Changing Faces Ministries Podcast
Dry Spell PART 2
- Welcome to the Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. If you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Here is your host, Pastor Jeff Landrum. - Morning, good morning, good morning. We wanna welcome each and every one of you to our Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. Where we do believe if you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a change of face. I'm the Pastor Jeff Landrum and we're truly excited to have you once again to join us. Once again, another week that God has blessed us. And we definitely want to say we thank you. We appreciate you for liking, sharing and supporting the ministry. You know, we want to definitely thank One Voice Radio for allowing us this platform to come to you each and every week. And, you know, we wouldn't be who we are and what we are without each and every one of you. So thank you so much for you coming along beside us, following us, sharing us and just helping us to take the good news of the gospel around the world. So we thank you so much. We're gonna kind of pick up where we left off last week talking about dry spell. And if you were with us on last week, you know, we talked about what a dry spell is, which we define a dry spell as a period characterized by a lack of success or productivity. And we talked about how at some point in all of our lives, we may hit what we call a dry spell. Like I told you last week, sometimes people say you can't kill nothing and won't nothing die. You were in what we call a dry spell. And what I like about, you know, I can't say I like it, but what I found out about a dry spell is it doesn't last always. It's not for a lifetime. And if you heard the definition, it says a period of time categorized by, you know, a lack of success or productivity. So if you've ever hit a point where a thing, you weren't productive and things weren't working right for you and you wouldn't have enough success, I'm here to tell you that is not a time to quit. That is not a time to give up. That is just a time to draw closer and nearer to God. Because it's only for a period of time. It doesn't last always. It's just for a period of time. And we don't want to make the mistake of giving up in that period of time. We don't want to make the mistake of throwing in a towel during that period of time. We don't want to make the mistake of listening to the wrong voices during that period of time because it's only a period of time that we're dealing with. And we saw that last week in these scriptures that we read last week in various marriage scriptures talked about the prodigal son. And we were reading it from Luke chapter 15 and we read verses 11 through 16. And we were talking about a son, a man who had two sons and one of the sons got a hit, what we call a dry spell. So we read it on last week. So let's go ahead and read it again. And we're going to talk about it. And we're going to finish up today talking about a dry spell and talking about when you're in those periods of time of dry spells, whether you caused it or whether God allowed it either way, Romans 828 says it's working together for you good. We're going to look and see how during those dry spells and how where we finished up last week talked about the voices that you hear doing the dry spell. We're going to talk about that today. We're going to finish up today with a great example of dry spells and how to come out of a dry spell. But if you have your bibles, well, if you turn with me today to Luke chapter 15 and we're going to read verses 11 through 16. And it reads, "And he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, 'Give me the portion of goods that fall up to me.' And he divided onto them his living. And not many days after the younger son had gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and their ways to his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all their all, there arose a mighty famine in the land and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would feign have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him. We're going to finish up today for using the subject that we started on last week called a dry spell. A dry spell. The early father got on mighty. We thank you once again for allowing us this moment, this opportunity that you have given us. We're thanking you for all of those that have gathered under the sound of my voice. And right now we're praying that you prepare our hearts and minds to receive what it is that you have for us on Tuesday. In Lord right now, I'm praying that you remove me, that they hear none of me, but hear all of you and let your word go forth with power. And make us different than more before we came. And we will always be so grateful and careful to give you all the praise, all the honor and all the glory. And yes, on Jesus Christ, may we do pray in our heart that everyone says amen, amen, and amen. A dry spell. As we discussed on last week, this younger son went and asked his father for a blessing. And the blessing was the inheritance that he would have gotten anyway. But he got this blessing. And it says he went into a faraway country. And we discovered on last week the way that most people get into a dry spell is they drift away from the source. And the source was the father. And as he drifted away from the source, he found himself in a far country. And he was having flashes and moments of success. And we discussed on last week where he was spending and utilizing the things that the good father had given to him. But it's amazing how when all the things were gone, it said there was a famine in the land. The famine didn't come until after he had wasted the living, had squandered all of the money that the good father has given you. And anybody know what it's like. If you have a ball on the stream, the father, the ball gets away from the source. The lower the ball starts to drag. And eventually it would get so far away from the source. If you let the string out farther though, that the ball would just start dragging around, going around in circles and rubbing on the ground. And see some of us have hit dry spells in our lives because we have drifted so far away from the source. And we have drifted away from the source. And we found, we find ourselves dragging ourselves and we wondering why I'm not productive, why things are not happening for me. Why things are in situations not going the way that they should be going. It's because you have hit a dry spell, but your dry spell came from drifting away from the source. And as you keep drifting away from the source, the father will go down. Well, this young son went in a far country. And as he went into a far country, it says they hit a famine. And when they hit a famine, it says, then he found himself trying to link up with somebody in that country. And he personally linked up with in that country, share some things with them. And what I want to share with you today, and as we continue from last week is, we need to be careful of who we surround ourselves when we're going through dry spells. We need to be careful of the voices that we listen to when we're finding ourselves in these dry spells. Because if you listen to the wrong things at the wrong time, when you're not in the right state of mind to hear what they're sharing with you, you might find yourself doing and saying things that are not of you. So we need to be careful that as you, first of all, you don't want to drift away from the source. But even if you drift away from the source, you need to be careful. It says he found himself in a famine, in a far land, because he drifted away from the source, which was a good father who had given him what he asked for. But now he found himself in a hog pen would have fame to eat from the slop. But then he had something that it remembered. So in saying that, we need to be careful. And when you think about this, as long as the boy was connected to the source, in close proximity to the source, it says as long as the boy was at home, he had no worries. The father provided a good living. And we know he was a good father because he left him. He got an inheritance. All of the guys, all of the son needs was being met. These were happening for him. And as long as he was with the father, you know, he wasn't in a dry space. He had the things he need. All of his needs was being met. Roof over his head, close on his back food to eat. Every need that he had was being met. But when he drifted away from the source, it's amazing how when he drifted away and wasted what he was given, he found himself in a pig pen. Don't think it's strange. If you find yourself at a low point where things are not happening for you and things are not happening around you because you have drifted away from the source. So we talked about drifting away. We're talking about being in a dry spell. We talked about how he ended up in his dry spell by drifting away going into a four-way country. Then we talked about how he, you know, you can find yourself in a dry spell and you can kind of look at it and think that because you are performing in such a way that you're going to come out of this dry spell that you're in, based on your performance. And you can get to a point to where you would think because you're doing good things. You know, you find yourself having these kind of conversations. Well, I'm not that bad of a person. Well, I don't do this, I don't do that. I'm not like them. I'm not like that person. And what you're doing is you're legalizing your life. You're living by legalism and thinking based on your performance. But God is not, he's concerned with your performance, but he's more concerned with the relationship that you have with him. Because when you're in the proper relationship, you're going to do the proper performance. So you have become so, you have become more concerned with what you do than who you love. And that's a question. See, a lot of people get caught up into a performance-based way of living. They say, "Well, I do this, and I do this for you, "and I do that for you, and I do this." But do you love me? Because if you love me right, and you do the right thing, you're going to do the right things anyway because you love me. You can find yourself doing stuff for certain people and you might not really love them, but you're checking about. God is concerned with you loving him. See, when you're drifting away from him, do you really love him? Are you spending time with him, or are you just visiting him once a week? Or you may have a conversation with him once a week. God is concerned. See, it's one thing about being in a dry spell. See, when you're in a dry spell, you have more conversation with God than you're ever, than you ever imagined. You're always praying, you're always talking because you're asking God, what is it that I can do? See, you're praying, you're looking for means and looking for ways, but as long as things are good, as long as you're not in a dry spell, you might find yourself not even praying at all, or not even, you might just find yourself checking box and talking about what you did or what you do. But God is more concerned with you spending time with him because when you spend time with him, you're gonna find yourself doing the right things anyway, just because you love him. And my question is, are you in a dry spell and trying to live a legal, holistic life by doing good stuff, or you coming out of a dry spell and you're doing the right things because you love the source, the one who provided you with it. Because if you truly understood that it was God who gave it and God, God bless you with all this stuff and these things, you wouldn't drift away from the source because as you drift away from the source, you might find yourself in a dry spell. See, because my Bible talks about returning to God. He said, return to me and I will return to you. And when you think about that, returning, what does returning mean? If you look over in Malachi, if you look over in Malachi, chapter three of Malachi, it talks about returning. And it says, you know, return unto me and I will return unto you. And what you gotta understand is, when you drift away, that means you was once connected. You ever been told one of the more things, you had like what they used to call the lightest touch, everything you touched, turn the gold. Everything you did worked out. You couldn't, you know, you touch it and it worked. Everything you did worked. And all those things worked. And then you hit a point where, when nothing going right, couldn't kill nothing and when nothing died. But when you start to think about this, in Malachi, it says, return unto me and I will return unto you, says the Lord of Hope. But you may ask the question as they did, but he says, we're in, shall we return? He says, he asked the question, will a man rob God? See, when we look at this, "Prodigal Son," the "Prodigal Son" was given a blessing by a good father. You ever been blessed by a good father. You prayed for it and God bless you with it. But when you got it, you didn't know what to do with it. You squandered it and you wasted it and you find yourself back in that same place she was in before God bless you. And you're wondering what happened. But Malachi says, "Return." He says, "You return to me and I will return unto you." And then it goes on to Malachi three and 10 says, "If I will not open you up the windows." See, when you return back to where you left from, the good father never moved. The father is in the same place he was where you left. So if you find yourself falling, if you find yourself hitting low points, low places, it's not because the good father moved, it's because you drift it away from the source. And as you drift it away from the source, you find yourself in dry spells. And as you find yourself in dry spells, you know, things are not happening the way they should, the way you want them to. But he says, "When you return unto me, "he'll return unto you." Then he asked the question, "Will a man rob God?" He said, "How do we interrupt these in times and offerings?" He would talk about in your gifts, your times and titles and your trades. What are you doing with what God is giving you? We see this prodigal son, he went and wasted his. And when he wasted his, he found himself in a dry spell. The dry spell, he found himself in a hog pen. And when he was in a hog pen, it says he heard some, he remembers some things. And as he remembers some things, he remembered the father. So the father had raised him, right? And placed something in his mind to where when he said to them, my father says he raised them up the way they should go. And when they're old, they won't, they'll have something in them that it would revert them back to the proper way of thinking. Now as he thought about that, he said, "My father, who has his higher service "a living better than this." So I'm gonna return back to my father and say I'm not even worthy to have this. But one thing about it is to be back with a good father, even if you don't feel worthy to be with them, you can be with a good father. I would rather be with a father and not feel worthy than to be find myself in a dry spell and far away from the father. So because a good father is gonna do what's right by his son, the father says return. And then he says, see when I open up a woman and pour you out a blessing that you won't even have room enough to receive. So as we return back, we don't see the prodigal son, he's gonna return back to the good father because the good father had left. He had already put in his mind what he was gonna tell the father when he got back. But it says, while he was jet on his way back, the father saw him fall off. That lets me know that even though I went out, even though this prodigal son went out and made him mistake, the good father was waiting on his son to come home. Because a good father loves you enough, loves you beyond your thoughts, loves you beyond all of that other stuff that we're gonna do because a good father knows what he has to, he had to allow his son to go out and experience things. He had to allow this stuff to happen. So sometimes God is gonna give you what you can't handle because he knows when you go out and waste what you can't handle, it's gonna bring you back home. And he says, when you're returning back, he's gonna open up a woman and pour you out a blessing that you didn't even have room enough to receive. Are you ready to return back? Are you ready to have your woman open up? Are you ready for the blessing that a good father have for his son? And when we're talking about returning back, he returned back with one thought in his mind, but the good father had a whole different thought because as he was returning back, a good father left the light on for his son to come back home. See, one thing about a good father is, a good father would allow you to go make some mistakes, would allow you to do some things and would allow you to go through some things and not take you out. Now don't get it twisted and don't think it's strange. A good father is also, is a just God. God is a just God, even though he allow you to go out and squander and mess up some things. There is gonna be an accountability call, but I would rather be accountable for the wrong guy done in a right standing with God than to be out there in a dry spell and ain't nothing happening for me. And if you were ready to come back home, today would be the perfect day for you to return because when you're in a dry spell, it's gonna be some things that gonna happen that you don't even want to even imagine what's gonna happen. Anybody ever been in a dry spell before? Dry spells are usually lonely times because no, not everybody can relate to you and what you're going through in this dry spell. He wouldn't, when the pride of the song, he, for his dry spell, he had it. He lived it up until that dry spell come. So, yeah, anybody know what it's like enjoying the blessings of God, until the blessings run out and then you find yourself in a dry spell and you find yourself by yourself, talking to yourself about things that you ain't even worth talking about. In them, you get that thought in your mind to say, "My father." And now you wanna return back to where you left from, but don't let nobody talk you out of returning back because when you were with the father, you had the blessings of the father. So, you're not a whole lot of people gonna tell you about the grace of God. The grace of God looked past your fault, looked past all of that stuff because this good father not only received his son back, but he says, "Put it on the best road, get the fattest calf, let's have a party because the one that was lost has come back." See, I'm here to tell you that if you're in a dry spell of your life, today is not the time to give up and not the time to quit. That's because you're in a dry spell. It could be because you drifted away from the father and it's time for you to come home. And when it's time for you to come home, don't let nobody, no one, nothing talk you out of returning back to the father because you know what it was like with the father. This prophet of the son had memory, he remembered that the service was living better than he was living in a dry spell. So, he wanted to go back home and at least just be a servant, but his father restored him back to where he had left from. See, we talked about a God that can restore you even in the worst times of your life. God will restore you back if you come back with the right heart. If you humble yourself and return back to him, he was faithful and just to forgive you of all of your sins. You just got to return back. See, it's better to be in a place with God than being in a dry place all by yourself. Today is your day to return back to the God. Instead of when you return back, see, you know, it's something about when you're out there in that dry spell all by yourself. It says he was having conversations with himself. I don't know, think about it. It's one thing when you know a dry spell to have conversations and you're talking to yourself. You know, who knows what you're saying to yourself? You might even start believing some of the things you're saying. You're not talking to your situation, you're listening to stuff, talk to you about your situation. Before when you was with the good father, you were speaking to your situation, but now you're in the hall pins of your life, you're allowing your situation to speak to you. You'll never be nobody, you'll never mouth anything. Things ain't gonna happen for you. But before when you was with the father, you had all the confidence in the world. You knew you was more than a comfort through Christ Jesus. You knew if he was for you, he's more than a world against you. But now you find yourself in a dry spell, but today is the day for you to return back home. And when you return back home, you deal with a father that can restore you back to where you left from. And if you're ready today to be restored back, today will be a perfect opportunity for you to come back. So you thought it was gonna be some great magic trick. You thought it was gonna be some great thing for you to come out of this magic spell, but to this dry spell that you in, but to come out of this dry spell you in, you just need to return. You just need to return back. And see when you return back, the father didn't go anywhere. See, don't talk about the son had to go and find the father. It says when the son was headed back, the father saw him before all. He didn't have to find the father 'cause the father wasn't lost. Don't let, don't tell me that you need to, you're looking for God or you gonna wait till you get yourself right. Because if you wait until you get yourself right, you'll never get right. Now I want to just as you are when you come, he's gonna restore you. He's gonna put on the world. He's gonna kill the fatticab. He's gonna have a party for you because you were one's laws, but now you're found. We're talking about coming out of the dry spells of life that you're in. And if you're ready to come out of those dry spells, they would be a perfect opportunity for you. Now would be a great time for you to do it. Then when the son came back and don't think it's strange that when you come back and God restores you, that other people you're gonna have those haters in life, his very own brother was hating because he got mad because the younger brother was restored. No one that the younger brother had went out and wasted everything, but the good father restored him. So don't let nobody, don't let anything, no stuff, nobody, anything, anytime, any point in time, cops stopped you from returning back to the father because the father wants you to restore you. It's nobody else's business. You don't have to answer to anybody else, but the holy God that we serve. Don't worry about who don't like what God restores. Don't worry about who talking about what God restores. You just celebrate because the good God received you back and restored you back to this place. Don't get caught up into what people think or how people feel because this God has restored you. See when I, when this past week, we had a chance to witness restoration. We had a chance to witness not just one, but a team being restored to a point of being on the top. And anybody who know I'm a big basketball fan. I love myself some basketball. And I had a chance to witness one of my favorite players. And one of my favorite teams of late is the Golden State Warriors. We know back in the early teens, you know, around 14, 2014, 2015, the Golden State Warriors was on the rise and they was winning. They won a championship and they had a chance, they were sitting on the top and they hit a dry spell. And then when they hit that dry spell, that next year, they won the championship. So they ride and hide and they hit a dry spell, that next year. And then they brought in this great player and he came and played with them. They won two championships, two more championships. So in the midst of a few years, they ride and hide and then they had some flashes because they had a great season, but they didn't win the championship. And then they brought some player into them and then they won two more championships and then they hit a dry spell. Matter of fact, the spell got so dry that they had the worst record in all of NBA. Just a couple of years, just a year after they won, they had the very worst record because life happened too. Things happened, players got hurt, players left. Things happened and they had, they went from being on the top of the mountain to being in the bottom of the pin. And how many of you know what it's like to have great success and things going for you, everything working right for you. And then all of a sudden, whether you called it or just like happened to you, you go from being on the top, they ended up in the valley and you find yourself in a dry spell. And keep in mind what the definition say, a lack of productivity and it's only for a period of time. So it don't mean it's gonna last always, you just got to learn to have faith and trust and belief because you know, my Bible says, Jay, do I walk through the valleys of the shadows? By the way, you're gonna walk through it, a valley experience and you may have shadows, but I've never heard of a shadow hurting anybody and then he says, did I walk through it? And all you think you got to do is just continue to move, continue to trust and continue to believe as you're going through the valleys of life that you're in and just keep on moving. See when the warrior was having those pitfalls in their life, when they was in that dry spell of their careers and then a lot of the players that had was experiencing dry spell, you can't lose faith and you can't stop believing and you can't stop trusting when you're in a dry spell. You just got to keep playing. You just got to keep getting better. You just got to keep working on yourself when you're in those dry spells. And when there was in that dry spell, their best player they had at that time, he just kept playing. Even though some cases he was a best player on the team and he just kept fighting. He was working on himself. He was belifting ways, getting stronger, getting better because of the dry spell of life that they was in. And being in that dry spell, he never gave up and he never quit. Even though they finished the season with the worst possible record they can have. But through some transition and through some changes, they plugged one player in, they plugged this player in. And the next season, even though this next season, they didn't rise back to the mountain top and they didn't get back on the top because they still had some life issues. They still had some players hurt. And not everybody was back on the team. And not everything was functioning the way it needs to function, but they never lost hope. They didn't give up. They kept the owners kept the coaches out of impact. They added some players to the team, filled in the gaps while other players had left. And they just kept playing and just kept fighting. And lo and behold, a year later, after almost making it the year before, a year later, they just because they kept fighting because they kept believing and they never quit and they didn't give up in the dry spell that they were in, not only did they have a good season, but they won the championship. They were able to rise back to the top of the mountain where they had once fell off because they was in a dry spell. That period of time during their careers, where they wasn't winning in things what happened the way they needed to, but they never lost faith and they never lost hope. What I'm here to tell you is, even though you may be in a dry spell now, you just can't stop believing you can't stop trusting God. Because the same one that did it before, he can do it again. And if you don't give up hope, you just keep working. You just keep fighting, you don't give it up. And you receive the things that God bring into your life. You receive the people that God bring into your life. You receive the opportunities. You keep working on yourself. You don't give up, you don't quit. You just keep fighting and you just keep going. And before you know it, you're gonna find yourself coming out of that dry spell and not just coming out. You won't look like what you've been through. See, now that they're the champ, now they go to the state of the champs now, you can't remember the last two seasons where they wouldn't win it. What you can remember is now that they're back on the mountain top. See what I'm trying to tell you is, when you come out of this dry spell you in, you won't even remember what you've been through because you ain't gonna look like what you've been through. Because you never gave up, you don't quit, you don't throw on the tile, you don't give up in the dry spell that you're in. Because the same God that puts you there is the same God that can do it again. What I'm here to tell you is don't give up, don't quit when you're in this dry spell you in. He says return to me and he will return to you. And when he opened up that blessing for you, you give him the praise. You give him the glory and you give him the honor for all things that he has done for you to you and go to do for you in your life. Learn to trust him, learn the praise of him. Share his story, be a test deal, witness to what he can do for you in your life. Just let everybody know the same God that did it for you, he can do it for them. He's no respected person. Learn to trust, learn to believe and don't give up in this dry spell that you're in. This is God's word for God's people. God bless you, God keep you. And until we meet again, may God have blessing and peace over your life. This will conclude our podcast for the day. Just continue and just know that the dry spell is only for a period of time. (upbeat music) Thanks for tuning in to the Changing Faces Podcast. Be sure to download the podcast as well as like, subscribe and share. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)