In the Christian community, everyone is going through something. It gets even louder at the beginning of a new year like this. There’s a specific lingua for it:
“Waiting season”
“Wilderness season”
“Season of manifestation”
The Lord seems to be taking everyone on a journey, a period, a time of consecration etc. The list goes on. I must confess I found myself being critical of people when they said they were going through “a…season” especially if I knew them personally and I don’t see any such signs to support their statement.
But the concept of seasons is a very Christian one.
There is a season for everything, and a time for every event under heaven - Ecclesiastes 3:1
My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.- Psalm 31:15
Documented throughout scripture are people who went through one season or the other. If we’re being honest, everyone is in a phase knowingly or unknowingly at least we’re all in the waiting season- for the 2nd coming of Christ.
Following the example of people in the Bible we must let God name our seasons. If times and seasons are in His hands, we can only align not drag Him along to our preconceived notion of the season we’re in.
Saying and expecting a certain type of result is good but we should ensure that we are not putting ourselves in a category God has not. This is not to discredit the importance of positive words and words of affirmation, we must make sure that we don’t impose our plans on God but sit with Him to know what His plans for us are.
Abraham did not drag himself to wait for years for Isaac, God orchestrated it.
The Israelites spent 40 years in a literal wilderness because God allowed it. I love how Priscilla Shirer puts it, “their GPS didn’t malfunction”. They did not land there by accident, God led them there.
It is very tempting to look at the symptoms in your life and self-diagnose. “Oh, I think this is my season of manifestation”, “This is my wilderness season”. That was the mistake I made when it came to people. I was validating their season based on what was going on in their lives not the Word God had given them.
An example is the Israelites leaving Egypt. The Lord did mighty things that all the other nations felt intimidated by. The Egyptians gave them gold and silver when they were leaving. Their God led them with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, that’s some amazing stuff.
Imagine being a nomad living in the desert and seeing this great company of people who received heavenly food provision every morning and their God drowning their enemies in the sea. I would think these are the luckiest people in the world.
But only God knew the level of depravity in their hearts and the need to use the wilderness experience as a tool to prune and prepare them for the land filled with milk and honey. For the outsider, they were in a season of manifestation after being in slavery for so long but to God, they were in a pruning season. Physical signs aren’t proof enough, the Word of the Lord is.
PHYSICAL SIGNS AREN'T PROOF ENOUGH, THE WORD OF THE LORD IS.
It is in circumstances like that we should glean from the Bible. It has an array of godly men and women who went through every stage/season/journey/period we could ever imagine.
So wherever you are now, whether in a new season or continuing an old season, the Lord’s strength to you. May you stand strong and come out a much better version of yourself- the one the Lord intended. I pray that you will develop the diligence to search the scriptures, find those with similar experiences to yours, and understudy them. Your journey is different so be rest assured, if the Lord is asking you to walk a path different from everyone else’s there’s a better Christian on the other side of your obedience. It is for your good.
Happy New Year everyone, have an amazing Jesus-led 2024. Are you excited for the new year? Well, I am.
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