Navigating The Seasons: From Storm To Shore

For the past few months, I have found myself in an unsettling place—a season of seasons—with the Lord. It feels like I’ve been adrift on a ship, sailing the vast ocean of forgiveness and repentance, with only His voice guiding me as I gaze across the sea of humanity and at my own humanity. How do I navigate this ocean when my compass point is steering me in the direction of unforgiveness and stubbornness? 

I am being steered by my own emotions. My heart feels the waves swelling, crashing gently but persistently on the shores of my soul. Each heartbeat echoes with the rhythm of the sea, and in that rhythm, I truly want to learn to listen for the whisper of God’s voice and not the voice of my flesh or of the enemy. 

What secret is God whispering in the waves? What direction does He want to chart for this next season?

This season has been one of warfare—not just spiritual warfare, but a battle against the season itself. I feel like I am being carried by a current to a new destination, yet I am still trying to find my “sea legs.” In this space, I am neither where I was, nor yet where I’m going, I am in the “in-between.” It is the middle of an ocean of decisions. And it is here, in this tension, that two winds seem to wrestle for control of my course.

The enemy has come in subtly, using “what ifs” as weapons to cloud my mind and distort my direction. But even amid the tossing and turning of my thoughts, I hear the Father saying, “Stay the course. Follow the nautical chart. My Word is your compass, and it will take you true north into your next season.” He is my horizon. He is my North Pole. He is the calm in my storm.

In this place between destinations, God is inviting me to die to myself, and right on cue, the enemy whispers that ancient lie: “Did God really say?” It is the same contrast humanity has always wrestled with—life through surrender vs. death through self-will. The Kingdom calls us to die to self that we might truly live. The world shouts, “Live on your own terms!”—a call that ultimately leads to emptiness.

And then, in the roar of competing winds, I hear a familiar verse rise up in my spirit above the chaos:

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm.
                                                                                                         —Mark 4:39

He is with me! Jesus is at the helm! He is not just calming the storm—He is steering my ship toward my next season. Toward shore. Toward peace that flows like a river, not just over the surface, but through the depths of who I am.

I hear the Deep calling unto deep. The roar of His waterfalls crashes over me. It is both cleansing and awakening.

And now, it’s time.

Time to debark.

Time to set foot on new land.

A new season is about to begin.

Blessings,
Joy Pharo
Sanctioned Love