"Don't Stop Threshing in Your Season of Blessing"

2020: Where the Wilderness Ends and the Promise Begins

In this last season, many people have had trials and tribulations and have been desperately crying out to God and pressing in to see great breakthrough.

Yet, despite all this, you have not given up and you persevered. Now, because you have stood your ground, even in dry and difficult conditions, I see those things you have been asking God for manifesting before your eyes. Your season in the wilderness is over – get ready to walk into the glorious promised land of milk and honey!

As I was seeking the Lord the other morning, He drew me to some wonderfully encouraging Scriptures about these incredible blessings.

Deuteronomy 8:7-10, "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and of springs, that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines, of fig trees, of pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat great without scarcity in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land He has given you."

These promises in His Word show us clearly that when we continue to be obedient and follow Jesus through the hard times, through the lack, and through the poverty we can expect GREAT and WONDERFUL blessings and immense multiplication over every area in our lives. We must choose to remain steadfast and not give up or grow weary, wholeheartedly choosing to follow Jesus in every season and seek God first.

Don't Forget the Lord Your God

Through these verses I also sense a warning from the Lord, which we all must pay careful attention to. I felt the ache in God's heart as He lovingly reminded me of these next Scriptures.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 (emphasis added):

"BEWARE THAT YOU DON'T FORGET THE LORD YOUR GOD by not keeping His commandments, His judgments and His statutes which I command you today, lest – when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you GOOD in the end – then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'

"And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish HIS COVENANT which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

"Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish...because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God."

In this passage, and many other verses in the Old Testament, the Father is revealing the longing in His heart for His people not to forget Him.

Jeremiah 2:32 says, "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number."

I hear the Lord saying this to us, the Body of Christ, "Don't stop threshing in your season of great blessing."

Threshing is an agricultural process after harvesting where they loosen and separate the wheat (the edible and useful grain) from the chaff, which is inedible and useless. It's through this crushing process, either by hand or machine, that the separation occurs.

As we move into 2020, I sense we must stay on the threshing floor with God, letting His presence into those deep places of our hearts and allowing Him to continually separate and sift the wheat from the chaff in our lives. Allow Him to blow away that which is useless and serves no godly purpose.

2020 will be marked with great blessing but I also feel like God is strongly highlighting this warning in advance: Do not forget Him in the joy and wonder in the season of your great blessing. Do not forget Him when you have need of nothing. Do not forget Him when the desires of your heart have been answered and fulfilled. Do not forget Him when you've received the spouse or family you have been so deeply crying out for. Do not forget Him when that promotion you were desperate for has been given to you. Do not forget Him when your ministry is thriving and multiplying, or where things are great and wonderful.

When your life is bursting full of the added blessings of God, and as you get caught up in the business of everyday life, the hustle and the bustle of raising children and working, don't forget the Lord your God. Remember Him and prioritize Him first.

When we enter into a season of abundant blessing it can often be the place where we can be lulled into a false sense of security. It's a place where the cares and riches of this life can easily creep in slowly and subtly choke the Word in your life and make it unfruitful. It's in this place where we can become overly comfortable, lazy, unprofitable and distracted servants.

Mark 4:19, "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entering in choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful."

I sense in this place of great blessing we need to stay on guard, sober, alert and wide awake, lest we fall into stagnant, poisonous waters. We must guard our hearts against apathy and complacency, drifting into lukewarmness and becoming a soft target for the enemy.

We must remain vigilant in holiness and purity and not let our guards down – not even for one second. Let's protect and hold dear our marriages and families lest the enemy gain a foothold in our lives.

I encourage you – Jesus didn't give up His life and deliver us from Hell's gates for us to live an insipid and "status quo" Christianity. He died and shed His precious Blood so that we could live here on Earth as Holy Ghost fire; burning, active disciples, in a relentless pursuit of knowing Jesus intimately. He died so that each one of us could demonstrate the power of His Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I feel Him reminding us that He's called each one of us to vehemently destroy the works of darkness, whatever our sphere of influence. He didn't call us just to go through the motions of life – it's not just business as usual. He has called each one of us for His purpose and His plans, so that we can give our everything to know and be known by Him.

Don't settle in this season of great blessing and forget the Lord your God. There is more to do, more to establish, more darkness to be destroyed, more lands to be occupied, more prisoners to set free, more bodies to be healed and more souls to be snatched from Hell's fire. Don't lose your vision and passion in the season of great blessing!

It is one thing to be tested in lack, poverty and hard times, where we draw close to God and cry out to Him to meet our every need. It is quite another thing to be tested in the land of plenty, when we have come out of the wilderness and are now walking into the glorious promised land.

Focus on the Gift Giver, not the Gift

God loves to bless us and He wants us to enjoy His tremendous blessings, but not so much that we are enamored with the gift and not the Gift Giver.

There is a real danger in this next season for many people to fall prey to reveling in the blessings of God and forget Who it was that gave the blessings. There is a great danger in taking the blessings of God for granted and running in our own strength, purposes and plans. There is danger in settling and forgetting the calling that God has over our lives. There is a danger of taking the excess of the blessing and not building God's Kingdom on the earth. There is a great danger of becoming ungrateful and unthankful in the season of great blessing and, in turn, cultivating a stronghold of entitlement.

With the wrong attitude, we start to demand more and more from God but we forget to even say "Thank You" and acknowledge that it was God who gave the blessing to us. We can become familiar with the blessing and ungrateful for what He has already so generously and lavishly given us. We can begin to treat those blessings in our lives as a common thing. We can become blind and fail to see the great beauty and value that they once held in our hearts.

We see many a great man and woman of God in the Word fall prey to this very thing. Even King David fell into this trap. When things were great and his army was winning victory after victory he relaxed his guard. He didn't need to be on the battlefield anymore so he stayed home when he should have been fighting. Sadly, he fell prey to the sin with Bathsheba. He had become a soft target for the enemy.

How Do We Heed This Warning?

How do we take heed to this warning so that we don't fall into this trap in the season of blessing?

Firstly, recognize and admit if you have drifted into this area. Repent to God and turn your heart back to your first love, Jesus Christ. Remain intentional and vigilant in the God-given vision for your own life, as well as for the collective Body.

Secondly, let's be diligent and make sure we are also teaching our children, the upcoming generation, how to be grateful and thankful to God for every little thing they have. It can be so easy to get blindsided by entitlement, but we must push back and deliberately cultivate attitudes of gratitude, thanksgiving and praise to God.

Psalm 100:4, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name."

Ephesians 5:20, "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I felt God say, "Remind My people to keep eternity on the forefront of their minds. Make a choice to always remember to be thankful and grateful. Don't look to the things that are temporary on this earth, even in the great and wonderful blessings."

I encourage you, continue to look to Jesus, the Lamb of God, the author and perfecter of your faith. Stay in the fire, stay on the threshing floor and stay focused; don't fall asleep. Allow God to keep sifting through your whole life, quickly letting go of those wrong attitudes and habits that bear no eternal benefit. Keep seeking and longing for Him; read His Word and be a doer of the Word, searching for Him with your whole heart, diligently pursuing Him at every turn.

Let's NEVER FORGET that knowing Him is the greatest treasure we could ever have. Keep threshing in the season of blessing.

Psalm 69:30, "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving."

Hebrews 13:15, "By Him let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name."

Don't forget the Lord your God in your season of great blessing. He's worthy of all our praise, He is worthy to be adored and loved and NEVER taken for granted.

Chelsea Hagen
Frankston Fire Church
Email: Click here
Website: www.firechurch.com

Daniel and Chelsea Hagen are pioneers and overseers of Fire Church Ministries. They have also planted and overseen a number of churches throughout Queensland and Victoria. 'Signs and wonders following' have ear marked their ministry, and they have a passion to see every Christian experience an intimate, passionate relationship with God, knowing who they are in Christ, being a 'doer' of the Word, and representing Christ wherever they are. Daniel, Chelsea and the family live in Victoria, Australia.

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