Recently I am reading a book called 'Possessing Your Inheritance' by Chuck D. Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Systema. I was thinking about what I experienced during times of transition. I read this book in end 2008 and I believe it is no coincidence that I am reading it now. As I read it, I was reminded of those times of transitions and noticed there were similarities so I decided to journal down.
1) Times of transition usually come after a time of wilderness where nothing seems to be happening and you are still waiting for God to bring you out. You will feel as if God has forgotten you or that you are stuck at one place. It's a time when it seems like God is hiding His face and He is not really telling you what is happening, showing you His will for next season or when you will move on. It's usually a time of testing where you feel that you are in a fiery furnace. A difficult place.
2) You have been crying out for the Lord to bring you out of that place and move you on. You don't want to be circling the same mountain year after year. But it seemed like your prayers went to the ground. Yet God is working something behind the scenes. He is turning things around and preparing you for a season of restoration. He will remind you of the restoration promises like Isa 66:12, Isa 61:3, Isa 61:7, Ps 30:5, Est 9:22 etc. The deeper we experience sorrow, the more capacity we have for joy. One reason that God brings joy after a season of sorrow or heartache is to bring a new wind of strength to our spirit. Joy brings a new vitality and strength. Joy produces the kind of strength we need to move into our next season.
3) Then one day, God visits you and starts giving you instructions for your new season and tell you to get ready to move on. This is when the transition starts. It is a narrow place like between the Red Sea and the marauding armies. God may prompt you to take a step of faith to close the door behind you before the manifestation comes. It totally doesn't make sense in the natural. After doing it, you will feel like you are stuck. The door has closed behind you but the door ahead is not open yet. Transition is also likened to a time just before a woman gives birth. It is usually a very intense period when you feel vulnerable, overwhelmed, restless, frustrated, disoriented, discouraged and reaching the end of your rope. It's when the opposition is the fiercest and you feel like giving up the most. Because you have traveled a long way and waited a long time, you feel like you really don't have the strength to press on. Yet this is the time you really need to press on, wait for God to grant you the second wind and give a final push to deliver the baby. Don't focus on the pain, the discomfort. Focus on the hope of the baby coming forth. Set your face like flint for the joy set before you. Verses like Phil 3:13-14 usually appear to encourage you to press forward.
4) During transition, The Lord will also show you what are the things you need to let go of, namely all the excess baggage because you cannot bring these over to your new season. Weights of the past, friends of the last season, past disappointments, past heartaches, old mindsets, even what had worked out well in the past. God redefines and adjusts whatever rules are necessary for us to get to the new place. It's a time when He 'deconstructs' whatever past achievements and strips off anything you can hold on to for security. You cannot return to the comfort of the past, yet you don't know what lies ahead. The only stability and security is His immovable nature. Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. It's a time you need to focus on Him alone, carefully listen to what He is saying to us. You can reflect on His faithfulness, on how He has brought you through such times of transition and hold fast to that. As He has done before, He will make sure you cross over to the other side.
5) At the same time, He will show you that a season has passed, a chapter of your life has ended. God will bring you through a short journey of reflection on the past season and tell you that you have finished well and show you how much you have grown. He knows you have little faith but you have kept His word and not denied His name. You will also have the feeling that you have fought the good fight of faith, you have finished the race and kept the faith. Then He promises you the rewards, the crown that come with passing of that test, the completion of that assignment. You will have the abiding peace that you have done the will of God and He will surely do His part. He affirms that season is over with Phil 1:6 'He who started a good work in you will bring it to completion.' God will also prepare you for the new season ahead with verses connoting divine shifts (Isa 48:6, Isa 43:19). You will sense a new beginning on the horizon.
6) The other thing I noticed before the manifestation came was that God reminded me to remember Him, that He is the One who multiplies our numbers and gives us power to gain wealth as in Deut 8:18. Just before I conceived Joshua, God impressed upon me to build memorial stones, as a testament of His goodness to our future generations. Eventually these memorial stones were translated into my book 'Beauty out of Ashes'.
7) Suddenly, you will realize that things are starting to fall into place, exactly how God has predicted or said. And you will be amazed at the speed of how God moves. This is usually a time of revelation when you will see His beautiful plans unfold. During such times, your faith will be greatly boosted and you will start to feel the joy coming. It's like the second wind that gives you the strength for the final push to deliver the baby. From my experience, transition period lasts only a few months. It starts when God gives you instructions for the next season or when He tells you to get ready to move on. The move could be seen in a change of physical location. It could be a change in vocation...it could be dramatic or imperceptible. Sure enough, one day we will find that the shifting had occurred and we have moved solidly into the new season.
8) Nearing the end of the transition, you will find that certain issues that used to bother you so much did not affect you now. This is because the bondages and strongholds are already destroyed and the Lord has caused you to overcome where you could not in the past. There is a certain freedom when you realized that you have truly overcome such issues, no longer bound by the taunts and tortures of the mind. By now you will have also gained a new perspective to how you view certain issues. That's when the renewing of your mind is complete and old ways of thinking are gone. You will find it silly when you think about how you have allowed such issues to keep you bondage in the past, causing endless heartaches. The Lord will also open your eyes to see how blessed you have been all along and you will break forth in praise and thanksgiving. What a great deliverance! And the end result is you are more hardened to difficulties than before.
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