Making the MOST of your SPRING Season 3-20-05

Making the MOST

Of your Spring Season in God

3-20-05

Today is the first day of Spring

What is a springtime season in God like?

Season of new life/new possibility

·                    Doesn’t always follow calendar year

·                    Window of opportunity over GHC in natural

I believe we’re in a spring time season in GHC in natural

·                    And spiritual

·                    Started 2005 – with Window of Opportunity Word

·                    I believe Window of Opportunity – turning of seasons over us

·                    In natural in GHC

·                    In spiritual as well

·                    Recap opportunity/possibility

·                    FIRST sermon:  winter season in God – there’s life in the tree

·                    Sarah Eddy Scripture this summer

·                    Believe we as a church are in a spring season in God

Been meditating on what it means to be in a ‘spring season’ in God

Title:  “Making the MOST of your Spring Season in God”

Spring seasons in life

·                    Windows of Opportunity

Song of Songs 2:10-14 “Rise up, my beloved, my fair one, and come away. For the winter is past, and the rain is over and gone.  The flowers are springing up, and the time of singing birds has come, even the cooing of turtledoves.  The fig trees are budding, and the grapevines are in blossom.  How delicious they smell!  Yes, spring is here!  Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away.   .. . Let me see you; let me hear your voice.  For your voice is pleasant, and you are lovely.”

Paints picture of spring time

·                    Life springing forth

·                    Buds/blossoms

Weaved into picture of Spring

·                    Voice of bridegroom to the Bride

·                    Come away with me

·                    Explain – bridegroom picture of Jesus – calling to us – come away

·                    I believe in this Spring time, the voice of Jesus is calling to this church

·                    Come away with me

·                    Come aside from the norm

·                    I want to be with my people

·                    And speak my words of LOVE into your heart

·                    I want to be with YOU in this spring season

·                    And WIN your heart

·                    And see the FRUIT of my promise blossom in YOUR lives

·                    Arise – come away

Come aside in this spring season

·                    Let me see you

·                    Let me hear YOUR voice

God’s pursuing heart in the midst of spring season

·                    Think about it

·                    God’s heart pursuing US in the midst of this time

·                    Develop

·                    We need to allow ourselves  to LISTEN for the voice of the King in this season.

·                    We need to ‘come away with HIM’ in this time

·                    So that HE can pour HIS promise into our lives

If you miss His pursuing heart

·                    You can miss the window of opportunity

So let’s look at this analogy of spring time a little closer

·                    And see how it reflects our relationship with God

Elements of the ‘Spring Season’

Buds/Blossoms

·                    The promise of new life in the natural

·                    New fruit – new plants

·                    WithIN the fruit is The very SEED that will sustain you in the next season

·                    TOMMORROW’S provision – released in seed form to us today

In Spirit

·                    Buds/Blossoms:  New promises coming to our lives

·                    New hope

·                    Maybe you’ve been battling for a victory in an area of your life

·                    In a spring time, lots of times we receive the PROMISE of the harvest in its FIRST STAGE

·                    The FIRST STAGE of promise is birthed in our lives.

·                    Nancy and I – back in Spokane on a trip

·                    Can’t explain it – before we purchased our first home

·                    God began to speak of that promise of something on its way.

·                    Nothing in the natural had changed – but in the Spirit, we sensed – the promise is coming

·                    Sense of Expectancy – new possibility

·                    Beginning to dream  (it was absurd – in ministry – part-time jobs – low pay – but GOD came thru in an AMAZING way!)

Ever have a time when the DREAMS of vision start budding in your heart

·                    All of the sudden you have a dream for a new potential

·                    Something you never thought of before.

·                    Practical example: . . .

Blossom season

·                    Beautiful

·                    Can be fragrant

·                    Apple Blossom festival.

But blossoms by themselves do NOT guarantee fruit

Need to pollinated in this season

·                    Intermixing

The Seed needs to be Pollinated

          •       inter-mixing

          •       Giving something away to someone else

          •       Receiving something in you

          •       Creates a whole NEW DNA within you

          •       God has put a dream in your heart -- but if the bud of the flower is closed to receiving the pollen -- you won’t reproduce

          •       Hoarding spirit

          •       Not giving

          •       Think -- I have so little -- why would I give out

          •       Poverty spirit

          •       But in giving -- you receive.

          •       How many times -- sow in one area -- wonder if it would produce anything

•       In God’s timing/economy -- blessing SO GREAT -- can’t contain it.

Things that pollinate God’s promise in your life

Mixing the word with obedience

·                    God speaks something to your life

·                    Don’t just hear – do

·                    James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  DO what it says.”

·                    Kit/Gene – sitting at home

Mixing the word with Faith

·                    God, I believe your promise

·                    Make a decision/declaration

·                    Listen to the word – speak it out loud – search out the scriptures

Mixing the word with Praise and thanksgiving

·                    Pollinates it

·                    Produces faith/hope in us

Mix the word with Giving/Faithfulness

·                    Ps 37 Trust in the Lord and do good

·                    Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness

Mix the word with radical obedience

·                    Radical repentance

Pursue a deeper friendship with the Father

·                    Intimate friendship with God

·                    When YOUR heart touches His it changes you

·                    Laneata – Missions

·                    New DNA forms in you – a new vision for your life

·                    Radical life after God

Some times God networks you with different ones

·                    In the BOC

·                    In the community

·                    Bridge building

My role -- pollinating

          •       In the Community

          •       With the leaders of the city

          •       With the businesses

          •       With the people

Note:  Don’t pick the blossoms!

·                    When the blossoms come – you don’t pick them

·                    Have to stay CONNECTED to the tree

·                    In order for fruit to grow – stay connected!

·                    Abide in the vine

Remember: Buds are at the most immature stage of fruit

·                    Don’t despise day of small beginnings

·                    Remember my first steps into radical ministry – I dreamed of preaching from pulpits and ministering with music

o       I found myself in small Sunday School rooms with a half-dozen teens

o       Or in a forgotten little place

o       I’d worked in some key roles in PSCC – but as I stepped out I watched others advance BEYOND where I had been allowed to go – and found myself in what looked like a ‘forgotten place.

o       But GOD never forgot me – soon I found myself working with an international ministry – producing recordings that were used globally – developing curriculum that was used around the world – and finding myself in some of the most exciting ministry environments I had ever been in before.

o       But when it all STARTED – it looked pretty small – insignificant.

o       Desk testimony

o       Little while later, I found myself transplanted to Bonney Lake – serving what was to become one of the largest ministries in our community.

o       DON’T Despise their ‘youth’ – don’t despise the first simple steps of fruit

o       PROTECT them – they are a holy thing to the Lord

Loren Cunningham told the story

·                    Shoes

·                    Called to ministry

·                    Looked pretty much like a ‘nothing/mom kind of gesture’

·                    In reality, it was PROPHETIC

·                    Through this young man, God birthed what is probably one of the LARGEST missions organizations in the world

·                    Totally REVOLUTIONIZED how missions was embraced – Short-term missions – radical/cutting edge concept.

·                    YWAM in every continent – and MOST NATIONS of the world INCLUDING nations like IRAQ, closed nations, etc.

The bud was a baby fruit

·                    Mixed with faith

·                    Radical obedience

·                    Look what the Lord did!

Blossoms turn brown

·                    After pollinated – blossoms turn brown – shrivel and die

·                    Doesn’t look as beautiful

·                    Looks like ‘it died’

·                    But in reality, it’s FURTHER DOWN THE PATH towards being a mature fruit.

When a promise seems to ‘die for a moment’

·                    After the blossom phase – it doesn’t work out like you thought it would.

·                    Don’t fret – God is still working

·                    Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies – it produces nothing – but if it goes in the ground – produces MUCH fruit.

·                    The ‘death of the blossom’ is the BIRTHING of the Fruit growing season.

·                    The new DNA is now ‘writing a new story’ in your life.

Seed still there – even though the blossom has fallen

·                    Protect it

·                    Don’t despise immature fruit

PROTECT the FORMING FRUIT

·                    How do you protect it?

·                    Keep it warm

o       Smudge pots

Frost of

·                    Bitterness

·                    Unbelief

·                    Fear

·                    Disappointment

Protect the fruit

•       ‛Spray the Fruit’

          *        bad tasting to the bugs

*        Can’t feed on you -- or destroy what God is FORMING in you

A smart farmer is not ignorant of the ‘pests’ that can destroy life

·                    Studies the things that need to be kept away from his harvest

·                    PROTECTS the fruit forming process

What makes you ‘bad tasting’ to the bugs?

·                    Cultivating God’s presence around your life

·                    Praise Worship

·                    Fellowship

·                    The Word and Promises of God

Again – radical obedience

·                    Forgiveness

·                    Repentance

·                    These RID OUR LIVES of the DISEASE that can rob us.

Water the tree

·                    Feed it

·                    Nutrients

·                    Study the soil – know WHAT the environment dictates

Understand, the FRUIT is COMING

·                    The Laws of the harvest work

·                    Sowing and reaping works

But ALSO UNDERSTAND cycles and light/dark

·                    Annie Herring Testimony

·                    When you’re in a dark time – get OTHERS to pray for you.

·                    Spring storms

·                    Bill Mitchell’s word – ‘you pursue me’

·                    It’s up to YOU to sound the trumpet over your life

·                    GROW – when you face a challenge – get prayer/support!

·                    It’s been MY life-line.

SEE the fruit through the eyes of the harvest

·                    Rest in your season

·                    God wanting to birth something through your life

·                    God wanting to birth something NEW through this church corporately (we’re pregnant with the promise of God!)

Understand the role of pruning in the growth cycle

·                    Gardner watches the blossoms – pinches off extra

·                    Will thin out the fruit – make choice (John 15)

·                    Less is more

·                    Bigger fruit

Spring season is about God birthing possibility

·                    Like catching a wave

·                    Year started with Tsunami

·                    Want tsunami of His love to sweep GHC

·                    Make most of every opportunity

Many of you have some dreams forming

·                    New opportunity

·                    Ministry dream

·                    Life opportunity

Some of you may have survived a broken dream

·                    Or you made a bad choice and ended up with a disappointment

·                    But GOD is saying, it’s a NEW season – it’s spring again

·                    You can press in and see this cycle of disappointment or disfunction TURNED

God wants to teach us how to STEWARD a spring season

·                    Because a spring season Leads us INTO the harvest!

How many of you believe God wants to bring this church into HARVEST?

·                    How many want to see it?

·                    Then we need to SOW for it.

Fullness of time for the fruit

·                    Don’t get worried or weary in the early season

·                    Don’t grow weary in well doing – you will reap if you faint not!

·                    Fullness of time for fruit – not sour – not rotten

·                    ON time.

Finally, as I close want to flip analogy

·                    Share with another picture in scripture that I believe Goes along with this

·                    Revelation 12

·                    Recap story

·                    Essentially this is partial birth abortion

o       Kill it as it’s birthed

o       Destroy it before the promise can grow.

As I’ve meditated on this verse I see TWO prayer Strategies:

Prayer:  “Protect the Baby” – Protect the seed – the Promise

·                    Obey God

·                    Devourer rebuked

·                    Malachi Scriptures key

·                    Principality over harbor

·                    If we’re going to see captivity turned, need to steward the fruit – the bud that’s forming

·                    If you’re not walking in obedience to God – open the door for the devourer over your life – Malachi clear on this.

Protect promise/the baby

·                    Too many partial birth abortions in GHC in the spirit

·                    To many ‘almost break throughs’

·                    Shared Rev 12 pictures with pastors – many ‘saw it clear’

·                    Need to see goodness of the Lord in the land of living

·                    Captivity turned AGAIN

Lord protect the baby

·                    Lord protect the seed – the fruit forming

·                    Lord protect what YOU are wanting to birth in our lives

Second Prayer:  Protect the bride

·                    Rev 12 analogy

·                    Same thing that wants to destroy the promise

·                    Destroy hope – destroy the seed

·                    Wants to hurt the bride of Christ – the church

·                    Bride has been wounded

·                    Need to be healed

We’re praying for something BIGGER than just – get us into this spring time of promise

·                    We’re praying – TURN the captivity

·                    Turn the season

·                    Corporate need – can’t do this alone.

·                    Have to do it together corporately

Song of Songs 2:10-14 “Rise up, my beloved, my fair one, and come away. For the winter is past, and the rain is over and gone.  The flowers are springing up, and the time of singing birds has come, even the cooing of turtledoves.  The fig trees are budding, and the grapevines are in blossom.  How delicious they smell!  Yes, spring is here!  Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away.   .. . Let me see you; let me hear your voice.  For your voice is pleasant, and you are lovely.”

God calling us away with Him

·                    To intimate friendship with Him

·                    To open the blossoms of promise to His spirit

·                    To be pollinated by His love

·                    So that LIFE

·                    NEW DNA can be formed IN us

·                    And HARVEST time can come and fill the land with ABUNDANCE!