Articles – Revivalfire Ministries

In a Stable

@_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:14:47 +0000

Was Jesus born during the Feast of Tabernacles?

I think I know why Jesus was born in a stable and not in a house. This is one of the coolest things I’ve come across in a long time and I wanted to share it with my friends.

Let me start with John the Baptist. Zechariah, his father, was of the course of Abia. Now, if you can figure out when the course of Abia ministered in the Temple, you can do the math to figure out when Jesus was born.

The answer is found in 1 Chronicles 24 where David doles out the ministrations of the Temple to the chief rulers of the sons of Aaron. There were 24 of them. Each one was responsible to minister for two different weeks during the year, and all of them had to show up for the three Feasts of the Lord: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, for which all the males of the tribes of Israel were to show up in Jerusalem. The ministrations were given by lot, and Abia (or Abijah) was given the 8th one.

Now considering that the Jewish calendar was a lunar calendar, there were four weeks to a month (28 days), each starting on the New Moon. The first month Abib (or Nissan) started the year sometime in March or April. Since the Lunar Calendar runs differently than our Solar Calendar, dates will shift back and forth.

Abia had the 8th ministration, but you also have to figure in the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the first month and Pentecost in the third, so the course of Abia was on the 10th week, which was during the second week of the third month. Zechariah is visited by the angel Gabriel during his ministration in that second week and is told that his wife will conceive. Zechariah finishes his ministration on the 14th day and goes home. Assuming that old Zech was glad to get home and see his wife, John was probably conceived on or around the 15th day of the third month.

Pregnancy is 40 weeks long, or 10 lunar months. That means that John would have been born during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is interesting to note that the Jews to this day traditionally set out a goblet of wine for Elijah as an invited guest during this Feast. John had the spirit of Elijah, so you might say that John showed up right on time.

According to Luke, Jesus was conceived 6 months after John. So if John was conceived during the 3rd month, Jesus had to be conceived during the 9th month, which right about the time of the Festival of Lights, Hanukah. Since Jesus was the Light of the World, I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to imagine that this was part of the Plan also.

I might also add that the Hebrew word for “feast” actually means “appointed time”. God is well able to perfectly engineer His astounding appointments.
Okay, now it starts getting really cool. If Jesus was conceived in the middle of the 9th month (remember, the cycle all starts when Zechariah went home to his wife on the 15th day), that places His birth at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles is a feast of 8 days, the last day being the “great day of the feast”, which the Jews call Semini Atzeret. If He was born on the first day of the Feast, then he had to be circumcised on the eighth day, or the great day of the Feast.

No wonder there was no room at the inn! Every Tom, Dick, and Harry (or Ira, David, and Jacob) was crowding out every available place for miles around Jerusalem because they were required to attend the Feast. (Bethlehem is very close to Jerusalem.) I thought everybody was there because of Augustus’ taxing, but God isn’t controlled by a heathen emperor but by His own holy appointments. That makes a lot more sense to me. Bethlehem was a small village and the great bulk of Israelites could not have been born there, so why was the place so crowded that there was no room at the inn? Because it was the time of the great Festival! What better time to tax them than when they all showed up in one place?

Isaiah said He would be called Immanuel, or “God with us”. The word “tabernacle” means dwelling, or in other words, God would “tabernacle” or dwell with us. What better way to fulfill that than to send His Son, Immanuel, as a Savior right at the beginning of this Feast of Tabernacles and confirm it by His circumcision on the great day of that same feast!

Hang on, this gets even cooler!

The Feast of Tabernacles is also called Sukkoth because it commemorated the trek in the Wilderness and the Jews were supposed to spend that time dwelling in temporary booths. Where was Jesus born? In a stable! A temporary dwelling of sorts, not in a house!

Wow. Is that cool?

This may not be some earthshaking revelation that will change your life or anything, but it is one more brick cemented into the wall of our faith that God is not only really there, but He is the Great Architect of the Universe. He is not only able, but is active in His dealings with men. He is All-Powerful, omnipotent and omniscient.

How small is our faith that we do not take Him at His Word for the great and precious promises that He has given us, and to fully believe Him when He says that He not only hears our prayers, but will answer them!

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3)

Brother Dale, dale@revivalfire.org

Daniel’s 69 Weeks

@_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:12:55 +0000

I’m tired of hearing the rantings of ignorant skeptics that the Bible is just a book written by men. I thought I’d pass along a fulfilled prophecy that has not only given an enormous boost to my faith in the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, but that also silences those who would try to dismiss it as the actual Word of God. It may also make for some live ammunition for you when dealing with your skeptical friends.

This prophecy was written around 500 years before the exact day that it was fulfilled, and establishes the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the perfection and authority of the Word of God.

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. “

(Daniel 9:24-27)

The Hebrew word translated as “weeks” in the Scripture quoted above is “sabua” and means “sevens” and is used to mean seven years, as when Jacob served his weeks for his wives. In other words, the “seventy sevens” that are prophetically determined for Israel and the holy city is 490 years.

This period is divided into three sections. The first is seven “weeks” is the 49 years the prophet allotted for the rebuilding of Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. History tells us it took 49 years to do this rebuilding. The second period of 62 “weeks,” or 434 years brings us to the time to the MESSIAH. The third period, the 70th “week,” is a period of seven years some time after the coming of the Messiah.

We now are especially interested in the period “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” to “Messiah the Prince,” which is a total of 483 years.

Starting Date

The crucial question relates to when the decree was issued “to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” There are three possible dates:

538 B.C. — Cyrus, King of Persia, issued a decree to Zerubbabel to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-3; and Ezra 6:1-5).
457 B.C. — Artaxerxes, King of Persia, issued a decree to Ezra authorizing him to reinstitute the Temple services, appoint judges and magistrates, and teach the Law (Ezra 7:11-26).
445 B.C. — Artaxerxes issued a decree to Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-8).

On the surface, the third decree, the one issued to Nehemiah, seems to be the most obvious candidate for the starting date of the prophecy, for it is the only one that specifically relates to the rebuilding of the city. (“… from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.”)

Ezra’s was to build the temple as stated in Ezra 9:9, “God has not forsaken us, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem”

When was the End Date? The argument for 30 A.D.

The other crucial question is what year to use for the coming of the Messiah. That date would coincide with Nisan 10 when the Passover Lamb would be presented to Israel. The crucifixion and Passover was on Nissan 14

Four Arguments for the Crucifixion to be on the year 30 A.D.

In order for Jesus to be in the grave for 3 days and nights and rise on Sunday morning, He had to be killed on Thursday. The only year that Passover falls on Thursday is A.D. 30
Luke records that John the Baptist began his ministry “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea” (Luke 3: 1).
Tiberius began his full reign upon the death of Augustus in 14 A.D., and Pilate ruled Judea from 26 to 36 A.D. If Luke’s fifteen years are to be counted from 14 A.D., then including the starting year, correctly identify John would begin his ministry and subsequently that of Jesus on 28 A.D. If you count that year as a starting place, 3 yrs brings us to 30 A.D.
John relates that the Jews in rebuttal to Jesus’ statement, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” said, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will thou rear it up in three days?” (John 2:19-20). The Temple work was started by Herod the Great 19 B.C. Counting forty-six years from 19 B.C. brings us to 27 A.D. So Jesus was in Jerusalem for the observance of the first Passover of His ministry (27 A.D.) when this discussion took place (Jn. 2:13). It is thought that John records three other Passovers observed by Jesus during His ministry (Jn. 5:1; 6:4; 12: 1). If so, Jesus’ death came in 30 A.D. three years after His first Passover observance.
Any calculations designed to establish the date of His death must take into account that Jesus came to Bethany six days before Passover (Jn. 12: 1).
In the year Jesus was crucified, Jesus would have to have come to Bethany on Friday otherwise Jesus and many other Jews would have violated at least the traditional Sabbath observance by making such a long journey on Saturday. In order for that to fall correctly, Passover had to be on Thursday. Any date sooner or later would not fit.

The Calculation

The ending date of Daniel’s prophesy is Nisan 10, the Presentation of the Passover Lamb. This is the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem proclaimed as the Messiah and presented as the Lamb. This is Palm Sunday, 4 days before Passover. That date is April 2, 30 A.D.
The beginning date is March 14, 445 B.C.
We have to show that there are exactly 69 “heptads” between those two dates.

Lunar months or Solar years?

The prophetic month in Scripture is considered to be 360 days, 30 days per month. Called a Lunar Calendar

Reference: According to Genesis 7:11-13, Noah’s flood started 2^nd month, 17^th day and ended on the 17^th day of the 7^th month, 5 months later. Genesis 8:3, 4 identifies that 5 months as 150 days total. 150 days/5 months = 30 days per month

The prophesy calls for 7 weeks plus 62 weeks until Messiah the Prince would come = 69 “weeks”.

69 “weeks” x 7 = 483 years

—————————————————————–

March 14, 445 B.C. to April 2, 30 A.D. = 476 years

1.	476 x 365 days =	173,740 days
2.	add Leap Years (include first and last years)	120 days
3.	add from 3/14 to 4/2	20 days
		—————–
4.	Total days	173,880 days
5.	Convert to Lunar divide by	/ 360
		————-
	Result	483 years

The Final Week

The prophecy concludes by focusing on the last week of years. It says that following the death of the Messiah and the destruction of Jerusalem, “the prince who is to come” will make a covenant with the Jewish people that will enable them to reinstitute their sacrificial system. This prince will come from the same people who destroyed the Temple (the Romans).

We know from 2 Thessalonians 2 that this ”prince who is to come” is the Antichrist, the “man of lawlessness” who is “the son of destruction.” The same passage makes it clear that his covenant will enable the Jews to rebuild their Temple.

Both passages — Daniel 9 and 2 Thessalonians 2 — establish the fact that in the middle of this 70th week (3½ years into it) this “prince who is to come” will double cross the Jewish people. He will march into the rebuilt Temple and declare himself to be God. He will stop the sacrifices and he will erect “an abomination of desolation,” whatever that may be.

The book of Revelation specifies that the Messiah will return to earth 3½ years after this desolation of the Temple takes place.

Now we have the timing of the two advents of the Messiah. He will come the first time at the end of 483 years and will be “cut off” before the Temple is destroyed. He will return the second time at the end of a seven year period that will begin with a treaty that allows the Jews to rebuild their Temple and reinstitute the Mosaic system of sacrifices.

References:

http://endtimepilgrim.org/70wks11.htm

http://historicchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/05/chronology-of-easter-week-32-ad.html

Christmas Gifts

@_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:10:29 +0000

Ah, it’s Christmas again! There’s no snowflakes or frosty air down here in Texas, so that old-fashioned Christmas feeling is not quite the same as it was as a kid in New England, but then Christmas isn’t about snow or Santa and Christmas trees either. We may have over-commercialized Christmas so that it doesn’t have that same old feeling it used to, but it’s still Christmas.

I have always believed that God honors this time with that certain feeling in the air that is different from the rest of the year. True, Jesus was not born in December. I believe the Bible points to the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles as the day he was born, and the Festival of Lights or Hanauka for when he was conceived (see http://www.revivalfire.org/articles/ ), but I’m not so sure that celebrating the exact day is all that important to God. If it was, wouldn’t He have told us?

Christmas red background with fir branches and balls. Vector illustration.

Neither am I worried about Christmas trees being a form of idolatry. Or Santa and the elves, or tinsel, or Grandma’s fruitcake from last year. This is Christmas. Do we have to make an intense, super-spiritual controversy over it? Can we just enjoy it for what it is and celebrate the birth and advent of our Savior?

Since we’re talking about getting in the Christmas spirit of things, how about giving and receiving gifts? I have some gift requests from God that I would like for Christmas. He may not be able to fit them under the tree, and He may have trouble trying to gift wrap them, but here is my list:

Lord, I would like wisdom, understanding, and knowledge – the knowledge of Your Word so that I can believe the right things and know the truths that are buried in it, the understanding to be able to know how that knowledge fits into everything, and the wisdom to know how to use it to win souls.

Of course, that comes from reading the Bible every day, so Lord, along with that, I need an intense hunger to read the Bible like a starving man eating the Bread of Life. And while you’re at it, could you also make me so thirsty for intense, prevailing prayer that I can’t breathe without it?

That’s just my Christmas stocking-stuffers. I have some other requests for the big presents under the tree. Let me start with the Anointing. I need that Presence on me so that it is dripping off me wherever I go. I want to be immersed in it, saturated, swimming in it. So much so that when I pray with or over anyone, they will feel the tingling of your touch when I pray. I want them to know you are not only real, but that they can have a real and immediate access to you on a deeply personal level.

And for my next present (can I have another one, Lord?), I want power. I mean real, Holy Ghost power – unprecedented power – power to raise the dead and heal the sick on whomsoever I lay hands on. But most of all, I want the power to preach your Word under the anointing of the Holy Ghost so that it will pierce hearts, set them on fire, and inspire a generation to rise up and shine a Light in this world.

I also want authority to cast out devils with one word. I don’t want to argue with them. When I say, “Get out!”, I want them to get out! Authority like that only comes from the fear of the Lord, so please heap that on me also. Since the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and James says that if we ask for wisdom, You’ll give it liberally, then pour it out on me also, Lord!

(Do we have room for one more? This is the most important one, Lord, so we have to make room for this one.)

In return, I don’t have much to offer. All I can give is myself, weak and faulty as I am. I give you my pride and desire for recognition, my gluttony and lusts, my fears and darkness, my suspicions, accusations, and hatreds – all the ugly stuff that I can dredge up from the dark recesses of my heart. Lord I give you what I am and all that I have. I will do whatsoever you ask and go wherever you send me – I just have one final request:

Dear God, please, in the name of Jesus and everything that is holy and good, please, please, please … send revival.

The Christmas Nail

@_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:06:26 +0000

“But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned everyone to his own way;
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:5, 6

I have an old iron spike that is my most precious Christmas tree ornament. Nothing fancy. Just an old metal spike with a bright red satin ribbon tied to it so I can hang it on my tree. It’s not polished and it doesn’t shine; just an old pitted, dull gun-metal grey spike about 10” long, but it is hung with the utmost care.

Every year I hang this Christmas Nail on a sturdy branch near the trunk, a branch that will hold such a spike without being noticed by well-wishers who drop by to admire our gaily decorated tree. There is none of the glitz of the other ornaments, tinsel, or swirl of lights, none of the prominence of the angel that sits atop the tree, and none of the excitement of the wrapped presents below.

The nail is known only to me and my family, and understood only by the heart that knows it true significance.

I never want to forget what Jesus did for us. I never want to be so caught up in the spirit of Christmas celebration and gaiety that I become overwhelmed with the good cheer, the presents, and even that spirit of love for one another that we all feel in the air during this time, and forget the price that was paid for Christmas.

Over the years, I have written my traditional column about why I believe in Christmas — not the specifics of the date as much as the witness of God’s presence during this holiday season. No other time during the year can we taste a feeling of the unfathomable love of God for mankind like we do at Christmastime. There’s something special about this time that cannot be explained any other way than by the presence of the Holy Spirit to give mankind hope that God gave His only Son that we could have life. It’s as if God gives us a taste of His goodness.

But I never want to forget the price that was paid for Christmas.

The Christmas tree is but a picture of the Christ-tree which only He could decorate for us, ornamented with nails like this.

Poor Rhoda

@_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:02:58 +0000

“And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate.” Acts 12:13,14

Poor Rhoda. I wonder if she will ever live it down that she left Peter standing at the door knocking. Did you ever think about that? Assuming that she kept the faith, when you make it to heaven and meet her, will it be on the tip of your tongue, “Oh, you’re the girl that forgot to let Peter in!” The others that were there were just as bad. They didn’t believe it either. What on earth were they praying about all night, if they were in disbelief that their prayers were answered?

Isn’t that very much like us? We pray, because we are supposed to, and tell ourselves that we believe that God hears our prayers. “Sometimes He answers them, and sometimes He doesn’t. Oh well. On to the next request.” Is that Faith?

Faith cannot be turned on like a light switch. We can’t convince ourselves to believe just because we’re supposed to. Faith has to be enabled – or a better word would be “empowered”. It is true that faith comes by hearing, but our ears must be opened and turned to the Truth in order to hear. If we turn our ears from the Truth to listen only to what we want to hear, then we harden our hearts to the real Truth of God’s Word. Faith will find no fertile ground to grow in a heart that has been hardened to Holy Ghost conviction.

It takes power in God to receive the faith to move mountains. There’s a price to pay for the kind of power that brings us into a deep walk in the Spirit. It isn’t cheap. But then, neither was the price that Jesus paid to open the door to us so we could enter into that kind of a walk with God. You have rights to the Throne of God because you have kept His Word and have gained power in Him through the Blood of Jesus Christ and your faithfulness.

Walk in His Word. Seek the face of God. Separate yourself from the things of this world. When He becomes the passion of your life, your heart, and your soul, then you will enter into that place in God where your faith is empowered to ‘ask what you will’ and know He will answer. That’s when you’ve got the holy boldness, like Elijah, to storm the Throne of God to stop up the heavens from rain. And that’s how you get the faith to cry out to God to send the rain, the latter rain, and give us the greatest revival of all time.

Honor is not having a high position in this world or in your church. Honor – real honor – is when God hears your prayers…and answers them. That is honor!

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3

Keeping Her Candle Lit

@_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 23:02:02 +0000

“…her candle goeth not out by night.” Proverbs 31:18

What separates a nominal Christian from an on-fire Christian?

There is a line that God draws to separate those who make it into Heaven, and those who don’t. I have often wondered, where is that line?

I don’t believe for a moment that just because I may have repeated a prayer of Salvation once in my life, that I am forever saved and can go on about my life living the way I please. Jesus didn’t give his life so I could have an excuse to sin.

Neither do I believe that just because I believe God exists, or because I attend a church somewhere that I will meet the criteria that God requires. Jesus told those who claimed to have eaten and drank in His presence that He never knew them, even those who had prophesied in His name.

Let me go one step further and say that even perfection in doctrine would not give me entrance into that place of Grace that gives life to the soul. The Pharisees were squeaky clean in doctrine and works, but from the sound of things, they wound up in Hell.

I fully understand the importance of sound doctrine, which, as the building blocks for our house of safety, must be laid straight and true for the walls to be strong. The Apostle Paul fought fiercely to defend the churches against all sorts of heretics, including those who maintained that a return to circumcision and the works of the Old Law were necessary for salvation – a doctrine that is still alive today. And yet, while utterly important in directing our walk in God, correct doctrine can only point the way in which to walk, and works can only embellish it.

Something more is needed.

When reading about the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31, who is the picture of the true Church, I was struck by the passage quoted above. Who burns their candle all night long? And why would you do that?

I dare say that most of us turn the lights off when we go to bed. But not the virtuous woman. She kept her light burning throughout the entire night.

As Christians, we rejoice in our salvation and celebrate our transformation from Death, but a truly converted Christian will not stop there. He must look back into the darkness and shine a light so others can see the lighthouse of safety and come out of the world of death.

The essence of Grace is manifested in us when it transforms us from a creature of this world to someone whose heart and soul are planted in the next, and the realities of darkness become most stark when seen from that place of light. The dark seems darker and the despair seems more desperate.

We all have our testimony that we uphold, and while many are satisfied with that, others are not. Truly transformed believers are not satisfied with attending bland church services, fellowshipping with other satisfied believers in ivory halls of contentment, and warming ourselves by the coals of indifference.

Something inside us cannot rest while others are dying. While others seek the calm serenity of their chapels and cathedrals, there are those of us who want to set up a rescue station one foot away from the very Gates of Hell. Light the candle and let it burn all night long.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about us. It’s about others. Charity is what makes the difference between those who are content and those who are on fire. Charity is more than “love” – it is love in action. Above all things, even Faith and Hope, Charity stands as the essence of the entire Gospel, the main theme of the Cross, the whole reason why Jesus died, and the central reason of why we were called. Without Charity, we are but tinkling bells and a sounding cymbal – plenty of noise and pretty music, but lacking substance.

Charity is what separates the sheep from the goats.