Sid: We want everyone everywhere to be SO RED HOT for the Messiah. I believe that God has given us keys for increase, and keys for blessing that the devil has literally taken out of Gentile Christianity. I have Pastor Robert Heidler on the telephone; he has a Master’s degree from Dallas school of theology. He’s pastor of Glory of Zion Outreach Center in Denton, Texas. We’re featuring his unpublished manuscript that is so important especially to what God is doing this year with the body of Messiah. It’s called the “Cycles of God.” It has to do with the Biblical festivals that have been stolen from the church that are coming back, not in bondage, not in tradition, but in truth and in “chofesh,” that’s a Hebrew word that means freedom. Now what did you mean that these cycles of God, Robert Heidler, are God’s key to increase and blessing?
Robert: God has given these as keys, not as legalistic structures that we have to obey, but He’s given them as keys that He wants to use in our lives to bring us closer to Him every time we go through them; closer to His blessing every time we go through them. They will cut off the strategies of the enemy in our lives, and they’ll open us to receive the blessing that God has for us.
Sid: See your book is a real how to book; to understand these blessings; understand the festivals; how to go about, and actually examples of how you have gone about celebrating these Biblical festivals. Well left off yesterday speaking about the fall feasts, explain.
Robert: Well every fall you’ve gone through, the year started with Passover in the first month, then there was Pentecost in the third month, then you go through a long hot summer and come into the fall. There is a cycle, there are 3 feasts clustered together in the fall because God wants us to end the year, to end the cycle of feasts in His presence, in His glory with the experience of His power. The fall feasts are really designed by God to move into that place of His presence, His power, and His glory. It’s interesting it begins with the Feast of Trumpets; the main thing that God asks of us in the Feast of Trumpets is that we hear the trumpet blast; it’s the day of the awakening call. Most of us over the course of a year we get to the point where we need an awakening call. We need to be called to alertness. So God says “Begin this time by listening to the trumpet blast. Let it do something in your spirit to wake you up to say this is the time to press in to the presence of God.” This is a time God has set to move to experience His glory. It’s interesting the 10 days after Trumpets, in the Jewish calendar are called the Days of Awe, they’re also called the Days of T’shuvah, which t’shuvah means to turn; to return; to repent. It also is the word for springtime, and God is saying “I want to bring you into a new season. I want to bring you into a season freshness of life.” That’s what Trumpets calls us into.
Sid: You know I also think of that when I think of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I think about the shofar blast there is something so supernatural of the sound of a shofar.
Robert: Yeah it does something in our spirits when we hear that blast it causes something to activate in us to press into God.
Sid: Tell me a bit about Yom Kippur.
Robert: Well Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year, it is just a special set apart day. It is the only day that God has on the Biblical calendar that’s a day of fasting and not a day of feasting. It’s a time to do serious business with God; it’s to make sure that every sin is under the blood if there is anything not confessed that’s not dealt with. It’s a time to make sure that there is nothing that stands between you and God; nothing that would hinder you from coming boldly into His presence. I think the verse I love for the Day of Atonement is Isaiah 44:22 when God says “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you.” That’s what God is saying on the Day of Atonement. “Atonement has been made return to Me receive the full blessing, the full benefits of that.”
Sid: Now tell me one Yom Kippur that your church family observed and what you did.
Robert: I think one of the most significant ones we did…
Sid: And again, Yom Kippur means Day of Atonement. Go ahead.
Robert: We celebrate the feasts differently every year. There was one year we talked about the 2 goats; there was a goat that was the sin offering which was fulfilled by Jesus, but then there was a second goat. In celebrating Yom Kippur they would take that goat and confess over it the sins of the people then lead it out into the wilderness. It was a tangible reminder to the people that your sins have been confessed, they have been removed. So we had a time at the end of the service where we had the lights dimmed a little bit, and we gave everyone a sheet of paper that had 1 John 1:9 across the top “If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse from all unrighteousness.” We said “Ask God if there are any sins that you are supposed to confess, anything that would hinder your walk with Him, and just write them down.” We gave people some time to do that. Then we said “Now turn your paper sideways and write across… claim 1 John 1:9 and write the words of that verse out across your list. ‘If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse’” We had a trashcan up front and we said “Now take that list and tear it up and throw it away.” People walked out there saying “I know there is no confessed sin, there is no sin God wants me to confess that I haven’t confessed. There’s nothing that would hinder my fellowship with Him.” It was just a time of sort of recreating the Day of Atonement of realizing we have dealt with everything that needs to be dealt with and we are ready to press into the presence of God.
Sid: Now you’re talking about my favorite fall feasts, Tabernacles.
Robert: Oh it is, it is the celebration of God.
Sid: In Hebrew it’s Sukkot.
Robert: Yes. The name comes from the fact that when Israel came into the wilderness they came out of Egypt and they dwelt in temporary shelters. God basically said “Build a temporary shelter for me too and I will come down into your midst and dwell with you.” So Tabernacles is a reminder of that time when God came down and dwelt in the midst of His people and they saw it and experienced His glory. That’s what Tabernacles is, it’s a time to remember the experience of the glory of God in the past, it’s a time to press in and to re-experience that manifestation of His glory.
Sid: Tell me about a Tabernacles that your church family observed.
Robert: I think the most memorable one, we took the whole week we decorated the inside of the church like a tabernacle, and we had 24 hour prayer and praise going 7 days a week through the entire week. We had a table where there was just continually food for feasting. Every night we had a different pastor in from a different church to do a message. During that week I’d go down to the church at three in the morning and there’d be 20 or 30 people in there singing and celebrating. By the end of the week there was such an experience of the presence of God there. I think that’s a picture of what God wants us to come into; He wants us to see “You can come into My presence, you can experience My goodness.” You know a lot of people don’t understand what the glory of God is, but glory is a tangible manifestation of His presence. I think all of us can remember those times when we knew God was speaking to us we were feeling His presence with us. God came down and touched us in a very significant way. That was the glory of God, and God wants us to remember the times in the past when we’ve experienced His glory, and He wants us to know there’s more glory ahead. He wants us to know more and more of His presence.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth