Mistaking the Wilderness for our Promised Land

I am sure that you all have heard of the metaphor that compares our trials and difficulties to a “wilderness experience.” It seems to fit because the “wilderness” is barren, hot, and difficult but in spite of all the testing in the wilderness for the Christian, the wilderness really represents a place of preparation. On the one hand for the believer (as also with the Israelites) the wilderness lacked an ability to sustain those who would journey through it – in reality for God’s people it meant provision (food, manna, and water) miraculously supplied, God’s visible protection for them (the cloud by day and pillar of fire at night), God’s preservation of the things they possessed (their clothes or sandals did not wear out), God’s leading (when the cloud and pillar moved), and divine health or healing as needed for all those who trusted and obeyed God. The wilderness was not as bad of a place as we immediately imagine.

According to the Bible, Egypt represented slavery to sin and the oppression of it as a task master over us, but as soon as we were baptized in the cloud and in the sea (cf. 1 Cor. 10) we became followers of God. Our journey through the wilderness had the purpose of teaching us to listen to God’s voice (cf. Deut 8:2- 3).

The Promised Land should not typify heaven or eternal life. In the Promised Land God’s people would have to face enemies and possess their land. Food was no longer miraculously provided for God’s people in the Promised Land but they would have to follow the principles of sowing and reaping. Success in the Promised Land meant God’s people destroying false religion and idolatry and replacing it with worship of the One True God. If someone really thinks about it, life is much more difficult in the Promised Land than in the wilderness. There is much more responsibility placed upon us in our relationship with God.

That is why I mistook my Promised Land for the Wilderness. I did not realize that the Promised Land would be so difficult. I looked around for God’s provision that I used to find more easily – just as the Israelites found the manna every morning (except on the Sabbath) outside of their tents. To be provided for in the Promised Land meant I could no longer look for provision as with manna, I now needed to take some land. Even after I had land I needed to follow up by preparing the soil and planting, watering, and finally harvesting before food was supplied. There is a different program – a different way of doing things – in the Promised Land than in the Wilderness.

Remember when you first were saved how in spite of the difficulty around you, you seemed to be sheltered from it? Remember when you called to God and He answered quickly – He led you and made His presence known? Then God called you into service or ministry. Now after you had so many victories in the past and have seen God move faithfully on your part, for some reason His presence is no longer easily accessible. The difference is in the Promised Land you have to go to Him for communion when previously He was right in the center of your camp and all that you did. As Israel had to go to the Temple to worship and receive forgiveness for sin we are to go to Jesus the true Temple of God and receive forgiveness, direction, and fellowship with God. Previously you were surrounded by God’s people and now you are surrounded by those that worship false gods and hate you. The difference is you are no longer in the wilderness – you are in the Promised Land.

The Promised Land is the place of your calling. God prepared you in the wilderness to walk in your gifts and spiritual vocation and now you need to begin to do that. Just as Paul who received a promise concerning his ministry and went for a period of time into the wilderness and came out to walk in his apostleship. Just like Jesus who was driven of the Spirit into the wilderness and upon coming out He began His earthly ministry, so we also cannot stay in the wilderness we must go and possess the land.

Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” We are called to go into all the land and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must still walk in the faith we learned while in our wilderness. We must still lean upon the Lord’s strength and not our own to conquer our enemies. The character we learned in the wilderness we must take with us into the Promised Land of our ministry. The land God has assigned to each one of us is different and while we can help each other out I cannot take your inheritance and neither can you take mine. Our inheritance has been marked out for us. This is why David said, “The lines have been marked out for me in pleasant places” (cf. Ps 16:6).

Healing Hands Testimony

Healing Hands Testimony

We are giving God glory for working in us and through us in a new and deeper way. The exciting part of the story happened on Sunday, February 05, 2012. On our way home from church, my wife Nikki starting having a sharp aching pain in her right hand with a feeling that her hand was swollen really big. I noticed that she was in pain so I started to pray for her, but she was certain that her body had no reason for the pain and believed it occurred so we would intercede for someone else. After I prayed, she felt the pain subside a bit, but move to her wrist. I prayed a second time and again it subsided but this time moved to her elbow as a dull ache. I suggested that Nikki lead the prayer and as we prayed the third time and the pain left. We praised God and continued to ask for revelation as to who specifically this was for. We called one of our friends to ask if it was her but she told us she hadn’t been having trouble with her hand.

Later in the day, my cousin called – she rarely calls. She was looking for her mom, my aunt, who is living with my other aunt. I found the number and called them and right away she returned the phone call to her daughter. After her conversation with her daughter, my aunt began to talk about my cousin. She had been suffering with terrible pain in her hands and especially the right hand which felt swollen. As she described what her daughter, my cousin, had been feeling we were amazed at how closely her symptoms matched the person we had prayed for. So afterward I called my cousin back and told her  what had happened and how we had interceded for someone not knowing who it was.  She immediately started to cry and thank God.  She had been at work the night before and her right hand was getting so swollen and she had been in so much pain all she could do was cry to God. She said that earlier, before she called us, the pain had gone away. She knew that God had begun her healing. We rejoiced with her and began to write down the testimony of what God had done. 

As Nikki began to write it out on the computer, our friend called us back and shared with us that she had gone to talk to some of her neighbors and they began to tell of some of their pains. Our friend started to pray healing over them and one of them specifically described the symptoms we had interceded for: a swollen right hand and this lady too proclaimed God’s healing.

All of this is very new and exciting for us, but we are praising God for leading us to go to a conference that taught us some very practical ways that God still moves today in prophecy and healing. If we had not heard that God would actually work this way at that conference we would not even have thought to intercede for someone else. Thank you, God for using my wife and I to touch others and experience Your willingness to heal those who are hurting.