Last week I shared being light in the darkness. What I will be sharing today, has been stirring within me for months, and I am so excited for you all to read. In my previous blog, I shared how God impressed upon me to dig deep about the moon’s natural significance and to look at our faith.
Early on during quarantine, one of my friends and I were doing a bible reading plan. The reading plan had us read a chapter from Genesis, Psalms or Proverbs, and then one chapter from the Gospels starting with Matthew. As I was reading and correlating stories I have read in the bible, the Holy Spirit told me moon cycles. When I heard moon cycles, I took a moment to realize “what does that mean?” What does the moon cycles have to do with my faith? As I continued to dig and press, I received a download of revelation about our history and faith journeys.
The moon has a cycle. There are eight phases in the moon cycle. The two I am going to mainly focus on is the full moon and the new moon. The full moon is where the lunar disk is illuminated, and the new moon is hardly recognizable because the lunar disk is not visible. The moon cycle starts with the new moon and then goes through phases until it becomes a full moon, and then back towards a new moon.
As I studied the moon cycle, I looked inwardly in my life, the world behind me, and the stories in the bible, I noticed similarities to the moon cycles.
If you look at your life and in history, there are times where we are so on fire for the Lord, filled with His love, grace, and mercy, because God did something in your life or in history where you can’t help but say that was God. As we are on fire for the Lord, life goes on and as the days pass we start to become stagnant in our walk with God. We begin to lose the fullness of Him in our life. Our spiritual high simmers down. In this state, we become complacent in our faith and walk with God, that we can easily forget what God has done for us.
This brings us to the new moon, where our light is dim and we forget what God has done. When we get to the state of the new moon, there is a realignment. There is a new beginning and a shift that happens. Once we acknowledge we fell away and may have forgotten what God has done in our lives, then we can realign ourselves.
When we acknowledge this, we start getting full again and this is where we start pursuing Jesus and becoming more full of light. God realigns us, and we fixate our eyes towards Him and that is when we become more full again (full moon state). This is why God’s grace is so important, because we all fall short of His glory. It is through His love, grace, and mercy for us and what Jesus fulfilled on the cross, that we are able to run back to Him and start new.
Have you felt like this before? Have you gone through this cycle of being on fire and pursuing Jesus, and then you catch yourself falling away, becoming stagnant after some time?
This is a pretty common issue amongst all of us Christians. This ‘issue’ goes as far back to the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, in the old testament. In Exodus, God delivers them from 400 years of slavery under Egyptian rule. God continues to stay faithful to the Israelites, and He parts the Red Sea, performs miracles, signs, and wonders throughout the 40 years in the wilderness. However, there comes a point during their time in the wilderness where the children of Israel forget what God has done, they start to worship false gods and even refuse to enter the promised land God called them to. It wasn’t until a new generation was born, and Joshua, Moses’s assistant, helped lead them to the Promised Land.
In Judges, we can take the story of Gideon. The children of Israel were under the rule of the Midianites, and it wasn’t until God used Gideon to subdue Midian. Under Gideon’s rule, there was 40 years of peace, because Gideon made sure God was ruling, not man. When Gideon died, “the children of Israel again played the harlot of Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god. Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (Gideon) in accordance with the good he had done for Israel” (Judges 8: 33-35).
Numerous times throughout bible history, there is a cycle of God delivering the children of Israel, then remembering who God is, and as life goes on, they forget!
In our lives and in the world today, the same cycle continues. This is why I strongly believe in the phrase “History repeats itself.” Why do you think the big issue of racism and discrimination is a reoccurring theme? This has been an issue for thousands of years, even when Jesus was on earth. During Jesus’s time here, it wasn’t black vs. white, it was Samaritans vs. Jews. Why is it that during the 90s, riots and looting were everywhere, and then in the 2000s, racial tensions seemed to simmer, but about two decades later, riots and lootings are happening again? Why is it that every generation, there is a worldwide revival within the body of Christ, but it simmers as years and months pass and the lusts of the world take over?
Even in our own personal lives, we tend to go on spiritual highs where we see God move in our lives, and as time goes on we can forget what He has done for us. We go back to the pleasures and ways of the world which makes us fall away and fall short of the glory of God. However, when we get to that place where there is no light in our lives, God realigns us back towards Him because He is merciful, graceful, faithful, and loving.
I believe right now is a time of repurposing, rebranding, rebirthing, redefining, and renewing. This takes me back to when I mentioned the moon has eight moon phases. The number eight in the bible means a new beginning, new order of creation, a man’s true ‘born again’ event when he is resurrected from the dead into eternal life.
I strongly believe this specific time in the world where all seems hopeless and dark, God is renewing, repurposing, and redefining. In the past couple of months I have seen nothing but confirmations that support this. So many people around me are giving their lives to the Lord. So many people are starting their business. So many people coming out of a situation, and entering something new. Ministries and the body of Christ, redefining church and its religious barriers/stigmas.
I think it is so interesting God has placed this sudden interest in the moon during a time the whole world was affected. During a time where Christians, now more than ever, have to be the light in the darkness, and not forget what God has done for them.
I have talked to a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ during this crazy time, and so many of them have similar stories of God moving in their lives. God is calling them out of a situation and bringing them into something new. God is realigning people, touching their hearts and fixating their eyes back to Him. God is repositioning His people so they can be aligned with Him.
Friends who are reading, whatever God has done for you in this season, stay on fire for Him. Continue to pursue and fixate your eyes towards God. This is a new beginning for all of us one way or another. Keep that fire going, and don’t become stagnant! 🙂
My Alabaster Box by Keilani Mayo
Written in 2021-2022.