A word spoken in season...

The right word at the right time is like precious gold set in silver." Prov 25:11

Have you ever had the moment where you receive life-changing revelation from God, and then when you look back over the past period of months or years and you realise that the same things have been said, but they didn’t cause the same impact? It’s a weird thing, yet not at the same time. It’s weird because I half think that it’s the word that brings revelation. That it shouldn’t matter what season it was given in – the word of God is powerful enough to override the season. But then that doesn’t line up with what Jesus revealed to us. And in my experience, and that of others I have heard, the season we are in as well as the 'soil' of our heart is usually inexplicably linked to the word given – or, to use Bible language, the seed.

Jesus used the parable of the sower to illustrate this. The type of soil the seed landed in had an obvious effect on the growth or sustenance of the seed. The word was the same, but the outcomes were different. Jesus also told many parables about fields and harvests, vines, branches and trees. Of course there is the fact that many of his gatherings were with farmers and workers and he used examples they would understand. But we can also see that our lives have seasons.

There are several aspects that will affect a seed’s germination and growth. Soil is one, but seasons are another. I am beginning to see the correlation in my life. When I hear something revelationary for the first time, if the soil of my heart is not ideal, well maybe it will spring up but die quickly, or be pecked up before it can take root. But equally, if the soil of my heart is good, but the season is not in line then I believe it can still take root, but it might take a bit longer to wait out the winter and get to the springtime.

Now this is my personal experience and musing – please don’t take this as gospel, because it’s not. Now, to expand this idea of seasons, I don’t even think it’s got to do with the season of our lives as much as the season of the word. I believe all those nuggets that we read in the Bible and hear from the Holy Spirit have their own gestational time and their own ideal planting season – and all of this is individual for each person! It sounds so obvious to me as I’m writing, but it’s only making sense as I am typing. Why is it we can often get discouraged when comparing ourselves to others? For me, I used to think that I had the same ‘qualifications’ as them. Sometimes I’d been a believer longer, or lived a more ‘holy’ life, or reading the same Bible as them... So why didn’t I experience God like they did? Why didn’t I get the same revelations as they did? I was always clued up to the ‘soil’ of the heart. I understood that, but I didn’t understand the seasons – the individual cycle that we’re all on with Christ.

Now I don’t want to make any boxes for the Holy Spirit. And it would be easy to try to fit God into what we know about seasons. To fit him in to our earthly knowledge. Trying to anticipate times and durations; assuming that there are cold, dark seasons and joyful, bright seasons. I would suggest that this type of thinking is a mistake. For starters, I don’t believe that Jesus died so that we would have cold, dark seasons. Some, if not all of us will go through times like this, but it would be a mistake to think that God ordained it. Instead, He is there with us in these times waiting for our invite for him to invade our world and make it bright again.

I’m not talking about those kinds of seasons. I mean something more abstract. Something we can’t box in or figure out. It’s more of an essence of time. A period of time. But it’s never the same. And it is unpredictable to us. But when we look back, it’s like we can see a list of events that have led to this time and in hindsight it looks obvious. We can then see the parameters of the season. We can see the growth that has taken place.

I have heard many people preaching on seasons and use the ‘winter’ equivalent as an opportunity to grow close to God. And this will bring us great comfort. But I don’t want anyone to think that welcoming the dark times so that they are motivated to move closer to God to think that that is the crux of closeness with our Father. I do not want people to get the wrong idea here and I know I am walking a fine line. Here’s another go. There is a difference between welcoming/inviting/expecting bad things in our lives so that we have a place in God’s arms to run and simply running to his arms if/when bad times come. Of course he is always our comforter in those times and will always pick us up – even when it’s self-inflicted. That’s the beauty of grace. But what I’m getting at, is that when our focus is on him in the normal times, when we run to him in the happy times, when we desire relationship with our Father when things are well, then we will be better placed and equipped for when those dark times come and we won’t have to spend so much time doing damage control alongside our Dad.

I have recently been getting doused with the message of Grace that Jesus brought to Earth. It’s phenomenal. It’s life changing. It’s mind renewing. And I don’t understand how it’s taken so long for the church to start figuring it out. I guess it’s part of the multidimensional seasons that make up our existence. We each have seasons; then there are seasons in our families; seasons in our own churches; seasons in our workplaces; seasons in our countries; and seasons of the world. And all of these are cycling, invisible to us unless we choose to partner with the Holy One in bringing Heaven to Earth.

“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor 2:11)

But this is the most exciting part!!

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Cor 2:12)

And to cap it all off!

“’Who has known the mind of the Lord as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:16) (Bold is mine)

Wow! We can have access to what God is already doing in Heaven for Earth and partner with him to make it a reality!! This is definitely good news! This is something that causes me to be excited about dying to myself and taking up the life Christ paid for on the cross.