A New Season

In Christian ideology, the term “a new season” is used when others share what’s happening different in their life or in the world with politics, finances, etc. What you don’t hear a lot about is that with each new season Repentance is required. 

This repentance is not the same as the ‘repentance from dead works or sins that lead to death’ spoken of in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 6 (see Foundational Elementary Principles). This repentance requires one to shift from the previous season into the new season. If you look at the four seasons related to weather as an example, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, depending on where you live, you recognize that change is coming and you instinctively shift your way of thinking, how you dress, what you do, and you begin preparing for the next season. You don’t wait! 

A Weather Analogy

Where we live, Spring is a time of snow beginning to melt. There is some rain which comes to wash the remaining snow away, but also with that rain comes clean up from Winter and repairing any damage the snow may have left behind. Spring is a time of getting the soil ready for the Summer garden, as well as getting the flower beds cleaned up and cultivated for new life to emerge from the long Winter’s rest. Along with Spring’s anticipated shift to Summer, there are always some unexpected variables. We don’t know where flooding may occur from the overflowing creeks, rivers, and streams, or where mudslides may appear as a result of the previous Summer’s fires (if any). Summer is a completely different season from Spring and requires a completely different mindset. It is a short growing season so there is an intense focus on sowing seeds and planting, making sure the soil is good and healthy so as to reap a bountiful harvest. We know the season is only 12 to 13 weeks long so we make each day count. By the time August rolls around, our mindset shifts again into preparing for Fall. While harvesting and canning, we are also making sure the the wood is cut and heating oil is ordered for the anticipated but abrupt change of temperatures that come mid September. It’s still beautiful and warm during the day, but the nights can drop down to low 30’s and it is cold. My point being that we must be ready or we will suffer the consequence. The beauty of Fall comes with the prolific Fall colors as the trees, plants, and all vegetation know it’s time to change and prepare for their long winter’s nap. As the season of Fall comes to a close, we wait with great expectation for that first snow. However, with that first snow fall, if we are not ready and prepared with the proper tools, clothing, etc., we will have a problem on our hands very quickly. Again, a totally different mindset is required for Winter than it was for Fall. 

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

He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;  Daniel 2:21

He answered them (the Pharisees) and said, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening,’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” and He left them and departed. Matthew 16:2-4

Looking at the above analogy of the seasons of weather, it is no different for the seasons of our spiritual walk with Yeshua for the Kingdom of Yahweh. If we don’t learn to recognize the change of seasons in our lifetime and repent (change our mindset), we will not be prepared and equipped for what’s coming down the pike. Two things are certain as a result:

1) We will miss what Yahweh has planned for us and we will have to go around the mountain again; and,

2) We will be out of His will and not have His economy to provide for us, but rather, we will find ourselves in a struggle as we strive to survive and live by our own economy. We will eventually hit a glass ceiling and wonder what happened.

The reason Yahweh gives new seasons is to reveal His assembling in time as an eternal picture for redeeming all things unto Him–for redeeming mankind to Him in their fallen state. Not every man and woman but those who choose the redemption as we have all been given free will to choose. Certainly from Yahweh’s point of view, the gift of redemption through Yeshua HaMashiach is free to every person who chooses it. 

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all thins in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. Ephesians 1:7-10

What is Yahweh’s economy in a season change? 

The definition of Yahweh’s economy means his ‘Household Administration.’ It is His plan to dispense Himself into man so that He can gain a household to express Himself. This household is the Body of Christ.  Many people say they are in the body of Christ yet have no idea what their function is. Every aspect of the body has a specific function.

The physical gifts and the spiritual gifts Yahweh gives us have to do with the economic realities that are suited to the purposes for which He made us.  READ THAT AGAIN. The physical gifts and the spiritual gifts Yahweh gives us have to do with the economic realities that are suited to the purposes for which He made us. 

When there is a change of season and we find we have taken on more than we should or find ourselves doing something different than the very thing God has called us to do in that particular season, then we will become bogged down in the management of those things and feel overwhelmed, or we’ll have less than we need to fulfill our purpose. Either way, by not recognizing the change of season, we will get off track and have to circle the mountain again. While it will be different for each person, Yahweh’s economy (administration and provision) will be provided and so shall the material things we should have to go with the destiny that God has assigned for us. In addition, the spiritual gifts He has given us will help us to fulfill that purpose. 

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” James 1:17-18 

Entering into a new season requires Faith and Grace. Let’s look a some biblical examples of Faith when there was a change of season. Yahweh told Abraham to gather his family and leave the life he had known because Yahweh had a master vision to fulfill for mankind and it was to begin with Abraham’s seed. In faith, Abraham and his entire family departed to a land he did not know and through many trials (and there were many!) his faith developed and turned to hope. He had seen the evidences of Yahweh fulfilling His word over and over in his walk and although he didn’t see the final promised land in his earthly days, Abraham had to change his mindset in each new season and physical move over the course of his life. He didn’t get stuck in a comfort zone but rather he lived, positioning himself relative to what God told him He was going to do through him and with him. Abraham did not live as a pauper, a beggar, a man without a destiny or a future; he did not live in depression and anxiety. He knew that he was carrying in himself the seed of the Promised One of the ages. For the duration of Abraham’s life, he lived and conducted himself as a man of the greatest stature among men because he had been given the promise and that promise formed hope in him. Yahweh’s grace was always upon him. Note: His entire mindset changed when he carried hope.

Moses, in faith, heard Yahweh’s word and his promise for the Hebrew people and, in faith, led the Hebrew people out of Egypt. He recognized the change of season and was repentant. He had to be transformed in his mindset from being a victim running from Pharaoh (the only earthly father he knew) to being a son of Yahweh. Like Abraham, Moses became a man of destiny for the Kingdom of Yahweh and he became a man of great stature in the eyes of Yahweh and among men, women, and children because he had been given a promise. He had to completely change his mindset and walk in faith to fulfill Yahweh’s master vision for that time and season. He experienced and was able to recognize Yahweh’s grace in every aspect of His life…starting from birth. 

These men (and there a many more instances over time) had to make a decision to turn away from everything they had known (along with a multitude of followers) and move into a new season. It was not easy, it was not comfortable, it was not without trial, but they knew that it was not about them. They knew Yahweh had a bigger purpose for mankind and by their obedience in their seasons of change, Yahweh was able to build upon the previous season to set the stage for the Messiah to come for the redemption of mankind.

Faith comes by hearing what Yahweh is saying to you through His word. Sometimes, He will send a word through somebody by whom Yahweh is speaking prophetically, other times through the Holy Spirit to you directly or through dreams etc. Sometimes the word is so upsetting to the season at hand that no one would voluntarily migrate to another season just because they’re looking for new thrills. They know there will be new challenges to endure and overcome but in faith and obedience, they prepare and are made ready. The Bible is full of examples for us. Think about Jeremiah and him knowing what was coming to Israel and the captivity…or Daniel (and others). They knew to repent and get prepared.

Let’s jump forward to modern times. What I am about to share will be hard for some of you who love to declare you are of one denomination or another, but it must be said and it must be meditated upon by each individual as to where you are in your walk. In modern Christianity, we hear of the great movements of Yahweh. We hear of the large Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations or even denominations like the Methodists, to whom the Holy Spirit initially came through the likes of John and Charles Wesley. We hear of the Azusa Street revival, and the Brownsville revival. These were specific seasons with specific purposes. The Pentecostal movement was for the purpose of Yahweh pouring out His Holy Spirit upon the people in the land. Just as it was in the day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts, Yeshua had told his disciples to wait and continue to pray until the Holy Spirit had come upon them. Without the Holy Spirit, the disciples had no authority to operate in the power of Yeshua. By them waiting, it began a new season that ended up giving followers of Yeshua HaMashiach the name ‘Christianous or Christians’ by the Romans and Greeks and furthering the Gospel of Yeshua HaMashiach throughout the world. The followers of Yeshua heard and heeded His word, they prayed, they waited, and then the outpouring of the Spirit came upon them. As it should be with us today.

As a result of the Azusa Street Revival in America, American Christianity experienced the outpouring publicly from 1906 to 1915 (9 years!). During that time, Yahweh provided a dispensation of grace that allowed it to last that long. He gave America and the world His gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit which had been somewhat silent with the exception of a small remnant in each prior generation. While there was not an end to the dispensation of grace, the season then changed. Playtime was now over and I say that not to be sarcastic. Many of us have been there when we first experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. We just wanted to stay in that place and soak it up. It’s like when a child gets something new for the first time, it is human nature to want to play and explore with it over and over. We want to play with it until we learn how to use it. However, for anyone who has been baptized by the Holy Spirit, they are expected to move on from just loving to be under the unction of the Holy Spirit to having a visible change from them being their own person, living their own life the way they want to, to them being placed in their position in the body of Christ so that they may pick up their destiny and live it out to the fullness thereof.

If you are in that place where all you want to do is to go from meeting to meeting to experience the feel good unction of the Holy Spirit, you are still in playtime and out of the current season. Seriously! There is work to be done and I am not talking about works of flesh or religious feel good works. Unfortunately, there are many that are determined to re-invent the wheel every year on the anniversary of these movements. Yahweh, Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit are doing a new thing because it’s a new season.

If you have made the decision to follow Yeshua and have been baptized in water but have not been baptized by the Holy Spirit (you would know if you were because there is no denying it), then you may want to shift your mindset and repent from whatever season you are stuck in and start praying and waiting for Yeshua to pour out His Spirit upon you so you can feel and experience His presence. There will likely be repentance from dead works involved with this repentance depending on how your mindset has been previously set. (See Foundation of Baptisms Post)

With the end of the Pentecostal movement (and yes, the actual movement did end), there was not an end to the dispensation of grace! The Holy Spirit has continued to be given but in different and growing measures. The next dispensation of grace that followed the Pentecostal season was the dispensation of Gifts of the Spirit that came up in the Charismatic movement season. Yes, new season, new movement! There was a new wine being poured out. 

In the season of the Charismatic movement, Yah’s dispensation of grace (his economy) came via the Baptism of the Spirit. That season of time brought forth an impartation of power that had been stifled for a long period of time in America and in the world due to the doctrines and/or sins of man. It came in the form of spiritual gifts being manifested. Yah gives us gifts as he wills, as He purposes, for each individual to fulfill their destiny in Yeshua and for empowerment to be Yeshua’s witnesses to the ends of the earth. That movement began to be intensified in the late 1940’s and was at it’s peak in the early 1960’s. While the ‘Charismatic Movement” has ended, the gifts continue as a result of the dispensation of grace. When a person is filled with the Holy Spirit through the baptism by the Spirit and the gifts are ignited through the baptism of the Spirit, it is then as Christians we are to know what we are to do with them for the Kingdom of Yahweh here on earth.

In other words, you have both a ‘season’ and the ‘dispensing of grace’ that is sufficient for that season. That’s what makes it a new season. You have the economy of Yahweh working for you and it won’t be by your might or by your power, it will be by His Holy Spirit. 

The Present Season

This new season, for those willing to shift from the prior season, means you not only will experience His presence of the Holy Spirit (the feel good), but now He is wants to fill you up with the impartation of power and authority of the spiritual gifts so that He can now work on your behalf and work through you.  Full Disclosure Here: It requires you to have a change of mindset and also requires you to realize that it’s not about you, but it’s about the Kingdom of Yah working through you for His glory. No longer can you add Yeshua to your life as though He is another notch on your resume, you need to make the commitment to surrender your life unto Yeshua and present yourself as a living sacrifice unto Him so He can use you as His holy vessel where ever you go or are sent (work, school, vacation, church, small groups, grocery store, etc). It is no longer about the feel good of going to church on Sunday, Saturday, or Wednesday. It’s a total lifestyle 24/7. 

As previously stated, the Holy Spirit was not withdrawn after the end of the season of the Pentecostal movement, the Holy Spirit has continued to be poured out. However, the truth is that the label ‘Pentecostal Season’ is no longer a useful term to describe anything that’s going on today. The label ‘Charismatic’ is not a useful term to describe the work of God in this season today. Although, the dispensing of the presence of the Spirit and the dispensing of the gifts of the Spirit, have continued; and there is a dispensing of grace (power and authority) for the present season.

The present season is all about how the body of Christ is meant to mature into Sonship. No longer are we permitted the ‘playtime’ of the Pentecostal season, or the ‘fun and games time’ of the Charismatic season, but we are to prepare for both the Holy Spirit and gifts of the Spirit operating but operating in a different context now because a new dispensation of grace has come. If you profess to be a Pentecostal, Charismatic, Methodist, Baptist, Non-Denominational, or other, you sell yourself short of being a Son of Yahweh. He is sending His Son, Yeshua HaMashiach, back for a glorious church, a bride made ready without spot or wrinkle.  Ephesians 5:27 “That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not have spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” 

For those who find the above completely foreign and yet you have been attending a church service for years and have not experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life nor have been taught about and baptized by the Spirit and of the Spirit with your spiritual gifts, you very well may be under a doctrine of man that has you frozen in time, building up traditions as walls around the ongoing revealing of the Word of Yahweh. Those traditions largely determine what the leaders and their followers believe. I encourage you to determine what season you are currently in as it relates to what season it is. If it is time for a new season, open your heart and have a change of mindset. Do no harden your heart but rather seek and search out the matter in the Word. Faith requires you to hear what Yahweh is saying and doing it. Again, the word may come by somebody through whom Yahweh is speaking. Faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by the word of Yahweh. Be warned that there are many false teachers or teachers with doctrines of half truths. You and you alone are responsible to read the Word of Yahweh in the Holy Bible and pray for the Holy Spirit of Truth to teach you all things. There will be nobody standing before the throne of Yahweh on judgment day to defend your case except you.

In Closing

Beloved, a new economy has come. A new reality is here, and it’s time for you to migrate to this season. What would keep you from moving into the new season? When we read the history of seasons in the Bible, we understand Yahweh’s timing is not our timing. He operates outside of time, so while in our natural fleshly state, we think of time as tangible–it is not so in the spirit. New seasons do not come so often, and in ancient times they came even less frequently. However, it’s only now that we’re approaching the end of the age, where we sense the seasons change as with the rhythms of childbirth; like birth pangs on a pregnant woman. But in the days of old, long periods of time transpired between significant incremental changes. This day and age it’s much more rapid. 

Repentance is to understand, first and foremost, that a new season has come. Secondly, repentance is to realize that you have locked in certain norms, certain expectations based upon your familiarity with the old season. These familiarities may be related to customs, traditions, or just the passivity against changing, i.e. you don’t want to venture out beyond the things that you’re sure of. Or they may be more sinister and ominous; they may be related to demonic mindsets, they may be related to religious mindsets. All kinds of impediments make it not such an easy thing to quickly migrate from one season to another. This is reality and requires another repentance from sins that lead to death.

Once you realize that the new season is about the day of salvation, then you realize a Savior will come and He is no longer an idea of a Savior, but an actual Savior, Yeshua HaMashiach. With this realization, you can choose to either go on with the religious practices, and/or sacrifices and the dietary practices and all of what was in type and shadow or you can be present in the new season. We are called to pick up our cross and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is a battle and the battle ground in which this battle is fought is in the soul. In the mind of the soul is where great change needs to occur. When that change occurs in the mind of the soul, repentance has occurred; you have changed your mind. When repentance occurs, you are then able to move easily into the new season and the purpose of Yahweh in faith because you have His grace upon you.

Blessings to you with love, joy, and peace. I pray for you to have spiritual wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, and understanding to know the sign of the times and the season we are in.

Norma Umphress