Joel Osteen - Rivers In The Desert
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I want to talk to you today about rivers in the desert. We all go through dry seasons and times when we don’t see any growth. Our relationships feel stagnant. Our health is not improving. We’re doing the right things, but it’s like we’re in a famine, a barren place. It’s easy to get tired and lose our passion. This is how the Israelites felt. They had been exiled to Babylon for 70 years. They were forced to leave Jerusalem. Now God brought them out, and they were headed back home. But in the desert, there was no water. Even though they were free, they were in this desolate place, parched. It would take weeks to make it home. It looked like this was the end.
But God said in Isaiah 41, «When the needy search for water and there is none, and their tongues are parched with thirst, I, the Lord God, will answer them. I will not forsake them.» When you’re in a dry season, you’re searching for water, but there is none. You’re believing for your healing, but not getting better, hoping to accomplish a dream, but doors keep closing, praying to meet the right person, yet you’re still lonely. When you’re thirsty and can’t seem to quench it, God makes this promise: «I will not forsake you. I see what’s happening, and I will answer you.» He knows what you’re going through. Those times when you feel left out, you’re going the extra mile, yet not getting credit. You see doors opening for others, yet you’re still struggling.
God sees that barren place, and He is coming to do something about it. When you can’t find water, you’re on God’s mind. That desert, that barren season is not permanent. Thoughts will whisper, «You’ll always be lonely. Always be addicted. Always not have enough.» No, water is coming. Healing is coming. Freedom is coming. The spouse is coming. Victory is coming. And here’s the beauty: God doesn’t have to bring you out of the desert to bless you. He doesn’t have to take you to another location, change jobs, or give you a different medical team. No, He can bless you in the desert. He went on to say, «I will open rivers in the desolate heights. I will make fountains in the valleys, the wilderness pools of water, and streams in the barren places.»
«Well, Joel, I’m in the desert, man. That’s why I’m discouraged.» God makes rivers in the desert. You’re right where God works. There’s a river coming. A flow of His favor is on the way. «Well, I’m stuck in this valley, this low place, overlooked, left out.» God makes fountains in the valleys. He’s about to cause something to suddenly spring up—a good break, your child turns around, your health improves. «Well, I feel like I’m in the wilderness, lost, with no direction, kind of tired, feeling overwhelmed.» God sees you. He knows the struggles. He said, «I’m going to make pools in the wilderness. Refreshing is coming, an anointing of ease, doors opening, clear direction, supernatural strength so you can step into your purpose.» «Joel, I’m in a barren place, no fruit, no productivity.» They say, «I can’t have a baby. I can’t give birth to my dreams.»
Being barren is not how your story ends. God makes streams in the barren places. God is going to bring opportunity, resources, and healing, so even in the barren places, you will be blessed. Even though experts say you’re barren and can’t have that baby, it doesn’t come from people; it comes from God. He’s going to take what looks desolate, dry, with no growth, and cause it to bloom, transforming barren to bountiful. Look at the words God uses when we’re in dry seasons; when we’re thirsty, we can’t find water, rivers, fountains, pools, or streams. What’s significant is that none of these things are typically found in a desert. Rivers and deserts don’t go together; fountains, springs, and pools are not expected to be there. God is saying, «When you’re in the desert, I’m going to bring you unexpected blessings. You’re going to see fountains in the desert.»
Fountains mean a new source springing up that you didn’t see coming. The medical report was the same month after month. The treatment didn’t seem to be helping, then God created a fountain in the valley. Good health sprung up; suddenly there was no explanation, and nothing you did changed. You were in that dry place, just doing your best, trusting God was in control, and He gave you water in the desert—a fountain of healing. Maybe in your business, things were stagnant; you got passed over for the contract and turned down for the promotion. Thoughts tell you you’re too old, that it’s too late, and too many people are ahead of you. In one sense, that was all true. There was no water, no good options, then out of nowhere, a fountain sprang up: a good break, a phone call, a contract, and now you’re flourishing in the desert. You have an abundance in what used to be a barren place.
God knows how to quench your thirst. He knows how to bring water to difficult places where it’s unlikely, not natural. You don’t go to the desert and say, «Man, let’s go see the fountains out there. Let’s go hang out by the pool; let’s go swim in the streams.» Water and deserts are opposites. The desert is hot, dry, barren, but God does things out of the ordinary. He’s not limited to the natural. When you’re in the desert, God says, «Because you’re my child, because you called on my name, I’m not going to leave you in a dry place; I’m going to make rivers in your desert. I’m going to create streams in your barren place. I’m going to make pools in your wilderness where you should dry up. You should be overwhelmed.» God is saying, «I’m going to cause you to flourish, to prosper, to excel, despite what comes against you.»
Now, you may be in a desert today, and it looks like it’s never going to change, barren and lonely. A child is weighing you down, or the business seems stuck. God has heard your cry. He sees what you’re going through, and He will not forsake you. It’s dry now, but get ready; water is coming. Rivers, streams, fountains, pools—not a little trickle, not a few drops here and there, but a flood of God’s goodness. Rivers in the desert, not one, but many. Fountains in the valley, good breaks springing up, coming out of nowhere. A fountain is a new source of blessing, something that wasn’t there before: a new relationship, a new position, a new baby, a new standard for your family. How did this happen? You should have been stuck, limited, barren, but God stepped in and made rivers in the desert.
That’s what God did for Moses. You remember He brought water out of a rock. God knows how to provide for you when you’re in a dry season. You’re searching for water, but you can’t find anything. You’re parched; you’re thirsty—you’ll be tempted to get discouraged. «I don’t think I’ll get out of this difficulty. So much for my dream; no doors are opening. I don’t think this problem will ever turn around in my health.» Don’t believe those lies. When you’re in a dry season, keep looking for water. Keep declaring God’s promises. Keep thanking Him that it’s changing. Keep expecting fountains to spring up. See, the scripture says, «These people were searching for water, but finding none.»
There’s a difference when you’re searching, believing, and trusting, but nothing is happening. Conversely, you’re negative, passive, and it’s not going to work out. I’m too late. It’s too barren. Everything about my environment is dead. The scripture says, «Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.» There needs to be a thirst, a faith, and an expectancy that says this desert is not where my story ends. Yes, it’s hot and dry; I don’t see anything improving, but God, I know you have water coming. You make rivers in the desert; you make fountains in the valleys. Let faith rise up, and you’ll see God do unusual things—things you can’t explain.
How can you have a fountain in the desert? How can there be streams in barren places? How could you have that baby when the experts said you were barren? How could my mother still be alive when she was told she had terminal cancer 44 years ago? How could my father impact so many people when he was the least of these, coming from poverty? He had no education to speak of, no training, no one to encourage him; yet at 17 years old, he gave his life to Christ, the first one in our family. What happened in that barren place? A fountain sprung up. Something uncommon and out of the ordinary. Daddy went on to minister to people all over the world and started Lakewood with my mother, pastoring here for almost 40 years. What am I saying? God specializes in bringing water to unusual places, things that you didn’t see coming.
I met a man in the lobby a while back. He was in town to go to the medical center for treatment. He had cancer of the vocal cords. The doctors had treated him for some time, trying to save his voice while managing the cancer. Unfortunately, they weren’t successful, and they were going to have to remove his vocal cords. He wouldn’t be able to speak anymore. This had been a five-year battle. He’d prayed and stood in faith, but it hadn’t turned out the way he had hoped. He was in a desert season, a barren place, about to lose his voice. But God says when you’re thirsty, when you’re searching for water but can’t find it, I will not forsake you. I hear your cries, and I will answer you.
God is with you in the barren places. He’s with you in the lonely nights, the hospital room, the times you don’t see how you can go on. This man had a good attitude. Yes, in the natural he was disappointed, but he still believed that God was in control. We prayed that the surgery would go well, that there wouldn’t be any complications. Three weeks later, he came up to me after the service and said, «Joel, how are you?» I said, «I’m doing great, but what happened? You didn’t have the surgery.» He smiled real big and said, «Yes, I did have it, but I can still talk.» The doctors were baffled; they couldn’t explain it. They removed 90% of his vocal cords. His main doctor said that in his 30 years of practice, he’d never seen or heard of this ever happening. He wrote on his chart, «There is no medical explanation as to why you can speak.»
God knows how to make rivers in the desert, fountains springing up in the valley, unexpected blessings, healing you can’t explain, promotion you didn’t see coming, your child suddenly turning around—springs in the barren places. You may be in a dry place now—your health, your finances, a relationship. You’re searching for water, doing what you can but finding none. I know thoughts whisper, «Hey, this is how it’s always going to be for you: lonely, addicted, turmoil in your marriage.» God is saying to you what he said to the Israelites: «I’m about to make rivers in your desert, pools in that wilderness, a fountain in your valley.»
You’re going to go from dry, thirsty parts to blessed, promoted, healed, restored in those barren places. You need to keep these words down in your spirit: rivers, fountains, streams, pools. These indicate refreshing, favor, new opportunities. Lack turns to abundance, struggle turns to ease, addicted turns to freedom, lonely to great relationships, not enough to more than enough. Now, instead of having a desert mentality, a barren mindset, thinking, «I’ll never get out of this famine; I’ll always be thirsty, » turn it around: «Lord, I know you make rivers in the desert. I may be in a valley, but Lord, I thank you that a fountain is about to spring up, something that I didn’t see coming—streams in my barren places.»
See verse 19 says God will open rivers in the desolate heights; one translation says in the high places. Now, how do you go up a mountain? The more desolate it is, the less greenery, the less vegetation. We all know a river doesn’t flow up a mountain; a river flows down. But God is saying, I’m going to bring rivers to the desolate heights. I’m going to cause water to flow to unexpected places, water flowing up when it should go down. It’s going to defy the odds—water flowing into areas that don’t make sense. See, sometimes we’re doing good. God’s blessed you with health, family, and success. You’re in that high place, but in some areas, there can be barrenness—a dry season.
I talked to a very well-known person last week. He called from another city and seems like he’s on top of the world, but he has a child who’s estranged and won’t talk to him. It’s breaking his heart. We’ve all seen God’s blessing in certain areas, and we’re grateful for what He’s done. But just because you’re in a high place doesn’t mean you’re not going to have some desolate areas—areas where we need favor. We need breakthroughs. We can’t do it on our own. We’ve used our talent, our influence, our connections, but this famine won’t go away. Don’t worry. God is going to have water flow up to you. He makes fountains in the valley, but when you’re on the mountain, He’ll send water up the hill. Water you can’t explain coming up that mountain. God knows how to quench your thirst. He knows how to turn your child around, how to cause you to talk without all your vocal cords, how to promote you when you weren’t next in line, how to take you from the shepherd’s fields with only a slingshot and put you in the palace.
You may have been in that dry place for a long time, praying, believing, and doing the right thing. Can I encourage you? Water is about to flow to you! It’s going to be unexpected and out of the ordinary; you can’t explain it. Water is flowing up the hill. Isaiah said God will open rivers in the desolate heights. It’s like when you open a door to let something out. This implies that what God has for you is already in place. He’s about to open a door and release the river with your blessing, your healing, your freedom. Psalms says God has blessings stored up for the righteous.
There are blessings that already have your name on them: the healing, the baby, the business, the ministry, the freedom, the spouse. When God opens the door and releases those blessings, that river will flow upstream if it has to. That fountain will suddenly spring up; you didn’t see it coming. That’s a stored-up blessing. God has to quench your thirst, to cause you to flourish in the famine, to blossom in the barren season, to prosper in the wilderness. I don’t believe the thought says, «Hey, the drought is permanent.» Water is coming; pools are coming; fountains are about to spring up; rivers are flowing up a mountain. God doesn’t have to bring you out of that desert; He’s going to bring you water in the desert—something that doesn’t make sense, where you know it’s the hand of God doing what only He can do.
That’s what happened in 2 Kings chapter 3. The people of Judah had been traveling through the wilderness for seven days on their way to battle an enemy army when they ran out of water. They took a longer route than expected, and now they had nothing to drink for themselves or their animals. Verse 10: one of the leaders said, «What are we going to do? Has God brought us out here to let the enemy defeat us?» They were discouraged, thinking, «We’re in the desert. We miscalculated. We didn’t bring enough water. Now we’re stuck.»
King Jehoshaphat called for the prophet Elisha and said, «We’re going to see what the Lord says.» When you’re in a desert place, don’t be like that one leader and complain, talking about how bad it is. «God, why did this happen?» Do like Jehoshaphat: go to God and ask Him to help you. Elisha said in verse 16, «This is what the Lord says: you will see neither wind nor rain, but this valley will be filled with water.» You can imagine what they thought: «Come on, Elisha! You’re telling us we’re going to have all this water without any rain? That doesn’t make sense! Where’s it going to come from? Where’s the source?»
God is the source; He controls the universe. He may not do it in a traditional way, what you were expecting or what you’ve seen in the past. God knows how to bring water without rain. He can make a river flow up a mountain. He healed my mother without medicine when there was no treatment available. He put me here without the training, without the experience. That’s water without rain. You can’t calculate how God’s gonna do it. His ways are not our ways; they are higher and better than our ways.
The next morning, the men woke up, looked off in the distance, and saw all this water coming into the valley. It didn’t rain, and there wasn’t a big heat wave to melt the snow. This was the hand of God making streams in the desert. Not only that, when the enemy army came to attack the people of Judah, they saw the water. With the sun hitting it, they thought it was blood, believing the people had already been defeated. So they rushed in to gather the spoils, letting their guard down. Much to their surprise, Jehoshaphat and his men were standing there strong and ready to go. They easily defeated the enemy and went on to fulfill their purpose.
Now you may be like Jehoshaphat in a dry valley. Things didn’t turn out the way you thought. You had good intentions, but doing the right thing, there’s no water in that valley. You don’t have the resources. You didn’t get that scholarship. The experts say you can’t have a baby. When you’re in a barren season, you have to remind yourself that God has ways to bring water that you can’t see. He can make a fountain suddenly spring up. He can cause water to flow to your valley with no rain, no sign of it—no clouds, no storm.
«Joel, man, I’m discouraged 'cause I don’t see anything happening. Doesn’t look like anything’s happening.» That doesn’t mean that God is not working. He’s heard your cry and He’s promised He’s not going to leave you thirsty. If He has to, He’ll cause water to flow up the mountain—an unexpected blessing, good breaks you didn’t see coming, the right people knocking on your door. You didn’t have to go to them; the water flowed to you. I know this couple that owns a scrap metal business, and they’re very generous, always supporting the ministry. They had a desire to build an orphanage overseas, but it’s going to cost way more than they had.
Even though it was over their heads, they dared to pray bold prayers and ask God to help them. They were blessed in many ways; God had been good to them. But when it came to this dream, they were in a barren place. They didn’t have the funds. Logically speaking, they would never have enough. Even if their business had a banner year, they wouldn’t be near what they needed. But God is not limited by what you don’t have. He’s supernatural; He brings water without rain. He caused a man to talk without most of his vocal cords. Don’t put God in a box, or you can talk yourself out of it. A better attitude is, «God, I don’t see a way, but I know You have a way. You make rivers in the desert.»
And one day this man bought a huge supply of old discarded batteries. It’s hundreds of truckloads: car batteries, motorcycle batteries, and they were piled up several stories high, a football field long. One night he had a dream, and he saw this certain battery, very distinct looking. When he woke up, something said to him, «There’s treasure in that battery.» He was intrigued by it, and he and his son went out and started digging through the batteries. Much to his surprise, he found that same battery he saw in his dream. He took it to a local expert and asked him to examine it. He said, «It’s nothing, just an old World War II motorcycle battery. It’s probably worth two cents.»
The man wasn’t convinced. He asked him to open it up and look inside. When he did, he found that it wasn’t made of lead, but of silver. These were batteries that the Germans tested to see if the silver would withstand the cold better than lead. The expert said, «I was wrong. This isn’t worth a couple of cents; it’s worth hundreds of dollars. It’s full of silver.» This man had tens of thousands of those batteries piled up. It’s like he won the lottery. He went on to build that orphanage. What am I saying? God knows how to make rivers in the desert, fountains springing up in a valley, an unexpected source. You didn’t see it coming. Like my friend, you may have a big dream, but you don’t have the resources. God knows how to quench your thirst. He has ways you’ve never thought of. One touch of His favor, you’ll come out of that drought into abundance, from not enough to more than enough.
In Numbers 21, the Israelites were traveling through the desert in the middle of this drought. They were tired and thirsty, and just when they thought they couldn’t go on, they came to this well. They were so excited, thinking that they were finally going to get some water, and they rushed over to it, but the well was dry; it hadn’t been used in years. God told the people to gather around, and He would give them water. Verse 17 says, «The people began to sing, 'Spring up, O well.'» They were singing over a well, thanking God that water was coming when there was no sign of it. It wasn’t long after that when the well began to gush forth with water.
When you’re in a dry season, it’s easy to complain: «I never get good breaks. My health is not going to change. I wish God would give me some of those batteries, Joel. All I have are Duracells!» Try a new approach: «Spring up, O well! God, let the water flow in my life.» You have to sing before the well opens up. You may be in a dry season, but that is not where your story ends. God is not going to leave you thirsty. He sees what you’re dealing with. He knows how long it’s been and how you persevered. You’ve done the right thing.
Even when you felt overlooked, water is coming. God is about to send streams into your barren place, a fountain in that valley, a new sense of joy and favor and opportunity, water flowing up the mountain, things you can’t explain. Now all through the day, keep singing to that promise, thanking God that He’s working, knowing that He will not forsake you. If you’ll do this, I believe and declare that dry season is coming to an end. God is about to surprise you—water without rain, healing, promotion, favor, the right people—a flood of God’s goodness in Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen?