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
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Genesis 2:2-3 - And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Rest is so important that God has woven it into the very fabric of creation. Rest is part of the cycle of life. It is literally in the DNA of everything. We need to rest daily. We need a day of rest weekly, and God even designed the land to need to rest every seven years.
If we want to walk in personal peace and in sound emotional and mental health, then rest must become a regular part of our life cycle. We were created by God to sleep a third of our lives away each day. He also commands that we stop from normal activity one day a week. God created summer for when things are in full bloom and winter for the land to rest. God created our lives and nature to have a rhythm of being active and then times for quiet and recovery. It is through this that God brings a necessary balance to our lives and to nature.
The Bible tells us that God blessed the day of rest and made it holy. To be made holy means to be sanctified or literally set apart as unique and special and dedicated for the purposes that God designed. The Hebrew word for rest is Sabat. It means to cease and desist from labor. God worked then He rested from all of His work. God put such a high value on rest that He made it part of the Ten Commandments. While God has blessed our times and seasons of rest the world curses it as unproductive and intrusive. While we talk about vacations and down time few of us actually practice it.
We talk about how we can work 8-10 hours a day. Read at least 10 books a month. Spend time playing with our families. Exercise every morning, binge watch our favorite shows, keep up with the news, teach our children, cook healthy food every day, keep our house clean and updated and work at the local soup kitchen as we pay it forward.
The world does not praise rest it mocks it as unnecessary and people who flow with the rhythm that God created and commands us to follow are deemed lazy and unproductive. God blesses and even commands us to work hard but He also desires us to rest and enjoy life.
Many people’s idea of a vacation is to fit a years’ worth of adventure into a single week. Most of us come back needing a vacation from our vacation. The truth is we have totally missed the point. Others of us think that we can fit an entire years’ worth of rest into a one- or two-week vacation. Again, we have completely missed the point.
Even the most-high energy, type A personalities and young and physically fit need times to rest. As a matter of fact, if you fit into that category, you probably have a greater need for rest.
Isaiah 40:30-31 - Even youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] Will gain new strength and renew their power; They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun]; They will run and not become weary, They will walk and not grow tired. Everyone gets tired, weary and loses strength, stamina and focus. The secret to keep going is to rest and wait on the Lord. This is how we gain new strength, renew our energy and refresh our spiritual anointing.
Rest is the secret to staying close to God and rising like an eagle.
Rest is the secret to being able to run and not grow tired and to walk and not grow faint. We need to understand that rest is a pause. It is not quitting; it is not lazy it is necessary.
~ Someone made this important observation – “All Physical strength is spiritual in cause.” All true rest starts inside of us. We have not truly rested until we have rested within.
How do you know that you need inner rest – that is actually pretty easy to gage. All of us have gotten a full night’s sleep but have woken up having not feeling rested in the least. Our minds and our emotions are still going, we are still thinking, we are still trying to work everything out. Far too many of us shut down but don’t ever turn off. Tiredness affects more than just our bodies. If that was all then a simple nap would solve all of our problems.
While a nap will fix many things. It is vital that we learn to rest in the Lord, Spiritually, emotionally and mentally.
Resting in God is a spiritual discipline much like prayer and fasting. It is not meditation where you empty yourself of everything. You are already on empty. It is where you intentionally fill up Spiritually. It is where we put ourselves in a position to be filled new with all that the Holy Spirit offers.
A car isn’t tired because it ran out of gas, it needs a fill up. There is nothing wrong with the car except it needs an exchange of fuel from another tank into its tank.
When a car is on empty it sputters and spurts. Finally, is shuts down. Jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I am gentle and humble, learn from me and you will find rest for your souls. When you can’t physically sleep because you are spiritual drained, exchange your emptiness and hurt for his healing and filling.
When you need inner peace, you don’t just need calm you need the Holy Spirit who is the comforter. He is our peace and the Spirit of peace.
We also need outward physical rest. People used to not be so hurried and hassled. This is a historically new thing in many ways.
Those who live by the new rules wear out, burn out and fizzle out.
I hear people say I would rather go out in flames than just burn out and fade away. I have news for you those are not the only two options. You don’t have to go out at all. This is utter foolishness.
Jeremiah 6:16 - This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’
Many times, we are tired because we are so busy chasing the new.
The old Godly ways are not passe they are a place of rest. So many people respond like Israel did to God’s invitation of rest. – “No, we don’t want it”. God says when you are at the cross roads and you have a choice stop and choose the old Godly ways. You can’t go wrong, and you will have peace inside and out instead of turmoil and chaos and confusion inside and out.
As we are getting ready to enter the new year, I want to challenge all of us to make sure we make rest, both Spiritually and Physically a part of our normal routines. As we do I believe that we will find ourselves accomplishing what God desires AND living a life of peace.
You are Dearly Loved- Have a very Merry Christmas
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by DanaTentis from Pixabay