CHANGES IN SEASONS
When the season of God arrives, God will indicate to us in a clear manner. God is not just a God of plan and purpose, but He is also a God of seasons.
Daniel 2:21
“And He changes the times and seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings…”
It is imperative for us to recognize that God is the One Who changes the times and seasons of our lives, ministries, churches, cities and nations.
How do we discern the changes of times and seasons?
To understand and recognize the divine shifts around and in our lives, there are signs and symptoms of the changing season.
1. Supernatural Intervention of God.
Firstly, when the season comes, God will intervene supernaturally in what man cannot accomplish naturally with his ability and resources. Abraham and Sarah were given an awesome promise of a male seed that would come from their own bodies. After patiently waiting for God’s promise for almost 24 years, Abraham and Sarah could have given up hope that God would fulfill His promise.
Abraham was 99 years and could no longer father a child. Sarah was not only barren but alas had passed her child-bearing age! In hope against hope, suddenly the season changed, God visited
the aged couple.
Genesis 21:1-2
“And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God has spoken to him.”
Notice the phrase – ‘at the set time’, which signifies that the season has arrived. The season for the miracle, the breakthrough, the blessings, the open doors and the answered prayers needed an intervention from God Almighty.
God’s intervention sometimes comes in the form of open doors. Joseph was kept in prison for a season even though in the natural he tried to manipulate his way out through the butler who
was restored to Pharaoh’s palace. However, it was not the right season for him to be released. When the caterpillar gets out of the cocoon before its time, the butterfly will usually be deformed and dies a premature death.
In Genesis 41:1, we read that after the fullness of time of 2 years, Pharaoh had 2 dreams that nobody else could interpret. Suddenly the butler remembered Joseph who interpreted his dream in prison. Within one day, Joseph was promoted from prison to palace. When the divine shift takes place, your portion and lot will fall into pleasant places.
Bethany Nyinden, Surabaya
About 3 years ago, I remembered vividly ministering at a Bethany church in Perth, Australia for a Sunday evening service. When we arrived at the church premise, we were the only ones around.
With much time in my hands, I was surveying the worship hall and came across the church notice board.
A wonderful and awesome church building caught my attention. Studying the details of the architecture’s creativity, I was greatly impressed with this auditorium that could seat 25 thousand
worshippers on one seating at that time. Now the church has extended to 35,000 seating capacity. It looked like an indoor stadium but it was a church.
An unusual desire overtook my being as I began to dream of myself speaking in that glorious church one day. I heard about this great church in Surabaya, called Bethany Nginden where famous and great preachers have been invited to speak.
Nobody knew that the pictorial encounter I had was going to become a reality soon. A new season and a new phase of our ministry appeared on the horizon. God was preparing us to move to another level of faith in our walk with Him. In less than a year, I was ministering in a Bethany church in Balikpapan, Indonesia.
The Indonesian interpreter became a good friend of mine. He was the personal assistant of the Senior Pastor of Bethany Nginden. What he said next really made my day! Brother Sinwo,
the Indonesian interpreter was going to recommend me to his senior pastor and later made arrangements for me to speak at Bethany Nginden.
The first Sunday with 4 services at this beautiful church was simply amazing. God gave a prophetic word to Apostle Alex Abraham on the first service at 6.30 am. Obviously the humble servant of God, Alex Abraham was moved to tears as God spoke to his heart. In that early hour, more than 10 thousands congregated. Unbelievable!
It was a rare honour to spend a day with this mighty man of faith who not only has this church of 20,000 members, but also has 600 churches all over Indonesia and many parts of the world
under his apostolic leadership.
Immediately after the fourth service of that unforgettable Sunday, the man of God requested for me to speak in his church every 3 months. I could not believe my ears what I had just heard. The door to preach in those 600 churches was opened to our ministry. Incredible!
The change of season was marked by God’s intervention through the amazing open door.
2. Stirrings in Your Spirit Man
In Ezra chapter 1, we learn that God stirred up the spirit of a pagan king of Persia called Cyrus to build Him a house of worship in Jerusalem. King Cyrus was extremely generous. He provided the silver and gold that were needed for the temple of God. In these last days, God Almighty can use even pagan kings, presidents and super wealthy billionaires to finance the work of the Kingdom of God. Who knows, some kings may even provide prime land to build churches that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people!
A similar incident happened in Haggai’s time. The Lord stirred up the governor of Judah, the high priest and the common people to rebuild the temple of the Lord God Almighty. Be prepared for
God to touch the hearts of those in the government and high places to finance the work of the ministry. We are entering into a season of the transfer of wealth from the hands of sinners to
the hands of the righteous. Get ready church. God is positioning kings and politicians to do His bidding.
Overnight, a nation can become a Christian nation. Look at Uganda under the dictator called Idi Amin. No one believed during Amin’s reign that Uganda would transform into a Christian
nation. But it happened! I was ministering in Uganda a couple years ago and was really thrilled to see this Christian nation with a high percentage of Christian population. It is our strong belief
that this can occur in any country. Our turn will certainly come, it is our turn now! Amen!
A Matter of the Heart
Moses was raised in the palace for the first 40 years of his life. In Acts 7:23, we read that when Moses was 40 years old, he had it in his heart to visit his own brethren. There was a change in the season for Moses where he no longer felt a sense of belonging in the palace. Moses knew the change of season but he did not have any clue on what to do.
He ended up killing an Egyptian and spending his life in the wilderness for the next 40 years. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush when the right season came and called Moses to be the deliverer of the children of Israel.
It is important for us to follow the prompting and stirring in our hearts when we transit from one phase to another. Equally important also, we need to know what to do during the transition or the change of the seasons.
3. Straight Word from God
Another powerful way to know the change of season is when God speaks to us through a direct word. God’s voice and word will be made plain to the person who is receiving the word. God knows how to communicate to the recipient. For example, when Jesus called Levi to follow Him full time, Levi left his tax collection career and followed Jesus. It was an unmistakable word from the lips of our Saviour.
My wife, Christina and I were full time itinerant ministers travelling to many nations doing Prophetic Schools, evangelistic meetings and church camps for about 10 years. When the season came for us to do pastoral ministry, I remembered declaring to some of my close friends that we may be pastoring a church.
Somehow just as God put into Moses’ heart during the change of season, I felt a similar divine shift coming. Suddenly, God opened the door for us to be pastors of a great church when the former senior pastor of the church suffered moral failure.
More details of the various prophecies that we received during the crisis can be read in our book – Prophetic Encounter. I was very reluctant to lay down our travelling ministry. Furthermore, the church was really in a mess with financial debts of up to RM 3 million, power struggles among the pastoral team and legal suits added to the difficulty of dealing with the fallen pastor.
Many members were discouraged, hurt, and felt cheated and offended. Some decided to move on and left the church. With the background of what had transpired, I was not sure if this leading was from God. Though we received 3 personal prophecies from 3 independent prophets to fill in the gap of the church, we were like Gideon who needed another confirmation.
I highly respected a mighty prophet of God from Chennai, India who had a tremendous track record of accuracy on personal prophecies. Amazingly, when I called him in India, I was pleasantly surprised that the man of God was taking a break in Kuala Lumpur. What perfect timing! After 3 days, DGS Dhinakaran confirmed that it was God’s will for me to take up the pastoral role.
Meanwhile the situation in the church was getting out of hand with disunity among the core leadership on many issues. Meetings after meetings did not seem to solve the problems. One of the
main issues was that some leaders were convinced that one of the 5 Deputy Pastors should take over the church and not the itinerant preacher.
I remembered while I was driving to church one morning, I was still confused and unwilling to obey the direct word of the Lord. Halfway through the journey, I lifted my right hand to heaven and said with my whole being, “God I am willing to obey if this is your will.” Suddenly the awesome Presence of God filled the car and I found myself crying profusely “Lord, let your will be done.”
Brook Cherith Dried Up
I knew from day one that I was not going to do pastoral ministry for too long. My primary calling and ministry was not so much in the pastoral office. After 5 years, I felt unsettled. One morning I was reading 1 Kings 17. This is a familiar story about Prophet Elijah declaring a word of judgment to King Ahab because of the wickedness and sins of King Ahab and the nation.
God was going to shut the heavens and that there would be no rain in the land. Then, God spoke to Elijah to hide at the Brook Cherith as King Ahab hunted for him all over the nation. Daily, the personal McRaven’s delivery service ensured food supply reached Elijah every morning and evening. After a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Then, Elijah received a direct word to go to Zarephath where God had commanded a poor widow to provide for him.
Strangely, as I read this passage that wonderful morning, I knew in my spirit that God was speaking to me to move on. One of the clues to move on in life is when the provision dries up or when
circumstances are no longer favourable to you.
Never be where you are tolerated but be where you are celebrated. Similarly go where you are received, not where you are endured. After consulting with Christina, we knew it was the right thing to do and we tendered in our resignation.
With fear and trembling we resumed our itinerant ministry and God began to open up some amazing doors to the nations and granted such favour beyond what we could have asked or imagined. God networked us with mighty churches and ministries. A couple of years after stepping down as pastor, God spoke to us to do start a prophetic school. Subsequently, it was upgraded to the annual Prophetic Conference. We must always flow with the timing and the season of God in our lives.
House Moving
When we first got married, we were staying in a lovely hilly place called Sri Gombak, on the way to Genting Highlands. I particularly loved this place because of the mountains and greenery. We bought the small house for Ringgit Malaysia ninety-four thousand.
Every morning, I would look out of our bedroom window and have my prayer time. Our bedroom window was facing a forest and I used to pray, “I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth…” One particular morning as I was praying the Lord said, “When you see the forest cleared, it is time to move.” In my mind, I figured it would be quite a while.
A couple of months later, after a ministry trip overseas, as I watched from the window, I could not believe my eyes. Lo and behold, there was a red earth dirt road and the forest was being cleared. Excitedly, I told Christina that it was time for us to move house. We put a “For Sale” sign board on the gate outside the house.
In less than a week, a buyer walked in and offered to buy the house at Ringgit Malaysia One hundred and sixty thousand. In four years we made a profit of sixty-six thousand. God always leads us to profit!
We moved to Rawang, a town about 30 minutes drive towards the north of Kuala Lumpur. Our new home was filled with so many blessings and I thought my family would stay there till Jesus comes. It was in this new home that Asher, our son was born. It was a place of refuge for us when we were pastoring the church that went through great tempest.
Our home was also used for ministry and storing our books, tapes and office equipments. With a growing ministry, we needed more rooms and space. While discussing about our next move, Christina suggested that we should get two Semi-Detached houses, one for our home and the other for ministry use.
It was our prayer point. One day Asher told us a dream of this 3 storey house that he saw. Asher gave us the details of the house and even the exact location. We had not mentioned anything to Asher or anyone else with regards to our plans.
In the morning, I normally go to a nearby waterfall which is about 15 minutes drive away for my prayer and meditation. One morning, the Holy Spirit said to me, “This week is going to be very exciting for you.” Needless to say, I was really taken by surprise with what God had just spoken.
There are 2 ways to go to town from my house. One way was a broad road which I normally took. The other was quite narrow and winding. This narrow road was a shorter distance but it passed through a squatter area. That morning as I was driving to the waterfall, without my realization, I took the narrow road.
To my pleasant surprise, the squatter houses had been removed and a nice piece of vacant land was most welcoming. I saw a huge signage with the wordings “Semi-D houses to be built”, including the developer’s address and telephone numbers. With great excitement, I went home instead and told Christina about this wonderful development. We decided to visit the developer’s office that morning itself.
We booked two units and also got a 4 percent discount off the purchase price. Asher was thrilled when he discovered that the house he saw in the dream and the location were exactly the same as the one that was going to be built.
God speaks in mysterious ways. When it is time to move, whether it is a job, a house or even to migrate to another city or nation, God will direct you and speak to you distinctly and accurately. May we hear from Him whenever the season is about to change.