In the Wilderness....Again

Checklist complete. Everything appears to be the same as it was just a few months ago. At least in my small circle of life. No dramatic changes. No sudden life altering tragedies (Praise the Lord) or even abundant blessings. Everybody around me is going about daily activities according to SOP (standard operating procedure). Even the weather this spring is better than in years. God has brought rain back to Georgia! The landscape is greener, lusher than it has been in for many Mays. Yet in spite of all of this "normalcy" everything is different. How do you describe standing in the middle of the desert when it looks like you are standing in the middle of a thriving, busy metropolis? Must be spiritual wilderness time again.....

Can you identify with me when I describe this feeling of Wilderness? You know you are walking with God. He is with you, yet the ground around you is parched and rugged terrain. Almost without realizing it, you have been transported from one spiritual dimension to another. You stop and do the self check. Am I still walking with you, Lord? Am I still communing with you? Is there something to which I failed to pay attention when the "change direction" signal came? What is going on, Lord? It is as if God gave the command, "Beam her up, Scottie" only it was in the spiritual realm. So I am still walking and functioning in my "normal" world but everything is different. Really different. Has this happened to you?

Our relationship with God, our Lover and our Lord, is so uniquely personal. He has a path that is designed for us individually to experience Him, to know Him, to love Him in the most personal way. However we are free to make choices of how we are going to respond to His invitation to enjoy this relationship with Him. Competition lurks at every turn of the road for our attention. Then there is the aspect of the seasons of our life. When we have completed one phase of growth, He wants us to move to the next dimension to get deeper with Him. Perhaps it is as simple as needing us someplace else doing something different for the kingdom. One thing is certain. Unless we are communing with Him, we cannot discern what He is teaching us and directing us to do. We must become "Discerners of the signs of the times" Matthew 16:3 in our lives. We must also be ready to respond when He makes a move in our lives to shift us.

Wilderness seasons. What do we do when we are in a wilderness season of our life and how do we respond to Him? First we cannot panic. We cannot shut down and turn inward thinking that this is "all about us." Our loving precious Lord uses the wilderness to bring us to Him. Did you know that the word Wilderness is used 305 times in the Bible? What an incredible Word study/Bible study for anyone of us in this season. Listen to Ezekiel 20:34-37. "I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord God. "I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." I encourage you to read the rest of the verses that follow to 44. Do you hear His incredible personal plea for your heart? He is calling you out from the other peoples of the earth and going to plead His case as He did with our ancient fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt and He is going to bring you into the covenant bond. In order to plead His case, God has to get us away from the chaos of the world, take us into the wilderness and then pass us under the rod. This is a metaphor from a shepherd who makes his sheep pass under his rod in counting them. Can you grasp what He is doing? He is culling out His sheep, His children, His remnant and insuring that they are indeed His flock, then He is branding them with His covenant.

My wilderness season, your wilderness season. We don't turn inward; what do we do? We turn upward more than ever before. We don't impulsively move before we hear what He is instructing us to do next. Remember we are to become discerners of the signs of the times, both on the greater scale and on a very personal dimension. Our Lord is purposeful in every aspect of our lives. He has gifted us and trained us for a unique role in this kingdom work and in this time in which we are living. These are critical times. We are more than tiny pebbles being thrown in a neighborhood pond. We are mighty stones of His righteousness that He will fling into the greatest seas if we will abandon our own agendas in our lives and give Him total access to us. The subsequent recurring rings from that toss can have a powerful impact for the kingdom if we will surrender in total obedience.

Wilderness. Don't fear it. Embrace it. Relish this time that the Lord has set aside in your life that is His and His alone. Discover what it is that He is trying to teach you about Him and about your relationship with Him. Change your normal quiet time with Him and increase it. Get out of comfort zones of devotional time if they have become routine and dive in deep. Seek His voice in directing you somewhere you have never gone before. A different time, a different place to be with Him, even different people with whom to search out His heart. However don't mistake busy-ness with searching for His heart. Remember He has cautioned us before, I want to you to Come Be With Me before you Go Do For Me. You must know His heart before you can truly know what His desire is for you life in this kingdom work. However long your walk in the Wilderness lasts with Him, remember you are with Him and He has a wonderful purpose for taking you there. Enjoy it.