Entering God's Perfect Season of Establishment, Expansion and Rest

God has perfect timings. He's never early, never late. Everything of God is worth waiting for, and it requires faith and patience to inherit what He has in store for us (Heb. 6:12). When the timings and seasons of God come, it doesn't matter what you're doing or where you are; His purpose will prevail. 

We have entered into that season where God has chosen to give us establishment, expansion and rest. Agree to enter that season. Sometimes God may calm the storm, sometimes He may choose to let the storm rage but calm His child. There are people who understand that it's only God Who's calmed our hearts. 

He chooses to let the storm rage for His own reasons. There are those times we tell God that He knows how to calm the storm, and expect Him to calm it, but He chooses not to for His own reasons. This time round for us as a church God has chosen to calm the storm, to establish, expand and give us rest. As seeds of God, we have to understand what seasons we are in. If a seed doesn’t understand the season it’s in, it will die in the ground, missing out on sunshine, rain and so on. Let us get understanding and discernment to know what God is doing, to enter our establishment, expansion and rest as a church.

God has taken us through a time of reassurance, during the storm, of who we are in Him, what is our identity. Did He call us, or we called ourselves? He’s been reassuring us of these things, and now we can confidently stand in the midst of crowds and nations, telling them that we are a product of God’s design and purpose. We have been given a stamp of reassurance from heaven. The little doubts we have had are now dead, and now we know we are where God wanted us to be, doing what He wants us to be doing, and so on. God has called us and charged us with the responsibility of transformation of lives.

As we enter into the season of establishment, expansion and rest, every one of us must know where they fit in, and what is required of us.

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven... Ecclesiastes 3:1

Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:2-3 

Over time as a church we have gone through ups and downs, times we have thought it is time for breakthrough, but it turns out not to be. There are times we’re not aware of what the enemy has been doing at night. When we were ignorantly sleeping, things happen, and we lose it, and establishment becomes a theory. At such moments, we make mistakes. As God walks you on a journey, at His pace, say in business, we get tempted and take the short route. At such times, God awaits for us to do all a human could do, and when we reach those moments we turn to God in total dependence, and God takes it up and makes it His own, establishing us and causing us to experience His rest. Until we reach that point of surrender, where we've done it on our own and in our own knowledge and understanding, we won’t see how much we need God, and make Him our only Source of help. This is when He causes us to experience establishment, expansion and rest.

Let me mention two people who will help us understand this.

And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. Genesis 5:32-6:2

The story of Noah starts in Genesis 5:32. Looking at Genesis 6:2, we see what the sons of God did. What is of God and is of the spirit cannot match with what is earthly. 

Man was wicked at this point, and God wanting to destroy the whole earth found one man who was righteous. Noah for 120 years constructed an ark. In those days, people were too busy, too busy to even notice that Noah was constructing the ark:

"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:37

Today, people are still so busy, that people will even miss out on the Lord’s coming. People are very busy doing things that are not even in the will of God. People are too busy, but not being led by the Spirit of the Lord, and are not even contented in and with what they are doing. Noah a righteous man constructed an ark for 120 years, having been given instructions on how to construct the ark. Everyone passing by saw Noah constructing the ark. Those who’re so concerned about what people are saying as they are busy serving God should stop, and only be concerned with doing the purpose and will of God. Noah constructed a place of rescue for the people and animals. I know it was not so easy and comfortable staying in the ark for 40 days and nights, and I’m sure weren’t feeling so established. Some of us have walked this journey of not knowing where they’ll end up, how the end will be. After Noah had stayed in this instability of not knowing what was outside or how things will be, God allowed Him to enter that season of establishment, expansion and rest. If you are there and have been through big hills and valleys, dark days and so on, in the season of God He cuts off the history, confinement and hopelessness, He takes you into that place and time of experiencing so much rest, establishment and expansion. Start to enjoy this season, for that is where we are.

So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.

Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." 12 And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Genesis 9:1-2, 11-13  

God established Noah so much so that at one point he had everything, that he even drunk himself foolishly. As God establishes us, let us refrain from indulgence, forgetting the ways of the Lord. Let us purpose never to get out of the ways of God, even after He has established, expanded and given us rest.

The second story is that of Hannah, in 1 Samuel 1 (Read)

Hannah knew seasons of unrest and instability. Peninah laughed at her, not having a child, feeling ashamed and unsatisfied despite having a husband who loved her. Believe in God and in His timing. When the timing comes, it will happen. Now is the time. Believe in the Word of God, and in Him.

Who is that who will enter and experience God’s perfect season of establishment, expansion and rest? It is that person who will remain obedient to God. Obedient to the point that even if He asks you to create an ark like Noah, you will. When He says come to church and pray, you do so; when He says you fast, you do; when He says you quit walking in that company, you stop; whatever He says, you do (John 2:5). Remain consistently focused on Who you believe, and what you believe. Be where God wants you to be, doing what He wants you to do. A seed that will be planted and uprooted after a short while will never grow to fruition. If God has placed you within a church family, remain there until the time is up. Stop church hopping, and be focused and committed where God wants you to be, doing what He put you there to do. Be patient and seek God like Hannah.

How will you know that you have been established, are experiencing expansion and rest?

• You will experience an abundance of peace. Peace prevails within you, reigning in your life. This happens when you depend entirely on God to do it for you.
  
• You will find yourself very patient. When you trust, you wait.

Amen.

    Pastor Mary Mugo

Sunday Service Teaching, Transformation Ministry, Ruiru.

Pastor Mary is a pastor at Teaching Transformation Ministry. We are located along the Thika-Ruai Flyover Junction (at the Thika Rd./ Bypass intersection), Next to Eastgate Restaurant.