Have you ever asked yourself or God this question before? In my own life I’ve had seasons where things have flourished greatly with so much growth. In these times, it seemed to spring up out of nowhere, and the fruit of it would multiply in amazing ways. Sometimes, however, almost a quickly as they sprang up, a day would eventually come where this mysterious well dried up. Try as I might, when this happened, there was nothing I could do to try to bring it back to life.
People stopped coming, provision wasn’t there anymore, and no matter what I tried to do, situations refused to work out favourably. When this happened, I used to spend a lot of time wondering if I did something to cause my situation to fail. And while it’s true that often times a wrong action can and will stop us from moving forward, there is a hidden danger in thinking this way whenever a season of blessing changes to one of difficulty.
Consider this. There was a man named James who bought a farm. James’s plan was to work the land with his family and make a good living selling the extra crops. When the family moved in, it was spring, and James began going out faithfully in the early mornings to plant seeds. James praised God for all of the beautiful days and favourable conditions to plant! He felt very blessed. After several weeks, however, it started to rain all the time. It got so bad that James could barely even go outside. He certainly wouldn’t be doing any planting! James began to worry and became depressed. Where were the beautiful days he had just been experiencing?
Later in the year, a great summer had just gone by. In fact, James and his whole family were now working day and night just to bring in the massive harvest from the land. It had been so great that James was already making plans and preparing to plant another field so he could bring in even more provision. After all, he could tell that he was blessed! All of the sudden, however, as James was still buying new seeds and getting the equipment ready, it started to get cold and gloomy. Pretty soon the land froze over, and nothing James planted would grow anymore.
James became depressed again and thought, “What have I done wrong?”
Now when we hear this, we think, “What a silly farmer. He should know that he has to do the right thing in the right season!”
Though it seems obvious in this light, I wonder how often we do the same in our own lives.
The Weather Vain
The first key to being fruitful at all times is this:
Know all the seasons and what you need to do in them.
When we begin to think like James, we start to believe that our faithfulness to God controls the seasons of our lives. In other words, we think if we are good and have enough faith, we’ll be blessed. Essentially, we believe that we earn our blessing, and if we’re bad or don’t have enough faith, then we suffer.
I’ve written on this much in the past, and no doubt I’ll write on it much more in the future, because it has become an epidemic, even a sickness, across the church, today. This teaching is literally no different than the teaching of “The Occult (which, when translated, means “The Secret”). It teaches that your mind is the controller of all things and is sovereign above all. I’ve even heard one teacher say, “God can’t get any blessing to you because you need to give Him permission!” (Of course, giving Him permission entailed “sowing a seed” into their ministry in order to demonstrate faith) The picture that this paints is of an impotent God, wimpering from above, wishing He could shower you with every physical blessing you want, but alas! He needs your permission, first!
What I’ve come to learn is that, while it is true that our own actions (in obedience or disobedience) can help us or hurt us, and that our faith can be used in great power to accomplish a thing, God still sets the seasons, and every one has its purpose. Only foolishness or vanity would lead a man or woman to believe that they control the seasons. We live by His permission, not the other way around!
Regarding the seasons of life, the Bible has this to say:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiasted 3:1-8
Know that this means that often times, the loss of what we had, or the transfer of one season into another, is not always a direct result of our actions. It is simply that we require different seasons in order to develop different things in us.
If you are going through a hard season, or you have before, I encourage you today – don’t get discouraged when a season of fruitfulness ends and one of pruning begins. Instead, I want to share with you a couple of secrets that Wise Farmers use in getting the most from their land.
Secrets from Wise Farmers
The main secret to being fruitful in season and out of season is to plant different crops according to what season you are in! Just like different crops around the world grow in different climates and seasons, there will be different seasons and atmospheres in which only certain types of crops will grow in your own life.
Although farmers can only work within the climatalogical constraints of the regions in which they live, God will often shift our spiritual climate many times over in order to plant in different “fields” in our own hearts to grow things simultaneously. This is how God uses His Wisdom to develop you in more areas and produce the right fruit at the right times.
This is the second key.
If you find yourself in a season where what used to work isn’t working anymore, ask God what you’re meant to plant in the season you are in.
Another powerful secret that wise farmers will use in order to keep their ground fertile and fresh is to rotate their crops. By occasionally changing the types of crops that they plant, the nutrients in the soil are able to replenish themselves. This leaves the ground abundantly fertile and ready to produce the next year’s crops. If you’re being taken from one thing to another, it may be the Master Gardener working to keep your soil full of nutrients so at a moment’s notice, it is ready to grow what is needed.
Finally, wise farmers also knew to allow the ground to rest for one year out of seven. God even commanded this to the Israelites for their farms! By allowing proper rest, the ground was always ready to produce, and He always made sure that the crops were given double the year before the rest, so that His children who chose to obey him in this always had enough.
This brings us to our third key.
Rest is a season. Watch for the opportunity, and take it when it’s time.
Four Prayers to Pray
Today, whether you are in a dry season or a fruitful one, I encourage you to ask the Lord for these four things:
- Wisdom to always know what season you are in (and what to plant)
- Strength to plant and to harvest when the right times come
- The Wisdom to REST when you need it
- Patience and Trust for the Master Gardener (even in times of pruning)
These four pillars uphold the keys to being fruitful in season and out of season. They will help you in achieving the maximum results from the soil of your heart! Remember that He is the Master of the Seasons, He will guide you into how to get the most out of the season you’re in – even if it’s a season of pruning (Ouch!) Even though it hurts, we know that His pruning brings the fullest capacity of fruitfulness from the tree when the next harvest season comes. In other words, when God clips off our fruit, it’s like a gardener who trims an immature tree. He knows that by cutting the small fruit of this early season, the next season will bring even more and better fruit.
Eventually, you’ll enter into the season of the fullness of your fruitfulness, and you will not need pruning anymore for most of your fruits. When that day comes, I pray that you have many fields of produce, so you will always have fruit in every season of life!
God bless you, and I love you all!