Are you in a spiritual cycle?
We all go through spiritual cycles. It’s OK to admit it.
Sometimes we feel very close to God and other times he seems silent and unreachable.
It’s normal to cycle through times of blessing and wilderness.
In fact, it’s part of God’s growth plan for us.
How can anything good come from a wilderness? Glad you asked.
In this week’s video I’ll give you the key to success in the wilderness.
It’s all about the battle between your soul and spirit.
Just click on the video and learn how God uses the wilderness to sharpen your skills.
If youâd like to learn how to heal your soul and strengthen your spirit, come join us in Free Your Mind.
Free Your Mind will walk you through a personal healing and transformation pathway so you can have the life of freedom Jesus promised. Click below for more information.
Now I want to hear from you
How has God used wilderness experiences to strengthen you? Just leave your comments in the box below.
Iâll talk to you next week,
Grant
Comments 36
good video grant, this one was quite cool and informative. keep it up!
Dear Kathy and Dr. Mullen,
So much appreciated Michael’s question and, of course, your answer.
Understanding the distinction between soul and spirit is a crucial subject and vitally needed these days.
Your teaching on it was excellent. So appreciated the dialogue presentation by you both. Terrific ideat and a great help!
If you have the time, how about a CD on the subject?? I’m sure it would be of great help to so many.
Many thanks for all you do for the Church, and may God bless you for it.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Tanya
Thank you so much for posting this! You explained it so well! God really does allow us to go thru the wilderness in order that we draw closer to God. It is during my times of the wilderness where I become vulnerable and desperate for God and realize that he is my main source and only he can fulfill our every need. It is in the wilderness that he opens up my spiritual eyes and can see myself for who I really am. It is where my faith is challenged and seek after him and grow deeper in my relationship with him.
Thanks so much for this cute but very powerful message. Many people, including moi have these wilderness experiences and it’s so frustrating. I was doing the very thing I shouldn’t to be able to hear from God. This is great visual message that will stay with me. Now, I have to go and get some duct tape. 🙂
Grant and Kathy,
That was such a great video, and this I really enjoyed your sense of humour on how you came through. I smiled . as I am going through that Wilderness period, where I believe God is showing me what I need to over come, and one is impatience, I want to do things NOW. But I am having to learn.
Yes we need to be open, it is so easy to walk away in our trials, this is when we have to trust God the most.
Wonderful thank you once again Kathy and Grant you make a wonderful team
God Bless Gayle
Dear Dr.Mullen&Mrs.Mullen; Well done with your lesson on individual conflict between the soul and spirit.What goes on in our mind as a person(individually)you need to work out your personal conflict with yourself and any other person or spouse. I been through the meat grinder and have come out of many times with gained experiences that my soul needs GOD and my spirit needs to be renewed each day by this quick way: (1) I talk to Jesus,(2) I pray to GOD and (3) I sing to the Holy Spirit in song and rejoying in his name,because I know there is one GOD,one Son, one Holy spirit: together they are one in all and all in one.So I will pray now for you to Jesus that may help your people you sheperd them in the way of his way to find away thru the dark cloud to bright and prosperious days and let them like me learn more teaching from your lessons. I have a saying when my heart is up lifted to anyone I meet about GOD I say; good morning, how are you? If they say I had a bad day I say to them; My goodness; What I know is that an Optimist say Good morning GOD, a pessimist say Good GOD it’s morning.I will now sigh off and let others see what I have written to you, and Kathy. Bye for now. Amen to the prayer.
Ha haaa …. Another Good One! You’ve shown how a mini-sermon with visuals can sometimes get the point across much better than an hour-long pulpit version. ANYone can get, and apply, this lesson. Keep up the good work, Kathy and Grant, for the blessing and benefit of many.
I’ve been through a few wildernesses. It’s like God is playing hide-and-seek, so it’s harder to hear Him, though I know He’s ALWAYS there. So how do I hear Him during a wilderness time?
Hi Grant and Kathy,
I just love your style! Your brand of humor reels me in every time.
Question:
Would your spirit ever take control like that (quieting your soul so you can hear the Spirit)?
I do understand what you are trying to get across, however I thought that quieting our soul to be able to hear what the Spirit is saying is everyone’s personal responsibility and would come under the category of self discipline and faith (for example spending quiet time with the Lord in prayer, believing in faith He will speak to you)?
I don’t think the Spirit of God would ever impose Himself on anyone in that manner.
Am I off course here?
I still loved the video!
Grant, that is so true and still so hard to do, to shut up your soul and listen to your spirit when in crisis. I have been dealing with the sale of my commercial building in a small northern Alberta town (La Crete) for 4 months now. half of the building has been vacant for 3 years and now the remaining tenant was threatening to move out. God sent a buyer in January and we have been negotiating ever since. I have a good lawyer working with me and everyone is on good terms but I have been fearing the “what ifs” …he doesn’t buy…what will i do then…etc…etc.
thanks for reminding me what is going on between my soul and spirit.
I also love the teaching of Graemme Cooke (long lost relative of Habbakkuk hahaha) your turn to laugh!!!
I just can’t keep up with all the great comments!
It proves that we all have wilderness experiences and it’s ok to admit it.
Christa and SandyLee, I’ll answer your questions in next week’s Q&A video.
how true!!! very creative way of communication. great!
I like this video; made me laugh. One of the things I never really struggled with until recently was hearing God’s voice.I know that may sound strange to some folks, but I would hear the voice of God speaking directions to me on a continual basis. So you can imagine what a shock it was for me to not be able to hear His voice with accuracy and clarity like I used to. I felt abandoned by God and kept repenting for any and all sins to make sure that I hadn’t done anything wrong. It wasn’t that He wasn’t still speaking, but I couldn’t seem to hear that still, small voice like I used to.I don’t know, maybe I got off in the flesh and hadn’t been walking in the Spirit like I was doing before.
At any rate, I was so overjoyed by something simple that happened recently. Upon returning home from a trip, I saw that someone had called several times but didn’t leave a message.Since I didn’t recognize the number, I deleted it. Not too long after I did so, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said that it was my very good friend who was trying to reach me.He told me who it was and I said to the Lord that that couldn’t be her because she has a different number. The Lord said it was her cell phone she was calling from.
So in my bathrobe and with my hair dripping wet,I rushed off to the phone to call this number. Just as I was about to hang up after the fifth ring, she answered the phone and I was blown away.It REALLY was my friend who was trying to reach me.She lives in a foreign country and never in a million years would I have been able to figure that out on my own because of all the different area codes, etc.
Anyway, to God be the glory for what He did.Now I realize that God wanted me to trust Him at His Word even when I couldn’t trace Him.Praise God!!
That’s an amazing story Glory.
In a future blog I’ll be talking about hearing the voice of God. It’s such an important and poorly understood subject.
Thank you so much for this weeks message. Right now I’m going through a wilderness experience. After taking care of parents for over 20 years, I feel awash in life. Sometimes I’m excited to see what is just around the bend. Sometimes I just feel lonely and confused. I’m trying not to rush into anything that is not God’s will as I know that will only cause greater misery. But sometimes I do wish God would hurry up and give me patience.
Dr. Grant and Kathy,
Thank you for demonstrating so clearly the way our spirit and soul can interact. I have experienced this conflict. And as you proved when our spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit, takes control peace follows. I now feel affirmed to continue what has been happening between my own spirit and soul of late. I had been wondering about it a little in awe – because my spirit seems to be taking control more. Thank you so very much for that clear picture explaining what has been happening.
That was hilarious! I am there too and it is a very stretching place, but necessary for we can so easily become complacent. Psalm 91 is where the Lord wants us to be, keeping our focus on Him and yielding to His work in us. And actually, the duct tape is not a bad idea because the Lord wants us to learn to hear His voice in many different ways. We can’t hear if we are always talking.
Blessings,
Genevieve
A wilderness experience can be lifechanging as you spirit rises up in strength. You learn lessons that you never would have in times of blessing. Keep pressing through them and keep talking to God and listening for his voice.
Thanks for the video – good example of “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ”.
I can’t imagine how the duct tape removal felt … the things you go through for us, Grant, is pretty incredible.
Kathy thought I should leave the tape on for day or so. It was easier to take off then.
Ouah! Very good job! Yes, this is an important teaching and if we decide to follow God no matter what, we will all go through wilderness periods. I have been there many times and sometimes, for many months.
I don’t know if what I experience since the beginning of the year is wilderness period or not. I call it the “Humilation Path”. Through end of relationships, crazy circumstances, God just brought me at the end of my rope, at that extremity that you think if He doesn’t intervene NOW, you gonna crush totally and die!
I don’t think I have been at that extreme point of break-up since 20 years. Very painful experience. I haven’t recover yet from the “surgery” for the big part happened this week. And after a surgery, it is still painful for days and weeks. But during this time, healing happens. And I guess this is where you were Grant with your wife during your marital crisis.
But thanks God, He did delivered me and I am still breathing, even if like Paul, I was desespering of life itself.
The hardest challenge for me during these times where to stand with my spirit and shout-up my very loud soul. This is why it is so important to get rid of the junk of our lives and ungodly believes. For when great crisis happens, we really see what we believe with our head or what we believe with our hearts and who is in control.
It was a great illustration of the soul and spirit.
Thanks for your ministry that blesses our lives as many others as well.
Blessings
Sonia
Thank You both for your fresh approach to revealing the inner conversation of our spirit and soul. The vantage point offers great insight into much inner turmoil.
I gratefully agree that the Lord does use the wilderness to invite us to draw closer and more intimately dependent on Him. He can bring my fears and doubts to the fore so they can find their rightful resting place within His care and attention. The growing pains and sufferings may seem like they are going to consume me, and in that fragile state I end up giving more of myself to Him.
Thank you for the encouragement and reminders to explore and deepen our life in Christ. David
Thanks David. You summed up the whole video in 2 sentences!
Well enjoyed the cute vinette example, and so very true! Especially in very HARD and unknowing times. I have marital question in regards to this issue. We all go through wilderness, and our soul gets anxious. What do you do about the fact that the wife is hearing and at peace, able to walk in the Lord patiently, doing fine but the husband (who is the leader) is not doing so well? Not able to hear God and gets anxious, fearful and gives up! or makes rash off the cuff decisions that can cost the family alot? rather than waiting on Him to lead.
Yep it’s just like that in the wilderness. I have been there few times.
But what when we feel we are in the valley of the shadow of death? Here is my life: I had a boy with spina bifida ten years ago, I am in debt, my husband is not really on fire for God the way I would him to be, our marriage is not over only because of God; my character is kind of terrible now worst than ever plus we are out of ministry, yeah, we were pastoring a church but of course God closed that door (He was totally right to do so, you don’t want pastors like us. Since then it’s even more valley of death…I have to admit though that God did an amazing job on our characters since then…but my son is still not walking (even though God told me 8 years ago that He was going to heal him), we are still in deep debt, my marriage is better but not totally changed yet, my husband got some inner healing but he has still a lot to go and I still get angry…which makes me feel I am not worthy.
Now what do you do when you are the only one (well…couple), in the valley of death?
Blessings
Teresa
These are 2 very real and difficult questions.
Kay, whenever there are relationship issues like that, it’s best to see a counsellor who can help you both resolve it and lead him to a greater level of trust in God.
Teresa, Ps. 23 says so clearly and gently that you are never alone in the valley of the shadow death. Your soul of course will be crying out while your spirit can rest in the overwhelming love and comfort of Jesus. This is the time to strengthen your spirit and quieten your soul. Duct tape if necessary.
The wilderness experiences in my life have been among the greatest times of spiritual growth, although I certainly didn’t think that while I was going through them. 🙂 It is only in retrospect that I can appreciate their value.
Blessings,
Dr. MaryAnn Diorio
Thank you! This is just what I need to hear today. Life can be so distracting, but this is the reality. So needed today to get quiet!
Dr. Mullen,
I’ve had a lot of silence from God (about 3 decades now) so I always listen up when people discuss the causes. My first conclusion was He dropped me. Left me in the lurch. On my own to figure life out. Then the church started speaking into it: I had obviously done something to offend. I was cherishing some sin. As the church grew up around me (i.e, as I aged and my companions became older and more experienced Christians) I heard other things. Here’s one I like for a laugh: God goes away to go deeper! So He must be really deep in me! Decades deep.
To me it seems similar to your spouse walking out the door one morning to go to work and not coming back for…well, ever!
But you posit an interesting theory: conflict within. Spirit vs. soul. I like it. It resonates in me. You state your case with persuasive conviction, but I was waiting for you to mention the Scriptural authority on which you base your conclusions. Or perhaps some experience of personal revelation. Can you point me to something?
Thanks.
Michele in California
I continue to be refreshed by the Biblical teachings you present and I can hear my spirit loud & clear but my problem came down to choice and I will continue to read the Scriptures to listen to my spirit more.
Great video! I liked it. I really appreciated the clarity around the quiet voice of God.
One thing I have found is the importance of listening to my soul’s complaints. I have heard other teaching that we must shut up our souls. But when I started to listen to the pain my soul was expressing I was then able to bring the lies that had taken root to God for healing. Because I had ignored my soul for many years I had trouble learning to honor the pain I was carrying.
Author
Charlotte, that’s a very important point. I’m glad you mentioned it. For the purposes of healing, you need to listen to what your soul is complaining about. Then ask Jesus where did this start and what lies am I believing as a result of that event.
Author
Michele, thanks for your note. I’m sorry God seems so silent. The soul spirit battle was mentioned by Paul when he described the struggle he had with himself to do the right things. I personally have experienced it when my soul starts to worry about something and my spirit keeps telling me to relax. We all have these battles. You should consider seeing a counsellor to uncover what’s blocking you relationship with God. Or make an appointment with me and we can work on it.
Grant I have noticed that I sent a message in 2011 and I am still in my wilderness But God has on odd occasions given me the Scripture Jeremiah 29:11 even in the last couple of days I know the plans I have for you. and odd occasions spending time with God I feel a beautiful peace for a short while.
You and Kathy make your videos humourous and very helpful
Everyone needs encouragement
Blessings Gayle
Hi Kathy and Grant
Been receiving your podcasts for about years and always look forward to them. I appreciate this one from 2011. I have a better grasp on the difference between soul and spirit.
Author
Gertrude, thanks for your kind words. Glad the videos have been helpful.