Breath of God Devotionals- Ann Thomas

Read: Num.13:17-14:24 Prepared in the Wilderness

"Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”Num.13:30

When God was getting ready to deliver the Jews from Egypt his message to Pharaoh was so that they might go into the wilderness to worship Him. There is a God ordained purpose for every wilderness that we encounter. The wilderness is the place of preparation and total reliance on God. The wilderness is the place where we draw closer to God and understand deeper who He is. It is in the wilderness that we are given ample opportunities to see the provision, protection and experience the presence of God. True worship draws the worshipper into intimacy and free from distractions so that the worshipper is focused on God and has an ear to hear what He speaks. When God sends you into the wilderness the intention of God is to bring you out of it having known Him and seen His power so that you will face every challenge before you in total confidence of God and not self.
David was able to face the giant Goliath with unshakeable confidence in God. He gained this confidence because of the number of times God worked deliverance for him while he was out in the fields keeping sheep. David had opportunity to know God in His worship and intimacy with Him. So when David was faced with Goliath, he didn’t know who Goliath was but he knew surely who God was and what God could do. He went against the giant in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
God often sent the one He had chosen for a task into the wilderness before they embarked onto what they were supposed to do. He hasn’t changed his methods. The wilderness is any place where God has called you aside to be, it is the place where you disassociate with other voices and tune into the voice of God. It is the place where you are rid of the idolatry of your past and where your heart yields wholly to God. It is the place where you understand you serve God and not man. It is the preparation ground for doing or receiving anything which God has promised to you. The wilderness is part of the pathway to Promise.
When you have understood your calling or received a prophetic word or vision or promise of the Lord you are set on the pathway to attaining it, but this attaining can only be by the work of the Spirit of God and your cooperation with Him. To attempt to bring it to pass by your self is foolishness. Moses when he came to understand who he was and who his people were tried to embark on saving them by his own methods. He was accused of assuming the role of “leader”which in actuality was who he was destined to be, but it was not the time or method that God chose. (Ex.2:14)) This resulted in him running away in fear and God kept him for years in the backside of the wilderness in preparation for that destiny.
Paul the Apostle when baptised with the Holy Spirit and knowing now what the call of God was on his life was led of God not into fulltime ministry but into the wilderness of Arabia for 3 years “…immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.” Gal.1:16,17
Paul had to learn that his calling was not of men but of God that it was not his connections with the right people that would qualify him. He had to learn the Spirit was the teacher and would teach him all that he knew.(Gal.1:11,12) Paul was tested in this.
Jesus after His baptism full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Jesus was tempted and challenged in who He was though the devil tried to make him doubt. Jesus stood firmly on the Word of God. Jesus was tested in this.
David after he was anointed as king found himself in many wildernesses, though anointed king he was fleeing in fear for his life, he did not own large possessions or have grand dwellings, his companions were not princes but outcasts of society. Though someone else was sitting in his God ordained position David did not try to take possession of what was promised him by slaying Saul (though many opportunities presented themselves.) David learnt,“ For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Ps.75:6-7 David was tested in this.
Joseph received a vision of his calling and destiny yet, “Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.” Ps.105:19 The tests we face in the wilderness are to rid us of anything we have put our hope in other than God. It is possible to be overcome in the wilderness if we do not learn to believe in God. Many of the people who left Egypt were overthrown in the wilderness. The reason why they never entered the Promised Land was because of unbelief. Though they had seen the power of God and experienced His presence. Though He had revealed himself to them and told them who they were in Him yet, when they were come to the place of receiving the promise of God they failed miserably in unbelief. They had seen many wonders and miracles yet the giants in Canaan caused them to fear. They were still looking to themselves and their abilities.
Only two men Caleb and Joshua had learnt the lesson of the wilderness. They had a proper understanding of who God was and who they were in God. This is the place God desires to bring each of us. Gods promises and destiny are available to every one of us but it is only those who have believed who will possess it. May God bring us to the place of possessing as we yield to His Holy Spirit in us.
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” Phil 1:6