To every man and woman of God there is a season of trial whereby God allows you to enter into a precipice of painful waves and torrential rain storms.
For each of us the place of trying will be unique, for what wounds one shall not wound another.
He will allow the enemy to challenge and sift you in the place of darkest storms in your unique heart. The pressure applied will be pointed directly at a place that will cause a major crisis of faith. It will be the place likely of your deepest agony.
For each of us, as also with those in the Bible…. certainly with Jesus, Himself…. we will face our greatest tests. For some it is an illness that has whispered its coming for years, while for others it will be abandonment that has followed closely all your life and called your name time and time again. You loved fully in a found place of safety to find it no longer a safe place and again abandonment leaves a deep mark on your heart. In this place, you will learn Christ must be your …everything.
For some, loss of a loved one will challenge your view of Christ in all the pain, yet Christ prays daily that you shall emerge from the valley seeing Him as a Good Shepherd and a caring heart for His sheep. With all the “whys” and deafening screams, you will cry out as never before with anguish you never thought possible from your very heart. In this you will see His nearness and compassion moved by the cries of grief and loss. The tenderness of a Savior who bottles every tear will provide much comfort and become an awakened life support for your heart. For there is one “who sees.”
Others may suffer betrayals and disappointments by those closest to them that leave a legacy of broken trust that you are quite unsure will ever be rebuilt in your now protected heart. Yet, Christ will woo you again out of isolation to love again and to offer yourself up with vulnerability, just as He did. He solidifies His everlasting faithfulness to you and His enduring love that never leaves.
This “place” is often spoken of as a Valley of Baca (weeping) or the Valley of Achor (trouble) yet immersed in the text is a promised result from each. That in divine providence emerges pools filled by the rain that offer blessings and trouble seems to be the corridor thru which we merely pass to come near our vineyards full of fruit. The Valley of Elah is many a place to hearts now battling their greatest giants, yet learning we are, here, that the power Christ has in battle is paramount with merely one stone. Here you will learn of His strength and His glory.
We would rather turn our faces from that which we must confront with Christ and He calls us to face our enemy once and for all. Throwing off every weight, we enter a valley to face personal fear, loss, abandonment, unbelief, pride, insecurity, idolatry, and all manners of things hindering the assignment He has for each of us.
Sometimes, we are simply the product of a promise as the Lord challenges Satan with whom He knows to be a righteous man or woman. In this very place, we learn of a bigger picture in Kingdom work happening around us. What seems to be punishment to all of Heaven is a promotion! “Do you remember my servant, Job?”
Whatever valley you find yourself in, the Christ is yet there with you and has come to show you how He walks near to the broken, the oppressed, and the abused. He will likely wreck your theology in this place and challenge your belief system. He will uproot everything not planted by the Father and every branch not in full bloom will get a much needed pruning with sharp sheers that give you no warning of need to the human eye.
He will display His very nature for justice to you. In order for us to understand fully justice, He will require you to taste injustice… or perhaps we would find ourselves on the wrong side of this battle one day. For often it seems incidental until our own heart is pierced with such pain. We tend to be a people who run from pain and confrontation, when Christ has called us to run to it. The Savior Himself trod the walk to the cross seared with pain and marked by injustice. He rose again to bring justice. For some crazy reason, His plan was to use His people to seek justice. We rarely seek justice, but flee from it. It is no matter for us we say. Our own suffering will be the catalyst that catapults us to the hearts now in need. We will have learned intimately our charge to defend the oppressed. Silence will no longer be an option, for you bear the marks of its pain personally.
As we each defeat our giants in the Valley of Elah, He will teach us our position in Christ and how to walk confidentially in our callings. We will no longer yield to the enemy’s whispered lies and echoes sent to halt our forward motion. Oh no, on the contrary, we will place our hand on the land we are given and raise His staff to part the massive sea before us. As Moses cried for help with nowhere to run…. forward or behind…he declared to the people…”be still and watch the salvation of the Lord, which the Lord will accomplish today! For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again NO MORE …FOREVER!!!”
Yet hearing the fearful cry, likened to Moses, God responds the same to us, “why do you cry to me? MOVE FORWARD! YOU lift your rod! YOU stretch out your hand over the sea, and YOU divide it!” We are visiting the Valley of Elah that He may show His glory through us. Often, we fall into a snare of false humility not wanting to truly proclaim with boldness our rightful place in the Kingdom. The enemy stands on our land and chuckles as we near it knowing we have rested in a passive position and are unwilling to demand his vacating the premises. Ahhh…. but those in Elah shall learn this lesson well under the powerful guide of the heavenly warrior Himself. For the Valley of Elah calls out to every believer, “Christ, Himself, resides in you!” The resurrection power is not afar off but waiting your faith to command all His power forward as you lift His staff to your giants. Suddenly, the enemy shakes as he sees in your eyes, you have seen the hidden truth! You were charged with the very authority, power, and dominion as those who walked with Christ! But far greater now, as the eyes of your heart are enlightened that the power of Christ and His Spirit dwell in your earthen vessel! Hallelujah!
Whether your heart is working through the valley of weeping…. He is closer than He’s ever been to you and you can lay in His arms as you wail…or if your feet are in the midst of the corridor to hope in the trouble of Achor, there is fruit from this valley that can grow nowhere else… and lastly if you are in Elah, you are being taught now how to slay your giants one by one and soon they will be seen no more… Forever. Never to taunt you and never to follow you again. You are now free to walk forward without looking over your shoulder. For many, this will be your first time to taste true freedom in Christ. The giants in Elah will fall.
As you wearily make your way to the wider space leaving behind your valley, you will see freshly. Your eyes have been forever changed and have a greater clarity, and your ears now hear a sweeter voice of your Father because the flowers are blooming and the grapes are growing….. as far as the eye can see. Your tears were used to water the seed sown. Your heart is enveloped with a tender compassion marked by the trials…yet still marked by the love of Jesus in them each. For you experienced His very loving kindness in your valley.
In this moment, we fall to our knees and praise Him for walking the journey with us. Thankful that we actually made it out alive. We find that the valley of the shadow of death no longer breeds fear and panic but has led us to greener pastures and peaceful waters. The pain is not forgotten, nor shall it ever be. For if forgotten, we tend to revert back to who we were before it arrived.
We find the meadow’s ledge to take a sit gazing upon our new field of harvest, and we whisper to the Lord with a tearful, yet grateful sigh, “So this is what you meant by going from glory to glory and strength to strength….”
Valley of Baca, Psalm 84:6
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
They make it a spring;
The rain also covers it with pools.
Valley of Achor, Hosea 2:14-15
I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
Valley of Elah, 1 Samuel 17:48-51
When the Philistine came forward to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
49 David put his hand into his bag and took out a stone and slung it, and it struck the Philistine, sinking into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck down the Philistine and slew him. But no sword was in David’s hand.
51 So he ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their mighty champion was dead, they fled.
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