Seasons.

So one day I was looking out my back door at our new apple tree. He said: "You know, to a seed, everything is new."

Then as I began voxing one of my good friends from Brazil, Papa started showing me the significance of all seasons.

To a seed, the ground, the air, the water, the growth, it's all new. Completely unseen before. God showed me that in a season where seeds are planted in our hearts, everything, the Word, the worship, the encounter, the revelations, the feelings, it's all new. It's all beautiful and wonderful.

But then we hit summer.

It's hot. The reality around us doesn't feel nearly as pleasant as it did in the seed season. If we don't go deep in the word and in our identity, we will spread out and whither away to nothing.

Daddy told me that that is why many young Christians grow tired and die out. We don't stay with our first love. We get bored because everything is not new, it's hot and boring and tiring. But if we will continue to go deep in who He is, and we find Him as sufficient for us, and we embrace the season we go through, out of that patience comes forth the blossoms.

The blossoms. Worship in spirit and in truth. The love for God that is uncontainable and contageous. The worship outside that flows from encounter inside.

And when we give ourselves fully to Him, when we worship him with everything, and waste ourselves on Him like Mary of Bethany did, out of that comes fruit.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfullness and self control. Look at these fruits. Every single one of them came from a season.

Reminds me of Song of Solomon.

That moment in the story where the Shulamite  has only shown her love and faithfulness to Him, and her sacrifice, and He leaves. He runs away.

He leaves her in a winter season.

Notice in that story, she knows where He is. But she has no proof that He is with her. In the winter season God doesn't leave us. He removes His tangible feely presence so that we can love Him with everything, not just our emotions. It's when there is no growth. There is no fruit. No good smell. Nothing. And we ask God "What do you think you're doing??! Don't you see that I need to grow in my gifts and my fruit and my callings?" And He responds. "The fruit that fell in summer, throughout the winter becomes new seeds for the upcoming spring. You need to embrace the seasons as they come. I am making all things new."