Date: 25-Mar-2024
Name: Michael Ngethe
Topic: THE SEASONS OF LIFE
Content:
The Four Spiritual Seasons of Life
Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
• Everything is connected to time and season.
1 Chronicles 12:32
from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do —200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command;
Psalms 90:12
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
• We rise on this kingdom based on the mysteries that have been unveiled to us.
Why know the seasons of life?
• The seasons to life are temporary. This gives us peace and wisdom when going through the different seasons.
• We need to know the different characteristics of the seasons and how to deal with each season.
• This understanding will give us peace while we pass through different seasons with so much more peace.
Some quotes on seasons.
“Be aware of what season you are in and give yourself the grace to be there.”
Kristen Dalton
“Let the Holy Spirit prepare the outside platform for you while you remain in the secret place and hide there. Let Him be the One to call you out at the appropriate time”.
Benjamin Suulola
“All the trees are losing their leaves, and not one of them is worried.”
Donald Miller
“The harvest, which is our life as we now live it, is the result of seeds planted at an earlier time.”
Jim Rohn, The Seasons of Life.
“While the blooms were singing the success songs of Summer ;
quietly 'October' arrived.”
(Haiku). Monika Ajay Kaul
“Dwelling upon the severity of your personal winter merely makes the winter more difficult to endure”
Jim Rohn, The Seasons of Life.
“If you stay stuck in the past season or fixated on the future season, you will miss the one you’re in.”
Maree Dee
“The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place.” — Barbara De Angelis
The four seasons of Life
Just as we have four seasons in the calendar we also four seasons I would name very differently.
The four seasons are the Wilderness, Warring, Winning, and Waiting seasons. They are spiritual seasons of life with different experiences and characteristics.
1. Growing in the wilderness of Life.
• Being in the Wilderness is not the best experience but it’s where we get the growth we need for the coming seasons.
• The wilderness has some of this characteristics; hot, dry, dangerous animals, no cover or place to hydrate.
• This can be a place for deep spiritual reflection, growth and training. In the wilderness the voice of the Holy Spirit becomes a very clear.
Hosea 2:14-15
“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
• The Lord teaches us in the wilderness seasons of our lives how to live and thrive in what is coming next. We can see it in the life of King David. Years before he finally took the throne as the king, he spent many years in the wilderness learning lessons of survival, of leadership, of depending on God and seeking God’s leading.
Exodus 3:1-2
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
Matthew 4:1-2
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Are you in the wilderness season? How can you learn from this season?
1. Sometimes we may feel “set apart” or unseen. Chances are we are in the wilderness. The Lord has not forgotten, demoted, or forsaken us. He is most likely training us and getting us ready for the next thing that may take more skill and wisdom.
2. Relish the times when you feel set apart from others. You may some day look back on it and say, “I never felt closer to God. I had so much time to learn and soak in His presence.”
3. It's always God who directs us out into the wilderness, and He does so because He wants to get us to the Promised Land. The problem is that we, like the children of Israel, tend to get frustrated, start complaining, wander around, waste time, and actually turn away from God while we are out there.
2. Doing battle in the warring season.
• It’s important that you understand wilderness times or else you may mistake them for the warring seasons.
• What is a warring season? It is a time when you encounter so much opposition, so many setbacks, so much pressure from life.
• You may be going through sickness, struggling financially, doing battle with several people at work or business or groups of people.
• In warring season you can feel isolated like I’m the wilderness season. Things that you valued doing may be taken from you through attack.
• Don’t confuse it with the wilderness season and see it as something God is orchestrating for you.
Some scripture on doing battle:
2 Chronicles 20:15
He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Exodus 14:14
The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Psalms 91:7
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
2 Samuel 22:30
For by You I can run against a troop;
By my God I can leap over a wall.
3. Enjoying blessings in the Winning season.
This is the season when you enjoy the goodness of the Lord.
This is the harvest season when you are reaping the Lord’s harvest in your life.
This is a season to bless the Lord with our first fruit and to return all praises to Him who seats on the throne.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
And whose hope is the LORD.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
Psalms 34:1-3
I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the LORD;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
4. Resting and healing in the Waiting season.
• This is the season of going through healing, resting and waiting.
Matthew 11:28-30
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.
Isaiah 40:30-31
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
Prayer Points:
