Copyright 2014 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Dry places.
There will be many of them in our walk with the Lord. They often represent rocky valleys, deserted roads, long stretches of highway and lonely places in our lives – meaning, they are bone dry, free of people and all other outside influences. Mostly, they are viewed negatively by those walking through them, and primarily from the perspective of immense hardship.
The bottom line is this: There are many different kinds of dry places relayed to us in the scripture – some brought on by sin and others resulting from warfare. Then, there are the kinds of dry places that we seek out – because we recognize our need for a deliverer. The incarnate Yeshua presented this valuable truth to us in his three and a half year ministry in the old Jerusalem.
Luke 5:15-16 CJB, “But the news about Yeshua kept spreading all the more, so that huge crowds would gather to listen and be healed of their sicknesses. However, he made a practice of withdrawing to remote places in order to pray.”
Dry places are not limited to extreme periods of suffering imposed upon us. They also represent times in our lives when we have been drained physically, spiritually and emotionally, and poured out like a drink offering before others – in the pattern of Yeshua. They represent being empty, used to our capacity in Him; and being emptied, allowing Holy Spirit to continue his necessary work in us of perfecting humility, a teachable spirit and good fruit. When reading this passage in context, we will see that Yeshua had just completed numerous ministry assignments. The scriptures then tell us that He quietly withdrew from all that was familiar to spend quality time in prayer.
The scripture also notes that he did this “often.” In considering the message of the Gospel, it is clear that Yeshua needed a time of refreshing and restoration. He needed time alone with Yah, his Father in Heaven. Like many of us, we can become spiritually dry in the midst of our journey and need to carve out time, as often as is necessary, to be restored, corrected, encouraged and continuously made in Yah’s presence – completely free of any outside distractions. The phrase “remote places” connotes the following Greek translations: lonely places, desolate places, the wilderness, deserted places or deserts. It is necessary to remind ourselves that he chose to go and that he planned excursions like this with Father often. He was not waiting around to be led into or drawn into a dry place.
For Him, this was what the desert life looked like. It was a place free of flattery, man-directed encouragement and free of His own desire and will. It was a place for Him to die to the man-Yeshua and embrace His true self before Father.
Mark 1:35 CJB conveys the passage recorded in Luke’s Gospel account this way: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Yeshua got up, left, went away to a lonely spot and stayed there praying.”
Yeshua presented a pattern to us that says: “Practice withdrawing from every distraction in your life often! Choose the dry place that I have prepared for you! Seek it out! You will find life me in the midst of the desert.”
We’ve been called to the “desert life” – a life of sacrificial, breaking and breakthrough prayer. Desert life can be easily overlooked because some see it through the eyes of trials and tribulations like the often repeated story of the Israelites who circled the mountain for 40 years or the temptation of Yeshua by the adversary. These experiences are valid, but they are far and few in between compared to our calling, yes our calling, to the lonely places. Choosing to enter dry places is perhaps, among the greatest acts of humility Godly leaders can take.
Today, make a decision to desire the “dry, deserted place” – that Yah may continuously be glorified to the full in and through your life. Desire prayer born and nurtured in the dry place. Pray the difficult prayer that you grow to love “your dry places” as Yeshua loved His.
Beloved people of Yah, I pray Ephesians 3:16-18 over you. It reads, “I pray that from the treasures of his glory he will empower you with inner strength by his Spirit, so that the Messiah may live in your hearts through your trusting. Also I pray that you will be rooted and founded in love, so that you, with all God’s people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of the Messiah’s love…”
