blood moon 1

What is God saying through the blood moon on Passover? Is it a sign of a war involving Israel, or even the end of days?

Headlines bear witness that we are in a tenuous and volatile hour. In the next two postings I want to share a few key insights the Spirit of God highlighted over Passover 2014. Though much of this was shared in and for Sierra Leone, I am including here primarily what pertains to the broader body of Christ. Lets begin with Passover, and the blood moon.

Blood Moon Teachings
Most of the apocalyptic assumptions about the blood moon have been stirred by popular teachings by Pastor John Hagee and Rabbi Mark Biltz. They showed apparent correlations between blood moons and dramatic historical events tied to Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Pretty amazing that a blood moon appeared in 1949, around the time Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948. And that another blood moon appeared in 1967, the year Jerusalem was recovered as the capital of Israel after the Six Day War. And it’s interesting that today, within a week or so of the blood moon at Passover, rival Palestinian factions have united, provoking Israel to call off 20 years worth of peace negotiations.

Things that make you go hmmmm…

April 29: The Sun Will Be Darkened…
I want to bypass all that for the moment, and share what the Scriptures convey. The best-known passage about the blood moon comes from the Book of Joel, chapter 2:

“It will come about after this, that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

“I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls” (Joel 2:28-32).

Sun turned into darkness, moon into blood. Most who read this will use one simple fact to invalidate the idea that these events described in Joel could pertain to today. Though the moon has indeed turned blood red, the sun has not been darkened.

However, the year’s first solar eclipse will actually occur only two weeks after the blood moon, on April 29. In some parts of the world the eclipse will be seen as a “ring of fire,” with the sun burning around the moon’s perimeter. Interestingly April 29 is the very day that the US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinians are set to culminate.

Isn’t that wild? That’s wild. Maybe not conclusive, but still worth pondering.

Joel: Discerning the Times
But again, not my primary point. Instead, I want to draw you to the fact that we have actually entered the only time period in history where the sequence described in the Book of Joel could actually be fulfilled. The key to understanding the timing of events is actually in verse 28, where Joel describes a demarcation in history where “I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy…”

Friends, this passage could not have been fulfilled in previous centuries. Because only in the 20th century has the Holy Spirit actually been poured out on all mankind! Many nations received the Holy Spirit during the “upper room” experience in Acts 2 and beyond, when Holy Spirit was first poured out at Pentecost. However, only after the Pentecostal Outpouring in the early 1900s was every nation actually touched. Whether you’re in Sierra Leone or Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Canada or Brazil, every nation of the earth now has born again believers who are filled with the Spirit of God, praying and prophesying and manifesting the promise given by this ancient revelation by the prophet Joel.

Holy Ghost Outpouring
The magnitude of the Spirit’s work in the nations actually hit me early one morning in Freetown. The air conditioning had just been turned off. Soon after, prayer calls from a nearby mosque freaked me out to the point I was fully awake.

Then from the floor below me I heard a united roar of shouts and melodies that seemed to come in waves over the course of the following hours. The intercessors of Prayer Tabernacle were praying!

These friends might not have consistent electricity or the internet. But they regularly take advantage of the most sophisticated communications system this planet has ever seen—praying in the Spirit. And by the Holy Spirit, intercession was being made according to the will of God (Romans 8). Revelation came, giving clarity and understanding to their prayer focus (1 Cor 14). And as the light of dawn broke, you could actually feel the breakthrough in the spiritual realm.

What’s my point here? Holy Spirit has already been poured out on all mankind—and from remote tribes in Africa to the skyscrapers of New York City, the outpouring increases in scope and magnitude every single day. That said, the prophet Joel makes clear that this move of the Spirit occurs sequentially before the “great and awesome day of the Lord.”

New Move of Deliverance
Joel then goes on to describe how the “sun will turn to darkness, and the moon into blood” after all mankind has been touched by the Holy Spirit’s outpouring—and before the great and awesome day of the Lord.

After and before—this is really the key. After all mankind has been touched by the Spirit’s outpouring, and before the great and awesome day of the Lord, a new phase of His work is going to be instituted in the earth. The timing of this new phase of His work is going to be demarcated by signs in the heavens. The sun is going to grow dark, and the moon is going to turn blood-red.

What happens next? What is this new move? DELIVERANCE. Let my people go! And that, my friends, is the true message of Passover.

So… what do I believe the true message of the blood moon over Passover really is? On a global level, God is releasing the next phase of this new move of His Spirit. Deliverance is going to be a hallmark of this move. And all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, delivered, released from subjugation into freedom!

Miracles of Exodus and Acts
Friends, I believe this so strongly I actually wrote a book about it. Crown and Throne. The core message is how, in this new move, God is delivering individuals and even nations into freedom.

Let me close this posting with a bit of prophetic history shared in Crown and Throne. Prophetic forerunner Bob Jones, who died this Feb. 14, saw this move of the Spirit unto deliverance back in 1983. He prophesied about a day when God will combine the miracles of Exodus with the miracles of Acts, and release an entire generation from the Pharaohs holding them captive.

Interestingly, Bob told apostolic leader Che Ahn privately that he felt this new move of God had actually begun on “Thanksgivukkah,” the convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah this past November. Then on Valentines Day 2014, he went on to be with the Lord.

And this Passover 2014, God demarcated a time in history where His unique work would accelerate in America and among the nations. Where the miracles of Exodus and the miracles of Acts would be combined as God confronted the taskmasters of the age and brought deliverance to His people. From subjugation to freedom… let My people go!

To learn more about God’s new work among the nations, order your copy of Crown and Throne today! Visit www.lamplighterministries.net to order.