THE PURPOSE OF THE SEASONS

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT

Here in South Africa, we are entering a new season, spring! All the evidences of winter are passing away. Trees and plants, that appeared lifeless during the winter months, are now showing the signs of the life that has been in them all the while.

Spring is the season for planting. The environment is preparing the soil for seeds to grow and flourish – warm sunshine and spring rains are an invitation to beautify our gardens again.

We love the spring. The dark days of winter are slowly giving way to longer days, shorter nights, and the anticipation of new and better things to come. There is a buoyancy in the human spirit that always hopes that winter will give way to spring, in our hearts and in our circumstances.

Spring brings vigorous growth and preparation for fruitfulness. Summer is the pinnacle of the seasons, the slow ripening of the fruit that continues to nourish us for life. Autumn begins the new cycle by draining the strength of the plants and trees from their leaves, dropping the leaves and settling down for the winter rest.

Why the seasons? Imagine if we lived in perpetual summer or never-ending winter!  The purpose of the seasons is to produce the fruit of the soil that nourishes our bodies and keeps us alive.

We need the ever-changing seasons, not only in nature but also in our spiritual lives, to keep us moving on, through times of rest and times of growth, towards our purpose in God to be ever more conformed to the likeness of Jesus. 

God uses every circumstance in our lives as part of the process of transforming us into the image of Jesus. How can we fall in line with what God is doing within us?

Jesus gives us the way to becoming like Him, bearing the fruit of the Spirit which is the replica of His character.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5 NLT

The purpose of the vine is to bear fruit. It has no other function. The branches are the extensions of the vine that carry the fruit. There is no separation or differentiation between the vine and its branches. When they are one, the sap of the vine flows freely to the branches, nourishing the sweet grapes that are the product of the cycle of that season.

Within the fruit are the seeds that perpetuate the life of the vine to infinity. If the fruit did not cradle seeds, the blueprint for perpetuating the life of the vine, that vine would die in the first generation.

So it is with the believers in Jesus. He is the Vine; we are the branches. So intimate is our union with Him that, as we remain in communion with Him, the Holy Spirit, Christ in us, His life flowing into us, produces the fruit that replicates His character in us and the seeds that perpetuate its life in others.

The seeds of His fruit are in us to continue His life in others, as we witness to Jesus by our lives and words.

What is the spiritual seed that we sow into others?

“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God…. And this is the word that was preached to you.”

1 Peter 1:23, 25 NIV

As we feed on the Vine and nourish our spirits with its sap, the seeds of God’s word take root in us in readiness to speak the truth into the lives of others. Not only does the sap of the Vine produce fruit in us but it also produces fruit in the lives of others as the seed of God’s word begins to grow in them.

Our seasons in life may not follow in sequence as do the seasons of the natural world. They may not follow our chronological age or be as long or short as the geographical position of each region. Our seasons are determined by our responsiveness to the work of the divine Gardener who knows what we need to become increasingly fruitful.

As I meditate on this Word, it seems to me that it is possible to have all four seasons at work in our lives at the same time. What if this is God’s intention? What if His work in our lives is so vigorous and our response to Him so spontaneous that He is able, simultaneously, to grow us in grace and the knowledge of Jesus and, at the same time, to produce the fruit of the Spirit and give us rest in preparation for the new season by drawing strength from what we have learned and experienced?

We need to discern the season we are in to gain the most benefit from its time. Instead of fighting against what may be unpleasant or uncertain, the autumn of pruning or the winter of rest, God wants us to embrace our season. We gain from its work in us and move on to the spring of new life and the summer of greater fruitfulness.

“So, you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son, and with the Father. And, in this fellowship, we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.”

1 John 2:24-25 NLT