Family Gatherings
Special Family Gatherings and Feast of Trumpets
Birth, Christmas and Repentance
In Matthew 24 Jesus spoke in private with his disciples about the signs of the end of the age, (Mat 24v3). The privacy indicates that this information is especially for the family of believers.
Here Jesus explained the signs of the end in terms of war and birth, saying ‘the end is not yet.’ — Mat 24v3-8. By God’s grace there is still time for repentance.
For those who don’t repent, the end will come like a thief (with no sign), and it will come when people are saying, ‘peace and safety’. (1 Thess 5v3).
Currently the talk is of war, not peace, and we are seeing many stunning signs, so in this regard the end of the world does not look imminent, which means time for repentance.
Birth, and birthdays are special family occasions, times of gathering together. Christmas is a festival seasons, like an appointed time of the Lord for holy convocation, or sacred assembly, a time for families to gather together.
The seven festival times of Israel are called, ‘Moedim’. The three autumn festivals are believed to have special end times significance.
The Revelation 12 sign representing the birth of Jesus appeared on 23rd September 2017, during the feast of Trumpets - a time of repentance.
The feast of Trumpets is the first of the autumn festivals, a day of remembrance (Lev 23v23-25). Preparation begins and continues during 10 days of awe (life long) leading up to the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the day of judgement. After that they celebrate the most joyful feast, Tabernacles or Succot.
During the feast of Trumpets the Israelites would blow trumpets throughout the land to call the nation to repentance. The sound of the trumpet means war, and repentance is a fierce flesh spirit struggle, a fight to the death.
In addition, the 23rd of September 2017 was a special Sabbath day, ‘Shabbat Shuva’ — the Sabbath of return. But this is not about his return to us. Rather it is about our return to him (Hosea 14v1).
‘Shabbat Shuva’ is about ‘Te shuvah’ which means repentance. So we should consider birth. Spiritual new birth is most important, but consider the symbolic birth of world war three. Repentance is the heart of the matter.
A nuclear war will be God’s trumpets of wrath, and birth pains will grip the world (Rev 8-9). But sadly many people will still not repent, (Rev 9v21).
Because of a powerful vision, I believe that a return of Donald Trump to office will trigger a mass exodus of people from the cities, and the holy convocation of the final generation for the ultimate feast of Trumpets — Mount Sinai style. Mount Sinai is where the trumpet of God got louder and louder as the wrath of God was revealed. (His name is ‘Trump!’)
But for us this time of repentance will be like Pentecost. Three thousand people were saved on the day of Pentecost and the church was born. Three thousand died at Mount Sinai, and the nation of Israel was born.
When we come in repentance to Jesus, becoming part of the family of God, we put to death the sinful nature and he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore birthdays and Christmas time are special family times of gift giving.
We should study the birth of Jesus as it appears in prophecy, and seek God’s wisdom on how to prepare for the birth of the christ child generation of the last days.