God's Calendar and the Month (New Moon) of Iyar 2021 (5781)

As we enter into the month of Iyar, the second month on God's calendar, we want to thank everyone for joining us, including those watching the replay. This is a pivotal month, as we will see through the scriptures. It is a connecting month filled with great revelation. Many significant events occurred in the month of Iyar — in the Torah, in the prophets, and in the Gospels. It is a fascinating and very favorable month for believers who are following God's ways, just as Nisan was with the Passover and the Resurrection, and just as Shavuot will be. We are in a season of months that are particularly anointed with favor for those who love Him.

It all begins with being set apart. We start every new moon teaching with this foundation: we serve a set-apart God, with a set-apart Son, who has a set-apart Spirit — the Holy Spirit — and set-apart days and times that He wants all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, to celebrate together as one new body, one new man, as we see in the Bible. He has ordained these set-apart days: the Sabbaths, the feast days, the divine appointments of the Lord. He has also sanctified the new moon as a festival for us to gather with Him.

The commandment regarding the new moon is found in Exodus 12:2. During the three nights of darkness, when the sliver of the new moon appeared, God commanded Moses that this would be the first month — the starting point from which the one new body would count the feast days, the Sabbaths, and all the beautiful things He has ordained. The Lord Himself has ordained these times, which is remarkable when you consider that He desires an intimate relationship with us, and much of that intimacy is expressed through worshiping Him on the days He has appointed — not the days mankind has appointed.

Being set apart is not as simple as it may seem if we have been living according to the ways of the world or of the modern-day church. From the very beginning, God wanted His people to be set apart. He wanted Adam and Eve to be set apart. He wanted Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be set apart from the rest of the world.

The first clear scriptural expression of this calling appears in Exodus 19:6, at Mount Sinai. God called the one new body — the one new man, the mixed multitude of Jews and Gentiles who came out of Egypt — to be set apart. Remember, it was a mixed multitude; even Pharaoh's daughter was among them, the one who saved Moses. At Mount Sinai, with the giving of the Torah, God declared: "You shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." This was the great original revelation of the Lord, and it corresponds not only to the Torah but also to the blessed Holy Spirit, as we will see.

This calling is reaffirmed in Deuteronomy 14:2, where Moses recounts the journey and reminds the people: "You are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth." This is remarkable — that the Lord would ordain a certain people from among all the world to be His own, His special treasure, a kingdom of priests.

In the New Testament, the same truth is confirmed. In 1 Peter 2:7–10, Peter writes that the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling to the disobedient — but for those who are obedient, God has made them "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people." Peter is confirming what was given at Sinai and what Moses declared in Deuteronomy. John likewise confirms it in Revelation 1:6, writing that Christ washed us through His blood and made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God calls His people to be holy — a treasured people, a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood. This is why being set apart according to His commandments, and not mankind's, is so critical. As Gentile believers, many of us have inherited replacement theology: the teaching that Sunday replaces the Sabbath, that Easter replaces Passover, that Christmas replaces His appointed times. In the kindest terms, this is replacement theology, and God desires the original theology — the original revelation of Sabbath, new moon celebrations, and the divine appointments of the Lord.

If you have been walking on His calendar and honoring His divine appointments, you know how intimate that walk is. It is not mere head knowledge — it is communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit on the special, anointed days that God Himself has ordained. Who would not want to be on these appointed times?

He is the one who sets us apart and makes us holy — not mankind. We cannot make ourselves holy. Psalm 4:3 declares: "Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself." Leviticus 20:7–8 says: "Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you." And Leviticus 20:26 adds: "You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine."

Throughout all of scripture, God calls all of us to be holy, to be set apart, and to walk with Him. As we will see when we look at the millennial kingdom and eternity, the new moon celebration will still be observed when Jesus reigns for a thousand years on David's everlasting throne. Sadly, the new moon celebration has been largely lost in the modern-day church. Primarily the Jewish people, the Messianic believers, and Orthodox communities observe it, while very few Gentile believers keep the new moon celebration — though scripture demonstrates how important it truly is.

Now, understanding God's calendar is the key to understanding much of the Holy Bible that would otherwise remain unclear — including eschatology, the return of the Messiah, and the words of the prophets spoken through the blessed Holy Spirit. The goal is to understand the calendar, because that is the calendar God will use for all prophetic events and for the commandments He wants us to join Him in: Passover, when the Messiah was crucified; the Resurrection; Shavuot/Pentecost, when both the Torah and the Holy Spirit were given; and the fall feasts — Tabernacles and Trumpets. Understanding these things ensures we are not caught as a thief in the night, as the scriptures warn.

There are three basic foundations that unlock the entire Bible: the calendar, the feast days, and the everlasting covenants. When these three are understood, the Holy Bible reads smoothly from beginning to end, and there is no room for confusion, replacement theology, or the divisions we see in the church today.

God's calendar is found in Genesis 1:14. In Genesis 1:14–16, it says: "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also."

This is a foundational passage. God made two great witnesses — the sun and the moon. The sun rules the day; the moon rules the night. His calendar requires both. Most of us operate on the Gregorian, or Roman, calendar, which is a great scientific calendar but is based on the sun alone. Genesis 1:14, however, establishes that God's calendar has two prerequisites — two great witnesses — and that is where we will continue from here.