Joel Osteen Podcast - Seasons Of Silence | Joel Osteen

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

You may be in a hidden season, but that doesn't mean God has forgotten you. If you'll stay in faith, God won't just prepare the blessing for you; He will prepare you for the blessing. Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love. To give visitJoelOsteen.com/GiveHope.God wants to release His goodness and favor over you. Now is your time to break free from stress and walk fully in His blessing. Our July offer, 55 Ways to Be Blessed and Not Stressed, gives short, powerful readings packed with God’s promises! Request your copy today,  https://bit.ly/4cxwUAz  Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. We believe you're going to have an awesome 2024, healthy, productive, and favor filled. God bless you today and enjoy the message. Well, God bless you. It's a joy to come into your homes. And if you're ever in our area, please stop by and be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make it feel right at home. I like to start with something funny. And I heard about these two men, the Pope and a lawyer. They died on the same day, went to heaven. Peter met them at the gates. Said, follow me. I'll take you to your homes. Peter dropped the Pope off at this small wood frame house,

one bed, one table, nothing to it. He then took the lawyer to this magnificent house. It was huge, had a big swimming pool, beautiful view out back. The lawyer was overwhelmed. Said, Peter, how did I manage to get this spectacular place? And the Pope only got the small place. Peter said, We have dozens of popes. You're the first lawyer. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am.

I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the word of God. I boldly confess. My mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same. In Jesus' name.

God bless you. I want to talk to you today about seasons of silence. We all go through times what doesn't feel like we're making progress. We're praying, but our prayers aren't being answered. We're being our best, but not getting good breaks. The problem hasn't turned around. Seems like God went on vacation. But the silence is not a sign that God is not working. He may not be changing the circumstances, but he is changing us. God uses the seasons of silence to get us prepared. When we're not getting our way, we're doing the right thing, but we're being overlooked. Our friend got married, but we're still single. We're working harder than our co-worker,

but they got the promotion. We feel overlooked, undervalued, forgotten. These times of isolation where you're not being celebrated are extremely valuable. Nothing may be changing on the outside, but something's happening on the inside. Your character is being developed. You're learning to not depend on people. You're gaining experience, maturity, strength that you'll need to go where God is taking you. And you may wonder why no one is celebrating you.

You're being faithful, but the door hasn't opened. You're gifted. You know you could teach that class better than the person that's in place. But they never call on you. Don't complain about the silence. God does his greatest work in isolation when nobody is noticing you. There are things you will learn in anonymity that you can't learn anywhere else. When God is silent, that doesn't mean he's not concerned.

Silence is not a sign that God has forgotten about you, just the opposite. It's a sign that he's closely watching you. He's getting you prepared for new levels, but if he brought you out before you were ready, it would stop your purpose. God loves you so much that at times he will hide you. He'll cause you to be overlooked. He'll cause the door not to open. He'll cause a person to walk away.

You can be talented and hidden, anointed and hidden, have great ideas and hidden. If you don't understand that is God hiding you, you'll be frustrated. and try to make things happen out of God's timing. But before you see notoriety, you'll go through a season of obscurity. You have to pass this test when you're hidden. As a teenager, David was anointed to be king. God spoke it through the prophet Samuel, but David didn't go straight to the throne.

God hid him. He went back to the shepherd's fields and kept doing the same thing that he had been doing, taken care of his father's sheep. He spent years out there by himself, alone, in obscurity. It was boring. His brothers were in the military. They had a prestigious position. They were being celebrated. Here's a key. Don't compare your life to other peoples. It may seem like they have it better. They're further along. They don't have the challenges you do. Run your race. God's purpose for your life is not the same as theirs. Don't look to the left or to the right. Stay focused

on your calling. In the scripture, Peter asked Jesus about John and what kind of future John was going to have. He thought John might have it better than him. Jesus said, Peter, if I want John to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?

He was saying, Peter, what happens with John, James, Mark? Is none of your business? Just follow me. as long as you compare, you'll be frustrated because you'll always find somebody that looks like they have it better than you. But David was destined to go higher than his brothers. He was going to see more influence, more favor. So that required more isolation, more training, more experience. I'm sure David thought, God, you said I'd be the king.

You said I'd lead the nation. Why am I still stuck out here taking care of these sheep? I have so much more in me. But those years of isolation, when nobody knew David, when he felt forgotten, undervalued, those were incredibly important years. They were proving years. Years where he showed God he would be faithful. He could have slacked off, gotten discouraged, but he took care of those sheep like he was

taken care of the nation. He killed the lion and a bear with his own hands. His father would have understood if a few sheep were killed by a wild animal, no big deal. But David went the extra mile when nobody was watching. In anonymity, when nobody knew his name, he was a person of excellence. I can imagine when he was out there alone, nobody to talk to. He would look up into the skies and talk to God. In that time of isolation, he drew close to his creator.

Maybe that's where he wrote some of the Psalms that we read today. Instead of complaining, God, why is it taking so long? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. After he passed the test of obscurity, God knew he could trust him with notoriety. Like David, you may have big dreams.

God has spoken promises over you, but nobody is noticing you. You're not seeing increase, promotion. Don't get discouraged. It's because God has you hidden. You're not off course. You're not falling behind. You are in a time of preparation, a time of training.

God is getting you ready for what he has in store. And if you will keep doing the right thing, you will come into a time where God causes you to be seen. Promotion doesn't come from people. It comes from the Lord. When it's your time, no person can stop you, no bad break, no injustice. Just as God hid you, he will bring you out into the open. He will shine down his favor and cause you to go where you couldn't go on your own.

Now, you may feel like you're hidden, but don't be frustrated, thinking you're falling behind and look who's getting ahead of me. When God brings you out, he will catapult you forward. He will make up for the lost time. When you have an expensive piece of jewelry, a diamond ring, you put it in a box and hide it. You don't wear it around the house to go work out, to run up to the grocery store. It's valuable so you keep it hidden. And at the right time, when you're going somewhere special, you bring it out for people to see.

In the same way, the reason you're hidden is because you're extremely valuable. You're like that diamond. You're going to shine. God's waiting for the right time to bring you out. You are not hidden because you're ordinary. You're not hidden because you're average. You're hidden because you're a masterpiece. God breathed his life into you.

You have seeds of greatness. Don't let the silence discourage you. Your time is coming. Now, in the isolation, you have to deal with the issues God brings to light. Let him develop you. Like David, do the right thing when it's hard. Keep a good attitude when you're being treated wrong. Go the extra mile when nobody is watching.

When you're hidden, you won't see anything happening on the outside, but I can assure you on the inside, God is doing a work. That's an opportunity to grow, to come up higher. You're getting prepared for new levels. It's like a tree. I have this big oak in my backyard, and in the wintertime, it loses all of its leaves. It looks dead. It's barren.

Just a bunch of branches. No life. But what we can't see is while everything looks stagnant on the outside, on the inside, the tree is gathering up sap for spring growth. Without that time of barrenness, where it's cold and looks like nothing is happening, the tree wouldn't have. any new growth. In the seasons of silence, when you feel like you're hidden, nothing positive has taken place, like this tree, what you can't see is you're gathering up sap, so to speak. Your spiritual muscles are getting stronger. You're learning to trust God in a new way. This time is important because when God brings you out to new levels, into greater opportunities,

you will see greater opposition, bigger obstacles, more coming against you. If God brought you out before you were ready, you couldn't handle it. So he uses the hidden seasons to toughen us up. The scripture says, God didn't take the Israelites the shortest route to the promised land because they weren't prepared for war. God knew they would have been defeated so he hid them. they went through this season of silence where they didn't see anything happening. Now the mistake they made is they started complaining.

God, why is it taking so long? God, why are we still out here in the desert? God, why aren't we making more progress? God was doing them a favor, but they didn't recognize it. Don't do like they did. You may not understand the path that God has taken you. And why it's not happening faster, but God knows what he's doing. He uses the delays, the difficulties to get us prepared.

None of us like the slow seasons and especially the unfair seasons. We lost a loved one. A friend walked away. A dream didn't work out. It's easy to think, God, why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you heal my father? Why didn't you keep them from betraying me? But God doesn't waste anything. the difficulties, the delays, the losses. If we will keep the right attitude, it's all working for our good. It's getting us toughened up. Because where you're going, you can't be offended by every negative comment. You have to have a backbone made of steel.

God can't promote you if you're going to be revengeful and try to use that position to pay people back. You have to let it go and trust God to do. be your vindicator. If you're intimidated by the opposition, overwhelmed by difficulties, it will keep you from your destiny. In these silent seasons, like the Israelites, we can think, God, the promised land is that way. Why are you taking me the long route? You have to trust God. He can see things that you can't see. He knows what's best. It's all a part of the process to get you prepared, to get you developed. He knows, what you're going to need.

I face challenges today that if I would have faced 20 years ago, they would have defeated me. My personality type is to want everyone to like me. When I was working behind the scenes, those 17 years, that was easy. I had a dozen friends,

and they all liked me. At least I think they did. But when God promoted me and put me in front of more people, I found out that some people didn't like me. And that would have bothered me back then and made me feel insecure, intimidated. But I've learned my approval doesn't come from people. It comes from God.

God had to toughen me up. Now when things come against me, I think I buried my father. I went through that loss. I learned how to minister when I didn't think I could. I fought for the compact center when every voice said we'd never get it. If I can make it through those difficulties, then I could make it through anything. The scripture says these light afflictions are for a moment, but they're working in us an eternal weight of glory.

Somebody not being for you, that's a light affliction. That's like a little gnat. Just flick that away. Your time is too valuable to waste on petty things. But when you've been through some difficulties, through some losses, through some Golias. You don't complain about not getting a parking spot. You don't fall apart because somebody left you out.

You don't give up on a dream because it didn't turn out your way. You know it's a light affliction and it's working for your good. Now you may be in a season of silence. You feel like you're hidden, but the silence doesn't mean God has forgotten about you. He's heard every prayer. he's seen every tear and at the right time

God is going to bring you into what he's already prepared God is not preparing the blessing for you he's preparing you for the blessing. The promised land was already in place he had to get the Israelites prepared. Favor is

already in your future there are blessings that already have your name on them. The right people divine connections already lined up. You keep passing the test in the silent seasons. You keep getting prepared and you're going to come in to more than you can ask or think. But what stops some people is they don't like the preparation. You have to deal with the issues God's bring into light. Maybe God's asking you to put down your pride, forgive the person that did you wrong,

or to start saying no to the compromise, no to the jealousy, no to the critical spirit. it. Don't let a small thing keep you hidden. Don't let something you know you can overcome, keep you from the amazing future that belongs to you. You're not hidden because God is mad at you. You are hidden because God loves you so much. He's getting you prepared to go where you've never gone. Now, in the isolation, in the anonymity where you're not seeing increase, you're not getting good breaks, Like David, use that time to draw close to God. One thing about being isolated where you don't have a lot of people or things to give your attention to, you can turn your attention toward your heavenly father.

Learn to talk to God. Develop a deeper relationship. Not just a Sunday morning, God, but all through the day in your thoughts, talk to God like you talk to a friend. God will be as involved in your life as much as you want him to be. If you keep God in a Sunday morning box, he'll stay there. But he wants to be so much more. Tyler Perry told how as a young man,

he had a dream to put on plays. He's always been very creative and had a vivid imagination. But as a little boy, he was mistreated by his father. And the way he would escape the pain is to go out under his front porch. alone and he'd come up with these amazing stories. In his mind, he would go to a different world. When he was in his early 20s, he borrowed $300 from a family member and rented a small theater in Atlanta. He passed out flowers all over the community. He was excited. This was his big debut, but nobody showed up. This happened again and again. His family told him to forget about the

plays. Go get a normal job. Every time he wanted to quit, somebody would step up and underwrite the next play. One play, only a few people showed up. He was so disappointed. He couldn't pay the building, couldn't pay his staff. That was it. He was done. But afterwards, a man from the audience came and said, I love that.

I want to support your next play. You may be hidden, but God will always have the right people there to help keep you going. for seven years it was a struggle. At times, Tyler was homeless living out of his car. $20 was the difference of him eating that whole week. An opportunity came for him to take the play to South Carolina. He thought this was his big break, loaded up the truck, started driving, then it came on the news.

A hurricane is coming to South Carolina. Another disappointment. Tyler had the talent. He had the creativity. He had the skills. But he said, God hid me on purpose. I didn't have the maturity. And if God would have given it to me back then, I wouldn't have been able to sustain it. Back in Atlanta, he rented another theater, decided to try it again. He thought it'd be the same result. Another disappointment. This time, on opening night, he peaked out the window. People were lined up around the block waiting to get in. He couldn't quit weeping. That night was the start of something amazing. Today, Tyler Perry has become the most successful African-American film producer in history. You may be hidden, but when it's your time, God knows how to bring you out.

What he has prepared is bigger than anything you can imagine. What's significant is Tyler told me, none of this success happened. until he forgave his father. For years, he was bitter. He couldn't understand why his father treated him so badly. One day, he went to visit his father with a new perspective

to try to understand who he was as a person, not as a parent. He began to learn how his father didn't have any training, didn't have any guidance growing up. He didn't know any better. And Tyler, once he understood what his father dealt with,

He didn't excuse his actions, but he did make the decision to forgive him. That's when doors begin to open. When you're in these seasons of silence, when you feel like you're hidden, it's so important to look inside and deal with things that could be holding you back. You can have the talent to go somewhere, but if you don't have the character, if you're not willing to forgive, keep giving into compromise, if you don't treat people right, that will keep you, from your best. We see this in the scripture with Joseph. He was hidden for 13 years. He was betrayed

by his family, falsely accused by a lady, put in prison for something that he didn't do. The reason Joseph fulfilled his purpose is he kept passing these tests. He showed God he would forgive. In prison, instead of sitting around bitter, he helped the butler get out of prison. He sowed a seed. Nothing that's happened to you is a surprise to God. He wouldn't have allowed it if he didn't have a plan. It may have been meant to harm you, but God knows how to turn it to your advantage. God did not create you to stay hidden. It may look like it's never going to change. The truth is it's a season of silence, not a lifetime of silence. What God has spoken over you, there is an appointed time for it to come to pass. Keep growing, keep improving, the silence is only temporary. Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked Peter, who do you say that I am? Peter answered, you're the Messiah, the son of the living God. Verse 20 says, Jesus sternly warned him to not tell anyone who he was.

Jesus knew he was supposed to be hidden. He knew it wasn't his time yet. another place the people believed in Jesus so strongly they wanted to crown him king but the scripture says Jesus snuck away and went up and hid in the mountains he knew he couldn't be crowned before he went to the cross he trusted his father's timing like Jesus we can't be crowned before we go to our cross so to speak before we learn to crucify our flesh and resist things that are holding us back. He told his disciples to stay silent, to not tell anyone he was the Messiah. A lot of us would be just the opposite. Go ahead, Peter, get the word out, let everyone know how great I am. It's much better

to let God promote you and not people. Don't get in a hurry. You don't have to make things happen. You don't have to convince someone to put in a good word for you. God knew how to hide you. You you and he knows how to elevate you. If you'll let God do it his way, it will be better than anything you could have made happen. God has not forgotten about you. He knows you're hidden and he knows how long you've been there. He knows what's in you. He's the one that put the gifts, the talents, the dreams. Instead of fighting the silence, why don't you do like Jesus and embrace it? God, my times are in your hands. I know you're getting me prepared. working all things for my good, and at the appointed time, I know you will bring me out.

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in the Bible. As a young man, he spent time studying and preparing for ministry. He'd just gone to the palace and spoken the word of the Lord to King Ahab. No one else had the courage to speak up to the king. I'm sure Elijah left there feeling confident, ready for his next assignment. it. God said to him in 1st King 17, leave here, go east and hide yourself by the Brook Cherath. I can imagine him saying, excuse me, God, you must have the wrong person. I'm Elijah. I just prophesied to the king. I've studied more than anyone. I'm ready to go on a national tour.

You don't want me to hide myself. Elijah wanted to speak to the nation, but for the next three and a half years, he only spoke to a widow and her son. God hid him. He didn't understand it. He had bigger things in his heart, but he trusted God's timing. He was faithful when he was hidden. When you're faithful in the silent seasons,

you are setting yourself on a launching pad for God to take you further than you've ever dreamed. After three and a half years, God said, okay, Elijah, now I know I can trust you. You're ready. leave here and go on your next assignment. After he was hidden, Elisha prayed and the drought

came to an end. He called down fire from heaven, destroyed 400 false prophets, on and on. It's interesting. He performed no miracles until after his season of silence. Don't be frustrated when you're hidden. Jesus was hidden.

Elijah was hidden. David was hidden. It's all a part of the process. Here's the beauty. You're hidden. number one, because you're extremely valuable like that diamond. Number two, you're hidden because God is about to launch you. You're on the verge of seeing promotion, favor, increase like you've never seen. You may have been hidden for a long time, but you've been faithful, you've been growing, getting prepared.

I believe and declare God is about to bring you out. He's about to cause you to be seen. people are going to notice you that have never noticed. Keep being faithful. Your appointed time is on the way. In Jesus name. And if you receive it, can you say amen today? I'd like to give you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me? Just say, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that simple prayer, we believe you got born again, get in a good Bible-based church, and keep God first place. Sometimes the stresses of life can feel like you're just getting by. God wants to bless us, but how do you move from barely enough to just enough to more than enough? We all face difficulties and people that are hard to deal with. You can't eliminate all the stress, but if you'll handle it the right way, you don't have to live strong.

stressed out. Much of our frustration is we're trying to control things that we can't control, letting things stress us that don't have to. I'd love to send you my new book, 55 ways to be blessed and not stressed. I'll show you practical things you can do to live more peaceful and enjoy each day. You can move from stressed to blessed and fully realize God's goodness, favor, and blessings as our way of saying thank you for your gift of any amount to the ministry this month. Joel and Victoria would like to send you this powerful, life-transforming resource, 55 ways to be blessed and not stressed.

With this book, you'll not just see one pathway forward, but 55 powerful, life-changing ways to kill the stress and give life to a life of blessing. These 55 promises will open God's floodgates and release double the impact of his divine direction, opportunity, and blessing every day. Now expect, declare, and receive a blessed, not stressed, over the top outpouring in your life. How much time are you spending worried, upset, and frustrated?

Life is too short to live stressed. If you'll make some simple adjustments, you can live blessed and not stress. Victoria and I want you to know we're praying for you, that you'll experience peace and joy and see your dreams come to pass. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Your generosity is impacting lives all over the world. Remember, you can watch the services online Sunday mornings, download our daily podcast, listen on SiriusXM, YouTube, social media.

But until we meet again, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Be sure to request your copy of 55 ways to be blessed and not stressed today. Visit Joel Osteen.com or call 888-567 Joel.