosen...not out of punishment, but out of His mercy and love toward us to not give us more than we can handle.

I pray that this is not taken as a rebuke, but rather a call to come up higher. That is how I have heard it from the Lord and I hope that I have portrayed it as such, even in the frankness and reality of where we are at. We are called to so much more than we are living in. Perhaps that is because of the mindsets that we have allowed ourselves to adapt as we have compromised with the mind and ways of man. I have said this before, but I cannot emphasize enough that it is a time to ask for a revelation of the Cross and the Blood of Jesus Christ so that we might truly come into the authority and discernment we have been called to walk in.

Revelation that "the curse is broken and we are no longer subject to it" must be ours if we are to move in the signs and wonders He has saved for the very last. He has saved you to be born in this hour intentionally because you have been chosen as one who has the potential to walk this out. Allow yourself to be realigned, or perhaps, even for the first time, be aligned with the mind of Christ and who we are in Him as He dwells in us.

JoAnn McFatter
WhiteDove Ministries
Email: contact@joannmcfatter.com

Reuven and Mary Lou Doron: TRUMPETS 2007

The following article is courtesy of elijahlist.com.

"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.'" Leviticus 23:24-25

According to the Biblical calendar, the Feast of Trumpets this year will start at sunset, September 12. This will be the first day of the seventh Hebrew month, and, according to rabbinical tradition, it is also considered to be the beginning of the new Hebraic civil year, the year 5768, counting from the creation of the world.

The coming weeks will usher in the three Fall Feasts of the Lord. Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles are stacked closely together over a span of 21 intense days, reflecting prophetically the drama unfolding at the closing of this age. This coming year will no doubt bring more turmoil, testing and purging, and this season of feasts presents an invitation for every child of God to reflect, take stock, and gird up our loins for the journey ahead.

Salvation History Prophesied

The seven Biblical Feasts are grouped in three distinct seasons forecasting our salvation history. The spring feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits announce the coming of the Lamb of God, His suffering, death and resurrection. Fifty days later, follows Pentecost which points to the outpouring of the Spirit, the birthing of the Church, and the beginning of the harvest according to the agricultural cycle in the Middle East.

Lastly, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles point to the end of this age of grace. These final celebrations speak prophetically of the birth pains, the shaking, the preparations and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The first four feasts were historically fulfilled in the Lord's first coming and in the outpouring of His Spirit. Likewise, we are confident that the final three feasts of God will also be fulfilled, in due time, in the Lord's return in the glory and power of His Kingdom. Prophetically, the feasts of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles serve to prepare God's children for the end of the age.

From the blowing of the trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, to the final day of Tabernacles on the 21st day of that month, the Holy Spirit indicates the recurring cycles of alarm, repentance and victory that increasingly characterize our times.

Trumpets Sound the Alarm

The Scriptures tell us in Colossians 2:16-17, that the Feasts of the Lord "are a shadow of things to come." Trumpets, therefore, is an earthly shadow of its Heavenly equivalent, the sounding of an alarm. The blowing of the shofar is like the eerie sound of a siren cutting through the still air with its startling and disturbing wail. It's meant to wake us up!

Whether a call to arms or to a solemn assembly, when ancient Israel heard the trumpet blast, they came to attention! In the same way, the Feast of Trumpets is meant neither to comfort nor console us, rather it is a wake-up call--a strong elbow in our ribs designed to wake us up from the slumbering spirit of this age, jolting us into alertness, repentance, renewal and service.

As we move deeper into the times of the end, we will witness more disturbing trumpet blasts and troubling wake-up calls as this world enters deeper into the birth pains of the Kingdom of God. Be they natural disasters, plagues, wars or social disintegration, what will seem to some a disaster, will be a life-saving and transforming alarm for others.

Blessed Birth Pains

Ten days after Trumpets, follows the Day of Atonement--Yom Kippur in the Hebrew, foreshadowing Israel's inevitable encounter with the Savior and the ensuing deep repentance and national redemption (see Zechariah 12). These progressive solemn events will not come easily, and much prayer is needed to accompany this national revival through the final stages of labor.

We need to understand that no amount of prayer can undo or replace the need for contractions, as they, and only they, move the "baby" down the birth canal. All the works of God, whether in the secret of your own heart, family circle, nation, or across the earth, come to pass through the miracle of birth.

A divine seed has to be sown in the soil of faith; gestation follows, slow and hidden, resulting in the birth of a new creation; and that new born has to be nurtured and protected until it is mature enough to survive the hostile world and overcome it.

This is the way the Kingdom of God has always been introduced into this world. Whether through the call of Abraham and the early patriarchs, the forming of the nation of Israel, or the emerging of the Messiah Himself, God's way of introducing His purposes and presence into our realm has always been through birth. Do not despise, therefore, or try to circumvent the birth pains in your life when God is bringing to pass something new in our spirits.

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4

Final Victory

Last but not least, five days following the Day of Atonement starts the Feast of Tabernacles. This longest and happiest of all of the Feasts of the Lord foreshadows the final and greatest celebration of this age, when the Lord will return to earth and our God will abide and tabernacle among His people following the final harvest of the nations.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." Revelation 21:3-4

Let the grace of the Lord enrich your spirit as you go through this festive season, pondering and searching out the message of the Feasts.

The Waiting Game

The world can ignore but cannot escape the darkening storm surrounding the tiny State of Israel. Bible prophecy, though still viewed through a glass dimly, indicates that the present predicament Israel is facing will continue to intensify until it erupts into a full scale international crisis that will draw in all nations. The fate of the "God-oriented" nations is still in the balance. Pray for your nation's soul.

To the God-fearing mind, these times are but the inevitable passage forward; the struggle of a new born creation hatching out of its constricting shell. The only solution to the region's predicament is found in God, and those who truly trust in Him are willing to wait on Him while watching and praying and serving His purpose in their own lives and spheres of influence.

The solution to the Middle East, and to the entire world's problems, will not be found by conjuring up more man-made agreements or contracts. It will only be found by a greater concentration on and devotion to Jesus, the Son of God, and His Word.

What Is This Season For You?

As you take stock and reflect on this recent year, do so with the eyes of faith. Remember that the harvest, which is the main theme of the season of the Fall Feasts, is brought in not by the harp, but by the sickle. In other words, the Lord is producing the best treasures in our lives during hard times of testing and endurance, rather than through the pleasant times of ease. Of course we prefer the smooth path, the enjoyable trouble-free leisurely walk, yet that is not where the gold is produced.

Rather, as the Lord said, "I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

"Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." Revelation 3:18-21

How to Pray?

Please cover Israel with fervent prayers in light of the grave dangers from without and the great upheaval from within. Should international pressure continue to mount, Israel's population will experience even greater turmoil and civil unrest than it has so far. Couple this with the mounting military tensions on Israel's northern borders and in the Hamas ruled Gaza strip, and the intercessor can begin to appreciate the unbelievable pressure Israel goes through.

Just yesterday, a rocket attack launched from the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip resulted in dozens of Israeli casualties (young military recruits). God, however, is bringing something tremendous to birth through these birth pains, and we must continue to pray according to His promises.

Also, please remember Israel's captured soldiers in your prayers as well as military personnel from other nations who have fallen into Islamic hands. Ask God to visit them by His Spirit and angel, and carry them to His throne in fervent prayer. As the Word says, "Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the Body." Hebrews 13:3

In grace,

Reuven and Mary Lou Doron
One New Man Call
Email: OneNewManMail@aol.com