The Key to Victory in Your Wilderness
Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God (Exodus 3:1).
The key to our English wilderness word is wild.
A wilderness is a wild or uncultivated place where we don’t know the rules—where there is no map or GPS to get us around. There are many kinds of wilderness, from financial wilderness to cultural wilderness. We may find ourselves in a wilderness of a medical waiting room waiting to hear test results for ourselves or a loved one. Maybe we find ourselves in a wilderness of financial crisis or career loss. The wilderness can be growing older, sitting on the frontier of retirement. Grief can also be a wilderness. On grief, Alan Wolfet writes:
Think of your grief as a wilderness—a vast, mountainous, inhospitable forest. You are in the wilderness now. You are in the midst of unfamiliar and often brutal surroundings. You are cold and tired. Yet you must journey through this wilderness. To find your way out, you must become acquainted with its terrain and learn to follow the sometimes hard-to-find trail that leads to healing.[1]
Our personal wilderness seems to lack life or potential, causing us to give in to doubt or discouragement and feelings of being alone in the face of the formidable, unfamiliar, and untamed landscape before us.
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There is a difference between a desert and the wilderness. Wilderness is a place or condition where there are still resources. You might think, for instance, of Jesus being in a place where He fed 5,000 and another 4,000 people as told in the Gospels. Our greatest resource in the wilderness is the Spirit of God. The wilderness, of whatever kind, can be unfamiliar and may seem lonely. However, the wilderness is also a season of listening to God, of separation and preparation. The Bible is filled with examples of individuals who experienced the wilderness and God used that time to their benefit and to fulfill His purpose.
The Wilderness Is a Place of Separation
I once heard a precious sister say, “I’m not sure where I’m going, but I’m sure I’ll get there.” In the wilderness, of whatever kind, the paths are unfamiliar. Most of the people who amounted to anything in the Bible of human existence went through times of wilderness. Consider Abraham, the friend of God.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
To escape the pull and distractions of Ur, Abram had to leave the familiar. Genesis 12:1-3 tells us:
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
As with Abraham, our journey through times of wilderness relies on growing trust and connection with God.
There are varieties of wilderness, but whatever kind of wilderness we find ourselves, of whatever description, it is a place of separation and preparation.
The Wilderness Is a Place of Quiet and Listening
The Jewish Publication Society translation of Exodus 3:1 reads, “Moses went to the farthest end of the wilderness.” Wilderness separation is perhaps to the farthest side of the familiar. The wilderness may mean separation from what is familiar, but also separation to God. On one hand, our wilderness may be a place where we feel alone—but it can also be a place of an undistracted separation and solitude, and a closeness to God.
The Gospels record Jesus seeking solitude in a wilderness to be alone with the Father more than forty times. Examples of His practice of solitude are found throughout the Gospels: “But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16). “And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). (See also Luke 9:18; Matthew 14:23; John 6:15.) Jesus sought deliberate times of solitude with a greater emphasis on personal devotion to the presence of the Father. The wilderness was a place of separation to God not from Him.
In that separation and solitude, we are changed. Speaking of the wilderness, Henri Nouwen writes, “Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude, we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of false self.”[2] In the wilderness, we become who we truly are.
The wilderness is a place of separation to hear the voice of God. When Jesus was baptized as seen in the gospels, the voice of the Spirit declared, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). But immediately, this same Spirit who announced His belovedness, led Jesus into the wilderness:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD’” (Matthew 4:1-4).
The Hebrew word we translate as “wilderness” in the Hebrew Bible is midbar, which holds the word dabar, meaning to speak. The Old Testament prophet Hosea records, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her.” Jonathan Cahn writes, “So God brings us to the wilderness that we might hear His voice. Therefore, do not fear or despise the wildernesses of your life, and don’t despise His removing of the distractions. Rather embrace it. Draw closer to Him.”[3]
It may also seem true to us that God is silent in the wilderness. When God seems to be quiet, we must be even more quiet.
The psalmist speaks the heart of God: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 New King James Version).
The Turn Around
There are a few certainties about the wilderness: 1) you have been in one, 2) you are in one, or 3) you will be in one. Let’s take some time to think about these three certainties. Consider times past or present circumstances where you were in a wilderness of unfamiliarity. How did you connect with the heart of God in times of past times of wilderness? As you consider that time now, how was the Lord speaking to you in the wilderness? What did you carry with you out of that wilderness time?
You may be in a wilderness even as you read these words. You are not lost, beloved. The Shepherd knows where you are. He can find you and gather you into His arms—He cares for you—He is guarding you—His Spirit hovers over you even at this moment. Take time in a quiet place to read slowly through Deuteronomy 32:10-11. Allow the Spirit to reveal the lost and wandering place in your life.
Notes
Alan D. Wolfelt, The Wilderness of Grief: Finding Your Way (Buchanan, NY: Companion Press, 2010), 13.
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart; The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, (New York: Harper Collins, 1981), 20.
Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2018), 8.
Beyond the Wilderness: Discovering Opportunity In Crisis
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As you read these words, you are surrounded by hidden, unclaimed treasure. There are three certainties in wilderness seasons in our lives: we have been in a wilderness season, we are currently in a wilderness season, and there will be wilderness seasons in the future. Storyteller and Bible teacher, Dr. Thom Gardner guides you through the process of reclaiming the hidden treasures waiting to be unearthed from your wilderness journey, whether past or present.
Discover:
How the wilderness is an opportunity for you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
How the wilderness can transform your life and become repurposed in the creative hand of God.
How to repurpose both past and present challenges and provide a new vision for the future.
How to gain a new perspective and hope for your future.
How to learn and understand the process of God’s repurposing power to prepare you for new purpose and direction in your life.
