Is what worked for you spiritually in past seasons no longer working? Does it feel like the things you have been doing are no longer thriving? Are you experiencing the dying away of some familiar things, yet you have no idea what comes next? Welcome to transition…
Transition is unsettling. We are feeling the dying away of the old and the uncertainty of the new. Recently, the Father said to me: Child, you are a transition generation… like Moses wandering with the children of Israel in the wilderness. Those called to transition have to endure the death of what was as well as the birth of what will be. Abraham, Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth all experienced reproductive death and supernatural new life, as a sign and a testimony of what was happening in the stars and upon the earth.
Next week, you’ll learn the significance of the timing of the births of Isaac and John the Baptist, how they, too, signified transition and how the heavens tell their story. But for now, just find comfort in knowing that much of the dying away you have seen or experienced is because of the radical shift we’re in.
The Body of Christ’s current season is similar to the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings in that many of us have been taken out of the slavery of religion, but the religion is still being worked out of us. In Moses’ day, the slaves had to die in the wilderness, because they could not steward their Promised Land. For us, the slave nature is everything resonating of religion (shame, fear and control), everything resonating of being a victim rather than an overcomer and everything resonating of the DNA of Adam, our old nature. Remember, in God’s kingdom, death is always UNTO resurrection and ascension. So, as we “reckon ourselves dead” (Romans 6:11), crucified with Christ, we are allowing His life to flow through us, and He cannot help but overcome!
Several years ago, the Father said to me: You know that this is a transitional time and that the old religious bondage and structure is dying away by My design. If you build too soon, you will build according to the old ways – things that are so familiar you don’t even know to question them. Remember, you can always encounter Me in the Secret Place, where there are no limitations, as Moses saw My face on the Mountain.
I still move within the old, because I love My people, but I do not desire to sustain the structure. It must be allowed to die, as the new begins to grow and flourish. So, My beloved child, love me, follow Me, keep your eyes on Me, listen for My instruction, only do what I am doing. Do not fret or feel that you are a failure because you are not succeeding in things I am allowing to die. Outward structures morph and change, but the Secret Place remains the same. There are no limitations here. You get the blueprints up on the Mountain – face to face. Then you come back down to implement them. Any plans you receive otherwise are subject to demonic manipulation. Waste your life on Me, and revelation (not information) will come.
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new ; for he says, ‘The old is better!’” (Luke 5:37-39). The old wineskins that cannot contain the new wine are the leftover church structures of yesterday. Because I move within them, the immature assume that I move because of them. But you have seen the bursting of the wineskins of organized religion. Wilderness seasons are about the dying of old structures, so the new can come forth. John the Baptist not only said, “He must increase, but I must decrease,” he also tore down empty religious structures by releasing repentance – a changing of the mind. He was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’” (John 1:22-23). So… you see, in a time of transition, two things are happening simultaneously: the old is dying away and the new is being birthed. So, your assignment is 2-fold:
1. To gracefully allow the old ways to die, not judging, succumbing to discouragement or trying to keep alive what I want to pass away. This also involves loving and caring for those whose old ways are dying, as well as allowing Me to move as I choose within the old system.
2. To go up the Mountain, into the heavenly realm to receive the blueprint for the new wineskin and to birth it into the earth realm through intercession and by Divine strategy. Both of these require freedom from the yoke of man and false compassion, that would cause you, by human effort and good works, to attempt to resuscitate what I am putting to death. It would also cause you to replicate what has been done before – in order to please man or relate to people – rather than establishing the new (and different). Do not fear, My child, for you were created for such a time as this. And, as you are faithful, your reward will be great.
THE NEXT GENERATION
We see in Joshua 5 that one of the first things to happen in the Promised Land is circumcision, which represents covenant with God and a cutting away of the flesh and of those things that cannot bring forth life. For us, this can be a circumcision of heart, removing the hardness that comes from wilderness wandering and hope deferred. But primarily this circumcision is for the next generation – the ones born in the wilderness, who will occupy the land, who will take every mountain of society and who will displace every giant. They have rejected religion, and many have rejected God along with it. But their hearts must and WILL be circumcised.
If your child, friend or loved one is one of these, decree this, spirit to spirit: I do not call you back into the Egypt of religion. I do not call you back into the wilderness of transition. I call you into the Promised Land of your unique destiny, and I say, “I’ll meet you there!”
CALEB
I once heard about an aboriginal tribe that has the greatest longevity and vitality of anywhere on earth. A pharmaceutical company went to investigate, hoping to discover and market their secret, but they discovered their key was not anything natural; it was simply their belief system. They believed that the older they got, the wiser, stronger and faster they got. And so it was. It was so true that when messages needed to be run from place to place, the preferred age of the runner was between 91 and 95!
The Father knows that transition seasons are difficult, but for those who are willing to believe Him radically, He pours out supernatural strength and grace to overcome. In Joshua 14, we see that Caleb was just as strong at 85 as he was at 40. May you, like Caleb roar, “Give me this mountain!”
Click HERE to watch a mini version of all 3 parts of this teaching as it was released at All Things Restored two weeks ago. The teaching begins around 1:10:45.