Hi friend! I’m so happy you stopped by today! This month we’ll be discussing the topic of A New Season and would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. If you’re not sure how this all started or why I chose A New Season for our theme, you can catch up HERE.

Coincidentally (or not), I started a study of Genesis this week with the First 5 app from Proverbs 31 Ministries. I’m sure you can guess what jumped out to me as I was reading chapter 1 on Monday.

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years.” Genesis 1:14

God set the natural seasons in order in the first days of creation. If we take time to study them, we will notice an order of progression and change that parallels our own lives, physically and spiritually.

• Spring – usually listed as the first season because it is the time of birthing, the season of new life, new beginnings.
• Summer – a time of warming and growth.
• Fall or autumn (my FAVORITE time of the year!) -boasts of warm colors and full tables, a time of harvest and gathering. A time of reaping and hearts over-flowing with gratitude.
• Winter – the season of hibernating bears and rest from the harvest. A season when that which was birthed in spring often dies.

And the cycle repeats.

Are you beginning to see the parallel?

In every season there is an awakening and a laying down, a letting go and a holding on, a releasing of something old and a capturing of something new.

Changing from one season to another always involves an adjustment in some area of our lives – a slight right, a hard left, an about face. There is a remodeling, a re-positioning, or a restructuring taking place as we leave the old and enter the new.

Without change, life can become dull, stagnated, and unable to produce fruit. This does not mean everyone will move geographically, change churches, or hop from job to job. Change often happens internally, in the secret chambers of the heart or the private channels of thought. For example, we enter a new season that involves a shift in thinking, a transforming of beliefs, a deeper knowledge of God, or a reworking of inner desires and passions.

But change can also happen externally. Some seasons are more obvious like the stages of life marked with age and maturity. Other seasons we walk through involve education, jobs, ministry, marriage, parenting, friendship, and where we live. We may find ourselves at the end of a season at our job, home church, or community service. We may feel a tug at our heart for a new city, region, or even country.

We have seasons of fruitfulness and barrenness, illness and health, grief and joy, prosperity and lack. Some seasons are marked with celebration and victory while others include loss and defeat. Some seasons are busy while others are spent waiting. Some involve a pouring out of ourselves until we feel there is nothing left and others require a digging in or a refilling until we are overflowing.

Change in every form and stage can be exhilarating, uncomfortable, exciting, or terrifying.

No matter what season of life we are in or leaving or moving into, the Life-Giver sustains us and brings us out to begin again.

God remains the Faithful One in every season of our lives.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

While some seasons come without asking, are forced upon us as natural consequences of our actions, or happen without us doing anything at all, others require an action on our part. So, how do we know when to act? How do we know when one season ends and another begins? How can we know the right time to step out of an old place and into new territory?

By paying attention and listening.

We can hear God’s voice as we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit. Part of the Holy Spirit’s job is to instruct us, guide us, warn us, and help us understand God’s will.

Have you ever felt a sense of uneasiness or unrest in a situation? Have you ever felt an urgency to pray? An internal witness to do something or stop doing something?

These prompts from the Holy Spirit are to be understood and used as guides for God’s will in our lives. They warn us of danger and encourage us to obey and submit to God’s purposes. They give us keys and strategies, red lights and green lights. They are more than a momentary gut feeling or a passing thought. They could begin as such but become much more and do not quickly go away.

The Holy Spirit is a good Helper.

We can also hear God speak in a variety of other ways:

• A still small voice
• A confirming word
• Scripture
• A song on the radio
• Personal prophecy
• A strange coincidence (that is not really a coincidence)
• Through other people (mentors, friends, leaders, pastors, strangers)
• Dreams

God can speak to us in any way, shape, or form and at any time He wants.

Today, I want to encourage you to listen for His voice. Look for it. Expect it. Prepare for it. Position yourself to receive it. Be open and willing to be led by the Holy Spirit.

How do we do this? By spending intentional time in His presence and focusing our hearts on Him.

**Since today’s introduction post was a little longer than expected, I’ll be back here on Friday to talk more about hearing the voice of God, share an example or two of a time God spoke to me about a new season, and how I responded (or didn’t).

Let’s chat:

• What is your favorite season of nature?
• What are your thoughts on the different seasons in our lives?
• Have you heard God’s voice in moving from one season to another? Has He required an action on your part? A letting go of the old? A stepping out into the new?

Scriptures:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what 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 seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, 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 for war, and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (ESV)

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” – John 14:26 (ESV)

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:13 (ESV)

“And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:21