Have you been in a long season of unwanted singleness that just won’t end? Are you wondering if your time at your current place of employment is nearing its finish? Is the Lord leading you to leave a certain community and get connected to a different group of people?
There are times to stay and there are times a season must end. Here are 3 signs God is saying, “You will be leaving this season very soon.”
1. If the Fruitful Harvest Is Beginning to End, God Could Be Preparing You to Leave This Season Very Soon
There are times where God will call us to serve hardhearted people, to scatter the seed on ground that is not going to receive it well. There are times where God will put someone on your heart that everyone else has given up on. Just because our efforts do not result in a huge harvest, it doesn’t mean we missed God’s leading. He does lead us to do things that don’t always result in the outcomes we had hoped for.
However, in most cases, this is not the norm. If you are not reaping good fruit in a season, usually this would be a clear sign God wants you to move into a different season. If you get a clear word from God not to move on, that’s one thing. But if no word from God comes telling you to stay in this fruitless season, the fruitlessness is a sign God is probably telling you this season should end soon and you should take efforts to move forward elsewhere.
Notice that when the church was persecuted, God scattered them. But then Acts 8:4 states, “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” Notice, too, how Paul was seeking to follow the Lord by looking at where he could be most effective. 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 says, “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”
2. If You’re Not Learning Anything New, God Will Probably End This Season Soon
Not only should our efforts be helping other people, but usually God will also be teaching us new things through every season we go through:
- If you want to be higher up in a company one day or start your own business, usually God will start you at the bottom so you can learn and grow. When you aren’t learning anything new, it’s usually time to move into a new position.
- If you’ve been dating someone and things are beginning to get stagnant, usually that means you two should either break up or move forward into a deeper commitment. The point of dating is to grow together, not to date forever.
- If you’ve grown up at a church and you’ve never experienced anything else besides what your parents have directed you into, perhaps God will lead you to join a new church to expose you to different ideas and ways of serving.
Notice what Hebrews 5:12 states, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.” This implies that a part of the problem is that they have not progressed into a new season. By remaining in the old season of just learning rather than teaching, they need to be taught again.
So if you’re wondering if God is going to end a season for you, look at what lessons you are learning or not learning. If you are still benefitting a lot and you feel like this situation is providing great opportunities to learn, you should probably stay in it. However, if you are beginning to regress because you’re no longer being challenged in this season, that would be a good sign you should seek to move on.
3. If You Have Become Incredibly Discontent Internally with This Season Even Though Nothing Has Changed Externally, God Will Probably End This Season Soon
Sometimes other people will be confused by why you want to make a change. For example:
- Perhaps your boss is confused by why you want to move into a different position since you’ve always been so happy and nothing has changed in the company to make you feel different.
- Maybe you were once really content to just be friends with someone but now you are beginning to feel like you are wasting time by not trying to be something more with them.
- Perhaps you really enjoyed hanging out with your old friends, but now you are looking to do something more meaningful with people who have a strong desire to help others, like you do.
In other words, while God will speak through the external variables in your life, sometimes he will let you know it’s time to move into a new season by allowing you to grow internally discontent with the season you are in.
Follow the joy of the Lord. He wants you to be joyful in him always (Philippians 4:4). While we can do that in any season because God is with us, we must also go where he goes to be able to enjoy his presence (Psalm 16:11).
If your joy is leaving, it could be because God is trying to move you forward and is inviting you into a new season with him.
