How to Stay Faithful in Your Wildnerness Season
What is a spiritual wilderness season?
How does a wilderness season feel, really?
How do I stay faithful when things feel really hard?
Am I being punished by God?
How long will my wilderness season last and how will I know when it’s over?
We’re looking at all of these questions and more. Plus, I want you to walk away with some practical steps to help you through when you’re in the thick of it.
What is a Wilderness Season?
Throughout the Bible we see people like: David, Moses and the Israelites, and even Jesus go through a wilderness season. It’s a time of testing and learning. You might feel like you can’t hear from God or God is teaching you to lean on Him in a new way. You might feel challenged or really feel like things are intense, difficult, or hard in a way you haven’t experienced before. The specifics are different for every person but the goal (to come closer to God) is always the same.
Through the wilderness or, as I like to call it, your quiet season or your preparation season, you’ll have space, time, and opportunity to be refined, healed, and taught by God. There’s often a needed stripping away of false identity, false beliefs or a repetitive sin that the Lord wants to heal you from.
No matter what your wilderness season might look like you can trust that God is right there beside you. He is your constant. He loves you. And you’re goal through this season of your life is to lean on Him in ways you haven’t tried yet. He’s literally waiting for you to seek Him.
not hearing from God?
It’s all a part of the process. Don’t panic! This ebbs and flows. Sometimes you might feel like you’re praying and you don’t feel God’s clear direction or answers. This is super hard if there’s a certain pivot or new direction you feel the Lord leading you in but then you don’t know what to do next.
Or, when you aren’t hearing from God you might feel confused, worried, nervous you’ve done something wrong. When you feel this it’s important to realize these for what they are - lies from the enemy. When you start questioning God’s love for you return to the Bible and pray certain scriptures over yourself.
You’re a chosen, loved, precious child of God. And nothing and no one can separate you from God.
You might feel less close to God in your wilderness season but He never leaves you. Instead, you can do certain things like focusing on spiritual disciplines to deepen your relationship with Him right now. Choose one spiritual discipline over the length of your wilderness season to deepen with - prayer, fasting, worship, service, scripture memory, studying a book of the Bible, solitude, sabbath/rest.
3 lessons i learned from a long wilderness season
My wilderness season lasted a little over a year. I don’t know if that’s the average or longer or shorter than most. (If you’ve been through one, let me know in the comments how long yours was). I felt the presence of God in some areas of my life but I didn’t hear a thing from Him in the places I was wanting it most. There were times I felt so held, seen, and loved by the Lord. And there were times where I’d have tears streaming down my face because I felt so lost and unsure of what I was ‘supposed’ to do.
Here are 3 lessons from my wilderness season that are helpful reminders - whether you’re in a refining season or not.
wilderness season lesson #1: surrender to Jesus’ pace for your life, not your own
This can be a hard lesson to learn but when we become born again we are bought by Jesus’ blood. Our life is His. And, yes, you might have dreams, ambitions, goals, and a focus for your life. BUT, a wilderness season will test you in every area. God might take away distractions, jobs, friends, career goals during this time. (I experienced a lot of this) And He’s doing it to help you grow into who He wants you to be.
Your life pace might slow down significantly or it might screech to a hard stop. But God is asking for your attention right now. You will be re-directed to change and grow according to His pace for your life. YES it’s uncomfy!!! But in the long run, (maybe more like the long long long run) it’s so much better for you. Trust that God knows how to take you through this process and surrendering to His will for your life as often as you can will help.
Part of healthy surrender to God is being ok that in this season we (most likely) won’t have answers about ‘why’ or ‘what to do’. God is omniscient. We are not.
wilderness season lesson #2: you’re not being punished by God
Let’s just get this out of the way right now - you’re not being punished by God. Punishment is not the same as being tested. Testing is strengthening. Will you be obedient to God in the face of a challenge or will you turn to sin? This season of life is all about God making you stronger in your faith and leaning on Him more than you try to white knuckle your way through circumstances you don’t like or figure it out yourself. There’s really no figuring it out outside of God. Lean on the truth of the Bible and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to inspire and lift you out of dark places.
wilderness season lesson #3: this is a season, you’ll feel like yourself again soon
It’s called a season because it has a clear beginning and end. You won’t be in a wilderness season forever - thank you, God!! You will feel the light return and the heaviness lifting when your preparation season is over. When mine ended I felt the JOY of the Lord in a way I never have since being saved. I was supernaturally gifted the PEACE of the Lord when saved but I never felt the joy like some speak of. I think He was saving that for me to experience after my hard season had passed. He’s so Good like that.
Any heaviness, grief, weakness, tiredness, apathy, lack of creativity or ideas, challenges in relationships, questioning all the things in and about your life - this is not for forever.
what i personally learned in my wilderness season
I could fill a book with the lessons I learned in my wilderness season. It was hard but it was also so good. I’m so thankful that God did what He did in my life.
A big lesson I learned was that slowing down isn’t the same thing as being lazy, or slothful. God didn’t ask me to slow down, He required it. And that was really painful for me. The last few years have been busy. But they were busy because of my own pushing and putting the focus so hard on work and being productive. The Lord very kindly and gently showed me that this is actually incorrect, unbiblical, and not a useful posture to build His Kingdom.
I used to think of the Proverbs 31 woman as busy. But I actually think she used her time efficiently. Keeping a full schedule doesn’t say anything about my usefulness for God. He instead was teaching me my value as His daughter not because of anything I could ‘do’ or strongarm my way into becoming or having.
In the end, this really beautifully re-shaped my marriage. I started to pray for the Lord to purify my heart, to make me a useful tool for building His Kingdom His way (not mine) and to grow me into a godly woman and wife.
Another thing I learned was there are spiritual skills I want to get better at. Like prayer. This might sound funny but it’s something the Holy Spirit helped me to realize I wanted to grow as a skill. I read books and took courses to grow in prayer. Through this seeking I’ve learned prayer ministry is a passion of mine! I love hearing others pray and I think hearing how people pray is so useful. Yes, of course, to be prayed for, but also, you pick up so many skills by being immersed in prayer.
Through deepening in prayer I experienced something so special. We read Genesis 16:13 Hagar says ‘you are the God who sees me’ and I felt so seen by God in the way she’s describing. A few times I was praying and there’d be a very real way God answered my prayer unexpectedly. I felt seen. And for someone who often in the past has felt invisible and unimportant, this was so healing to me.
Praying Psalm 139 over ourselves is so healing. God knows everything about you.
One other personal lesson I learned in my wilderness season was that spiritual warfare is real. Before this season I didn’t think spiritual warfare really affected me. But it did and it does. Putting on the armor of God everyday and learning to pray with power and to cast off fear as it comes into my mind have been some great tools. I believe God shields and protects us. And through this season I needed to make more of a focused effort everyday to cover myself, my family, my home, and my work in the Lord’s protection everyday.
If you’re in a wilderness season right now here are 3 suggestions of how to stay faithful in the thick of it.
First, even though it might be your instinct, stop pushing your way through.
Quiet seasons are meant for rest, reflection and inner growth. It’s not time to be scheduling a lot of projects or doing things in your own strength. It’s a waiting season meant to slow you down and allow you space. It’s a great time to refine your spiritual discipline of solitude with Jesus.
I distinctly heard the Holy Spirit direct me toward giving the first fruit of my day to being in stillness with God. I’m not great at it yet, but I’m working on it. Jesus doesn’t ask for our perfection, He asks for our willingness.
What are you willing to let go of, relax into, or embrace with a different mindset in order to grow your relationship with the Lord right now?
Second, focus on living out your identity in christ.
I recommend praying these over yourself daily. Choose one that you want to really explore and figure out what it would look like in thoughts and actions to live (for example) like you are Loved by God.
These are some of the attributes of your identity in Christ: loved, redeemed, chosen, forgiven, adopted, blessed, saved, gifted, victorious, rewarded, a saint, citizen of heaven, treasured, irreplaceable, precious to God, set apart, set free, temple of the Holy Spirit, a light, never alone, pleasing, significant.
Third, use the time wisely.
This season will end at some point so it’s a good idea to think about standing before Jesus at the end of this season, will he say, ‘well done my good and faithful servant’ or, will it feel like a missed opportunity? That question is not meant to stress you but to encourage you. Rest well. Listen for next steps. Don’t stress or push your way through. But embrace what the Lord is doing in your life, even if nothing makes sense and everything’s confusing. (this was me btw so you’re not alone)
This is a time in your life where you don’t have answers, maybe all of your foundations are crumbling, or you can’t hear God’s direction but you can still keep waking up in the morning thanking God for new morning mercies.
What would it look like in your life to use this time well? How can you use this time to deepen your faith knowing God is with you in every moment? This time can be challenging for sure but it’ll also reveal many blessings.