Transcription
What if I told you that the biggest blessings of your life could actually become distractions? And just because an opportunity is good doesn't necessarily mean it's from God.
Welcome to the spring season, where new beginnings can be exciting and dangerous. I'm Hava Kennington, and we are right in the middle of a series about your spiritual season. And so, if you're just jumping in, I have something for you. If you don't know what spiritual season you're in, that's okay. We created a little test. It's free. It's accessible. All you have to do is go to havalaington.com/seasons and take the test and figure out what spiritual season you're in. Or you can click the link in the bio or the link in the show notes, and you can get there as well.
So, we're going to talk about spring. And I get it. You might not be in spring. You might be in winter. You might be in fall and be thinking, "Why am I here?" Well, because you will be in spring eventually. And so it's really good to understand each season so you can steward it the best way you know how. So spring is a fresh start, but with a catch. Yeah, it's new beginnings, but it also can be dangerous and distracting. So I want to help you understand that even though you've been waiting for a breakthrough forever, and now that it's finally here, you need to be aware that it doesn't mean everything is a go, and everything is good, and everything is God. And we're going to talk a little bit about that.
So, what are some signs that you're in a spring season? Well, you start to feel a fresh sense of hope. I remember this in my own spiritual life. It's like all of a sudden, like I feel God in the worship. All of a sudden, someone says something to me, and then it happens; like it's prophetic, and it happens, or something just an opportunity happens, and I think, "Wow, there's kind of this hope that something might be shifting," and then all of a sudden opportunities begin to come, and they kind of come from the left, from the right, all over, but it's like all of a sudden you're beginning to be seen for what you've been growing in the winter season. Like I remember when I was in this long winter season, and then in I I shifted into spring with my family, with my boys, with my husband, like having, getting married, having kids right away. It was wild. But I also had spring happen in my ministry where all of a sudden invitations began to come from different places, places that had never had me before. They knew of me. And then all of a sudden the messages that I was bringing to the table began to go around the world. And I remember somebody asking me, you know, "What's different about when you were teaching in private for 10 years, nobody knew who you were, and you were doing just these small groups of people and just teaching, teaching, teaching and being faithful. What happened to now?" And I literally said nothing. In fact, it shocks me that nothing I was teaching over here has changed to over here other than having more character and having more conviction. There isn't much difference. It's almost like favorites. And that's what spring does. It doesn't mean you don't have a good idea in the winter. Doesn't mean you don't have the right skills. It just means that you're being prepared, and then something shifts.
So again, in spring, you start to feel stretched. God is nudging you out of your comfort zone and like, "Come on, let's go do this. Let's go serve in this area. Let's go get that project done. Let's go start this thing." And you feel it, and you have a sense of hope, but honestly, you're kind of tempted to want to rush ahead and just make it happen because you finally have life. It's like, "I finally have favor. I finally have growth. Let me just do all the things." And yet, often we're not fully prepared to run that hard yet because a lot of what we have is very fragile. It's it's in the beginning stages. So, not every door that's open is from God. And spring is all about discernment. Your spring season is all about discernment. Discernment is knowing what is a good idea or what is a God idea. You can say yes to a thousand things, but we want to say yes to the right things because those are the things we want to grow in our lives. So, if you are in spring, you've got to learn how to plant, or you'll waste this season.
So, I'm going to use the acronym PLANT just to kind of walk you through what I think is important when you're in spring. So, P, you got to pray and ask God what to plant. So, not every idea, again, not every opportunity, not everything that you can make happen is the right thing. So you're asking God, "God, you are the great shepherd. You are the great gardener. You're the you're the one that teaches me how to grow the right thing things. So show me, do I start this class now? Do I read this book now? Do I join this group now?" I mean, it's just knowing what God is on and being very clear to ask him, not just saying yes because you finally have the opportunity to say yes.
The L in PLANT is to let go of fear. You know, sometimes when you step into new things, it feels scary. You know, winter can feel isolating and alone and and kind of like you're in private, and sometimes it can be scary to actually be seen, to let people see what's in your heart, to start new things. And so, let go of that fear, understanding that fear is not going to keep you is not going to help you be prosperous and and abundant in this season.
The A in PLANT is to act on God's instructions from winter. Now, if you've been in a winter season and you've stewarded it well, then I guarantee there are some things that God has spoken to you about who you need in your life, who you don't need in your life, what you need to say yes to, what you do not need to say yes to. And in spring, we need to keep under those instructions from God. Like, what did God tell us to do in the winter? We need to actually fulfill in the spring and be diligent. And that's really a sign of humility is not just because I can make it happen, I will. That's kind of a sign of arrogance, but ultimately like, "God, I want to do what you're asking me to do." And sometimes in winter, we get that mana every day, that bread to keep us alive. And the goal is to be so dependent on God that when we're in a season when there's a garden and there's fresh fruit around us, we're still saying, "Thank you, Lord, for my daily bread. I'm dependent on you today. Even though I can make it happen, I'm dependent on you in this season."
So, what is the N in PLANT? You got to nurture the seeds. So growing things or growth takes intentional care, not just excitement. You know, the way I look at spring is you start to get an idea that you that you thought, "I don't have any ideas in winter." And then in spring, you go, "I'd like to do this. I'd like to write a book, or I'd like to start this movement, or I'd like to join this," or whatever. "Go back to school and get my degree," whatever it might be. And sometimes we think, "Oh, I got to tell people, like I finally have something I'm excited about. I finally have some hope about something. I'm going to tell them." And what we don't understand is that that's just a little a little sprig. It's just a little thing that's beginning to grow. And if we give it too much sun or too much water, too many people's opinions, too many people shouting fear at us or giving too much, you know, time to it, it can actually almost be manhandled to where it doesn't grow. It just feels like your mom had an opinion, your dad had an opinion, your sister had an opinion, and you can't actually begin to grow. So there's a sense of privacy in spring where you're protecting that thing and keeping it sacred rather than handing it out to everybody. Don't share your dreams with everybody in the spring. Don't share your vision with everybody in the spring. Don't tell everybody what you're going to do, what you're going to plant. Be very, very guarded in what you're growing because it needs that kind of protection in order for it to grow in the season that it's in.
And then lastly, you're going to trust the process. Listen, it takes time to grow things. You cannot force it. So if you require your little seedling to happen immediately, you could overpower it. It won't actually happen. So understanding that I have a hope. I my hope is to lead this one day. So I'm going to serve in this area. I'm not going to say yes to leading it. I'm not going to say yes to posting about it. I'm just going to serve and begin to grow something very slowly. Right? So again, very important to understand what you're intentionally growing.
So what are the biggest mistakes in spring? Well, the number one mistake that I see is spiritual ADD ADHD, and that is that your your temptation is to run to everything that shines. It's like this per this opportunity, this relationship, this thing, and we're just and we're bouncing off the walls excited about all the things, but we actually we almost um disempower our yes because we're saying yes to everything. And so really being aware that in order for you to grow something, like I remember this this guy on on our staff at our church many years ago. He was so diligent. He was the most faithful diligent man that I know. And he would do everything that everybody needed him to do. And there was one point when I remember one of the other leaders saying to him, he said, "Listen, you can be good at all these things, but you won't be exceptional at one thing because you're doing a bunch of things. You're just saying yes to everything." And I think in spring we have to decide, do we just want to be good at everything or do we want to be exceptional in a few things? And if we want to be exceptional, then you have to grow that grow it and steward it. Like when I was writing books, I think about this radical growth, one of my first books I ever wrote wrote which has a lot of this content for the seasons in it. I remember I began to write this book. I wasn't posting about it. I wasn't telling everybody I got a book coming. I was in my bedroom up in the morning at 3:30 in the morning just writing, typing it out, you know, doing certain things. And I didn't make an announcement until it was done, until it was harvest time because it was so fragile. It was something I had never done before. And I needed to know that it would work. And so, it meant that I had to say no to the playdates and no to the girls' night outs and no to those other opportunities because I was growing something that I knew in the winter God had spoken to me to grow. So, it's very, very intentional and very important.
So, how do we protect our growth? Let me give you a few things. First, you want to stay grounded in prayer and the word, which we said in every season, right? But in this one specifically, we want to stay grounded to making sure that our source is of God, not just the opportunity. Second is we don't want to let our excitement replace our discipline. You know, sometimes in spring we're so excited that we end up just saying yes to everything or giving away everything, and we forget that it requires incredible discipline to grow, to water every day, to nurture, to just be diligent every single day to see that thing grow. And then thirdly is you got to be careful that you that you you share your seeds with the right people as we talked about because you don't want people trampling on it. You know, it's very fragile. So again, I remember when I was a young girl, you know, I'd meet somebody and tell all my friends, "I met the love of my life. I just know this is the one." And then it would fall apart. And then I'd be like, "Okay, just kidding." And then it would do happen again. I'd be like, "I think this is the one." And everybody get excited. And then it would fall apart. And then I realized when I met my husband, I finally was like, "I'm not telling anybody. I'm telling a few people. And I'm just going to start this relationship." And what I found is it was in the spring season. It needed to be nurtured or protected. It didn't need everyone's opinion about it. I needed to be able to grow. And then when it was time, I could tell everybody. But the roots of our relationship had grown deeper, and I was able to withstand criticism or critiques or even just like not being sure about it, which we win. 20 years later, we did it. So the the goal is to stay planted where God has placed you. Spring is not a time to run here and there. It's not a time to pack everything and go. It's time to actually go, "What am I growing? And what's going to require um it's going to require enormous amounts of um resources to make that happen," mental resources, heart resources, relational resources. So, really protect that.
So, what do I want you to think about in the spring season? Well, I want you to ask the question if you're in spring. I want you to take a minute right where you are. Whether you're on the commute, whether you're walking with your shoes and your headset on, whether you're sitting and watching this video, I want you to ask God, "God, what are you calling me to plant right now?" Like, what is it? You know, so many times in the winter we have all these dreams, and then spring comes, and we get so easily distracted. But a really intentional spiritual person says, "Okay, God, what are we growing?" And it's going to take some I mean, you can grow weeds really fast, but fruit takes a little longer. So, are we just going to grow a bunch of weeds? Are we going to grow fruit? And if so, show me how to do that. So, in winter, we might have said, "Gosh, I have a lot of offense in my life." And in the winter, it's almost like the Lord was rooting up the roots of offense in my life. Well, spring comes around, and I'm around all these people, and I'm starting to think, you know, "It's no big deal." And all of a sudden, I'm realizing I've got a little offense. I'm letting weeds grow into the hope and the faith and the and the love that I have for others. And God's like, "You don't want to grow both those." Remember, we said we were going to root that out. And so, you might need to take time to go, "I'm going to read a book on offense and start to root out those things in the middle of spring so I don't let that grow alongside of what God is having me grow." Does that make sense? So, be very intentional about that.
So, what's something that I think you can practically do today if you're in spring? I would list three things that you can do this week or this season that will nurture what God has started. So, there's there's a difference between being busy and being strategic. And I would be strategic in spring. I would actually go back into my winter and say, "Okay, God, what do we talk about growing? What was important to me? I wanted a healthy marriage. I wanted healthy kids that loved and served you all the days of their life. I wanted, you know, healthy finances, whatever it might be. And now I'm in spring where I've got a new job opportunity or I just got an inheritance or something's happening. Now I want to go back to what we said were priorities, and I want to make sure that I'm I'm watering and giving those priorities sun and light because that's important right now to grow what I need to." So most importantly with spring, it is still very fragile. It's the season of discernment. It's a season to know what God's giving life to. And then also, it's not a season to let to manhandle. It's a season to keep protected and sacred.
Next week, we're going to look at or next episode we're going to look all over summer. Now, summer sounds fun. It sounds like beach parties and lake days. And it is, but it's also a lot of work. Summer is a lot of work. And I'm going to teach you how to whistle while you work, how to be happy while you work, and not to give up, but to keep going. Because after that, we're going to have fall harvest. And that's the exciting time. That's when all the work and effort makes sense.
All right, you guys. That's it for now. Again, don't forget to take that test at havalcennington.com/seasons. And if you're curious about this topic, I have a book called Radical Growth, a guide book to growing a vibrant life. This isn't the whole everything we're talking about. It's got so much more, but this is really my handbook to knowing how to grow a life in God. We hear things like, you know, father, son, holy spirit. We hear things about, you know, reaping and sowing. We hear things about seasons, and we don't always know how to put it into our life. Well, this is the guide book. It's literally three touch points a day to help you grow an abundant life, a vibrant life um today in your life. But it's it's simple. It's practical. You can throw it in your purse, and in a couple days, probably a couple weeks I should say, you'll be able to know that's where that all fits and that's how I grow a vibrant life in God.
All right, you guys. That's it for now. Thanks for being here. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss next week as we talk about summer. If nothing else, I'll see you next time.