Adjusting the the Seasons of God - Part VI
How to Respond to Adjustment
by Dr. John Tetsola

Last month we studied the reasons we fail to cultivate the proper response to divine adjustment. The culprits of reputation, comfort, loss of control, fear of man, confusion, fear of repeating past failures, and bargaining with God have robbed us from reaping the benefits of divine adjustments. Adjustment by the Spirit produces revelation and understanding of our past, our present, and gives us a glimpse of our future.

Stop! Now I Know

"And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."

Genesis 22:15-18

When God brought adjustment to Abraham it was not an easy task in the natural, but he obeyed God. God spoke a sentence of death on his son Isaac and requested that Isaac be sacrificed as an offering. Abraham had two options: to either obey God or to disobey Him. But he chose to obey God. When he chose to obey God over the first in his life (Isaac), God blessed him with the second. The second of God is always better than the first. God was able to validate how He felt about Abraham after Abraham's response to the Father's sentence. God said, "Now I know." Can He say that of you, your church, or ministry? In responding to the Father's sentence of death, some of us are going to be called upon to hold the knife up high in the air, and the Lord will say, "Stop! Now I know." Still others are going to have to stick the knife into their vision, ministry, career, or business in order for the Lord to say, "Now I know."

The Production of Adjustment in Our Lives
When we embrace the adjustment of God in our lives, ministries, families, and churches, there are certain things that are produced:

First, adjustments produce a change in circumstances and situations. It means that as you adjust to His seasons, God will change your spiritual understanding of how you reflect upon the circumstances and situations that you are going through, or that you have gone through. As you adjust to God's seasons, you begin to really understand the purpose of things that had once produced pain in your life. Even things in your life that you really attached no significance to, because of the adjustment, you are now able to understand the purpose of it. Adjustment by the Spirit produces both revelation and understanding of our past and present, and gives us a peek of our future.

Secondly, adjusting to God's seasons will produce change in the people around us. God blesses us or afflicts us with people according to our needs. Sometimes it is a blessing and sometimes it is a curse when certain people are allowed into our lives. But God knows what we need and He brings those people right on time. The Lord knows just who to bring into our lives to create a season of change.

Third, adjusting to God's seasons will also produce changes in our lifestyles. At times you may have to take less money. You may be used to driving three cars, but now all you have is one because God told you to give two of them away. Still other changes require enlargement and expansion. You may have mastered pastoring hundreds, but now you must learn to pastor thousands.

Finally, the adjustments of God in our lives produce blessings. In the midst of obeying God to kill his son, God spoke to Abraham again, a second time. Your death sentence may not seem like a blessing in the beginning due to the darkness of the hour, but if you will hold on and determine to obey God and respond correctly, you will see the manifestation of God's blessings. It may look uncertain for the moment, but God will make it better. "I will greatly bless you, I will multiply your descendants, I will give you the gates of your enemies, and all nations of the earth shall be blessed." Learn to correctly respond to the dishonor, the darkness, the loss, the tragedy, the theft, and to whatever happens in your life. The second time in our lives is symbolic of the resurrection. Once you hear the Father's sentence of death the first time, know that He will come back to speak to you again in resurrection form. Why? Because when He takes away the first, it is an announcement that He will establish the second in your life.
 

  

by Dr. John A. Tetsola