Seasons

           I have felt spiritually 'off' the last couple weeks.  God has been using me and been revealing things to me, but I have found myself striving for more in ways that has left me feeling stretched and unfulfilled. God has revealed to me that my lack of fulfillment is a result of me not recognizing a change of seasons in my life.  I have just stepped out of a season of intense leadership and involvement. I am used to consistently being a leader in many people's lives, teaching, encouraging, and exhorting.  I was established in a setting where my gifts were recognized and pulled upon every day.  Because I was devoted to that season that God had prepared for me, I was getting revelation downloads from God regularly and my intimacy with Him was ever increasing.  Lately the revelation's haven't come, neither have I felt very intimate with the Father.  I believe that is because I have failed to recognized that I am entering into a new season in my life and been trying to force it to be the same as the previous one; this has caused me to come out of alignment with the present and His presence.

         I am no longer the leader of a large ministry, nor am I surrounded by people I know and who know me.  Instead God has placed me in a new situation with new people.  I am not an established leader, and don't have as much recognized influence as I did before; however I do have more time to dig into His word, to go through a refining process on my character, and to learn to sustain my relationship with God in an independent way.  In accepting where God has placed me and where he is taking me, I can minister from a place of security and take my 'blinders' off to see God's presence in my new situation.  This will allow me to be available to God's call on my life and be able to access what he has set before me; thereby entering into intimacy that leads to revelation once again.

        "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)."

         God puts us in different seasons in life to draw us closer to Him, furthering his kingdom.  I believe he has prepared us for each of these seasons (Ephesians 2:10); these can be seasons of intensity or seasons of rest, seasons of large community and seasons of small ones. There are certain character traits that can only be given through trials, and it is because we have the promises of God that we can rejoice in the present suffering (Romans 5:3).  We rejoice in our suffering, because we know the end result is character transformation and hope; hope doesn't disappoint.  Our faith in the promises of God shape the way we view the present, no matter the circumstances. It is important that we align our minds and our intentions with the season that God has brought us into, even if it is a season of trials.  If we do not, we are not going to reap the full benefit of what God has made available to us, and we are going to miss out on a revelation of His character that he wishes to place in us.

        If God has put me in a season of rest, prayer, and learning, but continue to force myself into a role of leadership and restless activity, I am going to miss out on what God has made available only in rest. It is clear when our season has changed because we will always feel uncomfortable when we place ourselves in a situation that God has not prepared us for.  This dissonance is a result of relying on ourselves rather than on God, it is seeking a source of fulfillment and purpose that is not there to find.  Imagine that there are different wells in a desert; but some wells are dry during certain parts of the year while others contain water.  If I go to a well at the wrong time of year it will be dry and I will not be able to relieve my thirst.  However, at a different time of year, that well that was dry may now have be filled with water.  Sometimes we force ourselves into a place that we have not been prepared for, and it is like stepping into a dessert where our thirst cannot be quenched. If we wait upon the Lord, he will work on our character and send us to that same well, except this time it will have been prepared.  God will not give us more than our character can handle, and he is continuously working on our character to make it more like His.

      Ask God what season you are in, and how you ought to be pressing into him.  If you feel disconnected with our Father, it might be because you have entered into a different season in your life.  Maybe you are being called to lead rather than to follow, or to rest rather than to run.  Seek it out, look at what God is doing instead of what he is not doing.  Become satisfied in Him alone not matter the circumstances.

"Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:13-14)."