Our Wilderness Place
The time that we are in the wilderness depends upon how we react as we are
going through it (Ephesians 4:17-18) “this I say therefore, and testify in the
Lord, that you hereafter walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their
mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart”.
Romans 12:1-2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be
you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God”.
The apostle James tells us to count it all joy (James 1:2-4, 12) “my brethren,
count it all joy, when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the
trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that
you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Blessed is the man that
endures temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord has promised to them that love Him”.
We can’t think that we are the only one going through trials (I Peter 5:6-9)
“humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt
you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks
about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world”.
The Israelites spent forty years in their wilderness because of their doubt and
unbelief (Psalms 78:40-42) “how often did they provoke Him in the wilderness,
and grieve Him in the desert. Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and
limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day
when He delivered them from the enemy”. In Hebrews 3:16-19 it says “for
some, when they had heard, did provoke; however not all that came out of
Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with
them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom
swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed
not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief”.
God had told them that He had given them the land and that they were to go in
to possess it (Numbers 13:1-3) “and the Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying. Send you men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give
to the children of Israel, of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man,
every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord
Yahweh sent them from the wilderness of Paran; all those men were heads of
the children of Israel”. However ten of the twelve came back with an evil report
of the land and the people followed the evil report and started to murmur
against God.
We have to be careful as well, because God has told us that the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, has given us the right to enter into His rest.
Romans 8:29-32 says “for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them, He also called;
and whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things”? We also see in
Ephesians 1:3-7 “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein, He has
made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”. These
are the promises that He gave us to hold on to.
We are warned not to let unbelief stop us from entering in (Hebrews 3:7-12)
“wherefore as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice. Harden not
your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in
their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I swear in My wrath, they
shall not enter into My rest. Take heed, brethren, less there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God”. In Hebrews 4:1-3, 9-
11 it warns us; it says “let us therefore fear, less a promise being left us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For to us
was the gospel preached, as well as to them; but the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have
believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath, if they
shall enter into My rest, although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did
from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, less any man fall after
the same example of unbelief”.
Jesus shows us how to get out of our wilderness (Matthew 4:1-13). Jesus
defeated the devil as He was tested in the wilderness by saying “it is written”.
We are not to fight against the devil in our flesh, but just like Jesus, we are to
fight the devil with the word of God (Psalms 107:2) says “let the redeemed of
the Lord Yahweh say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy”.
We also see in Psalms 68:11 that it says “the Lord Yahweh gave the word;
great was the company of those that published it”. We have to remember that
when we return His words to Him, as it says in Isaiah 55:11 “so shall My word
be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to My void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please; and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent
it”.
Just like God told Joshua in Joshua 1:8 “this book of the law shall not depart
out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may
observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then you shall make
your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success”. The book of
the law is the Bible.
Jesus tells us in John 8:26 “I have many things to say and to judge of you, but
He that sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have
heard of Him”.
Study by: Harriet Bond
Date: July 12, 2011
The time that we are in the wilderness depends upon how we react as we are
going through it (Ephesians 4:17-18) “this I say therefore, and testify in the
Lord, that you hereafter walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their
mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart”.
Romans 12:1-2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be
you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God”.
The apostle James tells us to count it all joy (James 1:2-4, 12) “my brethren,
count it all joy, when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the
trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that
you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Blessed is the man that
endures temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord has promised to them that love Him”.
We can’t think that we are the only one going through trials (I Peter 5:6-9)
“humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt
you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks
about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world”.
The Israelites spent forty years in their wilderness because of their doubt and
unbelief (Psalms 78:40-42) “how often did they provoke Him in the wilderness,
and grieve Him in the desert. Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and
limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day
when He delivered them from the enemy”. In Hebrews 3:16-19 it says “for
some, when they had heard, did provoke; however not all that came out of
Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with
them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom
swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed
not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief”.
God had told them that He had given them the land and that they were to go in
to possess it (Numbers 13:1-3) “and the Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses,
saying. Send you men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give
to the children of Israel, of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man,
every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord
Yahweh sent them from the wilderness of Paran; all those men were heads of
the children of Israel”. However ten of the twelve came back with an evil report
of the land and the people followed the evil report and started to murmur
against God.
We have to be careful as well, because God has told us that the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, has given us the right to enter into His rest.
Romans 8:29-32 says “for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them, He also called;
and whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things”? We also see in
Ephesians 1:3-7 “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein, He has
made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”. These
are the promises that He gave us to hold on to.
We are warned not to let unbelief stop us from entering in (Hebrews 3:7-12)
“wherefore as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice. Harden not
your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do always err in
their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I swear in My wrath, they
shall not enter into My rest. Take heed, brethren, less there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God”. In Hebrews 4:1-3, 9-
11 it warns us; it says “let us therefore fear, less a promise being left us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For to us
was the gospel preached, as well as to them; but the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have
believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath, if they
shall enter into My rest, although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did
from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, less any man fall after
the same example of unbelief”.
Jesus shows us how to get out of our wilderness (Matthew 4:1-13). Jesus
defeated the devil as He was tested in the wilderness by saying “it is written”.
We are not to fight against the devil in our flesh, but just like Jesus, we are to
fight the devil with the word of God (Psalms 107:2) says “let the redeemed of
the Lord Yahweh say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy”.
We also see in Psalms 68:11 that it says “the Lord Yahweh gave the word;
great was the company of those that published it”. We have to remember that
when we return His words to Him, as it says in Isaiah 55:11 “so shall My word
be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to My void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please; and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent
it”.
Just like God told Joshua in Joshua 1:8 “this book of the law shall not depart
out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may
observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then you shall make
your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success”. The book of
the law is the Bible.
Jesus tells us in John 8:26 “I have many things to say and to judge of you, but
He that sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have
heard of Him”.
Study by: Harriet Bond
Date: July 12, 2011
