Standing on Dry Ground

God insists there must be “dry ground” on our way through the Red Sea. He told Israel, “[You] shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:16, NKJV). Amazingly, God uses this phrase four times, telling his people, “You will go over on dry ground.”

We see this phrase again when Israel was poised to enter Canaan. They crossed over Jordan on dry ground on their way into the Promised Land.

Simply put, dry ground is a path. If you are on it, you are going somewhere. You are not losing ground or going backward; your dry ground is the Lord’s plan, his work in your life, his miracles to perform. You are moving toward a revelation, a new victory in Christ, toward something greater.

Scripture proves this. Note where Pharaoh and his army lost their battle: on God-given dry ground that was suddenly flooded by the sea. Dry ground is the exact place where the devil will come after you. He wants to attack you when you are at your weakest, yet it is on this same dry ground that the Lord removes the “chariot wheels” from Satan’s principalities and powers. “The waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained” (Exodus 14:28).

God is telling us, in essence, “I want you to learn to move on in faith, not according to a vision or a voice, but when you are in the midst of a dry spell. I want you to be confident that when you cannot hear my voice or see ahead, when you are on dry ground, I am leading you somewhere.”

The Lord promises that he will turn our dry ground into springs of fresh water. “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongues fail for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them…. I will open rivers in desolate places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah 41:17-18).

Dear saint, are you dry? God is telling you, “Soon you will see a harvest. Where there once was dry ground, life will spring up at your feet. I have created it! Stand still and see what I will do for you on dry ground.”