New Season of Significant Change Coming
by Jill Southern
I believe that, as Christians, we are all about to walk into a new season of significant change.
These are serious and urgent days, where can no longer go around in spiritual neutral gear. God is radically changing the way that we depend on Him, but we will only depend on Him fully when we come to an end of ourselves.
He is teaching me how to trust Him. He wants me to be convinced in the deepest place that I can trust Him with my future. His radical love for me won’t let any person or anything on earth totally meet my needs but Him. God wants to know that He can trust me. ‘Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful’ (1 Corinthians 4:2). My faithfulness to God matters. I must learn to surrender my expectations that He will perform in a certain way or answer my prayers in a certain way.
The new requirement of God turns out to be the same as the old one. It is to come and die to myself. He is asking me to lead from a position of weakness not strength. The best I can do will never be enough, and God loves me too much to allow me to succeed in my own strength. God has been merciful up to now, but He will no longer cover over any presumption. I must not presume to do things the same old way. God is doing a new thing, which will lead to more freedom and yet greater accountability to Him. He has new directions for me and deeper levels of intimacy with Him. He wants new wine skins for an outpouring of His Spirit in this new season.
Seducing voices may well suggest we take the easy road, take matters into our own hands by our own power, or follow the dramatic and sensational. But we must give no ground to deception or denial of reality. This will require us to have finely tuned antennae which listen for God’s voice alone. For example, we may expect Jesus to come in through the front door, but He comes in through the back. We can feel exposed and vulnerable. We really need His help. As God moves in power among His people, let us be more concerned than ever that we do not miss out on what He is doing today.
Jill Southern is the founder of Ellel Ministries Pierrepont and directed the work for 21 years. She has recently stood down from that role but still teaches on the NETS programme and has the passion to train and equip God`s people to fully walk in their destiny and calling. She is the Regional Director for Ellel Ministries International in South East Asia and China and is also on the Executive Leadership of the ministry.
Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship. Provided full acknowledgement is made to Seeds of the Kingdom as the source, you are also welcome to use it in a non-commercial way and reproduce it in magazines or other Christian websites. The copyright for any commercial use of the material remains with Ellel Ministries International.
