Zola Levitt discovered an amazing correlation between Biblical (Jewish) Holy Days and the gestation of a human baby, from conception to birth. While preparing for writing a book for new parents, Zola contacted a gynaecologist for some help in understanding gestation.

During that session, the gynaecologist showed him a series of pictures, pointed to the first one (an egg and a sperm) and said, “On the fourteenth day of the first month, the egg appears.”

The statement struck a chord in his Jewish mind because that was the date of Passover. He remembered the roasted egg on his family table every Passover. Now, for the first time, he knew what it meant! Not wanting to lead the gynaecologist off from the subject at hand, he didn’t say anything, but continued to listen.

The gynaecologist continued: “The egg must be fertilized within 24 hours, or it will pass on.” This reminded Zola of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the seed or grain that “fell into the ground and died” in order to produce a harvest, the firstfruits of which was presented to God.

Next, the gynaecologist said, “Within two to six days, the fertilized egg attaches itself to the wall of the womb and begins to grow.” And, sure enough, the Jewish evangelist thought, “The Feast of Firstfruits is observed anywhere from two to six days after Passover!”

Next, he was shown a photo of an embryo showing arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, a head, eyes, etc. The caption said, “Fifty days.” The gynaecologist continued, “Around the fiftieth day, the embryo takes on the form of a human being. Until then, we don’t know if we have a duck or a tadpole.” Zola thought, “That’s Pentecost!”

The next picture showed the embryo at seven months. The gynaecologist said, “On the first day of the seventh month, the baby’s hearing is developed. For the first time, it can hear and distinguish sounds outside the womb.” Zola knew that was the date for the Jewish Festival of Trumpets.

The gynaecologist continued, “On the tenth day of the seventh month, the haemoglobin of the blood changes from that of the mother, to a self-sustaining baby.” Zola thought, “That’s the Day of Atonement, when the blood was taken into the Holy of holies!”

Next, the gynaecologist said, “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the lungs become fully developed. If born before then, the baby would have a hard time breathing.” And Zola thought, “That’s the festival of Tabernacles, a time of celebrating the Temple, home of the Shekinah glory or Spirit of God.” In the New Testament, the Greek term pneuma, normally translated as “breath,” is applied to the “Holy Spirit.”

Birth takes place on the tenth day of the ninth month. Eight days after birth, in Jewish families, a son is circumcised. Zola noted that the eight days of Hanukkah are celebrated right on schedule, nine months and ten days after Passover.

No human being could have understood the gestation period 3,500 years ago. The establishment of the Jewish Holy Days was given to Moses by Jehovah, Himself. Its correlation with the human gestation period is not only remarkable; it proves “Intelligent Design.” It proves the existence of an intelligence beyond this world. It proves that there is a Creator God that guides the affairs of man.

On Wednesday, April 19, 2006, Zola Levitt went home to be with the Lord after a battle with lung cancer. The announcement on his website added: “What a soldier’s testimonial — to stay at his post until called away by Yeshua! Happy is the man whose work is his play.”

In giving his testimony, Zola wrote:

“I came to the Lord on March 14, 1971, through the urgings of Campus Crusaders at Indiana University. They challenged me to read the Scriptures, particularly the Book of John. I went by night, like Nicodemus, to the campus director’s home and brought a New Testament bound by itself (what Dr. McCall, our ministry senior theologian refers to as ‘The Amputated Bible’).

“When I read John’s cosmic views of the Lord and the plan of salvation, I realized that I was reading Jewish writing about a Jewish Messiah, and a Jewish way to God. All the Campus Crusaders might have been Gentiles, but I knew Jewish thought when I read it. My prayer of 28 years ago was extremely simple. I said to God, ‘If You’re there, show me.’ An open-minded look at the life I have led since that moment would have to conclude that He has indeed shown me wonders.”

The correlation between the Jewish festivals and the birthing of a baby was just one of those “wonders.”

Peter McArthur

The Issachar Ministry

_________________________________________________________________________________

“His coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and miraculous signs and lying wonders, and in all deceit of unrighteousness in those being lost, because they did not receive the love of the truth in order for them to be saved. And because of this, God will send to them a working of error, for them to believe the lie, that all may be judged, those not believing the truth, but who have delighted in unrighteousness”. 2 Thess. 2: 9-12

Note the phrase “love of the truth” mentioned in verse 10.

In His own time and way the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13).

There are two requirements laid on us if we would come into all truth.

We must become yielded to God’s Spirit as Teacher, and, we must love His written Word with a passion.

A strong conviction is also needed, that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3:16 and 2 Pet. 1:21). There is a parallel between what we find in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and what happened in Eden when the Satan beguiled Eve. It was there in the Garden that “the mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess 2:7) began its work that has continued through the ages till this day.

“Mystery” is from the Greek mustérion which means “a secret” known only to the initiated, or that will remain under cover until its time of revelation has come.

“Iniquity” is from he anomía, which means “the lawlessness” and has reference directly to the utter disregard for God’s Law. The small word he (pronounced “hay”) is a Greek Definite Article meaning “the.” It specifies the word it precedes as distinct. Hence it is “the mystery of THE iniquity” which is an attitude toward God that denies He has any right to rule.

The iniquity began with an assault on the mind of Eve in Eden. It has continued through the ages with its hold on all humanity. This will continue till its final work when all its poison will be released toward the minds of those who have found redemption through the Seed of the Woman (Gen 3:15) — those who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. “The wicked one” (Mtt 13:19) will fix his strategic gaze on us who are set in the earth to “withstand” him (Eph 6:13). As the age winds down, he is working to throw our minds off kilter with the goal of disabling us for function with Christ in His Kingdom.

In 2 Cor 10:4-5 Paul makes it clear what will come in our counter strategy when we realize that the main end-time battlefield is our mind. See some of the powerful insights of the following passage in 2 Thess 2: 1-2. “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.”

Paul’s exhortation was with regard to the “coming” of the Lord. This word “coming” is from the Greek word parousía, meaning Christ’s return to earth to reign. At that time all true believers will be gathered together unto Him with no walls or divisions. This grand appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ is the end toward which this age is now moving. Paul’s concern for this was that believers “be not soon shaken in mind.”

Note where the attack is aimed! The deception of the enemy, coupled with the trauma of the age ending, could throw the mind of even a true believer into turmoil so that it lacks all sound judgment or understanding. It was Paul’s concern that this not be so. There are 3 ways by which spiritual revelation may come by spirit, by spoken word, or by written word. True and pure revelation comes by the Holy Spirit, but there are also other spirits at work mimicking God’s Spirit. It is here we need that operation of the Holy Spirit called discerning of spirits (1 Cor 12:10). This is the ability given to us by God’s Spirit through which we put spiritual revelation to the test and discern whether it’s from the Lord or not.

There are three fundamental criteria by which we seek to judge any revelation that comes to us.

1. Is it in line with God’s Word?

2. Does it bring exaltation to the Lord Jesus Christ?

3. Is the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon it?

Our concern should be that no matter what happens or how it happens or when it happens, believers will not be thrown into tumult, drowned by discouragement, or lost to Christ’s Kingdom because they lose the stability of their minds. Teaching mixed with error can cause this, but revelation that is pure always brings stability. One is holy; the other is not. The following verses (2 Thess 2:3-4) are heavy with revelation as Paul writes to the saints he loved dearly. “Let no man deceive you (beguile you from the path) by any means: for that Day shall not come, except there come a falling away (THE apostasy) first, and that man of sin (that man of THE sin) be revealed, the son of (THE) perdition (the one who wastes all things; the one who is set in the earth to mastermind a final great destruction); Who opposes (sets himself in opposition to) and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God (a god).”

The Lord Jesus referred to this same thing in Mtt 23:11-12. “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many (lead many down the path of falsehood). And because iniquity shall abound (the iniquity shall be multiplied), the love of many shall grow cold”. That we may abide in the truth in this trying time is our desire and the purpose of any true Berean! Paul used the word náos for Temple in the above Thessalonian passage. It means the Most Holy Place in the Temple. Another word hiéron also means “temple,” but it always signifies the Temple as a building. Paul was clear in his conviction that it was not a building of stones, but of living members, redeemed people, believers.(See Acts 17:24; 1 Cor 3:16-17; 1 Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 3:21).

The anti-Christ’s scheme is to spoil this Temple so it cannot be useful in Christ’s Kingdom. But this activity will only push us to learn more of what is called prevailing grace! The grace and power of God will far exceed the determination of anti-Christ to ruin us for the Kingdom. Take note of the statement “he as God sits in the Temple”. The little word in comes from the Greek eis, which means “into, or unto”. This presents a picture of the “son of perdition” pushing in toward the Temple, contending for the Holy of Holies. But it does not say he becomes seated in it.

At the very instant it seems the enemy might accomplish this grand feat and make his parousía on the world’s scene, the Lord Jesus makes His glorious appearing and consumes Satan. Paul was clear in warning the people that spirits of deception would keep an eye on believers to get them away from the Lord and His purpose for them. 2 Thess 2:5 “Don’t you remember that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”

The Greek word in this verse from which we get “I told” is a Greek phrase spelled in a way to let us know it was Paul’s practice to speak time and time again of these important matters. The energy of the wicked one has been in operation in the world as “the mystery of iniquity” ever since the deception in Eden. But there has remained a restraint on the iniquity until the antichrist himself, not just his spirit, is on the scene. “And then shall that Wicked (the wicked one) be revealed (uncovered; disclosed), whom the Lord shall consume (use up; destroy) with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy (render powerless) with the brightness of His coming (the glorious manifestation of His presence)” 2 Thess 2:8

Following the long period while iniquity has been under restraint, it will make a final breakout on earth. The destruction to which this verse points comes when sin has come to its full. Then, a final act of rebellion against God calls for the return of the Lord Jesus. The wicked one will determine to take the Throne of Christ’s Kingdom by mimicking the Lord Jesus, and will attempt a glorious burst on the scene to make his presence known in all the earth. He will be energized in his own parousía by Satan himself.

See the following revealing statement in 2 Thess. 2:9-10. “Even him (the anti-Christ himself), whose coming is according to the working (energetic power) of Satan with all power (dynamic power) and signs and lying wonders (terrifying lies), and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish (them that are perishing); because they received not (laid not hold on) the love of the truth, that they might be saved”.

The word parousía occurs 18 times in the Greek New Testament. Every time it is with reference to the Lord Jesus. This word describes the appearance on the scene of a majestic ruler. What a brazen insubordination the devil will attempt this with his man, the antichrist! Let us stress this again: antichrist’s plan is to win the throne belonging to the Lord Jesus. His only hope is to deceive the followers of Jesus as he deceived our parents in Eden. His aim is to capture our minds and our hearts. According to the teaching of Scripture those who would lose their way in the final days would be those who received not the love of the truth.

Let’s not be deceived; let’s be the ones who receive a love for the Truth. There’s a powerful statement in 2 Cor 10:4-5 that lays out the very principle of renouncing THE LIE and releasing our minds for the Truth that is in Christ. “…for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful to God to the demolishing of strongholds, the demolishing of arguments and every high thing lifting up itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ…”

Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to usher truth into your inward parts. This is a strategy by which we bring our own minds under subjection to Christ. It is very effective as hearts become open to the Word of God’s Kingdom.

Now let these things of prime importance be settled with us:

• We acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our Lord
• We choose to believe the Word of God
• That it is inspired by the Holy Spirit
• That its truth abides
• That the Holy Spirit is ready to bear witness to it, and
• That we must neither add to it nor take from it.

Let us be committed to these things above all!

_____________________________________________________

1. THE HEART’S DESIRE

• There is one consistent and eternal sign of people who walk with God: they are open to inner change.
• There heart condition is a willingness to be transformed into something greater and more glorious!
• Single-mindedness of heart, seeking God’s heart purposes is their greatest and all-consuming desire.
• Friendship with the Lord!
• God’s heart is seeking our hearts. He is wooing us.
• Only an encounter with the Living God will change us. That’s why He seeks us, for He knows that in our own natural flesh we do not truly desire Him. “He first loved us.”
• The prophets are telling us that great change is about to come, upon the earth and in the hearts of all people. But a greater more eternal change is also on the horizon, the
• Restoration of God’s people into Sons of the Most High God (= El Elyon).

2. YIELDING TO GOD

• The time is ripe for us to yield more and more to God. To lay aside any preconceived ideas and traditions that are likely to make us stray.
• Lay aside the false and embrace the real! God wants to show us how He sees us. This will require humbleness of heart and strength of character.
• Sincerity of heart. The word sincere means “without wax”. It refers to a potter who having made a vessel found it has cracks. To deceive his customers he would put wax in the crack and cover the defect. To be sincere means nothing is flawed, nothing covered up, nothing is deceptive. God is looking for such vessels amongst His people.
• This is why God is putting His people through a time of testing. Vessels that are not sincere, vessels that have hidden defects will not be able to carry the anointing that?’s going to be poured out on the earth.
• The Lord is building His House, but it will not have any flaws in it. All the things we’re going through and yet to go through are for one purpose only: to equip us a holy vessels.
• He has provided for us a full measure of grace to be prepared. Some will run from the fire that’s coming, others will run to it. Which one are you?

3. RESTORATION OF OUR HEARTS

• We need to know our destiny, for without that vision before us we will be left directionless. Prov. 29:18
• God has determined a goal for us, and He wants us to keep this within our hearts and remember it. Deut. 6: 20-23.
• There is a truth and promise for us here. Jesus didn’t save us just so we could wander directionless in the wilderness. God is determined to take you somewhere. In order for this to be fully accomplished our hearts need to be restored.
• He has brought us out of the darkness and translated us into His light! Alleluia!
• It is God’s desire for us to enter into His rest; to experience His presence. He is determined that this should happen. But where are the people who desire this with all their heart?
• He has brought us out and He will take us in. Luke 12:32
• This is a tangible experience, and not something just to be enjoyed once we die and go the heaven.
• God is determined for us to rejoice and enter into His pleasure and purpose. Jesus even said that the stones and rocks cannot contain this truth from being proclaimed. Luke 19:40
• There is a choice to be made in this hour. Do we want to be part of His entering in? Do we have the faith? Heb. 3:19

4. A REGENERATE HEART

• Unregenerate hearts are like the stones God used for the Ten Commandments. But the Father’s desire was for these to be written upon hearts of flesh (Jer. 31:33). Unregenerate hearts obey out of duty and compulsion; hearts of flesh serve Him out of love and desire.
• The Spirit of the Lord needs to enter into our hearts and melt them. We need change in the Inner Realm.
• God has been writing on the stony condition of the Church for a long time but now He wants to etch it on soft hearts, willing to receive it and respond to His wooing.
• Much restoration is happening in the Church, but the greatest restoration needs to be in the inner realm of our heart (=spirit-man). Psa. 40:6
• This is a great revelation and truth. God doesn’t want our services, our missionary outreach, our finance, our numbers, our sweat – He wants our hearts!
• Psa 84:5 “How blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion!”
• Are our hearts fixed on God’s purposes? Are we changed so much within the Inner Realms of the heart that God can build His highways there? God’s desire has never changed. He desires to have many sons, who live from the inside out!

The Issachar Ministry

Teaching by
Peter McArthur

_________________________________________________

1. THE FORMATION OF OUR CHARACTER

• Jesus is the exact “representation” (= character) of the Father’s nature according to Hebrews 1:3.
• The meaning of the word is “a tool used to engrave”. So if we’re going to be conformed unto Jesus we need to let God engraven our soul and life so that it will become just like His Son’s.
• God uses the circumstances of life to form us into His shape: He is the potter we are the clay. This begins when we are Born Again and made “holy”. The word “holy” simply means “to be set apart”.
• God takes us and sets us apart to make us into the form or shape He desires.
• This is why the formation of our character is important. We need to cooperate with the Lord in becoming more like Jesus.
• Read what Paul says in 2 Cor. 7:1

2. THE HEART

• In Scripture the heart is linked to our inner-man, our spirit-life. This is why we are told to guard our heart. Prov. 4:23
• Our human character is formed by our upbringing, education, experiences of life, etc. But our Christian character is moulded by the Holy Spirit. Our spiritual union with God brings forth holy (=“separated”) fruit in our lives.
• So it can be said that our Christian character is grown and nurtured within our spirit-man, the heart. Therefore, whatever is in our heart will determine our character. What comes out of our heart will reveal to others what our character is really like!
• We need to control what goes into the heart. Self-discipline, spiritual regulation and guarding our inner life are ways of protecting the development of the inner man.
• There is a need to re-order our life so that:

The spirit is king
The soul is servant
The body is slave

• The formation of the Christian life is a lost art in modern Christianity. The Hebrews, the early Christians and even those at the time of the Reformation, all had a sense of “developing the Inner Life”. John Wesley had such a method of it that his followers were even called “Methodists”. His early assembly of Christian friends called themselves “The Holy Club” (= the separated ones).
• The attitudes needed to bring about this Christian Formation of the inner man can be found in the Beatitudes (Matt 5: 3-8) and in the list of the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22).

3. REVELATION IS NEEDED

• Revelation is needed in order for us to see we need change. Without God showing us our needs we are lost. So many of us try to keep on pleasing Him by reverting to religion and works.
• Once revelation comes and we see the need to be changed and revived our next step is to obey. It is here that so many Christians fail.
• They don’t fail because of insincerity or lack of zeal; they fail because they look to “works” rather than to the person of Jesus.
• When revelation does its convicting work, our part is to look away to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, not to some method, work or religious thing that will bring us into further bondage.
• We will grow in character by learning to look upon Jesus and to behold Him. The better we know Jesus the more our spirit-man will yearn to be like Him. This is an automatic process based on God’s spiritual laws.
• Remember that the work of change going on within us is not our work, it’s God’s work! Our work is to bend and to be pliable to Him.
• The Adamic nature that fights for control over our life has already been put to death on the Cross. The life that is now within us is the Seed that the Father placed there through the New Birth.
• It is our duty, privilege and even joy, to cooperate with our Father as He brings this seed to full maturity in us!

4. BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MIND Eph. 4:22-24

• Throughout the centuries, but particularly in the 20th, Christians have tried to renew their minds using all sorts of spiritual disciplines and methods. Most have failed – because they were based on man’s works to try to improve himself.
• God doesn’t want to improve us, He wants to transform us!
• Therefore the only place we can find such change is before His throne. Certainly, there are things we have to do and habits we have to confront and put away. But the most vital aspect of circumcising the heart and becoming more like Jesus is to spend time with God, sitting in His presence and allowing His quiet but steady work to act upon our hearts.
• This will require a measure of humility Rom. 12:1-3
• Currently the Holy Spirit is calling the Lord’s people to “come in” and sit with the Father. Many ministries are finding they’re being called to put aside unnecessary issues and to be single-minded.
• We will not stand in what is coming unless we have aligned ourselves with the Father and allowed Him to do His work in the inner man of our heart. Our ministry anointing might be wonderful and good, but it alone will not see us through the days that lie ahead.
• The more we guard and nurture the heart the more we will conform to the image of Christ Jesus our pattern.

Teaching by
Peter McArthur

__________________________________________________________________

The Issachar Ministry is a Christian Prophetic Teaching ministry based in Australia.

Founded in 1986 our calling is to assist the Body of Christ to come to maturity of spirit and soul as we await the return of the Lord Jesus (Eph. 4:11-16).

We are concerned with presenting apostolic truth and End Time insight within a prophetic context.

As part of this endeavour we offer a variety of in-depth teaching publications that are available from our online E-Store.

Peter McArthur, the founder of Issachar Ministry, has a heart for the nation of Israel and teaches on the Hebrew roots of our Christian faith.

Currently he is linking in with those concerned to establish the Biblical Five Fold Ministry as a viable and effective foundation for the next move of God .

_______________________________________

.

To receive our free e-Book offer….

simply place Your Name and Email in the form below and click Free Download.

We will email you a link to download one of our eBooks and Study Manuals.

Biblical Numbers e-Book

.