Divine Nature — Acacia, Agarwood, Henna & Coriander
There are moments when you can feel a season changing before you can explain why. Something in you knows that you are standing at a threshold. Excitement and terror hold hands. You may not have evidence yet, but there is a quiet recognition: something is moving. That is where I find myself as we cross into Tishrei, and I have a feeling I am not standing here alone.
Tishrei opens the Jewish civil year, although it is the seventh month on the religious calendar. It begins with Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, the “Head of the Year.” What catches my attention is that God built appointed times into the life of Israel.
He did not merely give His people information about Him; He gave them rhythms in which they could remember, respond, celebrate, repent and encounter Him. The calendar itself became a threshold.
We are not Israel, and the feasts are not a substitute for Christ. But the biblical pattern still gives us something worth noticing: God is interested in how human beings mark time. He knows that we forget. We lose perspective. We become absorbed in what is immediately in front of us. Sometimes we need to stop long enough to recognise that we have crossed from one place into another.
Tishrei carries two invitations I want to sit with this month: blessing and redemption. Not as vague promises that everything will suddenly become easy, but as invitations to recognise what has already been accomplished in Christ and to learn how to live from it.
Receive what Grace has given
The first invitation is blessing. There is something powerful about refusing to carry the emotional residue of an old season as though it has the authority to name the new one.
Failure may have happened. Loss may have happened. Sin may have happened. Disappointment may have happened. But none of those things gets to become your final identity in Christ.
Scripture does not present blessing as a reward for pretending life has been painless. It presents God as the source of life, goodness and inheritance. In Christ, we are not learning to convince God to be generous toward us. We are learning to receive what His grace has already made available.
That requires a change in the way we think about ourselves, about God, and about what we believe we are allowed to receive. What if the limitation you have placed around your life is smaller than the inheritance Christ has actually given you?
The Fullness we have Received
The second invitation is redemption. Seven is often associated with completion, and Tishrei sits at an interesting threshold: something is ending while something else is beginning.
That is a useful picture for the Christian life. The gospel is not simply that Jesus died so that we could be forgiven and eventually go to heaven. Through His death and resurrection, we are brought into union with Him and made new.
The cross was not a partial work.
Christ did not accomplish seventy percent of your redemption and leave the rest for you to finish through performance. His work is complete.
Colossians 2:9–10 gives us the astonishing language that the fullness of divine nature dwells in Christ and that we have been given fullness in union with Him. This does not make us God. It means our life with God is not based on receiving a tiny portion of Christ while spending our lives trying to earn the rest.
Jesus prayed, “I have given them the glory You have given me, so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22). That is intimacy language. Jesus is not simply handing us theological information. He is drawing us into communion. The goal is not merely to know about Christ, but to know Him, to participate in His life, to become increasingly conformed to His image, and to learn what it means for His life to become visible through ours.
come closer
This is where the word partake becomes important to me. To partake is to participate. To receive. To share in something rather than standing outside it as an observer.
We can believe the resurrection happened and still remain at a distance from the living Christ. We can know the doctrines and never allow them to reorganize our imagination, our habits, our relationships, our bodies, our creativity or our expectations.
Christian maturity is not measured only by how much information we can repeat. Hebrews speaks about mature people whose discernment has been trained through practice. Belief becomes embodied as we learn to trust, obey, discern, receive and love.
This is one reason I care about tangible sensory practices. A physical act does not create God's presence, and oil is not a magical substance. Christ is the source. But the senses can help us pay attention. A fragrance can become a threshold. Touch can interrupt mental noise. A repeated practice can help us remember what we believe. The point is never sensation for sensation's sake. The goal is communion.
That is the heart behind this month's Divine Nature oil. I wanted it to mark the truth that in Christ we have not been invited to live perpetually as spiritual outsiders. We have been brought near.
Acacia — Atzei Shittim, “the acacias” — carries the imagery of the tabernacle and the wilderness journey. In the language of this oil, it becomes an invitation to consider the crossing: the place where the old season no longer has the final word and we learn to walk into what God is forming in us.
Agarwood speaks here of maturity and obedience , the fragrance of a life that does not remain potential forever, but grows into its calling. Henna carries the symbolism of covering in this formulation, a reminder of the Blood of Christ and the covenant secured through His sacrifice.
Coriander points toward the Word and revelation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Revelation begins with God speaking. Before we rush to speak our own interpretation, we learn to become people who listen.
Live from what is already yours
Perhaps this month is an invitation to move from believing that Christ is enough to actually living as though He is enough. Not passively. Not with spiritual bravado. But with the quiet courage of someone who knows where their life comes from.
What would change if you stopped asking, “How can I become worthy of what God has given me?” and began asking, “How do I become a faithful steward of what grace has already placed in me?” What would change in your art? Your relationships? Your work? Your prayer? Your body? Your willingness to obey?
lets prophesy
I step under the covering of the Blood of Christ and into the truth that was in the beginning. I receive the life of Christ rather than striving to manufacture my own.
I cross from what has been into what God is forming. I submit my imagination, my body, my gifts and my calling to the One who redeemed them. I grow in maturity. I grow in discernment. I grow in obedience. And I become increasingly available for the Kingdom of God to move through my life.
A PRACTICE FOR TISHREI
Take a few quiet minutes with the Divine Nature oil. Do not rush to make the moment profound. Smell it. Notice your breath. Feel the oil on your skin. Then ask: “Jesus, what have You already given me that I have been living as though I still have to earn?” Sit quietly before answering.
Let Scripture, memory, conviction or gratitude surface without forcing it. Write down what you notice, and then choose one small act of faithful participation. The oil does not make God speak; it simply gives your senses something tangible through which your attention can return to Him.
PRAYER
Father, thank You for creating me in Your love and for drawing me into union with Christ. Thank You that the work of Jesus is complete and that I do not have to manufacture what He has already accomplished.
Teach me to receive the fullness of life You have given me in Him. Where I have agreed with limitation, renew my mind. Where I have remained at a distance, draw me nearer. Where I have confused striving with maturity, teach me obedience and rest.
Sharpen my discernment so that I can recognize Your voice and walk in alignment with Your will. Let every part of my life become increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. Amen.
Action for this month
don't simply read about Divine Nature. Partake.
Choose one place where you have been living from lack, fear or an old identity, and bring it honestly before Christ.
Anoint yourself as a physical act of surrender, then return to Scripture and ask Him to show you what faithful participation looks like in this season.
If this resonates with someone who is standing at a threshold of their own, share this invitation with them. Step into Tishrei with Divine Nature.
I'd love to hear your thoughts: let me know where this met you.'
May you encounter the Light of Christ, carry it within you, and reveal it wherever you go.
TanYah |
El-Nahara
