In my last blog, the paragraph that created the most discussion was this one:
But the spiritual wilderness is a necessary part of God's plan for our lives in this fallen world. As such, it should be embraced for what it accomplishes in us.
The concept of embracing the wilderness caused the most concern. While we might not embrace the circumstances surrounding us in the wilderness (lack, loss, destruction, death of dreams, etc.) we embrace the result the wilderness produces in us when God brings us here. We fix our eyes on the God of the Promised Land and the wilderness because the singular result the wilderness brings is intimacy with Christ. Every other change is a secondary result of this intimacy.
I think there are those who attempt encouragement by saying the wilderness brings "lessons learned" or "changes to our hearts" or even "circumcision of our hearts." Yes, all true, but all are secondary to the intimacy the wilderness offers.
When in the wilderness, look for the Mountain of God. Seek His presence while He may be found. (Isaiah 55:6)
Those are the only instructions for the wilderness. Seek His presence. Place yourself where He descends to make Himself known, however He chooses to make Himself known.
Remember: "He guides us into the wilderness to return us to the simpler realities of prayer, time in the Word, and worship. He reminds us that, of all He calls us to accomplish, His greatest commandment is to love Him with all our heart...soul...mind...and... strength (Mark 12:30). Without this focus, we lose touch with God's presence—we are outside the shelter of the Most High." - Francis Frangipane, The Shelter of the Most High
Intimacy with Christ is found in time in prayer, in worship, and in the disciplines of faith that bring His presence. Through these, He comes and reveals Himself. Then we see ourselves in the light of His revelation. We are drawn in deeper. This is what fuels the pursuit.
However, a warning is needed here. Christians are in danger of their lampstand being removed because we merely engage in functional prayer and treat Bible reading as a checkmark on a To Do List to earn or prove we deserve approval from God. If reading the Bible and prayer doesn't bring God's presence, press in further and don't give up but make sure you are doing them to bring God's presence.
"You are in danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God. Fellowship is the living interchange of giving Him your love, your heart, and your life and receiving from God His love, His life, and His spirit." - Andrew Murray, The Inner Life
The purpose of prayer is to find God's heart, receive His heart, then pray it on earth. The purpose of reading His words is to allow them to transform our inner being. If they have stopped doing so, we need to return to the things we did at first—when we first were found by God. These things return us to the safety and victory that intimacy with Christ brings.
When it comes to this Christian pursuit of God, the old adage is wrong: absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes us lose our First Love:
"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." (Revelation 2:4-5)
So when I find myself being moved (gently or otherwise) into the wilderness, I am encouraged to lean in, embracing the transformation (if not the circumstances). The wilderness provides me with the opportunity to shed all that prevents intimacy with Christ. The wilderness provides the place where I simply MUST trust God. The wilderness allows me to reconnect, realign, and abide in Christ.
Alternatively, when I am absent from the presence of God, fear and lies flood in. The antidote to fear and lies is always in Truth. The belt of truth is effective against fear because when we know Truth—the person, not just the principles—it protects the very area fear hits. Have you noticed that fear hits the gut? That is where the belt of truth protects! But it is meaningless if you simply pray for the belt of truth to be put on but do not have the intimate knowledge of Truth Himself that comes from remaining in His presence.
Fear not...for He is good. Fear not...for He is God. Fear not...for you are not alone. Fear not for you are not forsaken. "Fear not" the Bible tells us, followed by a revelation of Who God is that directly contradicts the fear faced. We have to know and remind ourselves of the character of God that directly contradicts the lies as well as the great truth that casts out them all: He is Perfect Love (1 John 4:18) and we are His (Isaiah 43:1).*
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1) (For additional verses, click here.)
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)
Peace is not the absence of conflict or fear, its when fear has been uprooted and cast out by the presence of Perfect Love. It comes in the midst of the wilderness because the Prince of Peace is near.
I would far rather be on the backside of a wilderness with His presence near than in a place of plenty without His presence.
I'm not saying this orientation is easily arrived at. (And I'm not claiming to kick against it or grind my teeth sometimes.) I look forward to the maturation of this in me like I see in the stories of great men and women of God, but I know it comes from wrestling with God and being marked, in a wilderness, like Jacob-who-becomes-Israel.
Unfortunately, I have seen Christians refuse to enter into the wilderness only to end up in the desert, totally missing what God has for them. I have also seen Christians who have no idea they are in a wilderness wander for too long! I have seen Christians become bitter because they have been moved into one, so they miss the call to intimacy. I have also seen Christians driven into the wilderness by heart-rending circumstances and lose their way. Like those deprived of oxygen, I have seen Christians falling away or falling into folly, becoming content to no longer BREATHE His life-giving presence.
But my trust is in the grace that cares for us in the wilderness, which is the same grace that brings us to the place where our hearts find home in Christ.
Grace brings us home.
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* There are two contexts (or more) for scriptures. The first is the the one to whom God's words are spoken and the second context is the One who speaks them. God's words are not just words, they are extensions of Himself, His power, and His essence. His words lose nothing in the speaking.
The first context may be to the Israelites or a specific person but they are spoke by God who is the Guarantor of the results. He guarantees them because they are of Him and He is unchanging. God Himself is the second context. He is the one who fights for us, not just that He says so...He IS the one who fights for us. He is the one who will never leaves—not Gideon, not Moses, not us who are adopted in. The words our ours because the God who spoke them is ours and the words He speaks are emanations of who He is.
For them to be true about one person and not us would make Him inconstant. And He does not change:
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19)
I the LORD do not change. (Malachi 3:6)
The reason He is eternal and immutable (unchangeable) is because He is eternal: present in the past, present, and the future, all at the same time, all the time. (Let that sink in.) When He speaks, He speaks in the past, present, and the future all at the same time, all the time. He does not encounter timelines like we do. He occupies the whole of time all the time all at the same time. His words are eternal because He is eternal. When they break into our timeline for a moment so we can experience them, we experience them in our timeline but He does not. He is not confined to our timeline. He declares them and they are eternally true because He is eternally Faithful & True.