The Truth About Your Wilderness
What if the wilderness was looked at differently than what people have portrayed it to be in their teachings and sermons? We can look at the wilderness through two different lenses: 1). We are led there or 2). God puts us there as a punishment. We often see the wilderness as a place we are moved into because God is angry with us for doing something wrong. Friend, I can assure that is not our Father!
If you always feel like you have been in wilderness seasons, I believe it’s because of those two reasons. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy and know God, and grow while you are in them. So, let’s look through those two lenses a little deeper.
1.) We are led
In Matthew 4:1, shortly after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the Jesus into the wilderness. Here is that verse in Matthew chapter 4:
Afterward, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to experience the ordeal of testing by the accuser. The first thing you need to know here is that Jesus was “led” by he Holy Spirit. He didn’t end up there by mistake. He followed the spirit’s leading. This is important for you and me because it determines where we find ourselves. The next thing you need to know is that he was led there to be tested by the accuser of the brethren. As long as we are on this earth, we will never avoid testing. It’s inevitable. While the wilderness tests you, it also matures you. It allows testing for the maturation process to take place in your life.
Before Jesus was led, the Father said over him, “This is my Son, the Beloved! My greatest delight is in him” (Matt. 3:17 TPT). It is vital that we know the Father affirms our identity before we transition. All of life is series of transitions and maturing along the way. It’s his affirmation that strengthens us and give us confidence to endure as Jesus did.
I look at Jesus’ experience in the wilderness and see something so beautiful. I see a son learning to walk in full dependency and union with his father. I see the wilderness producing an authentic son. Although he was a son, he was learning to be authentically himself. I see a son growing in the area of fully knowing what the Fathers voice sounds like. I see a son learning the difference between His voice and the accusers.
“As Jesus is in this world, so are we” (1 John 4:17). Whatever has experienced, so will you and I. As we look at Jesus, we see that he was affirmed as he was being led into the wilderness. Deep within the heart of our Father is the desire to affirm who you are, not to place you in a situation where you would falter. So, we can agree that affirmation is a large part of our growing up in Christ, right?
2.) He is punishing us
We look in the old testament in Exodus 15-16 and see that Moses led Israel into the wilderness. There were instances where God had provided for the Israelites by way of miracles:
a). Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter; for that reason it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet (Exodus 15:22-25).
b). Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. But the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread until we were full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this entire assembly with hunger!” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily” (Exodus 16:1-5)
While the Israelites are being led into the wilderness by Moses, Moses is being led by the Lord as he is leading them. As they come into the wilderness, the Israelites begin complaining shortly after because they have discovered that they have no bread to eat. But the Lord provides them with water, manna (bread), and meat. Them being in the wilderness doesn’t hinder them from being provided for. Their reason for being there was to test them, not to punish them. We the same theme with Jesus in Matthew 4.
For the Israelites, the wilderness was not meant to be a place of punishment, but it was meant to be a place of molding and transformation. It was a time building, shaping, and the preparation of authentic sons and daughters of Yahweh. It was no accident for them to be led into the wilderness by the Lord. It was intentional and relational.
Our process looks so different from everyone else because it was ordained by the Father himself. If you are in a wilderness season right now or you feel that Yahweh is leading into a wilderness season, I want you to know that it’s less about the promise land and more about your growth and becoming who you were designed to be.
It will always be our perception of the Father that keeps us in the wilderness longer than we are supposed to be. Our complaining comes from our view of him. Our partnering with him come from our trust in him. Which one will you be?
Today, let your prayer be this:
Abba, I’d rather be led into the wilderness than make a mistake and find myself there by way of a wrong decision that I have made. I surrender to your Holy Spirit living within me, Amen.
