Sept 18 | Why God Invented Winter (And It's Not What You Think): Understanding the Hidden Power of Spiritual Seasons
The Tree Jesus Killed
You ever notice that Jesus never healed a tree? He cursed one. Killed it. Right there in front of his disciples. And here's what nobody talks about—it was the wrong season for figs. Jesus killed a tree for not producing fruit out of season.
That should bother you. Because if God cares about seasons that much, maybe we've been missing something massive about how spiritual growth actually works.
In our always-on, constantly productive culture, we've lost touch with one of God's most fundamental designs: seasons. We treat our spiritual lives like they should be in perpetual summer—always growing, always producing, always flourishing. But what if that's not just unrealistic? What if it's actually unbiblical?
The Ancient Understanding of Seasons That We've Lost
When the Bible was written, everybody understood seasons in a way we simply don't anymore. We check weather apps and complain about allergies. They lived or died by seasons. Plant too early? Your family starves. Harvest too late? Everything rots.
So when Paul writes to the Galatians about the fruit of the Spirit, or when Jesus talks about pruning in John 15, these aren't cute metaphors. This is survival language. The original hearers of these words understood something profound that we miss: spiritual growth follows patterns just like agricultural growth.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us "to everything there is a season." We've turned that into a Hallmark card, but it's actually ancient wisdom saying: Stop fighting the rhythm God built into creation. There's a time to plant and a time to uproot. A time to tear down and a time to build. A time to mourn and a time to dance.
The Cultural Pressure Against Spiritual Seasons
Our modern world hates this idea. We live in a culture of constant growth, endless productivity, and perpetual optimization. If you're not crushing it, you're falling behind. Every day should be your best day. Every moment should be maximized.
And tragically, we drag this same mentality into our faith. We ask ourselves: Why am I not growing? Why don't I feel God? What's wrong with me? Am I not praying enough? Not reading the Bible enough? Not serving enough?
But here's the revolutionary truth: Winter isn't punishment. It's preparation.
Understanding Your Spiritual Winter
I spent years feeling guilty about spiritual winters. Those seasons where prayer felt like talking to the ceiling. Where reading the Bible was like chewing cardboard. I thought I was failing. I thought God was disappointed in me. I thought everyone else was experiencing constant spiritual highs while I was stuck in the valleys.
But then I discovered what Jesus says in John 12:24: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
Death. Dormancy. Darkness. These aren't failures in God's economy. They're prerequisites for resurrection.
What's Really Happening During Winter
Think about what happens to a tree in winter. It looks dead, doesn't it? The leaves are gone. The branches are bare. There's no fruit, no flowers, no visible signs of life. If you didn't know better, you'd think the tree was dying.
But underground—where nobody can see—something incredible is happening. The roots are going deeper. The tree is storing energy. It's consolidating resources. It's preparing for explosive growth that can only happen because of the dormancy.
Scientists have discovered that trees actually need a certain number of "chill hours"—hours below a specific temperature—to properly fruit the next season. Without enough winter, the tree becomes confused, produces weak fruit, or sometimes stops producing altogether.
Could it be that our souls work the same way?
Biblical Patterns of Spiritual Seasons
This pattern of seasons, of death and resurrection, of winter and spring, is everywhere in Scripture once you start looking for it.
Joseph's Winter
Joseph spent years in prison before becoming second in command of Egypt. Was God absent during those prison years? Was Joseph failing spiritually? No. God was preparing him for a role that would save nations. The prison wasn't a detour from God's plan—it was the plan.
Moses's Desert Season
Moses spent forty years in the desert tending sheep before God called him to lead Israel. Forty years! That's not a brief winter—that's an ice age. But those decades of obscurity, of seeming purposelessness, were shaping him for the enormous task ahead.
Paul's Imprisonments
Paul gets shipwrecked and calls it ministry. He gets imprisoned and writes half the New Testament. What looked like winter was actually God preparing the spring. Some of the most powerful, encouraging, theological rich letters we have came from a man in chains, in the dead of winter of his circumstances.
Jesus's Hidden Years
Even Jesus himself experienced this pattern. Thirty years of hiddenness before three years of ministry. The Son of God, the Savior of the world, spent 90% of his earthly life in obscurity. If Jesus needed preparation seasons, why do we think we don't?
The Fig Tree Incident: A Deeper Look
Now, let's return to that fig tree Jesus cursed. Mark tells us something crucial: "It was not the season for figs." At first glance, this makes Jesus look unreasonable. Why curse a tree for not producing fruit out of season?
But Jesus wasn't being unreasonable. He was making a profound point to Israel's religious leaders. They were demanding constant fruit from people while providing no nourishment. They didn't understand seasons. They didn't allow for rest, for restoration, for preparation. They just demanded production.
The Pharisees had created a religious system that was always harvest, never planting. Always reaping, never sowing. Always demanding, never nurturing. And Jesus was showing them the result: a dead tree.
Modern Religious Pressure
Don't we do the same thing today? We create spiritual environments where winter is seen as failure. Where rest is laziness. Where not constantly producing spiritual fruit means you're backsliding.
But God never designed us to live in perpetual summer. Even He rested on the seventh day—not because He was tired, but to establish rhythm, to demonstrate that rest is holy, that dormancy is divine.
Recognizing Your Current Season
So how do you know what spiritual season you're in? Here are some signs:
Signs of Spiritual Winter
Prayer feels dry or routine
Scripture reading seems lifeless
You don't feel God's presence as clearly
Old spiritual practices don't work like they used to
You feel spiritually tired or empty
You're questioning things you once knew for certain
Signs of Spiritual Spring
New insights and revelations
Fresh energy for spiritual disciplines
Renewed hope and vision
Desire to try new forms of worship or service
Feeling of coming alive again
Rapid spiritual growth after a dormant period
Signs of Spiritual Summer
Abundant fruit in ministry
Clear sense of God's presence
Energy to serve others
Spiritual practices feel natural and life-giving
Seeing prayers answered
Others are blessed through your life
Signs of Spiritual Autumn
Sensing certain things need to end
Feeling led to let go of old patterns
Natural conclusion to ministries or relationships
Preparation for change
Harvest of previous seasons' work
Bittersweet mixture of gratitude and grief
Practical Application: Living According to Your Season
Instead of fighting your current season, what if you leaned into it? Here's how:
If You're in Winter:
Rest without guilt. This is your time to go deep instead of wide. Focus on roots, not fruit. Read contemplative writers. Practice silence. Journal. Don't force productivity. Trust that God is working underground, in the hidden places of your soul.
Remember: farmers know that soil that never rests becomes depleted. It dies. It becomes useless. Your soul needs fallow seasons too.
If You're in Spring:
Grow boldly. Take risks. Try new spiritual practices. Join that small group. Start that ministry. Say yes to opportunities. This is your season of rapid growth—don't hold back out of fear. Spring doesn't last forever, so make the most of it.
If You're in Summer:
Produce fruit generously. Serve others. Share what God has given you. This is your time of abundance, so be abundant in giving. Mentor someone. Lead something. Use your gifts fully. Summer is when others are fed from your life.
If You're in Autumn:
Let go gracefully. Release what needs to die. Some things in your spiritual life have served their purpose and it's time to let them fall away. This isn't failure—it's maturity. Even Jesus said that every branch that bears fruit must be pruned so it can bear more fruit.
The Promise of Returning Seasons
Here's what gives me hope during spiritual winters: Spring always comes. Always. That's not optimism. That's not positive thinking. That's creation's promise, written into the very fabric of the universe by God himself.
The same God who makes sure spring follows winter in nature ensures that spiritual springs follow spiritual winters. He's not absent during your winter—He's preparing your spring.
Winter as Grace
Maybe God knows something about growth that our always-productive culture has forgotten. Maybe rest isn't weakness. Maybe dormancy isn't death. Maybe winter isn't punishment.
Maybe winter is grace.
The next time you find yourself in a spiritual winter, remember: this isn't a detour from your spiritual journey—it's part of it. This isn't God's absence—it's His patience. This isn't failure—it's preparation.
Your winter is preparing you for a spring you can't even imagine yet. The deeper the winter, the more explosive the spring. The longer the dormancy, the more abundant the eventual fruit.
So stop apologizing for needing winter. Stop feeling guilty about seasons of rest. Stop comparing your winter to someone else's summer. Trust the God who invented seasons. Trust the process He built into creation itself.
Because here's the truth that changes everything: God didn't invent winter to punish us. He invented it to prepare us for the glory of spring.
An Invitation to go Deeper….
If today’s message spoke to you, join the FaithLabz 30-Day Prayer Challenge and strengthen your connection with God’s unshakable love. You are never alone—let’s grow together!
