What do seasons mean spiritually?

Seasons change; the same season doesn’t last forever. Don’t make permanent decisions in  temporary circumstances. If your in the middle of Winter, don’t worry, things will get better and the sun will shine again. When we go through rough seasons in our lives, it should remind us more and more that this is not our home. John 16:33.

Spring

Spring is the time of new beginnings. The time of year where things enter a state of renewal. Dormant plants that have laid all Winter long rise up again. Leaves grow back on the trees. In our walk with Jesus, Springtime means fresh visions and new dreams. If you are going through a rough season, you can be confident in God’s faithfulness and know that at some point this season will end and a new one will begin. God will move and turn things around.

Summer

Summer is a season that warms us. The days are longer and the nights aren’t cold. Spring and Summer are also seasons where you can plant crops. You can even gain some harvest in Summer.

Autumn

The weather starts to chill, the remainder of the harvest is gathered, and things start to prepare for the the next season.

Winter

This is a time where most of the natural world goes into hibernation. Activities seem to come to a stand-still. It’s a time to review your dreams and make new plans. It’s a time to rest. I believe Peter was talking about a Winter season in this passage 1 Peter 1:6.

With a church full of people, you will most likely find someone going through spring and someone going through winter.

People can be in different places in different seasons. Someone could be going through Spring, like the children of Israel who were coming out of the Red Sea. Some people may be facing their Winter season, like the ones going into the Red Sea. They may not know what will happen in the next little bit, but if they will keep on walking, they’ll walk right out of their situation. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Keep walking and God will bring this season to pass.

Now, if you go outside to plant crops in the Winter, they probably won’t grow because it’s not the right season. But understand, God inside of us performs miracles and the the Holy Ghost doesn’t have seasons. We may be subject to seasons, but the Holy Ghost is not.

God doesn’t just want to use you in your Spring or Summer season. He wants to use you in every season.

As a child of God, there is no time off. We are too close to eternity. God can use you to help deliver someone when you are fighting depression. God can use you to lay hands on people and they get healed, when doctors have given up on you. God can use you to speak prosperity to someone when you can’t pay your own bills. It’s not about our feelings or emotions, but the presence of an eternal God that abides in us. God can use us when we are broken to help someone else.

It should be our desire that in whatever season we are in to be willing to let the Lord use us and be a part of whatever He is doing.

David had his seasons.

Around about the time he was taking care of his father’s sheep was his Spring season. He went through Summer when he was anointed king and faced Goliath. Right between being anointed king and killing Goliath, David had a Winter season.

During your winter seasons, don’t let the devil talk you into the thought that Jesus is mad at you. Seasons are a sign that you are chosen by God. David was anointed to be the ruler of the land, but at some point before that he was hiding in a cave.

A person may want to cross their arms in the Winter season and want to feel sorry for themselves and depressed. They may not want God to use them. But while you are in your Winter season, other people are in their Winter season, too. 1 Samuel 22:2. Sometimes you have to get up so other people won’t miss out with God. They need you to get up in your Winter season and keep on living right even if you don’t feel like it. God is still God. He abides in you and is not subject to seasons.

We shouldn’t operate by chill bumps, or emotions. We should be led by the Spirit of God, and directed by the Word of God.

Elijah went through his seasons.

In his Spring season, his prayers held the rain back. He helped a little widow woman not run out of food during the famine. But even this man of God has his Winter season, 1 Kings 19:4.

Joseph had his Winter season in prison.

But even then, he interpreted dreams for at least two prisoners. The anointing was not controlled by the bars he was behind or the shackles he was bound with. His anointing was inside of him and he let the Lord move through him and use him in the midst of his Winter season. Joseph’s dream from earlier in his life was on hold. Yet he showed his integrity when he submitted himself to God during that time to help fulfill someone else’s dream.

Jesus had His seasons.

In His Spring season, He was in the temple at 12 years-old, amazing those there with His words. In His Winter season, He’s on the cross. He looked around and there were two men on each side of Him that were about to die as lost as they could be. In His Winter season, Jesus changed a life and told one of the men He would be with Jesus in Paradise. Hallelujah!

1 John 4:4.

Remember, Friend, Jesus lives inside you. Your circumstances, your season, does not have control over your anointing. Jesus can use you in every situation and season. Make it your prayer, dear friend, “Lord, whatever you’re doing in this season, please don’t do it without me!”

Pastor Anthony Wynn

A lot of us are thankful for the father figures in our lives.

Some of us don’t have an earthly father, but we may have someone who is like a father to us. Even still, I don’t care how great your earthly father figure is, you need this Heavenly Father that I’m going to be talking about today. We can’t make it without Him.

1 John 3:1. The Bible has over 150 references to God being our Spiritual Father. Here we are going to talk about some ways we can allow God to be a father to us and enrich our lives and bring us to the fullness of his glory.

Stay in God’s presence.

I was with my 3-year-old daughter one day. We were in a wide, open field and she was running around playing. She got a little too far, but I didn’t get worried until a bunch of dogs came after her. She started running back to me and I was running to her and yelling because of the danger of the dogs. When I got to her I told her, “You are only in danger when you are out of my reach.”

Kara said, “If they come over here, you are going to fight those dogs like a rascal.”

I told her they would have to end me to get to her. It’s like that with God as our father. If some enemy has to end our God to get to us, it’s going to lose. But we have to accept and acknowledge that we have to stay in His presence and walk in His ways.

God’s Mercy. Luke 6:36.

I like to go back to the Prodigal Son. He came to his father and told him he wanted his inheritance as if his father was already dead. He wanted a life without his father. How much would that have crushed his father! The son gets his brief moment of pleasure in the world and squanders his money. Later he gets up, after living some time in a pig pen, he’s rehearsing what he’s going to say to his father when he returns home. “I’m not fit to be your son, just let me be a servant.”

His father was sitting there watching the road, and when the son came in sight, he ran to him. He didn’t send a servant to run after him, he ran himself. Luke 15:21-24. We are humans and we have messed up, and sometimes you think that because of that you have to live as a servant. But God is calling us to be His children. We don’t have to live a servant life. God has a purpose, a plan for our lives and we can step into that.

We can resort to God for wisdom in making decisions.

My dad and I talk a lot and I’ll ask him all sorts of questions. Sometimes I take for granted that God can literally give me wisdom. We are facing so many different things, things that can completely change our lives. Papaw and Dad have taught me to have a daily prayer asking God for wisdom because if I lean on my own understanding, it will fail. Proverbs 3:13.

If God is going to be our Father, we have to learn to submit to His will.

That sounds fun when we talk about the blessings, the benefits, and the protection He provides. But it’s not so fun when God’s will goes against our flesh. Submission is hard, but if we can learn to live in God’s perfect will then we will be safe, our lives will be loaded with blessings, and our lives will be in God’s perfect plan. Romans 8:7.

God corrects us.

One of the things I really don’t like is having to discipline my daughter. My wife, Jessie, once told me, “If you love her, you would correct her.”

The best mercy God can give us is correction. Again we are human and mess up. God loves us so much that He, in His mercy, chooses to correct us and develop us instead of throwing us away. He will prune the things out of our lives that hinder our fruitfulness for His kingdom. Hebrews 12:6.

God can provide for every one of my needs.

Philippians 4:19. Being 29, I don’t need the same help that I did when I was four, such as tying my shoes. So, as we develop spiritually, our needs change. God will give you the anointing to cast out depression and sickness coming against you. God will provide for you in any way you need Him to.

All the authority my Father has is also given to me.

John 1:12-13. If we can give enough of ourselves to God, if we can let go of some of these servanthood mindsets we have, we can have the ability to heal the sick. We can have the ability to cast out demons and destroy spiritual bondage in people’s lives. We could perform spiritual miracles just like our Father before us as He walked the streets of Jerusalem.

It’s all well and good to want to change the world. But there has to be a change in us first. First, we have to submit to God and give ourselves up. Lay down your past, lay down your pain.

Give yourself to God and tell Him, “God, I want to be your child. What can I give up today to accept you more as a father in my life?”

— Micah Wynn