Isaiah29 uses the word “frame” in reference to the potter who shapes the clay.
A little recap from Part I is that the idea of “framing of the seasons”, means God squeezed into shape & formed the seasons which would squeeze into shape and form the things of the earth that were in each season, including us, the people.
The Lord marked the seasons with the moon in Psalm104. The weather warms, the daylight hours get longer, things begin to grow, thus we call that season Spring. We use the phrase, “i feel like i’ve been pulled through a key hole”, implying an occasion with a reason and a cause of testing that was tough, but the good thing about that is we took the shape of the key hole, along with the tumblers and slots….squeezed into shape & form due to the season we’re in. We often feel we are caught in a pinch point, but maybe it’s really the Lord re-shaping and squeezing the clay into someone more representative of His heart. Every season has two paths, and often, we don’t see the results of the season we’re in until later, in another time.
Everyone has had, are in, or will have “seasons of storms”….it is trying and scary, true, but it should also be remembered that the very nature of a storm is transient. As has been said before, not every blue sky is from Heaven, nor is every storm from hell. There are “blue sky seasons” just like there are “stormy weather seasons”…..it all builds us into God’s people, who are coming into the likeness of the Son.
Psalms 74:16-17 speaks of the framing of seasons; Genesis 2:7 refers to God’s fashioning man from the ground, He “squeezed” man into a shape & form in that season of forming; Psalms 95:5 is an expression of the things God made, squeezed into shape, form, and function. Like when God made water. He decided how it would act under numerous circumstances, how far it would go and where…design parameters, He gave it form and resolution, He framed it, like a potter. He framed, squeezed into form & function every other thing on the earth and they all have a design specific to them defining how they act, how far they go, what they react and don’t react to. God framed them, in His season of design and implementation, as in “…in the beginning”.
In Daniel 7:12 says, “…yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time”…. for occasions with a reason and cause, to be enacted in specific spans as measured with time.
Just like there is the “Rule of First Mention”, “Law of Opposites”, and the “Law of Reaping & Sowing”, there is the “Law of Seasons”.
Among many seasons of life, there appears to be a set of four that are connected…forming a season, seasons themselves, time, and times, and there are five that follow wisdom, Character, Authority, Ministry, and Money, and they have a specific order. All are gifts from God alone, but it requires “a season” and “seasons” to bring them to fruition in our hearts.
Godly Character without wisdom is not possible, considering encountering Christ is definitely a character building, all time life changing event. And if Jesus is the very personification of wisdom, then how do we rub shoulders with God and walk away without wisdom?
Another small recap is that authority without Godly character is like grave dirt in your food, and can be degraded by sin and poor choices with the deterioration of ministry soon to follow. Ministry without authority is not empowered to do the work, and assigning ourselves a title does not gain us the authority we wish we had. Authority, real make-a-difference authority is given by God, and contrary to popular belief, we can have no tangible ministry, but still walk in God’s authority.
When the season of learning to wield authority righteously and as holiness does it’s work, even when that season is in process, the Lord will make a way for us to put our hand of authority to ministry. That is, unless we have another idea other than God’s idea….like giving ourselves titles which are not in keeping with our gifting. Another view of the season of authority and ministry: Authority is to ministry, as a frame is to a picture. Authority frames ministry, but ministry never frames authority.
Authority and influence are like man and wife. A verb needs an object to act on, making the noun the beautiful bride of the verb. For a while, the noun can stand alone but is always more beautiful and complete when the verb describes it, like a frame borders and supports a picture. Marriage of a man and a woman are like the marriage of authority and influence. The man is the authority and the woman is the influence….he has a verb in his middle and she has a noun in her middle, the man “cleaves” (a verb, Gen2:24)) and the woman” desires” (a noun, Gen3:16). Authority frames the beauty of righteous influence. Ministry desires and literally runs after authority, craves authority and loves to be under authority, and is most comfortable when fully yielded and exposed to the right authority. When a man and woman waltz, the man is like a frame, framing the picture, the woman. The woman is like a picture, made beautiful by her frame, the man. Authority follows character. It seems then, the Season of Character is a constant, God calls us from cover to cover of the Bible to come up to a higher standard of righteousness. Like the phrase in Rev11, the Lord says to us, “Come up here”, for immature character is a poor container for authority.
What part of us is developed when God asks us to practice “personal holiness”? i think character, and a Godly person who has many “seasons” under their belt is said to be “well seasoned”. We can observe the seasons changing by getting up to a high place to see the tops of the trees, similarly, from a high place, i can see my life seasons changing me by my dark hair turning gray. As my wisdom and character grow, my body dies a little more, till now my whiskers are white and i’m finally settled enough to enjoy quiet contemplation with my wife in the fall of our lives. Well seasoned indeed.
Without God’s wisdom we just look like dull river rock set in tarnished brass. It would appear the Season of Wisdom and Character are always in season, but seasons of ministry and exerting authority seem to come and go….and the season of money definitely seems to fly on the wings of the wind for most of us.
For man, where is the beginning, the place to begin his journey? The fear of God and wisdom is always the beginning place, and all things in God’s creation have a “Season of Beginnings”. There is a “Season of Rest”, and one of Fruitfulness. We have the “Season of First Things”, like Genesis, and a “Season of Last Things”, like Revelation. Of course there are many other seasons of beginnings and endings for us to ponder, like the phrase, “in good season” as in a timely manner, a man for all seasons, business in the off season, and even seasons or cycles of the heart.
Everyone is invited to partner with God for Him to take us in and out of His seasons of our design and destiny, to form us and mold us, squeeze us into shape and function. What season are you in?
i’m Social Porter with some thoughts concerning Seasons.