The Wilderness Can Be Beautiful

When you hear someone speak about the wilderness, it’s usually in negative terms. 

One interesting thing though whenever ‘wilderness’ is mentioned in the Bible – God is always there. Have you seen that before?

Sometimes when you are in the wilderness, it can be a painful time. It can be a time when God might prune you or completely lop off a part of you that is not serving or glorifying Him (John 15:2). This can hurt but He does it for your own well-being. Interesting isn’t it.

He doesn’t ever prune us to hurt us. It is only to draw us closer to Him. 

It might feel like God is distant but if you seek Him first, you will find Him in a greater way than you ever have done before (Matthew 6:33).

So why is it called the wilderness?

The famous story in Exodus of Moses coming to Pharoah to demand he let God’s people go is a fantastic example. God took His people, an estimated 2 million, out of Egypt and into the desert. Why? To take them out of slavery, to be close to them and for them to be free to worship Him and be in closer relationship with Him. On the way, God took them on a detour away from the Philistines because they weren’t prepared for battle (Exodus 13:17). They were weak, exhausted, downtrodden and in no frame of mind to be in a fight.

Have a think about it. The Lord God protected His people from all of the plagues while they were still in Egypt (Exodus 8:22). He caused the Egyptians to give them their silver, gold (Exodus 11:2-3), as well as livestock to sacrifice to God and for food to eat. Not only that, He protected them and guided them by day with a pillar of cloud and by night, a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:22). Pretty awesome stuff!

God was with them the entire time.

The Wilderness Is A Place For Pruning.

When you go through a painful or annoying situation, what is your first response? Is it a response which you would be pleased with or is it a reaction that you will regret later so it needs to be pruned? I only knew reaction. It’s only been the last few years that I have learnt to respond instead.

God so wants us to be like Him (Ephesians 5:1) not just for His sake, but mainly for ours. Negative reactions hurt us and those around us so He wants to lop them off so that we can live in the relationship, freedom, authority and the abundance that Jesus came to give us (John 10:10).

The Wilderness Is A Place For Preparation.

As Joyce Meyer says, when you have a problem do you “go to the phone or go to the throne”? Even though you may feel distanced from your Heavenly Father, He is still right there, watching over the whole process. He wants you to, “Draw near to God, and He WILL draw near to you.” (John 4:8 ESV)

“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” – ON PURPOSE! (Matthew 4:1 ESV) I don’t know about you but that just blows my mind. Why would God do that? This was Jesus’ final preparation before He was launched into ministry. He had been prepared for 30 years, spent 40 days in the wilderness to be tempted at the highest level (1 Corinthians 10:13), and ministered for only 3 years on earth before His crucifixion and resurrection. Yet His 3 year ministry changed the entire world. If Jesus needed to prepare, how much more do you and I?!

But remember, God stayed with Jesus. He was never alone. (I write about this here)

As much as we don’t like it the ‘wilderness’ is not a place to be despised. It’s just one part in the journey of life. Is it a nice place to be? Sometimes not but may I suggest you view it like this:

It’s the place where God gets to draw you closer to Him, to knock off the rough edges and smooth them out to make YOU shine with the brilliance of Jesus within you.

Do you want to be effective for Jesus? Do you want to walk in the freedom and authority that Jesus died to give you? Do you want your life to count? Of course you do.

How Long You Are In The Wilderness Depends On You.

I know. You didn’t want to hear that, but it’s true. The Israelites took 40 years to get to their ‘Promised Land’ but it was only an 11 day trip (Deuteronomy 1:2). How annoying is that! What held them up? They weren’t willing to do it God’s way. They thought they knew best. God answered their prayers for freedom. He provided for them. He protected them. He NEVER left them. But even with all that, it still wasn’t good enough. What more did they want? They wanted to go back to slavery so they whined and complained.

DON’T DO THAT!

Work with God. Draw closer to Him and submit to whatever He wants to do it in you because the outcome will be fantastic! Find out what He wants to prune, deal with, lop off and submit to His leading. Is it easy? No, but neither is staying in the same place that you may find yourself today. It’s for your benefit remember. God is good ALL THE TIME and He wants you to be close to Him – to mature you, to give you greater freedom and authority so you can defeat the devil in your own life as well as in the lives of those around you. He has anointed you to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:8). How fantastic is that! What a privilege.

People are waiting for you to become whom God created you to be.

You could be the answer to their problem. Have you ever thought about that?

Nothing is impossible with you and God (Luke 1:37). Don’t ever doubt that.

Embrace the wilderness. Draw near to the One who loves you fiercely. Change your perspective. Realise that an upgrade of maturity, anointing and intimacy with Jesus is at the end of this time.

It will be worth it. Don’t give up.

I am praying for you.

Are you in a wilderness season today? Don’t look at it as a negative. It’s a time when the Lord is drawing you into a far deeper intimacy with Him. He is with you. He hasn’t left. I would love to pray for you and let you know that you are not alone. Let me know in the comments below so I can encourage you today.

Many blessings to you for your coming upgrade.

(Photo Credit: www.pexels.com)