Understanding the Times and Seasons of the Lord – Part 2

There are two words the Greeks use for time and this is reflected in the New Testament:

Chronos – (used 54 times) refers to a specific amount of time, such as a day or an hour (e.g. Acts 13:18 and 27:9).

Kairos – (used 86 times in the New Testament) refers to an opportune time, a “moment” or a “season” such as “harvest time”

In many Scriptures they are used together and some they are not.

Matthew 16:1-4 NKJV Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. (2) He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; (3) and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. (4) A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

The Lord is wanting His body to be spiritually attuned enough to be able to discern and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit for the Kairos that God brings into our lives.

Ephesians 5:15-17 NKJV See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, (16) redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (17) Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-17 AMPC Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), (16) Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. (17) Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.

Unwise – NT:878

aphron (af’-rone); from NT:1 (as a negative particle) and NT:5424; properly, mindless, i.e. stupid, (by implication) ignorant, (specially) egotistic, (practically) rash, or (morally) unbelieving:

Understand – to make logical sense of in order to comprehend

Colossians 1:9-10 NKJV For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; (10) that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Colossians 1:9-10 AMPC  For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things–  (10)  That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition].

God is saying that He wants us to fully understand what His will is for our lives, clearly and specifically.

It is possible for us to know what He wants for our lives, what He desires for us and what pleases Him.

Ephesians 1:7-9 NKJV In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (8) which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, (9) having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

I do not believe that God desires for us to have to seek after the knowledge of His will like an Easter egg hunt where we waste so much time trying to figure out what it is but rather just walking in it.

Man is the only being in God’s creation that is designed to live out of two realms: the spiritual realm and the natural realm. (Somewhere in the middle is the mental arena.

We have the privilege to move in the realm of the spirit with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. At the same time, we are to navigate this natural world in which we live as spirit beings.

No one did this better than the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry.

1. Man is an eternal spirit.

He is created in the image of God. God is a spirit being.

John 4:24 NKJV God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Genesis 1:26 NKJV Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Image – a likeness, a model, or a shadow. (Like figures in a wax museum.)

Man will live eternally whether he is Born Again or not.

If man was only a physical being, he could not receive God’s nature.

If man was but a mental being, he could not receive God’s nature.

Man had to be a spirit being, an eternal being who would live as God lives to receive His nature. Man had to be in God’s class.

2. Your physical senses were given to you to allow you to contact this natural world.
3. Your mental and reasoning faculties were given to you so that you might use the knowledge that your senses reveal to your brain.

1 Corinthians 2:9-16 NKJV (9) But as it is written: “EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” (10) But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (11) For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (12) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. (13) These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (14) But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (15) But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. (16) For “WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM?” But we have the mind of Christ.

3. The Holy Spirit was given to us to guide us into all truth or reality.

John 16:13 NKJV However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

He finds it a very difficult thing to lead our reasoning faculties, but it is the normal and natural thing for Him to lead our spirits.

4. Living by faith is a spiritual thing because faith is of the spirit.

Romans 10:10 NKJV For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

5. Walking in the love of God is a spiritual thing because the love of God was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

You will never be able to walk in love towards people out of your head or your flesh. It must come out of your spirit. (Romans 5:5)

6. When man fell, he became a partaker of Satan’s nature in his spirit. His spirit died.

Man, in his fallen state, was doomed to be dominated by his senses because there was no life in his spirit.

Romans 5:12 NKJV Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:19-21 NKJV For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (20) Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, (21) so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

7. Jesus had to break into this sense knowledge realm to introduce the Father to sense knowledge man.
8. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV (23) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Man is a spirit, and he has a soul. The soul is composed of your reasoning faculties. You live in a physical body. The physical body possesses the five senses, and these are the educators and teachers of the brain.

The brain is severely limited without the physical senses.

Imagine someone as gifted as Helen Keller was with just her sense of touch and sense of smell. Now imagine how limited she would be without her sense of touch and smell.

9. In the New Birth, man’s spirit is recreated and what was once one with the devil his nature, is now one with God and His nature.

• Your body enables you to contact physical things.
• Your reasoning faculties contact mental things.
• Your spirit contacts spiritual things.

The will of God for us can be divided into two categories:

1. The general will of God that is made known unto us by His Word.

The Bible is filled with things that God tells us in His Word that are His will, His desire for our lives:

It is the will of God that we be saved, healed, delivered, and blessed.

1. 1. 1. It is the will of God for all men to be saved.

2 Peter 3:9 NKJV The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

1. 1. 2. It is the will of God for men to be healed.

John 8:29 NKJV And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”

Acts 10:38 NKJV how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.

1. 1. 3. It is the will of God for you to prosper and increase so that you can be a greater blessing.

Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”), (14) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

2 Corinthians 8:9 NKJV For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

1. 1. 4. It is the will of God for you to have peace and live free from worry and anxiety.

Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 53:5 NKJV But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

1. 1. 5. It is the will of God that we have love and peace in our homes and families.

The scripture is full of verses that tell us to love one another, be kind one to another.

Ephesians 4:32 NKJV And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

1. 1. 6. Though we all encounter tough times, and pressures in life, it is the will of God that we win and overcome every time.

2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV (14) Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

Romans 8:35-39 NKJV Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (36) As it is written: “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL DAY LONG; WE ARE ACCOUNTED AS SHEEP FOR THE SLAUGHTER.” (37) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (38) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, (39) nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2. The specific will of God for our individual lives – where do we live, where do we work, who am I supposed to marry?

Some of these questions are narrowed for us with the word of God.

1. 1. We are told in the Bible that we should work and provide for our families.

1 Timothy 5:7-8 NKJV And these things command, that they may be blameless. (8) But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1. 2. We are told to not marry an unbeliever or someone that does not believe as we do.

2 Corinthians 6:14 NKJV (14) Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

1. 3. We should pursue the spiritual interests for our family and then find a job that fits accordingly.

Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. (25) And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.

But even with this kind of help, there are going to be things that we will not be able to find in the Bible about our lives, yet God desires for us to know these things as much as we know the Word of God.

Colossians 1:9-10 AMPC  For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things–  (10)  That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition].

In the things that God has not given us direction for in His Word, He wants us to be led by His Spirit in our spirits.

We must recognize that God is interested in all of the intimate details of our lives, not just the big things.

Luke 12:7 NKJV But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Psalms 121:8 NIV  the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.