I want just to simply name the spiritual seasons, so we can locate ourselves. The way this was taught to me is unique, but the basics are an eternal pattern of growth. I see spiritual development as stages of knowing different parts of Christ. First, Christ as Deliverer; then as Teacher/ Rabbi; then as Son/ King. This final stage moves more and more into The Fatherhood of God.

The first season has to do with birthing. We are born out from under slavery, so that this first season is about knowing Jesus as Deliverer. As blind slaves, God knew us, but we did not know Him. When we are liberated by whatever means we came to know Christ, we first encounter Him as a deliverer or liberator. This is a very dependent moment in our journey, which is modeled by Moses coming into Egypt to free those in slavery under some form of oppression. This is the early church.

The second phase of spiritual development, seen in the wilderness and the Medieval Church is receiving the law or teachings of God. God must rebuild our foundations, to do this, we must be in some sort of wilderness or place in between where we were slaves, and where we are going–our promised land. This in-between space is a place of knowing Christ as The Teacher–giver of the law or ways of God. The knowledge of God enters us, and we begin to know His ways. This is many ways is all preparation for inheriting the promised land.

Here, in this third phase–i might call it the Galatians 4:1 phase, we come to see Jesus as King over the land–as Lord. And we start to experience our own kingship or lordship with Him. But also we start to know Him as the true Son who is given His Inheritance. We come to know His Rulership, and Power, Majesty and Might. This third phase is about occupying, possesing and cultivating our inheritance–the pleasant lines of our inheritances! This is the phase that some of the current church is just now entering. It is a time of retrieving the treasures and bounty unto The Son, and it is the time of knowing Him in His Labour and Suffering, as well as His Glory.

We are each meant to occupy our own uniquely shaped “lands” on earth. And it is His enjoyment when we press on into His Life so that we begin to allow His Kingdom to come in the dimensions of our particular domains! This is part of truly moving into our individual and collective callings as followers of Christ, and participators in the Divine Nature (as Peter put it)! But there is also a process of maturation into Him, for growth is an aspect of who God is–God makes things which mature and grow and reproduce. Our goal is to be fully in the season of growth He is leading us into! If we are not growing, we are not in the Living God!

These three stages are just broad strokes on a much more subtly painted canvas, but they offer a general map of spiritual development in terms of the unique parts of Christ we are getting to enter and know, and then reflect out onto the earth. Knowing what stage we are in, and also where we will be going helps keep hope alive, but also tells us which food to be eating in our hour!