What It Means When Your Brook Dries Up (3 THINGS).

Have you been in a season of drought where God had sent a brook your way but now it has dried up. Are you scared wondering what’s next because your source of sustenance has diminished. Maybe it was a job that you have lost. Or maybe something has happened that has caused limitations in your finances. If you relate with this word, I have an encouraging word for you. 

So what does a brook represent?

A brook is a source of temporary sustenance that’s not enough to fully sustain you but it’s enough to make you comfortable. It does not necessarily get you the comforts of life but it is enough to keep you going and keep the lights on. So as you can see, from the jump it’s always clear that the brook is temporary.

A brook also represents supernatural provision. So essentially you don’t necessarily work to obtain the brook, it simply comes your way. So before we look at out main scripture for today, let’s look at another example of a brook. 

While the Israelites were in the wilderness, God sent manna from heaven to feed them. They did not have to work for it. But one clear thing is that they also knew it was a temporary situation until they got to the promised land. That’s why when they got to Gilgal the manna stopped. 

On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan. Joshua 5:10‭-‬12 NIV

As you can see, it got to a point when the brooke dried up because there were now in a new season. 

Now let’s get to the word of today. 

Elijah and the brook.

You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 1 Kings 17:4‭-‬7 NIV

Now the back story was that Elijah had prophesied a 3 year drought. And when that happened God instructed him to go to the wilderness and He promised that He would sustain him there. But after a while the brook dried up. 

Of course we know that eventually the word of the Lord came to Elijah instructing him to go to Zarephath as that was where he would be sustained. 

We do not know how long after the brook dried up, did God tell Elijah to leave the place. And I am wondering are you currently in a season where you feel like the brook is drying up? Maybe it’s not fully dried up but you can see it depleting and are wondering what you will do next. Elijah might have wondered what would happen to him when the brook dried up. Are you wondering how you are going to sustain yourself from now henceforth. You know, the space in between the next thing and the former thing is a very scary place. On one end it can be exciting because you know that there is something new and grand on the horizon.

But on the other end it can be frightening because you don’t know when you will get to the other side. And there is some fear involved because you don’t know how the next will look like. Will you be accepted? Will it be favorouble to you? And you might even wonder if it will sustain you fully. But today I want you to know that if your brook has dried up. And you are wondering where to go from here, God is still in control. You see, God will sometimes shake a path you are on to position you to next. 

So why does the brook dry up?

• God can cause a brook to dry up because He wants you to get to know Him in another way. You see it was comfortable for Elijah when he could see where his water was coming from. But once it dried up, he had to fully rely on God for his next drink. Could it be that God has allowed your brook to dry up because He wants you to know another facet of Him
• Again God could allow a brook to dry up so THAT he can shift you to another place. You see while Elijah was in the wilderness,he did not know that God could raise a child from the dead through him. Up to that point he had not experienced that aspect of God. And it was after the brook dried up. And he went to Zarephath that he got to experience that. 
• God wanted to meet someone else’s need through you. So sometimes there could be someone in need of a solution that you have. So God could allow your brook to dry up so that in the process of getting to your solution, you can be a solution. Elijah needed food, the widow needed a miracle. And at the time they did not know that each one of them had what the other needed. The widow of Zarephath had the food that Elijah could petition for a miracle. While Elijah had the miracle but he did not have food. Let’s not forget that it was the little flour and oil that the widow had left that God used to perform his miracle.
• This is the beauty of community. There will always be someone who has something you need. And also you will always be a solution to someone else’s problem even in moments when you feel like you are running on empty. So never look down on yourself and think that you have nothing left to give. This is because there is always something that you can give even in your lowest moments. 

How then can you position yourself for the next when your brook dries up?

Trust God

When you experience the drying up of a brook, you can be tempted to allow fear and worry to creep in. But it is in the se moments that your trust in God should even rise. Because worry will not help you solve the problem at hand. In fact it will only magnify it. Elijah had to trust that God would supply for his needs according to his riches in glory. And you see, He is the same God. That’s why the Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes.

This should encourage you because if He supplied for Elijah’s need then, then He will do the same for you. He has not forgotten you and you are not an after thought to Him. He can see your needs and your fears. Dont be afraid to be honest with Him

 Tell him that you are scared of the future. Let Him in, in those deep and scary spaces. Allow Him to speak truth over your situation and give Him room to show you who He really is. He says that you can trust Him to take care of you. And not only that He cares for you so you can cast your burdens unto Him. You are valuable to Him. In your worry, let this scripture wash away your doubt and fear. 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25‭-‬26‭, ‬28‭-‬32‭, ‬34 NIV

As you can see from this scripture God already knows that you need these things and He will provide for you. He knows that the brook has dried up and He has the solution because He is the Solution. So trust Him. TRUSTING him looks like being honest and laying it all at His feet. It looks like taking your plans to Him and telling Him what you want to do next and allowing Him into your next plan. This is because whatever you give to God, He not only multiplies but also protects. That’s why He says that He will protect you when you hide yourself under the shadow of His wings. So you see, you have to surrender to Him if you want to experience His next.

Have a relationship with God.

Elijah was able to clearly hear God when his brook dried up. He did not even question whether it was God when God told him to go to Zarephath. Mind you Zarephath was an emny territory that was hwre Jezebel was from. So Elijah had to have had a relationship with God to follow what He was saying. Do you have a relationship with God? Can you Discern the voice of God? You see, God says that His sheep hear His voice and follow His leading. As God’s child you should be able to know when God is speaking because that is how you will get to your next safely. And it is when you are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit that you can even minimize the fear of change. 

Ways you can learn to hear Gods voice.

Reading the Bible. You see, for you to be sensitive to the leading of the Sport you have to know God. And the only way you can know God is through the reading of the Bible. The more you read the Bible, the more you will. Understand God’s voice. And as you do that, you sensitize your spiritual senses to the leading of the Holy Spirit and in turn to the voice of God. God will never contradict His word or His character. Once you know all these, you will be able to test the spirits and recognize when God is speaking.

Another thing is that as you read the Word, you are transformed to be more like Jesus. As you do so the more you are able to resist the devil and the Bible says that when you resist the devil he will flee. When the enemy flees, he will not influence any decision you make and this will enhance your clarity in hearing the voice of God. So I hope you can see the importance of reading God’s word. 

Prayer, praise and worship. Prayer will change you before your circumstance can change. It is through prayer that yiu get the perspective shift that allows you to step into the new that God has for you. Prayer is simply Communion with God. In prayer, your flesh is silenced and your spirit comes alive. This activates your antennae giving you room to hear God when He tells you to move. Praise and worship will help you focus on God and in so doing you will be able to magnify God minimizing your problem.

God inhabits the praises of His people. Where God is there also is His glory. God’s glory also brings solution because you can never go into the presence of God and leave the same way you came in. So as you praise God He will open your mind to see the solution to your problem. So could it be that God is asking you to praise and worship Him so that you can see Him move in your situation? Not to say that He will not move when you don’t praise Him. I am just giving you another alternative. 

Leave your comfort zone

Elijah’s problem was solved when he left his place of comfort. He had become accustomed to having ravens feed him and a brook to quench his thirst. But now God was asking him to leave the familiar and tseo into the unfamiliar. Could God be asking you to do the same? Could God be directing you to another place and asking you to follow His leading? 

Conclusion.

There will be moments where God will shake your ground to get you to come up higher. You see a brook represents a place of comfort. And also a place where you are merely on survival mode. But God today wants you to experience the abundance He has for you. But this will require you stepping out. Yes I know it hurts that yiur brook has dried up. But God has something better for you.

And this time He will sustain you even more and with something even better. It is okay to mourn the brook that has dried up. But don’t get stuck there dear one. God has so much more. Just like Elijah, step out of your comfort zone and step into the new path that God has for you. Take that step and come out of the boat. Your provision is on the other side of your obedience. Had Elijah stayed in the wilderness he would have probably died. But because he was obedient, he got to experience a new facet of God he had never seen. Do not be worried about your tomorrow. God is in control.