Seasons of the Soul - Pastor Crystal Rasmussen

There is grace, and there is revelation in the wilderness. Yes. There is grace, and there is revelation in the wilderness. This is what I experienced driving through a barren land. Driving through, I experienced his grace. I experienced him. I I I heard what he was saying, and I'm heeding to what he was saying. He was telling me, daughter, you're doing a lot of things. You're doing. You're doing. You're doing. But don't forget your first love. Don't forget the one who strengthens and sustains you. [01:05:47] (37 seconds)  #GraceInTheWilderness

Don't forget the one that took you out of that pit. Don't forget the one that picked you up out of the miry clay and turned your life around. We sing these songs. We sing these songs and we can jump up and down and we say, he turned my life around and he has, but let's not forget that. Let's not get to a place where we forsake the one, the lover of our soul. The one will never let go. We need him. Yes. We need him more today than yesterday. [01:06:23] (49 seconds)  #RememberYourFirstLove

And so acknowledging that, coming to the place where we lament, which means acknowledging vocally that it's okay to have sorrow. It's okay to have grief. It's okay to mourn. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to say I don't have it together. It's okay to say I need help. Yeah. It's okay to say, hey, I'm drowning. It's okay to raise your hand and ask for help. It's okay to need rescued. Many of us are facing so many struggles. But can we take a moment just to lament together? [00:51:17] (38 seconds)  #LamentIsOkay

He creates pools in dry places. He is able to create places for us that are overflowing with his goodness, overflowing with his mercy, overflowing with his grace, overflowing because he's all sufficient. He's all that we need. Yeah. He's everything in our lives even when other things scream that we are we have nothing and that we we are lacking. He is enough. [01:05:14] (31 seconds)  #PoolsInDryPlaces

So sometimes even in the wilderness, sometimes even in the dry places where we don't think anything is growing, we don't think anything is happening, there's actually life being produced. There's actually things being done. There's refinement being done. There's adversity that's being built within us. Amen. The wilderness experience, when life hands us lemons, when life hands us things that are hard, God is whispering to us. He's whispering, it's time to beef up your biceps. Yeah. He's saying, come on. It's time to beef up. [00:56:49] (41 seconds)  #WildernessBuildsStrength

But there are times in our lives when that is actually literally happening. There's storms, there's things, there's rain, there's snow, there's, the the wind is happening, trees are falling all around us, and and and it can be terrifying. It can be scary. But we have the promise. We have the promise that he is with us through that. And so today, we're gonna lament. We're gonna be vulnerable, and we're gonna understand that we are known by God. We are known by him. And what a great thing that is. [00:48:43] (31 seconds)  #GodWithUsInStorms

There's demonic oppression that is real, Yes. That is happening to the body of Christ. Yeah. That happens to individuals. Not that they're oppressed. I mean, not that they're possessed, but they're oppressed. And no two winters are alike. Something that I'm going through is not something that you're going through and vice versa. And one winter season we've gotten through, another one may come. But being able to understand and withstand and have a hope in whom our hope lies. [00:55:22] (45 seconds)  #SpiritualOppressionIsReal

But one of the things that he spoke to me on that drive was just how known I am by him. Because sometimes I think we may forget as we hold on to things, as we hide things. Right? It's okay to hide things from each other. It's not okay, but we do it. We can't hide anything from God. We cannot hide anything from him. He is all knowing and yet we try. We try to hide places in our hearts that we don't wanna give him access to, but he's already knowing. [01:10:54] (46 seconds)  #NothingHiddenFromGod