Identifying & Reaping the Benefits of Your Current Season

Our lives have many seasons, but many of us don't know or understand them, and consequently we miss out on what our Father is doing in our lives. Sometimes, we go so far as saying this time in our life is "bad" simply because we don't know that the season has changed. We attempt to live the same way in the new season as we did in the old. It doesn't work.

Consider the seasons of nature as an example. In Summer, we buy clothes and make plans to do things we can only do in warm weather. When Fall arrives and then gives way to Winter, everything changes...our clothes, activities, etc. There's just some things we do in Summer and others we do in Winter, but often we can't wear or do things the same way in both. (Crazy Texas weather being the exception!)

Spiritual seasons are like that. The Lord will anoint us for a particular service and bestow special gifts on us for one season (whether a few months or many, many years) then totally change them for the next. When we go into the new season serving, doing warfare, etc. trying

to live under the rules which applied to the former one, it is like living in the cold of Winter with a Summer attitude!

DISCERNING YOUR SEASON

First, please understand this...Sometimes the Lord orchestrates the new season, telling us ahead of time it is coming, and how we should conduct ourselves. But other times it isn't so clean and pretty. Life has a way of working with the devil and thrusting us into a new season which isn't even the Lord's will, but its a new season nevertheless. In these times we still must realize what the season is, and conduct ourselves accordingly, believing the Lord will turn it into good for us. (Romans 8:28)

Paul found himself in one of these. He literally had been changing the world by preaching the Gospel as the Lord worked with Him with signs, wonders, and miracles, when suddenly one day he found himself under arrest for preaching the Gospel. His season had instantly changed! He could no longer travel from city to city preaching to great crowds and seeing multitudes saved. Now he was stuck in a small, lonely, prison cell. What did he do? Well, he didn't get depressed and complain, trying to live under the rules of the previous season. Rather, he did the few things he could do...he prayed, witnessed to the jailers, and he wrote! What did he write? A huge portion of the New Testament! We have the Bible today because Paul recognized a change of seasons. He didn't say, "There is nothing for me to do now." Rather, he recognized the season had changed and he pressed on! He wrote this from Philippi while under arrest...

"Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear." (Philippians 1:12-14)

Paul discerned the change, and made the most of it, seeing it in the positive light of the Holy Spirit.

WHAT IS YOUR SEASON?

Whatever our season, we must recognize it in order to function within it. Perhaps, like Paul, you are leaving a season of great activity and suddenly everything has come to a standstill. Rather than viewing it as a negative thing, see it for what it is...a new season of slower pace, rest, regrouping, changing your lifestyle, and serving the Lord in a new way with new gifts. There are many examples. Ask the Lord to reveal to you what season you are in and how to function within it. Ask Him to cause everything that is happening to work together for your good. Then...Be at Peace!

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