Lights Coming On

My God did something extraordinary for me this morning...permit me to share?

It has been obvious to me, and to those who know me, that I’ve been in a place of transition since early this year. A friend of mine asked yesterday how the transition was going. This was my reply:

"Transition not going as "planned"...but when does it ever? I've been struggling some, but ok. Just in a place where I've never been before and it's mighty uncomfortable. The best way I know to describe it is that every other transition I've been thru in life, I've been able to see the "marks" or each goal toward the high call...now, it's dark and the Lord is asking me to simply hold His hand and trust Him for the next step...which I don't see or have any clue as to what that step is? I sort of feel like I'm in a holding pattern, waiting, and allowing Him to take care of some things in me before I land into that next step or place."

Then, this morning, when I got to work, another email awaited me from a different friend with the following article attached:

"All New Things Begin in Darkness: Transitioning Through Your Dark Night" by John Paul Jackson

"This is a year of transition. As this is the eighth month already, no doubt you’re aware that transition means things are changing. If you allow God to move in your life and do what He wants to do, you’ll enjoy the change. And if you don’t … then you won’t, for obvious reasons. In this e-letter, I would like to talk to you about something that goes hand in hand with transition. It is the hardest part of change, actually, and is what makes change so often difficult. Jesus said that whoever loses his life will find it (Matthew 10:39). Growing spiritually is possible only if you’re willing to let go of the old in order to gain the new. In other words, you gain by losing; you give up your life in order to find it.

But there’s a secret in that. What you need to give up is the thing that’s holding you back. You might think it is good, but it is actually keeping you from your destiny. It is a virus, an infection, a germ that needs eradicating before it can metastasize. If God asks you to give up something, it is only what will destroy you — i.e., this isn’t something you want to keep! Here’s the catcher: The in-between time when you’re coming to that conclusion is usually confusing, painful and completely black. You can’t see a thing, and you have no idea where you’re going.

Have you felt like that this year … yet?

Three Levels of DarknessFrom pregnancy to creation, from anointing to new days, everything begins in darkness. It has been that way from the first day of creation, and it will continue to the end. New things begin in darkness. There are three levels, or deep times, of darkness that we encounter on the road to our destiny and true, pure spirituality: the Dark Night of the Wilderness or Desert, the Dark Night of the Soul and the Dark Night of the Spirit. With each one, you will feel like you are immersed in a deeper darkness than you have ever been in before. You will see less clearly, if at all, where you thought you were going. You most likely will not understand the purpose of it and why God is allowing you to go through such a dark, difficult time. Depending on what God is after, this time may shake you to your very core.

The First Sign of Healing

At some point in all three phases, you finally realize that what you have self-justified (the thing you’ve been trying to hold onto) is actually hindering your destiny, and with this realization, there is often a sense of failure or sorrow or both. But even here, do not give up hope, because this sense of failure is actually the initial sign of healing: You are on your way out. You have allowed God to remove the blinders, and as He does so, the first tendrils of light become visible again.Immediately after this point of despair, everything changes. Here you see the light at the end of the long tunnel. You have hope for a better life, and it is soooooo refreshing. Though you know the rest of the tunnel still lies ahead of you, you see the light at the end, and you know you will make it, even though, up until this point, you were pretty sure you wouldn’t.So many of us are walking blindly today, because God sees where we’re heading, but we do not.

As this is the eighth month already, no doubt you’re aware that transition means things are changing. You can’t get away with the things you got away with before; your Father has asked you to come up higher. He may have asked you to give up the “good” thing in order to give you the best. Times are dark. The way is hidden.The secret is this: No matter how dark your transitional time has been, you were always going to make it in God’s book, even during these times when the light has been hidden from you. If God is your Captain, you will survive this year — and the next year and the one after that.But for right now, as God transitions you and you walk through intense times of not knowing, don’t lose hope. As the sun rises from behind the peaks and you see life again for the first time in months … you’re going to fall in love all over again. God never leaves His children in the dark. You’ll see.

As I began to read…the light came on. Wow, so that’s where I am! If you are going through something similar, please let me know so that I can be praying for you, because I need prayer as well. I have an inkling of what God is asking me to let go of, and if it’s what I think it is, it’s a big one for me. I’m not quite to the point of that realization, but when I get there, I will let you know.

Looking to the Light, Jewelya

Transition: Boldly Going ...

Webster’s defines transition as simply: “passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another: change or: a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another.

From early this year there have been ‘buzz’ words flying around concerning what God is doing in 2008. Many have said this is a year of "New Beginnings," divine repositioning, change and transformation. Earlier this year we experienced a time of local super-natural occurrences in the weather. We had unprecedented winds and tornado warnings in this area like never before. Without sounding too deep, I believe that the natural was lining up with the spirit. I do believe that God is positioning His body where it needs to be for this season.

My family and I are personally experiencing these changes in the natural and in the spirit. The Lord takes us from one place to another with different assignments. We see this over and again in the New Testament as people finished what they were called to do in a particular place, the Holy Spirit would direct them where to go next. In Phillip’s case, the Holy Spirit literally picked him up and set him down into his next assignment.

The Lord has been teaching me so much about Himself during this time of transition. One of the biggest lessons is trust. Whenever the Lord has brought about change in my life in the past, there seemed to be a pattern, things I recognized. This time…it’s completely different. I’m in brand new territory. I’m feeling much like a pioneer in that the excitement of something new is grand, but the trepidation is very real as well. You know, the whole, "Going boldly where no man has gone before," thing! The process this time has caused me to rely on and trust in the Lord on a whole new level.

Something else I have learned is how much the enemy would like to take something beautiful that God is doing, and add in his two filthy cents to try and cause strife. Oh, how we need to be on guard against him and know that we wrestle not against flesh and blood! In a recent service I attended, the Lord spoke so clearly to the Body to simply “STOP believing the lies of the enemy.” If it was for not one else in the room (which is rarely the case), it was for me! Like any war strategist, we should know our enemy and his cunning devices.

Faith is another lesson. It never fails to amaze me how faith, hope and love work together in every situation. The actions that these three words accomplish is unfathomable. The life they bring. The expectation. The power. And through all of life’s transitions and changes this powerful stanza remains, “God changes not, His compassions they fail not; great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”

If you find yourself in the midst of one of God’s many life transitions…embrace it! Ask, “Lord, what do you need me to learn in this?” Learn it!! So you don’t have to do it again! Embrace His will and purpose for your life. Pursue Him with all of your being. Delight in Him (and His ways) and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Embracing transition with determination to reach the next mark of the high calling of Christ~

Jewelya