Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in Redding, California. I have had a great week with my family here. My grandson Kaden and granddaughter Zaria continue to get bigger and bigger. It is wonderful to be with them and to see how they have grown – spirit, soul, and in life.
The seasons of God are seasons of life, and He is the Lord of the seasons of mankind. The life of God is seen as the fruit of God that comes by knowing Him and that fruit brings God’s life to our world. There is fruit in every season of God, but the fruit for today’s season is not the same as the fruit of the season of yesterday.
I am experiencing many aspects of harvest in my garden this year. There was a harvest of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, loganberries, currents, and now apples and pears. I have had many different kinds of lettuce, kale, cucumbers, beet roots, peppers, beans, and tomatoes. Each harvest in my garden is relationally connected to the season of each crop. Although I had a harvest of strawberries, now I am left with strawberry plants but no more berries. I had a harvest of raspberries, but now I have only raspberry plants. The fruit of each plant is for the season of each crop. The same is true in the church. The seasons of God determine the fruit of our lives and we cannot expect to get the fruit of yesterday in the season of today. We must recognize the seasons of God to serve the harvest of fruit in each season. The fruit of yesterday cannot give life to our world today, only God’s fruit for our world today can bring His life for our world today.
Every season of harvest requires laborers of that harvest. There is not just a need for laborers, but laborers who are willing to seek to understand each season of harvest. Sometimes we put the emphasis upon our labors, and we miss the need for God’s presence. Sometimes we seek God’s presence and forget the need to partner with Him with our willingness to labor. Every season of harvest requires us to do works that serve that harvest.
Psalms 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
God is the One who builds the house of His presence and purpose but we must labor in partnership with Him to receive what He is building. The Lord is the One who guards the city, but we must be awake and partner with Him in watching to receive the blessings of His guard. We each have a role in the seasons of God. God gives the increase in every season, but we must plant, we must water, we must tend to the crop of every season of God in our lives.
Laboring in the season of God requires us to do things that serve that season. The things we do are not meant to be permanent methods for every season of God. They are simply methods we receive to labor in the harvest of each season. This requires us to do new things, but also to do. We cannot be bound to the methods of a past season, nor can we reject being involved in new methods that serve the present season of God in lives. We don’t get our identity out from what we do in life. What we do in life gets its identity from who we are. We get our identity from our Father in heaven. To get our identity out of what we do is idolatry. Life can only come from a source of life. It cannot come from works. In doing, we must be willing to submit what we do to the now season of God in our lives.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
