Background on God’s Covenant: The Appointed Times-Feasts of the Lord
The Feasts of the Lord Reveal God’s Covenant Way
God operates and engages with mankind through an order and framework of a kind of relationship immersed in the love of God He calls covenant. He illustrated the nature of His heart and way of His covenant through a progressive series of covenants; first with Adam and Eve, then Noah, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He established a covenant and a law– or set of instructions based on His love– with Moses; then progressively updated it through David. As the prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel foretold, God said He would seal a new covenant on peoples’ hearts. It would enable people to know and experience the multidimensional depths of God’s love in a new and greater way. This upgraded covenant has been fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua–Jesus.
An important aspect of God’s covenant relates to the Appointed Times or Feasts of the Lord. They serve as a cycle of ways in which God engages with His people. He didn’t appoint these encounters to be legalistic rituals, but real dynamic and relevant ways to receive special pours of God’s love to enable you to relate with God’s grace and truth– and thus interact with God to bear fruit unto His glory!
So God established these Feasts of the Lord as seven particular appointed times grouped into three seasons. Truly, they represent annual cycles of life with relevance to our spiritual and physical lives. Through these appointed times, we see God’s overall pattern of Creation, Revelation and Redemption.
It is a pattern He continuously works through. It is the pattern of His rhythm. It works the way rhythm and cadence work in music– a flowing pattern bringing you to rest and peace. It is the way He designed for our lives to be in sync with Him! Truly, the Feasts of the Lord serve to help us relate and engage with our loving God in a truly dynamic and fruitful way!
Truly, everything God does happens within the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23
). God used the agricultural seasons to illustrate a process of ways in which He interacts with us; ways in which the Spirit of God flows to accomplish His purposes. He, therefore, would have us be more sensitive to His rhythm. Solomon had something to say about this.
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1
And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment, because for every matter there is a time and judgment
(Ecclesiastes 8:5-6
God’s Way and Rhythm:
Creation → Revelation → Redemption
God is always creating new things for His glory. His works flow through His grace; originating in His love and finding destiny in truth and redemption. The first way, in fact, God revealed Himself was as the Creator.
God is always creating. He spoke to Isaiah several times (chapters 42:9, 43:19 and 48:6) about new things He creates. Through the Feasts of the Lord and cycle of appointed seasons, we see the outpouring of God’s love and outworking of God’s process of Creation, Revelation and Redemption.
Through the season of Unleavened Bread, we see God initiating His creative and redemptive process. He separates light from darkness, truth from lies, righteousness from sin—and people from bondage. God creates new things by speaking His Word and breathing His Spirit. In Unleavened Bread, God draws us unto Himself, reveals new things and points to a way to transition and grow closer to God.
Through the season of the Feast of Weeks or Harvest—and evidenced in Pentecost—we see God’s Word and Spirit revealing and manifesting the fullness of God’s love and knowledge of God, His truth, His power and His glory. We also see God preparing us for a deeper and more meaningful experience with Him.
Through the season of Tabernacles, we see God’s cyclical process come to a state of rest and completion. We see His kingdom order established. We see trials come to a resolution in Messiah’s victory. We value God’s presence and love in a fresh way and come to a place and state of rest, reflection, redemption and restoration; preparing us for a next cycle.
So through the feast seasons, we see God connecting heaven with earth. We see the big picture of His will being accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. Furthermore, we see God’s purposes work through the process of time, and God’s kingdom manifesting and revealing itself.
In addition, we see a way that brings alignment and unification between man and God—our Creator. We see the big picture of a prophetic path leading towards destiny. We also see the Lord in the feasts—in a multitude of ways! Seeing God’s pattern and
So as you engage with God according to the rhythm of the Feasts of the Lord, you will be blessed in so many ways. Seeing God’s pattern and process will help your relationship with God grow in a real, dynamic and refreshing way.
Experiencing the Fullness of the Feasts of the Lord: Dates, Seasons and
Experiencing the Fullness of the Feasts of the Lord: Dates, Seasons and Life’s Cycles
God’s calendars are reflected in two ways. There is a spiritual/sacred calendar and a civil/agricultural calendar. The fact that the 1st spiritual month parallels the 7th civil month and 1st civil month parallels the 7th spiritual month points to a relationship between the two cycles!
The spiritual cycle represents our relationship with God from a spiritual standpoint. The civil cycle was designed around agricultural seasons, primarily reflecting upon our work life.
Our focus, however, is engaging in a relationship with God and keeping the big picture in mind; how Messiah Yeshua-Jesus has fulfilled the greater purposes of the feasts, making them relevant to our walk with God. Therein we find the manifold grace of God. It is the Lord who leads us through paths of righteousness.
Living Life in its Fullness:
In the Lord — I AM
God introduced Himself to Moses as I AM WHO I AM; using the Hebrew words, ehyeh asher ehyeh, meaning, I will be that I will be. He came as Messiah to the Jewish people as Yeshua, meaning in Hebrew, salvation; or as commonly known in the Greek, Jesus. So He became Lord and Savior to all humanity who will receive His love, believe and place trusting faith in Him.
Jesus connects to the multidimensional love of God and God’s identity of I AM through seven specific declarations. These declarations, in essence, disclose key aspects of His identity as Messiah. Through these disclosures He describes in a big way who He is, and who He will be to those who believe:
I AM the Bread of Life
I AM the Light of the World
I AM the Door of the Sheep
I AM the Good Shepherd
I AM the Resurrection and the Life
I AM the Way the Truth and the Life
I AM the True Vine
We expand on these disclosures and how each relates to the Feasts through the Grid section pages, Living Life in the Lord.