Passover and a New Baby
Over the past year or so, I’ve paid close attention to what God is saying through His prophets, apostles, and pastors. These two themes keep repeating.
- Pregnancy. People have expressed a sense that something is about to be birthed in the spirit that will manifest in the physical.
- Shift. God is moving us out of the old and into the New. (A whole new era!)
For those who keep their minds steadfast on the Lord (Isaiah 26:3), Covid-19 will not have the power to kill the excitement for this shift into the new. But what this virus has proved—as with anything worth pursuing—is that actually going through a shift of this magnitude brings more challenges than expected.
Did we expect to wake up one day and VOILÁ! we’re in the New? God knows that the hearts of His people must be in the right place in order to sustain the New He desires to do.
A Prophetic Picture
God recently showed me a prophetic picture that illustrates shifting into the New.
True story:
My kids outgrew their current home and were moving into a long-awaited new residence in a neighboring town. This happened right during 2020 Passover! That’s right. Signed away the old house on the 9th. Signed on the new house and packed up on the 10th. Interesting timing? (To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, God mysteriously reveals His secrets and plans through events, songs, etc, that happen right in front of us. Tune in!)
As I was driving to the old house to help serve and manage their three littles during the moving process, the Lord began speaking to my heart about the bigger picture. He revealed more about the exciting great shift He was bringing about in accordance with the prayers of His remnant who’ve been seeking Him with all their heart, soul, and strength.
Using my kid’s situation as a prophetic picture of what He has been in the process of doing in this season for His church and the world, He whispered, “My people need to focus only on the good I have planned for them.” The Lord was referring to our current period of “PAUSE” (covid-19 forced rest) and our “passing over” into the New Thing of God. (Isaiah 43:19)
Photo by Unsplash
Passover
(Read about this historical event here) In brief, it started with: a night of “wait for it, brush the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, and don’t leave the house, but get ready. The next morning was the time to leave in haste.
For my kids, the literal morning after Passover 2020 was a time of “Move now!” And it was chaotic! At this point, they had no other choice but to leave their place of old!
This same global shift is happening whether or not the church (or unbelieving world) chooses to embrace it.
Fear of the New
In the middle of the living room, the 3 yr old sat weeping in his mother’s arms, not wanting to leave the old house, the only home he’d ever known. This reality hit him as soon as he saw the strange emptiness—the furniture was gone, his toys were gone. Everything familiar was gone. Was he scared? Grieving? Maybe both?
Naturally, his dad would never let his little boy stay behind. Nor does our Heavenly Father want us to stay in “Egypt” where His protection and presence will no longer be (Exodus 12:41). Even the Lord’s armies — protection and provision — were moving out with the people.
Photo by Unsplash
The Discomfort of Shifting Into the NEW
Boxes galore turned the New house into a headache of a maze! Feeling boxed in is uncomfortable. But it’s only a transient sensation while your stuff gets unboxed in the New. We see and feel this chaos. Your mattress is on the floor, not a frame. You eat with plastic cutlery because the location of your silver is yet unrevealed, and when it does appear, in which drawer does it go in the New?
The stuff we thought we needed has become unnecessary weight. Leave it. And no more hoarding items that take up space that the NEW wants to fill.
photo by Pixabay
Watch Your Tongue!
Be watchful of what comes out of your mouths during transition. The 6 year old lay on his bed… well, his mattress … with a tummy ache and a headache (likely from heat and dehydration). As I affectionately stroked his forehead, he confessed, “I don’t like this house.” Yet he’d been the one most excited about the move.
As with the grumbling Israelites, the uncomfortableness of transition can make you want to “Go back to Egypt,” to return to normal and familiar—not happening! At the moment, this six-year-old, who strives for order and for everything to be in its place, his new promised land wasn’t feeling very promising. He only had eyes to see the chaos right in front of him—boxes, dismantled play units, scattered bins of clothes.
Rejoice in the midst of the uncomfortable!
Rejoice! God remains steady, confident, and faithful as He walks us through this transition into the New.
Express thankfulness because God always remains faithful. He knows that chaos happens when He shifts things around on a global scale. But what appears chaotic in our view is, from His perspective, a resetting and a reconstruction. Let the NEW replace the old.
Photo by Unsplash
Pregnant!
Did I mention that my kids were also expecting child #4? Yes, they were passing into the new while 38 weeks pregnant. We all worked diligently to get as much stuff unboxed, new rugs in place, new furniture put together. We plowed through with purpose for the sake of the little one on the way.
The New season is upon us. What God knows, and what we easily forget, is this: the birth of something new is happening in the midst of all the covid-19 madness. Yes, a new life is emerging!
In the birthing process, they call it transition for a reason. Transition precedes every birth. No transition, no birth.
Photo by Unsplash
Transition, and Your Heart
Amid the chaos today, God is birthing the new. Can we see it? Will we be ready for it?
Instead of focusing on the painful shifting that’s taking place, can we focus on the New baby that’s soon to arrive?
Are you lying on your bed, moaning because you hate feeling boxed in due to Covid-19? Instead of allowing our thoughts to obsess over “returning to normal” can we instead of pray our way forward into the New?
Instead of tuning our hearts in to the newcasters who spread fear can we diligently read the Word and ask the Holy Spirit for fresh revelation? Only God’s perspective promotes hope and goodness. His promises will never fail us.
Instead of muttering behind our protective masks can we pray for God to release His peace and comfort to those around us?
Take time to ask, “Lord, what are You birthing for me in all of this?”
God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart.
Psalm 139:23-24 TPT
Examine me through and through;
find out everything that may be hidden within me.
Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.
See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on,
and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways—
the path that brings me back to you.
Make a Sacrifice
“Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to His name” Psalm 150:6.
Let’s take back our “breath” that this virus has tried to steal—literally. In defiance of covid-19, let EVERYTHING that has breath praise the Lord.
Sowing Seeds of Bravery for this Transition
Read Psalm 145
