I’m grateful to Adam Harding-Willis for his useful mnemonic ‘ summary:

“I’ve been given a free hand actually this morning to speak. Normally I speak according to whatever series you’re part of and I’m informed of that in advance and I prepare according because I want to serve the church. Uh but this morning I’ve been given a free hand and I want to bring uh a word to you which I have made alliterative. Uh I believe it’s a word from God but I’ve made it alliterative because I want you to remember it and and I I dare to say but I invite you to test whether what I have

to say to you this morning is indeed a word from God….

And it came to me in September of last year at the turn of a season as we were

turning from autumn as we were going into autumn from summer um which was

itself appropriate….Um and the first word the first of three words that I want to share with you. It was in the in the bulletin if you saw that is the word seasons.  Seasons. seasons. There is a season for everything…

Scripture is full of seasons…So, there are literal seasons, which is what we read about there in Genesis. But there are also right the way through scripture, there are metaphorical seasons where a season is talking more about something new that God is doing and something fresh that God is doing. And it’s not so much a physical thing as a metaphorical thing. And I want to say to you, church, that you are in a new season.

There is, I kind of just want to say to you, wake up and smell the coffee. Just like you’d

smell the seasons, I want to say let’s make sure that we are awake and we smell the coffee. We smell the season because something has happened. Something has changed. For me, it started in September of last year.

And I began to become aware and alert to the fact that God is saying, “New season, new season, Peter. There is a new season.” It was probably around that time that I first became aware of what has since become quite widely known in in national press including not yet Christian national press uh of the quiet revival… the statistics indicate that since 2019 the churchgoing population across a monthly average in the UK has doubled. It’s gone up by 50%….

Let me let me give you what I think are some of the hallmarks of the new season that God has got us in. This is, let me prophesy it. This is a season of salvation, church. This is that you should be a bit excited about that. This is a season of salvation. This is not just anymore a season of quiet influencing. This is a season of end of the journey. This is a season of new life, of new birth. This is a season of salvation. I want to speak it over you as a church. And therefore, this is a season, get it ready again.

This is a season of engagement with scripture. There is a hunger and a thirst for scripture. Bible sales in the UK in the last 12 months have gone up by 134%.

Over the last six years by 89%. There is a new hunger for scripture. As everything else that we see around us politically and geopolitically and socially and economically crumbles and splinters, people are a drift. And they’re looking for anchor points and they’re looking for truth…

The search is on what is true. Never mind what is not true. What about not never mind fake lies? Where is truth? The truth is out there. And people are turning back to scripture in a way that they have not for years and years. Much of that is driven by the younger element in our society by the 18 to 24 year olds. If you were 18, if you’re 18 to 24 nowadays in the UK, you are four times more likely to be going to church on a regular basis than you were back six years ago…

This is a season of gathering. There are going to be new gatherings of the church, including of this church. Gathering in ways that you’ve never gathered before.

Gathering in places that you’ve never gathered before. Gathering for reasons that you haven’t gathered before. There will be new gatherings. This would include, this is the next thing I want to say. This would include a move amongst the youth, including the youth of this church, but much wider than the youth of this church. I am so blessed that that I I got to be part of the service this morning and we’re we’re we’re listening to and we’re hearing from those wonderful teachers and the way that they asked God to use that. Wasn’t that fantastic as as Jonathan said and then and then stand if you’re a

teacher. There’s about another 10 teachers standing around. This is fantastic. God wants a move of in in the youth of this church but beyond the youth of this church. And I believe this is the season for it.

This is a new season, church. This is not same old same old. And I want to ask you to think this morning, church, individually as well as corporately. What season do you find yourself in? Individually, you see, we’ll all likely be in different seasons.

We need to be quick to just as Bartameus was quick to move when Jesus passed by. We need to be quick to respond to the presence of Christ in this new season. So that’s the first word, seasons.

So we honor the past and we take the good from the past and we bless the past. But we don’t live in the past. Forget the former things. Do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Now that word, I’ve looked at the word there. Springs. That word does carry with it a sense of

There is a sense of speed in these verses. That this is happening suddenly, that it’s happening quickly. There is a sense of accelerated pace and I want to prophesy that

over the church. You are in a new season of accelerated pace…”