Are You in God's Timing for the New Year?

Everyone is time-conscious as we transition between 2013 and 2014. A new year symbolizes the end and start of things. What we did in 2013 is for the record books or the pages of a diary. What we have yet to do, and what we can carry over from 2013, will emerge in 2014.  We will survey the past year, make resolutions, and hope for better.

But what if we’re actually a few months behind in a civil year that’s already started and too early for a biblical new year? The Gregorian calendar isn’t God’s calendar; it’s an adaption of a calendar designed by an Italian doctor and astronomer, Luigi Lilio. The Gregorian calendar was named however, after Pope Gregory XIII. Spain, Portugal and Poland were the first countries to adopt the calendar in 1582.

The civil calendar we use isn’t God’s lunar calendar. On the Jewish calendar, it’s 5774. The civil year began at sundown on Sept. 4, 2013 at Rosh Hashanah. The biblical year begins at sunset on April 14, 2014 on Passover. (Hebrew4Christians.com discusses the Jewish calendar extensively and cites biblical references here and here.)

Many believers who follow Jesus may shrug off the Hebraic calendar because they’re wary of slipping into legalism. But if we follow a civil calendar with Roman roots,  surely there are truths we can learn from God’s calendar with its Hebraic roots? What if God’s calendar aligns us with His transcendent timing, whether we are Jew or Gentile? What if God moves us forward in destiny through His calendar, and restores us when we feel worn-down by the world? What if God uses His calendar to prepare us for times of repentance, rest and celebration? What if there’s much to learn because Jesus followed the appointed times?

Dr. Robert D. Heidler writes wonderfully on this subject in his book, The Messianic Church Arising!: Restoring the Church to Our Covenant Roots. This book is a must-have for every Christian’s library. Dr. Heidler writes of God’s timetable:

As I began to study the feasts, I discovered that the biblical feasts were part of a cycle of life that actually made up a biblical calendar. They were not holidays or Jewish rituals. God called them His “appointed times.” In a very real sense, these feasts are “appointments” with God: times set by God to meet with His people.

This New Year’s is a perfect opportunity to ask God for revelation about His appointed times. He may want us to draw more from 2013 than remembering the year’s top stories and watching the ball drop in Times Square. He also may have more in store for us in 2014 than we expect – if we step into His heavenly timing.