Wilderness Before Promise: Entering the Promise Land

Desert Hills by  Jose Maria Cuellar

Being Led Into The Wilderness

It's hard to search the bible for being "led" without coming back to the story of Israel in the wilderness, or references to it.

Deuteronomy 8:2 NKJV
And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

Is it possible that we create our own wilderness experiences; or, is it that we prolong them by our defiance?

The Wilderness Precedes the Promise

Matthew 4:1
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

So we can see a pattern emerging. From Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Israel the Nation, Elijah, to Jesus himself, wilderness times precede the promise. These are times of testing and proving. I don’t think God needs you to prove anything to Him. He knows what you are capable of, more than you do.
What God wants, is for you to experience the proof yourself. It’s as though, the very proving ground, training ground, testing ground itself, is where hero’s are made.

Abundance Despite The Lack

Both Israel, and Jesus himself, were led into wilderness times. It seems that God actually does this on purpose in the lives of people who have submitted themselves to him. So when wilderness times come, let us learn from them, and grow through them. We can see where Israel failed here.
Israel murmured and complained the entire time they were in the wilderness. Even though God met every need, to the abundance, to the overflow, they still murmured. They lacked food, He rained down bread. They lacked meat, He gave them quail. They lacked water, He brought forth a river from a rock.
At each turn, they had the opportunity to ask and receive, instead they complained and took. Eventually, they disqualified themselves from the promise. At any time, they could have repented as a nation, and they could have entered that promise. However, it took another generation to rise up, one that would respond differently.

Leaving Egypt Behind

 
Israel was either begging to go back to Egypt, the land of their slavery…

Is there some Egypt in our heart still calling us back?

Or, Israel was making golden calves, and deals with the enemy they should have been conquering.

Do we seek God's will our own way? Are we willing to compromise with the devils that stand between us and our promised land; rather than do the harder work of trusting God to purge them?

Joshua's generation proved that the Giants weren't preventing Israel from taking the land. Longing in the hearts of their fathers for the past, mistrust in the present, and fear of the future, kept Moses's generation stuck.
And yet, it was Joshua’s generation that faced the fiercest battles, and most challenges. The wilderness is there to train you in safety for the real fight that it takes to obtain your promise.

If you don’t win in the wilderness, you’ll never make it in the promise land.

Here my question today:

Are you using the wilderness time to hone your skills, deepen your relationship with God, and train for the real battles ahead?

Or are you simply walking around in circles never quite out of sin or into victory?

By Darrell Wolfe
About This Blog, and Darrell.

This Weeks Resource:

• Jeremy Pearsons Ministries

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And now I leave you with a question:

What are you preparing for the promise, or barely enduring the wilderness?

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