“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. ” (1 Chronicles 12:32)
In the above verse of Scripture the “sons of Issachar” were men of profound wisdom that had a unique understanding of the times and seasons of God and what He wanted the people of Israel to do. They were a dedicated group of men that were in tune with what God was doing in the earth of their times. As I look at this account of them, it causes me to cry out for some modern day sons (and daughters) of Issachar to rise up in the power of their God and declare with a holy boldness “Thus saith the Word of the Almighty God.”
We need to understand as the body of Christ that God has a central point from which every arena in our life operates – it's called time. Not because God Himself operates solely out of time, but rather that He created time for us. From the operation of that one word, time, lives can move forward with God or be hindered. Nations can advance spiritually or regress. It all depends on our understanding and cooperation with the “timings” of God. One of the greatest needs our churches seem to have is learning how to understand and operate with the timings of God.
As soon as you are born again, the sensitivity to the timings of God should operate in your life. Every moment from that point forward is meant to be lived according to the will of the Father – and that includes His timing. When you, as a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world, begin walking in the supernatural timing of God, then everything that happens to you is understood as part of God's higher timing.
The simple truth is the only place that time becomes your friend while you are living here on this planet, is in the Spirit realm. People who have learned how to live in the Spirit know how to work and walk with time. Only a person that is walking in spiritual timing can fully understand that God is in total control.
The Book of Ecclesiastes has a lot to say about how important spiritual timing is in the life of God followers. Let's look at a couple different passages:
Ecclesiastes 8:5–6 says, “a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.”
Then, one of the most famous passages of Scripture concerning time in the Book of Ecclesiastes is found in chapter 3, verses 1 – 8. Let's take a fresh look at it once again. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
While each and every one of these 29 instances of “time” listed here can, and do, have application in the natural realm, they each have an even more powerful understanding once we can get it into our spirit-man that these are also about the spiritual timings of God. For, without understanding spiritual timing, many of those things listed in those eight verses could break a person's spirit. For instance, when we read the part about a time to die, a time to weep, a time to mourn, etc, these things in and of themselves are very disheartening. But when we understand and walk in God's spiritual timing, then we understand that, yes, there is a time to weep, but there is also a time of laughter that is coming soon your way. That, yes, there is a time to mourn, but there is also a time to dance as well.
When you learn to live in the spirit-realm, time is lovely. Time is a blessing. Time can bring peace. A Spirit-filled person can walk in step with God and work the works of God without stress or strain because they understand time. To a Spirit-filled person, time means stability. Time matures and heals. Time expands and deepens our walk with God. Time expands and deepens our insight into the things of God. When we learn to walk with time, we learn to walk with patience. And with patience comes understanding.
Life in the spirit-realm has a timing to it just like life in the natural does. And we need to know how to move accordingly to the seasons that move across our path. We need to know how to move and breath and live victoriously in those seasons.
When the Word says that “a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment,” what exactly does that mean? It means that we must be able, as the body of Christ, to know when to go and when to stay; when to speak into a person's life and when to be silent and simply listen to what they have to say. It is the will of God that we not only be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but that we also learn how to operate in them effectively. And this is accomplished when time and judgment are working together.
Let's look at something else for a moment. Let's explore different spiritual seasons in the life of the believer and in the life of the Church. There are in fact different seasons and we need to learn how to walk in the proper season for our life. You see, we live in a new day, a new spiritual time, each and every day that we live here on this Earth. When Jesus said, “let the dead bury the dead,” in Luke 9:60, He meant “let the past be the past.” You're living in a right NOW day, so you should always be living in a right NOW Word for your life from your right NOW God.
Whenever the season of winter has past, you can't keep wearing a heavy coat, gloves and snow boots in 90-degree temperatures. If you do you'll have a heat stroke! When the season of winter is past then it's time to move in to clothing that is more appropriate for warmer temperatures. Do you see what I'm trying to show you? You cannot make spiritual progress living in past times or past spiritual seasons. Our God does not live in the past – He lives in the NOW. It is always NOW with God. It is always today.
The greatest results you will ever see in your spiritual life is when you learn to walk in the present spiritual timing of the Lord. If you are living in the past, while hearing the message for today, the message of today will not make any sense to you. You must learn to move with God. If the children of Israel had not moved with God when the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day moved on, they would have been left behind to face the elements on their own. Too many on this modern day church culture are still trying to regulate God to some distant past memory they have of Him. They only like to talk about the previous moves of God that they have seen; the previous outpourings of the Holy Ghost they have experienced, the closeness with Him that they used to have, the way the church used to be like; and on and one the story goes.
When God moves forward, He expects His people to move forward as well. When God says keep marching, the Church of Jesus Christ had better get in step! It is the only way we are going to survive. Obedience to the moving and timing of God means more than most have ever understood. But hear me, and hear me clearly, it means everything to learn this valuable lesson – God not only commands us to move, He expects us to move! And if we don't, then guess whose fault it is? Ours!
Moving exemplifies life. Have you ever seen a pond that has a greenish, yucky substance all over the top of the water? If you have, do you know what causes that? It is because that pond does not have a “flow” to it – it has become stagnant, not moving. The purest water on this planet is found in streams that are constantly moving, constantly flowing. So, the question that I must ask is this – do you want to be a Christian who has that yucky, greenish substance all over your life because you are stagnant, living on just a past experience with God? Or, a Christian that knows how to move and flow in the Holy Spirit in the “fresh” spiritual times and seasons?
In Daniel 2:21, the Bible says that God “changeth the times and seasons.” We must become mature enough in the Spirit so that when God does change the times and seasons that we have become accustomed to, that we do not get angry or upset at God for changing things up on us. We must get to the place where we can see the hand of God moving and move with what He is doing, not against it.
We, ourselves, cannot change times and seasons, only God can. We cannot even re-arrange them. Only God can do that. And when we learn to understand that, then we are on our way to understanding spiritual timing.