The Sunday News
Greetings beloved nation. Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” Spiritual seasons come and go, just like the natural cycle of summer and winter.
And just like seasons of nature, seasons of the spirit will always come and go in our lives. In the natural, we know that once winter passes, summer will follow without fail. It is the same with spiritual seasons, different seasons will come and go, the only difference is we have no idea exactly when the transition from one season to the next will be, how smooth or difficult that transition will be and how long each season will last. We all go through spiritual seasons, however, we don’t go through the same season at the same time nor do our seasons last the same amount of time.
The bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 12:32, “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” The bible tells us about the children of Issachar and it highlights two important characteristics about them. (i) they understood the seasons and (ii) they knew what Israel ought to do.
There is a difference between what you ‘ought’ to do and what you ‘want’ to do in this journey of life. What you want to do is mainly based on your emotions and feelings i.e what the flesh wants to do. On the other hand what you ought to do is based on the will of God, which means knowing the mind of God. As believers we go through many seasons in our lives. The problem is some believers (i) cannot discern that seasons have changed and (ii) they do not know what they ought to do in that particular season. What you do in one season is not necessarily the same thing that you do in the next season. For instance, in the natural seasons, we know that when its winter, we have to wear warm clothes to keep our bodies warm and even the food we eat changes, we start to eat and drink hot drinks and food.
Then in summer we know we have to wear light and cool clothing and also drink a lot of water to keep our bodies hydrated. So it is the same with spiritual seasons. As believers, it is important that we understand when a new season is coming and to know what you have to do in that particular season. When you enter a new season, each season will have specific instructions and those are not written down but they are discerned through the Holy Spirit. We read in the bible in 1 Kings 18 the story about Elijah. He was a man who understood the times and seasons and he knew what he ought to do. In verse 1 of 1Kings 18 the bible tells us, “ And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”
A new season was declared by God, a season of restoration. This is after there had been drought in the land of Samaria for three and a half years. The only instruction we see here is ‘go and show yourself to Ahab’. Yet the bible goes on to tell us from verse 19, 40 that (i) Elijah goes on to confront and kill the prophets of Baal, (ii) verse 30-32 he repairs the altar of God that was broken down, (iii) verse 36-38 he calls upon the fire of God to consume the burnt offering that had been put upon the repaired altar and (iv) verse 42 he climbs on to the top of Mt Carmel and goes into a position of prayer to birth the rains. What we ought to do is not written in black and white. It is from the Holy Spirit. It will come as a result of our relationship with the Holy Spirit, that intimate relationship. Elijah was told to go and show himself to Ahab, yet he goes on to do other things that had to be done first in order for the rains to come. Some of us go from season to season (i) not discerning that seasons have changed (ii) not knowing what we are supposed to do in that particular season. And as a result we end up missing what |God wants to do in our lives, our families, our businesses and our ministries in that particular season.
We miss out because we are not aligned with the plans and purposes of God for that season. In the book of Numbers 13:1-2, the bible tells us about the children of Israel and an instruction that God gave to Moses, “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” When we read the rest of the chapter we will discover that 12 men were chosen from the 12 tribes of Israel, 10 men came back with a bad report about the land and its people and only two, Caleb and Joshua were bold and prepared to enter and possess the land. We see here that God is taking the nation of Israel into a new season. All along in Egypt up to the time when it was time to enter into the promised land, the children of Israel were used to being given things by God, most of the things were not of their own effort. They had never fought wars.
But now God was taking them into a season, where they had to possess the land. Where they had to fight. We see in Numbers 14:2-4, how the children of Israel complained saying, “And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why has the LORD brought us to this land to [a] fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
Their complaining causes God to pass a judgement in verse 23, where God says they will not enter the promised land because they have rejected him. As a result, they wander in the wilderness for 40 years and they miss a season of entering into the promised land because they did not know what they ought to do. It took 40 years for that season to come again, for them to enter the promised land. As believers, how many seasons have we missed in our lives or even as ministries because we did not know what we ought to do or because we did not discern that seasons have changed. How many seasons have been declared in our ministries that we have missed because we have not understood how to align ourselves with the word for that season. It is my prayer that we develop an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit and that we get to a dimension of knowing the mind of God, so that we may discern through the leading of the Holy Spirit when seasons change and what we are supposed to do to align ourselves with each season. I would like to invite you to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and saviour, by believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that he is your Lord and saviour and you shall be saved. May God bless you all.
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