36. 'What's with This Seasons Thingy?!'

Many years ago, when I was at a conference for prophetic people, someone asked me, “So what’s with this ‘seasons’ thing?” I remember having a quick giggle to myself at the bewildered, somewhat disparaging look on the man’s face, before answering his question. He was right though, prophetic people often use words like seasons, epochs and eras, so yes, what’s with that?!

Today marks the start of a new theme in our Walking through Wilderness blog series and yes, you guessed it – it’s all about seasons! If, like the man who asked me that question at the conference, you don’t know much about the relevance or  significance of spiritual seasons in our lives, hopefully by the end of this blog series, you will have a new understanding and appreciation of it.

So let’s make a start! We know from Genesis chapter 1 that God created time and the seasons, and He created them on purpose. God never does anything by accident; everything He does is intentional and for a reason. I believe that God gives us seasons to help us demarcate our lives into ‘bite size chunks’. It’s a bit like the age-old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer - one bite at a time!

Just imagine if, when you were a child, you had a visit from an angel who laid out your whole life before you: he told you what your life was going to look like, what you were going to do, all the problems you would experience and the challenges you would face, the good things that would happen, who you would marry, how many children you would have, the jobs you would get, the churches you would belong to, how you would serve in His Kingdom and what your relationship with Him would be like …..how totally overwhelming would that be?

Our response, I imagine, would probably be along the lines of either, “There’s no way I’m going to be able to do that, I might as well give up now”, or “I don’t think I like that plan, I’m going to do my own thing, thank you very much.”

So God, in His supreme wisdom, doesn’t do that. Instead, He takes us on a uniquely personal journey called ‘life’; one that passes through many different stages or seasons. We need different seasons in our lives because there are things that can only occur in specific seasons of life. There is a unique purpose in every season, and God uses them to teach us something about Himself. In different seasons in our lives, He will teach us new things, speak to us in new ways, awaken new things in us or let other things die, and ultimately draw us closer to Him through those experiences.

Jesus said to the disciples in Matthew 24:32, “From the fig tree, learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.” He was trying to teach them to be aware of the seasons spiritually, just like their awareness of the natural seasons.

We cannot control the meteorological seasons. No matter how much we decide that we’ve had enough of winter and it’s time for spring, the days will still grow shorter and darker until the time is right for them to start lengthening and brightening. There is nothing we can do to control the weather or the seasons. I think it works in a similar way with spiritual seasons.

God knows how to balance and manage the seasons perfectly. For instance, summer is usually a popular season in most countries, but if it was summer all the time, that would eventually create a desert environment. We need the different seasons because they bring balance.

I heard a story told about a town in America that experienced an extremely short and unusually warm winter, and everyone thought it was great….until summer came, and they realized that the winter hadn’t been cold enough to kill the bugs. The result was that all the new bugs emerged in the spring, as well as the old ones which hadn’t died because of the warm winter, and they had an infestation that caused massive crop damage.

The point I’m trying to make is this: we need rainy days as well as sunny days. There is a balance in nature which God Himself holds in His hands, and that’s why He says in Genesis 8:22,  “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

It’s fine to enjoy a certain season more than the others, as long as we understand the necessary, delicate balance which exists, not only in our agricultural seasons, but in the spiritual seasons of our life as well.

Ecclesiastes 3 is so helpful for putting this into context. It tells us that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”. There is a time to be born, to die, to plant and uproot, to kill or heal, to tear down and build, to weep or laugh... All of the seasons are necessary and all of the seasons are beneficial if we will only learn how to embrace them.

Spiritual seasons are usually named after what is happening in that season so, although you can be in a winter, summer, spring or autumn season, they aren’t the only way of naming spiritual seasons. So, to finish off, let me give you some examples of some of the seasons I’ve been through in my own life.

Season of Letting Go – I’ve shared some of my story in previous blogs about how I had to let go control of so many different areas of my life, because that seasons was all about God working on my identity and teaching me how to trust Him, instead of doing everything my way.

Oasis Season – many years ago, I found myself in what Holy Spirit told me was an Oasis season. We were in a new church and I had absolutely no responsibilities in that church; I went to church purely to worship and meet with God and fellowship with other believers. I couldn’t remember a time when I had been able to attend church without having specific tasks or duties to carry out. It was like being at an oasis, sitting by the pools of water, dabbling my feet in the cool water, eating of the fruit of the trees, listening to the noises of the birds. It was all about ‘being’, not ‘doing. The interesting thing was that, instead of enjoying it, I felt really guilty. It took quite a while and a lot of conversations with the Holy Spirit, before I recognised that it was okay not to always be doing stuff. I started to understand that that particular season was specifically designed to teach me how to ‘not do stuff’, but instead to simply be with Him in intimacy. It was all about being okay with who I was, even when I wasn’t doing anything, and not needing people’s approval. It was a season filled with such grace, and absolutely no performance. It was wonderful! I learnt to understand my identity as His child in a new fresh way, and received the grace and freedom to ‘be’ and not ‘do’.

Reset Season – this season happened for me, during the covid lockdown in 2020.  During that year, God told me He was going to ‘reset’ me in so many different ways – in my thinking, my job, in my relationships, in my church involvement.

Oh yes - it was also during this time that I started to write. This blog series, plus my first novel, ‘Into the Wilderness’, were the fruit of this particular season in my life!

Until next time:

Read Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and ask God to speak to you through this passage of scripture.

Ask Him to tell you what season you are in at the moment, if you don’t already know.

Ask Holy Spirit to show you what this season looks like: what you are to focus on and what you should direct your attention away from.

Nicky Heymans is an author of historical fiction who is known for drawing fresh life and inspiration out of familiar Bible stories. She would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or ask questions by scrolling down to the bottom of this page and clicking on the 'contact' link, and she will get back to you.