Seasons in our Christian Walk

Romans 8:28 “We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.” AMP

Recently the Lord had me teach on seasons that we walk through in our Christian life. When the Lord began speaking this lesson to me I initially resisted teaching on it. Mainly because the season I had just came out of I didn't feel like I navigated very well. I defienently did not count it all joy. In fact the only positive thing I could say about the season was that I didn't give up. The Lord said that is exaclty why I want you to teach on this. Because you didn't give up I can now use it for your good.

First let’s talk about what a season is:
Season defined by Webster’s Dictionary – A time characterized by a particular circumstance or feature (a season of religious awakening).

Season are very much apart of our lives. As people we have season as an infant, the teenager season; the young adult season; the adult season. We are characterized by our marital status, what we do for a living, if we have kids or not. Our weather is divided into seasons – winter, spring, summer and fall. Our calendar is divided by seasons BC and AD. So why would it surprise us that there would be seasons in our spiritual life?

Being a Christian is a process. We don’t get saved and immediately have everything we need to live a victorious life. We grow and progress in our faith. Luke 2:52 “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and all the people.”

Many scriptures liken our Christian walk to a race. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should…”

If your running a race you don’t just go out and run a marathon. It is a process, you gradually build up, you discipline your body and you run with a purpose. It is the same with our spiritual life – our purpose is an eternal prize and to produce eternal fruit in our own lives and in the lives of others.

If we were perfect in our faith we would no longer be here. There would be no reason for you to not be in heaven. However, if you are still here on the earth it is because God is not done with you, he has a purpose for you and the only way you will achieve that purpose is to continue to grow in your faith and that comes through seasons!

During the process we will go through the season’s over and over. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” Some translations say from glory to glory…it is a process a transformation which means it takes time and seasons.

We all go through seasons and each season has a purpose for us. God has a purpose or you wouldn’t be going through it. Life is a journey, it’s a process, and it has many season’s!

The Lord gave me 3 main seasons that we walk through in our Christian life:

The first season is the Harvest (Mountain top, Season of blessings)season. Harvest means – the time or fruit of reaping or gathering in a crop-physically or spiritually (a time of great favor and blessing).

Salvation is our first experience of the harvest season. When you first get saved there is a wonderful time of growing and changing inside of you. You are growing, prayers are being answered, you feel God’s presence for the first time in your life. You desire the things of God – can’t spend enough time at church or in God’s word and then something happens…the season changes. You are in this harvest season because someone sowed seeds for you!

Then as we go through our Christian walk and cycle we come back time and time again to a harvest because of what we have planted during the other seasons.
Galatians 6:9 “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

As we go through tonight I am going to parallel this to the journey the Children of Israel took. See they were mis-treated slaves when Jesus called Moses to set them free (just like we are slaves to sin before salvation). Moses swept in and through the power of God the Israelites were set free and not only set free they came out wealthy – Exodus 12:36 “The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth.” Miracle after miracle occurred as they fled Egypt on their way to the promise land.

During a harvest season you are blessed physically & spiritually. Just like the children of Israel. They experienced a great time of physical blessing (wealth) as well as a spiritual time of blessing or harvest.

There are purposes to every season in our Christian walk. Here are some of the purposes from the Harvest Season.
1. Greater understanding of the goodness and love of God. Romans 5:8 “Christ showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”• Romans 8:39 “No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”• James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…”
2. See the faithfulness of God. Lamentations 3:22-24 “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
3. Filled to be emptied. We are blessed to be a blessing. Genesis 12:2 “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.”

The second season is a Desert or Wilderness. What do you think of when you hear the word desert?? Dry, hot, lonely, desperation... When I refer to the desert season I mean a very dry season. You may feel all alone, forsaken, like you can not see, feel or hear God.

Desert means any desolate, barren, or unpopulated area usually with sparse vegetation. Are you in a desert season? Do you feel like you are not hearing God? That your prayers aren’t reaching above the ceiling. Do you not sense his presence in your life; don’t see him moving in any area? Do you have a lack of purpose or direction?

The desert season is not usually about outward circumstances. Most of the time the desert season is in your relationship with the Lord. Typically outwardly everything is going well but within your relationship with the Lord is where you feel alone.

Here are some purposes of the Desert Season:
1. Testing of our belief in God. We first start off and it isn’t too bad; we continue to stand and believe God but as time goes by and we feel more and more disconnected we allow the enemy to bring in doubt & discouragement…does God really have a future for my life; did God really speak those things to me. Hebrews 6:18 “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.”
2. Dying of self –our plans and desires. Isaiah 55:8-9 MSG version "I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work. For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think." God will lead us into the desert in order for us to completely surrender to his will and his ways. Not because he is mad at us or doesn't want to do good things for us but because he wants to do exceendingly, abundantly, above whatever we could ask or think, but in order for him to do that we must surrender our desires and will. If Jesus had to come to a place where he said, Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
3. Learn the power of obedience. John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.” Keep obeying what he has told us to do. 1 Samuel 15:22 “But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”

The children of Israel wondered in the desert for over 40 years – why because they were not obedient to God. Once they all died out and the next generation took over they entered into the next season of fire or trials.

A third season is a fire or trial season.
Fire means hot flame or burning light; symbolic of hell; severe trial or ordeal. Trial means a test of faith, patience, or stamina through subjection to suffering or temptation.

Are you in a fire or trial season? Do you feel like you face one trial after another? You just get your feet on the ground and you get hit again? Or maybe your trail is waiting (patience) – waiting for the next door to open; waiting for a situation to change. While the desert season seems more between you and God, the fire or trial season deals more with your outward circumstances.

Here are some purposes of the fire or trial season.
1. Fire brings up impurities in our lives (resentment, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, greed, jealousy, pride, etc.) and causes us to deal with them. Malachi 3:3 “He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites refining them like gold and silver so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.”
2. Produces a genuine faith. 1 Peter 1:7 “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” MSG. “I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.” – It’s our faith that draws other to Jesus.
3. Develops us into the women God has called and created us to be. James 1:2-4 “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”

Romans 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We can’t be conquerors or overcomers if we never go through something.

The children of Israel came out of the wilderness into a firey trial where there leader, mentor, representative to God was going to die before they could go into the promise land. Then although they went into the promised land there were giants in the land & battles to be fought.

How do we thrive in the season we are in?
The first way we can thrive and not just survive any season in our life is realizing there is a purpose. God would not have us going through it if there wasn't a good purpose for us!

The second way we can thrive is to simply draw close to God. James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” What does that word draw mean. The word draw means to come close to, to link arms with, to hold beside. We draw near to God by doing the basics – prayer, worship and the word.
Prayer – simply talking to God. Talk to God about what you are going through, how you are feeling, decisions that need to be made. He hears us when we pray and he will answer us. James 5:16 “..the earnest (heartfelt) prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Guess what if you have made Jesus the Lord of your life then you are righteous because of the blood of Jesus and your prayers are effective and God is hearing them!

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” God says we can come BODLDY to the throne of our gracious God. Not our mean God or a mad God but a gracious God and will give you the mercy and grace that you need.

Worship. Psalm 16:11 “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Nothing can adjust your attitude like worshp can. In God's presence we find joy!

Stand on God’s Word. God’s word will do what it says. Isaiah 55:11 “It is the same with my word. I sent it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” God's word is a resource for us and like any other resource if it isn’t used it is useless. God’s word is the most powerful weapon you could have. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”

Romans 8:28 “We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.” AMP God is constructing something beyond our human rationale. He knows in advance every piece - past, present, &future - that will be required for the finished work. We see one little part and one little moment. He, the One who is, who was, and is to come, sees beyond the singular piece to every generation and condition He means to effect.

Meanwhile, He works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The one thing may not be good at all by itself. But, when He weaves it with all that comes before it and all that will come around and behind it then something good, something beneficial, emerges.

Never let Romans 8:28 become so familiar that it loses its meaning. It is true God WILL work it out for your good. Even if you don’t understand. You may not understand why you are in a specific season, you may not even truly "see" the purpose or the good in it. John 13:7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." But I want you to KNOW that if it wasn’t for your good…God wouldn’t allow you to go through it.

*This is from a teaching I did for the Lakewood Church Women's Minsitry. You can comment or email me if you would like a copy of the audio CD.