By Nati de Kock

This series is an extract of Nati’s sermon that she shared on 5 March 2016 at a leadership camp that I attended. It will bring answers to the question that are bothering you about your life, and the difficult experiences that you are going through.

Introduction

The journey to get to the Word that I want to share with you today actually started 2 years ago. It all started when God asked me two questions.

Question One: Will you allow me to make your life a salvation garden? (James 1:24) Salvation means the virtual reality of Christ. It is the mirror image of Christ. So I must mirror Christ, and be virtual.

Together with this came the question, ‘What do people experience when they come into your presence?’ What Fruit come out of you? Is it hopelessness, anxiety, negativity, stress or joy, hope and peace?

Question Two: This question came through a phone call that I received last year. ‘What season are you in?’

So I wanted to share this morning from a different perspective about seasons and my journey. I hope I will bring some answers not about seasons as we know them; autumn, winter, spring and summer, but as in John 15:1-4.

• These are Jesus’ last words. They are important.
• His main purpose or what brings him the biggest joy is for us to be fruitful.

I have been always scared of this scripture because of the word ‘prune.’ I had two aha moments recently;

• The Father is the gardener. He is gentle, kind and patient.
• And the Greek word for prune is ‘’

As you go through your difficult times. Take note that those who saw the fruit in the promised land lived, but those who saw the giants died. What do you see in your situation?

In every season

Ecclesiastes tells us that God is a Go of timing. ‘There is an appointed time for every event under heaven’ – Ecc 3:1.

It is important to understand the timing and season God ordains for our lives, ministries, cities etc. Too often we try to reap during planting season, plant during harvest time and then we  wonder why things don’t work out the way we want.

Last year I received a phone call from Alida, challenging me with the question ‘In which season are you?’ As I seek the answer to this question I got an interesting revelation. This is what I want to share with you and I hope it will bring some understanding to you situation.

I want to come from a different perspective to seasons, not winter, summer etc, but from John 15:1-4. These are Jesus’ last words before the cross, so they must be important because with these words (advice) he gave us the keys to understand what he wants us to do in our lives.

When I was asked the question, ‘In what season are you,’ I realised it actually linked to the challenge that God gave me last year; ‘Will you allow me to make your life a salvation garden?’

Remember salvation means being a mirror image (virtual image) of Christ. The way we mirror Him according to John 15 is to bear fruit.

In my preparation I noticed that God is busy with us in every season. His purpose is that He wants us to bear fruit and he works constantly as the gardener in our lives to achieve this.

In John15:1-4 the word pruning makes it very scary. We got two kinds of fruit the Father (the Gardener) want from us;

• Outward fruit. These are the fruits that work through you to glorify God. I will call these fruits ‘random acts of kindness.’
• Inward fruit. These are the fruit that mature in you Christ like qualities. The fruit of the Spirit; love, peace, patience, etc. They bring Glory to God.

So in John 15 we see three phases (or secrets) that Jesus speaks of about how he works in our lives to achieve fruitfulness.

(This series will continue next time in part two as From Chronos to Kairos Moment)

About Nati de Kock

Nati de Kock is the widow of the late pastor Tertius, who was a senior pastor of Hatfield Christian Church, Pretoria. Together they fought battles with cancer twice. She is a qualified teacher and has travel around the world in several countries including Russia.