Dry Periods of Our Soul

We all have what I call our lambs: some person, relationship, or event that God was willing to sacrifice for our growth. We don't know most spiritual truth without our lambs. Some wayward child, some ruined marriage, some bad child-parent relationship — these are your lambs. I don't excuse the sin involved in some of those things. But I'll tell you, if God's the only One in your life, and if He's the author of all your events, then you finally have to say, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Through that circumstance I came to know You, and knowing You is life. It hurt, but I know You."

God replies, "It hurt Me to know you, too. It hurt Me to be able to get inside your skin and live there. You might have been abused, neglected, mocked, or treated unjustly, but I died to get inside your skin and be joined to you." What a God.

Sometimes our lamb can be the loss of a loved one. I took my wife Barbara's death right to the feet of the Father. I said the same thing I heard a precious woman say after I had preached the funeral for her 17-year-old son, who had died in an automobile wreck. As I preached my last word, she came to her feet and declared, "My boy lived every day he was supposed to live." Did knowing that immediately erase a mother's sorrow? Of course not. But she spoke the truth.

After Barbara died, I could say, "My Barbara lived every day she was supposed to live. She lived it gloriously. She lived it beautifully. She lived it simply. She lived it in faith. She was one of the purest souls I ever knew."

I don't care what your hurt is; you take it to the Father and you lay it right there. He will give you rest for your soul. I live in my spirit, and when I decide I want to grieve a little while, I'll drop down to my soul. I'll miss Barbara. I'll thank God for her. I'll wish she were here. I'll wish we could lie in bed and hug each other. I'll wish we could go out and eat together. When I have enjoyed that a while, I return to my spirit. And I say, "God, all things are of you. I enjoyed that little party. My soul appreciated that. But I'm a spiritual being. And everything is all right."

Dry periods of our soul become oases for other people. God takes us through those dry periods, then He uses them in other people's lives. We work on our testimony during our dry times. Later on, when we tell others about our dry times and how God brought us through them, people receive the life within us. That's where they plug in to us. They don't plug into our self-righteousness. Nobody can relate to that. That puts people under, especially suffering people. Self-righteousness, "holiness" attained through self-effort, isn't the life. But when you can tell people about your time in the back side of the desert and God's faithfulness, the true life flows out through you.

All of us will probably have more desert times. I don't like them. But when we experience such times, we can see that they are going to serve the same purpose in our life that they have in the past.

People often tell me that they can look back and see how God was in a past circumstance, but they're having trouble seeing Him in their current one. I respond, "Wait a minute. Isn't the same God that you just confessed brought you through all that garbage to get you here, isn't He the same One that's going to be around tomorrow and the next day? Yes! Well then, if He was in charge of the past, isn't He in charge of the present?"

They have to agree. Then they can say, "God, You were in that desert place, that hurt, that heartache, and You used all of it to bring me here. Surely I've got to expect that You are going to take me through this desert and future deserts. Because You are never going to cease preparing me to identify with others." Jesus endured suffering so that He could identify with us (Hebrews2). God will do the same with us. We are for others. We need to know that God is in us for others.

When you begin to walk in oneness with God, you are no longer separating good and evil as it comes to you. Periodically you may be caught up in that, but the general tone of your life is that you no longer see that way. The experiences of your life are God experiences. The situations of your life are God situations. You see with a single eye. You see our sovereign Lover in all of your life circumstances, no matter how they appear on the outside. And in the depths of your being you respond to His love, because you are one with Him.

- Dan Stone (The Rest of the Gospel)