Exodus 13:18 So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.
“Wilderness seasons bring with them testing and challenge, but it’s in this place of desperation that God meets our deepest needs” –Tripp Prince.
The word wilderness is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. We who live in the concrete jungles and developed cities have a poor understanding of ‘wilderness’ mentioned in the Bible. Wilderness is not a scenic drive with walkways, signboards, coffee shops and walking trails. Wilderness in Bible days were vast areas of land that remained uninhabited, uncultivated and untouched by humans. There were no topographical surveys, geotechnical reports or google maps to show them the extent or the landscape of the wilderness. It was an unknown territory. Walking through the wilderness meant that they did not know what they would step into in their next move. Wilderness experiences are not accidental. God intentionally routes us into the wilderness. He led the Israelites in a roundabout route through the wilderness. Wilderness is invariably a thoroughfare to destiny. We have to go through the wilderness into the wonderland that God has prepared for us.
Wilderness experience could be a waiting period for a breakthrough. It could be a dark place of treading on the unknown. We would have several promises to the Promised Land but God seldom gives us the roadmap to get to our destiny. Wilderness experience is essential for growth. It is in the wilderness that our faith is challenged and our trust in the Lord is fortified. Wilderness prepares us for the promotion.
Why this wilderness?
1. Prune: Wilderness experience is a pruning period. A pruned rose bush looks ugly and hopeless. It will be bare, empty and full of thorns but it is the pruning that makes it flamboyant when the flowering season begins. So, be patient and allow God to prune you. Many times God will prune ‘control’ away from us in the wilderness. We will have no control over our future or the outcome. ‘Pruning control’ causes faith and trust to flower and flourish.
2. Pliant: Wilderness removes all the stiffness, stubbornness and selfishness and makes us pliable, flexible and malleable in the hand of God. If promotion comes before we are pliable, it could turn into pride. Hence the wilderness experience makes us soft, bendable and teachable.
3. Prepare: Wilderness is a dark place with no vicinity of light at the end of the tunnel. However it is in the darkness and uncertainty that we hear Him clearly. It is in the darkness that fear transforms into faith and the problems becomes the platform for promotion. The darkness in the wilderness helps us to clutch onto God’s hands and totally depend on His sovereign leading.
Wilderness is a place of preparation for the promotion.
Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Prayer: Dear Daddy, in the middle of a wilderness, help me to understand that it is not a place of permanence but the ground of preparation for my promotion. Amen.
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