Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and may Yahweh bless this gathering to hear the words of the nevi'im (prophets)! Today I have some important devarim (words) from Him that will have a far reaching effect if they are taken heed of.

First of all, I have to day that today is not Aviv 1 or the biblical New Year! Virtually all Jewish and Messianic groups are declaring that either today or tomorrow (depending on whether they follow the Babylonian first crescent system of not) is the beginning of the first month of the new year and that Pesach (Passover) is but two weeks away. Though I loathe such disharmony I have to state categorically in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name that the great calendar controversy is about to come to a head, for today is not Aviv 1 or the true Hebrew New Year but the first day of an extra Thirteenth Month, and what an important month it is!

There are going to be real consequences for those who do not adhere to the biblical Creation Calendar this year, one of which is that all the festivals they observe for the coming year are going to be at least one month too early, and in the case of one of them (Shavu'ot) as much as 2½ months too early. So that you can get an idea of just how big the differences are, we have created a table for the current year (2013) showing the true luni-solar Creation Calendar (yellow), the Talmudic calendar followed by Jews and Messianics alike - though they do differ here and there by a day or two in some things (pink) - and the latest Enochian calendar (green) that descended upon the Messianic scene to create yet more confusion and division:

I know that I will be accused to creating distress and confusion for saying these things but it is not my business to make people happy by following the mainstream when it it is clearly wrong. We have all lived in error and are, I hope, earnestly repenting. We live in a very dangerous time with Christians and Messianics making all kinds of false end-time prophecies based on false prophetic markers based on lies the enemy has sown concerning the Nation of Israel and the Sacred Calendar. As far as time-keeping is concerned, there are by one estimate ten calendar errors of Christians and Messianics which believers need to be aware of. Until we understand who, what and where modern Israel is, and what Yahweh's time-keeping method is, we will be led astray again and again. These are the ten calendar errors of Christians and Messianics:

• 1. The calendar is calculated using only the sun (solar calendar);
• 2. Months contain only 30 or 31 days (with one containing 27 or 28);
• 3. There are 365 days in a year;
• 4. Days begin and end at either midnight or sunset;
• 5. Months begin at the sighting of the first crescent moon;
• 6. The moon is 'sick' and has nothing to do with the calendar;
• 7. There is no such thing as a 13th month;
• 8. New Year starts 16 March because Jerusalem has 12 hours of daylight;
• 9. Psalm 104:19 says the sun fixes holy days when it says the moon does;
• 10. What Enoch & Jubilees say takes precedence over the Bible

If you are not following Yahweh's method of reckoning time you are, I repeat, going to be a month early this year. Today represents the first day of the extra intercalated thirteenth month about which a great debate is raging currently in some sections of the Messianic movement. Indeed my article on the Thirteenth Month has come under ferocious attack by those defending the recently proclaimed 'Enochian Calendar' which maintains there are only ever 12 months. Today is a very real month and is named for Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, who was abused by Shechem just as the 13th month is abused today by those who follow an exclusively 12 month system. But even those following the Jewish calendar are going to miss this year's 13th month. I'll explain why this 13th month is so important symbolically presently.

I know there are those who think the whole calendar business is a distraction from more important things but when it comes to discovering Yahweh's will in time and space it is very important indeed. For many it could be a matter of life a death. And besides, who wants to believe and practice a lie and give the enemy legal grounds to harrass spiritually and physically?

Those of you who know me know that I do not mince words or care about being popular, and the reason I am being very emphastic today about this is in part due to a vision Yahweh gave me a couple of days ago while I was waking up from an afternoon nap. I saw what appeared to be a stillborn child lying on a flat surface in a pool of amniotic fluid. It was not moving and I could see no umbillical cord or a placenta. At first the vision puzzled me but as I later began reading articles by various people proclaiming this or that prophetic marker being fulfilled - the latest thing people are all getting excited about is the current locust plague in Egypt - I realised that the foetus had been born too early and that this premature birthing had perhaps killed it. Kingdom events must be birthed on the basis of Yahweh's Calendar, not man's! More than ever before Torah-obedient talmidim (disciples) have got to repent and embrace the true Creation Calendar!

Brethren and sisters, the vision that Yahweh showed me is to warn people not to get on the psychic bandwaggon or false prophecying that is going on today based on solely interpreting external events that seem to be fulfilling biblical prophecy when they are not. Why is it that believers have such a hard time accepting that Satan is going to great trouble to mimic prophesied biblical events if it is not to lead believers into a fasle spirit and into various captivities that he has planned? Just because there is a locust swarm in Morsi's Egypt (which began in Saudi Arabia and has been moving up the east side of the Red Sea and down the west coast) and just because it is Passover in the coming weeks (whether you believe it is two or six does not matter as far as this is concerned) does not mean that there is any prophetic connection between the two. Plagues of locusts are common in this part of the world. But the real issue is whether you are properly listening to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) or just jumping to conclusions based on various events which seem to be vaguely connected. Satan is more than able to engineer such things to deceive the careless!

I hate to see people carried away by false prophesies because it always leads to disappointment and a loss of emunah (faith). People are impatient, for various reasons, to see biblical prophecy fulfilled. I know, I have been one of those people in the past myself. It is most important that we do not race ahead of ourselves not go following charismatics leaders who claim that 'God', 'the Lord', 'Yahweh' or 'Adonai' has been telling them this or that. It is the responsibility of the head of each household to get revelation for his family and I for one expect every patriarch to carefully test my claims by searching all matters out diligently and getting an independent witness. If they do not, they should seek their own independent counsel from Yahweh.

Every one of us has to honestly and intently seek out emet (truth) to be in step with Yahweh. It is a mistake to think that the moedim, or our divine appointments with Yahweh each week, month and year, are hollow or pointless, for He absolutely honours those who truly seek to honour Him in obedience. Why else would Satan go to all the trouble of corrupting them if they weren't important?

"[Satan] will speak against the Most High (Yahweh) and oppress his saints (believers) and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints (believers) will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time" (Dan.7:25, NIV).

Since moedim dates are often prophetic times or markers, knowing the right times and seasons will also help us to better interpret the times and events happening all around us. What could be more important than gathering at the right time to renew our individual baptismal covenants at Yom haBikkurim, our collective national betrothal covenant at Shavu'ot, or the firstborn their collective bridal covenant at Sukkot? They indicate how serious we are about where we want to be in the next life and our willingness to be true and faithful in this one.

There are, for example, a great many who are wrongly claiming that we can only know when Aviv or the New Year starts, from which we mark off all the sabbaths and festivals, based on the ripeness of the barley in the land of Israel. People often forget that when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness all they had to mark the times and seasons with were the sun, moon and stars - there were no plants or barley crops - wild or cultivated - out there growing in the occasional and very rare oasis for the 40 or so New Year calculations that were required each year. Yet they were still keeping all the festivals. So we know for a fact that for an entire generation the calculation of the New Year and Passover was not made based on barley. Only the heavenly markers were available to them. We are not therefore dependent on someone in the Holy Land telling us when the first barley ripens.

But is the search for ripe 'Aviv Barley' even valid? Where did this idea come from? Nehemia Gordon, a leader in the Karaite Jewish Movement whom many Messianics seem to religiously follow, published a video yesterday proudly proclaiming that "a mother-load of Aviv barley" had been found in Israel and that this proved we are in the first month of the new year. Well, no, we're not. Why do so many Messianics trust this man, and even hold fellowship with him, when he is anti-Messiah? Just because he suposedly rejects all the modern Talmudic traditions of the ancient Pharisee sect and adheres only to the Tanakh (Old Testament) doesn't automatically make him an authority. If he can't identify Yah'shua (Jesus) as the Messiah how can he possibly possess the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to interpret those Scriptures which prophesy of Him? Some Messianics have abandoned Yah'shua (Jesus) to fellowship fully with Mr.Gordon!

We need to look at this barley question and see what it is not a factor in determining when the New Year starts. There is only one passage that speaks of gathering barley grain during the spring festivals:

"'These are Yahweh's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: Yahweh's Passover [meal is in the evening] on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month Yahweh's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present an offering made to Yahweh by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.' Yahweh said to Moses, 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the cohen (priest) a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before Yahweh so it will be accepted on your behalf; the cohen (priest) is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath''" (Lev.23:4-11, NIV).

"'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to Yahweh'" (Lev.23:15-16, NIV).

There is no mention here or anywhere else that barley is to determine the start of the new year. Even if the Old Covenant were still valid in its every detail it would still not be valid because there is no temple standing in Jerusalem and there are no Levitical cohenim (priests) to present the sheaves to. In any case, the ceremony has been fulfilled in Yah'shua (Jesus) to whom it pointed in the first place:

"But Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the bikkurim (firstfruits) of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor.15:20, NIV).

Yah'shua (Jesus) is the bikkurim or firstfruits of the resurrection because He is the first sheaf wave offering. This ceremony has therefore been fulfilled and is no longer valid in the B'rit Chadashah (New Covenant). In other words, there is no barley sheaf ceremony any more for anything. Neither is there any temple because we believers are that Temple (1 Cor.3:16). Neither are there any Levitical Cohenim (Priests) because we are today under the Royal Melchizedek Priesthood (Heb.7). As one writer bluntly puts it:

"If you are not in the land [of Israel], or even if you are in the land, you don't have to worry about whether the barley is green, purple, yellow, or polka-dotted". [1]

Besides, Gordon's Karaites are not representative of all Karaites. There are in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe other Karaites who do not use the barley to determine the new year at all but follow the vernal equinox. In fact, there are many opinions amongst Karaites:

"Some of them (Karaites) begin the '(month of the) fresh ears' (with the appearance) of (any kind of) green herbage, whereas others do not begin it until (fresh) garden-cress is found all over Yisrael; others begin it only when (at least) one piece of ground becomes ready for harvest; still others begin it even when only a handful of corn is ready for harvest." [2]

One of the great errors of the Talmudic Jewish calendar is that it leaves the critical festival of Shavu'ot (Weeks, Pentecost), which we describe as the 'hinge' festival, floating because of all its man-made postponement rules. It's actually a fixed festival on the 29th day of the 4th month which is a sabbath. Worse, it perpetuates the winter wheat error so that Jews, Messianics and others observe this summer feast far too early in the spring. Since this is the Betrothal Festival of Messianic Israel in which she agrees the terms of the Marriage Contract or Ketubah, Torah-obedience, it's pretty important she assembles at the right time, don't you think?

Picture, if you will, the bride turning up alone for the betrothal ceremony a month or two early and failing to turn up at the actual ceremony a month or two later! What prophetic picture does this give us? One of a careless, impatient or disobedient bride who in consequence of her negligence will miss the remaining three appointments too [3]. Indeed, this is a picture of those who are not the Bride of Messiah, who are not the elect, who are not the Assembly of the Firstborn. Since she has not turned up to take her Torah covenants, she is lawless and still single - saved, yes - perhaps - but not of the fullness. So getting the moedim times right is actually a rather important sign and type of the faithful Bride.

That this is a divine tavnith (pattern) is confirmed by the numeric symbolism of the months at which we are commanded to assemble. In the Bible even numbers are 'female' (passive and receiving, representing the XX chromosomes) whereas uneven numbers are 'male' (active and penetrating, representing the XY chromosomes). Thus the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, etc. are 'male' and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc. are 'female'. If we tabulate the seven annual festivals according to month number, we will see (if we use the correct Creation Calendar configuration) that six of the annual festivals are 'male' (falling on the 1st or 7th months) and only one is 'female' (falling on the 4th month - the 3rd month is you use the Talmudic calendar), namely, Shavu'ot:

Yahweh's choice of the 1-4-7 tavnith (pattern) is not accidental in the least but profound. '1' is the symbol of unity, primacy and beginning; '4' is the symbol for Elohim (God), '3' + 1, the number of beginning, and is the symbol of creation; and '7' is the number of completion and of spiritual perfection. Thus the months on which the festivals were ordained by Yahweh to take place represent the beginning of discipleship (accepting Messiah in the spring festivals), the new beginning in Yahweh as a covenanted, betrothed Israelite bride (the summer festival of Shavu'ot), and the final consummation (the autumns/fall festivals), confirming once more the emet (truth) of the original spiritual tavnith (pattern) of the festivals. Notice the harmony and balance of the numbers 1-4-7 with 4 occupying exactly mid-place.

The Talmudic 1-3-7 sequence disrupts this entirely because it places Shavu'ot in the third month. It's also unbalanced and skew. The number '3' symbolises divine perfection, namely, Yahweh-Elohim Himself! In other words, when it is used to represent the prospective Bride of Messiah, she is operating in false, presumptuous male position (3 being an uneven number) as well as making herself out to be Elohim (God), the original temptation of Eve!

So why is the true Shavu'ot represented by a female' or 'passive' number, 4? Because Shavu'ot represents the offering or surrendering by Israel of the secondfruits of the wheat harvest (the firstfruits being the barley harvest at Yom haBikkurim) which she is presenting back to Yahweh representing her increase through faithfulness. At Shavu'ot Israel enters her betrothal covenants, young men and women entering Bar- or Bat-Mitzvah as sons and daughters of the New Covenant in Messiah by surrendering themselves to the Rule of their Messiah-Husband by agreeing to be obedient to all the mitzvot (commandments) in His Father's Torah. Whereas the spring festivals represent the surrendering of each individual believer to Messiah as represented by individual baptism, the summer festival represents the first collective surrender, interdependence and mutual accountability of the Uniplural Bride.

If we are to renew our covenants at these pilgrim feasts (Pesach, Shavu'ot and Sukkot) then we obviously need to be absolutely sure we know when they are. We've got to be sure we're doing so at the right time because this isn't just about us as individuals but as one corporate person and that corporate person can't go meeting at different times! This means that when there is an extra 13th month, we need to absolutely know about it! And in this critical year as the world hovers on the edge of total financial collapse, ecological disaster, dictatorship and possible world war, it looks as though only the Creation Calendar is aware that there is a 13th month at all this year. All the rest are ignoring it.

In my article, The 13 Bulls: Mystery of the Tabernacles Sacrifices I explain that the number 13 is a number of echad or oneness, and specifically that which binds or bonds together. It represents the bonding of many (12) into one - it ties them all together. But it is also the numerical value of the words ahavah (love) and echad (oneness). The number 13 therefore represents the oneness or echad that is brought about by divine love or ahavah when those who are obedient to all emet (truth) come together by divinely mandated and authorised covenant.

There aren't going to be many observing a 13th month this year but many will come to realise as it, and the year, progresses that something is not right with their calendar systems and the many prophecies being issued which do not come to fulfilment. Whereas the number 13 may be regarded as an ill omen to the superstitious locked in various untruths about the world, for us who understand what the 13th month represents it is exceedingly good news. Like Aviv 1 or New Year's Day which is in the first month, so the 13th month is after 'male' or directive principle. There are battles to be fought this month before Yahweh's New Year begins and the new spiritual 'exodus' begins in earnest.

About 6 weeks ago on 22 January 2013 Yahweh showed me a vision pertaining to the work of which this ministry is preparatory which I have not yet shared. We have waited a very long time for it, some 20 years, resisting the temptation to run ahead and organise ourselves again beyond the teaching and deliverance ministry we currently are and have been. We have had a long and hard bridge to cross with numerous obstacles and enemies bent on our destruction to defeat over the last few years. One day soon we hope to be able to tell you this story.

In the vision I was walking on a simple, narrow, wooden bridge in good condition, perhaps no wider than about 10 feet, the wooden planks making its floor laid across it from side to side. It had a secure wooden railing on either side. I could not tell what the bridge was spanning, whether it was a body of water, a gorge or something like that, because there were no landscape features of any kind. I do not know how long it was because I could not see behind me though I assume it was long. Ahead was 'the other side' and a well built, flat and straight regular road that met the bridge at its end. The distance between me and the road was short, not more than 15-20 feet. Midway between me and the road and fixed to the wooded railing, and leaning inwards toward the centre of the bridge, were two national flags opposite each other (which I choose not to identify publically for the moment) angled at about 45° to the vertical, one consisting only of blue and white colours and the other of blue, white and red. They were close to touching as they hung facing each other though it was possible to walk between them without being touched by either.

And that, brethren and sisters, I thought was the sum of my message to you today but there is more about this 13th month. Yesterday, you will recall, I talked to you about the "stripping" and "emptying" that are a part of truly surrendering to Messiah [4]. This morning I had some intense, powerful dreams that left me in a state of shock...and I am still in shock. This 13th month is the month of stripping and of emptying - it is to be a month of shaking as people begin to see the emet (truth) about themselves and the world. Not only are other people what we think they are in our eyes but we ourselves are not what we think we are in our own eyes!

In many ways we are all Leah's daugher, Dinah (Gen.30:21), and I believe she is a prophetic type of the risk we take when we choose to make company with the world. Being an only sister amongst twelve brothers must have been tough enough and it is possible to imagine how she sought company her own age, a problem believers have in a world where there are fewer and fewer of our kind. It starts innocently enough but the outcome is tragic:

"Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her" (Gen.34:1-2, NIV).

Jacob and his family have set up camp in the vicinity of the pagan Canaanite city of Shechem that would one day become the capital of the Ephraimite territory and the whole of the northern territory of Israel. Though the pagan prince Shechem is anxious to marry Dinah after his rape, his crime provokes her brothers, notably Simeon and Levi, to take most treacherous and cruel revenge. Pretending to agree to the proposed marriage upon due settlement of the dowry, they insist upon the Shechemites being circumcised as a prerequisite condition; but on the third day after the operation, when the people "were still in pain" (Gen.24:35), Simeon and Levi fall upon the defenseless city, killing Hamor and Shechem and despoiling the place. Jacob can not approve of their conduct, fearing it may bring evil results by causing the inhabitants of the land to act in concert against him. In Jacob's Blessing (Gen.49:7) the dying patriarch censures the deed of the brothers as cruel, inspired as it had been by fierce and unrighteous anger. Thereafter we do not hear of Dinah again.

I cite this story as a warning of the possible fatal consequences when believers naïvely think they can expect the same treatment in the world as they received in protected environment of their own families. The world is not a kind place. Jacob's family would be changed forever by this incident, one of the many traumas that we meet in mortality. Dinah was not a bad girl, not remotely, but she (and perhaps the rest of the family too for not watching out for her) was careless. As believers we have to ever be on the alert, the men taking extra care to guard and protect the women. And as I said, we, as the prospective Bride of Messiah, can all be like Dinah - naïve and careless. For Dinah it only took one innocent stroll away from the covering of her father and the protection of her brothers to meet some of the local girls to then be rendered vulnerable to a predator. For us, it can be any number of things - the desire for fellowship can lead us into serious mistakes that can lead to unspeakable pain and even death.

Though the Scriptures do not speak directly of the 13th month except by inference in the Book of Ezekiel [5] and though this extra month is never named, its connection to Dinah becomes apparent as you look at the overall tavnith (pattern) that Yahweh has ordered - see Harmony of Divine Time: More Light from the Creation Calendar where the patterning of the calendar is shown to be reflected directly in the family arrangements of Jacob. When there is more time, I will look deeper into this matter and share it with you.

This will indeed prove to be an interesting month but you will miss its importance and possibly fail to respond to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)'s leadings if you are mentally trying to make this the first month of the year and are occupied with the spring festivals ahead of time. There is much for you to think about and much for all of us to do in this thirteenth month of stripping and emptying of self and sin before Yahweh. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Moshe Koniuchowsky, Is The “Aviv Barley” A Determining Factor Today?
[2] Moshe Koniuchowsky, op.cit., citing Nemoy
[3] Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and Sukkot (Tabernacles)
[4] The Exalted Messiah: Incarnation, Attitudes and Rights
[5] The 13th Month: More Proof of the Creation Calendar