"..We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow." - Charles H. Spurgeon
"When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.
But whoever obeys the law is joyful." -Proverbs 29:18
The wilderness is a place we visit, not our ultimate destination. If handled correctly, you will experience victory in the wilderness and move beyond its borders. Throughout this blog about the wilderness journey, I've covered different personal wilderness journeys from small to large circumstances and experiences that I've encountered to share and show that this life is a never ending wilderness journey until we reach Paradise. To state this another way, it means as a kingdom child, a believer in Christ, our lifetime on this earth is essentially a wilderness journey containing many different episodes or seasons in our life story.
It can range from the larger and longer journeys like the chapter in my life where I struggled through my career to get to where I am now, to smaller and shorter journeys like getting sick or even having car problems. No matter what size or length of time it may be, the main reason for the wilderness journey is to strength our spiritual life and faith in God. We need to be willing to be open to the circumstances we face and to truly ask the Lord, "What is it in this season Lord that you are trying to teach me?"
Without the willingness to surrender and openness to ask God what this season brings for us individually, we will be traveling within a very long journey. In the midst of my career struggle, I was beginning to wonder if anything would really change and if I would ever get out of this road block. A couple of months before I was planning to quit, the Holy Spirit directed me to help someone else who was looking for a job. This person was looking more for the clinical opportunities, and as I was searching, I randomly found the opening for the job I am in now.
Our focus must be on the purpose of God, not the resistance we face that tries to keep us from pressing on. We must have the right vision before us if we are to finish at the right destination! It would be a terrible thing to run a race and cross the wrong finish line. It would be a disaster to aim a gun at the wrong target and hit it.
Bevere states, "What is the destination and purpose of God for us as His people?" God says in Ephesians 1:11 that we have been "...predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (NKJV).
Now, many people get tripped up when they hear "predestined" or "predestination". In order to understand this idea, we must break apart the word and look at it by the root and prefix. The prefix "pre" simply means "before" or "prior to the beginning." The root "destination" means "where you will end" or "the finish line." Putting the two together, it means "to set the finish line before the start." Ephesians 1:11, therefore, shows us that God set a destination for mankind -- prior to creating us --- that would fulfill His purpose.
Romans 8:28-29 says:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Our destination, which God planned before time began, was for us who love God to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Everything done in life or ministry should be towards this goal or end. God's number one purpose for creating us was not just so we could join a successful ministry team, give millions of dollars to churches or organizations, be a known artist, or have any other career goal. It isn't even to heal the sick, pursue humanitarian relief efforts, rescue sex-trafficking victims, get people free from addiction, or win the lost to Jesus. As noble and godly as all these pursuits are, we must realize that there have been many who have done those things but didn't cross the finish line. The reason they didn't finish well is because their focus was on the ministry and not the goal or heart behind the ministry.
Now the question must be answered: "What was the purpose of Christ?" The answer is simple because He loved us and desired fellowship with us so "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7 NKJV). The purpose of the wilderness is to point us in the direction of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
If we lose sight of God's purpose for us, we will cast off restraints and regress spiritually. As a church, when we lose sight of the purpose of God, we dry up, shrinking into an institution driven by the things of the world. We emphasize results --larger numbers and bigger buildings rather than making disciples in the image of Christ (Matthew 28:19).
*Proverbs 29:18: "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraints" (NKJV). The restraint God is speaking of keeps us from settling for the low-level call, which is anything short of being conformed to His image and likeness. It is the restraint that keeps us from being satisfied until we are conformed to His image and behold Him face to face and see His glory revealed. It is the restraint that keeps us from accepting anything short of His perfect will. This restraint will keep us from being at ease and doing things the way the world does, from doing things in the way of the flesh.
The way we see the circumstances that we find ourselves will determine how you come through them. Going back to wilderness journey of the Israelites, there were twelves spies who were sent out to gather intelligence on the Promised Land but all they saw were the same sights, the same giants, the same armies of the Canaanite nations except for Joshua and Caleb. The two of them saw the Promised Land in a different way from the others. Joshua and Caleb perceived it the way God saw it, and the other ten perceived the Promised Land through the eyes of natural experience of their own abilities and strengths.
As we go through the different wilderness journeys in our lives, we really have to see things in the way God sees things, not the way society and the world has taught us to see things. I've shared this with multiple people around me and even those who ask me how I am able to be okay despite the horrific situations I have experienced or even the ones that have been so daunting at times. And this, I will share with you. As someone who really wants to walk the kingdom walk, who wants to build a genuine union with the Lord, who really wants to ensure that they are ready for heaven-- we need to unlearn what society has taught us on how to feel and see things and learn to feel and see it the way God does.
So what does that mean? For example, what happened to my sister was really difficult and it was depressing for me at one point. In the way of seeing it through the world's view, it was and still is sad, unfair, and full of negativity. It brought a dark world, because she was so young, a genuine believer in Jesus Christ, and a pastor! of all things... It brought confusion to me because I kept looking for the WHY. This dark world was one in which could have taken me even longer to get out to hopefully see the light.
However, when I changed the way I saw this unfortunate circumstance and viewed it with the kingdom mindset, that is when I was able to find Joy. Not the joy that everyone describes as "HAPPINESS" but the joy in which you can be at peace in the good and bad situations. Our minds are a very powerful thing which can take us to new heights or bring us to the darkest pits in life. So when you are troubled, confused, or feeling like there is no hope; fight through the noises and voices telling you that you can't get out of it. Fight through the difficulty with God and you will see the light. You just have to open your heart and mind to allowing God to help us.
I was able to see what happened to my sister with the Joy to lift myself up, with the ability to see it the way God saw it, and it was to rejoice in which she has arrived at her final destination knowing that she lived her life here on this earth with Christlikeness. Now this may get a bit confusing since it's unlearning what we've been taught in the world and trying to absorb and understand it in the spiritual way. But what was a tragic and unexplainable situation I had to personally experience, became a journey in which I learned to see the good in the bad. Through the bad, I realized things that would sound odd and absurd, were potentially blessings. My sister's life that was taken became an avenue for so many people to see her life and testimony. Not for her self gratification, but for people to see her kingdom walk on this earth, her faith, her belief, her heart, her struggles, her journey, and want to know the God she believes in. It opened up a door for people to want to know who Jesus is or even wanted to know more about Jesus and this journey of kingdom life.
She, in a way saved me more in my journey here on earth for eternity. Losing her was either going to bring me down to darkness and I was going to walk away from the God I believed in, or it was going to lift me up and motivate me to walk deeper with the God I believe in. She was ready for her final destination. Of course in her flesh, she was going to miss us -- her family, but she accomplished God's purpose for her in this world and there truly was nothing else she needed to do or fix. She reflected the character of Christ. Yes, God could have saved her from passing and could have healed her from Cancer, but if He did, I'm not sure I would have reached the level of her understanding, faith, and belief in the same God we worship. For some reason without tragedy and brokenness, we never see clearly until we're at our lowest point in life.
Not saying that God purposely plans these situations to "grow" us spiritually, but God uses what this fallen world hits us with and He uses it for good. As Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good...." No matter what's thrown our way in this life, keep God in the forefront and He will allow us to see the good through the bad.
Now, I'm sure some of you will think this is just my way to find peace and comfort in her situation, or it sounds really messed up to say that I can see blessing in the passing of my sister. Until you change your perspective on how to see this life as a kingdom child, the different wilderness journeys you face in this life will always feel difficult or "unfair".
Switching the way I view my sister's situation, I learned that many of Jesus' disciples died before they reached 40 years old. Christ himself died at 33. Not saying everyone has to die young but my point is, those who are so immersed in the Lord, and reflect Christlikeness, are the ones ready for the next and final destination. Those who are able to release the things of the world and not fear going to Heaven at any time are ready for the next destination when God calls them. Just as losing someone so young is tragic today, it was also tragic in the past. My reason of saying all of this is, if you are fully committed to the relationship you have with God and you are ready to walk the faith genuinely, you will see that every trial and tribulation experienced is a moment to build our "faith strength". These moments that the world tells us is negative and terrible, are moments in the kingdom in which you see blessing and opportunity.
God won't give us more than we can handle; however, in our trials and tribulations, it will feel as if God is giving us too much. When we have these faith strengthening moments, it means God is there, and He wants us to keep growing in the faith. He wants to get us the level in which we need to be at to be ready for eternity, and to make sure that we will be part of those in which God has called to heaven.
Going back to Joshua and Caleb, the ten other spies spoke with their mouths and responded with actions in a manner contrary to the will of God, and He said that their report was "evil" or "bad";
"Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, every one of you who is twenty years old or older and was included in the registration will die. You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun." (Numbers 14:28-30 NLT)
What caused the ten spies to give a report that would cause them to never see what God had promised them? It was how they perceived what was before them -- it wasn't prophetic vision --- it was natural vision. What they saw was what they reported. In order to come through the wilderness victoriously, we must see things the way God sees them. The children of Israel already had been complaining for more than a year before God sent the spies into the Promised Land. Their perspective was already bad, and all restraints had been discarded. So, by the time God allowed them to see the land that flowed with milk and honey, they rejected the good things they saw. Instead they focused on the giants in the land.
Those who see only the wilderness (and the hardships associated with it) will die in their wilderness. Those who keep their eyes set on the Promiser and the vision He has set before them will come through the wilderness as sanctified warriors, ready to take and live in the Promised land set before them to the glory of God.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of "Victory in the Wilderness" which will be the final post on "The Project of Finding Strength & Purpose in my Wilderness".
(*) Another blog posts that expands on that specific topic
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