I started feeling it last year.
The feeling grew, and grew, and GREW some more.
Now it's at a fever pitch.
I was walking around my house enjoying a rare moment of silence a few months ago.
My children were at school.
My husband was running errands.
And my dogs were nestled in their blankets on the floor.
Only the sound of the dishwasher and washing machine could be heard.
Worship was playing in the background on my phone in the office, with ocassional interruptions by a few YouTube adds.
I was busy doing things around the house.
But as is our custom, domestic duties open up the most random conversations with God .
As I cleaned the bathroom, I heard the Lord say to me:
"IT'S THE TIME OF THE BENCHWARMER."
In sports terminology, a benchwarmer is a commonly known phrase.
It's used to describe players who have made the team, but have not been drafted into an actual game to play.
They sit on the bench on the sidelines for most of the game, taking in the game as a spectator instead of a player.
They keep the bench warm like a Momma Bird on an egg to be hatched.
It is not a term of endearment.
It's actually known to be a signifier of skill.
The good players go in to play.
The bad players ride the oak. They sit on the bench.
They can go an entire season, or their entire career for that matter, as someone who sits on the bench.
They go to practice, they take part in the scrimmage. But they never get to show their ability at a public level.
To be known as an athlete AND a benchwarmer is not desirable.
But outside of sports terminology, a benchwarmer in spiritual terms has an entirely different meaning.
God works in times and seasons.
Everything that he orchestrates and manifests is with his purpose in mind.
A benchwarmer in the natural is not a desirable thing.
But in the spirit, we have all been benchwarmers at one time or another.
In the spirit, you can have all the skill and ability of a player in the game, but still be on the bench because of our coach.
God is the coach.
Putting players in the game doesn't have as much to do with skill as it does his time and seasons, and how our purpose, surrender, and heart fit into them.
In one season you are in the game. In the next you're back on the bench.
And the season after that one, you're back in the game. But it's a new game, with new opponents, team mates, and rules.
Benchwarming in the spirit is another way of either being hidden or hiding.
We have all been fashioned with a purpose that fits into God's plan.
All of us are in constant cycles of growth and development.
Others have been in hiding and development.
Some have been hiding from God and development.
Some are just now coming into an understanding of God, their value, and how they fit into everything that he's doing.
We are all being processed. We are all on the wheel.
And many have sat on the bench because it was our time to do so, or we've run from what the game means.
But as I cleaned my home and sat with the Lord, I knew that there was a big draft coming.
Many people that have sat on the bench, warming it, watching others play the game, were getting ready to be drafted into service.
A season of being hidden was coming to an end.
And inactivity would be no more.
Those who have sat on gifts, talents, ability, and callings would begin to see God's hand of guidance and development lead them into service.
Those who have had conversations with themselves about what they were capable of would have them no more.
They would step out, FULLY CONVINCED, that they were able to contribute to the game.
And nothing, or no one could hold back what God has originated.
The season of the Benchwarmer is here.
And there will be many that step out to give God their all to aid his kingdom.
If you feel the call, the stir, or the pull to come out of hiding or stagnation, PLEASE OBEY.
God always uses the most unlikely one.
Perhaps it is you.
Perhaps it is time.
Perhaps it is NOW.
The Coach is walking over, calling you in.
The bench is no longer your seated place.
You're in the game.
Your team (The Kingdom of God) needs you.
All of creation is growning for the manifestation of God's children.
You can't manifest him on the bench.
Get in the game.
Shaunee Brannan
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