Lessons from the Valley

The Fertile Valley of Disappointment

I love the view from a high mountain where you can see for miles on a clear day. Everything is so peaceful from the high places.

And while we all love the view from the mountains, I’ve come to realize that the fruit for the new oil and wine comes from the low valleys of our journey.

Is anyone else experiencing the valley and the winepress? Maybe you’ve suffered disorienting loss, disappointment or hope deferred? Maybe you’re feeling stuck, bogged down in the mire? Are you feeling a little disillusioned? You’re not alone, beloved.

The Unseen Growth of Grief

Disappointment has a strange way of hollowing us out. It strips away certainty and leaves us standing in the unknown. Like a farmer staring at a field after a devastating storm, we wonder if anything good can grow from loss.

We’ve probably all navigated seasons when everything seemed to crumble—dreams are deferred, relationships strained, doors closed. We find ourselves asking God, ‘Where are You in this mess?’

Yet beneath the surface, where our tears have soaked the soil, the Lord is quietly at work.

Embracing the Unknown- The FOG

There is a kind of disorienting fog that settles in when we lose something precious. There’s a grief not just for what was, but for what will never be. Even so, God’s invitation is to keep moving forward —to embrace the unknown not with fear, but with open hands.

Because faith isn't about clarity. Sometimes it’s about choosing to trust when nothing makes sense.

You will recall that one of the manifestations of Spirit of God was a cloud, leading the Israelites through the wilderness by day.

Even in the foggy valleys, God is not far off or hidden, He is in the cloud.

If you look, you will see the Good Shepherd leading you one step at a time. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, YOU ARE WITH ME (Psalm 23:4).

In the fog, you don’t have the luxury of long-range vision and high-speed travel; it’s just you and Him and the present moment you are in, walking one step at a time.

A friend of mine, Carol, shared a powerful revelation with me that FOG stands for the Favour of God. When God comes so close, all you can see is Him—it’s actually a really good thing. And here’s why:

When we slow down and get present, we begin to cultivate an intimate oneness with God. This is where we learn how to lean NOT on our OWN understanding but trust in the Lord with all our hearts (Proverbs 3:5-6).

When we tuck in close, and He illuminates what we couldn’t see from the mountain tops.

And oftentimes the closer we walk with the Lord, the more we can feel the shards of our own fractured soul, but we also see the cracks that He is restoring with the gold of His goodness.

This is the inward journey of soul restoration (Psalm 23) that only happens in the valleys and the wilderness.

Because God is not bringing a broken world into a broken church. He is graciously dealing with soul wounds in the body so the church can manifest his healing power and comfort those who need comforting with the healing and comfort we ourselves have received.

Facing the Shadows

When the shadows loom large with voices of doubt, the temptation is often to give up. On those days faith feels like a myth.

But in the stillness, God reminds us that shadows only exist because there is light. The presence of darkness is not a sign of His absence, but an opportunity to lean into the light that never stops shining. To tuck into the word that is a lamp to our feet. Not a floodlight. Just a lamp.

The good news is that even Jesus walked through the valley and the wilderness, He didn’t skip the sorrow. He wept. He wrestled. He sweat. He bled. But He rose again in victory.

Because He didn’t avoid the valley or the wilderness or the cross but rather conquered it, you and I can walk through our hard places knowing we are not alone and that He will navigate us through to victory.

Hope in the Soil

Beloved, there is hope in every place where we’ve tasted deep disappointments and walked through the shadows of doubt. God is cultivating something deeply beautiful.

He doesn’t overlook your disappointment. He kneels in the dirt with you, hands in the soil, gently planting seeds of redemption.

Disappointment is not the end of the story. Like the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision (ch 37), God speaks life into what seems lifeless.

The tears you cried in secret? He gathers them. The ache you can’t explain? He understands it. And the barren places you thought were abandoned? He’s turning them into gardens of his glory.

Hope doesn’t always come in the form we expect. Sometimes it sprouts quietly—a friendship, a word of encouragement, a new perspective. Sometimes, it's simply the strength to get out of bed and keep walking. But it always grows when we invite God into the dirt with us.

A Valley Transformed

If you’re in a valley right now, I want to encourage you, don’t despise the valley you’re in. It might be the place God chooses to reveal Himself most clearly.

Loss is real.

Disappointment hurts deeply

But these are not signs of God's rejection—they are invitations to go deeper. To offer others comfort that you yourself have received.

Let Him meet you there. Allow Him to redeem what’s been broken.

Because here’s the thing, when you’ve been broken, you walk with the broken differently. You learn how to sit with those who are grieving and listen with compassion, and that’s where you gain the authority and grace to lead the broken out of their dark places.

I don’t want to sit with people who haven’t been broken, because they have really great answers but no genuine compassion to minister a living hope. The anointing to bind up the broken-hearted comes through the crushing.

If we don’t spend time in the dark places of loss and disappointment, we won’t know how to sit with those who live there or help them to rise up and walk.

The Harvest is Waiting in the Valley

It has been said, and I truly believe that much of the healing revival we are going to see in this hour is the healing of deep soul wounds and the emotions, and that the new wineskins are the soul made whole (Baratto, 2025).

God is not bringing the end times harvest into nets that will break (see Luke 5), aka a broken church, or it will be lost. He is healing the soul of the bride and mending the nets of our souls so we can carry His healing to the nations. (See John 21).

If you’re normally a visionary and have found yourself feeling disoriented by how things have turned out, I want to encourage you that He is the God of the valleys and the mountains.

And if you focus your eyes not on the loss and pain, but on the One leading you through them, He will guide you to the other side of this.

And when you come up out of that difficult place, you will be like the Shulamite bride, coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on her beloved (Song of Songs 8:5). Fully dependent on Him, walking in step with Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Keep going, Beloved. He has not abandoned you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is leading you to victory.