Overcoming spiritual dryness

When God appeared to King Solomon after the completion of His temple and the king palace, He spoke clearly on the instances and reasons why He would shut the heavens  on Israel His people. One of the prominent sign of a shut heaven is “lack of rain”. This obviously lead to famine both physical and spiritual. It is important to know that most of the problems we go through have spiritual stronghold that ought to be dealt with before dealing with the physical.

What is spiritual dryness? is a lack of consolation, comfort or relief in our spiritual life. It is a sense of desolation experienced in separation from God. Our prayers, worship and devotions no longer provide the sweet consciousness of the Divine Presence it is a moment devoid of spiritual rain of joy, rain of peace, rain of breakthrough, rain of confidence, rain of miracles, rain of faith etc. rain springs up fresh vegetation. So if there’s no spiritual rain you will walk in the old odd ways of doing things.

Spiritual dryness,  is not a problem in itself. In fact, the awareness of our spiritual dryness is a gift from God. It is His invitation to come and partake of His life and His Spirit.

However, spiritual dryness does become a problem if we:

¨ do not recognize that we are becoming depleted, or

¨ do not recognize that God is the answer to our need, or

¨ become too exhausted to connect with God

 

Therefore it is important for us to recognize the signs of depletion as early as possible.

Signs of Spiritual Dryness

1. Giving While Empty or Weary A sign of spiritual dryness is that we are no longer giving to others out of a sense of fullness. We feel empty or weary—our inner tank is running dry.

2. Serving out of Duty

We are no longer motivated by passion. We feel an inner reluctance, or resistance to serve, but continue to do so because we feel we have no choice.

3. Our Faith is no Longer Contagious

According to David in the Psalms, it is the joy of our salvation that results in us leading people to God.  (Ps 51:12-13) People are not seeing something in us that causes them to thirst for God, and we lack motivation to share with them, feeling we have nothing to offer.

4. God Feels Distant

When we are spiritually dry, there can be a gradual distancing from God. Either we are not encountering Him regularly, or we are not hearing from Him, or we are hearing Him speak to us intermittently. God is, in fact, continually speaking to us. However sometimes we neglect to tune in. (Ps 139:17-18)

5. Our Spiritual Life is in a Rut We lack the excitement we once had in our relationship with God. Our devotional life—connection to God through the Bible and prayer—has either been reduced to a rote exercise, is occasional, or has ceased to exist at all.

 

The good news is that when we are spiritually dry, God has already initiated and provided the answer to our need. The package of salvation has variety of spiritual brands . There is deliverance, filing of the Holy Spirit, prayer, giving, forgiveness, power and authority, love, mercy, grace, intercession, worship, praise, fasting, healing etc. Do not just cling to prayer, seek God though worship. If prayer doesn’t work, try to water your spiritual seeds with the rain giving. If the seeds defy this rain, try to water your spiritual seeds with rain of thanksgiving and is it proves hard still, get on the water of forgiveness and praise. Do not give because one spiritual method does not work. Remember Jesus Christ reminds us in John 15:5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing The Christian life is meant to be one of reliance upon God, where the life of His Spirit continually flows in and through us.

By Wahome Gladys