God has definite periods or stages in our lives. There is a time to be born, a time to grow, a time to laugh and a time to cry. There is also a specific time when we are born on earth and a right time when we receive the call to leave this planet. We need to understand that God has His perfect will for us at each stage of life on this earth.
Just a Dream
Like many, I had failed to understand the timings of God. Being brought up in a relatively below average home financially, little did I imagine or dream that God had great things in store for me. Each time I saw an aeroplane fly, I used to wonder if I would ever get a chance to fly in one or go beyond the borders of my land. Being taught to love God from childhood, it was not uncommon to me to verbalize my desires, my thoughts and my aspirations to God. I knew God was listening but the future did not seem like a reality; it was almost a dream. Now I travel so much that I dread the exhaustion of flying!
The Transition
My mind is still so overwhelmed each time I see planes defy the force of gravity and take on a higher law, the law of
aerodynamics. A lot of force and energy is needed to push the plane above the gravitational pull of earth until it harmonises with the higher force that is beyond the force of gravity. Similarly there is considerable effort and discipline required from us to reach out and allow the Holy Spirit to take over the reign of our life. Then we flow with Him in another law, the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. When we flow with this higher law, the law of sin and death loses its power over us!
Then we can say like Apostle Paul in Romans 8:1&2;
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The Transition period is however not comfortable. It requires a lot of energy and force. Transitions involve changes. Changes are many times are like sandpaper that rubs into our comfort zone. Our priorities are being aligned and we are being pruned to bear more fruit.
Testimony
I had acknowledged Jesus publicly when I was 12 although I had done so many times in our family prayers or whenever my mum prayed with me when I was little. It is the same with my son Asher. I can’t actually put a finger to the exact date when he received Jesus as he had said his sinner’s prayer so many times as a child. At 16 I was filled with the Holy Spirit and went through tremendous persecution for praying in tongues. The same year the Lord visited me in a dream and revealed His will for me to serve Him.
Even when the Lord visited me in my dream, it never occurred to me that in God’s mercies and kindness He would do what to our natural mind was unthinkable. It was beyond my imagination to perceive how it was going to be accomplished. God in His mercy and sovereignty had given me the grace to set my foot on many nations with His word in my mouth. It is such an honour and privilege to serve His majesty King Jesus.
However it did not happen by chance. It took periods of trials, waiting and studying in apprenticeship under mentors who love Jesus. These periods were some of the most uncomfortable and trying periods of my life. Some of these are recorded in the Prophetic encounter book.
Passing the Baton
One thing that we need to understand about transition is that there is a letting go of the old and embracing the new. In a baton relay when the baton is passed from one runner to the next, the first runner runs alongside the next runner as he passes the baton and the second runner gains momentum as he takes hold of the baton. The first runner however slows down once he has passed the baton and eventually stops. In the transition between the mentor and protégé, it is the same. The mentor trains the protégé and brings him to a place that he can take off with the baton. He runs alongside for a while and then tapers off.
Hannah
Hannah had come to a place that she had lost all hope of holding on to her dreams that she would show her rival that she too can conceive. She had come to a place of complete hopelessness. Year by year she would come and present her case in fasting and tears before the Lord and it seemed that God was not hearing. (Samuel 1:11) ‘One year she came in utter desperation, she arose after their meal and came before the Lord, wept bitterly and prayed. Then she made a vow, “O Lord of hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant, and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life,
and no razor shall come upon his head.’
In her anguish she made a vow to return the male child back to the Lord if God were to hear her prayer. God even used the man of God Eli in whom he was so displeased, to speak the word of
release for her miracle.
Sometimes, I wonder if God in His great wisdom allowed Hannah to be in barrenness to bring her to the place of desperation. If Hannah had received Samuel easily, would she have easily surrendered him to God? It is hard to tell. However, being in that state of deep necessity, she vowed she would dedicate her son to God for the rest of his life. That meant submitting her son for full time ministry! Besides, Samuel was not from the priestly linage or the linage
of Levi. If there weren’t any wait to receive a miracle, Hannah most likely would not have dedicated him as he was not from the priestly linage or from the Levi’s linage. His father Elkanah was an Ephraimite.
NKJ 1 Samuel 1:1
Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
The wait to receive a miracle, the transition from barrenness to fruitfulness, brought her to a place of surrender and dedication of her miracle back to God.
Samuel
Samuel was the result of his mother’s persistent prayer. Samuel was bud-grafted into Eli’s family. God worked it out so beautifully that a descendant of Ephraim became the judge and priest and prophet of Israel. Even if you are born in an ungodly family or a family that does not have pastors in the linage, yet God in His grace and wisdom is able to handpick you or your children for His work. Are we prepared to submit our sons and daughters to
God for the extension of His Kingdom?
His Apprenticeship
Samuel was placed under Eli, the man of God to learn and serve under him from childhood. Even though Eli was a fallen man of God, who did not raise his children in righteousness as God required, God did not bypass Eli in Samuel’s training. It took Eli to show Samuel how to hear and respond when God called him.
God could have ignored Eli’s existence because He was so displeased with Eli, and made Himself known to Samuel in His own special way. However, God chose to respect the authority placed over Samuel and allowed Eli to train Samuel to hear Him. Samuel had to transit from a student who had to learn, from a disciple who had to be taught to a man who hears God himself. Eli had done a good job on him, because Samuel had learnt well and was an obedient child.
Samuel was noted as a prophet who grew (that took time of training and learning). God was with him and let none of his
words fall to the ground. That means he had power over his words and it happened just as he said. God established him as a prophet who served God during the reign of Saul and He even anointed David to be the future king of Israel.
19 So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.
20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the LORD.
Responsible Stewards
God respected and honoured Abraham with the knowledge of His plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and allowed the
intervention of Abraham’s intercession for Lot simply because He knew Abraham would raise his seed after the ways of God and in righteousness.
17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,
18 “since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
19 “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
God’s declaration about Abraham was before Abraham’s promised seed was born. There must be a way Abraham dealt
with Ishmael which assured God that Abraham’s righteousness would be passed down to his children.
I wondered what assurance we can give God that our seed would walk before the Lord in righteousness, obedience and justice. Are we good stewards of the souls He’s place in our hands? We are definitely answerable and have to give an account to God for the children He has given us.
God’s displeasure upon Eli was mainly because of the lawlessness and immorality committed by his children. They
mocked the sacrifices of God and treated the sanctuary of God with contempt. Eli’s sons were disqualified from the ministry and Eli died in shock when the Ark of God was captured from Israel.
Many people don’t realise that God has given them children to be raised up as a godly seed and a godly generation. Passing over the responsibility to maids as seen in countries like Malaysia and Singapore or to day-care centres (as in many other countries) is very unhealthy.
The little ones get attached to individuals caring for them, learn from them and pick up their spirits and attitudes. Some parents spend so little time with their children and then wonder why their little ones are so difficult to manage. Financial needs overwhelm the need to nurture their children. All it takes is to simply curb excess expenditure and sacrifice either one spouse’s secular job for their seed to be nurtured as godly seed. This would probably mean someone’s occupation has to be placed at the altar but some parents are not willing to pay that price.
If there is no altar it means there isn’t any sacrifice. If there is no sacrifice it means there wouldn’t be any blessing. The transition from living childless and being fruitful would also be a period when quality decisions are made. Can we reassure God that His gift towards us would not be decaying in hell one day? Would we be willing to value the soul entrusted to us more than the amount we could receive from labouring elsewhere during the
child’s nurturing period?
One day when we stand before God, would God be so pleased with us or are we going to weep tears of regret and shame?
Transition period is not wasted period