A TIME OF Barrenness
-- New American Standard
2 Kings 2:19 Then the men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful."
Mark 4:
- And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
- Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:
- "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
- "And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
- "Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
- "But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
- "And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
-- New American Standard
2 Kings 2:19 Then the men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful."
As mature believers we are to abide in the shadow of the almighty.
When we do that we are in obedience and communion with God and the Holy spirit and we hear from God, we know his voice and as the old hymn
States
“He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am his own:”
BUT there may come a time when we get out of the shadow, we are not where we should be, we have gotten out of fellowship in a slow insidious
sequence of events, that we may not fully be aware of, until it is almost too
late.
That is what happened to me recently, I was so overwhelmed with work, the cares of this world, through no real conscious decision of mine, over took me and I woke up one day and realized I was out of place, out of fellowship, Out of step with my Lord. I was dry and unfruitful.
-- New American Standard
2 Kings 2:19 Then the men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful."
I was like the men described their city, pleasant. I was put together on the
Outside, but dry and unfruitful on the inside.
I was two kinds of ground, stony and thorny. First, I was thorny, the responsibilities of my job became so numerous and cumbersome without me even realizing it, the seed was choked.
I had gotten to the place all I did was work, get off late, come home eat and go to bed, only to get up and do it all over again day after day.
Never realizing fully realizing or stopping to say to myself, this is not good. I was too tired, too stressed to even realize I wasn’t reading my bible or praying like I should.
I became so dry, I was stony ground, I would go to church, worship, be
fed the Word, thank God for it, meditate on it, but the next day, I would go back to work and the stress of my job , the demands, would choke it out, until it actually did not really have roots any more.
I would go to the altar and pray, I can remember going down and telling Pastor I was so dry. I know having my friends and husband praying for me helped.
We prayed for me to be able to hear God,
To feel His presence
Then we realized we had to pray about my job, the stress of it, the duties
That kept being piled on me and what I was supposed to do.
Did I immediately come out of it, no but little by little, God began to change things. My workload became lighter when my co-worker came back to work, I had to let God show me a better way to do things, rather than my way. And I had to be willing to tell God what ever He told me I would do.
In the scripture in 2 kings 2:
- And he said, "Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it. So, they brought it to him.
- Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, "Thus says the Lord: `I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.' ''
Elisha told them to bring him a bowl with salt, He poured the salt into the water and healed it. God had to lead me to a place to get salt, a place to be healed before I could have a watered heart and soft soil for His word to grow and work in my life.
God had to show me, but I had to be obedient,
I had to pray for hunger for Him, I had to pray for hunger for His word,
Then I had to pray for Him to open my eyes so that I could receive from him again. That I could read and understand the Word again!
It has not been easy, I am not in the place I was, but I am not in the place I allowed myself to dwell for a while. I am watering, planting and once again becoming fruitful in my life.
Let me tell you a place of complete dryness and bareness is not somewhere you want to be !. But sometimes we are there and don’t even realize it.
We go day to day, doing the same thing, end up in church on Sunday
and think we are right where we belong, when we could NOT be further from the truth.
Many of us in this room today are where I was and you know something is not right, but you have not been able to put your finger on it.
You are outside His shadow, in the hot sun and no blessing are flowing,
You are hot, dry, thirsty and barren and don’t even realize it.
I want us to just stop and think. When was the last time you actually heard God speak to you, not just feel good in church but actually hear His voice ,
In love, in direction, in response to prayer. If it has been awhile, or you don’t even remember when it was, then you are where I was 4-6 months ago.
There is a way out.
We have to realize that allowing ourselves to become thorny soil is a sin and we have to confess it.
If we confess our sins, he is just to forgive us.
We are then on our way back into His shadow.
But we have to be cleansed with the washing of the word, we have to drink of the river of life and we have to feed on the word of God.
At first it will feel like you are eating cardboard.
These first steps back are made in faith,
As you keep fellowshipping with HIM, you will once again grow,
Abide in the vine and bear fruit, which is what you are supposed to do.
Do not wait until you are so dry, you are cracked earth.
Cracked dry desert earth no matter how much rain it gets will not grow anything because the water will not soak in, but roll off and the hot sun comes out and dries it more.
Come says the Lord, Come says the Spirit.
Come!