Think of the idea of understanding the times and knowing what to do in the context of gardening. Wisdom is required to know the rhythm of crops: when to sow, when to water and when to harvest. This requires discerning the times, studying the weather and preparing. In the church we need to discern the times and know when to sow the gospel, when to water the seeds and when to harvest the crop. There are seasons in general and seasons in individual lives in particular.
Based on what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church the significant fact isn’t who does what part. Rather it is being faithful to do our part.
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 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. 1 Corinthians 3:5-8 (NKJV)
As we in the church grow in better discerning the seasons we will become a more effective and versatile church. Members of the body will be sowing, watering and harvesting as led by the Holy Spirit. As an illustration, when I was asked by more than one person what the Holy Spirit was saying for 2020 I said “the church needs to find her voice.” I had no expectation that we would be in a pandemic that would call for the church to raise her voice to release peace and calm fair. I just knew that what I was hearing from the Spirit was the need to find our voice in this hour.
I believe hearing and releasing His voice is critical in this hour because it is a training time, a preparation for a much greater event. There are many examples in scripture that use agricultural analogies. Scripture tells us that a season is coming when all of this will be happening so rapidly that all aspects – sowing, tending, harvesting, will blend together. Deepening our current understanding of how to exercise wisdom in this season will ready us for this coming season. Here is what Amos prophesied.
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it.” Amos 9:13 (NKJV)
Are we getting ready?
Harvest Time by Ray Hughes, a song crying out for all those that need to encounter Jesus
Ray Hughes One Note
