Wilderness Wisdom

I wanted to come on here to chat about the wilderness that many of us feel like we are living in at the moment. As we are all in the same boat and because I have been through the wilderness season in my personal life recently, I thought I would share with you what I’ve learnt to help you understand the season you may find yourself in. Although I don’t believe that God has caused this virus or brought about this wilderness season, I do believe that what the enemy meant for harm, God will turn it around for our good and His glory.

Let’s take a minute and take a look at what the wilderness is?

The wilderness is an area where the earth and community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor that does not stay.

Desert: A barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs, a place where living conditions are hostile.

As Christians, I think we all get called to the desert/wilderness at one time or another. It is an inescapable time of testing and pruning. Even Jesus was led into the wilderness. Mat 4:1 says then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. It is interesting to note that it was not the devil that led Jesus into the desert, but the Spirit of God. The wilderness is a place that God can use to shape and mould us. Where He teaches us to lean on Him and His word. In my personal wilderness season, God separated me unto Himself for ten years. He removed me from organised religion and fellowship. (i.e. I worshipped the Lord and read His word and spent time with Him at home and not in church) At the height of my wilderness season which was 2019, the enemy really attacked me and removed my ability to read the word, worship and even my prayer life suffered. I was thrown into a very dry season and I had to dig real deep. Some days all I could pray was Help me Jesus. He also blocked my spiritual ears so I was unable to hear His voice and to prophesy.

But the Lord never left me quite alone. In my darkest moments, when I felt I couldn’t bear it anymore, He would send a friend to encourage me or I would read a prophetic word on Facebook that I felt was for me. He would always find a way to speak to me when I was at my lowest. Sometimes it could be a simple thing like a rainbow or a butterfly or a feather. In the first couple of years of wilderness my prophetic gifting was at it’s strongest and the Lord gave me a corporate word for the body of Christ every day for five years as well as hundreds of personal prophesies. He never left me quite alone.

So what are the signs that you may be in a wilderness season in your life?

1 You may be isolated for a season.

2 Your gifts and dreams may seem to die or wane.

3 Your faith will be tried and tested at every corner.

4 Doors that used to be open will suddenly shut in your face.

5 He will remove certain people from your life. Even lifelong friends, if they no longer serve your higher purpose on earth.

6 He may even take you out of fellowship for a season.

These things seem pretty harsh, but sometimes it takes these drastic measures to get our attention and strip away everything that does not serve us anymore.

What is the purpose of the wilderness.

1. God uses the wilderness to assist in maturing us as sons and daughters.

2. Psalm 105:19 says” Gods promise to Joseph purged his character until it was time for his dreams to come true.”

God uses this time to stretch you and strengthen your character.

3. I’ve heard it said the anointing of God will destroy you if what’s in you can’t sustain you. We all have a purpose and a destiny in Christ and God needs to mould our characters and stretch our faith so that we can believe Him for bigger things. We don’t grow when things are easy.

4. The wilderness can also be a place of training and equipping you to walk out your full destiny in Christ. I’ve heard it said, that God loves us just as we are, but loves us enough not to leave us as we are.

What He taught me through the wilderness

1. What satan could not take away from me was the word that was stuffed down inside of my spirit. Although some days I could not read the word as it felt dead to me, when I most needed it, scriptures that I had memorized sometimes even 20 years ago, would come up through my spirit and I would use that against the enemy, because the enemy sometimes uses this time to sow seeds of fear and doubt into your mind. Sometimes a worship song would come up in my spirit or even a secular song that would be appropriate for whatever I was going through. That is why it is so important to memorize scriptures as satan can’t steal what’s inside your spirit.

2. When a general prophetic word resonates with your spirit, i.e. the word may not be specifically written for you, and it does not come to pass as quickly as you wold like to, don’t discount it and think oh well that was not for me. It was for someone else. NO, hold onto that word, fight for the promise. Remind God of His word and promises over you.

3. Another thing I learned is that Gods NOW does not always mean now in our time. God is outside of time. The word of God says that a day is like a 1000 years to the Lord and a 1000 years is like a day. Be patient, if God said a thing will come to pass, then it will come to pass. Abraham waited 99 years for his promise of many descendants. But He chose to trust God. We must too.

4. You must write your vision down: Habakkuk 2:1-3 says: And then the Lord replied: Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it, I will certainly come and will not delay.”

5. Writing your vision down comes in handy on the days that your faith is low. You can pull it out and be reminded of what you are hoping and praying for and be assured that an angel will run with it.

6. Moments of spiritual highs don’t guarantee that you won’t reach the bottom again. But the ups and downs you experience builds character and faith and teaches you to weather the storms.

7. Just because God has delivered on His promise does not mean you will not have opposition. There are always giants in the land and they come in different shapes and sizes.

My greatest dream besides being married has always been to find out the purpose I was born for and to do that. Also to find the secret place. Towards the end of my wilderness period I fasted for around 60 days for specific things until I got my break through. I finally found the secret place where I now go daily to commune with Father, Son and Holy spirit and He has revealed a bit more of my calling. I am learning to worship Him in the spirit and in truth, not just in spirit, but in the spiritual realm.

So to sum it up, the wilderness is a time that Jesus can use to draw you to Himself to do preparation work for the next level in Him He wants to take you to. Jesus always wants to take us higher.

As I said before, although I don’t believe that the Lord caused the coronavirus, I believe He can use this lock down/wilderness to draw us unto Himself and do the much needed work that needs to be done in all of us. Me included. The Lord is waiting for us to leave religion behind and begin to fellowship with Him in the heavenly realms. The veil was torn over 2000 years ago giving us direct access to His throne.

The exciting part is that “He chose us in Him BEFORE the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” (Ephesians 1 v 3) He already knew us even before the world was created and He has big dreams for us. It’s our job/joy to spend time with Him and find out what He created us for and what our identity is in Him. Then and only then can we begin to live out what we were called to do.

Rev 4. 1 After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said,"Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this."

Mandy Butler Galinos

http://www.pearlharbourpropheticministry.com

27/04/2020