A NEW SEASON
If you have found your way to this site again, I trust that you are aware of my March 14 announcement-impending resignation from Harvest Cathedral as Worship Leader. To give you more in-depth insight into my journey to this point and forward, I continue with the following. I pray that it also guides and encourages you with regard to the next level that God is calling you to.
By His spirit and sovereignty I believe God is moving in my personal life transitioning me to a new season; a greater dimension of His purpose to unfold in the near future. This admission may lead one to ask, “When will this transition take place?” At first glance, I can now answer that question by sharing that my final day at Harvest Cathedral as Worship Leader is May 31, 2010. But I believe the greater and more appropriate response is “the time is not to be questioned,” as time is not the significant factor with God that it so often seems to be with us; because although I have that date, it is simply a gauge for me, not God. It is the time that I have set to open myself up more fully to what God had already set in motion before the foundation of time.
God controls all facets of time and space, and He moves and adjusts it to serve His will. We are the ones who live under the seeming power of time, almost obsessively ordering our activities around it in an attempt to control it, and in effect, our lives. But God will not be limited by our ineffectual attempt at control, or our wishes to manipulate His timing. So even in my having a date of transition, it is most simply a mark of the next phase of my life, and my opening and surrendering to the next level of growth that He has set in motion for me to fulfill His plan and purpose for my life and His kingdom.
You may ask how this relates to you, your life, and your call. Well, if we simply look in our own front and back yard (literally and figuratively), we can witness God’s hand at work in nature in the same exact fashion as it works in our lives. As we fast embark upon the spring and summer seasons, we can utilize the effects of this beautiful change as a model for God’s awesome work and wonder in our own stages of transition. The experience of the changing and coloring of the grass, the filling in of tree leaves and colorful blossom of flowers, the halt of brisk winter winds to mild spring breezes, culminating in blazing sun rays and hot temperatures, are all a prelude to the warmer seasons. This experience also magnifies God’s awesome power and the way in which He works in moving us to our next level. I marvel at the Majesty and wonder of who He is….and encourage you to take some time in the coming days or weeks to pay close attention to this seasonal transition to reflect on God’s majestic Hand at similar work in your own life. In doing so, you may become aware that this annual change mirrors the changes that have occurred during each season and transition of your own life.
As I look back over the past 28 years of my life, I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without His love and guidance, and the ways in which He has moved me to where I now stand. Many times when my life seemed barren; when it seemed as if all the leaves had fallen off the trees, as if nothing was growing and there seemed no warmth of familiarity (winter), I wanted to quit and just walk away. But as I persevered and challenged myself to stand according to His Word, it was then that I realized He had never left me or forsaken the call and gifting He placed on the inside of me. In fact, it was at those very moments while standing on the fertile ground, that He was preparing me for growing to the next level of my divine assignment (spring & summer).
Read (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Verse one states; “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under Heaven.” Just as God’s seasons and the changes that coincide with those seasons never cease, God’s Holy scriptures are just as true and relevant today as they were in the 14th century when originally transcribed from Hebrew-Greek-Latin text to the English version of the Bible we now relish. Hebrews 13:8 reads “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” I love this scripture because it always reminds me that I can trust God with my very life each and every day, at each and every moment, all the time. He knows me, and I know that He will remain consistently faithful in His love for me, even when I fail at walking the path He has laid out as my purposed destiny; when I falter because I didn’t choose to peacefully flow through the transition.
I can gratefully say that from where I stand today, I now know with the greatest clarity He’s ever graced my life, that when God has a greater work to accomplish through our lives, it will require transition, i.e., transformation, i.e., change. And even more importantly, this evolution is a cycle of life just like His seasons that we will experience and move through every time we ask Him to take us to a higher level to make us better, more like Him.
I also know with certainty He will finish the work He began. As for our part, we must remember that doing something you’ve never done requires doing something different. It will mean letting go of things such as negative thinking, poor habits, and unhealthy relationships. Expect God’s best by giving Him your best; that is what you must do. This is a principle of His Word I have seen come to pass in my life time and time again (there goes that ‘season’ again); and I believe He will do the same for you!
Let me leave you with this encouragement. As you stand in the midst of your trouble, your transition, find peace and rest assured that God is on your side and the end result will be in your favor. Philippians 2:13 reads “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” God is at work in your life today and He will complete the dream, the calling and the promise He has given you as long as you remain in Him. So do not be afraid of the changes that will surely be the beginnings of a new season…Let the promise, His promise, come forth and bear fruit for the Kingdom.