Have you ever prayed, Lord, let this be my season? Or perhaps you have heard the preacher declare, this is your time, get ready for God to bless you in this season! The word “season” has become so cliché in church lingo, but that does not take away from the fact that it is used in scripture. I am sure you have read the scripture in Ecclesiastes 3:1. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” There are seasons we experience on earth, but more importantly, there are spiritual seasons we experience. In this article, I will layout a foundation on the importance of understanding spiritual seasons. Preparation, wisdom, and thanksgiving are three components of reaping the blessings of each season in your life. However, before I begin expounding on the first of these three principles let us take a deeper look at Ecclesiastes 3:1.
First, let us focus on three words in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1: season, time, and purpose. What is a season? In this particular verse, a season is a set time, or appointed time. Therefore, the scripture would read to everything there is an appointed time. Time in this scripture refers to an experience, occurrence, or occasion. Thus, to everything, there is an appointed time, and occasion/experience/occurrence. When we think of the word purpose we would generally say that a purpose is a reason something exists or is made or done, right? However, in this verse, if we look at the Hebrew word che'phets, it means delight, good pleasure, or desire. This makes perfect sense because God created us for his good pleasure. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” Revelation 4:11.
To everything, there is an appointed time, and an occasion/experience/occurrence to every desire, delight, or good pleasure under heaven. God knows the beginning from the ending. He knows the days of our trials and the days of our breakthroughs. Everything has been established by Him and for His glory.
One fall, I remember seeing a squirrel run across the street. I actually stopped because it took it quite some time to get across, which is understandable, because it had several acorns in its mouth. God's creation knows when to store up for winter or to fly south. It knows when it is time to build or dig. The plants know when to shed their leaves and when to produce seeds and fruit. If nature knows how to operate in each season, how much more should God's greatest creation, a spiritual being, know how to operate in the spirit? As I continued thinking about the squirrel and God's creation and on the changing of seasons, so many revelations began flooding my mind.
God is so marvelous! Gen. 1:14 states, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”
The God we serve established these seasons from the beginning. In the fall, squirrels begin collecting seeds and nuts to bury so that in the winter when food is scarce all they have to do is dig up what they stored in the fall for food. Just like the squirrel we should be storing up spiritual things. In the natural, fall is the time for reaping what was sown in the spring and tended to in summer, for seasons will arise when digging into the Word and praying 2-4 hours a day will be extremely difficult. However, if you open your spiritual eyes and are watchful for the changing of times, you will know how to prepare for the season ahead. God is a God of principle. We know that when we have winter, a time of existing on what was stored from the previous harvest, resting and getting intimate with God, that summer is not right around the corner.
Summer is a time of watering and weeding the things that have been planted. Hence if we are just coming out of a season of rest and preparation there must be a spring season where we plant and put into action the plans established by God in the winter months.
Now that we have established that we also go through natural seasons, you may be wondering how we prepare for the seasons of our spiritual lives. One key to preparation is being watchful. In Mark 13:34 & 37, Jesus tells four of his disciples to be watchful. 34) For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 37) And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. God commands us to be watchful. We find in Revelation 3:2 “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.” Other scriptures to refer to are, I Thess. 5:6, I Peter 4:7, II Tim. 4:5, and Matt. 24:45-46.
To watch means to give strict attention to, to observe, or to wait attentively or expectantly. Just like when we are mindful of the seasons, we know that in winter we do not wear shorts or go swimming outside. Doing such a thing would be foolish and harmful to our health. A farmer knows that winter is generally not the time to plant crops or to look for a harvest, but he knows that it is a time of reflection and planning and preparing for the spring and fall. This brings me to my next key to preparation, prayer.
In Luke 21 Jesus tells his disciples of signs of the end of the age to watch for. In verse 26 he says, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." There are so many revelations God wants to reveal to His people. Prayer is one way to receive these revelations. We are to consider God in everything we do. We are to acknowledge Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:6). In my prayer time, I asked God about sowing and He began telling me about seeds. There are so many different seeds in the natural. In the spiritual realm we can say there are good seeds and corrupt seeds. The type of seeds we sow will determine the harvest we reap. Keep in mind that what we invest in the spirit we will reap in the natural. That is why watching and praying so that you are properly prepared for the season is so vital.
In conclusion, my desire is that we do not miss out on any of the blessings of God because we did not properly prepare for the seasons we experience in our individual lives as well as the corporate body of Christ. Understand that if you prepare in winter, plant good seeds in spring, and work diligently and tend to the crop in summer, you can expect an overflowing harvest in the fall!
Angela Akines
God Bless you!
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