I'd like to share my thoughts about one of the ways the Holy Spirit works in us as Christians and what I believe God has revealed to me about it. I don't think it's the whole answer at all but it's something I've been trying and testing in my own life and I think it's helpful to consider. I'll just share what's on my heart and you can take it yourself to the Lord and to the Word and see what He shows you. Please feel encouraged to be discerning as you read and I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback!!
Have you ever had an experience where a particular part of your walk with God is just going incredibly well? Maybe you're seeing LOADS of people come to Jesus or ask about Him or everyone you pray for gets healed or you're just so passionate about laying your life down for others or you have a burst of creativity and you're churning out paintings and songs and dances!! Whatever it is, it's just great and you're loving it!! Soaring on cloud 9! Then suddenly without warning it ends! Arrgh Nightmare! You're not riding quite so high any more! You break out in emergency prayers and start examining your heart for sin! Maybe you put in extra effort to whatever it was that was going so well and try to get your "mojo" back. Nothing. Nada. Zip What on earth happened??
I believe God works in our lives on a seasonal basis. I know that for me especially this is an expression of His grace as I suck at multi-tasking and thinking about too many things at a time really does me in! I think that each season God brings us into is a season of growth because we always go from glory to glory but each one can look very different. I'm finding that learning to recognise these seasonal movements is key to my development in Christ because it keeps me from frustration, striving and self-righteousness as well as helping me to better partner with the Holy Spirit and what He's doing in me. In different seasons at different times I believe God gives us grace in a particular area of our lives to manifest Christ in us and become more like Him. During these times we grow a lot but having spoken to a few people about this and having seen it first hand, it's pretty easy to think that things are going so well because let's face it, "I'm awesome". We get really full ourselves because we assume God is moving in response to our commitment or our righteousness and so when the season ends and the grace is removed, of course we assume it's because of something that we've done! "Have I sinned? Have I not spent enough time in prayer or read my Bible enough today? Why isn't it working??
This space between the end of a season and us discovering what the next one is is often the time the enemy takes to attack us and try to sabotage the fruit of the previous season and plant his own evil seeds for the next season. He'll offer us guilt and convince us that God has left us because of something we've done or not done or he'll offer us the opportunity to be offended at God because we did everything right and we deserve His grace (both of which of course are stupid). This can cause us to not believe in the power of the fruit we saw in the previous season and to miss the one we're coming in to because we don't trust God to lead us. Seeds of doubt and bitterness can then grow in the soil of our hearts and bear bad fruit in the seasons to come and cause untold damage. Bad times. In the wilderness Jesus was tempted by satan to question His identity and His relationship with the Father. But the Word says that it was the Holy Spirit who actually led Jesus into and out of the wilderness and I think this is key for us to understand for our own lives.
Sometimes I just decide that I want to focus more on a particular aspect of my faith and I just try really, really hard at something for a while then get confused and disheartened when it doesn't work out. I'm starting to be increasingly convinced that being "led" by the Holy Spirit is about more than just who to pray for. I think that each season we enter comes with a new pair of glasses. If we put them on, our focus and perspective changes and enables us to better respond to what He does in our lives. If I understand that God is leading me into a season of humility then I will react differently to situations and people who annoy me, recognising that I have the opportunity to react in pride or in humility. If I understand that God is leading me into a season of developing in the gift of prophecy I will dedicate more of my time to listening to His voice, reading His Word and understanding how He speaks to me and developing in my love for others. Knowing the seasons we're in and what God is wanting to do in our lives at present will help us to partner with the Holy Spirit's plans to make us more like Jesus. We'll know which books to read, who to spend our time with and how and what to pray for. We'll be able to let those close to us know what God is doing in us so that they can encourage, challenge and support us in it so we don't chicken out or get lazy. If I know that God has me in a season of developing great vision, I'll hang out more with my friends who have great vision and read books about people with great vision. This will keep my heart and mind focussed on what God is doing and enable me to be taught by Him.
"Wait Tony are you saying you think that there are times when God is not wanting us to develop in humility?" Haha I probably won't say that outright but I think at different times He has different focusses and how we respond to these emphases has an affect on our life and transformation. I don't think it's entirely dependent on that and there are several other factors but I think that our level of obedience in a season determines the length of the season. If we just flat out refuse to move forward in what He is leading us into, He may just press the matter for a long time. The issue with that is the more we resist Him, often the easier it gets. For example, if He presses us to grow in our purity or integrity by removing dodgy music from our ipod (ouch, see my blog on Irrational Passion) and we resist, we can eventually become callous to His pressing in that area and convince ourselves that He's actually not that bothered about it or that we're overreacting which can lead us into further compromise.
I hope you don't mind me getting a little allegorical for a sec. I believe that the work of the Holy Spirit in us is much like that of a gardener. Original I know (!). We sometimes play the part of the childish helping hand who've come to help the gardener during our school holidays. We haven't spent any time with Him and we don't know anything about gardening! With hope and excitement in His eyes He plants seeds of all shapes and sizes and diligently waters them while nothing can be seen on the surface. We get real bored of waiting really fast! In our immaturity sometimes we see the first fruit of what has been planted and immediately think that is the be all and end all! We pull it up out of the ground or we pick the tree clean and run around showing it to everyone, maybe we sell it off in pieces or maybe we display it on our wall or maybe we chop it up and throw it into a stew but either way we use it up and its gone and we're confused. The next time something blooms we watch the gardener instead. He closely inspects it. Seeing unhealthy portions he prunes it or He gives it more water and allows it to grow more and then leaves it and moves His attention to something else that is very well developed and bursting with fruit. Removing some of the fruits he makes them into a soup and gives it people who are sick or hungry then he takes the rest of the fruits and plants them in the ground.
In the garden of our life God plants seeds of what He wants us to become. Seeds of character, seeds of gifting, seeds of dreams and careers. In our immature and finite thinking we often think that as soon as something comes of it it's time to jump into high gear! Maybe we write a book or we tell people about our spiritual power and authority and make a reputation for ourselves. So often we grab a hold of things in impatience that aren't fully grown yet (maybe God is working on our patience haha) and we stop nurturing and cultivating with Him and we end up either producing tiny, anaemic, premature fruit and make it out to be greater than it is or we stop producing. The Holy Spirit is very clever (duh) and if we watch Him and walk with Him instead of running haphazardly around the garden and just picking whatever has bright colours or looks tasty we will learn a lot. When we stop trying to produce fruit that will impress other people and join Him in producing fruit that will help and heal other people, I think we're onto something. We learn that anything He grows in us is designed to benefit others not just to make us famous or popular so we take whatever He produces in us and share it with people. When compassion is produced we take it to those who need compassion. When faith for physical, mental or emotional healing is produced we take it to those who are hurting. However it's important to remember that there is always more growing to be done. As we join Him in His work in the garden we grow stronger and find that as seasons come and go we are able to carry more of what is produced and accelerate quicker in our personal growth.
Sometimes we celebrate a single tree when God wants to grow orchards!
I think it's important to say also that at the end of any season we don't go back to square one but we've always moved forward from one degree of glory to another. In the words of Paul Manwaring, "He gets you ready and He wastes nothing." Our awareness of how much we've grown often is inaccurate and the truth isn't revealed until later and in the mean time we just have to trust Him, thank Him and follow Him. Seasons often overlap and as we get to know His heart and His mind we can begin to know to a small extent what the next step of the journey will be. The Bible talks about how the anointing of the Holy Spirit actually teaches us. I'd like to suggest that the seasonal movement of our lives can be attributed to the fact that at different times in our lives we're more anointed in particular things and less so in others as the Holy Spirit draws more attention to one area of our lives than another.
Let's learn to catch the winds of grace so we can ride on the waves of favour!
Disclaimer
Have you ever had an experience where a particular part of your walk with God is just going incredibly well? Maybe you're seeing LOADS of people come to Jesus or ask about Him or everyone you pray for gets healed or you're just so passionate about laying your life down for others or you have a burst of creativity and you're churning out paintings and songs and dances!! Whatever it is, it's just great and you're loving it!! Soaring on cloud 9! Then suddenly without warning it ends! Arrgh Nightmare! You're not riding quite so high any more! You break out in emergency prayers and start examining your heart for sin! Maybe you put in extra effort to whatever it was that was going so well and try to get your "mojo" back. Nothing. Nada. Zip What on earth happened??
I believe God works in our lives on a seasonal basis. I know that for me especially this is an expression of His grace as I suck at multi-tasking and thinking about too many things at a time really does me in! I think that each season God brings us into is a season of growth because we always go from glory to glory but each one can look very different. I'm finding that learning to recognise these seasonal movements is key to my development in Christ because it keeps me from frustration, striving and self-righteousness as well as helping me to better partner with the Holy Spirit and what He's doing in me. In different seasons at different times I believe God gives us grace in a particular area of our lives to manifest Christ in us and become more like Him. During these times we grow a lot but having spoken to a few people about this and having seen it first hand, it's pretty easy to think that things are going so well because let's face it, "I'm awesome". We get really full ourselves because we assume God is moving in response to our commitment or our righteousness and so when the season ends and the grace is removed, of course we assume it's because of something that we've done! "Have I sinned? Have I not spent enough time in prayer or read my Bible enough today? Why isn't it working??
This space between the end of a season and us discovering what the next one is is often the time the enemy takes to attack us and try to sabotage the fruit of the previous season and plant his own evil seeds for the next season. He'll offer us guilt and convince us that God has left us because of something we've done or not done or he'll offer us the opportunity to be offended at God because we did everything right and we deserve His grace (both of which of course are stupid). This can cause us to not believe in the power of the fruit we saw in the previous season and to miss the one we're coming in to because we don't trust God to lead us. Seeds of doubt and bitterness can then grow in the soil of our hearts and bear bad fruit in the seasons to come and cause untold damage. Bad times. In the wilderness Jesus was tempted by satan to question His identity and His relationship with the Father. But the Word says that it was the Holy Spirit who actually led Jesus into and out of the wilderness and I think this is key for us to understand for our own lives.
Sometimes I just decide that I want to focus more on a particular aspect of my faith and I just try really, really hard at something for a while then get confused and disheartened when it doesn't work out. I'm starting to be increasingly convinced that being "led" by the Holy Spirit is about more than just who to pray for. I think that each season we enter comes with a new pair of glasses. If we put them on, our focus and perspective changes and enables us to better respond to what He does in our lives. If I understand that God is leading me into a season of humility then I will react differently to situations and people who annoy me, recognising that I have the opportunity to react in pride or in humility. If I understand that God is leading me into a season of developing in the gift of prophecy I will dedicate more of my time to listening to His voice, reading His Word and understanding how He speaks to me and developing in my love for others. Knowing the seasons we're in and what God is wanting to do in our lives at present will help us to partner with the Holy Spirit's plans to make us more like Jesus. We'll know which books to read, who to spend our time with and how and what to pray for. We'll be able to let those close to us know what God is doing in us so that they can encourage, challenge and support us in it so we don't chicken out or get lazy. If I know that God has me in a season of developing great vision, I'll hang out more with my friends who have great vision and read books about people with great vision. This will keep my heart and mind focussed on what God is doing and enable me to be taught by Him.
"Wait Tony are you saying you think that there are times when God is not wanting us to develop in humility?" Haha I probably won't say that outright but I think at different times He has different focusses and how we respond to these emphases has an affect on our life and transformation. I don't think it's entirely dependent on that and there are several other factors but I think that our level of obedience in a season determines the length of the season. If we just flat out refuse to move forward in what He is leading us into, He may just press the matter for a long time. The issue with that is the more we resist Him, often the easier it gets. For example, if He presses us to grow in our purity or integrity by removing dodgy music from our ipod (ouch, see my blog on Irrational Passion) and we resist, we can eventually become callous to His pressing in that area and convince ourselves that He's actually not that bothered about it or that we're overreacting which can lead us into further compromise.
I hope you don't mind me getting a little allegorical for a sec. I believe that the work of the Holy Spirit in us is much like that of a gardener. Original I know (!). We sometimes play the part of the childish helping hand who've come to help the gardener during our school holidays. We haven't spent any time with Him and we don't know anything about gardening! With hope and excitement in His eyes He plants seeds of all shapes and sizes and diligently waters them while nothing can be seen on the surface. We get real bored of waiting really fast! In our immaturity sometimes we see the first fruit of what has been planted and immediately think that is the be all and end all! We pull it up out of the ground or we pick the tree clean and run around showing it to everyone, maybe we sell it off in pieces or maybe we display it on our wall or maybe we chop it up and throw it into a stew but either way we use it up and its gone and we're confused. The next time something blooms we watch the gardener instead. He closely inspects it. Seeing unhealthy portions he prunes it or He gives it more water and allows it to grow more and then leaves it and moves His attention to something else that is very well developed and bursting with fruit. Removing some of the fruits he makes them into a soup and gives it people who are sick or hungry then he takes the rest of the fruits and plants them in the ground.
In the garden of our life God plants seeds of what He wants us to become. Seeds of character, seeds of gifting, seeds of dreams and careers. In our immature and finite thinking we often think that as soon as something comes of it it's time to jump into high gear! Maybe we write a book or we tell people about our spiritual power and authority and make a reputation for ourselves. So often we grab a hold of things in impatience that aren't fully grown yet (maybe God is working on our patience haha) and we stop nurturing and cultivating with Him and we end up either producing tiny, anaemic, premature fruit and make it out to be greater than it is or we stop producing. The Holy Spirit is very clever (duh) and if we watch Him and walk with Him instead of running haphazardly around the garden and just picking whatever has bright colours or looks tasty we will learn a lot. When we stop trying to produce fruit that will impress other people and join Him in producing fruit that will help and heal other people, I think we're onto something. We learn that anything He grows in us is designed to benefit others not just to make us famous or popular so we take whatever He produces in us and share it with people. When compassion is produced we take it to those who need compassion. When faith for physical, mental or emotional healing is produced we take it to those who are hurting. However it's important to remember that there is always more growing to be done. As we join Him in His work in the garden we grow stronger and find that as seasons come and go we are able to carry more of what is produced and accelerate quicker in our personal growth.
Sometimes we celebrate a single tree when God wants to grow orchards!
Of course I totally think we should rejoice at the slightest sense of growth and thank the God of the universe that He is giving time and attention to our hearts but we should always expect that there is more He wants to do in us. Remember: An orchard can continue bearing fruit long after the original apple has gone.
I think it's important to say also that at the end of any season we don't go back to square one but we've always moved forward from one degree of glory to another. In the words of Paul Manwaring, "He gets you ready and He wastes nothing." Our awareness of how much we've grown often is inaccurate and the truth isn't revealed until later and in the mean time we just have to trust Him, thank Him and follow Him. Seasons often overlap and as we get to know His heart and His mind we can begin to know to a small extent what the next step of the journey will be. The Bible talks about how the anointing of the Holy Spirit actually teaches us. I'd like to suggest that the seasonal movement of our lives can be attributed to the fact that at different times in our lives we're more anointed in particular things and less so in others as the Holy Spirit draws more attention to one area of our lives than another.
Let's learn to catch the winds of grace so we can ride on the waves of favour!
Disclaimer
- God is far too extravagant for us to always be able to predict what He's going to do and so we can't get all formulaic about seasons or we risk restricting the Holy Spirit's work. He's like the wind after all!
- Sometimes when you've had a ton of grace in a season, God removes it so that you will seek after Him for the fullness of what you tasted and not simply move on to something else.
- When seasons overlap you can find that you're harvesting the fruit of one season while nurturing the seeds of the next.
Thanks for reading! Part 2 to come!
