A Season and Time for Everything

Ecc 3:1-8 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (5) A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; (6) A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; (7) A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; (8) A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

But we don’t see clearly. We don’t discern too well the changes that come to our life.

Mat 16:3 …ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

We know there are four seasons. We know God ordained them being summer, fall, winter, and spring. But what would happen if we did not move into the next season? What would happen if we remained in the previous season?

There are even seasons of change for the land itself.

Every seven years the Lord ordained a rest for the land. For six years they would plow the field, sow the seeds, and harvest all the crops in their due season.

Lev 25:1-5 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, (2) Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. (3) Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; (4) But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. (5) That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

We see here that God has ordained seasons of rest, even for the land itself. The same way we see seasons in the earth, or what some call “mother nature”, we all experience changes of season in our life. The natural does give a reflection of the spiritual. That’s why Jesus used so many different parables of “nature” to convey the kingdom of God to His people.

God has seasons for His people.

Lev 25:8-13 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. (9) Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. (10) And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. (11) A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. (12) For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. (13) In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.

God has seasons of liberation for His people, even for the people that are under his children. He has seasons of returning, seasons of reconciliation, seasons of healing, seasons of deliverance.

Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Let’s not focus in on the result, but what it cost took to get the far better result.

The purging is the change in our life. Many of us don’t do well with change. We remain rigid, stiff-necked in so many ways and our growth in Him becomes stunted because we refuse to change. We adapt very slowly, if we do at all. We bicker and complain and we wonder why is God doing this to us and we don’t discern the sign of the times. The times of testing, cleansing, securing… the times of renewing.

Every change in season must be preceded by a change in preparation and action.

Wilderness remnant:

Rom 11:20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off,…

Heb 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Heb 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

Remnant people are those that have allowed themselves to be renewed to move in the direction that God was presently moving. They were the ones that were trusting and obedient to the voice for the day. They were the ones prepared to take the next step and face the next challenge God had set before them.

Seasons of Renewal (change) for the People of God

Luke 5:36-39 KJV - And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. [Emphasis added are mine]

Reading this recently the Lord brought to my thoughts a few things I would like to share.

His-tory is cyclical. Our pastor calls this when it happens in the scriptures a progressive repetition revelation and each time a repetition comes around it seems to crescendo greater than the last.

Our natural physical life is cyclical and is a picture of our process to spiritual maturity.

To grow, you must constantly be shedding the old to mature in the new. Some of us may not know this, but we shed old skin which makes up a lot of the dust around our homes and washes off when we shower. Like a snake must shed off it's old skin as the under skin grows, so must we shed off our old skins in order to receive and move in the new things of the Lord.

Jesus spoke of this in these passages shared above. We see from verse 26 that we are instructed to not mix the old with the new. Why?

They will not be in accord or as the Jesus said, "the new agreeth not with the old".

I see a spiritual principle in these verses that instructs us that to start a new thing in God, you must start everything afresh. You must start re-newed.

To be ready to move with a fresh anointing (a new thing), we must be made anew as well to walk in it. If we remain in the old, or as the old, without being renewed, we will not be in accord with the new, we will burst open and the anointing will be lost.

If we remain as the old, we end up deceiving ourselves into thinking that the old is better than the new (Luke 5:39).

When we were nearing our born-again experience we need to be renewed. Repentance is renewal. Baptism in water and in the Spirit is a renewing and regeneration (Titus 3:5).

Every step forward toward Jesus Christ and His will necessitates a renewal of some kind.

Paul had to put away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11) as we all do in order to mature.

1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Eph. 4:31 and I Cor. 5:13 teaches us to put away certain other things.

Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

1Co 5:13 ...Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

In our faithwalk, spiritual renewal must be constant, progressive and repetitious: renewal of the inward man (2 Cor. 4:16) and renewal of the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23).

2Co 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

This constant shedding of the old will keep us ready, willing, and malleable to move in with the new.

Psa 51:10, 13 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (13) Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Without us having a renewed right spirit within us, we can’t teach sinners. We can’t teach them about righteousness, holiness, purity of heart. We can’t teach them the ways of the Lord.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

We are the ones to “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

God comes in a way that we declare revival is at hand. Mighty moves of the Spirit are evident to those in and out of the Church. When that happens, we invariably get caught up in the moment. We become familiar and comfortable and there is where we miss Him.

The enemy tries to put a stop it, not by stopping the move of God (because he can't!), but by deceiving us into believing, "This is it. This is all there is. This is the greatest thing since sliced bread and can’t be made better. So let’s just stay in our boat and enjoy the ride."

He lulls into the false sense of security in this new move of God. We become complacent. We stop hungering, thirsting, asking, seeking, knocking - everything that God responded to in order to begin this great move of God. After a time, we continue on in this move of God and don't even realize God departed. He moved on and we never followed because we stopped.

It's like a small kayak or canoe or boat in a river and it's rushing and we're seemingly out of control flowing with the river. What a thrill! But then we somehow get caught in an eddy and we start swirling around and around and we're really going nowhere. We’re still moving in the water, but were not going anywhere or accomplishing anything.

Has this ever happened to us? We're flowing in the move of God and it's spectacular and then after awhile of enjoying the move, its seems like God stopped. What happened? Where'd he go?! He moved and we got left behind enjoying the “eddy” of old things.

God is constantly moving and we need to be as the wind, "...wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

The more we listen to men, setting ministerial offices higher than that of listening to the Spirit of God, the more, we as a people of God will remain immature and not produce the fruit of the Spirit in abundance.

If we continue to tap ourselves into men (just for the fame, popularity, position) rather than tapping ourselves into the true vine, the Spirit of God, we will be continually get misled and derailed in our faithwalk.

It is vital for all of us to find those humble ministers of God, humble brethren, that have not stopped hungering and thirsting for the Living God for themselves. Make lasting bonds with those choice men and women. They are rare and few.

If we can remain vigilantly hungering and thirsting after the living God, not only as individuals, but also with close brethren, then as small groups, then communities, we will continue to be renewed for the next new thing God is doing. We can be the remnant God has called us out to be.

And we won’t get left behind...