I have been hearing messages about this being the due season year and the year of His restoration. About how God's blessings and goodness will hunt us down. About how God is causing all things to fall into place. Promotion is coming, good breaks are coming, miracles are coming. Harvest time is here because I have sown good seeds years ago and fruits are fully manifesting.
About how I have been faithful with a few things and God is rewarding me. He is positioning me for increase, a new level of my destiny. All these messages cause me to be bursting with excitement and anticipation, wondering about what blessing is coming next. I understood that these things are preordained to come across my path this year. They are like the blessings with my name on them. As of now, some of these blessings already came to pass. Thank God.
Early this year, I was reminded to give thanks and praise to the Lord in the midst of difficulty. Praise Him in the midnight hour for my chains are about to come off. To take time to meditate on the victories of God in my life. Restoration is the fruit of thanksgiving. A new beginning is here, ushering in a season of restoration. To remember that the wilderness is not my home, it is my launching pad, so don't get comfortable there. All things in my life are coming to an order ordained by God. All promises are coming to fruition.
God is also telling me about having a thankful heart and a grateful attitude but in the context of prosperity and success. God is telling me to stick closely with Him, to follow His guiding and never be deceived into a complacent and undiscerning place by the environment around me, be it good or bad. A lush environment can often be deceptive if I am not walking in a grateful and contented heart. It takes both the lush and barren to complete the perfection of a thing just as all the seasons work together for the good when it comes to harvest time. Let patience have its perfect work so I will be found lacking in nothing.
When I heard John Gray preached about how certain things had to happen in your life, forming part of your destiny, it then occurred to me that such trials and troubles were part of God's plan. I wouldn't be the person today had it not been for the good and difficult things in my life. As much as I didn't like those things, I knew that God is working out all things for my good. And the end outcome will be good, it will be beautiful.
My heart is more at peace knowing that my steps are guided by the Lord. And those senseless and painful things in my life must necessarily happen to build character in me. Yet I believe those things were already cushioned with a lot of His mercy. They could be worse. Now that I am out of the crucible of fire, I have been through the waters, a season of fulfilment awaits me. Just like all the seasons of my life are working for my good in harvest time. Now is harvest time.
Just to make sure that I am equally prepared for the harvest times, God had to remind me again to remember Him. To give thanks and realise that this lush environment wouldn't be possible if not for Him. To always be grateful to God for what He has done, so that I wouldn't become proud in my own eyes. The season to come is a good season where I will see good things coming to the surface.
Success and prosperity has a way to lure people away from God since they didn't have to be so reliant on Him. Yet the Lord is warning me not to stray away from Him in such a good season. Don't be complacent, don't be apathetic, don't be deceived in good times. It seemed that God is releasing me into such a season of fulfilment and abundance because it was necessary. He has already done His work in my barren and wilderness seasons, so now this thing needs to be perfected in a lush environment.
The nature of harvest time is that all the seasons work together for the good. I am to let patience have its perfect work so that I will be found lacking in nothing. It seemed like I have been tested in the wilderness and found to be faithful, passing the test. Now God wants to see how I would respond in the promised land, in the midst of success, prosperity and abundance. One would think it would be easier to follow God in good times but more often than not, it was in such success that one strays away from Him.
Yes, barrenness and wilderness could cause one to be totally bitter with God and give up on Him or it could cause one to draw very near to Him. Because when times are tough, there is absolutely no other way to find refuge and comfort other than the wings of the Almighty. This increases our reliance on the Lord because we cannot, so He must act on our behalf. Though the wilderness is an uncomfortable place to be in, one finds the Lord in ways he never would. The closeness, the bond is forged in times of difficulty.
Nothing is impossible with the Lord yet some situations could be more conducive to finding Him and drawing near to Him. You would notice that in the wilderness, though the Israelites complained and murmured against God, eventually they still didn't fall away from Him. They still followed the pillar of fire and cloud all those forty years. Until they reached Kadesh Barnea the second time. But once they crossed over, there wasn't any pillar of fire and cloud to follow, just a small little Ark.
Yet the perils in the promised land were far greater than those in the wilderness because there were giants to conquer. The work wasn't completed yet. They needed to stay close to Him to obtain battle strategies in order to obtain victory. You would notice again that in the midst of fighting their enemies, the Israelites were still staying close to the Lord. But the crutch came after the fighting has ceased and they possessed majority of the promised land. It was then that they started straying from the Lord.
After the era of Joshua came the era of Judges. One would notice that when the Israelites were oppressed, they would cry out to the Lord and He would send a a judge to deliver them. After they had peace and rest in the land, they would stray away from God again. And the cycle would repeat itself. Indeed the bite of unseen things has more power to destroy than seen things. When you see things up front and personal, you know how to change, move, when to flee or make necessary adjustments along the way.
But when these things are hidden in invisible realms especially during the good times, when one is enjoying in the Promised Land, you can be deceived. It then occurred to me the greatest test of a person's character is not when he is in the doldrums but when he is most successful. In such places, one is most susceptible to falling away from the Lord. Hence one must guard against such things. No wonder God had to remind me to stick close to Him even in the promised land, after I see the manifestation of this dream.
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