Rabbi Jonathan Cahn Unlocks the Mystery of Nisan: The Month of Messiah - CHARISMA MAGAZINE SPIRITLED WOMAN

The month of Nisan comes to break up the harsh spiritual winter. (Pixabay)

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn Unlocks the Mystery of Nisan: The Month of Messiah

4/9/2017 RABBI JONATHAN CAHN   CHARISMA MAGAZINE SPIRITLED WOMAN

Editor's Note: This mystery is taken from The Book of Mysteries, Jonathan Cahn's national best-seller that takes you on a one-year journey into the desert with "the teacher" with the greatest mysteries of God and the greatest secrets of overcoming in your walk with God, one for every day of the year. You can get The Book of Mysteries for yourself wherever books are sold.

We were walking along a barren plain when he stopped to pick up a desert flower that had just blossomed.

"Even in the desert," said the teacher, "you can find blossoms."

"It's beautiful," I replied.

"The word for 'winter' in the Scriptures is the Hebrew setav. Setav means the season of hiding or the time of darkness. The winter is the season of darkness, barrenness and death. But each year, the winter ends with the coming of the Hebrew month of Nisan."

"In the spring."

"Yes," said the teacher. "Nisan is the month that ends the season of darkness, that breaks the death of winter. Nisan is the month when the earth again bears its fruit, and its flowers again begin to blossom. Nisan is the month of new life. In fact, the word 'nisan' means 'the beginning.' Nisan is the month when the sacred Hebrew year begins anew."

"Why is that significant?"

"Because Nisan is the month of redemption, the month of Messiah. It's the month Messiah chose to enter Jerusalem, to die on the cross, and to rise from death to life. Why do you think it all happened in Nisan?"

"Because Nisan is the time of new beginning. So when Messiah comes, it must be a new beginning. So it must be Nisan. And Nisan is the season of new life. So Messiah's coming brings new life ... a new birth.

"Yes," said the teacher. "And what else does Nisan do?"

"It ends the winter."

"What winter would be ended?" he asked.

"Our winter," I said. "The winter of our lives. The season of our darkness ... the time of our hiding ... the days of living in the shadows ... the season of our barrenness ... when our life can't bear the fruit it was meant to bear."

"Yes," said the teacher, "Messiah's coming is our Nisan, that which ends the winter of our lives and begins the spring of our lives. That's the power of Messiah, the power of Nisan. And for those in Messiah ... it is always Nisan.  And that is where we must always stay, in the season of new life, of new beginnings, of blossoming and the end of winter.

Break out of the winter and out of every darkness, and bear the fruit your life was meant to bear. Live in the power of Nisan. 

Adapted from The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn, copyright 2016, published by FrontLine, Charisma Media/Charisma House books. The book is a treasure chest of 365 life-changing devotionals that uncover mysteries, reveal truths, bring end-time revelation and give keys to opening the doors to a life full of joy, blessings and fulfillment. To order your copy, click here.

Prayer Power for the Week of April 9, 2017

This week as we move toward remembering and celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord, ask Him for divine connections where He can use you to be a blessing and point others to His love and redemption. In all the festivities, take time to meditate on His great sacrifice, thank Him for it and rejoice that because He lives, we are reconciled to God and have the gospel of reconciliation to share with a dying world. Continue to pray for revival in our nation and around the world. Remember Israel during this busy tourist season, and lift up our leaders and allies: Isaiah 13:1-5; Hab. 2:14; James 5:16. 

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The Jewish Calendar - Holidays

The Jewish Calendar

BY STEPHEN J. EINSTEIN AND LYDIA KUKOFF

Jews often say: "The holidays are late this year" or "The holidays are early this year." In fact, the holidays never are early or late; they are always on time, according to the Jewish calendar.

Unlike the Gregorian (civil) calendar, which is based on the sun (solar), the Jewish calendar is based primarily on the moon (lunar), with periodic adjustments made to account for the differences between the solar and lunar cycles. 

Therefore, the Jewish calendar might be described as both solar and lunar. The moon takes an average of twenty-nine and one-half days to complete its cycle; twelve lunar months equal 354 days. A solar year is 365 1/4 days. 

There is a difference of eleven days per year. To ensure that the Jewish holidays always fall in the proper season, an extra month is added to the Hebrew calendar seven times out of every nineteen years. 

If this were not done, the fall harvest festival of Sukkot, for instance, would sometimes be celebrated in the summer, or the spring holiday of Passover would sometimes occur in the winter.

Jewish days are reckoned from sunset to sunset rather than from dawn or midnight. The basis for this is biblical. In the story of Creation (Genesis 1), each day concludes with the phrase: "And there was evening and there was morning. . ." 

Since evening is mentioned first, the ancient rabbis concluded that in a day evening precedes morning.

The list of the Hebrew months (below) and the holidays that occur during these months also indicates the corresponding secular months.



For the counting of months, Nisan--the month that begins spring--is considered the first. However, the Jewishyear is reckoned from the month of Tishri--the month that begins autumn. This would seem to be the superimposition of one calendar system upon another, which took place during the Babylonian Exile (sixth pre-Christian century).

According to Jewish tradition, history is reckoned from the time of Creation; Jewish years, therefore, are numbered from then. For instance, Israel declared its independence on 5 Iyar 5708 (corresponding to May 14, 1948). The year 5708 (and every Jewish year) was figured by commencing the count from the beginning of Genesis.

Christian custom has been to divide history into two periods: before the time of Jesus (called B.C. = before Christ) and after Jesus' birth (called A.D. = anno Domini = in the year of the Lord). Jewish books generally refer to these periods as B.C.E. (before the common era) and C.E. (of the common era).

The subject of the calendar is rather complex. We have, therefore, touched only its broadest outlines.

Taken from: http://www.reformjudaism.org/jewish-calendar