The Blessings of the Wilderness!

                        The wilderness is a great experience where you are alone with Yahshua(Jesus). Nobody can help you but Him. This is just where He wants you to be. The wilderness always leads to a promotion, depending how you react during the wilderness. Just ask Daniel after the lions den and the three Hebrew children after the fiery furnace. In the book of Revelation Chapter 12 the woman was attacked by Satan, the Dragon who wanted to devour her child, but she was led into the wilderness by Yahweh to a place prepared by Him (v. 6). You see the wilderness is a place of protection, where Yahshua can minister to us. In v. 14, the word says that the woman was led into the wilderness into “her place.” Elohim(God) has reserved a place for us to get us ready for a blessing. The word says in v. 16 that the earth helped the woman. After we come out of the wilderness Elohim will use people in the world to help us. “The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just” (Prov. 13:22). Let’s discuss some other aspects of the wilderness:

1.)    Deut. 29:5 – Elohim took care of His people in the wilderness as their shoes or clothes didn’t wear out during the 40 years they wandered. Elohim will do the same thing for us. Also, the wilderness is not a place where we are wide open to the enemy. We are totally protected and cared for.

2.)    V. 7- Our enemies are defeated by Elohim in the wilderness.

3.)    V. 8- We get our enemies possessions as an inheritance. Just think about Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20- He didn’t even have to fight the enemy, Elohim did all the fighting. All he had to do was praise Him. It took him three days to pick up all the spoils of the enemy. Elohim permitted the attack to bless Jehoshaphat in the wilderness that he was in. Again, the wilderness is a place of blessing, engineered by Elohim.

4.)    Gen. 16:7- Angels will minister to you and encourage you there. Hagar was in the wilderness, but an angel appeared to her and prophesized to her about her son Ishmael who was not even born yet. He gave her hope there and a promise from Elohim. In v. 13 the word shows that He sees everything about us, even in the wilderness. This is also evident in 1 Kings 19:4 where Elijah had run away from Jezebel and was hiding in the wilderness in doubt and despair. An angel also came to him and gave him some “angel” food and he was able to run for forty days. Elohim will do the same for us- strengthen and encourage us for our journey through angels in the wilderness. The wilderness is a place where Elohim says “I am the only one who can do this for you, don’t depend on anybody but me.”

5.)    I Kings 19:11-12- The LORD(Yahweh) will talk to us in the wilderness in a small still voice.

6.)    I Kings 19:15- Yahweh can give us fresh direction in the wilderness. 

7.)    The wilderness is place of escape from our enemies- Psalm 55:6-8. David said that fear was coming on him from his enemies and he wanted to fly away and remain in the wilderness.

8.)    Psalm 55:9- Elohim can confuse our enemies and “divide their tongues.” Please see my message “Confusion in the enemy’s camp.”

9.)    Psalm 55:17- He always hears our cries!

10.)                        Psalm 55: 18-19- he will give us victory in the wilderness.

11.)                        There are opportunities to preach in the wilderness- Matt. 3:1- John the Baptist preached “Repentance” there. I believe that we identify more with the hurting people when we are in the wilderness. This helps us to be effective instruments of Elohim’s mercy, grace, healing and deliverance.

12.)                        Luke 4:1-44- Need to use the word effectively in the wilderness against temptation. The devil knows the value of the wilderness and the promotion thereafter and wants to stop you from going through successfully. In Luke Chapter 4, Yahshua was tempted three times and defeated the enemy with the word of God (v. 1-13). He defeated the enemy as the Son of God not as God, meaning we can too!

13.)                        Luke 4:14-44- We come out of the wilderness with more power. Look at Yahshua- He preached in his hometown synagogue and revealed that He was the Messiah that Isaiah prophesized about and everybody in the synagogue (including His relatives conspired to push Him off a cliff (v. 28-29). He had some much power that He walked right through them. You may get some family opposition while you are in the wilderness and even church opposition, but they can’t hinder you. Church people may blame you for being in the wilderness-saying that there must be “sin in the camp.” They don’t understand that Elohim put you there to bless you. Yahshua, as a man, came out of the wilderness with so much more power that people were “astonished at His doctrine: for His word was with power”( v. 32). He cast out a man who had a spirit of an unclean devil in the synagogue (v. 33-35). He healed Peter’s mother in law from a high fever (v.38-39). In v. 40, 41 the word says that He healed and delivered everybody that came unto him. What power was generated into His life because of the wilderness experience, where as a man, all He could do was hold onto His Father.

14.)                        In the wilderness, God develops our character to maintain the blessings that He wants to give us. He is not a “Sugar Daddy.” He will only bless us when our spiritual character can maintain the higher level of blessing. We have to grow spiritually before we can get blessed in the natural. In Isaiah 49:10 the word says that God chooses us in the furnace of affliction. Most, if not all the blessings that we have received in the past were not when we were rejoicing on the mountaintop but when we were going through the fire of the wilderness. Elohim just uses the fire to burn out any impurities, to enable Him to bless us exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ever imagine (Eph. 3:20).

                         Satan may loose his pressure on somebody to make it seem like a “blessing,” because he is afraid of the effects of a successful wilderness experience. Remember, the wilderness is a place where you draw closer to Elohim and is a necessary step to promotion and blessing. Don’t try to pray your way out, it won’t do any good. He will have His way with us and not give us any more than we can take. Our prayers are answered in the wilderness!   

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