Wilderness Seasons: Finding Purpose & Gifts in Hard Times
Jan 06, 2026Summary
Have you ever felt like you are wandering in a dry, spiritual desert? Or perhaps God is asking you to do something you absolutely dread? In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson reframes these difficult seasons, showing how your trials are actually training grounds for finding purpose in hard times and developing essential spiritual gifts.
Tamara takes us back to the Old Testament to reveal how the children of Israel, while wandering in the wilderness, were blessed with specific, miraculous talents to build the Tabernacle. She then gets vulnerable about her own reluctance to use social media for her ministry—a modern-day "wilderness" of fear and loathing—and how God used that struggle to equip her with new skills. If you are currently facing resistance or dreading a new calling, this episode offers a roadmap for finding purpose in hard times. You’ll learn three practical steps to move from the wilderness to progress, proving that God never leaves you in the desert without a plan. Tune in to discover how your current struggle might just be the very thing preparing you for your Promised Land!
Episode Takeaways
- Wilderness as a Classroom: Just as the Israelites developed specific craftsmanship (woodworking, weaving, gold work) while wandering in the desert to build the Tabernacle, our "dry seasons" are often where God develops the specific gifts we need for our future mission.
- The "Loathing" Can Lead to Light: Tamara shares her personal struggle with "loathing" social media, yet God required it for her ministry. Sometimes, the thing we resist most is the exact area where God wants to grow us and give us new skills (even the "gift of marketing").
- Prayer is the Pivot: The first step out of the wilderness is honest, messy prayer. God is big enough to handle your complaints. Pour out your heart, and then ask Him to change your desire.
- Ask for the Desire to Change: Often, we know we need to change but don't want to. The most powerful prayer can simply be asking God to "plant the desire" in your heart, allowing Him to begin the work of moving you toward your Promised Land.
Free Gift
Are you struggling to see the purpose in your current wilderness? Download our FREE Guide: Discerning My Gifts & Strengths. It’s designed to help you identify the gifts God has already given you and the ones He wants to develop in you right now. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/gKL63TgB
Reflection Questions
- What "wilderness" or dry season are you currently walking through? Can you identify one skill or strength you are being forced to develop because of it?
- Is there a task or calling God has placed on your heart that you are "loathing" or resisting? What fears are behind that resistance?
- Have you ever prayed specifically for the desire to change, even when you didn't feel like doing it yourself? What happened?
- Look back at the Israelites building the Tabernacle. How does knowing that God equipped them in the desert change your perspective on your current lack of resources or comfort?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:01.440 - 00:00:56.290
Ladies, have you ever felt like you are wandering in a wilderness, like it's a total dry season of your life? Or maybe God's asking you to do something that you're absolutely dreading? That's hard. That's heavy.
Sometimes we feel like that in a new year where we feel God pressing something on our hearts. But what if I told you that this wilderness or trying season of your life could actually be like a classroom of learning?
Today, we're actually going to talk about how our trials are actually training grounds for developing spiritual gifts. And by the end of today's episode, you will be able to see and understand, both from biblical and modern examples, exactly how this works.
So stay tuned.
Intro/Outro
00:00:58.850 - 00:01:51.370
Are you a woman who knows God is calling you to something more, but you're unsure where to start or how to grow it into something impactful? You are not alone, and you're in the right place.
Welcome to the Arise Women of God Podcast, a show for Christian women who feel called to shine his light and step into their divine purpose.
Each week you'll hear stories of faithful women, both from the Bible and today, who heard God's voice and chose to say yes even when it felt uncomfortable or uncertain, to step with faith into the unknown. You'll walk away with encouragement, spiritual insight, and practical steps to follow those holy promptings in your own life.
So let's arise together as Women warriors of Light. Let's do it God's way. God strong.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:01:53.140 - 00:13:29.750
Welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast from Women warriors of Light. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson.
And ladies, today we are talking about the hard times of life. You know, when it feels like you are wandering through a desert and you're like, God, where is the peaceful clear waters and the shaded trees?
Why is life so hard right now? But often, ladies, this is the place of miracles. This is the place where we see God's hand come into play.
And today I'm going to share a story from the Old Testament about the people who built the Tabernacle, the children of Israel, and how they were blessed to be able to do that.
Second, I'm going to get really vulnerable and share a story about my own personal wilderness and loathing of something that I just did not want to do, and I had to kind of battle God on it a little bit.
Finally, I'm going to give you the key that kind of ties up this whole episode, and it is three small tips that will help with that whole process of moving from wilderness to progress. So let's Kick it off with that.
First thing, I'm going to take you back in the Old Testament to the children of Israel and how they wandered for 40 years.
But we're going to look at what they were doing in that time period and the little miracles that God had popping up all over because he needed them to do something really, really important.
I was talking about this in a workshop recently on Spiritual Gifts, and we're going to pull some clips from this workshop in today's podcast podcast episode. So let's take a listen. God was preparing them and giving them gifts, he says, and I have filled them with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge.
And in all manner of workmanship. And this comes from Exodus chapter 31. And God was actually preparing them. And it's so beautiful. If you go to Exodus 31, you.
Can read through and it talks about how some people were popping up and they were excellent at woodworking or at metalworking or at weaving things like had never been weaved like that before. And it's so beautiful to see how all of the sudden when the need arose, these people were prepared to build a tabernacle.
God had placed people in their congregation in a way that enabled them to build this in such a beautiful manner.
It says here in Exodus 31, to devise cunning works and gold and silver and brass, cutting of stones, carving of timber, you know, and he talks about different people having being wise hearted. And he says, I have put wisdom. That they may make all that I have commanded thee. And I love that. And so all these people were blessed with all these different gifts to help.
Welcome in the glory of the Lord when it filled the tabernacle. So they were called to prepare so.
That the glory of the Lord could then descend when the tabernacle was finished. Isn't that amazing? We live in similar times, ladies, where God is placing gifts in us and perhaps we don't see them. Exactly.
These people were given those gifts in hard times. They were wandering in a desert, they were struggling.
And God blessed them with these amazing talents to get done everything that they needed to get done so that they could enter the promised land. The same is true for us. All right, let's go to the next thing where I start to get Ron vulnerable again.
Ladies, I had a very similar experience and number of years ago where God had asked me to start my first podcast and I was kind of struggling a little bit because it involved Tamara being on social media.
And so I'm going to share this clip of telling the story of a rebuke I got from God and how he had to change my mind and my heart on this principle, on this thing I needed to learn. So take a listen.
I remember on my journey that one of the things I had to learn was to do social media. And I am one of those people who could happily get off of social media and never look at it again and be just fine with my life.
In fact, I could be quite joyous. And I remember this same summer that I of 2018, when I was preparing. To launch the podcast and I took. A break and I didn't post anything all summer long. I just spent the time with my kids, which was wonderful.
And I got to the end of that summer and I started working on my podcast again. But I remember praying and God kind of got a little mad at me, and he said, you cannot do that again. I've called you to be a light. And you need to be on social media.
And so I was really kind of chastised a little bit. And I have to confess that I had, like, a loathing relationship with social media. Loathe.
That's not a good feeling for a person to have who is supposed to be on social media and shining God's light, right? God, you've called me to do this, and I hate it. You know, I loathe it. I really, really, really despise it. And I realized then that my heart needed. I needed to learn a few things.
I had to learn about marketing. I had to learn about social media. Strategizing and all that stuff. Some of it was fear.
I just don't want to put myself out there. But I went down a learning curve. I asked God to change my heart. If I'm supposed to do this, you need to change my heart. A, to overcome the fear. B, to see your vision. Three, to figure out how I can shine my light and do it in a way that I can manage it and not on social media all the.
Time, because it still isn't my favorite thing. But he blessed me. He blessed me to develop the skills. That I had to take some classes or watch some YouTube videos and figure. Out best ways to do this. Yes.
You know what's funny about that is probably about a year and a half later, I was asked to teach, like, a mini class, probably 15 to 20 minutes on social media.
And I just remember laughing inside when this woman asked me to do it because I thought, oh, my gosh, this is so funny that this is where I'm at and I'm teaching this mini class on this because I used to hate it so much. And yet I'd figured out how to.
Make it work for Tamara, because God blessed me to develop the skills and the gifts that I needed to have.
All right, ladies, now we're going to take this first principle of God giving us gifts, and the second principle, maybe struggling with it a little bit in the wilderness of our lives, and we're going to combine them together into the key takeaways from today's episode. The first key that we need to learn is that when we are struggling, we often need to communicate with God in prayer.
And sometimes that is looks pretty messy. But the good news is God can take everything. He's big enough to hear your complaints.
He's big enough to hear your joys and your sorrows and your griefs.
And so if you're in the wilderness, pour those out to God and then ask him to change your heart, help you to perhaps see the gifts or the little miracles that are happening around you. So that is the key. Number one, asking him to help you change your eyes and perhaps your heart.
I had to pray for the gift of marketing, and that is not listed in any of the gifts of the spirit, by the way, just in case you were wondering. But it was a gift that I needed to fulfill my mission, and I wasn't very excited about it. Remember, I talked about loathing social media? Okay. Right.
I'm being totally raw and open here.
So the second thing is, after you've prayed and kind of dumped it all on God and asked him for help, the second thing is recognizing that something in you needs to change and asking for the desire to change, because that's often where everything begins. There's been several instances in my life where I have recognized that I need to change, but I don't feel like I want to do that.
And I have to ask God to first plant the desire my heart.
And that is a hard prayer to ask, but it allows God to come in and begin his work in our minds and in our hearts and in changing us to become who he knows we can become if we just let him in. Okay? So prayer, recognize and ask for that desire. The good news is that once he starts to plant that desire in us, he starts moving us forward.
We're moving out of the wilderness. We're moving towards the promised land. We're moving to that place where maybe there are some flowing waters and some shady trees and stuff like that.
And it's so great to get to that other side. Sometimes we have to learn something new. And that's okay. He's stretching us. He's helping us grow. He's helping us reach our full potential. Right?
He's not going to leave us in the wilderness. But we have to be willing to move to get through and out. All right, ladies, what is the hard thing God is asking you to do this New Year?
What is the resistance that you're feeling in your mind, in your heart, and pause and think and maybe journal or talk to someone about how maybe this struggle that you feel in your mind and in your heart might just be an opportunity for growth. Even though it sounds scary. And if you're really struggling with this, I have a free gift for you.
It's available on our Women warriors of Light website. It is a Discerning My Gifts and Strengths free PDF download.
Go to the Women warriors of Light shop, scroll down to the free downloads and grab that print it off and start working on it. It will really help you not only see the gifts God has already given you, but see gifts and that you can pray and ask for as well.
I will also drop the link for that in the description below. But sometimes, even though you're going through this process, it's really hard to do alone.
And if you need extra help, check out next week's episode where we are going to talk about how to call on angels to help you through this entire process. So God bless you.
As you're struggling with heavy things, know that you're not alone and that God will help you through this wilderness and into the promised Land. He loves you. He's not going to leave you alone. Trust the process because it does indeed work.
Intro/Outro
00:13:31.350 - 00:14:26.890
Thanks for tuning in to the Arise Women of God podcast brought to you by Women warriors of Light.
If you're feeling unsure how to move forward in your calling or just tired of doing it alone, visit womenwarriorsoflight.com you'll find resources, accountability, and a community of women who get it. Sometimes the calling feels bigger than you. That's when you need steady reminders of the powerful God who called you.
Subscribe now for weekly inspiration and the courage to keep going. Because with him, nothing is impossible. And you're not the only one God is calling that friend on your heart right now. Share this episode with her.
Your small act of obedience could be the breakthrough she's been praying for. Until next time. May you arise, walk God's way and stand God strong.
