Of Time and a Season

[HKHaugan]

Of Time and a Season Part 1

 “Would you like to “turn back the hands of time?” Hold on. What is time and its hands? First of all, time is a concept. Concepts are invisible. If there are hands, they are figurative. It’s us who give them ‘life’ by believing that ‘the hands of time’ exist and have some ethereal power to guide us. Time machines and time travel, time fascination and treating time as a living reality are fantasies just like “the hands of time.” The past is irretrievable and dwelling on it is a major distraction, wishful thinking and idle speculation. Nostalgia and the ‘way things used to be’ take us away from reality. Reality for us is our relationship with God and our calling within it. We’re on a mission. It’s looking forward in faith to what God can do through us in every next event in which we find ourselves. The future is where it belongs, in the hands of God. He presents the future, our every next moment, as an opportunity to experience Him and His will.

 That leads us into to a second conclusion. If we accept the concept of time in the context of faith, then time is a practical concept we can use to prepare for the events the Lord leads us into. When Jesus uses the word ‘time’ it’s because He owns time, sets time and is Master over time. When He says ‘my time’ has not yet come it means something is going to happen to change the meaning of time as people knew it. He is talking about a new kind of time, spiritual time, God’s time. The old time will still be around but redeemed to experience spiritual time.

 The Cross is the introduction to the new time which was really there from eternity. The Cross redefined time. The time He mentioned to Mary in the miracle of water to wine (“my time has not yet come”) was spiritual time, the event of the Cross. The new time began with a series of spiritual events, the Resurrection, His Resurrection appearances, His Ascension into Heaven and then His sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to bring Jesus into the hearts of those who would accept Him personally. All the events of the Old Testament have spiritual meaning thus were spiritually timed.

 The Holy Spirit is the Lord’s timekeeper and time dispenser. And for us, He is our time Counselor as we approach every next event in our lives here on earth. Again, it comes down to the choices we have when we come into those next events. The event may be a threat, a need, someone who requires help, a family situation, a relational issue, a decision, any problem, whatever the next moment holds and demands. We are talking about spiritual time. All these things belong to God and how we handle them depends on how we let the Lord lead us with His Spirit.

 Remember when Jesus told His disciples “the right time for me has not yet come but for you any time is right (Jn.7:6)?” The word for time in Greek is Kairos, God’s time, spiritual time. He is telling them ahead of time that He will bring spiritual time to light on the Cross. The choice and decision to go to the Cross was His time. After that, time for the disciples would always be Kairos time. Everything would be done as they began thinking in God’s time, spiritual time. Everything would be read spiritually. Every person they met would be spiritually related to. Every event in their lives should, could and would be read spiritually and then responded to spiritually. Thus, when Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit, he is teaching us to see ourselves as spiritual beings using our physical bodies as spiritual vehicles, the Body of Christ. People’s moments take place in God’s seasons.

 So, time happens in seasons. It’s this second dimension of time Jesus reveals. That’s next.