The Dark Night of the Soul

There is something that happens during the wilderness experience that is almost indescribable to someone unless they are either in it, or have been through it. Many in the prophetic community have identified it as "The dark night of the soul" experience. It is a time where you may feel as though God has left you, and all of hell has come to have dinner and nachos with you. It can be a very dark and scary time that you wonder if you will survive at all, or go down to the depths of the netherworld in flames. The length of time this period lasts is completely dependent on the amount you either surrender to, or fight the process.

The dark night of the soul, is a time where all of the sudden everything seems to be going every way but yours, you get stripped of everything, and cut down to only survival rations. Everyone around you seems to be misunderstanding you, or bringing up every evil thing you ever did, and making you look, and feel pretty bad. It is a time when your choices end, and God allows every negative thing about you to be placed clearly into yours and everyone else’s view whether you like it or not. It can be a time where you may despair of life itself, and death starts looking pretty good. It is a time when your soul and all that is of "self" get puts to death, and boy does it hurt.

During this time, you may feel like Jonah stuck in the big fish with nothing to do except to contemplate your mistakes and powerlessness over your situation. You may feel like Joseph stuck deep inside Pharaohs dungeon, feeling very trapped and wrongly accused, and saying "Why God, why?" Or you may feel like David after his sin and failure with Bathsheba was exposed, and everyone knows about it, and is waiting for you with their rocks of judgment and condemnation to stone you dead. Like Job, you may have all kinds of people trying to tell you what you should do, or how and why you got yourself into your bad situation. But no matter what happens, there is someone who knows what is happening, and that someone is God.

God has only placed you in this position to heal, purify, and prepare you, so that you can be given much to help the many. He's not doing this to be mean or cruel as Satan has accused him of. He is only doing this so that when your time of blessing and empowerment comes, that it doesn't lead to yours, or other peoples harm or ruin. He does this to purify your motives for serving Him and for serving others. He does this, so that you will have genuine compassion for those who are struggling with their faults, character defects, and sin-habits, and so that you will no longer wrongfully or arrogantly judge them. He does this to show you that it is by His grace and His strength alone, that any good comes out of you, and not by your own greatness.

You will get through this dark, difficult time my friend, and the very areas you seem to be so denied in right now (finances, health, ministry, relationships...) will be the very areas that you will be super-blessed in later on. You will be free of your fear of man, and the need for everyone’s approval. Your faith will rest in God alone, and not on anything that ever happens or doesn't happen in your life. There will be an end to this scary time, and believe it or not, you may actually miss this time of death to your soul. You have asked God for His best, and this is the road to it. Be of courage dear fellow soldier, God will not abandon you and your dawn will eventually come.