Discerning New Seasons

A new season often begins before you recognise that it has arrived. In this episode, we discover why spiritual discernment matters and how learning to recognise these signs can help you respond differently to difficult seasons. Listen now and learn to seek God through the process and position yourself for what comes next.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thank you very much. God bless you. So the Lord is directing us into a conversation or today of discerning new seasons. The Lord was saying to me that it's a time where the church must learn what it looks like to go into a new season. Because you may be praying for a new season and God accepted your prayer. He accepted and said, Yes, I'll take you into a new season. And because you don't understand how that works, you may misinterpret what you're seeing and think God has said no. Rather, he said yes. Amen. Very important. Very, very important to know when you're going into a new time, a new phase, a new season of your personal life and your personal walk with God. Praise the Lord. So today will be filled with information that will help you to understand where you are at the moment. So let's go to Luke chapter twelve.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Thank you, sir. Luke chapter twelve, from verse fifty-four says, Then he also said to the multitudes, Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, A shower is coming, and so it is. Verse 55. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, There will be hot weather, and there is. Verse 56. Hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Praise God. So the Lord Jesus was speaking to Pharisees. So if you read from Luke chapter 12, um, from verse 1, he gets into a sermon, he starts teaching a sermon, and in this sermon, he's talking to the Pharisees, and um, he says to the Pharisees, a lot of things that you can read um all the way up to verse 54. But at specifically at verse 54, he turned he turns his sermon into somewhat of a teaching. Because whilst the Lord was teaching, he could he could sense that there was a lot of pushback. So to conclude his sermon, he says, You have done a great job studying this world. Praise God. You're able to tell when it will rain, and you're able to tell when we'll have a hot sunny day. Yeah, so he said you've done well, but then he says, But how come you are not able to tell what is happening now? There's a lot to learn from there. There's a lot to learn from that. I'll tell you some of the stuff that I learned from that communication. Number one is that God expects us to study spiritual science. Which means He expects us to know when a new season has come into our lives. This is very important because every time you don't know that a change is about to take place in your life, you will violate that change. And just for you to have an understanding of what I'm saying, I will try to make it more relatable and give you humanistic examples. One of the examples I can give you is a pregnant lady. If a pregnant lady is unaware that she's pregnant, she will misuse that time and most likely do eat things that could harm the baby. Praise God. So usually when you are um pregnant, you're advised to abstain from certain things to protect that baby. Amen. It could be stay away from specific foods, they will tell you stay away from much physical activity. You don't want to find yourself carrying heavy things, praise God. They even give you psychological counsel, they tell you don't put too much stress on yourself. Because these are all things that can harm the baby. Praise God. So when a when a pregnant, when a lady is pregnant, there are signs. Amen. There are signs. That pregnancy is a new time of her life, it's a new season. Praise God forevermore. What is the new season? You're becoming a mother. Is that correct? Yeah. So a mother can no longer go out the way she used to. Right? You have a child now. A mother, when she makes a decision now, she has to think about the children. Amen. The things I'm addressing now are all things that lady should have thought about before she had that baby. And you can be better prepared if you know that you're pregnant. Is that correct? Likewise in your personal life, if you know a change is coming, you should be better prepared. There are different changes that take place in our personal lives. Amen. Let's take a look at this text again. He says, When you see a cloud come out of the west, straight away you say, There cometh a shower, and so it is. Then he says, And when you see the south wind blow, you say, There will be heat, and it comes to pass. Verse 56 is where it gets interesting because he says, You hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth. How is it that you cannot discern this time? So he says, You have the skills to discern. How is it that you're unable to discern spiritually what's going on? Spiritual discernment is very important. Very, very important. And I will show you different things that present themselves as birth pains for a new season. One of the things you will notice in your new season that's coming is loneliness. When you find yourself lonely, it's not a bad thing. When you find yourself lonely, alone, that is. Are you following? 24. And Jacob was left alone. Does it say he was with other people? Jacob was left. God said, I want you alone. Now, his wives could have been very good influences, but God said, I don't want any other good influence. I want to be the only influence. Are you following? So one of the one of the massive, massive signs of a new season is when God is pulling you into a one-to-one with him. And you will feel it in your spirit that I got to be alone with him. It has to be me and him. Praise God. And in that time, when he pulls you into that one-to-one with him, the objective is for him to inform you on how he wants you to conduct yourself in this new season. That's where instruction and prosperity happen. Praise God. Because if you read about Jacob and you continue reading that, it says that he wrestled with the man. Yeah. As he continued wrestling with him, the man ended up changing his name from Jacob to Israel. And that day was the day the father of Israel was born. God had the intentions of giving Israel 12 tribes. He had the intentions for Israel to be set up the way it was. But it had to happen in a one-to-one. And you know what's more interesting? And this is the part that you may not like. Can I tell you what's even more interesting than that? Jacob had to fight.

unknown 18:07

Come on now, let's fight.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Jacob had to fight for what God wanted. This was God's will, but Jacob still had to fight for it. Praise God. God loves fighting. Amen. He does. He loves fighting. So many of you have misused the time to prepare for a new season. You've misused it by complaining. You're using this time to complain when God is, you're not picking up his language. He's saying, you know, you see this fight that happened. The Bible doesn't say Jacob went to the man. He said, when Jacob was alone, there was a man that wrestled with him. So God brought the fight to him.

unknown 19:06

Come on now.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

No, sir.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

So some troubled waters is God, not Satan. Are you following? Some, you know, the pool of Beth Bethesda. You know the pool of Bethesda? The Bible says that uh it would um it'll be it'll be stirred, and then it would mean that an angel is there. And if you're ill, you have any physical ailments, you throw yourself inside and you'll be completely healed. Doesn't matter what physical ailment that is. Was the devil staring that water? It was the angel of the Lord. So sometimes when you see turbulence in your private life, it's God. Why do you complain every time there's an issue? Why do you not discern that no, this this is this is God, this is God wanting to promote me. But you complain because you're unable to read the science. I know I know pregnant women complain about birth pains because in the moment they're in pain, but that birth pain isn't bad, it's actually a good sign. If your body is not telling you that it's time to push, you're in trouble. Why are you in trouble? Because you're harming the blessing. So you you may you may find that, oh God, I'm struggling. I'm in this time of my life, I'm struggling to pray. I'm really struggling with my prayer life. Okay, I'm struggling with my prayer life, and then you find that from struggling with your prayer life, certain relationships are not looking good. Family relations, romantic relations, there's just things that are not looking good. Did you know that God could be stirring that up? You didn't know that, did you? That God could be the one who stepped in and said, I'm gonna wind you up. Yeah, your business is not going well, God says, I'm gonna, I'm I'm gonna shut your finances down so you can look for me.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Should I add to that? Let me add to that. The Bible says that God says. To Moses, go before Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. But then God also says to Moses, but I will also harden his heart. But you sent me on an assignment. You sent me to go and talk to Pharaoh to release your people, but yet you're gonna harden his heart so that he doesn't do what you're asking me to tell him to do. You know why? God had all the intentions for a throwdown. Yeah, he wanted a showdown. God said, I want an opponent who challenge me so I can show Israel that I am God. Do you understand? So your financial troubles right now, your health troubles right now, your mental health issues right now may be stirred up by God not to depress you, but to get your attention. How else is he meant to get your attention? If he blesses you all the time, will you pray? Have you not noticed that your most heartfelt prayers came from the times where you were in trouble? You gave him the most attention when you were in trouble. And when things are fine, you're struggling to pray. Yeah, you struggle to pray. Now, of course, I'm not talking about those that struggle to pray every day, anyhow, in every situation. We'll come to them a little bit later. Praise God. Because I know some people identify with that. Pastor, when things are good, I'm struggling to pray. When things are bad, I'm struggling even more to pray. I'll come to them in a second. I'm dealing with those who you find that fire in your spirit when there's trouble, when there's fire on the mountain, you say, No, no, no, no, no. That's when the warrior in you comes out, and you say, I got to pray. Now, let me give you a little bit of um hermeneutics. The scripture reveals things to us in bits and pieces, and you may find that you read a narrative scripture and you don't have all the evidence until you read on maybe 15 books later, a prophet will reveal it. Can I show you what I mean? Let me show you what I mean. Let's go to Hosea. Remember that Hosea is a prophet, yeah? Hosea chapter 12. Now, I'm gonna read from verse 4. Yeah. Okay, from verse 3. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had the power with God. Verse 4. Yes, he had power over the angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us. Now, you probably don't understand what that means. Prophet Hosea is saying that Jacob held his brother's leg in his mother's womb. He was fighting to be first from his mother's womb. Then he fast forwards and says, He also met an angel and had a fight with him. But the prophet Hosea describes the fight differently. He says Jacob was crying and begging. But when we read in Genesis, it says they had a fight and his hip was dislocated. But the prophet is saying that actually it wasn't a fight. He caught the guy, started begging the guy, crying, and asking the guy to bless him. But God looks at it and says, That's a fight. You're not picking up on what I'm trying to teach you there. Genesis says there was a fight. Prophet Hosea says there was a prayer. Are you following? Hosea says he made supplication and cried. He wept. So the power, the fight was in his prayers and his tears. Some of you are approaching wedding season and you're looking around like God, where is the money gonna come from for this thing? Some of you are moving into new properties. God, where's the money gonna come for this thing? Some of you, your relationships are on the rocks. And it's been like that for some time. What you didn't pick up was God is saying, I need your attention. I need your attention. You're constantly, you know, finding yourself hitting a road bump. Your studies are going a little bit left. Mental health going a little bit left. Your health is going a little bit left. And you're binding demons in your room sometimes, anyway. In that in that time, we're gonna stick to Jacob for a second. In in that time when God said Jacob, you know, they met, alright? Jacob discerned that this man that I've just met is greater than me. He said he discerned it. He said, This man has the power to bless me. Praise God. Jacob didn't go in there with a prayer request. Praise the Lord. He didn't go in there with a prayer. Jacob went into that place with a simple thing in his spirit, the fight of faith. Let's go back there. I just wanted to show you what was happening in the realm of the spirit in Hosea. Okay? So let's go back there. Genesis 32. It says, and Jacob was left alone. So if you feel alone, rejoice. I think you can do better than that.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

So the Bible says, and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. I love it. Listen to that. The man wrestled with him for so long. It was all night, all the way to the morning. Jacob stayed. He was tired and he stayed. You see, when you really, really want God to take you to the next level, you won't be discouraged with what you're seeing. It's like the Samaritan woman, you know, and I've noticed that about God. He wants us to fight, he wants to show what he wants us to show him that we really want it. He said to the Samaritan woman, I can't give what I have to dogs. By the way, he was referring to her. And all the Samaritans. He said, What I have are for the is for the Jews. So we can't give human food to dogs. And the Samaritan woman said, Yes, but even dogs eat the leftovers of human food. The Bible says, for the first time, Jesus was shocked. He was taken aback. He said, I've not seen faith like this in Israel. No, I've not never seen faith like this before. It was in her fight. Why do you give up so easily? The relationship is getting tough, you're giving up. Business is tough, you're giving up. Marriage is tough, you're giving up. Finances are tough, you're giving up. The way you deal with things is you go away into a room and hide away. You hide away. Did God ask you to hide away?

SPEAKER_02 32:34

No, sir.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

In your toughest times, seek for his face.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

I'm telling you. Seek for his face. Be serious about seeking the face of God. Do what Jacob did. Go into that place of prayer and shed your tears. Your tears are what will move that mountain. It's a look, God may use a bait to pull you into prayer. But then there's a whole lot of other things He wants to talk to you about. So it could be your mental health that gets you into the place of prayer. But after that, once you're in, he starts talking to you about your attitude. He says, Your attitude has been terrible these days. You've been unbearable. And he will remind you yesterday, you spoke, you spoke out of turn. Praise God. After that fight with Jacob, all right. The angel of the Lord looked at him and said, Uh, what's your name? What's your name? He said, My name is Jacob. That could be your issue, but you you you just don't know. I'll explain. Jacob meant swindler in our time. The word Jacob means 419. Yeah, that's what that means. So he grew up with the name of 419. Every time his mother will call him 419, he will respond, Yes, Mom. And he ended up doing that to his brother. He frauded his brother. And his his attitude caused for him and his twin brother to split. And the Bible says his brother was looking for him to kill him. So Jacob was taking his family and running away from his brother. And the Bible tells us that Esau became a very influential man, very wealthy man, and he had a private army. In case you didn't know that, Esau was blessed. He was. Alright, read about the type of curse. Nonetheless, the swindler, the 419er, after 419, his dad. Yeah, yeah, because his father was blind. He lied to his dad and lied to his brother. Took the blessing and ran. God turned a simple man into a nation that day. Look at the fruits of time in prayer. Look at the fruits of time in prayer. Listen to this as well, all right? Your uh just just a quick inquiry. Have you asked what your name means? You know, some people say, you know, my name has never been heard before, it's a nice name. What does your name mean? No, because I'm aware that some people, your name means Ifa is great.

unknown 37:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Some of you, your name means the God of Thunder is marvelous. So every time we're calling your name, we're calling Epha is great. So I this is something I want you to do. What does your name mean? Just look into it. When you go into the place of prayer, ask God, He will tell you. Remember, names are confessions. You're gonna walk in what they call you. Amen. If your name means pain, what do you think is gonna happen? No, the first thing that will happen is not that you'll be experiencing pain. No, you'll be causing pain to other people. Everywhere you go, you'll be causing pain.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Names are very, very important. Check if you're also named after someone. Yes, Pastor, I'm named after my grandfather. What was his life like? Do you think I will name any of you or any person Jacob? Why? Why would I even name you Israel? Now, these are revelations that you receive when you have that one-to-one with him. Up until that time, just read. The Bible says he had two wives, eleven sons. So Joseph wasn't born yet, the one that became prime minister. Joseph was born after he was blessed. And he's the only one that became prime minister. So when you look at Jacob's life, praise God, the Bible says that he was he was okay financially, he was fine. He was okay financially, and he didn't know. It was a revelation that God brought to his attention that you've got to change your name. So with you, it could be something really small. Really small that you're not doing correctly, but God needs you in that one-to-one. I remember a young lady was lamenting to me about how terrible her relationship was with her mother. Terrible. Just terrible. Praise God. And she couldn't understand why. Why? So I had listened to her lamentation and then I responded with because this is what I heard in my spirit. So I said to her, Um, how about you stop responding? She said, What do you mean? I said, How about you stop responding every time your mother says something that you don't like? How about you stop talking back? She looked at me in a very, you know, bizarre way and she said, Okay, no problem. I said, try and hold your tongue. So the opportunity arised for her mother to verbally attack her. She did. And the young lady kept quiet. That happened four or five times, and every time it would happen, she'll call me, I'll say it as well. Now, maybe three weeks later, her mother calls her and says, Come to the house. She comes to the house. The mom says, Uh, I want to talk to you. And the mom says, Do you know that every time you would respond to me when we argue, you would remind me of your father. And so you sound like him, the things you would say, just like him, and we didn't, me and him didn't end well. Praise God. And she said that would harden my heart towards you. But for the last couple of months, according to the mother, you've been humble. And I want to apologize to you for how I've been dealing with you. Peace came because God was invited into the situation through an instruction. Now, I'm not giving you that instruction to glorify me, I'm giving you that instruction to show you what time with God can do. Time with God, taking time out of your busy schedule to spend time with Him. If you don't find time to spend with God, you will chase prosperity for the rest of your life, and that's a terrible thing. Chasing money and prosperity is a terrible thing. Because trust me, money is fast. So you'll be chasing it and you won't catch it. Peace. You'll be chasing it and you won't catch it. Amen. Some people expect that when they give their lives to Christ, that all the problems are gone, everything is finished, all the issues are done. All is well now. Giving my life to the Lord Jesus, everything is fine. That's what they expect. No, brother. No. When you give your life to the Lord Jesus, your problems have just begun. You know why? Because number one, you get to discover all the terrible ways that you had. And that changing process is a very difficult thing. Praise the Lord. Let me give you another scripture. They're telling me my time's up. All right, try and write this down. Write this down. Um signs of a new season. You will find yourself alone. More often than not, you'll find that there's unprovoked trials. Unprovoked. Confusion is another thing. But from there, correction comes. And then new relationships. Now, just to round off the scripture, it says verse 25, and when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched his the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of point, and he wrestled with him. Alright, so we know that that was supplication. I've taught you what supplication is. Alright, it's the posture of begging. So actually, Jacob went on his knees and cried and wept before this angel and said, You have to bless me. In the process, he lost his hip joint. But he continued, anyhow. The angel said, Let me go, verse 26. The angel said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. So daytime is coming. And he said, I will not let you go except you bless me. Verse 27. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he responded, Jacob. And he said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince has thou power with God and with men, and has prevailed. I love that. I love that. Listen, in the place of prayer is where you is where you prevail with man and God. Some people think that the fight with human beings happens in words when you meet them. You prevail with God and man in the place of prayer. That's where you prevail with God and man. You let that go. You let your prayer time slip. Used to pray all the time. Used to have that one-to-one with God all the time. You let that go. You got too busy for God. And even in your busyness for God, you're still expecting things from Him. You're not doing the fast properly. You're not doing the fast properly. And so it's coming out in your behavior. It's coming out in the way you're conducting yourself. This is what happens when God doesn't have a chance to talk to you. So there's wayward behavior. The things that I hear from the Spirit of God about what people do when they're not praying. You can't afford not to pray. Are you listening? You can't afford not to pray. You have to pray. That's between you and God. You're not fasting for me. You're fasting to take care of your future. That's where you prevail with man and God. Listen, you may be running a business and you you won't notice it. You won't notice it. But the favor is going down. It's in little things, it always starts in grips. It takes for a man or woman of discernment to, you know, when I hear certain things, I it causes for me to go into the place of prayer. Where's your discernment? Where's your discernment? How can you let yourself go this far? This far. You're having human feelings now. Praise God. The only person losing when you don't fast properly is you. Do the fast, do it aggressively. As you're doing it, God is dealing with every part of your life. You come out with clarity. You come out, I know what to do. Stop looking for excuses to break your fast. Oh, the pain is too much. It's supposed to hurt, it's supposed to hurt. Amen. Things that last a long time hurt when they come. As they arrive, they come with a bit of pain. But they last a long time. Praise God. 16 years old, I said, Lord, anoint me. Anoint me. Anoint me for ministry. I remember the question. He didn't anoint me at 16, he called me at 16. Now, I remember the question he asked me. He said, Do you have what it takes to maintain what you're asking me to give you? The maintenance of it. You you ask God, God, bless me with a nice car. You're not even taking care of it. Bless me with a nice car, you don't even have the money to take care of it. Bless me with a massive mansion, you don't even have the money to take care of the maintenance of the house. What are you asking for? The pressures of being anointed. When you get to heaven, have a conversation with King David. Talk to him, he'll tell you what it is to maintain his position as king, not only over Israel. David was king over other places too. Praise God. So I know as a man of the spirit that you are in the situation you are in at the moment because God wants your attention. He's calling you and he says, Give me your mind. I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you. Don't be afraid of God's correction. Let him correct you. After the correction comes promotion. Praise God. People around you will be complimenting you all the time. What's this wisdom that you have? What is this wisdom that you have? You just know what to do. The fire you're looking for when you first gave your life to Jesus, it's in that place. Amen. You see, this is why I'm gonna round up. You see, when you're in that place and that pain you feel in your belly, that's the physical pain. But then there's a mental pain in thoughts. Alright? The thoughts that are coming. You see, when you get through that part, you're sitting right before the throne. In the spirit, remember, remember, in Genesis, in Genesis uh 30, we just read, right? He was they said that he was physically fighting. But in Hosea, it says he was praying and begging and weeping. So in your fast, you may just be sitting there and you I don't even have the energy to pray. My belly's hurting, and then the thoughts, the wrong thoughts are coming. As you're sitting there, you don't know that this is the journey through the heavens to the throne. The things of the spirit are beautiful. I hope I have more time to teach you about this stuff. We don't have much time, amen. Why are you changing the program? Praise God. God wants you to pray, He wants you to fast. He wants you to fast, He wants your one-to-one time. All the excuses for not doing it have gone out the window now, today. Gone out of the window. Amen. If you can't put your life on hold now for God, how will you do it when He's blessed you a thousand fold? You will use the very blessings he's given you to tell him you're too busy. God will give you diamonds, he will give you pearls, he will give you rubies, sapphire. Then you'll say to him, I'm too busy looking at them for you. It sounds terrible, but that's what you're doing now. That's what you're doing now. You know exactly who you are, and God asked me to come and talk to you, to take your fast serious. Some of you are on the brink of a new season. You see, if I was you, I'd be I'd I'd apply wisdom. My new season is coming. Why now do I choose to be carnal? Why now? The season is there. I can see I can smell, you know. If you approach a city, you can smell the city from far. You can smell it, even if you're not there. You're landed, you know, in the neighboring country. You can smell the other country. It's close by. I can smell the food, the culture, I can, I can, I can smell it. You can smell your marriage season. It's not far, it's there. You got there by fasting. You got there by prayer. How do you think you maintain it then? If I arrived here by fasting and prayer, how do I stay here? So, what you've been doing is you've been sowing seeds of what the Bible calls seeds of despair. Very sad. Seeds of despair, they germinate in a couple of weeks, and then you start asking yourself, where did that come from? Where did that come from? Two people that came together through fasting and prayer, everything was beautiful, everything was fine. They grew to hating each other. How? What brought them together? They lost that. They thought they were attracted to each other. No, you wasn't. You weren't. In case you thought that's what brought you together. You weren't attracted to each other. What brought you together was the prayer and the fasting. Praise God. Could be that you're in a different stage of your life now, so you may not be able to be as aggressive as you used to be with your fasting, but at least twice in a month, you should have a set of fasts that you're doing. So to get to the father, you're gonna go, you're gonna have to go through some kind of representation of darkness, and that is the pain that you're feeling. Jesus, Christ our King, to bring us to the Father had to go through what? He physically died and went to hell. Go and read it in the book of Colossians. It tells us that he descended down there. He died, praise God, then descended into hell, Hades, handled his business, came back. Now, as Christians, we are to carry our cross. So we also have to go through some sort of pain to attain that glory. And it happens in your fasting. So the call for today is from this day, especially if you know you haven't fasted in a while, take this week off and fast. If God is asking for it, it means he wants to talk to you, he wants to have a one-to-one with you, he wants to communicate with you. There are things ahead of you that you cannot see that will take you by surprise. And he doesn't want that. He doesn't want that. Praise God. And the beauty of God is that He's not He's not gonna scare you when you go in there, He will just give you instruction. Those instructions will help you to avoid all the fiery doubts of the enemy.