Sermon Synopsis 3.29.25

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Scripture: Song of Solomon 2:10–13 (NKJV)

10 My beloved spoke, and said to me:

“Rise up, my love, my fair one,

And come away.

11 For lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

12 The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing has come,

And the voice of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

13 The fig tree puts forth her green figs,

And the vines with the tender grapes

Give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one,

And come away!”

Prayer:

Open up our hearts, God, to receive this word today. Let this word meet us in this place, where we are, and we will forever be changed. We give You the glory and praise, in Jesus’ name, amen.

I.               INTRODUCTION

• Today we’re talking about surviving the silent season. There are seasons in all of our lives when it feels like God has gone quiet. You pray, you fast, you cry out, but all you hear is silence. That can be an incredibly difficult season. I’ve experienced it, and I know people listening to me today have experienced it. The phone doesn’t ring. The door doesn’t open. The breakthrough does not come. Yet in those moments, you begin to wonder, “God, do You care, or have You forgotten about me?”
• This season of silence, ladies and gentlemen, is not punishment for you. It is actually a setup. It is a setup for a new song, a new stance. It is a setup for something called a new season. Therefore, when this comes forth with your praise, it will not be some shallow, immature, typical, reactionary thing that makes people think you’re emotional. This will come from the depth of your experience. When you open up your mouth the next time you give God glory, people will know without a shadow of a doubt that something has shifted in your spirit.
• Most people don’t expect to find one of the most intimate, poetic, and emotionally rich books of the Bible tucked away where it is in Scripture. It is a complex book. It is that book, the Song of Songs, written by Solomon. This book has a lot of imagery, a lot of allegory. It is incredibly compelling. It is a story that stands alone. Unlike a story of law or prophecy, it is a story of a relationship. We see clearly before us a relationship between a man and a woman. However, the elegant truth is that this is deeper than that. It is about the relationship between God and His people. It is that God desires intimacy with us. He desires connectivity with us. He has always desired that with us.
• As a consequence, God will shift us. He will prune us. He will challenge us. He will speak to us, call us away from comfortability, and bring us into places of alignment. Therefore, as we read a text like this, this passage begins by helping us understand that the bride is being called to rise up because winter has passed and springtime has come. Spiritual winter represents our trials, our delays. It represents seasons of silence. Springtime represents the manifestation of God, God’s presence, God’s promise, God’s breakthrough.
• So what the passage is going to remind us is that silence is not stagnation. God is working in your life even when you cannot hear His voice, nor can you see His hand moving. You must understand that God is in movement, that there is a shift happening, and that shift is happening because it’s moving you from winter to spring, which symbolizes movement from waiting to worship, from struggle to a song, from waiting to that thing actually manifesting in your life.

II.               THE STILLNESS BEFORE THE SOUND

A.    God’s silence isn’t absence, it’s preparation for your breakthrough.

1. I give you a word of encouragement today to tell you that silence does not mean absence. It often suggests alignment. God’s quiet is working for you in ways you could never fully comprehend. Just like winter’s frost prepares the soil for the spring, God’s silence prepares us for blessings that have yet to unfold in our lives. What seems like a delay is actually divine preparation. You are being prepared for something you cannot handle right now, but the tears you shed are watering the ground for the fruit that’s about to come. The prayers that seem unanswered are being positioned for perfect timing.
2. Silence can feel empty, but God’s silence is never wasted because the stillness is always intentional. It is preparation for the next move of God, the next miracle. So whenever you find yourself in a season of stillness, get ready, because something is about to happen on the other side of it. Just as a composer pauses before the crescendo, God positions your life for impact during the quiet season. So your praying, your fasting, and your waiting are being aligned for the fruit that’s on the way.
3. Hear me well. This is the moment you must trust God’s timing like never before. You have to guard your heart from being discouraged. You have to get those negative voices out of your ear because everybody is not going to understand this season in your life. The Bible is full of examples of silence preceding triumph: Joseph in prison before Pharaoh’s favor, Moses lingering in the desert before leading a nation, David enduring years of rejection before ruling Israel. God uses stillness to teach us, to refine us, and to strengthen us. If you can survive the stillness, you can definitely support the sound, because the sound that follows is going to be better than anything you’ve ever had to survive.
4. Somebody right now listening to me, I know you’re right there in the still place right now. Heaven feels quiet. Justice feels delayed. Your moment feels like it’s being taken from you. “God, I need You to help me understand. Why are You so quiet in this season?” Can I tell you something? God does His good work in the quiet places. You haven’t seen God work until you’ve seen God work in the silence.
5. In Song of Solomon 2, the beloved hears the voice after winter has passed, which means that silence had a season, but that season shifted. And I’ve lived long enough to know I’ve seen God move after a long stretch where I heard nothing but my own prayers echo back to me. I asked God, “Lord, where are You?” Then all of a sudden, when the sound finally came, it came at the right time, at the right place. God reminded me that all along He was hearing me. Just because I couldn’t hear Him didn’t mean He couldn’t hear me. God was forming me, and out of the quietness, God was trying to let me know, He was still active in my life. He was positioning me.
6. Can I help you understand something, people of God? Silence is not an absence. It is preparation for your breakthrough. When God is silent, He’s not absent. He’s working behind the scenes. He’s orchestrating circumstances on your behalf, lining people up and places up, and putting things in place so that something will be birthed out of that stillness. Think about a seed. A seed sits in darkness. It grows quietly before it emerges into life. God is planting and growing and developing breakthrough while you wait. Your silence is not punishment. Your silence is a prelude. Every prayer you prayed, every tear you shed, every time you held on, God was weaving that into the story of your victory.
7. That’s why when you begin to grow in your relationship with God and you begin to mature, you begin to appreciate moments when you’re by yourself. People think you’re crazy because you just want to be left alone. You don’t want the phone. You don’t want the doorbell. You don’t want the noise. “Just leave me be.” “Are you okay?” “Yes, I’m okay, because I need some time with God.”
8. The truth is God is closer than you think, just quieter than you prefer. Scripture shows us that God moves invisibly before He moves visibly. Lazarus was laid out. Jesus waited. The Red Sea opened, and Israel had to stand still, because preparation rarely makes noise. Prepared people know how to tone it down.

B.    Listen carefully; the quiet is crafting your next victory.

1. Practically speaking, this season with God in the stillness is preparing your character for what you’re asking God to release into your hand. Because if your preparation is not complete, then you will crumble under the weight of the thing you just asked God to bless you with. So God says, “What I’m going to do in the stillness, I’m going to build your prayer life. I’m going to build your worship. I’m going to make you deeper in the Word of God, because when I release the blessing over your life, it’s going to be so weighty, you’re going to have to be prepared to carry what you’re praying for.”
2. Listen carefully. Quiet is crafting your next victory. Silence requires attentiveness. In still moments, God whispers wisdom and direction and strategy. In those moments, you hear clearly. The storms may be loud, but God’s voice is clear to those who pay attention. The quiet shapes your character, tests your faith, and prepares you to handle what’s coming. There is a moment when you begin to appreciate those moments when God keeps you quiet.
3. Think about it for a moment. Your next victory is being sculpted in silence, so stop rushing the Artist. Just let Him do what He’s doing. He’s working on you. Let Him do what He’s doing. You’re at home by yourself on Friday. Ain’t nobody answering the phone. Sit your tail down and let Him do what He’s trying to do. I’m trying to help somebody. “I ain’t got nobody.” That’s because the Sculptor is doing something. He’s trying to shape you. When you step forward, people are going to wonder where you came from. It’s because God’s been working on me.
4. Sometimes we are so focused on hearing loud answers that we miss quiet instructions. Silence sharpens spiritual sensitivity. It teaches you discernment. It trains your ear. I’ve learned that when God quiets the noise around you, He’s trying to increase clarity within you. That’s why God had to release you from some people and some voices and some influences, because you could not hear clearly. You could not discern clearly.
5. Listen. Next-level strategy is being formed now. This is where wisdom is being downloaded, and this is where confidence is being rooted. So stop despising the quiet season. Lean into it and say, “God, whatever You want me to get in this season, I’m going to stay right here until I get it.” It’s in that still season that God is developing and preparing and sculpting me and getting me ready.

III.               THE SHIFT OF THE SEASON

A.    . Winter’s over so step into your next.

1. What is God getting me ready for? The shift of the season. I need somebody to say, “The season is shifting.” You see, seasons are never permanent. It may be frozen today, but thawing is coming tomorrow. Winter may feel endless, but God is so faithful to move us into a springtime situation.
2. The shift is not about magic. Listen carefully. The shift is about obedience. It’s about awareness. The earth responds to warmth and light, but we respond to God’s faithfulness. God’s not through, so don’t you mourn what froze you or cling to what has passed, because the future God has for you is a lot better than what you’ve been through. Every delayed answer, every closed door, every silent prayer is a prelude to your breakthrough. You survived the frost. Now the sun is rising. It is time to step forward into your manifestation.
3. The shift is not going to happen around you until something happens within you. Seasons can change externally, but you have to respond internally. Song of Solomon says, “Arise, my love, and come away.” That means when the season shifts, there is a summons attached to it. When the season shifts, you’ve got to move. God does not just change the weather. God calls you forward.
4. That’s why somebody’s watching me right now, and you know there’s a season shifting and you feel God calling you. You’ve been faithful in the winter. You prayed in the winter. You worshiped in the winter. You didn’t enjoy the winter, but the danger is not surviving the frost. It’s missing the favor because you stayed emotionally frozen.
5. In my own life, I’ve learned that when God shifts seasons, you’ve got to shift your mindset, because the same faith that sustained you in the silence must now activate you in this movement. The sun is rising. There is favor. There is strategy. So when God warms your environment, He’s expecting growth in your life.
6. Here is the Word of God for your life: winter is over, so step into your next. God’s favor is igniting your future. Receive it. The breakthrough you’ve longed for is moving from the invisible realm into visible manifestation. Winter was necessary because it taught you endurance. It taught you patience. It taught you perspective. But springtime is about action. Don’t stay idle in yesterday’s sorrow. Step into this new season that God has for your life. The season of fruitfulness has arrived. “Rise up, my love, and come away.”

B. Don’t mourn what froze you; move into what He’s manifesting.

1. Many of us have been conditioned by struggle so long that we don’t even recognize when God shifts us. Winter disciplines you, but spring demands a decision. You can’t pray for manifestation and then hesitate when that thing shows up. You can’t ask God for enlargement, and then once the door opens up, you shrink back. At some point, you’ve got to know He’s not only the God of the altar, but He’s the God of the arena. Whatever you pray for right here, He can manifest out there.
2. There have been times in my life I prayed for stuff years ago, but it showed up two or three years later. I didn’t act like I was surprised. I was expecting it to show up. When you pray for a thing, you’ve got to believe that at any moment what you prayed for can manifest in your life.
3. Some people are still emotionally rehearsing what hurt them, still replaying what didn’t work, still holding conversations with a season that already expired. But you cannot drive forward looking through the rearview mirror. What wounded you was real, yes, but it wasn’t final.
4. Here is something I want you to hear: God does not just restore; God renews. He doesn’t just bring it back. God recalibrates. What is manifesting in this season will not look exactly like what you lost, but it will look like what you’ve become. “Oh God, don’t give me what I was. Give me what I’ve become.” Because if You give me what I was, it may not fit where I am right now.
5. So dry your eyes. Lift your head. Adjust your expectation. Walk forward, because spring is not just coming. Spring is here. When God says arise, hesitation is not an option. Obedience is. It is time to get up and go get it. It’s time to go get your dream, go get your vision, go get what you’ve been praying for. It’s time for you to get off your place of pity and stop making excuses. It’s time for you to go and get it.
6. But here is the tension many people feel. God can change the season, but you can still stay stuck. Some people are just stuck. Many people have lived in winter so long that their minds have become wired for survival instead of fruitfulness. You learned how to cope. You learned how to brace. You learned how to expect disappointment. So now when God shifts your season, your spirit is ready, but your mind is stuck.
7. Here’s the good news: God designed your mind to be renewed, which means you are wired to receive what’s next. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” God would never command renewal if He didn’t create you with the capacity to receive it. So when the Song of Solomon says, “Rise up, my love, and come away,” God is not just calling your body to move. He’s calling your mind to migrate.
8. The real challenge isn’t just changing your location. The real challenge is changing your mindset. Release your old narrative. Let go of that season that holds you. Rewire yourself to expect God to do something new. Every day I wake up, I’m expecting God to blow my mind.

IV.               THE SONG AFTER THE STORM

A.    Survival through silence gives your praise new power.

1. The song is so important, particularly when you read the Old Testament, because songs in ancient Israel pointed to a deeper faith. They were not shallow lyrics. Songs were experiences. The Psalms themselves are experiences. When you read the Psalms, you are reading real-life experiences of people who went through things and chronicled those experiences in a melodic way. Songs are deeper than notes. They come from life.
2. In a text like this, winter is past. It’s over. It’s gone. If winter is gone, then springtime is showing up. Winter was the season where nothing was growing, where things were rigid and tough, and I was in the silence of God, not even knowing what was going on. But then all of a sudden, springtime emerged. The rain is over and gone. That means this restrictive season in my life has come to its finale.
3. I don’t know who this is for, but God told me to tell you that the most difficult season of your life is about to come to an end. You are not here by accident today. God is about to bring an end to the drama, the pettiness, the back and forth. That season is over. You are about to walk into a season of peace like you’ve never had before.
4. Then the flowers appear on the earth, visible evidence. Flowers don’t just show up in springtime. Flowers have been growing under the earth before you ever saw them. So when they pop up, most people assume they just showed up out of nowhere. They have no idea they’ve been at work the whole time. Some people are going to look at you in this season and say, “You just popped up.” No, I didn’t just pop up. I was in a place of stillness. God had me tucked away. I was praying. I was laboring. I was working. I was crying. But when I show up, I’m going to walk in here like God sent me here.
5. The voice of the turtledove is a marker that a new season had arrived. So the turtledove begins to sing. The song is never random. The beauty of this is that your survival through silence gives your praise more power.

B.    Every tear becomes testimony. Every trial transforms into triumph.

1. My tears tuned my testimony. My pain prepared my praise. When you hear me praise God, I am not praising Him from a shallow place. I am praising God from a deeper well. My experience says that I have shifted seasons, and because I have shifted seasons, my language has changed. I am not going to romanticize what happened to me. I am not going to live in a frozen mentality, always seeing myself as a victim and always talking about my suffering. I have pivoted into a brand-new season.
2. So now I know who I am. I am the head and not the tail. I’m above and not beneath. I’m blessed going in and blessed coming out. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Regardless of what happened in the former season, something has shifted in my spirit. My soul got deeper. My song is not predicated upon who has the mic and tells me to stand up and lift up my hands. My soul is rooted in something so powerful that every trial has transformed me.
3. Don’t pigeonhole my praise to your expectation. The silence tried to shake me, but I’m still standing. The delay tried to discourage me, but I’m still standing. The storm tried to stop me, but I’m still standing. The door they tried to close, but I’m still standing. Winter tried to freeze me, but I’m still standing.
4. There is a phenomenon in nature that scientists call the dawn chorus. The dawn chorus happens long before the sun is visible, before the sky turns bright, before most people wake up. The birds begin to sing. One of the most consistent of those birds is the robin. What’s powerful about the robin is that she does not wait until daylight. She sings while it is still dark. She sings before the sun.
5. Everything in you wants to wait until the sun comes before you open up your mouth. You want to wait for the job to come through, the diagnosis to clear, the relationship to be restored, the money to hit your account. But there ought to be somebody who can say, “I don’t have to wait until it shows up. I know glory is on the way.” That is what it means when every tear becomes testimony and every trial transforms into triumph.