Celebrating God's New Moon and the Month of Iyar

We celebrate what God has ordained on His new moon, on His biblical months, as we enter into the month of Iyar, which is the second month on God's calendar. We want to thank everybody for joining us, and those who are also watching on the replay, as we enter into this pivotal month — and pivotal it is, as we will see through the scriptures. It is a connecting month. It has a lot of great revelation, and a lot of great events happened in the month of Iyar — in the Torah, in the Prophets, and also in the Gospels. As we look at all the segments of the Bible, we are going to see great revelation that occurred and great things that happened in this second month.

It is a fascinating month and a very favorable month for the believers who are following God's ways. It is very favorable as we enter into Iyar, just like Nisan was with the Passover and the resurrection. We are in these months that are very favorable on God's calendar. Not saying the other months are not, but there are certain seasons on God's calendar that are very anointed with favor for the believers who love Him. It is all about being set apart. We start every new moon teaching with that: we do have a set-apart God, with a set-apart Son, who has a set-apart Spirit — the Holy Spirit — that has set-apart days and times that He wants all of us, believers, Jews and Gentiles, to celebrate 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, or the divine appointments of the Lord. He has also sanctified the new moon as a festival for us to gather with Him. The commandment in Exodus was the new moon — in Exodus 12:2, He told Moses to look up. It was during the three nights of darkness, and the sliver of the new moon appeared, and He commanded Moses that this is the first month for you and the one new body and the one new man to count the feast days, to count the Sabbaths, to count all these beautiful things that He has ordained. The Lord Himself has ordained these things — which is pretty phenomenal when you think about it — that He wants to have an intimate relationship with us, and some of that, or most of that, is when He has ordained us to worship Him on His days that He has appointed, and not mankind's.

Thank you again for joining us. We want to jump into the subject of being set apart. We all want to be set apart to the Lord — but who is the one who sets us apart? It is Him, the Lord God Almighty. He has commanded us to be set apart from the world, and even from some of the teachings of the modern-day church as well. If you have your Holy Bible, we are going to skim through some areas, and I will try to slow down and let you find these passages so we can look at them together. Being set apart, friends, is not as easy as it may seem if we live according to the ways of the world or with the modern-day churches.

From the very beginning, He has wanted us to be set apart. He wanted Adam and Eve to be set apart. He wanted Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — you name it — to be set apart from the rest of the world. We first find this in Exodus 19:6, which was at Mount Sinai — where we are journeying to by Pentecost and Shavuot. That is where the first commandment was given: He wanted to separate the one new body, the one new man, the mixed multitude — Jews and Gentiles — from Egypt. Remember, it was a mixed multitude; even Pharaoh's daughter was with them, the one who saved Moses. He wanted them to be set apart from Egypt, Jews and Gentiles, at Mount Sinai, with the giving of the Torah. He said, "You shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." That was the first time we see this in scripture — at Mount Sinai, at the great revelation, the original revelation of the Lord, which is the Torah.

He also confirms this in Deuteronomy, the book where Moses recounted the journey from Exodus and reminded them of all these things God had ordained. In Deuteronomy 14:2 he says the same thing: "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 has ordained a certain segment of believers from the world to be His own people, His special treasure, the kingdom of priests.

In 1 Peter 2:7-10, in the New Testament, Peter confirms the same thing. He says that the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling to those who are disobedient, but for those who are obedient, He has chosen us to be a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. So we find even Peter in the New Testament confirming what was given at Sinai, and what Moses said in Deuteronomy as well. We also see it in Revelation 1:6, where John confirms it as well — that He washed us through His blood and made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

Throughout the Holy Bible, from beginning to end, He wants us to be a holy people, a treasure people, a kingdom of priests and kings, a royal priesthood. This is so important: to be set apart according to the ways He has commanded, and not mankind's ways. We have inherited, in the Gentile church — and I was born a Gentile — a lot of replacement theology. We have inherited the idea that Sunday is the Sabbath, or Easter instead of Passover, or Christmas in place of God's ordained times. That is replacement theology, in the kindest way possible to say it. God wants the original theology, the original revelation: Sabbath, new moon celebrations, the divine appointments of the Lord. He wants us to be a part of these things, and it is such an intimate walk with Him. If you have been on His calendar and His divine appointments, you know what I am talking about — it is very intimate with Him, not just head knowledge, but the Holy Spirit communing with you, with the Father, with the Son, on these special days, these anointed days that God has ordained.

He is the one who sets us apart. He is the one who makes us holy. We try to make ourselves holy, but we cannot — He is the one who makes us holy, and not mankind. In Psalms 4:3 it says, "Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself." In Leviticus 20:7-8 it 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." The Lord is the one who sanctifies all of us. We do not have the authority to call holy what is unholy, or unholy what is holy. In Leviticus 20:26 it says, "You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine."

All throughout the scriptures, my friends, He wants all of us to be holy, to be set apart, to join hands with Him. As we will see in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, we will be celebrating the new moon — which is what we are celebrating today. The new moon celebration has been largely lost in the modern-day church. Only the Jewish people — the Orthodox and the Messianic communities — really keep the new moon celebration, and very few Gentile believers observe it. We are going to see in scripture how important it is in the millennial kingdom and in eternity when Jesus reigns for a thousand years on David's everlasting throne.