Intro: Many people are sensing change, not only in the world around us, but in our personal lives. It may not be visible yet, but you know that it's around the corner. It's hard to describe, but you feel it in your spirit. Something is shifting. I want to share seven signs that reveal your season may be shifting to help you discern if you're in a time of transition. I believe some of them will resonate with you.
How do you recognize that you're shifting seasons?
1. Opposition or Difficulty
It took a "Goliath" to move David from the shepherd-boy season into the kingship season. Sometimes the inner tension that we feel from new obstacles or challenges is actually a sign of transition; we're moving from one season to another.
Author Glenn Bleakney puts it well: "Shifting into our next assignment requires that we recognize the closure of one season and the beginning of the next. I have learned that sometimes what we think is the resistance of the enemy is, in fact, the insistence of our heavenly Father that we let go and move into our new future."
2. Closed Doors
You're doing what once got you results, but it's no longer working. No matter how much you try or how hard you push, you seem to keep hitting a brick wall. It can be incredibly frustrating, but we need to understand that closed doors are as much a sign of the closeness and involvement of God in our lives as open doors. They can also be a sign that you're entering a new season.
3. Relational Shifts
Some people who were central to your life either aren't there any longer, or you just don't feel like you have the same connection anymore. At the same time, some new relationships might form, perhaps even with people whom you would never have imagined having a connection with in the past. It could be a sign that you are shifting seasons. (Photo via StockSnap)
In my own life, there was a time when God clearly told me to move on from a particular assignment. My season there was finished. However, I was reluctant to leave. It seemed too risky and uncomfortable. Within a month or so, I experienced an unusual breakdown in some relationships with people I had been close to for years. These relational changes were so painful that I knew I could no longer stay in that place.
4. Changing Needs/Desires
Things that used to bring you much satisfaction and joy now don't really bring the same fulfillment. You're doing what you have always done, but you're bored by it. You're getting the results you have always wanted, and yet you feel flat and weary.
You spend each day thinking, "I can't keep doing this. Something has to change." It could be a sign that you are shifting seasons.
5. Feeling Constricted
You may feel contained in a certain area of your life. It's like you have grown, but your environment has stayed the same, and now it feels small, limiting, and almost suffocating. You know there's more inside you than what people are seeing, and you need to be stretched.
It's almost like when a baby in the womb reaches full term. It has to come out. It can't be contained anymore without harm being caused to both the mother and baby. That feeling of constriction can be a sign in your life that God is birthing a new season.
6. A New Sense of Joy and Freedom
For a long time, you've felt discouraged and discontent, but now your passion is returning. It's like the spark has come back. There's a freshness in your life. Doors that once seemed to be closed have now started to open. You are seeing new opportunities and possibilities. This means you are likely shifting into a new season. (Photo via Unsplash)
7. Depletion of Resources
When there is a shift happening, God will sometimes allow us to experience an unexpected depletion of resources in an area where there was previously sufficient provision.
In 1 Kings 17, Elijah is instructed to camp by the Kerith Ravine. Here the Lord supplied all of his needs and sustained him during a severe famine. Then we are told: "Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: 'Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food'" (vv. 7–9 NIV).
When the source of his supply dried up, God moved Elijah on to his next assignment. The depletion of resources preceded the shift in seasons. Has your brook dried up? Is there any area where previous provision is running low?
Maybe in your work, orders aren't coming in. Or your services just aren't in demand like they were before. It could well be a sign that God is reorienting and repositioning you for the next season.
Right now, there is a significant shift in seasons taking place for many of you. It's unsettling and unnerving, but also very exciting. Enter into the fullness of all that the Father has prepared for you.
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Craig Cooney
HOPE Church | Daily Prophetic
Email:Â contactdailyprophetic@gmail.com
Website:Â dailyprophetic.com
Craig Cooney has been in ordained ministry for over fifteen years, leading churches in the north and south of Ireland. He is married to Becky, and they have a son named Elijah, as well as a labradoodle named Henry. Craig is the author of four books: "The Tension of Transition," "SPIRIT SPEAK," "I Hear Yahweh," and "When the Lamb Roars." His passion is to help believers to hear God's voice for themselves and apply God's wisdom as they navigate through the transitions of life.
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