Passover; The Shabbat;

The Rest of the Lord &

God's Appointed Times

Between 2010 and 2013 I was graced to live through several supernatural experiences which changed the course of my life. I have been on a mystical journey searching the Scriptures and the heart of God concerning the revelations give to me in reference to the rest of the Lord. It has taken me years to summarize and document the revelation that the Lord has released to me in reference to the importance of understanding and entering into the rest of the Lord. However, I am certain that I do not have the full understanding of this mystery of Christ’s Kingdom.

This season of seeking began to culminate on September 25 and 26 on the Day of Atonement 2012. The Lord appeared to me in my prayer room herein Moravian Falls, North Carolina and I relived several previous visions related to the rest of the Lord. In fact, I relived much of the supernatural experience that had occurred on the Day of Atonement in 2011. I once more found myself in the heavenly places with Christ. It seemed Jesus wanted to make sure that I fully understood the message that He was revealing to me about the importance of the rest of the Lord.

During the previous twelve months, the Lord had patiently taught me and led me to many places to receive further revelation about the rest of the Lord and the importance of this Kingdom principle for each of us at this hour. I had experienced a powerful visional experience and encounter with an ominous dark and evil storm. During this experience I was lifted up with Jesus above the storm on the Day of Atonement 2011. This amazing experience was pivotal for me. I was certain that the Lord had revealed five levels of the rest of the Lord to me. On the Day of Atonement of 2012, Jesus released more revelation to augment those things that I had been diligent to search out over the past year.

I have already written about the first level: The rest of the Lord, the fullness of God’s rest, and the mantle of Melchizedek. In the book, "The Sword of the Lord and the Rest of the Lord", I elaborate on the other four levels for you. I will also share some of that revelation in this article. My goal is to help the reader understand the importance of being diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord. This is a critical issue at this day and hour.

I pray that you will be blessed by these revelations and that you will learn some important keys that can help you to be diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord. There is no question about the importance of this issue.

We must learn to enter into the Lord’s rest at this pivotal time. In fact, your very life may depend upon your ability to enter into God’s rest and to understand that you can live permanently in the fullness of the rest of the Lord. On the Day of Atonement in 2011, Jesus spoke to me about these five aspects or levels of the rest of the Lord. The Lord has continued to build upon the amazing concepts that were birthed within my spirit that day. The five levels of the rest of the Lord are:

1. The rest of the Lord, the fullness of God’s rest, and the mantle of Melchizedek

2. The rest of the Lord, the Sabbath rest

3. The rest of the Lord, the heavenly hosts, the rest of God’s family

4. The rest of the Lord, resting in His glory and allowing Him to work on our behalf

5. The rest of the Lord, the hidden and mysterious treasures in the Kingdom of God

In this article I want to look at some of the final four levels of the rest of the Lord. During this season of revelation and visitations the Lord began to instruct me about the importance of learning about His yearly cycles and the feasts of the Jewish calendar. Many Christians already know and understand the need to observe these feasts, but it has been an amazing discovery for me. I was not aware of the importance of recognizing and keeping the yearly feasts. Since I have started to honor these feasts, the blessings that the Lord God Almighty has begun to pour out upon my life have been truly miraculous! Furthermore, I am thoroughly convinced that the Lord also wants to bless you in a supernatural way in every aspect of your life too.

An important key to unlocking this door of supernatural blessing is to recognize and keep the Lord’s weekly, monthly, and yearly cycle of the feasts pertaining to the Jewish calendar. Some of you reading this may think that since you are saved and know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior that you do not need to observe the Jewish feasts. Perhaps you think that these feasts are antiquated and religious dogma. However, I urge you to consider this. Jesus is Jewish, and the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to rigorously observe the feasts as directed and commanded in the Law of Moses and the Torah.

Jesus observed and kept the appointed Jewish feasts His whole life. Several of them, from His birth to His growing up years, are recorded in Luke 2.

We should also remember what Jesus taught us about the Law of Moses in Matthew 5:18: “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”In other words, the Lord was saying that the laws of the Old Testament or the Old Covenant are still valid and will never be totally replaced by the laws of the New Testament or the New Covenant. Today many Christians do not recognize these important appointed feasts of the Old Testament, but that does not invalidate them. In fact, there are great blessings that can come to you as you begin to embrace these appointed times to fellowship with the Creator of the heavens and earth.

There are three key cycles or sequences of times that God requires His people to draw close to Him in the yearly calendar. We need to also understand that today most people operate exclusively on the Greco-Roman, now the Gregorian, calendar. However, the Lord still keeps time according to the Hebrew calendar. Therefore, we need to understand this fact and meet God at these appointed times or feasts according to the Hebrew calendar. These fall into weekly, monthly, and yearly categories. When we are diligent to keep the feasts and come to present ourselves before the Lord, there are incredible blessings that the Father seeks to pour out upon us. Of course, we must be walking circumspectly and in righteousness as we come before the Lord.

Over the past year I have begun to learn more about the essence of the Sabbath rest. I have discovered as I have researched the Scriptures and sought additional revelation that the Lord is a chronological God. As I stated earlier, the Lord began to establish a weekly cycle of rest in Genesis 2. After the Lord completed His work of creation, He rested. Then God established and appointed a weekly day of rest for His creation. This principle was so important that God Almighty even included it in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-10).

The Mulberry Tree

In 2001 while I was in Africa, the Lord told me to go to Tennessee when I returned to America. I was diligent to be geographically and chronologically obedient to the Lord. Because I was in the right place at the right time, I had a God-ordained meeting with a woman under a mulberry tree in Nashville. Her name was Anna (I have changed her name for the sake of anonymity). At that time I was very zealous for the things of God. I had traveled from Africa to Nashville to attend a School of the Supernatural hosted by Encounters Network and James Goll.

After one morning session I was preparing to leave to invest my last three dollars on a hamburger when the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Go and have lunch with that woman.” So I turned off the ignition of my car and walked over to meet Anna for the first time. She offered me a sandwich and something to drink. Anna was sitting in the shade of a mulberry tree resting and praying as she ate her lunch. Looking back on this incident now, I can see the prophetic symbolism of this divine appointment!

During our conversation I received a word of knowledge for the healing of her right rotator cuff. She allowed me to pray for her, and the Lord did heal her under that mulberry tree. Interestingly enough, mulberry trees prophetically symbolize knowledge, wisdom, and healing. Since that time Anna promised to pray for me. In fact, she did, in fact, pray and intercede for me for over a decade.

The other reason that I mention Anna is that she encouraged me to invest time studying the Jewish calendar. As with most young Christians who are full of zeal, it has taken me years to heed her advice. You see, the Hebrew calendar is extremely important in reference to understanding and entering into the rest of the Lord.

Having said all of this, I want to share a brief history of the appointed feasts of Israel and the Hebrew calendar. These are some of the things that Anna sought to help me to understand over the years. Today I am glad that I do understand more about the Jewish feasts. And I pray that this little study will help those of you who read this article. We will briefly explore seven of the appointed feasts of Israel in addition to the weekly Sabbath rest.

Let’s look at the seven prominent appointed feasts of Israel. Hopefully this will help those who are not acquainted with the importance of these feasts to consider recognizing and observing them each year. Please understand that this is a very rudimentary look at the feasts, and I am by no means any expert on this subject. However, I want to touch on them as a way of helping you to understand the importance of timing in God’s Kingdom.

Observe The Weekly Sabbath or Shabbat

Today we can only enter into the rest of the Lord because Jesus Christ fulfilled every feast with the exception of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles will be fulfilled in the Messianic Kingdom that is to come, or perhaps is at hand. However, understanding the appointed chronological feasts of Israel will certainly help you to be diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord. That is an important key.

Many people in the Body of Christ are not aware of these seven feasts that God has commanded us to observe in addition to the weekly Sabbath. These feasts are found in Leviticus 23. Understanding more about the Jewish feasts will help us to appreciate and to be aware of the fact that the Lord is a chronological God. The Lord speaks to us as a Body (corporately) and as individuals at specific times. God expects specific responses from us at these appointed times each year. These specific times are outlined chronologically on the Jewish calendar. The seven feasts come in chronological order and are related to the seasons. These appointed feasts are: (1) the Passover; (2) the Feast of Unleavened Bread; (3) the Feast of Firstfruits; (4) Pentecost, Feast of Weeks, or Shavout; (5) the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah; (6) the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur; (7) and the Feast of Booths, Tabernacles, or Sukkot.

What I have realized is that as I have been obedient to honor the Lord with the firstfruits of my day, each and every day, He has honored my efforts by releasing amazing grace and favor upon my life. As I have sought to honor the Sabbath Day to keep it holy every week, the Lord has given me real understanding and breakthrough into His rest. From that place I began to learn to honor the Lord on a monthly basis at Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh marks the beginning of the new month, and it is a time to hear from the Lord for His plans for you for the next four weeks.

As I have recognized this monthly day of rest and celebration, the level of His rest and favor in my life has dramatically escalated. I believe that the grace and favor of God can multiply in your life in a similar way as you learn to enter into the rest of the Lord too. We must be diligent to enter into the Lord’s rest on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Understanding the appointed annual feasts can help us to walk in God’s abiding rest or the fullness of God’s rest. This is absolutely critical to living a victorious life.

It is important to state that we do not want to observe these appointed feasts in a religious manner. We should seek to celebrate these in the Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) and not legalistically. There should be freedom in the way that you recognize and honor these appointed feasts. I believe that God looks upon our hearts. I am also sure that if you choose not to observe the feasts, your choice will be acceptable to the Lord. In other words, not honoring or observing these appointed feasts is not sinful. However, I also believe that by ignoring them you may limit the Lord’s ability to pour out the full measure of His blessings upon you. This is a matter of personal choice.

An important reason to understanding God’s timing is because the enemy has sought to change the times and seasons. In addition to this, he has tried to deceive us and works to blind our eyes. And he works to limit our ability to hear and understand what the Lord is seeking to say to us at God-ordained or kairos moments of time. This device of the enemy gained strength when the Roman calendar was first instituted by King Romulus around 700 years before Christ. It was later modified and replaced by Julius Caesar not long before Christ was born and is called the Julian calendar. In the late 1500s, Pope Gregory XIII revised it again. This calendar, called the Gregorian calendar, has become the calendar that we observe today with some minor modifications.

God never switched over to the modern calendar. Today most of us live our lives based upon the Gregorian calendar. What we need to keep in mind is that this calendar is not based upon God’s appointed times and feasts. This fact can keep us from being in sync with the Lord and His appointed annual feasts. The Lord has His own chronological timetables for seasons and appointed feasts. These are also appointed times for us, His people. There are preordained or appointed times for each of us to “do business” with God as individuals.

God Is a Chronological God

If we are not aware of God’s timetables, then we live our lives out of sync with the Lord. This is one way that the enemy seeks to kill, steal, and destroy God’s people. If he can keep us out of sync with the Lord’s timing, we have a very difficult time receiving God’s blessings. In addition to this, we will have a tendency to run to and fro seeking the Lord at the wrong time and in the wrong place. If we do this, we live without God’s grace and purposes in our lives and we wear ourselves out working diligently at religious activities and unfruitful works. When we get on this out-of-sync and out-of-time treadmill, we cannot possibly enter into the rest of the Lord.

So a very important key to being diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord is knowing the Lord’s times and seasons. We must walk and live our lives in sync chronologically with the Lord. We must recognize that our God is a chronological God. When we seek to live our lives in His perfect timing, then His perfect plans and purposes come forth easily in our lives and we can enter into the rest of the Lord. We need to be chronologically and geographically obedient to the Lord at all times. Having said all of this, let’s look briefly at the seven the appointed feasts of Israel. Again, we should honor these feasts in the Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) and not legalistically. There should be freedom in the way that you recognize and honor these appointed feasts.

The first of the seven yearly feasts is Passover. This appointed feast usually comes in the spring and is observed in the Jewish month of Nisan. The Passover is a time to recognize and to remember the release of the Jewish people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Each household was told to sprinkle the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of death or “destroyer” would “pass over” them (see Exodus 12). They were protected by the blood of the lamb just as we can be protected by the blood of the Lamb today (1 Peter 1:19). Christ’s blood redeems each of us from the bondage to sin and makes atonement for us today.

The second of the seven yearly feasts is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This appointed feast runs concurrently with the Passover. The Feast of Unleavened Bread starts the day after the Passover evening and lasts for seven days. During this time the Jewish people put away all leaven from their houses and only eat unleavened bread. This feast speaks of repentance of sin. The Jewish people usually eat a matzo type of bread. This kind of bread is prophetic in nature. It represents the coming Messiah who would take away the sin (leaven) of the people. Matzo bread prophetically represents the Lord Jesus Christ who takes away all of our sins. Matzo bread is striped in the baking process; these stripes symbolize the stripes that Jesus Christ took upon His back for the healing of our bodies (see 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5). Of course the Passover is symbolic of the Lord’s Supper or the Communion table as well. I recommend that you practice taking the Lord’s Supper each and every day as a way to be diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord.

The third of the seven yearly feasts is the Feast of Firstfruits. This appointed feast is directly related to Passover and Unleavened Bread as it is recognized and celebrated on the day after the regular Sabbath. In the times of Jesus, this holiday was a feast of thanksgiving. It was a celebration of the first harvest of grain in the year. The Feast of Firstfruits celebrated and recognized that God, who gave the weather and rain to bring forth a harvest of the first crop, was going to also release the rain and good weather for the harvest of a greater and much larger grain harvest later in the year. This too speaks prophetically of the Messiah, who would be a Firstfruit whom God would raise from the dead. Through the finished work of Jesus Christ, there will be a great harvest of souls that will come into the Kingdom of God in the last days. Giving a firstfruit offering to the Lord is another important key that can help you supernaturally enter into the rest of the Lord. Be diligent to give a firstfruits offering to God each day, week, month, and year. I will look at this aspect of entering into the rest of the Lord in the next chapter in much more detail.

The fourth of the seven yearly feasts is Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. This appointed feast comes chronologically exactly fifty days after the Passover Sabbath. The name, Pentecost, is translated from the Greek word for fifty. The Jewish people also call this feast Shavuot, which is the Hebrew word for weeks. This feast is a celebration or harvest festival that honors and gives God glory for the wheat harvest. Tradition states that Shavuot is celebrated with the priests offering to God two loaves of bread baked from the newly harvested grain. This too, is pregnant prophetically as this act represents both Jew and Gentile who will be reconciled to God as one new man through the Messiah (see Ephesians 2:15).

The fifth of the seven yearly feasts is the Feast of Trumpets, also referred to as Rosh Hashanah. This feast celebrates the beginning of the civil year and is the Jewish New Year’s Day. In Leviticus 23:24 the Lord calls for the blowing of trumpets on this day. Jewish scholars refer to this day as the beginning of the days of judgment. During this time all people are called to pass before the Lord. The righteous have their names written into the book of life and the wicked receive condemnation. For those who find themselves in the middle, this feast gives them ten days to repent and to seek the Lord asking for forgiveness. Jesus is the One who is able to give us total salvation through His finished work on the Cross of Calvary. Because of the Cross we can find our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ gives us atonement for our sins. Those who have received Jesus Christ as Messiah will also celebrate the mighty trumpet sound of the Angel of God at the return of Christ (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

The sixth of the seven yearly feasts is the Day of Atonement. It is considered to be a time of fasting and prayer. It was the one day of the year that the high priest was allowed to enter into the holy of holies to make atonement for the people’s sins. The high priest entered behind the veil with the blood of the scapegoat to seek the Lord’s forgiveness of the people’s sins. Jesus Christ was the Lamb without spot or blemish that was offered once and for all. The blood of Jesus makes perfect atonement for our sins, and through the blood of Jesus we have a way into the holy of holies. We can follow the forerunner who has blazed a trail for us into the heavenly realms. The sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross of Calvary has made a way for us to enter into the very presence and glory of God. As I have written, the visitations of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Day of Atonement birthed this book. For me the Day of Atonement is a very special day each year. We can enter into the rest of the Lord today because Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Day of Atonement for each of us.

The seventh of the seven yearly feasts is the Feast of Booths, also known as Tabernacles or Sukkot. In biblical times this feast celebrated the final harvest of the growing season. It was a time to congregate together in Jerusalem to celebrate the goodness of God and His provision. The Jewish people would build booth-type structures and live in these during this feast. The booth-type structures are meant to remind the people of the times that they lived in tents in the wilderness. However, this feast also speaks of the season of abundant blessings and of the rest that the Hebrews would have when they reached the Promised Land. These booths were decorated with harvest fruit and branches of trees. This feast prophetically symbolizes the fullness of entering into God’s rest.

So an important aspect of recognizing and celebrating the seven appointed feasts of Israel is to help us to ultimately enter into the fullness of the rest of the Lord. There is a supernatural significance to these dates and appointed feasts. As we learn to recognize, honor, and celebrate them, we will learn to walk in sync with God. As a result we can live our lives in God’s perfect timing and receive His revelation and grace that will empower us to enter into the rest of the Lord.

I pray that you will seek the Lord and be diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you about the importance of the rest of the Lord that we know as the Sabbath rest or Shabbat. Then we will add to that understanding by looking at the importance of the monthly cycle and Rosh Chodesh and the role observing these two appointed times plays in your ability to be diligent to enter into the rest of the Lord. I will share more about Rosh Chodesh in the next article.

This article was taken from Kevin Basconi's book

"The Sword of the Lord & the Rest of the Lord".

This book is now available through King of Glory Printing & Publishing & King of Glory Ministries International. For more info click HERE.

This article was written by Kevin Basconi, for King of Glory Ministries International, PO Box 903, Moravian Falls, NC 28654. www.kingofgloryministries.org -336-818-1210.

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