Birthing a New Season
Season’s change, and opportunities present themselves all the time, but it’s another thing to be ready to step into a new season with faith and expectation.
Destiny is where PREPARATION collides with OPPORTUNITY.
1. Following the cloud.
There is a day cloud and a night cloud.
It could have been the same, but God knows a night season is much different from a day season. The didn’t have to have a pillar of fire, they had campfires to warm by, but God’s angel showed himself as a pillar of fire each night to stand guard.
2. Moses – strikes the rock.
Next season – speak to the rock, instead he struck the rock.
It’s so tempting for us to use force instead of faith.
Faith speaks – force controls.
Joshua 3:1 “Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. 2 So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.
A. God will start bringing new people into your life. You must discern which people God sent to you and the ones the devil sent to you.
B. Follow the ones who smell like smoke. Everyone that wants to do ministry, is not willing to go behind the veil. These men went into the Holy Place. They smell like prayer, like worship, like God.
C. Go after it. In order for you to go after it, it must go before you.
D. The Ark has the Book of the Law, the Tablets, Aaron’s rod that budded and manna from the wilderness.
E. You can choose to speak positive thoughts or negative thoughts, or God thoughts.
F. Speak faith into your future…… IT’S NOT HARD.
4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”
A. Becoming familiar with God.
B. You have never come this way before.
C. Tradition is about the past, trends are about the present, but truth is about the future.
D. God wants to lead. Wait on it! Luke 1 opens with an angel talking to a priests named Zacharias. The angel quotes the last two verses of Malachi. It has been 400 years since God has spoken, but His last word, was still “ the word.” Unless God gives you new instructions keep mar chine with His last marching orders.
1. You don’t need a NEW WORD, until you complete your LAST WORD. God’s word is not a hallmark card, it s a decree from a King.
E. You have not come this way before, you need to let God lead.
5 And Joshua said to the people, “ Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
A. What you are going through today is not about today, it’s about your future.
B. Tomorrow, God will do wonders among you.
6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
A. God has to get the leaders there first.
B. Don’t be disappointed when people are exactly where they have been led to be.
C. Leaders go first and the others will follow.
Leaders have to be the first to WORSHIP.
The first to PRAYER.
The first to join a LIFEGROUP
The first to win a SOUL.
D. Too many institutions are building memorials to the past. God is looking for FORWARD THINKERS. VISIONARIES who do not have to have an ancient landmark make their move. A pioneer spirit that says, I know it’s never been done before, but God wants to do it now. God is doing a new thing.
8 You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. ’”
A. The edge of the water is just mud. The Jordan river is a muddy river.
B. You have to be willing to stand in the mud before you see the miracle.
C. Those who can’t stand in the MUD won’t be able to stand in the FLOW.
9 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.”
A. It’s great to have a vision, but how about when you get into the work of the vision. It’s just work then.
B. That is when you must take up your sword and say, here the words of the Lord.
13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.”
A. You cannot work for God out of anxiety and fear. You have to work out of rest.
Joshua 4
The Memorial Stones
4 Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; 5 and Joshua said to them:“Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you? ’ 7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”
A. Your children will not have to fight the battles you are fighting now. They will have their own fight, but not this one.
The Jordan river is the dividing line between the past and the future.
B. We had a conference at our church one time and Brittany was about 5 at the time. We lived by the church then. Britt went home and got under her bed and went to sleep. Faith thought she was with me and I thought she was with Faith. I turned the lights off and came home. Faith said, where is Brittany? We both panicked. I ran as hard as I could back to the church and looked for her, but she wasn’t there. We had to quit looking for her at the church. Now we are hyperventilating. Our speaker was staying at our house with us and started helping us look for her. We were within 2 seconds of calling the police. We thought she had been abducted. Faith was crying, we were all desperately praying and the gentleman who was our speaker remembered a story about his granddaughter hiding under the bed. He looked under Brittany’s bed and say her poofy dress. She had never done anything like that before. As her father, I was willing to give up everything I owned in that moment to anyone who would help my find my lost child.
That is how God feels. You want to see the extreme favor of God in your life? You want to see miracles? You want to see wonders – then go find God’s lost children. He will open up the windows of heaven and pour our blessings you can’t contain.
