I’m about to turn in for the night and I sat back in my office chair and I began to reflect on my day. I usually do this just prior to going to bed. I want to look back on the day and kind of summarize my day and then to hang out with the Lord looking at my day.

As I began reflecting on today (yes, another busy day) I sat back in my office chair and put my head back and then i had this vision. I saw myself in a small classroom and the Holy Spiit was the instructor/teacher. He went to the blackboard picked up a piece of chock and he turned and faced a very small class. That has some significance. What do you think that means?
Then he said these few words. “What have you learned today?” I sat and waited a few minutes and I became frustrated I didn’t hear anything. I continued to wait hoping to hear what I was supposed to learn today - NOTHING Then I heard - what did I say? Then I heard the question again, what did you learn? The question wasn’t what ’did God show you? It was WHAT DID I LEARN?
I realize I really didn’t want to spend the time musing/mediating looking at circumstances, looking at what I did and didn’t do. It was going to require time and effort. I would much rather the Holy Spirit show me.

Here’s a question are we willing to spend the time to get the revelation we want and need?

You probably have already discovered this God isn’t speaking the way he has spoken for years. There has been a shift in how God is doing things. If we are looking for the Holy Spirit voice or direction for the most part it won’t be through his past methodology.  It is part of the word from Joshua 3:4  “for you have not passed this way before.”

I believe 1 Kings 19:11-12 does a good job of in explaining what I believe is a word from the Lord. There is something we need to learn from these 2 verses.

• 1 Kings 19:11-12 “Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”

Since the beginning of this year (2020) I have seen God do the most unusual things. It seems that he is breaking all the old-paradigms. He is not in the obvious. If we look for God it what was you’re going to be very disappointed and frustrated.

He is the God outside of our boxes. That is a lesson we should learn from Israel when Jesus started his ministry. The priests and the majority of Israel didn’t recognize God working through Jesus because it was different from what they were familiar with.

Here’s a good word “lets blow up our boxes.”

In Ecclesiastes 3 we discover 28 seasons to life. I would venture to say that the coronavirus has taken all of us into new seasons of our lives and here we are trying to understand where or what season we might be in. It reminds me of when Jesus told Peter that when he got old he would be taken places he didn’t want to go. Is this us/you?

• John 21:18 (CEV) “I tell you for certain that when you were a young man, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will hold out your hands. Then others will wrap your belt around you and lead you where you don’t want to go.”

There was and is a shift in my life beginning in January. On December 31 Ps Carlo and I went to the Dominican Republic (it was awesome) from there I had my entire year planned with the exception of 1 month. It’s funny as i looked at all the events/traveling that was planned I kept on praying Lord is this what you want me to do?

Well, the answer came. I was scheduled to go to Romania the end of January when I felt I was not to go but stay here and be a part of our church’s overflow homeless shelter we oversee/run from January through mid April. I contacted the pastors and explained why I wasn’t coming. My staying was important. 

Then it was decided it was time for our 94 year old father to move back to Massachusetts and to have him live in assisted living. He had been living alone in a trailer for a few years after our mother had passed. He began to have some difficulty with his mind and we all wanted him closer to be with him. So within a w few days I flew to Florida. I spent about a week there getting things in order and preparing his trailer to be sold (today we will pass papers on the trailer). Flew home and the next day I was off to India for 10 days.

My trip to India after 14 years was extraordinary. I had originally planned to be there 2 weeks but we changed it to 10 days. It was divine providence because the day after I flew out of Bangalore they shut the airport down.

Arrived home and I self quarantined myself. With the quarantine my father started have signs of dementia and the assisted living staff only allowed our sister in. What a sacrifice on her behalf. Then 2 weeks ago the assisted living called and said they couldn’t manage our father. You can imagine how that has changed multiple things. I now have spent hours upon hours trying to get assistance to find our dad a place to be care for. It’s all very complicated in the first place and then through in the coronavirus.

Meanwhile the government shut down all international flights which forced me to cancel a number of planned trips. 

Things are shifting all over the place. Our church purchases another church (multiple miracles) and we began getting our church ready for a possible site to be used by the City of Fall River for a coronavirus shelter of some sort. If that wasn’t enough shifting I am in a strange season on top of everything else.

I am asking the Lord for understanding and definition/clarity. I feel I am in verse 7 of Ecclesiastes 3.  

• Ecclesiastes 3:7 “A time to keep silence, And a time to speak”                                                  
  
  I really don’t have a lot to say. Besides the busyness of life right now I haven’t been writing much because frankly I have nothing to say.

It’s a time to keep silence. This is such a strange place to be. So if I don’t write a lot its simply the season and God is adjusting.

Blessings,
PB