TRANSITIONS

Life is full of transitions and change from the moment we leave our mother’s womb and enter this world.  I don’t have to enumerate the almost hundreds of transitions we go through, in childhood, our teen years, into adult hood, from singleness to marriage, and parenthood, and in our careers.
Most of the time, the transitions are exciting, and of course at times a little scary, but in our youthfulness we take them all in our stride, and go with the flow. It is when we get much older, that transitions and change are not so easy to handle. We somehow, come to that place where we hate change and do not want to change, especially when we don’t know where the transition is going to take us.
Do you remember the spiritual transition out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God? For me it was almost 66 years ago, in the first week of October 1951, it was a momentous unforgettable day for me. Then there has been transition after transition as I have grown in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God makes it very clear that becoming a Christian is just the beginning and we must grow and change into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. I was thinking just today that part of discipling a new Christian MUST include emphasis on change and transition. We seem to be living in a generation where there seems to be little desire to grow and change in some.
I then began to think about the transitions and change in ministry. Again in my early years it was exciting as the Lord took us into Pastoring and then Teaching, and then Cross Cultural Ministry, it was truly “living the dream” as the Lord led us from one stage to another. Then I realised it is easy especially in ministry to not want to change when it comes to truth, I was saved in a “Holiness church” and was one day confronted with the truth that I could be filled with the Spirit, and that the Gifts of the Spirit including speaking in tongues were still available today. Sadly I know too many Believers who refused to change and embrace “restored truth”. We are  so much a product of our “denominational environment” that we put ourselves into Theological camps, and say I am a Calvinist, or I am an Armninian, and close our minds to letting the Holy Spirit lead us into all truth.
This has been brought home to me, in my own personal situation, as my public ministry was drawing to a close I was fearful of what lay ahead for me, For 56 years I have been teaching and preaching and I simply did not know what lay ahead. It became an earnest matter of prayer partly wanting a “new ministry” and partly not wanting change and transition (and somehow hoping things didn’t have to change). As many of my friends and readers know I have now embraced change and transition and like a child am so excited at this new ministry of Intercession the Lord has given to me. I have loved to teach on prayer and that includes the need to pray Intercessory prayers, I was also very thankful over the years to have known people who have prayed for me and my ministry. I have also taught on the “Ministry of Intercession” in the past and seen exciting results in people and local churches lives as a result of some who gave themselves to this ministry
This blog is all about our willingness (or lack of) to transition in every area of our life, and not be stubborn and intransigent. Lord help us not to have a “know it all” attitude, and say “I have been there, done that and bought the T shirt”, but until our dying day, or until Jesus breaks through the clouds we declare, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” and “I hear a voice behind me saying this is the way walk ye in it”. Let us have the attitude

 THE BEST IS YET TO COME

and

I will go where you want me to go

I will do what you want me to do

I will be what you want me to be

I will say what you want me to say.

For, Lord you are Sovereign, You only want my best, and I declare I AM IN YOUR HANDS Amen