Shevat
Yesterday at sundown on Jan 25 began the Jewish month of Shevat began. The Jewish people have 2 calendars that they always follow. One is the secular calendar, which kings and governments use, kind of like our secular calendar which begins on Jan 1st, but their most important calendar, kind of like our liturgical calendar, is their sacred calendar, their ecclesiastical calendar. Shevat is the 11th month in the sacred calendar. Because it is the 11th month, it’s a month of transition from winter to spring. I believe that there are a number of things the Lord is saying to us through some of the elements, key elements, concerning Shevat, and I want to share those as a prophetic word for the body of Christ.
This is a month of transition, from Winter to Spring. Shevat is a time to celebrate that winter will soon come to an end, and that spring will soon be here. Glimpses of Spring and new life can be seen It’s the month of the tribe of Asher and the word “Asher” means happiness. Asher was also the 8th son of Jacob and the 2nd son of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid. Of course the number 8 means “new creation” or “new beginnings”. This is a season where many people who have been stuck in the time of winter, a time of struggle and darkness, are going to be moving into a time of transition. This is where God is going to begin to supernaturally show you the springtime in the spirit in your life, and you are going to begin to realize that the season of hopelessness, the dark season, the frozen season, is coming to an end. You are beginning to see the first signs of life. It’s a time for the body of Christ, the people of the body of Christ, to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For many of you who have gone through a long winter, gone through a long time of struggle and battle where you’ve almost lost hope, and your emotions have been in the pit for a long time, your feelings have been in the pit for a long time, God is restoring hope. You are moving into a time of hope, where you are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You are able to see that you’re coming into a time of new beginnings and new creation. You are coming into a time where there’s going to be new fruit, new life, a time of spiritual spring. And you feel it, you’re going to see hope begin to rise up inside of you again as God restores and brings forth and births new creation, new beginning things in your life. Because it’s the month of the tribe of Asher, the word meaning “happiness”, happiness that may have been lost, you may have spent a long night in sorrow, but this is your morning and joy is being restored to you. You are coming out of a time of mourning, and you are coming into a time of morning, the time of hope, time of new life. The dark night is coming to an end and you’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and happiness is being restored to you.lots of people are going to see real breakthrough for people who have battle with the bark night of depression.
Shevat is a time of songs, it’s a month of songs and the song of the Lord is being restored to your heart. There’s singing being restored to your heart. Ephesians 5 talks about singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. You’re going to discover that melody, that song rising up in you. It is being restored in you, and it may have been gone for a long time in the spiritual winter. In the Chronicles of Narnia, winter always spoke of the time when the enemy ruled. If you’ve ever seen or read the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, when people were in the wintertime, they were in the grips of the enemy, and the powers of darkness were ruling. But we are told that when Aslan showed his teeth, the winter had to flee. This is a time you’re coming into, where you’re coming out of the dark winter that you’ve been in for a long time, and some of you had thought that winter would never go away, that hope would never be restored, that the song would never be restored in your heart, that it would never be a spontaneous melody in your heart again. But Aslan is showing his teeth and the winter is beginning to go away and life is beginning to come forth again. This is a time of transition in your life, the time when you can see it. You’ve come to the edge of the Jordan and though you may still be in the wilderness, you can see the land of promise, you can see the land of inheritance, you can see the purposes of God, the promises of God, you can see that they’re real, they’re for you. You are soon about to cross over, to come into that place. You can see the new beginnings, you can see all the things that God is doing.
This is also a time when historically, Deborah the prophetess in Judges and Miriam, the prophetess, are remembered. Deborah’s song in chapter 5 is the song for you to meditate on and grow from. Miriam’s song in Exodus 15:21 is a song for you to meditate on as God is bringing you out of wintertime and bringing you into spring, life and restoration. Miriam’s short song “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, the horse and his rider, he has hurled into the sea”. This is just a song remembering the supernatural ability of God to deliver and set free from your enemies, from those who are pursuing you. This is your song, this is to be your song, the song of Miriam. And also Judges 5, the song of Deborah, which is also a song about victory and the enemies of God being defeated. So though it may have felt like the enemies of God had set up camp in your life, in the land of your life, maybe for a long time, again, the winter of defeat is coming to an end and you’re about to cross over into the land of freedom, the land of victory and fruitfulness, life and new beginnings, new creations.
During this time also, particularly this month of Shevat, we’re going to see Deborahs rise up, we’re going to see Miriams rise up. There’s a real anointing on women who are called of God to minister prophetically, to give forth words, you’re going to see on an international level powerful women of God who are prophetesses, just speaking the word of God prophetically, profoundly giving revelation that God has given them. If you are a woman of God who has a prophetic anointing, this is the time to really seek the Lord, to get His heart, to get His word and to proclaim the things that He says to you.
Shevat is also a time of trees, a time where God is taking people out of those fragile seasons where they felt like they were so weak and so unstable and establishing them as oaks of righteousness. As you move out of this wintertime into a time of fruitfulness, harvest and new life, you’re going to discover that there’s a stability, there’s this strength in you that is supernatural, that God has accomplished. During this winter time, when it all felt like it was loss, felt like it was battle and defeat, in reality God was causing the roots of your life to go deep as you clung to Jesus, as you clung to Him during this wintertime and as God brings you into this new season of new life, you’re going to discover that suddenly, God has done something in you that you didn’t realize was happening because He had drawn your roots so deep into Him, because you had to be so utterly dependent on Him in this time, that you’ve come out of this place as an oak of righteousness, rooted very deep so that the storms of life can’t blow you over. This is a time of trees, a time of God establishing in people the spirit of an oak of righteousness. This is also a time when those of you who’ve been called to ministry, you’ve labored in the fields, maybe for many years, and God says there’s going to be a great anointing on you and those people that you’ve sown into, people you thought maybe would never “get it”, and maybe you felt like you were supposed to give up on them, you’re going to discover that they’re going to start becoming oaks of righteousness and you’re going to see it.
I also believe the Lord has said during this time over the next season we’re moving into, that Shevat is declaring to us that God is going to be raising up young oaks of righteousness, young people in their 20’s and 30’s, oaks of righteousness. He is going to plant them in Israel. They are going to be strategic plants of God, His light, His salt in that land as they go through this time in their lives of great darkness and great light. He is going to plant oaks of righteousness there to stand and provide shade. This is also a time, during this month of Shevat, during this next month in particular, where there’s going to be a lot of connecting, a lot of long distance connecting. God is going to be connecting you with people that have been out of your life for many, many years. He’s just going to supernaturally put them on your heart, put you on their heart. You’re going to come across them in some way. God is going to be reconnecting and if that happens, you know it’s the Lord. If He puts someone on your heart, you follow up on that, there’s a righteous and strategic reason to it all.
During Shevat, one of the things that the people of God did, in Deut 1, is that Moses recited and took the people through the Torah, the Pentateuch, the 5 books of Moses before they crossed over into the land so they would remember the word of the Lord and even today, among Jewish people, during Shevat, the scriptures of the first 5 books are read and studied.
I believe that during this season, the Lord is going to be ministering the word of God. The word of God is going to be very tasty. This is a time for you to set yourself apart, to get into the word of God, to discover the depth, the joy of the word of God. It says this about Asher in Jacob’s prophecy over Israel: “As for Asher, his food shall be rich and he shall eat royal dainties”. I believe that during this season, the word of God is going to be very rich like a royal dainty, it’s going to be very powerful. In Ez 42: 13, it says,” Then he said to me: the north and south rooms facing the temple courtyards are the priest rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings”. I believe this is a time, particularly this month, when the word of God is opened up like a banquet table and you’re going to discover the word of God to be very tasty, like royal dainties and God is going to allow you to eat the most holy things. This is a time of revelation to come forth, particularly from the word of the Lord, for you to get alone with God and just expect Him to feed you the richest stuff. It’s going to be very tasty. You are to taste and see that the Lord is good in His word and take advantage of that. I also believe that during this month, there’s going to be a particular anointing for healings to come to people who have stomach issues and for people who deal with issues with the esophagus.
This Shevat is very important. Allow hope to rise up in you. Allow the Song of the Lord to rise up. Spring is just around the corner.