Set Apart

A Set-Apart Season…

Some choose it
Some resist it
Some make the best of it!

God has been speaking to me lately about A “Set-Apart Season”.

As I kept seeing and hearing that word I felt like I was somehow missing God’s Divine Download on this subject and wondering why He spoke the words – …some choose it, some resist it, some make the best of it.

I began seeking Him deeper about it and got a vision of Butterflies.

My daughter likes to plant milkweed plants and that attracts the caterpillars and they eat it up and store it and she plucks them fat little wormy guys up and sets them apart in her aquariums for them to do their magic.

But despite the gold spun threaded cocoons and the beautiful butterfly emerging in brilliant colors – the vision that God kept taking me to was the time I witnessed the beautiful butterflies hatching or transforming and it was not a very pretty sight.

They actually bleed- as they are thrusting in the cocoon to come out and the cocoon is pretty wrecked when all done but that butterfly finally emerges -but it’s wings are still wet and must dry before it can began to fly.

So it just flaps its wings over and over –
kind of a mundane boring motion but it can’t be rushed, they must be dry in order to fly.

So, let’s go to simple definitions; that is usually how God helps me unpack….

Many view “Set Apart” negatively as being isolated, detached, secluded, or alone.

In Christian circles that term “Set Apart” means to usually go deeper with God to get clarity or direction.

The basic definition is:
Set Apart – set someone or something apart to make different and special.

In Jeremiah 1:5 we read that God meant “Set Apart” as chosen, handpicked, special, with a purpose.

“Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations.”

So why was God saying to me…
Some choose it
Some resist it
Some make the best of it?

Why the butterfly vision?

Let’s look at the many definitions to the word “Set”:

Set=to adjust
Set=to restore to a proper and normal state when dislocated or broken
Set=to concentrate on a purpose or goal
Set=to cause to sit (wait)

Some of us do choose a “Set-Apart Season”.
We need a time of waiting on God, to give us clear direction. Sometimes it’s a time to remove the distractions of the world so we can be restored to our proper and normal state when broken or slightly dislocated.

Many of us resist a Set-Apart Season and are not too happy when we are forced into it by sickness, circumstances, divorce or even death.

I was forced into a “Set-Apart Season” by my husband’s recent surgery. This week I was further thrust into a “Set-Apart Season” by being sick.

Was I making the best of it?
No- sadly I was not.

It brought up how selfish I can be when having to care and wait and serve someone else 24/7.

It brought up how much I complain about my pain and sickness instead of focusing on God’s promises.

It had me resentful that I had to sit and wait and let my children serve me and not get my house cleaned up and organized for upcoming company.

And many of us are forced today too in the current lockdowns and quarantines of Covid -19.

So that is what God was downloading…

We can choose a “Set-Apart Season”, we can resist the “Set-Apart Season” that feels forced upon us, or we can make the best of the “Set-Apart Season” we find ourselves in and wait and sit with God and allow Him to adjust and restore us.

Think about what could be a “Set-Apart Season” in your life and if you will choose it, resist it or embrace it to allow God to make the best out of you through it.

And now back to the butterfly-

Don’t try to rush the process.

We must feed on the Word, (like the milkweed) to prepare ourselves for the “Set-Apart Season”

We must trust God in the weaving of our cocoons but don’t get so comfortable with them that we resist the coming out part. Some butterflies die in the cocoon state and never emerge transformed.

We will have to endure the thrashing and transformation process. Yes, we will bleed some. That is what it takes to form us and restore us.

And we must not forget to wait and sit to dry our wings fully before we emerge and are able to fly again.

Let’s harness this time we have been given to let it transform us!

~ XXOO Michelle Cosby Bollom restoredministries.org

This is a recycle but a good word still during these times.