The Month of Iyar – 5783

We are going to look at the message that God has for us in His prophetic calendar for the month of Iyar. Iyar began at sundown on Friday, April 21^st, so we are a little over a week into this new month. Every month is important because God has a different message for us each month.

The constellation for the month of Iyar is Taurus the bull. Let me reiterate once again that we are not talking about horoscopes, we are talking about the constellations of the stars that God created. The scriptures tell us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That includes the stars. God made all those things and He saw that it was good and they have purpose in His beautiful creation. He made the sun and the moon and the stars to give light during the night and day and to help us to know seasons, days and years. Satan tries to corrupt everything that God does and make a counterfeit. It was the Babylonians who systematically applied myths to the constellations to create the 12 signs of the zodiac and to use the stars to learn details of the past, present and future and also to search for human meaning in the stars. Folks, all we need to know about life and our future is in the Word of God. God tells us to have nothing to do with divination which are things like horoscopes or other ways of telling the future.

So let’s look at what God is saying to us through His creation of the constellation over us this month, which is Taurus the bull. A bull is a beast of burden. It reminds us to cast our cares upon the Lord. We need to let Him take our burdens and carry them for us. Jesus told us –read Math 11:28-30: Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

The month of Iyar is associated with the Hebrew letter Vav which gives us a picture of connecting or linking. Chuck Pierce stated in his book, A Time to Advance, “If we move right in this month, the rest of the year connects properly.”  Also, be connected properly to a body of believers. Do not hang out there by yourself bouncing from church to church. That’s a dangerous place to be, especially in the times we are living. Find where you are to be connected and link yourself to that body. It’s not always easy being in a body of believers. Sometimes we rub against each other and it doesn’t feel good. It can be like iron sharpening iron but that’s part of being in a body. We learn from each other and we grow together. Find where you are to be connected.

This month is linked to the Tribe of Issachar. This was a tribe with an anointing to understand the times and to know what Israel should do. God wants us to operate in this anointing for the days we are living in. The Issachar anointing will teach us to view time from God’s perspective. It will help us to walk with wisdom and have great success! Robert Heidler said, “You will be able to see how God works through time, you will see how you fit in time, and you will gain understanding of God’s purpose for your life.” An Issachar anointing will give us the ability to sense when and how God is breaking into a kairos time and how we need to respond. It will help us to be positioned at the right place at the right time to succeed. Pray for an Issachar anointing!!

Iyar is a month of transition. We are passing over from Redemption at Passover to provision and power at Pentecost. God’s people, the Israelites, were transitioning to a new level in their relationship with God. They really didn’t know the God who rescued them from the Egyptians. They had no Bible, no Torah, only some stories that were passed down through the generations. They knew about the Egyptian gods as they had been in that country for hundreds of years in captivity. But God took His people out of captivity at Passover. He led them through the Red Sea and into the Sinai Desert for Wilderness Training School. God still does that with us today.

During this time God began to reveal His covenant secrets to them by revealing His character and who He is. They learned that their God was Jehovah Rapha our healer. They found out he can heal people and He can heal water too. (Marrah). Then they started complaining about not having meat so God sent the quail and the manna. They learned that God is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. Then God allowed the Amalekites to attack them but they found that as long as Moses stood with His arms raised, as we do when we worship God, that the Israelites were winning the battle. When he put down his arms in tiredness and fatigue they began to lose. Aaron and Hur jumped in and held up his arms and they won the battle. They discovered that God was Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner. We need to stand in that same position of praise of worship as we go through our own battles. When it becomes too much, ask others to hold up your arms in prayer. The next place of testing was Elim. It was a place of provision and refreshing. This was a different kind of test. God revealed Himself as Jehovah Rohi, the Lord our Shepherd, who surprises us with His goodness. The test at Elim was, how would the people respond to blessing? (Duet 28:47) When God blesses, He’s looking for a thankful heart. His goal is to see that we “serve Him with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things.”

It was during the month of Iyar when Jesus met with His disciples during that 40 day period between the Resurrection and the Ascension. He commissioned them and prepared them to establish His church. He revealed His secrets to His disciples on how to establish the church. This took place during the month of Iyar. I will tell you more on this in a few minutes.

So how do we receive God’s covenant secrets? Here are the four points that Robert Heidler shared last week: 1)Align with God’s timing (God’s calendar). 2)Purse the prophetic. 3) Understand time in light of eternity.  4)Ask God to reveal His secrets to you and keep asking till you receive it.  This is a month to seek God and press into Him. Psalm 25:14 – The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

This month is often called the Month of Ziv, which means radiance. Light signifies increased revelation. If darkness tries to overtake you this month, declare, “No, I am increasing in revelation.” And declare that His glory will be seen upon you and you will radiate with his light.

This month is commonly referred to as the month of natural healing. God wants to permeate our body with natural healing. You do not need to strive for healing. “I am the Lord your Healer” will manifest this month.

Iyar is the month of receiving spiritual advice. To advance during this month, receive spiritual advice from trusted leaders. Moses received good counsel from his father-in-law, Jethro. After receiving his advice, he learned to delegate some of his duties to trusted individuals and it made his burden much lighter as a leader. He received the advice and he prospered.

Part B

God has covenant secrets. He has an extra blessing for those who set their hearts on seeking Him by revealing the secrets of His covenant with them.

In this month of Iyar, we want to look at how Jesus revealed the secrets of the Kingdom to the first apostles to equip them for their mission of establishing the church. The month of Iyar was actually one of the most important times in Jesus earthly ministry.

We often think of Jesus’ earthly ministry as the 3 years He spent walking around with His disciples, teaching, healing, performing miracles and casting out demons but there’s much more to Jesus’ earthly ministry than that. Yes, for 3 years He traveled around Judea, Samaria and Galilee doing all those things but then He went to the cross – the very reason He came to earth and that was His goal from the beginning. His highest ministry was to redeem us out of the hand of the enemy by shedding His blood, the blood of the perfect Lamb of God, sacrificing His life to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. After He died, on the 3^rd day He rose again!!!

He had a resurrected body with great power and His ministry on earth was not over. For more than 40 days, He continued to minister to the disciples between the time of His Resurrection and His Ascension (Acts 1:3). Most of that ministry was during the month of Iyar. Because Jesus was in His resurrected body, He could walk through walls, but he was also able to sit around and eat with His friends.

During Iyar, He met with his disciples many times. He appeared repeatedly in Jerusalem. He sent them to Galilee and met with them there. They came back to Jerusalem and met again. For those 40 days He met with them individually, and in groups as large as 500. He taught them many things. This was a crucial time.

Jesus was about to leave and return back to heaven but first He was entrusting God’s redemptive plan to His church. It was a time of intense teaching. It was a pivotal time. The things that Jesus revealed during the month of Iyar changed His disciples into the leaders that God wanted them to be and they entered a new level of glory.

Acts 1:1-2 says He gave the apostles instructions or orders. He gave them Kingdom directives on how to establish His church. Many of His instructions are not recorded but it was recorded that He revealed His secret plan on how to expand His Kingdom into all the earth. In Iyar He gave the Great Commission. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He gave this Commission over and over. John 20, Mark 16, Mathew 28, Luke 24, Acts 1:8. He kept saying over and over – go and make disciples! He was saying “you are being sent!”

He commanded the disciples to minister! One of His frequent commands was “Heal the sick! He said it in Luke 9:1-6 (He sent out the 12)-heal the sick! In Luke 10:8-9 – He sent out the 70- heal the sick! His command was not to just win the lost but also to heal the sick. He had promised power to heal to all who followed Him. That includes us! Mark 16:17-18 says “And these signs will follow those who believe. In My name they cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”

John 14:12 says “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

Jesus also gave the disciples a secret strategy called the five-fold ministry. Ephesians 4:11,12: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. “ He tells us that to equip believers to minister requires the input of five specific gifts; apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The apostles identified, trained, and set in place five specific kinds of ministers. As you go through the book of Acts, some were called apostles, some prophets, some teachers, some pastors, and some evangelists. They were all distinctly different, but all essential. And note that Jesus gave those gifts to the body of Christ. They are actually offices and Jesus chooses people for those offices by calling them. They aren’t like the other gifts that we pray and ask God for. These 5 Jesus chooses. We need input from all five of them to grow in the Lord. That’s how the church equipped the saints to minister.

The church had a commission to reach the world. That had been a secret not revealed before. Now they had a goal to train every believer to heal the sick, drive out demons and make disciples of all nations and Jesus revealed His secret on how to do it with the 5-fold ministry.

Jesus created a new wineskin for His church. Evangelists won people to Jesus. Pastors comforted and cared for them. Prophets gave them vision. Teachers gave training and instruction. Apostles set it all in order and sent people out into ministry. The church is meant to be a mighty army in the earth. The church was not meant to be an audience, but an army going out into the world to minister to everyone they meet.

That’s why they were called Christians, it means little Christ because they did what Jesus did. Then the month of Iyar was over. Jesus took His disciples to the Mount of Olives and there he ascended into heaven. Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell, the disciples are now different because of the power of the Holy Spirit. Now they have the power to fulfill the commission to reach the world and do what Jesus did with the strategy of the 5-fold ministry to do it. These were secrets that had not been revealed before.

God wants to equip us for our future just as Jesus equipped His apostles for laying the foundation of the church. We need His Kingdom secrets to do what He has called us to do. Our part is to stay focused on our call – we have a destiny to fulfill. Our ultimate goal is to change the world by each of us doing our part to change our individual world. We must be filled with the Spirit, know our gifts and operate in our spiritual gifts, and submit and work within the framework of God’s 5-fold strategy to train and equip us.

During this month, purpose in your heart to seek God. Remember that God is sending YOU to go and make disciples of all nations. God bless you in the month Iyar!

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