Understanding the Spiritual Seasons
Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash
Earlier this year, a friend told me her whole life felt like it was shifting, and she couldn’t understand why. I didn’t recognize it then, but God was already shaping an answer.
She explained that friendships, routines, and even things she once enjoyed suddenly felt heavy and unfamiliar.
To her, it seemed like God was removing good things, and none of it made sense.
She was genuinely seeking the Lord, spending time in His Word, serving faithfully, and actually felt closer to Him than she had in a long time.
So why did everything feel tense and unsettled?
I didn’t have an answer at that moment. I simply listened, sympathized, and told her I would be praying for her, because I genuinely didn’t want to offer anything shallow or forced.
A few days later, I was in the book of John and came across the paragraph about pruning.
It was a passage I had read countless times before, but this time the words practically leapt off the page.
As soon as I read them, her face came to mind. I felt the Lord gently connecting things for me.
What she was experiencing wasn’t punishment or distance.
It was pruning — the kind Jesus describes, where God trims healthy branches so they can bear more fruit.
I reached out to her and said, “I think you’re in a pruning season. Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t fight what the Lord is trimming. Let Him do it, because He’s preparing you for more fruit.”
That conversation turned out to be the beginning of something I didn’t expect.
It made me wonder how many of us walk through painful, confusing, or uncomfortable seasons without realizing that God might be doing a purposeful work in us.
Why Spiritual Seasons Matter
The more I studied, the more I began to see the same patterns throughout Scripture. God works in seasons far more often than we realize.
The Israelites had wilderness seasons.
David had years of refining.
Paul had quiet, hidden seasons of rooting before ministry ever began.
Jesus spoke constantly about sowing, reaping, abiding, pruning, and bearing fruit.
I began to understand that the Christian walk isn’t meant to feel the same all the time.
The problem is rarely the season we’re in. The problem is that we expect ourselves to thrive in every season in the same way.
When we don’t recognize the season, we often misinterpret what God is doing.
If you’re in a pruning season but expecting the ease of harvest, everything will feel discouraging.
If you’re in the wilderness but expecting the refreshment of renewal, you’ll assume something is wrong.
If you’re in planting or rooting but expecting immediate fruit, you’ll question your calling.
It’s not that God isn’t moving.
It’s that His movement looks different in each season. And sometimes, simply naming the season brings clarity you didn’t realize you needed.
The Wilderness Story That Changed Everything
After I shared my post about the wilderness season, I received an email from a woman who had been walking through a long stretch of spiritual dryness.
She told me she had been convinced that God was disappointed with her. Her prayers felt flat. Her joy felt far away. Everything seemed harder than it used to be, and she couldn’t understand why.
She described it as feeling like she had somehow lost God’s presence without knowing what she had done wrong.
But when she read the post, something shifted.
She realized she wasn’t abandoned — she was in a wilderness season.
She said that the encouragement to “not miss the manna” opened her eyes. She began to notice the small ways God was still providing for her, even in the dryness.
Her message stayed with me. It reminded me that when we misread our season, we often misread God’s heart.
What feels like distance can actually be God leading us day by day.
What feels like loss can be God making room.
What feels like silence can be God strengthening our faith.
What feels like delay can be preparation.
Understanding your season doesn’t remove the difficulty, but it does remove the confusion. It helps you see God’s presence where you once assumed He wasn’t working.
A Simple Overview of the Spiritual Seasons
Here is a quick look at the seven spiritual seasons I kept encountering as I studied and prayed:
Pruning — God removes what is no longer fruitful or what will hinder future growth.
Refining — He purifies motives, attitudes, and desires through pressure or testing.
Wilderness — He teaches trust, dependence, and faith in quiet, dry seasons.
Planting — He begins something new, often in small or unseen ways.
Harvest — He brings breakthrough, answers, and fruit from previous seasons.
Renewal — He restores your strength, joy, and clarity.
Rooting — He deepens your foundation before sending you into something new.
These aren’t rigid boxes meant to define you. Seasons can overlap, blend, or shift over time. God may be doing one kind of work in your heart while doing something completely different in another area of your life.
These categories are simply guides — gentle language to help you understand what your spirit may already be sensing.
The most important part is this:
Always seek the Holy Spirit.
Ask Him to open your eyes and show you what obedience looks like in your season. He knows exactly what He’s forming in you, and He leads each of us uniquely.
Encouragement for Your Season
If you’re unsure what season you’re in right now, take a breath and remember this:
You’re not behind.
You’re not invisible.
You’re not being punished.
God works intentionally, and He knows how to lead you step by step.
Understanding your season simply helps you walk with Him rather than push against Him. It enables you to recognize His hand where you once only saw confusion. And it brings peace, because you begin to trust that He is preparing you, growing you, and forming something meaningful within you.
If you want to explore these seasons more deeply, you can visit the Spiritual Seasons page linked below, where you can find a deeper dive into each season.
My prayer is that wherever you are today, you feel seen, encouraged, and gently led by the One who loves you most.
Visit the Spiritual Seasons Page for devotionals, prayers, and deeper study.
