How do you do ministry to a soul’s dark night?
(See earlier post on Oswald Chambers’ dark night of the soul).
That post notes that a soul’s dark night often stems from spiritual confusion.
A person tries to hear God’s voice, wants to follow His directions, but can’t seem to hear anything–for sure.
They’re stuck.
How to tell if someone’s struggling with a soul’s dark night
A Christian is concerned about the quality of their relationship with God.
When a person first believes, they’re open to seeing Him everywhere. With their new birth into Christ, they’re delighted life looks completely new.
Joy flows.
Openness and love fill.
They can’t believe their sins–many of which haunt them–are forgiven.
Some people stay on that joyous path forever.
Others soon realize that though Jesus died for their sins, new ones keep cropping up.
As time goes by, discouragement can set in. They ask questions like:
- Am I really saved?
- Why do I still sin?
- Does God still love me?
How do you answer those questions?
That’s the ministry to a soul’s dark night.
So, what is the ministry to a soul’s dark night?
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2. Remind them about how to recognize God’s voice:
- Jesus doesn’t condemn you.
- Jesus does not condone sinful behavior.
- He always commends.
If they’re hearing a “voice” sounding like the first two, it’s not God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit they’re hearing.
3. Is something causing the discouragement?
- Is it sin, or is it life?
- Connect them with Jesus in prayer.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to bring something to mind–then pray about it.
- Speak truth into their life.
4. Remind them to put on the armor of God every day.
Oswald Chambers’ ministry to a soul’s dark night took time.
You can read the article I wrote for the Spring 2025 Christian History Magazine.
What is pertinent is that Chambers agonized over this for seven years.
Only the principal at Dunoon Bible School knew and provided the ministry.
As things came to a head in 1901, Chambers attended a Pentecostal League of Prayer meeting.
A woman told the congregation to pray while she sang, “Touch Me Again, Lord.”
As described in Oswald Chambers: His Life and Work:
“I rose to my feet. I had no vision of God, only a sheer dogged determination to take God at His Word and to prove this thing for myself, and I stood up and said so.”
That evening marked the turning point of his life.
“His inner turmoil had given way to transforming peace . . . When you know what God has done for you, the power and the tyranny of sin is gone, and the radiant, unspeaking emancipation of the indwelling Christ has come . . . Finally, the long night was over and peace had come.
The citadel of his heart had fallen, not to a conquering Christ, but to the gentle knocking of a wounded hand. In a new and powerful way, at the age of twenty-seven, the story of Oswald Chambers’ life had just begun.”
(David McCasland, Abandoned to God, p. 87)
What people don’t need for ministry to a soul’s dark night
- Condemnation.
- Impatience.
- Empty assurances.
- Being gossiped about.
They need us to pray for them, to encourage them, and to love them.
Remind them of God’s promises–that can never be taken away.
And that there is no sin that Jesus’ death on the cross cannot/will not forgive.
Thanks be to God.
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?