Wilderness

The last couple of weeks I have been intrigued by the place of desert and wilderness in the Bible.
There was song we sang on Wednesday morning in class for devotions. The song was entitled Desert Prayer.

Wilderness in the Bible was sometimes a place of chaos, destruction, and rebellion.
I like Job have began to see the wilderness as a place that proclaims the awesome workings of the Creator my Daddy.
The wilderness all throughout the Bible has been a place where God’s grace, revelation, nurture, and preparation has been made known. The wilderness has always been a place where people have had intense encounters with God. Where God has done some of his best work. The last two weeks as I have been more intensely in the wilderness at Bethel Seminary, I have been challenged to live a life in the wilderness more in my classroom, my home, and here in Pella. This wilderness offered me a place of question, silence, grace, and transformation.
Like the wilderness dwellers before us-

* Noah was on a boat for 40 days where God used Noah.

* Moses was found in the wilderness with God more than once.

* Elijah: Spent 40 days in a wilderness where God spares him and guides him to new ministry.

* David: Stayed in the wilderness all the years he was hiding from Saul. WHile in the wilderness with God wrote some beautiful Psalms.

* Jesus Christ: Spent 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus went into the desert wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit and battled Satan and left the wilderness in the power of the Spirit, ready to begin his earthly ministry.

Two weeks ago I entered the wilderness of Bethel seeking encounters with the Divine, transformation, and preparation for ministry. In the wilderness my classmates and professors became a loving community. God’s Word came alive for me and our prayer and devotional life were vibrant. Every encounter and transformative experience with God in the wilderness seems so much more vibrant. Wilderness is God’s spiritual boot camp – a place of blessing and beautifully balance.

The last two weeks has provided a place where I could unplug from my busy and noisy life, experience solitude, and practice Christian meditation.

The wilderness provide the time and space to get right with God.

In the wilderness, I can climb higher in my faith, and more fully understand my dependence on God.

The natural response from seeing the majesty of the Creator and experiencing an awakened spiritual life is the desire to worship and praise our Lord! God uses wilderness as a place to fill people with the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we live as children of God how are we living out our own wilderness? How are others seeing those times when we have had those wilderness experiences and want to be a part of it too. Are other seeing how the wilderness is making God’s Word come alive and our prayer and devotional lives vibrant?
Lord help me to live as a wilderness dweller always.