Psalm 77:4 “You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.”
James 1:2-4 (NLT) “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
Difficult times is an opportunity:
- For Great Joy
- For your Faith to be tested
- To Grow
- To develop
- To be perfect
- To be complete
- To fulfil your need completely
- For the Power of God to be displayed.
- I live by the Faith of Jesus
1 PETER 1:7 (NLT) These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold — though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.
Pathway to Your Destiny
- Promise. (glimpse of your destiny)
- Process. (wilderness)
- Promotion. (promise fulfilled)
The Promise
“You are closer than you can imagine to your breakthrough and to walking in the fulfillment of all you have hoped, prayed and believed for.”
The Process of the Wilderness
- Preparation (Maturing)
- Refining (Purification)
- Testing
- Humbling
- Strength Building
- Revelation
- Path to Fulfilled Promises
The Wilderness is not
- Punishment
- Disapproval
- Abandonment
- Defeat
The Wilderness Defined
Job 23:8-9 (NKJV) Look I go forward, but He is not there and
backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
The Wilderness Defined
It is a time when you appear to be going in the opposite direction of your dreams and the promises of God. You perceive no growth and development. In fact, you may feel you are regressing. His presence seems to diminish, rather than grow. You may feel unloved and even ignored. But you are not.
Daily Bread – This is a time when God gives you “daily bread,” not
“abundance of things”—a time when you get what you need physically or materially, rather than what you want.
The Wilderness a time of testing
Deuteronomy 8:2 …The Lord your God led you…in the wilderness, to humble you and to test you, to know what was in your heart,…
Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV) So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna…that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
What did God do? He created hunger by removing anything that would have satisfied the desires and wants of their flesh, while still meeting their fundamental needs. He created this hunger to test them. What was this test? He wanted to see if they would desire Him instead of what they had left behind; to see if they would seek Him or what their flesh craved.
Numbers 11:4-6 (NKJV) Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes.
Psalms 106:15 (NKJV) And He gave them their request, so they ate (meat—quail) and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire. They were not deprived of their craving; But (He) sent leanness into their soul.
They got what they wanted, but at a high price. With this meat came leanness. This leanness made them unfit to endure, unable to pass God’s test, and ultimately, they never entered His PROMISED LAND!
The wilderness reveals the motives of our heart. In the wilderness God wants us to know Him
Daniel 11:32, “…but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”
In the wilderness God want us to know Him
1 Corinthians 10:3-5 (MSG) Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.”
Why were God not please with them?
Because their focus was on themselves, not on God.
The Highway of God
Isaiah 40:3 (NIV) A voice of one calling: in the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
The wilderness is the location of God’s highway. It is in the wilderness that the way is prepared. It is the way or road to the high or exalted life—the way God lives and thinks.
Isaiah 35:6, 8 (NKJV): …for waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert …. A highway shall be there [the desert] and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.
God is not looking for an outward form of holiness; He wants an inward change of your heart, for a pure heart will produce pure conduct.
Matthew 23:26 (NKJV), “…first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish [the heart], that the outside of them may be clean also.”