Seasons of Silence

You may be in a season of silence where you feel hidden, but the silence doesn’t mean God has forgotten you. He’s heard every prayer; He’s seen every tear. God is not preparing the blessing for you; He’s preparing you for the blessing. As you keep passing the test in the silent seasons, you’ll be prepared to rise to new levels.

God’s Messages

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

If you will keep doing the right thing, you will come into a time where God causes you to be seen.
Promotion doesn’t come from people. It comes from the Lord.
When it’s your time, no person can stop you. No bad break, no injustice.
Just as God hid you, he will bring you out into the open.
He will shine down his favor and cause you to go where you couldn’t go on your own.
Well, God bless you.
It’s a joy to come into your homes.
And if you’re ever in our area, please stop by and be a part of one of our services.
I promise you we’ll make you feel right at home. I like to start with something funny.
And I heard about these two men, the Pope and a lawyer. They died on the same day.
Went to heaven. Peter met them at the gates said, follow me, I’ll take you to your homes.
Peter dropped the Pope off at this small wood frame house, one bed, one table, nothing to it.
He then took the lawyer to this magnificent house.
He was huge, had a big swimming pool, beautiful view out back the lawyer was overwhelmed.
Said Peter, how did I manage to get this spectacular place? And the pope only got the small place.
Peter said we have dozens of Popes.
You’re the first lawyer say it like you mean it, this is my Bible.
I am what it says. I am. I have what it says I have.
I can do what it says I can do today. I will be taught the word of God.
I boldly confess, my mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be the same in jesus’ name.
God bless you. I wanna talk to you today about seasons of silence.
We all go through times where it doesn’t feel like we’re making progress.
We’re praying, but our prayers aren’t being answered. We’re being our best but not getting good breaks.
The problem hasn’t turned around seems like God went on vacation.
But the silence is not a sign that God is not working.
He may not be changing the circumstances, but he is changing us.
God uses the seasons of silence to get us prepared when we’re not getting our way.
We’re doing the right thing, but we’re being overlooked. Our friend got married, but we’re still single.
We’re working harder than our co worker, but they got the promotion.
We feel overlooked, undervalued, forgotten these times of isolation where you’re not being celebrated are extremely valuable.
Nothing may be changing on the outside, but something’s happening on the inside. Your character. Is being developed.
You’re learning to not depend on people.
You’re gaining experience, maturity, strength that you’ll need to go where God is taking you.
And you may wonder why no one is celebrating you.
You’re being faithful, but the door hasn’t opened, you’re gifted.
You know, you could teach that class better than the person that’s in place, but they never call on.
You don’t complain about the silence. God does his greatest work in isolation.
When nobody is noticing you, there are things you will learn in anonymity that you can’t learn anywhere else.
And when God is silent, that doesn’t mean he’s not concerned.
Silence is not a sign that God has forgotten about you, just the opposite.
It’s a sign that He’s closely watching you. He’s getting you prepared for new levels.
But if He brought you out before you were ready, it would stop your purpose.
God loves you so much that at times he will hide you. He’ll cause you to be overlooked.
He’ll cause the door not to open. He’ll cause a person to walk away.
You can be talented and hidden, anointed and hidden, have great ideas and hidden.
And if you don’t understand that it is God hiding you, you’ll be frustrated and try to make things happen out of God’s timing.
But before you see notoriety, you’ll go through a season of obscurity.
You have to pass this test when you’re hidden as a teenager, David was anointed to be King, God spoke it through the prophet Samuel, but David didn’t go straight to the throne.
God hid him. He went back to the shepherd’s fields and kept doing the same thing that he had been doing, taking care of his father’s sheep.
He spent years out there by himself alone in obscurity. It was boring. His brothers were in the military.
They had a prestigious position. They were being celebrated. Here’s the key. Don’t compare your life to other peoples.
It may seem like they have it better. They’re further along. They don’t have the challenges.
You do run your race. God’s purpose for your life is not the same as theirs.
Don’t look to the left or to the right. Stay focused on your calling in the scripture.
Peter asked Jesus about John and what kind of future John was going to have?
He thought John might have it better than him.
Jesus said Peter, if I want John to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?
He was saying Peter, what happens with John James Mark is none of your business.
Just follow me as long as you compare, you’ll be frustrated because you’ll always find somebody that looks like they have it better than you.
But David was destined to go higher than his brothers. He was going to see more influence, more favor.
So that required more isolation, more training, more experience.
I’m sure David thought God, you said I’d be the King, you said I’d lead the nation.
Why am I still stuck out here taking care of these sheep? I have so much more in me.
But those years of isolation when nobody knew David, when he felt forgotten, undervalued, those were incredibly important years, they were proving years, years where he showed God he would be faithful.
He could have slacked off, gotten discouraged, but he took care of those sheep like he was taking care of the nation.
He killed a lion and a bear with his own hands.
His father would have understood if a few sheep were killed by a wild animal, no big deal.
But David went the extra mile when nobody was watching in anonymity, when nobody knew his name, he was a person of excellence.
I can imagine when he was out there alone, nobody to talk to.
He would look up into the skies and talk to God in that time of isolation.
He drew close to his creator.
Maybe that’s where he wrote some of the psalms that we read today instead of complaining God, why is it taking so long?
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life after he passed the test of obscurity, God knew he could trust him with notoriety like David, you may have big dreams.
God has spoken promises over you, but nobody is noticing you. You’re not seeing increase promotion. Don’t get discouraged.
It’s because God had you hidden. You’re not off course, you’re not falling behind.
You are in a time of preparation. A time of training.
God is getting you ready for what He has in store.
If you will keep doing the right thing, you will come into a time where God causes you to be seen.
Promotion doesn’t come from people. It comes from the Lord. When it’s your time, no person can stop you.
No bad break, no injustice. Just as God hid you, he will bring you out into the open.
He will shine down his favor and cause you to go where you couldn’t go on your own.
And you may feel like you’re hidden but don’t be frustrated thinking you’re falling behind and look who’s getting ahead of me when God brings you out, He will catapult you forward.
He will make up for the lost time.
When you have an expensive piece of jewelry, a diamond ring, you put it in a box and hide it.
You don’t wear it around the house to go work out to run up to the grocery store. It’s valuable.
So you keep it hidden. And at the right time when you’re going somewhere special, you bring it out for people to see in the same way.
The reason you’re hidden is because you’re extremely valuable. You’re like that diamond, you’re going to shine.
God’s waiting for the right time to bring you out.
You are not hidden because you’re ordinary, you’re not hidden because you’re average, you’re hidden because you’re a masterpiece.
God breathed his life into you. You have seeds of greatness. Don’t let the silence discourage you.
Your time is coming now in the isolation, you have to deal with the issues. God brings to life.
Let him develop you like David do the right thing when it’s hard.
Keep a good attitude when you’re being treated wrong, go the extra mile. When nobody is watching.
When you’re hidden, you won’t see anything happening on the outside. But I can assure you on the inside.
God is doing a work. That’s an opportunity to grow, to come up higher. You’re getting prepared for new levels.
It’s like a tree. I have this big oak in my backyard and in the wintertime it loses all of its leaves.
It looks dead, is barren, just a bunch of branches, no life.
But what we can’t see is while everything looks stagnant on the outside, on the inside, the tree is gathering up sap for spring growth without that time of bard where it’s cold and looks like nothing is happening.
The tree wouldn’t have any new growth in the seasons of silence.
When you feel like you’re hidden, nothing positive is taking place like this tree.
What you can’t see is you gathering up saps, so to speak, your spiritual muscles are getting stronger.
You’re learning to trust God in a new way.
This time is important because when God brings you out to new levels, into greater opportunities, you will see greater opposition, bigger obstacles, more coming against you.
If God brought you out before you were ready, you couldn’t handle it.
So He uses the hidden seasons to toughen us up.
The scripture says God didn’t take the Israelites the shortest route to the promised land because they weren’t prepared for war.
God knew they would have been defeated so he hid them.
They went through this season of silence where they didn’t see anything happening.
Now, the mistake they made is they started complaining. God, why is it taking so long?
God, why are we still out here in the desert? God? Why are we making more progress?
God was doing them a favor but they didn’t recognize it. Don’t do like they did.
You may not understand the path that God has taken you and why it’s not happening faster, but God knows what He’s doing.
He uses the delays, the difficulties to get us prepared.
None of us like the slow seasons and especially the unfair seasons. We lost a loved one.
A friend walked away a dream didn’t work out. It’s easy to think. God, why didn’t you stop it?
Why didn’t you heal my father? Why didn’t you keep them from betraying me?
But God doesn’t waste anything, the difficulties, the delays, the losses, if we will keep the right attitude, it’s all working for our good it’s getting us toughened up because where you’re going, you can’t be offended by every negative comment.
You have to have a backbone made of steel. God can’t promote you.
If you’re going to be revengeful and try to use that position to pay people back, you have to let it go and trust God to be your vindicator.
If you’re intimidated by the opposition, overwhelmed by difficulties, it will keep you from your destiny In these silent seasons like the Israelites, we can think God the promised land is that way.
Why are you taking me the long route? You have to trust God.
He can see things that you can’t see. He knows what’s best.
It’s all a part of the process to get you prepared to get you developed.
He knows what you’re going to need.
I face challenges today that if I would have faced 20 years ago, they would have defeated me.
My personality type is to want everyone to like me.
And when I was working behind the scenes, those 17 years, that was easy.
I had a dozen friends and they all liked me at least I think they did.
But when God promoted me and put me in front of more people, I found out that some people didn’t like me and that would have bothered me back then and made me feel insecure, intimidated.
But I’ve learned my approval doesn’t come from people. It comes from God.
God had to toughen me up.
Now when things come against me, I think I buried my father. I went through that loss.
I learned how to minister when I didn’t think I could. I fought for the compact center.
When every voice said we’d never get it.
If I can make it through those difficulties, then I could make it through anything.
The scripture says these light afflictions are for a moment but they’re working in us an eternal weight of glory.
Somebody not being for you. That’s a light affliction. That’s like a little nat just flick that away.
Your time is too valuable to waste on petty things.
But when you’ve been through some difficulties, through some losses, through some Goliath, you don’t complain about not getting a parking spot.
You don’t fall apart because somebody left you out.
You don’t give up on a dream because it didn’t turn out your way.
You know, it’s a light affliction and it’s working for your good.
Now, you may be in a season of silence.
You feel like you’re hidden, but the silence doesn’t mean God has forgotten about you. He’s heard every prayer.
He’s seen every tear and at the right time, God is going to bring you into what He’s already prepared.
God is not preparing the blessing for you. He’s preparing you for the blessing.
The promised land was already in place.
He had to get the Israelites prepared favor is already in your future.
There are blessings that already have your name on them. The right people, divine connections already lined up.
You keep passing the test in the silent seasons.
You keep getting prepared and you’re going to come in to more than you can ask or think.
But what stops some people is they don’t like the preparation. You have to deal with the issues.
God’s bringing to light. Maybe God’s asking you to put down your pride, forgive the person that did you wrong or to start saying no to the compromise, no to the jealousy.
No to the critical spirit. Don’t let a small thing keep you hidden.
Don’t let something you know you can overcome, keep you from the amazing future that belongs to you.
You’re not hidden because God is mad at you. You are hidden because God loves you so much.
He’s getting you prepared to go where you’ve never gone.
Now, in the isolation, in the anonymity where you’re not seeing increase, you’re not getting good breaks.
Like David use that time to draw close to God.
One thing about being isolated where you don’t have a lot of people or things to give your attention to.
You can turn your attention to your heavenly Father.
Learn to talk to God, develop a deeper relationship, not just a Sunday morning, God, but all through the day in your thoughts, talk to God like you talk to a friend.
God will be as involved in your life as much as you want him to be.
If you keep God in a Sunday morning box, he’ll stay there.
But he wants to be so much more Tyler Perry told how as a young man, he had a dream to put on planes, he’s always been very creative and had a vivid imagination.
But as a little boy, he was mistreated by his father and the way he would escape, the pain is to go out under his front porch alone.
And he’d come up with these amazing stories in his mind.
He would go to a different world when he was in his early twenties.
He borrowed $300 from a family member and rented a small theater in Atlanta.
He passed out flowers all over the community. He was excited. This was his big debut. But nobody showed up.
This happened again and again, his family told him to forget about the plays. Go get a normal job.
Every time he wanted to quit, somebody would step up and underwrite the next play. One play.
Only a few people showed up. He was so disappointed he couldn’t pay the building, couldn’t pay his staff.
That was it. He was done. But afterwards, a man from the audience came and said, I love that.
I wanna support your next play. You may be hidden.
But God will always have the right people there to help keep you going for seven years.
It was a struggle. At times, Tyler was homeless, living out of his car.
$20 was the difference of him eating that whole week.
An opportunity came for him to take the plane to South Carolina.
He thought this was his big break, loaded up, the truck started driving. Then it came on the news.
A hurricane is coming to South Carolina. Another disappointment, Tyler had the talent.
He had the creativity, he had the skills, but he said, God hid me on purpose.
I didn’t have the maturity and if God would have given it to me back then I wouldn’t have been able to sustain it back in Atlanta.
He rented another theater, decided to try it again. He thought it’d be the same result. Another disappointment.
This time on opening night, he peeked out the window, people were lined up around the block waiting to get in.
He couldn’t quit weeping. That night was the start of something amazing.
Today, Tyler Perry has become the most successful African American film producer in history.
You may be hidden. But when it’s your time, God knows how to bring you out.
What he has prepared is bigger than anything you can imagine.
And what’s significant is, Tyler told me none of this success happened until he forgave his father for years.
He was bitter. He couldn’t understand why his father treated him so badly.
One day, he went to visit his father with a new perspective to try to understand who he was as a person, not as a parent.
He began to learn how his father didn’t have any training, didn’t have any guidance growing up, he didn’t know any better.
And Tyler, once he understood what his father dealt with, he didn’t excuse his actions, but he did make the decision to forgive him.
That’s when doors begin to open. When you’re in these seasons of silence.
When you feel like you’re hidden, it’s so important to look inside and deal with things that could be holding you back.
You can have the talent to go somewhere.
But if you don’t have the character, if you’re not willing to forgive, keep giving into compromise.
If you don’t treat people right, that will keep you from your best.
We see this in the scripture with Joseph. He was hidden for 13 years.
He was betrayed by his family, falsely accused by a lady put in prison for something that he didn’t do.
The reason Joseph fulfilled his purpose is he kept passing these tests.
He showed God he would forgive in prison instead of sitting around bitter.
He helped the butler get out of prison. He so deceived.
Nothing that’s happened to you is a surprise to God. He wouldn’t have allowed it.
If he didn’t have a plan, it may have been meant to harm you, but God knows how to turn it to your advantage.
God did not create you to stay hidden. It may look like it’s never going to change.
The truth is it’s a season of silence, not a lifetime of silence. What God has spoken over you.
There is an appointed time for it to come to pass. Keep growing, keep improving. The silence is only temporary.
Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked Peter, who do you say that? I am? Peter answered.
You’re the Messiah, the son of the living God verse 20 says, Jesus sternly warned him to not tell anyone who he was.
Jesus knew he was supposed to be hidden. He knew it wasn’t his time yet.
Another place the people believed in Jesus so strongly, they wanted to crown him king.
But the scripture says, Jesus snuck away and went up and hid in the mountains.
He knew he couldn’t be crowned before he went to the cross.
He trusted his father’s timing like Jesus, we can’t be crowned before we go to our cross, so to speak before we learn to crucify our flesh and resist things that are holding us back.
He told his disciples to stay silent to not tell anyone he was the Messiah.
A lot of us would be just the opposite. Go ahead, Peter, get the word out.
Let everyone know how great I am.
It’s much better to let God promote you and not people don’t get in a hurry.
You don’t have to make things happen.
You don’t have to convince someone to put in a good word for you.
God knew how to hide you and he knows how to elevate you.
If you’ll let God do it, his way, it will be better than anything you could have made happen.
God has not forgotten about you. He knows you’re hidden and he knows how long you’ve been there.
He knows what’s in you. He’s the one that put the gifts, the talents, the dreams and instead of fighting the silence, why don’t you do like Jesus and embrace it?
God, my times are in your hands. I know you’re getting me prepared, working all things for my good.
And at the appointed time, I know you will bring me out.
Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in the Bible.
As a young man, he spent time studying and preparing for ministry.
He just gone to the palace and spoke in the word of the Lord to king ahab.
No one else had the courage to speak up to the king.
I’m sure Elijah left there feeling confident ready for his next assignment. God said to him in first kings 17.
Leave here, go east and hide yourself by the brook.
I can imagine him saying, excuse me, God, you must have the wrong person. I’m Elijah.
I just prophesized to the king. I’ve studied more than anyone. I’m ready to go on a national tour.
You don’t want me to hide myself. Elijah wanted to speak to the nation.
But for the next 3.5 years, he only spoke to a widow and her son, God hit him.
He didn’t understand it. He had bigger things in his heart, but he trusted God’s timing.
He was faithful when he was hidden.
When you’re faithful in the silent seasons, you are setting yourself on a launching pad for God to take you further than you’ve ever dreamed.
After 3.5 years. God said, ok, Elijah. Now I know I can trust you. You’re ready.
Leave here and go on your next assignment.
After he was hidden, Elisha prayed and the drought came to an end.
He called down fire from heaven destroyed 400 false prophets on and on. It’s interesting.
He performed no miracles until after his season of silence. Don’t be frustrated when you’re hidden. Jesus was hidden.
Elijah was hidden. David was hidden. It’s all a part of the process. Here’s the beauty. You’re hidden.
Number one, because you’re extremely valuable like that. Diamond number two, you’re hidden because God is about to launch you.
You’re on the verge of seeing promotion, favor increase.
Like you’ve never seen, you may have been hidden for a long time, but you’ve been faithful.
You’ve been growing, getting prepared, I believe and declare God is about to bring you out.
He’s about to cause you to be seen. People are going to notice you that have never noticed.
Keep being faithful. Your appointed time is on the way in Jesus name.
And if you receive it, can you say amen today, I’d like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life.
Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins come into my heart.
I make you my Lord and Savior.
If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again.
Get in a good Bible based church and keep God first place.
Number one New York Times, best selling author, Joe Lutein releases the power of favor. God’s favor.
Will take you where you can’t go on your own.
I’ll show you how to tap into this favor so you can become all you were created to be.
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