New Time, New Tools

Isaiah 2:4 describes a time in which “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” As I read this, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “As the Kingdom of God advances in this season; it is more focused on HARVEST than DEFENSE”. 

In this season, God is calling us to change our swords to plowshares and spears to pruning hooks. But what does that mean for us practically?

It is a shift from defense to taking ground. We all encounter seasons of warfare or seasons where we are called to hold our ground and battle for the things of God. When a battle in the natural shifts from defense to taking ground to cultivating ground, it does not mean we cease to hold on to the ground we’ve taken. Instead, it means that there has been a shift in the battle which no longer requires us to be on the defensive. We can instead shift our focus to growing the ground for the Kingdom of God to occupy. That means mindsets from old woundings or rhythms we adopted in times of warfare may no longer serve us. They may serve to keep us right where we are, but they cannot fuel the expansion God has planned. This season transitions us out of survival mode and into dreaming mode. 

It is a shift to a new time with new tools. Barnes’s Notes on the Bible comments that the design of ancient plowshares and pruning hooks would have allowed for an easy conversion. It states that they could “with very little trouble, be converted into that deadly weapon; and when the work of destruction is over, reduced again to its former shape, and applied to the purposes of agriculture”. Two things were highlighted to me in light of this truth. First, that God has already given us the tools we need, but they may need to be converted. As this shift happens, resist the temptation to feel under-equipped or like you are waiting on the Lord to give you the right tools. Instead, seek Him on how the current “tools” you have are able to be repurposed for this season. Because by this scripture, He provides the tools, but it takes our agreement and action to participate in their conversion. 

Second, this shift is very seasonal and not eternal. Joel 3:10 reads the opposite, saying, “Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Train even your weaklings to be warriors.” This tells us there are times and seasons where we will need to be battle-minded and times and seasons where we will need to be building-minded. To know which is which, we must seek the Lord. 

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It is also a time to be flexible. My mind is called to the construction of BIG things (because God is building big things in this season). Large bridges, skyscrapers, and many other structures necessitate the materials to have a little flex and be able to move slightly. The flexibility actually prevents them from structural damage. We need more flexibility in this time because of the massive scale the Lord is building on. We need to let the Lord use our tools flexibly (to turn our swords into plowshares). We need to approach our assignments with flexibility (let the Lord prune off limiting beliefs or systematic thinking that doesn’t serve this season). We also must be flexible in our expectations of what God is growing. 

Recently I was watching our kids play in the backyard when something caught my eye. The tiny plum tree that we just planted two years ago had its first fruit! Typically, fruit trees need another to cross-pollinate with, and the second tree we had gotten with it didn’t make it. In addition to that, trees usually don’t fruit for the first several years, so we hadn’t even been looking for fruit. That unexpected plum had the sweetest taste we’d ever tried, but I had to look in unlikely places. Similarly, I had a dream a few nights following. I had a small bowl of dirt and had planted seeds to grow in it. While I had been expecting to see a plant, instead caterpillars began popping out of the dirt almost instantly. First one, then two, and then other caterpillars began coming out of those caterpillars. They kept coming until I had an abundance. In my dream, I felt overjoyed and surprised, and I remember telling someone, “These will change into butterflies!” You will plant one thing and reap transformation. It was not what I expected to grow, but better and in abundance!

We are in a time of building big things and harvesting big things. It’s not an accident that this verse uses the illustration of a pruning hook for this shift. Pruning hooks are used when something large (out of reach even) needs to be pruned or harvested. There is a LOT of it, or it has grown to a large size to necessitate a pruning hook. Be encouraged! Though it may be uncomfortable and unexpected, what God is doing is big and out of our normal reach. 

Finally, it’s a time of not being wishy-washy. While in the ancient world converting these tools back and forth was possible, it was not instant. You couldn’t focus on harvesting when, in a moment's notice, you would have to be back in the battle. It’s a time to “put a hand to the plow and not look back”. The sword served you for a season, and you’ve come out a conqueror, but now it’s time to take the plow. Cultivating the ground can only happen after conquering, so our battle seasons have been necessary, but if you’re forever conquering, nothing is cultivated. Take the invitation of the Lord to shift your eyes from the battle to the building- from hostilities to the harvest. 

Ask the Lord- 

What area of my life am I coming at with a sword when I should be bringing gardening tools?

What pieces are you repurposing in this season?

What areas do you need me to be flexible?