Yahweh has specific times and seasons in the spirit, but I think we miss a lot of it because we want to do things according to the seasons and times that feel comfortable to our flesh. We need to start living according to God’s spiritual timing – and that means we need to be able to discern the change of seasons in the realm of the spirit.
In Ecclesiastics 8 vs. 5 it is written: “A wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgments.”
Yahweh has a central principle from which every area of our lives is directed – and we call it time...
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace....
...He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Eccl.3:1-11).
Even if you try with all your might, you won’t be able to lengthen or shorten Yahweh’s seasons. The spiritual timing of our lives is determined by the will of our Father.
The world and our flesh pushes us to get things done quickly; but the past seven years of my life has taught me that Yahweh does things in His own good time – and He knows exactly where we are on our journey through life. Whatever He does in our lives is in agreement with His spiritual calendar and not our plans.
From the beginning – in Genesis 1 – the Lord has revealed to us that He does things on His time, and that His timing is always perfect.
The more we get to know Yahweh’s character and position ourselves in His perfect will, the more we will recognize His seasons in our lives. We will be at peace as we recognize His hand on our lives, and we will be anchored and hopeful about our future. There is an old proverb that says: Time heals. Yahweh uses time – His time – to bring healing to our wounds through the blood of the Lamb; for with time comes understanding, maturity and better judgment. Yahweh uses time to build our inner strength and character – not in who you are, but in who He is; because with time you learn that Yahweh is never late, but also never early. Yahweh’s time works like this: step by step… minute by minute… second by second.
I had to learn the hard way that Yahweh’s time is not my time. We need to be able to discern the times and seasons that Yahweh has ordained for our lives, otherwise we will keep on kicking against our circumstances in frustration. Yahweh wants to teach us about the seasons in the spirit: when to fight, when to rest, when to sow… so that we can overcome, be replenished, and reap at the right times.
We also need to understand that Yahweh is the one who shifts our lives and determines our seasons… for if we misinterpret the seasons, we will do the right things at the wrong time, or do nothing when we are supposed to worship. We must be sensitive to the Spirit of the Lord Yeshua – to hear where we are, and what we are supposed to be doing in each season.
“See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you” (Isaiah 42:9).
I truly believe we are in a time of repentance and restoration… restoration of the bride and to prepare ourselves according to His instructions. And also a time where the soldiers of the army of God go to war against the kingdom of darkness and prevail:
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:15-18).
We all have to go through the different seasons of life; and winter is always the toughest. Yahweh’s Word warns us in advance that there will be difficult times, persecutions, distress (winter)…. But He always gives us the promise of spring….
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland”(Isaiah 43:19).
As a family we have been walking on a road of healing and restoration for seven years now, and every now and again Aldo had mentioned the promise of “the year of jubilee” in his letters.
For us, the year of Jubilee speaks of a Redeemer that would redeem us from all our debts and change us from a slave to a free man. The year of Jubilee is mentioned in Leviticus 25, and to summarize it means the following: The trumpet shall sound throughout the land – proclaim liberty to all inhabitants – every man shall return to his own – you shall eat from the increase of the field – you shall not oppress one another – people shall enjoy rest from work in the fields – all mortgages are cancelled – all servants are released – all bondages of men are annulled – debts are forgiven – lands reverted to original owners.
Since May this year, until the second last week of September, we have been going through an intense spiritual battle. It was particularly difficult to me, because I couldn’t make sense of what was going on, and the promise of “the year of jubilee” seemed totally disconnected from our circumstances. These past couple of months really taught us how to fight in the spirit – it has been the most intense spiritual battle I have ever experienced. During June of this year it would have been exactly seven years since our accident, and I really hoped that it would signal the end of the spiritual battle and the beginning of the year of Jubilee.
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn… (Isaiah 61:1-2)
After coming back from a ministry trip in America, I ministered at a weekend camp in the Cape during the second last weekend of September. During that weekend I had a dream. In the dream the Holy Spirit revealed things to me about our spiritual battle and how to break the strongholds of the enemy. Shortly afterwards a friend of mine gave me specific prayers to pray about the three roots that keep the tree of iniquity rooted in our lives. The tree roots are: Bloodshed (murders), sorceries (occult), and sexual immorality (see Rev. 9:21).
We dealt extensively with the root of bloodshed (that also includes racism and hatred) last year, and I shared about it in my book, A Message of Hope. I didn’t realize that the other two roots: sorceries (occult, word curses, gossip etc), and sexual immorality, were still in place. These roots originated because of the sins of our forefathers that we inherited through iniquity, and also our own sins.
After Tinus and I prayed the prayers and repented, the spiritual battle ceased. Aldo even wrote: “All the drains have been closed after my parents prayed and repented.” So many people are still weighed down by sin and iniquity – but they never get to the roots of the problem in order to cut it out completely.
I decided to share the link to the prayers in this letter; because if it helped me and my family so much, I can’t keep it to myself. It comes from Kanaan Ministries, and can be downloaded by clicking here.
(Take your time and read through the whole Journey to Freedom series,)
If you read this web-letter of mine, and you feel that it is not for you – don’t feel pressured to do anything; just leave it and go on as the Lord leads you. But for those of you who feel that you have been fighting and fighting but there is just no breakthrough – I believe that the Journey to Freedom series will really help you; all through the blood of the Lamb!
I know how much resistance and persecution I will probably receive when I talk about generational curses and standing in the gap for the sins of my forefathers, but I can’t keep quiet about it because I saw with my own eyes how Aldo received immediate healing and the attacks against His mind stopped after dealing with these issues. After four months of praying and spiritual warfare there was real breakthrough after Tinus and I prayed these prayers. Obviously if your children are old enough and they are struggling with these issues, they will have to pray it for themselves.
We were at our beach house in Yzerfontein for a few days last week, and the peace of God washed over us. Thankfulness is flowing from my heart! On Tuesday night Aldo wrote: “Wisdom says that my year of Jubilee will start tomorrow.” According to the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) started that day. That was Yahweh’s plan all along – He is never too late! The week before Rosh Hashanah the demonic oppression broke, and it was time for Aldo’s year of Jubilee to start. There was such an amazing peace in our house and hearts. As I read Aldo’s letter I heard how the Holy Spirit softly spoke these words to my spirit: “My time, Retah… My time!”
Maybe you are thinking to yourself that you don’t have to repent of these three roots – either for yourself, or for your bloodline. Please go and read Revelations 9:21 carefully. It says: And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
If you don’t feel comfortable about standing in the gap for the sins of your forefathers; what about your own sin? The enemy wants to keep us bound by our sins and our traumas. We are still busy dealing with Aldo’s deep wounds and pain that came from the trauma of the accident; but since the roots have been dealt with (that used to give the demons the legal right to be there), the healing and restoration process is so much easier! The roots
While we were in Yzerfontein, I sat looking at the sea one day and started talking to Yeshua. I asked Him, “Lord, why did I have to fight and struggle for such a long time before I recognized that until we cut out the roots of the tree, I’d probably be fighting like this forever? How did You teach this principle to Your disciples? Please Lord, I need some answers from the New Testament… because everybody keeps on attacking me if I use Old Testament examples…”
Clearly the Lord made me to remember the parable of the fig tree:
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it…
[The next day] In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:12-22)
The Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Retah, what caused the fig tree to wither and die? Was it not because it was dead from the roots?
“Retah, people have so many different opinions about Me, because everyone sees only a part of the diamond. And once someone sees a revelation of Me that glitters and is beautiful, they think their revelation is all that counts. I will keep on teaching My children more and more about myself until the day I come to take you home. Just be open to learn My child, and never think that you know everything… Who I am is way beyond human understanding. No one will ever truly understand everything about Me. Just walk with Me step by step, minute by minute, second by second… and let My Holy Spirit teach you.”
Thank You for the year of Jubilee, Lord. We are experiencing so much love and peace.
Read through the information I have included in the link from Kanaan Ministries about the roots of the tree, and how to be set free. May it bless you and your family and may you receive the breakthrough you are waiting for – just like we have. All because of the blood of the Lamb.
Love
Retah.