Life often feels like we're caught between where we've been and where we're going. In those in-between seasons, when progress seems stalled and promises feel distant, it's easy to lose sight of God's faithfulness. Yet these transitional moments are often where God does His most transformative work.

Transition seasons are those challenging periods when you're "no longer in your familiar yesterday, but not yet in your prophetic tomorrow." These are the times when Satan desires to sift us like wheat - not when we're walking on water or experiencing breakthrough, but in the hallway of our faith.

The people of God in Zechariah's time understood this struggle. Around 539 B.C., after 70 years of captivity, God raised up King Cyrus to release the Israelites back to Jerusalem. He appointed Joshua as high priest and Zerubbabel as governor to lead a remnant back to rebuild the city and temple.

What's remarkable about this group is how they left captivity - with a spirit of declaration and worship. They declared "Great is the Lord and His mercy endures forever." As they arrived at the city, they marched past broken walls, burned gates, and a temple in ruins. They understood a crucial principle: the way you exit one season determines how you walk into the next.

If you exit broken, you'll enter broken. If you exit with a negative mindset, you'll carry that into your new season. But if you exit with worship and faith, you position yourself for God's breakthrough.

Why Do We Get Stuck in Transition?

After laying a new foundation for the temple, the Israelites faced 15 years of opposition. For 15 years, there were no walls, no roof, no furnishings - just worship on a makeshift foundation. They were stuck, and their spirits went to sleep.

You can be living but have your spirit go dormant. You can be doing all the right things as a believer, but lose the fire and expectation for what God wants to do. This is why Paul told Timothy to "stir up the gifts" within him - we must keep our spiritual gifts and faith active.

After 15 years of stagnation, an angel appeared to the prophet Zechariah with a vision of a golden lampstand fed by two olive trees - representing perpetual oil and God's continuous provision. But the people had been spiritually asleep so long, they couldn't understand what God was saying.

The angel delivered this powerful message: "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty. 'What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of "God bless it! God bless it!"'" (Zechariah 4:6-7).

This famous verse reveals that God's work in our lives isn't accomplished through human strength or effort, but by His Spirit. When we're facing mountains - whether financial struggles, health challenges, family issues, or broken dreams - the solution isn't found in our ability to push harder or work smarter.

God wanted Zerubbabel to grab hold of the capstone (the final crowning piece of the temple) in his spirit before the walls were even built. He wanted them to see the finished work while they were still in the foundation stage.

What God starts, He will complete. He is "timeless and spaceless". He can step into your crazy now, cover your messed-up past, and declare your prophetic future all with one word.

Sometimes we're looking for the big season but miss the small moments. When God does something small in your children's lives, celebrate it. When He begins working in your finances in a small way, start praising. Moments unlock seasons, and if you miss the moment, you'll miss the season. Rise up. There is fresh oil. Not by might or power, but by His Spirit. 

The Importance of Alignment

Every season of assignment requires a season of alignment. If God is taking you to a new place, He must align you for that new place. Sometimes we carry baggage from previous seasons that would defeat us in our next assignment.

Like travelers who get out of alignment from carrying heavy baggage, we need spiritual adjustments. God knows that if we drag old thinking and old declarations into our new season, it will hinder His purposes.

What Happens When We Stretch in Faith?

The story of Moses at the Red Sea illustrates this principle perfectly. Surrounded by impossibility - no way left or right, an army pursuing, and the voice of yesterday trying to pull them back - God required only one thing: "Take what's in your hand, get to the edge of where you've never been, and stretch."

When Moses stretched his rod over the waters:

• The angel moved behind them to cover their past
• God began to breathe over the waters all night long
• A pathway opened on dry ground
• God swallowed up their adversary never to be seen again

Sometimes the greatest opposition to your tomorrow is the voice of your yesterday. But when you're willing to stretch in faith, God covers where you've been and opens doors where you're going.

Remember that breakthrough comes "not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit." Lift the song of the Lord, rise in worship, and declare, “you are well able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we ask or think”. What are you believing for? Stretch forth in faith from the edge because what He has started, He will finish.