Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

In my life as a Chrisitian, there have been many seasons. In the lives of all people there are seasons and I experience those seasons common to all but they are not like the spiritual seasons that I experience in Christ.

The first Spring in the life of a Christian is the moment of Salvation. All of the seasons of Christ in us hinge upon that moment and it is in clinging to the Truth of that moment that will give us safe passage through the darker months of faith. Yes, there are darker seasons of Life in Christ. Seasons that few Christians speak of but all who truly know Him will experience. Just as there is Spring there also is winter, a time when the spiritual field within us lies fallow. This is sometimes, spoken of as a crisis of faith but it is not faith that is in crisis; the crisis is in not recognizing the season. Faith is not of ourselves, it is a gift of God and though there may be times in our lives when our faith lies dormant, we can't lose our faith or the Life that is in us through Christ.

[More:]

As with Spring, new life in Christ is exciting and growth is rapid and carries itself into Summer and a greater fullness of life. It is in spiritual Autumn that we harvest that which has been revealed in us and feast upon the spiritual fruits that the Spirit has born in our lives.

There is also spiritual winter, when the Spirit is not working within us with the same fervor and can easily be mistaken for abandonment by God Himself. His voice seems to fall silent and He seems not to be moving in our lives; but God is there through those times when our hearts lie fallow in deep, cold, winter. Though Life appears to have left us, it has not and cannot. It is simply waiting to reimmerge as God plants a new spiritual crop within us, with new revelation and even greater growth than in seasons past.

Spring will return and with it the necessary burning that removes all old stubble accumulated from seasons before that makes room for new growth in Chirst. The new truths that emerge from that seasonal burning are greater and more fruitful than the crop grown there before as the soil is worked and reworked in our hearts and lives and replenished during those quiet, fallow seasons.

Today, in my heart, it is spiritual winter; but I have weathered many such winters in Christ. I no longer despair at the silence but rest in it and wait for the Spring that I know will come and the burning that is my God as He burns away the stubble and makes way for a new work in me.

I look to the day that will end all of the spiritual seasons in my life. The day of final burning, when all that is temporal will no longer be needed and God's work in me will be complete. That final day when all that is mortal and corrupt in me will be consumed by the Fire that is my God and all that will remain is Christ in me. The Life that is Christ in me will be Spring Eternal.