What is a wilderness season? When we think of “wilderness” what comes to mind is an area that is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and uncertain. There are no maps, trails, or human conveniences built in. Wilderness is any land that has not been modified or cultivated. It hasn’t yet been settled or borne fruit. In the Spirit, this translates into a season in which you are in unfamiliar territory. The path ahead is uncharted, and we are without the comforts we typically lean on. It can feel rugged, unprepared, or unequipped. It can also tend to feel punishing, though we find in Scripture that the wilderness is actually not a bad thing. If you’re in a wilderness season, while it might not feel like good things are right around the corner, it’s important to remember that in the natural, any land that will one day be fruitful or populated first starts as wilderness. In fact, if we wield the Words we’re given by the Lord, the wilderness precedes the promise.
The wilderness can have three effects: it works on us, it works for us, or it works against us. The first two are the reason the Lord leads us into wilderness seasons. The third- the wilderness working against us- is what happens when we fail to wield the Words of the Lord.
First, if you’re in a wilderness season, draw your attention to the ways the Lord is working on you. The Israelites had a God-appointed wilderness time of training to be prepared to enter the promised land. There is often a preparation happening that comes in the form of teaching and testing. The teaching is the Lord revealing His Words to us or reminding us of things He has already spoken. The testing is an opportunity to lean on those words and see the goodness of God and the truth of His Word. This solidifies in us through personal experience the truths that have also been so. For the Israelites who were still under the Old Covenant, the Words given to them in the wilderness (the commandments) were an invitation to draw near to the Lord and a blueprint for fruitful living. Our own wildernesses function the same; an invitation to a new level of intimacy with the Lord and blueprints needed for what will be fruitful in future seasons if we listen and obey those words He is seeding in our hearts now.
Second, begin praising God for the work the wilderness does for us. In the temptation of Jesus, we see that “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days…”. While this was a place in which the enemy tried to tempt Him, it was also a place that- just after a powerful anointing in His baptism and just before launching His world-changing ministry- He got to be alone. The wilderness has the potential to be a place of affirming connection to the Lord and standing on His Words. It is only when we step away from other voices and all of our “normal” that we can truly lean on the Word. What a gift that is! It also was the place angels ministered to Jesus. In the midst of the sneers of the enemy, let us not lose track of the “ministering angel” moments that meet us in the wilderness.
Finally, we must be aware of the ways the enemy wants to work the wilderness season against us. I think of Abram. God tells him in Genesis 12:1 “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”. Talk about a call into the unknown! Yet God follow it up with these powerful words he would wield for decades to come:
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Gen 12:2-3
As he went to that new land, he experienced disagreements with Lot, childlessness, and ultimately succumbs to the temptation that maybe God wasn’t going to fulfill His promise. We see that compromise in the conception of Ishmael. That same temptation kept most of the Israelites from entering the promised land because, upon seeing it, they saw the obstacles of the land as more real than God’s promise that it would be theirs. Satan tried (unsuccessfully) to give the same bait to Jesus. Do it yourself. Compromise. Quit. Take the shortcut. Don’t do the hard thing. Don’t trust God.
Jesus responded, however, by wielding the Words He had been given. When we can pick up our words without compromise, without quitting, without taking the shortcut, and without doubting God’s goodness or ability, we come out of the wilderness ready to settle the land and bear fruit in the next season the Lord has for us.
If you’re in a wilderness, here is some encouragement. God always ordains wilderness for a season. It is always meant to be a brief, time-limited stay. The Israelites only got stuck wandering there when they chose to give up on the ability of God and the truth of His promises. The purpose of this season is words. When we take our eyes off our opposition and refocus them on the Words, the wilderness begins to work for us and in us instead of against us. He is the living water. And when water flows in the wilderness, a desert becomes a garden.
Take some time with the Holy Spirit to ponder and ask these things:
What Words are You giving me or reminding me of of in this time? How can I use them as defense against the discouragement of the enemy?
God, what deeper truths are you embedding into My heart that will begin to cultivate the wild ground and transform the wilderness into settled, fruitful land for the next season?
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