Seasons of DormanHCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Genesis 8:22 - “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
As God was speaking to me about this message, I kept hearing a phrase repeating in my spirit.
God created natural seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. In the natural they work for farming and fruit bearing. Rainy season, Growing season, Harvest Season and the Fallow season or the season of dormancy.
Each of these seasons are important and serve a significant purpose.
They are a natural cycle of God doing things in and through our lives.
God made the seasons. Every one of them including winter.
Our opening scriptures tell us that God made summer and winter. That as long as the earth remains there will be seedtime and harvest, winter and summer and day and night.
God made the winter season just as much as he made the summer and fall.
Psalm 74:17 - You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter.
Winter is not a bad season… it is a necessary season just as surely as God created the day and night. Night time is not bad, it is a daily necessary thing.
We will go through winter seasons in our spiritual walk often. God worked it into His plan.
A season is not just a one - off it is an annual event.
Winter is a predictable thing. No matter where you live on earth there is a winter, however that looks like in the environment you are in.
Everyone has their favorite seasons. For some reason we are conditioned to think of the winter season unfavorably in the natural – unless of course you live in Florida.
In the spiritual people look unfavorably many times on their winter seasons. When it arrives, they act like something is wrong when in fact the season has arrived right on time.
I think somehow, we think that the season should be making adjustments to fit our lifestyle when in fact our lifestyle choices should be made to fit the season, we are in.
I like to wear shorts and tee shirts but up north during the winter time it just isn’t practical. There is nothing wrong with me or the season that I am in It just makes sense to dress for the season.
I believe that there are some things we can learn about the predictable winter seasons of our lives.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 - To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
You may be in a season of dormancy in your life right now. Where things seem cold, barren and on the surface they look dead.
All of us go through these seasons. Listen to me – you are in a season of dormancy not death. This season has a purpose. It may not look like much is happening but there is a lot going on.
There are several purposes in the dormant seasons of life.
A winter season is a time of rest.
A time of rest is just as important as a time of productivity.
Can I say that louder for those in the back row.
When it comes to farming, winter is a season of rest for the farmer the family and for the ground.
It is an extended period to - just be.
Dormancy requires us to DO less and to just BE more. – Just Be.
~ Lee Warren – Dormancy isn’t just rest, but quiet renewal, letting life slow down long enough to rediscover what makes it sweet.
There is a lot of dark in the winter. The darkness is not the complete absence of light it is the needed amount of light to produce rest.
Just as we need a significant portion of our twenty – four-hour day = ideally a full seven hours for rest— winter is a significant extended season for us to spiritually rest in the Lord.
Rest is not just sleep it is a reset. It allows what is producing to have time to stop giving and to simply start receiving.
I love the saying that you cannot pour from an empty cup.
To those who like to produce, winter can be a frustrating time because no matter how hard you would like to be growing and producing you cannot no matter how you try to force it because the climate, the atmosphere and the conditions are not right for it. It is winter.
Someone needs to hear this - There is nothing wrong with the land. There is nothing wrong - It is the season you are in.
Adjust your expectations to the season. Be realistic. This isn’t unspiritual as a matter of fact it just might be the most faith-filled thing that you do. When winter comes around just do what you are to do in winter.
Remember that there is a difference between dead and dormant.
Don’t confuse the two. A farmer’s field looks dead during the winter, but it is not. It is simply resting. The potential is still there but only if it rests and resets.
Proverbs 13:23 (AMP) - Abundant food is in the fallow (uncultivated) ground of the poor,
Spiritual winter seasons do not mean that you are dead. You can still be as healthy as can be.
The truth is that you will only be as healthy as the time you allow yourself to rest in the Lord.
All of us need spiritual and natural Sabbath rests.
The Bible tells us that the sabbath was a holy day. A time intentionally set apart for God. Remember that God set the Sabbath day just as surely as He set the seasons.
~ God uses the stillness the dormant season to provide necessary rest. We need to see this as a season of obedience rather than a season of laziness.
The Dormant season is a season of growth and strength.
Outwardly it may seem like nothing is happening.
It is under the surface in times of winter where roots grow deeper, faith is strengthened and character is developed.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NLT) - Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines, even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.
It is in the winter seasons that you learn that true worship of God is not tied to production for God. It is where we learn to cherish our salvation.
It is where God makes your faith sure in order to do well when God takes you to the highs of life.
Dormancy isn’t a season of weakness it is a season of gaining strength.
Winter is a time for growth that isn’t seen.
Invisible activity is still going on. It is not meant to be observed by others it is a season where God does His work in privacy away from the opinion and measurement of others.
If you are worried about appearances and production, then you probably have a difficult time with winter. – You need to understand that winter isn’t about that.
I often hear about people who comment about how bad the trees and ground look during the winter time up north.
They say that the trees look bare, and the ground looks hard and dead.
It is during the winter that appearances are deceiving.
The trees aren’t dead they are growing underground.
Before the trees hit the growth spurt of spring and the tree expands it must first grow just as deep under the surface. Without the strong roots the tree would topple over or not have the needed stability for the growth that is about to happen.
If the root system doesn’t grow to support the branches the tree either will not be able to stand or will have only enough nourishment for leaves and not enough for fruit.
Remember that in the spirit, God did not just call us to look good but to bear fruit.
If you will remember – Jesus actually cursed a tree that looked good but was not bearing fruit in fruit bearing season.
John 15:16 (AMP) - You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you.
In the winter there appears to be no life. The surface is dormant, but the root system is thriving. Winter reminds us to be deeper than what things look like. It also keeps you from being prideful during the harvest.
Isaiah 37:31 - And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward.
Notice that downward growth – rooted growth - always comes before upward fruitful growth.
Everyone loves the fruits, but you always need a season to focus on the roots. No one else but you and God get to see that and THAT is ok.
The quality of the fruit will always be determined by the quality of the roots.
What season are you in. I find it interesting that God would have me address the winter season in the midst of our sweltering Florida summer. May be it is my wishful thinking for some cool air.
Whatever season you find yourself in today. Know that you are loved by God and that you are being developed to produce incredible fruit in and through your life.
Know that you are loved.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by snibl111 from Pixabay
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Psalm 27:14 - Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
(AMP) - Wait for and confidently expect the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord.
None of us like to wait. We are an impatient society.
We have been conditioned to want things now.
Our life will be marked by significant seasons of waiting.
We need to walk in wisdom in the wait. While we wait.
The waiting process will either become one of the most impactful times in our life or it will be one of the most frustrating times in our lives. – It can be both but it doesn’t have to be frustrating.
The first piece of Wisdom in the wait is to realize that you are waiting on the Lord.
The Psalmist says that we are to wait on the Lord. We are to wait expectantly on the Lord.
This is so important that it cannot be over emphasized.
We are not waiting on people.
We are not waiting on situations to change.
We are not waiting on the conditions to be just right.
We are waiting on the Lord.
Notice that it doesn’t say that we are waiting on God. We are waiting on the Lord.
Our Master.
We are not in control He is. We are not in charge – He is.
This changes everything about the wait.
The wait becomes less about us and what we want and how we think things should go and ALL about His way and His will, His purpose and His timing.
Wisdom gives us a much better perspective.
People are unreliable. Situations without God depend on luck.
God is completely reliable, He is good, faithful and wonderful.
When you wait on God there is an entirely different confidence about the outcome.
(AMP) - Wait for and confidently expect the Lord
When you wait on people and situations you have no idea what to expect but when we wait on the Lord, we can have confident expectation.
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
This is such good wisdom that he says it twice.
The Repetition of "wait for the Lord":
The repetition underscores the importance of this concept. It acknowledges that waiting can be difficult, but it's a necessary part of trusting God.
It takes courage to wait on the Lord.
Psalm 27:14 - Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Be of good courage… The Amplified says let your heart take courage.
Courage is a choice.
Too many people wait in fearful expectation. It takes courage to expect the good in the wait.
That is what is meant by - good courage.
This isn’t a false bravado it is a choice to bravely and confidently wait on the Lord.
Courage is choosing faith over unbelief and doubt It is choosing peace over fear.
Nothing drains your strength like fear and unbelief.
Waiting means that we have positioned our self in a posture of rest.
Isaiah 40:30-31 - Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait (Trust, place their Hope) 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.
Waiting is a time where God is strengthening us and helping to renew us.
Needing renewed strength is not a sign of failure or weakness it is evidence that you have been running, soaring and working.
Get off your own back.
Isaiah prophesied some truth that even the young people get faint and weary. All of us get tired. The more miles that life puts on us the truer that statement is.
Waiting on God allows us to trust Him to put our Hope in Him all from a position of stopping and rest. – You cannot gain strength when you are expending strength and striving.
Courage says I trust God enough to stop while He gives me the energy to fly again.
Waiting helps us to regain and renew our strength. To build up steam.
It helps us to refresh.
The wait renews us and strengthens us.
If you go into the next season of your life without strength you will not have what you need to prosper in that season.
New seasons require renewed strength. Why? Because new seasons are new – not easy. They are exciting but require not only ability but energy. We not only need the will for a new season but the ability for the new season.
God desires us to soar. Realize that there is wisdom in the wait.
Many people never step into God’s next thing because they never stopped long enough to wait on Him while they were being renewed.
God loves you and me. He will never put us into new highs if we are not going to soar there but drop like a rock.
Remember before Elijah was sent into his next season; God fed him and allowed him to rest before he ran for days.
The waiting is not just a place of resting it is a place of renewal and re-freshing.
Waiting is where we grow in wisdom.
Psalm 25:5 - Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.
Where there is a great deal of motion there is also commotion. There is confusion.
It is in the waiting that we allow God to lead us into the truth.
John 16:13 - However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
We need God to teach us His truth and we need the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth.
The Pause helps us to survey the landscape in order to get a fuller picture of what is happening.
To learn and to listen. You can learn a lot in a moment.
Many times, we get into trouble because we don’t wait to get the leading, guiding direction of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 30:21 (NLT) - Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say,
“This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.
God promises to lead us and guide us. To go before us and to speak to us.
Waiting means that we are teachable. That we are willing to learn His will, purpose and ways.
While you can learn a great deal in a moment you can learn a great deal more over time.
Real learning takes time. If we learn during our season of waiting it makes our season of doing so much easier and more productive.
Moses, Joseph, David, Daniel, Paul all had extended seasons of learning and unlearning.
There was wisdom in the wait. They were learning what they needed for their next season in the wait. Now they were not only knowledgeable but skilled and experienced.
Never underestimate the experience that you are gaining in the wait. This is called seasoned. But you are only seasoned in the season of the wait.
This is where you grow. Joseph went into his season a boy but came out a man. So did David. WE do a lot of growing – up in the wait. – this is called maturity.
View waiting as an opportunity for spiritual growth and deepening your reliance on God.
Waiting may not always be easy but it is always beneficial.
Seasons are wonderful the productive ones and the waiting ones.
Speaking of seasons. May the Lord bless you and your family this Christmas Season. May you regain the awe of knowing Jesus as a little Child.
May you have a very Merry Christmas and may the coming year be filled with His glory and blessing.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Daniel Nebreda from Pixabay
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2 Corinthians 12:7-10 - And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~ A.W. Tozer – It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
It is necessary that God takes anyone who wants to know Him, serve Him and be mightily used by Him through seasons of pain, trials and hardships that break you, OF YOU, but won’t leave you wounded and broken.
We watch God take people in the Bible through this. David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Job, Peter and Paul. Every one of them were broken to the point where they truly wondered if they were broken beyond repair. They doubted themselves and wondered how they could ever be useful to God. Some wondered if they had wasted their life. Others just wanted their life to end.
It was in their greatest moments of despair, failure, betrayal, dismay, depression and pain that God developed them into the mighty instruments of God that they became.
Brokenness is painful, but it develops humility and dependance on God that very few experience.
In the same way that olives are crushed to produce oil, in the same way that grapes are crushed to make a fine wine and in the same way that flowers are crushed to make perfume, we must be humbled before we can be mightily used by God.
If God is breaking you, although it is challenging, painful and emotionally draining, you can rejoice knowing that God thinks that you are worth the refining process. God will take all of us through trying times to refine us, heal us, break us from things that hold us back and draw out what is valuable inside of us.
The truth is that many of us will go through several of these times during our lifetime and in our walk with God.
Broken times come in many forms and in many ways. Some of them are unique to just you and others are things that we all must experience. These times leave us weak, questioning ourselves, God and our choices. They leave us with a keen awareness of our own weaknesses, sins and shortcomings.
Brokenness is an absolutely adequate word to describe how we feel. Utterly at the end of ourselves and over almost everything.
You need to hear this. – Just because you are going through a season of brokenness does not mean you are broken. It may feel like it.
What is happening is you are being refined. Stop asking the questions – What is wrong with me? Why am I such a failure?
Ask instead. What is God doing in all of this? How can I cooperate with Him?
There is a great shaking going on among the body of Christ. Those who want to know God and be used mightily are being broken and those who are arrogant are being revealed.
Before David could be King, he had to go tend sheep.
He defeated giants; He was anointed but he was not released to lead until he learned how to tend.
David had to learn to be a keeper before he could be King.
Moses spent forty years in the desert before he could spend forty years leading Israel through the wilderness. You must have been there before you can take people where God needs them to be.
The Anointing that comes from brokenness will cost you.
Deep heart-searching change is painful and labor intensive as well as emotionally and physically exhausting. – Isaiah compared these times to childbirth. Isaiah 26:17 - As a woman with child Is in pain and cries out in her pangs, when she draws near the time of her delivery, so have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
Someone said – There is always travail before you prevail.
It is human nature to pride ourselves in our ability to be unbroken. The British call it “having a stiff upper lip”. In America we revel in the idea of never allowing anyone to see you sweat. We become hard so no one can ever hurt us or our heart. We put on the façade of having it – “All together” – sometimes so well that we believe it ourselves. We spend much of our time trying not to appear cracked, hurt or weak. We are told to always project strength.
Half of what is taught in churches today is all about how to keep ourselves strong, intact and to be the best version of ourselves.
We come to God crying out to be whole when we would do just as well to say with all sincerity “Lord, wound me, break me, mold me, shape me, fill me and make me like you.
All of us struggle with pride on some level.
I can assure you if we do not allow God to break us of pride then pride will ruin us. Today with all the talk about achieving our dreams, on becoming self-reliant, self-sufficient and the best version of ourselves and living our best life all we have done is become self-righteous. We talk about becoming leaders, and influencers and less about becoming the servant of all.
We are so busy trying to be great that we have lost our ability to relate. We are so busy focusing on impact that we have lost the common touch that was able to transform hearts.
Humility is a lifelong struggle for all of us. All of us struggle with pride, image, accomplishment and capability. God values humility and brokenness over ability and giftedness.
It takes brokenness to rid us of pride. The sooner we realize that we are flawed, broken and utterly dependent upon God the sooner we will experience true joy and freedom.
In God’s economy it is only when we are weak, it is only when we lose our self-reliance that we are truly strong. We self-righteously try to talk ourselves right out of weakness.
I have a revelation for you. It was when Jesus was literally broken, His body whipped, physically weak. He was forsaken by God -emotionally abandoned and alone. It was when he was hanging naked on display for all to see – humiliated and dishonored –that He broke the power of sin and death.
Modern Christianity wants nothing to do with this weakness and humility stuff and we have never been weaker.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul said when I am weak then I am strong.
Someone needs to hear this – you have been asking to minister in the power of God, but you want to feel strong, you want to feel on top of the world, you want to feel invincible.
My friend that is where pride comes in that will destroy you.
God is bringing us to the point where we realize that we don’t need to be great. We don’t need to be strong in ourselves, He is bringing us to the point where we are STRONG IN THE LORD AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT.
Not our own. That is where God works best.
I am excited about what God is doing in the life of those who love Him. There is a precious, powerful work that is happening in the body of Christ. It is not easy; it is not comfortable, and it certainly is not fashionable. IT IS necessary in these last days.
Know that you are loved and not alone. This work of brokenness of complete dependance on God. This thing that is completely different than the way the world works – is God doing His perfect work in us.
May it be our cry today – Lord break me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
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