Your Response to the Desert will Determine How Long You Stay in the Desert

Two reasons you might be in the desert. Number1, preparation. Number 2, grumbling.

Moses, John, and Jesus all went into the desert. Moses spent 80 years of his life in a desert. The first time that Moses went into the desert he was being prepared to be used of the Lord. Moses had to be torn away from everything that he knew so that nothing about his former self could interfere with the voice of the Lord. A lot of times when we hear God’s voice, we try to get advice from people that may not know God on the level that he desires for us to know him on. Moses had to learn how to be alone with God and depend on his instructions instead of other people’s opinion. Just imagine, what if Moses was still in Egypt when God gave him the official ok to be used as a tool to lead the Israelites to freedom. Sometimes people get so familiar with you that they don’t respect your anointing so you have to be moved away from them. Egypt was familiar with Moses and those people thought that they knew him. They were familiar with his background, but they had no clue about his anointing. That alone place will reveal to you who you are in Christ. Your true identity begins to show once you have been hanging out with Jesus.

The desert will spark a fire for the things of God on the inside of you. When you have been spending time with God as your only source of friendship you will want to burn up everything around you for his glory and not your own. John was a man that was about God’s business. He was filled with the Holy Ghost even when he was in the womb. He was a fire starter for the glory of God. When you hang around God, it will not matter what other people have to say about you because your confidence will be in Him. John was living in a time where it was important for him to know who he was in Christ. He had to be able to handle the fame that his anointing brought him, but he also had to have the humility to know when to step aside so that Jesus could shine. The desert will teach you who God is. John could not allow himself to pick up the mindset of a Pharisee.

The beautiful thing about Jesus going into the desert is that he went through what he had to go through and came right on out. I’m sure that it was not easy to be hot, hungry, and tempted for 40 days but Jesus did it without grumbling. The true you will come out when you are in the desert. Are you going to grumble are or you going to go through what you are sent to go through and come on out so that you can go to work for the Lord? The desert proves if you are ready or not to handle the weight of your anointing. If you are not ready, you will remain in the place that you are in until your attitude says that you are ready to come out.

In the case of Israel, God did a great work in their lives. They were slaves for hundreds of years and God saved them through miracles, signs, and wonders. They were free, but yet they grumbled. You cannot go into the place that God has called you to go to grumbling. These people that God loved had to spend 40 years in a desert when they were only supposed to make an 11 day trip to the land that God would give them.

We should have a repentant heart before the Lord for the way that we treat him. Sometimes we treat God as if he is common and can be compared to man. I have both done and thought some terrible things before the Lord so how dare I get upset with him about anything. As I read Numbers 14, I thought about how I must sound to God. I have been grumbling a lot lately on my field trip with the Lord. My first mistake is not realizing that it is a field trip and my second mistake is questioning whether God will actually do what he said he would. If many of us actually take a look at our lives we will see the moving hand of God. When God allowed Israel to get a 40 day glimpse at what he was about to give them, they looked at their might and said that they would not be able to obtain it. They failed to look at the God who parted the red sea on their behalf. In Numbers 14 God asked Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?”

Lord the first thing that I need to do is hold the mirror up to my own face. I pray that you forgive me for grumbling. Lord I pray to have the faith, courage, and passion that you gave to Joshua and Caleb. Lord I pray to see as you see. I pray to keep in mind that you are with me. I pray to take your word to heart and not cast it aside. I pray to live this life with you in faith that no word that you have ever spoken will fail. Lord I pray to be quick about performing the instructions that you give me and to speak well of the things that you are showing me and allowing me to experience. I pray to enjoy where I am on the way to where I am going, in Jesus name, Amen.

“As you celebrate the Lord, He will celebrate you” ~Bishop David A Richey

Recommended Reading:

Exodus 2:11-25, Exodus 3

Numbers: 13 and 14 (2 chapters)

Deuteronomy 1:2

Luke 1:80

Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13, Mark 1:9-13

Comments

Turn Aside and See

“And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.” (Exodus 3:3-4a) Moses was born into both chaos and love. The chaos was Pharaoh demanding that growth be hindered by killing all the male babies, and the love was from God and his parents. Moses was consecrated in a hiding place and then in a dangerous river. He was found by faith and given the perspective of the slave and of royalty. Moses’ heart was never to be above, but to be at eye level with those he loved. Moses was already accepted by God, chosen, and loved. He was consecrated before he could understand purpose. Moses, in his passion, did something that no one accepted. He killed a man when he tried to protect another one. He went on the run, broken, but not alone. Moses didn’t cry. He adjusted. Pain was there, but so was provision and more lessons. ...

Need Prayer?

“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32a). For a time, I didn’t ask people for prayer . I became protective of ‘my stuff,’ and I backed away from needing people because I had me-the army of one. I felt alone, misunderstood; all the things that I wanted no one to know about because I got me . This mindset created offense and functional depression. I backed away so that no one would see it; no one knew me enough to recognize what it looked like. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:32b). What does it look like when you are being sifted? The sifting starts early in life and can be a continuous pattern if the devil feels like his tactics are working against you. I asked a friend recently, “Why am I so emotional? Did God give me these emotions?” I tend to feel deeply because I am an intercessor, but the emotions have to be stewarded properly. You have to master them by submit...

I Forgot About Grace

“He answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So, I will celebrate my weakness, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 TPT) Today I read a devotional, and it reminded me that I forgot about grace. I always say that God is good, but I forget to say that God is graceful. On most days I operate in an autopilot state, and I give out of an empty cup. It’s exhausting to say the least, especially when life seemingly finds a way to knock the joy out of you through hardships. God is not just good, He is graceful. He gives us the grace to stand when our emotions make us want to fall to our knees in submission to defeat. God is graceful, and He covers us when we cry ourselves to sleep in an attempt to keep the truth of our situations hidden from the world. God is graceful! I never understood the ...

Will You Marry Me?

I’m not obsessed, but I’ve been thinking about marriage a lot more lately. As a Christian, I’ve learned where I went wrong concerning my standards of dating before I knew Jesus. I have been looking at the profile pages of exes to see if, perhaps, I was missing something. I’m happy to report that I am not. I more so found myself thanking God for what He didn’t allow. Even though I’m thankful for every failed relationship, I find myself encountering the hurt that still remains as a result of my insecurities. There is so much that I have not let go of. In a way,I’m afraid to let go of the hurt that I am carrying because that vacant spot could potentially attract more pain in its place. I want to trust people, but the fear of them knowing who I intimately am always gets in my way. I so badly desire God and everything that He has for me, but the past is a hinderance. I feel as if I should finally forgive those that misused me, ...

Keep Your Lamp Filled

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:1–5). Everyone had the same mindset to go to the same place for the same reason. Everyone was on their way, but partial action was taken by five of the virgins. The bridegroom had the capacity to care for all ten. Everyone had a lamp, but everyone did not have oil to see Who they were waiting for. The oil was available, but five virgins did not take the initiative to get more oil. What they had was not enough for the journey they were on. Five of the virgins were wise; they did what was needed to obtain more oil. The other five virgins were foolish, thinking that what they had was enough and that getting...

Take Up Your Cross

God paved the way for my present and my future with the prayers that He placed into my heart many years ago. I didn’t know what new challenges I would have to overcome or what would be required of me as I uttered the sentiments of my heart into His ears. All I knew was that I wanted to serve Him. One my many heart’s desires was to not be a seat filler. I didn’t want to grow content with occupying a seat in the church and never getting out of it to go into all the world to do what God had ordained for me to do in the earth. At that time I didn’t know who God had called me to be and I didn’t understand that some of my prayers was an indication of it. Spoken from a transparent place, as life happened, the more God told me to get up the more I wanted to sit down. Tiredness and fear had gripped me on more occasions than I want to admit and I have had the audacity to whisper, “ get somebody else to do it”, on more than one occasion. I felt justified in what I...

The Process of Faithing It: Trusting Jesus with Your Faith

“Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction” (Mark 5:34 NKJV). Can you imagine Jesus in a crowd? Everyone has a need, but His target in that moment is to go and build the faith of a little girl’s family at the request of her father because they think that she will die. The father is scared, but Jesus was on the way until He felt something. This feeling was different, but powerful. Jesus turns around looking, asking questions, but finds his answer in the form of a woman, standing and looking amazed at what just happened to her. After 13 years of anemia, tiredness, dizzy spells, soiled clothing, and impacted relationships, she is healed. This woman with an issue of blood had spent all of her money, but decided to trust Jesus with her faith, which was all that she had left. Jesus was not too busy to stop and ask, “Who touched me?”. The disciples reminded Jesus of all the people that were around them, but this touch was different. Some...

Heart Inspection: Clean Your House

I remember growing up in a place that required inspections. I used to hate them because I knew that my mom and I would be up all night making sure that the house was clean. I understood that everything had to be just right before the apartment manager came in to make sure that things were how they needed to be, so I got to cleaning. I had two methods of cleaning depending on my mood. I had a lazy way of making everything appear spotless and I had a thorough way of cleaning that I learned from my father and grandmother. When I was in my lazy mood, I just stuffed everything into closets and under the bed because I knew that no one would look there. It produced great results and we passed the inspections. When I cleaned the way that I observed my father cleaning, I would make sure that everything was how it needed to be. I eventually began to dislike things under the bed and I got into the habit of cleaning out my closet. These results also produced great outcomes that I didn’t ha...

Kairos:God’s Opportune Time Table

There are moments and seasons that are not defined by man or their opinions. In those moments “their” opinions don’t matter, your background does not matter, and your last name does not matter. Those moments are the ones that define your destiny and triumph over your past. Those seasons are the ones that you are born to walk in and nothing can steal them away from you. That moment and that season is specified as being your kairos moment. Your life, your destiny, your ministry, and your purpose are all in your kairos moment. Everything that you are and ever will be, boils down to that moment. Your kairos moment cannot be defined, manipulated, or determined by man because it is a moment that is determined by God alone. King David was the underdog. He was the youngest and most different when compared to his brothers. Even the prophet Samuel could not identify God’s chosen vessel in the flesh because God had to reveal to him who the next king would be. Being alone and being the u...

Allow God to Make You Great: Perfecting Imperfections

Sometimes the grace that covers your life is the call that God has placed on it. He has invested too much into you to allow you to die in your sin. We are like a treasure chest to God. Some people may look at us and think that we are worthless, but the value of who God says we are is locked up on the inside of us awaiting the season to be revealed. None of us know who we are until God speaks. We don’t know our purpose or even why we look the way that we do. God is strategic and protective. He can’t reveal the totality of the plan that he has for your life because you may try to either abort your mission or go on a voyage that He has not called you to go on. The grace of God is that he can turn our mistakes into blessings and He can use our season of disobedience as teachable points to warn others about what not to do. God specializes in fools, the forgotten, and outcasts. He gives His wisdom to those who people deem unworthy to have it and He transforms lives through brokenness. ...

JaNina B.

Search This Blog