Have you ever been in a place where you felt so dry, or where you have struggled so much with your faith that you felt like giving up? Though such seasons and struggles often can stem from desperate financial or health situations, sometimes they can be spiritual. Nevertheless, our greatest struggles and driest seasons often happen right before God’s breakthrough reveals itself.
I know this to be true from my own experience as I remember the crisis of faith I had when I was a young believer, and the powerful visitation of God not long after that brought peace and comfort into my mind and soul. I have also seen how powerfully God worked in my friends’ lives. Recently, my friend Cyndi Yong shared with me her Elijah experience, and her breakthrough also came not long after one of the lowest moments in her life.
Last Sunday, well-known itinerant preacher and teacher Rev Dr. Stanley Lim shared in Glad Tidings PJ a message of encouragement that is very closely related to this area of the Christian journey, and I believe that nothing is coincidental in God’s timeline. His message provided an insight into how people grow and what is happening in the spiritual part of their being during times such as these. Rev Stanley’s message is also based on the well-known passage about Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1-17.
For the full text of 1 Kings 17:1-17, please refer to https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+17%3A+1-17&version=NIV
At the time, the nation of Israel was under the rulership of a cruel and wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Due to its wickedness, God had pronounced a drought on the land through his prophet Elijah. Because Elijah had the boldness to speak out against the king, he was now on the run. With nowhere to go and nothing to sustain him, it seemed the end of the road for Elijah. Yet it was here that God showed His presence and providence mightily. The knowledge that God was beside him kept Elijah strong and helped him be one of the greatest prophets Israel had ever known. What can we learn from this period of Elijah’s life?
Rev Stanley pointed out several noteworthy circumstances in this passage. God had placed Elijah in total obscurity (v3). Elijah was removed from all people. The original Hebrew word means to “hide” or to be absent on purpose. ‘In other words, God hid him on purpose,’ Rev Stanley explained. Many of us have felt isolated and lost in the last two years because the pandemic had taken us out of our routine. A lot of us were scared as well. ‘But this pandemic did something good for us; a lot of us found time to read the Bible.’
Rev Stanley shared that in 2020 he and his wife read through the whole Bible twice, every morning 10-15 chapters, and they read it aloud. ‘Have we increased in our prayer life during this period of hiding, have we nourished our souls with God’s word? God is invisible but He is omnipresent. There is a good reason for God hiding us, and God allowing this time of hiding to happen. The shaking is taking place, and things are not going to get better. We need to know where we will stand, to prepare our hearts for the coming of the King.’
Rev Stanley also elucidated that the period of “hiding” has awakened many Christians on the importance of coming together, of belonging with a community of Christ. ‘For the first time, we realise the importance of support, the encouragement of belonging to a community of Christ’s believers.’ During our dry season, matters like these stand out starkly. Though he was in hiding, Elijah was not alone. Unlike Elijah, we now have the opportunity to meet in fellowship and worship again with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and this should never be taken for granted. Without this vital connection with God and our fellow believers, we will all dry up.
This period of “hiding” is also a time where we can learn the lesson of and grow in our authenticity; that is, to learn to make our identities visible to others. When Elijah was in hiding at the Kerith Brook, his only friends were the ravens who brought him food. But it was during this time that he went through the school of the spirit.
‘Every great man will go through the school of the spirit,’ Rev Stanley shared. Jesus Himself went through the school of the spirit right after his baptism. Apostle Paul as well; after his dramatic encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he went into the deserts of Arabia for 3 years. It’s during this period that God works to build authenticity and the real self in the person. It is also during the period of the school of the spirit, when we are alone with God, that He works to build integrity – a process of internalising the image we project to others (being true to ourselves) – in us.
‘I believe in all my heart that when Elijah went through all this, God checked him, God stood with Him, God changed Him, God moulded Him. God is moulding you and me during this time, every moment of our lives,’ Rev Stanley encouraged.
A third aspect God works out in us is our self-expression. God is also helping us to attain self-expression which depends on knowing ourselves. How much do we know ourselves? It is during times like these that our limitations become clear to us. And from this self-awareness comes a period of self-expansion. Many of us learnt new skills during our “time of hiding”. During this time, Elijah developed. He began to sharpen his axe. Elijah was learning and growing to become a powerful man of God.
Throughout this period, God took care of Elijah’s essential needs (v4,6). God is our Jehovah Jireh. He is our provider and He faithfully takes care of our basic needs. He cares for each one of us. God also caused Elijah to totally depend on Him (even the brook dried up: v7). ‘When we come to the end of everything, we know that He is a God that is totally dependable,’ Rev Stanley encouraged. ‘He is a God that will not go back on His word. His promises are yea and amen. He is always good to us. I pray that we will never forget that He is this faithful faithful God that will never let us down.’
Ultimately, what is God saying to us in our dried brook seasons? Firstly, a dried brook season is never a wasted time. New skills are learnt. As we spent time in God’s presence, He begins to speak to us in a very real way. He changes us.
Secondly, God is more concerned about developing our character and maturing us than He is with providing our comfort. As we look back in time on our dried seasons, we realise that they are very often periods of growth where we learn to mature, to be better persons. ‘It all depends on how we look at life, whether we want to be a better person or a bitter person,’ Rev Stanley said. In Isaiah 49 the Israelites mourned that God had forgotten them because they were in exile. And God reminded them that even in the foreign land, He was still with them:
Isaiah 49:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.
What an assurance! In time, God brought the Israelites back to rebuild a new city and kingdom. Be it in our moments of darkness, disappointment, or difficulty, He never abandons us. He has written each of our names on the palm of His hands.
Thirdly, our dried brook seasons are often also times of God’s pleasure, not disappointment in our lives. ‘The Lord wants to look at us and see how we are handling, how much we have matured, how much we have progressed in our Christian walk with Him. Hard times are not there to break us, but to make us so that we can learn to trust and rely on His faithfulness.’
So when we are in our dried brook seasons, remember this:
- That God loves us unconditionally. He continues to extend to us His wonderful grace. We don’t have to earn our rights to be accepted by God. Simply trust in His character of goodness and love. We can come to God just as we are.
- That we can trust in Him completely. He is a faithful God. Heaven and Earth will pass away but His word will never pass away. He will love us to the very end of the age.
- Everything we need in life we can find in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Stay close to Him. Love Him no matter what. Let us press on to know Jesus even more.
Note: This article was written through the lens of impartation the writer has received from Rev Dr. Stanley Lim’s message. It has not been vetted by Rev Stanley or by Glad Tidings PJ. You may access the full sermon at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDJFWrg00n0
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