Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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Have you ever gone through a dry time where the Bible was so boring and you could not get anything out of it? It was like reading the back of a cereal box. Maybe church was not that good or the praise music did not touch you. You could not hear God talking to you. In fact, you felt like you were going around with cotton in your ears. The Lord allows dry times. There is a reason for them. Sometimes it is your own fault. At least, it has been in my life. Maybe it has been in yours. Sometimes God is actually doing something. Jesus was led out into the wilderness. That is a dry, hot place in Israel. There is not much vegetation. There is not much life going on. God did it on purpose. In fact, it says, “He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness.”

When I got filled with the Holy Spirit and was being taught about how you walk with God, I had my first dry time. I panicked. I thought, “Oh, no, I’ve lost the Lord. I’ve had this wonderful experience with Him and I’ve lost Him. Oh, no, what have I done?” Actually, that went on for quite a few years. Every time I hit one of those dry times, I would think, “This is it. It was great. It was a great ride. It is over. Oh, my goodness, it is over and it was so wonderful.” The next thing I knew, I would be going again with the Lord. I had to learn how to persevere through a dry time.

(Look at this picture. See this parched land. There are two things I want you to notice about this. One, part of the land is parched and, two, part of the land is green with vegetation. What does that signify? It signifies that you can be going through a dry time and the people around you can be in the Promised Land and growing with God. It is green, lush and exciting. Where are you right now? Can you identify with this picture? Can you identify with the fact that you have been there before?)

Would you believe that the Bible talks about the dry times? It is not unknown to God. It is not a strange thing that has only happened to you. We are going to look at five Scriptures. Get your Bibles out and look these up. If you are going through a dry time, underline these Scriptures so you will know where to go the next time you go through one. When a Scripture speaks to you or if you have seen it happen in your life, put a date by it with a little summary. Write a quick word or two, which will remind you of when you were experiencing that particular verse in your life. If you do it and keep the same Bible for a long time, you will be amazed to see how God worked in your life. I look back in my Bible and it will be dated 1983-God said this. 1994-God said this. 1999-God said something. Have I done it this year? Yes, I have. Every time I feel like God is really speaking to me, I put a date by it. What does that do? They are like sign posts to hang on to. They keep you going. They make you think, “It can be over. It can end.”

I have a verse that I go to when I am going through these dry times. It is Psalms 43. Turn and look at that. There are two Psalms in a row. They are saying, “How long, oh, Lord? How long until I am back like I used to be”? Look at Psalms 63:1. It says, “Oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsts for Thee. My flesh longs for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.” This Psalm is talking both his soul and his flesh. What is the difference? Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. Have you ever been dry emotionally? Have you ever just felt like, “Nothing touches me. I do not feel anything. Nothing moves me.” He says his flesh longs for God in a dry and thirsty land. For whatever reason, God has you in a dead place. There is a reason for it. He knows what He is doing. Your flesh is crying out, “God, get me out of here. I hate this place.” Yet he says, “God, my soul is looking for you.”

Psalms 10:1 says, “Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble?” Have you ever experienced that? That may be the worst one of all. People have it. You are not the only person who has experienced that. I am not the only person who has experienced that. There are people you can talk to and they will say, “I went through the worst time of my life. I could not have heard God. I could not hear anything. I did not know where God was. He was not telling me what to do. I did not know what to do. I felt all by myself.” You think, “What is wrong there? Why is it that way?” I really think that God has His purposes for doing that. What do you think they could be? Have you ever thought about it? I will tell you what I think it could be. It is for you to draw on the times before that when you walked with God. He taught you things. You heard His voice. You put them in your heart. It says, “I will hide Your Word in My heart, Lord, that I might not sin against thee.” Sometimes you go through those dry times and you cannot hear God. Maybe the pressure is too great in the situation. Maybe you are so afraid you cannot even calm down and get along with God. Maybe this situation is so chaotic, there is no place to get away with God. If you have hidden God’s Word away in your heart, it is the responsibility of Holy Spirit to bring that to your remembrance. What verse has been popping up in your head over and over? You hid that verse away in your heart at some time and God is reminding you, “This is what My Word says, child. Listen to it and be comforted by it.”

Psalms 9:10 is another example of dry times. “Those who know Your name trust in You. For You, oh Lord, do not abandon those who search for You.” Look a little closer at that verse. It is not saying, “You do not abandon those who look and find You the first time out.” The idea of searching makes you think time after time. There are people watching this show. You might be one of them, who have been searching for God. You have been saying, “Is there anything real in the world today? Are all men liars and hypocrites? Is there a true God? Can people walk with Him? How do I find Him?” Some of you are searching so hard. I want to tell you, it says right here, “God does not abandon those who search for Him.” God will reveal Himself to you.

I want to give you a chance right now to open your heart up to God. Those of you who are watching this show in Russia, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Eastern Europe and those of you who are watching by satellite who have never reached out to God. Yet inside yourself right now, there is that feeling of longing for God, searching for God and you do not have anybody to tell you how to find Him. Yet you trust Him. You have heard of the name of the Lord. You have heard other people talk about the name of the Lord. You just want to know how to find Him. I want to tell you right now. I want you to really think about this. In fact, I want you to pray. Maybe you have never said a prayer in your life, but I want you to pray right now. I want you to close your eyes and just say this in your own words or you can repeat my words. “Lord, I’ve heard about You. It has been a long time in my life that I have not searched for You, but now I am. I want to find You, God. I want to find the real, true God. The real one, the only one. I want to establish a personal relationship with You. I ask that all my sins would be covered by the death that Jesus went through on the cross. By faith, God, I receive Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Lord and my personal Savior. By faith I do it right now God. I am searching for You. I want to find You. I want the real thing. Amen.”

When you pray a prayer like that, it is the biggest thing you will ever do. It determines your eternal destiny. It determines how you are going to live the rest of your life on this earth. Does that mean that you are never going to have a dry time? I wish I could tell you that you are not, but I cannot because they happen.

Look at Psalms 13:1, “Oh, Lord, how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You look the other way? You know the Bible says God is thinking about you all the time. Read Psalms 139, it says, “I know when you sit down. I know when you stand up. I know what you are going to say before you even say it.” God has not forgotten you. He is not looking the other way. Maybe you turned away from God. Maybe that is what it is. If you are not as close to God as you once were, guess who moved?

These are all reasons why you could be going through that dry time. Ask yourself. You are have to think it through. Look at Psalms 13:1-3. “Oh, Lord, how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day.” I have said those things. Have you said them? I have really said them. How long will my enemy have the upper hand? And who is the enemy of your soul? The devil.

Why do we hate the dry times so much? They take the nearness of God away from us. God said, “I want to be with you. I want to be close to you. I want relationship with you.” Then here we go. The psalmist also said there is one thing that I am going to seek and inquire of the Lord the most. That is to have that kind of conversation with God.

Why do these dry times come? In my case, you know what it is? I will be honest with you. I get too busy. I get so caught up in doing things. I do not spend enough time being quiet, at rest and alone with the Lord. I spend every day with the Lord. I am not going to tell you I do not because I do. Occasionally, I have a day I do not, but it is pretty rare. Over the last 30 years, it is real rare. Someone challenged me in the very beginning and they said, “You know it is hard to think about spending an hour a day with the Lord. Tell him you will give him five minutes. Make a vow, “I will spend five minutes a day with you, Lord.” There have been times I have been so busy it was hard to get the five minutes in. There have been times I have not done it, but there have not been that many. I made that vow and it was so serious. It just happened to me in the last week. I got through the end of my day and thought, “Oh, I haven’t read the Bible.” I picked up the Bible because I made that vow. I picked up the Bible and read some words and said, “Lord, this does not even mean anything to me. I am sorry. I am so tired but I am going to do it.” There is something about being consistent with God that keeps you in the way. If you quit because you are dry, busy or tired, it is easy to quit the next day and the next day. Before you know it, it can be months since you have read your Bible.

Another thing that causes dry times is not having quality time with the Lord when you are with Him. Your mind is on other things. You are thinking of things you need to do. You have other stuff to do. You have to kind of think about the Lord being your lover and He wants all of your attention when you are with Him.

What else can cause a dry time? One of those things we discussed in the Psalms is sin. You are doing something that you know you should not have done. You know God would not want you to do it. All you have to do is read the Bible and you know God is telling you do not do it. For a while you can play a game with yourself. You can say, “Well, I am hearing God, I am hearing God.” And the Lord is going “No, you are not, come on back. Repent. I will forgive you if you mean it. If I need you to make amends, I want you to make amends, but come on back, I love you.” Sometimes you are just lazy. There are a lot of people who are not willing to pay the price to know God. And there is a price. It does not come easy. Salvation is very easy. All you have to do is recognize, “I am a sinner apart from God. I’ve got to have God.” And you get saved. However walking with God requires commitment and consistency. It requires being honest with God and maybe you do not want to do that. Maybe you are lazy.

There is another reason why there can be a dry time and this is the good one. Growth is coming. Maybe you are being tested. The Bible says, “The Lord tries hearts.” Maybe you are being tested. You want to pass that test. Maybe God allows all feeling to go away. All emotion to go away because he wants to see what will you do when there is no feeling. There is nothing but raw faith going on. What will you do?

Another time that you can go through a hard time with the Lord is after you have had a big time with God. You have this time of great growth, great feeling, great emotion, great everything and your emotions are literally just worn out. I heard James Dobson say something that really helped me and I hope it will help you also. He said, “When I have been on an emotional high, I have learned that after that there is just an emotional low that will come. It is just as normal as it can be. I’ve learned to just wait my way through it knowing that after my emotions have calmed down and rested, I will go back to being even keeled again and I can continue again.”

Remember there are certain things that you need to be sure you are found faithful doing. You know that verse, “Moreover, it is required of a servant that he be found faithful.” I think that God is talking about in the dry times. Are you faithful in the dry times? Are you faithful in the hard times? Are you faithful? Can I find you faithful?

How often do dry times happen? Mine used to come twice a year. I keep spiritual journals, so I know when I am going through one. Also I do that thing I told you about where I write on the Bible, especially around Psalms 43 and 44, right in there. Dry time again. Dry time again. I began to see that it comes when I start getting lazy or I start slacking off. Now by being able to chart it, I have been able to say, “Okay, Betty, can you see how you’re feeling? Are you getting too busy? Do you have your mind on too much when you are sitting down to have a quiet time? Betty, you know what’s going to come after this. You better reign it in, Betty. You better reign it in.” It has been amazing how much that has helped me. I still have them. They are down to once a year now. That is not so bad.

What do you do during a dry time? You do the same things you did when it was a great time. Nothing needs to be different, nothing at all. You can be real honest with God and say, “Lord, I hate to tell you this but it does not mean anything, or the Bible is boring. Do something to make the Bible exciting to me.” I am just sharing with you one thing God has taught me and that is the Holy Spirit teaching me. Read a book about Me. Read what somebody has talked about on some aspect of Christianity. Another thing the Lord has told me to do is, “Get a topical Bible, Betty. Pick a subject that sounds interesting to you, something that you just want to know what I have to say about it and then concentrate on that. Read just that. You do not have to read anything else, just enjoy that.” Another thing He will say to me sometimes in a dry time is, “Pick a Scripture you need to memorize. Pick one that describes the plan I have for you, the dream I have for you, something I have said I am going to do for you or something you want Me to do for you, Betty. Pick a Scripture like that and begin to memorize it in this dry time. Get it into your heart and your life.”

Another thing I do a lot is pray in the Spirit, because I do not feel like praying. I do not feel like praying in English. That is probably just one of the greatest gifts God gives you. You can pray in tongues. You can just pray in the Spirit. It is your spirit man praying and he can go on praying forever.

Another thing that you can do is rest more. You may be someone who is very busy with a lot going on. Maybe you have a lot of children or a very busy job. Maybe you are a woman who works and you have to take care of your family, so you are just extra busy all the time. Maybe you are a single mom and everything falls on you. You have had too many days without time alone with God because you were overwhelmed. Just remember that little five minute rule. You can spare five minutes. There is five minutes somewhere in your schedule and you can have that time with Him.

Another thing is just try to be happy and full of praise. Even if you do not feel it, you can still say it, “Lord, I am dry and I know it but I want to tell you. I know You love me. I know You are thinking about me. I know You care about me. I know You are excited about what You are going to do in my life. I know You are excited because I am going to grow, so I praise You for this dry time. Sometimes you have to make yourself do it. You do not feel it and you have to make yourself do it.

It is also very important during these times that you stay in church because that is when you want to stay home. You think, “Oh, I am just so tired, I think I will just sleep in or I am just going to stay here in my house and not move.” God says of all the times that you need to be in church, there is a good one. Be sure and stay around your Christian friends. They need you and you need them. They are going to have dry times, too. In fact, ask them. “What do you do when you are going through a dry time?” Maybe you will learn something but, be accountable. Who is in your life that is mentoring you? Who is somebody who really cares about you and your welfare and they want to watch you grow in the Lord? You need to have somebody in your life that you can go to and say, “Can we just have lunch together?” You can even go and not even talk that much, just let them do all the talking. Let them talk about what God is doing in their life and it will stir up something in you.

Are there some mistakes to avoid during this time? Yes. One is to avoid bitterness. Do not get mad at God and say, “You were not faithful to me. I am out of here.” Another is to avoid denial. You have to make sure to accept the fact that this is not the greatest time in the world in my walk with the Lord. You want to avoid denial. Do not deny it. I have shown you the verses in the Bible. I have shown you where Jesus went through it. Just say, “Okay, Lord, I am here. I wish it were over, but I am here. I am going to stick it out and I am going to go with You.” Make sure you avoid walking away from the Lord during this time.

(Look at this picture of this man drinking water. That is what it feels like when God starts coming back. Look at that picture. Is that not a great picture? He is taking a big, long drink. It is just a great thing. Look at him. Oh, he is just going, “Lord, you are so good.” And the Bible says, “Taste of the Lord and see if He is good.”)

How does God use dry times? Often right before God really increases you in the kingdom He lets you go through a dry time. I think He does it so that when this great thing starts happening, you will not think you had anything to do with it because you will remember how just a few days before, you were dry. You will realize it is only God, His goodness and His faithfulness. It is all God. It is certainly not me. They are sent to let you know when the good times happen, it was God and not you. In Psalm 139 the man says, “I am worn out with waiting for your rescue.” But the dry times will end.

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS

1. What are common causes of dry times in the Lord?
2. What Scriptures can you turn to when you faced with dry times?
3. How should you walk out being in a dry time?
4. What should you avoid doing in dry times?
5. What are the benefits of dry times?

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