“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
You see we serve a God of season. We see it in creation. God created the four seasons that are based upon the rotation of the Earth as it orbits the Sun. The seasons change as the earth moves, but the sun in our planetary system remains constant, and everything revolves around it.
In many ways we see the signature of the same artist in our lives. Much like the earth, our lives should revolve around the Son, Jesus Christ. Our lives will change, and we will enter and exit many seasons, but the Son remains constant yesterday, today and forever.
Just like we said earlier, we serve a God of seasons. But God doesn’t measure seasons with clocks and calendars, but through truth and revelation. Whenever God gives you a fresh Word, you’ve just stepped into a new season.
But just like our Scripture verse says, to everything there is a season. Every aspect of our lives is as to a season. And there is a purpose for those seasons. There is a reason for the season. There is a purpose for the process.
There are seasons you didn’t want to go through. But through those seasons you learned some things. And you wouldn’t have learned them if hadn’t gone through some things.
There are seasons you’ve gone through, that you don’t know why you had to. But there is a reason for that season.
And just because you are going through some stuff, or have gone through a rough season, doesn’t mean God is finished with you because “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” It’s not just any old work, but a good work. You’ve just stepped into a new season.
Let’s take a quick glance at the life of one disciple that I believe almost everybody can identify with. Peter went through some seasons in his life. And as we look at Peter’s life, we will discuss three key principles about stepping into a new season.
1. Stepping into a new season brings NEW CHANGES
Change is inevitable. It’s going to happen. We look outside at the world around us and notice things are different today than they were 10 years ago, last year or even yesterday. But remember we serve a God of seasons. Even in His creation, He created the seasons. And each season is different than the others. Some are meant for things to grow, and others for things to die off. Hello, anybody. In some seasons the days are longer, in others the night.
Sometimes it seems your days, your mountaintop experiences with God last a long time, but then there are those seasons when the nighttime seems as if it will never end. In those long nights when the tears seem like they will never stop flowing, but it might have taken a little longer in some seasons than others, but the morning did come, and the tears ceased and joy returned to your spirit.
But God gives us revelations and truths to propel us into new and different seasons. Why? Because we are creatures of habit and if He didn’t change things we would become complacent in one place.
In NY, I looked forward to the Spring season every year. And if I were up to me it would be spring all year long. But the seasons had to change. Looking at Peter, he entered into a new season when Jesus called him to follow.
“And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” – Matthew 4:18-20
One-day Peter was just an ordinary fisherman, until, Jesus came walking by. And when Jesus gave Peter the word, his life was changed.
Jesus said follow me and I will make you. Peter stepped into a new season, and was changed. He was made into, transformed, from a nobody to a somebody. In other words, Jesus was going to make something Peter wasn’t before. There was more than just a change in vocation that occurred in Peter, but an inward change took place.
The word “make” in the Greek can also be translated “sprout forth”. There is a miracle in you. And the seasons in your life have served a purpose to nurture that seed, and now, today, you have stepped into a new season in which that miracle is about to sprout forth.
2. Stepping into a new season brings NEW CHALLENGES
There is no doubt that when Peter was called to follow Jesus that he was faced not only with many changes in his life, but many challenges.
• His faith was challenged by stepping out of a storm battered boat to walk on the water.
• His feelings were challenged when one minute he was proclaiming Jesus the Son of God, and the next minute being rebuked by Jesus, and being called Satan, and having Jesus turn his back on him telling him to get behind him.
• His traditions and prejudices were challenged when he followed Jesus into Samaria.
• His humility was challenged when the Son of God, the Light of the World, the Alpha the Omega, the Beginning and the End, lowered Himself to the point of a servant to wash Peter’s feet.
But in all these instances, Peter stepped up to the challenge. However, there is that one particular time when it seems as if Peter stepped into a season of failure, and he went from a follower of Jesus to one who followed Him at a distance.
And in the courtyard Peter denied knowing the Lord three times. And when he denied knowing the Lord the third time, the rooster crowed and the words of Jesus returned to his mind and Christ’s eyes and his met, “before the rooster crows you will have denied me three times.” And he ran off and wept bitterly.
And that is exactly what happens to us when we step into a season where it seems as if all is going to hell in a hand basket, you feel dry and empty and despite your best efforts you feel as if you’ve let the Lord down and you begin to believe you are a complete and total failure. You are still trying to follow Jesus, but you are following at a distance.
But remember, there is purpose for every season. What Peter didn’t know, and many of us today fail to realize is, that Christ’s love is greater than our failures. When we fail to meet the challenge, there is a grace and a mercy that is far greater than our shortcomings.
Now Peter had a choice. He could have done what many of us do today is use our failures as an excuse as to why we can’t continue seeing our miracle lived out in our lives. But that was before he had encounter with the risen Savior.
Jesus told him to go to Jerusalem and wait, because there was something coming. He told Peter not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended. And there in an upper room Peter and 119 others began seeking God. Having their hearts fixed on one thing, and only one thing. They waited it out, sought it out, prayed out and then the Holy Spirit consumed that place, in the same way He desires to consume those who get together in one heart and one purpose, who will wait it out seek it out, and pray it through.
In Acts chapter 2 Peter stepped into a new season.
3. Stepping into a new season births NEW CHAMPIONS
Peter was transformed from a fisherman into a preaching powerhouse. I believe those who knew Peter three years before were amazed to see the new champion that he had become.
God has transformed us by His power. And God is calling His champions to step into a new season.
• We are stepping into a season of power and prosperity
• We are stepping into a season where all the peoples of the earth shall see that we are called by the name of the Lord
• We are stepping into a season where the Lord is going to open up His good treasure to you and bless you, where we’re going to lend and not borrow, where we will be the head and not the tail, where we will be above and not beneath
• We are stepping into a season where God is about to tear back the veil off of the heavenlies to release some things
Those who were once held under are now going to be coming over
Those who were once forgotten are now going to be remembered
Those who were depressed will once again begin to rejoice
Those who were once rejected are now accepted
Those who are downtrodden will have their heads lifted
Those who grieve will have their joy made manifest
Those who were once poor will say I am rich
Those who are afflicted will once again walk in wholeness
We are stepping in to a new season where those things that have been taken from you will be restored 100-fold.
Some of us had to learn how to praise God all by yourself
You had to praise God through a lot of tears
Some of you had to learn how to lay hands on your own head
Some of you had to hold up your hands while you were praying for somebody else, hoping somebody was praying for you.
Put your hands up in the air right now and proclaim it. Just like a true champion who stands upon the platform of the Olympics awaiting the prize. Heaven’s anthem is being played over you, and the banner of the Lord is being hoist above you. On God’s platform there are no second or third places, there are no silver and bronze, only gold that has been refined in the fire.
You’ve got to take a step into your new season champion.
