An avid reader of Christian books, I have often wished I had a powerful testimony to share with others and help them believe in the living God as well. I never expected to have a grand enough testimony to write a book about and I was surprised when the Lord sent me a word through several different people within a week last year that He wanted me to write a book.
For months I prayed and struggled to understand what the book was to be about. What is it You want me to write about, Lord? What can I possibly know enough about to put into a book for You?
Finally, late in 2011, the answer came. I want you to tell others about the wilderness. I want you to tell them about how I took care of you there.
This book is the story of my journeys through the desert places and what I learned while traveling through. The desert places are not places of comfort and when you are in that barren place, when the heat is on and nothing in your life is the same as it was before, it is there that you will learn more than ever before about yourself, and about your God.
To go through the wilderness experience, you must be willing to walk for days and days into a desolate wasteland, carrying nothing but your faith and not knowing how you will feed yourself or your family, not knowing how you will meet your obligations, not knowing if it will cost you everything you have. You know only that you have heard His voice and must obey.
You must be willing to step out of the security of your comfort zone onto the terrifying waves and stay where there is nothing solid in your circumstances to stand on as the storms batter you and the enemy does his utmost to terrify you. You have to be willing to lose relationships when people distance themselves from associating with you, when they mock and doubt and think you've lost your mind. You have to take your eyes off the backs of those walking away and the things you may lose and train your eyes on Jesus and keep saying "What's the next step, Lord?" You must know in your heart that Jesus said "Come!" and keep walking in spite of being ridiculed, in spite of being abandoned, in spite of the fear and terror that rise up when nothing around you looks solid enough to plant your feet on. You must wholeheartedly believe in what you are doing and for whom, and keep putting one foot in front of the other until you can look down and see the gift in your hands and you come out the other side having passed the test.
When the disciples decided to follow Jesus, they risked everything for what they believed. They were business men and family men. You know their friends must have questioned their decision. You know their spouses certainly did, since they were going up against the Pharisees, who had the power to influence others in the community against showing them favor and even had the power to do them harm. But they risked it all for what they knew to be truth, to help spread the news that Jesus was truly the Messiah, the word made flesh to save the world from its sinfulness and make a way for us all to go to Heaven and be with Him for all eternity.
You have to learn to trust Him - really trust Him. Trust Him with everything and everyone that are important to you. And trust Him even more when you thought you already did. He will stretch your faith until it can be stretched no more, and then He'll stretch it a little further. Like a rubber band pulled to its limit, you think surely you will break and all will be lost as you cling to Him with every ounce of faith you have inside you. And then He stretches you yet again.
The prize that waits at the end of a wilderness walk is priceless but the walk is not free. Wilderness walking will always cost you something. Often it costs you material things as we must all lighten our loads to make it up the narrow path - it gets narrower the higher up we go. It may costs you your home, your vocation. But it will cost you more than that - it will cost you relationships, it will cost you your dreams, it will cost you your pride.
And if you have enough courage to keep walking when the fire burns all around you, it will at last cost you yourself.
And if you have enough courage to keep walking when the fire burns all around you, it will at last cost you yourself.
i have to say i was in doubt about the need or time for a book if so many prophetic words declaring impending doom are so numerous.it time truly is so short. but i have to say the introduction did its job as i myself and think so many are in dry wilderness painful times, desperate to find intimacy with jesus in a greater measure and not wanting to lose heart or give up as we seem to be waiting forever for our breakthru that doesnt seem to be coming. so as someone who is cautious and always weighing things and peoples words, i think you did a great job with introduction.as i am an avid reader myself of things chrsitian. the sentance family men and married amen might be redundant,im not sure. i mean that constructively as as you can see i cant spell so im not throwing stones. i think your sincere and genuine and as brothers and sisters in any family we might not always agree about all things,but i love your heart to help and reach out and love you as my sister in christ. im cautious on prophetic words and test especially on internet.i am prayfully cautious about them as we have seen so many who are even good hearted miss it like in the book gods generals. but i have to say so far so good and im looking forward to reading more sorry if i got wordy. god bless this work and pray the holy spirt inspires and speaks thru you and his glory rises up and is seen and heard thru you, mark
ReplyDeleteI think it's great. It does speak to the feelings a person gets when they try to "break out of the herd" - I've felt that way in my walk with God and also when I look at the events of the world and the economy, knowing what's coming, and noticing how blind the majority of people are. God told us that would happen, that there would be few who find and travel the straight and narrow path; but the fact that we are such a minority creates all these other problems, i.e. being seen as crazy. I've often likened it to being one buffalo in the middle of a herd being driven towards a cliff, the only one who realizes what is happening and is struggling to get OUT; doing this requires fighting my way through a mass of bodies absolutely determined to continue on the way to destruction. Some kind of emotional and moral support is SO needed for Christians in this situation. People are social beings, they are meant to relate to each other, and in this messed up world this works against us as often as it works for us; when the herd is moving in the wrong direction it takes tremendous psychological strength and confidence to go against it. I think it is so fantastic that the internet (until the infrastructure of this world collapses completely) allows this kind of fellowship and support. I follow your posts, I drop into the chat room when I can, and it's wonderful. I look forward to more of your work on this.
ReplyDeletefiresoul - THANK YOU - You were right, the phrase with businessmen, family men WAS redundant, and I changed it! I appreciate your detailed feedback - that is what I was hoping to get by sharing on here from my friends!
ReplyDeleteb7b25b6a - I think you hit it on the head - what the Lord told me was that this book is needed for what is soon to come. The times I walked through the wilderness, I desperately wished for someone who had walked that path before who could guide me or at least tell me what to expect, but I never found anything that really helped. I guess I needed to know someone else had survived such fiery trials.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to read, and to comment!
OK, since you have said you were hoping for "detailed feedback", here is a thought: the phrase "keep putting one step in front of another" may read more smoothly as either "keep putting one foot in front of the other" or "keep taking one step after another". See what you think.
ReplyDeleteb7b25b6a - You are right! Thank you :-)
ReplyDeleteGlynda, as a Catholic blessed in the Charismatic Renewal in the Church, I am very sensitive to all you presented in your introduction. It is a wonderful beginning to a story that needs to be told, that Our Lord wants everyone to experience. To trust completely in His Love for us, in guiding every step we take is the hardest thing we can do - to relinquish control of our lives, families, vocations, everything to Him. Total blind trust. I have been through many of the deserts you speak of and I encourage you in your mission! I am excited for the completion of your book for it will be a life raft for many in the coming storms that await us. God bless you. Your words resonate strongly in my heart.
ReplyDeletecathydc123 - Thank you! I cannot tell you how much your comment encouraged me! After seeing the mistakes I had made a few days ago, I had started to feel discouraged. Your comment makes me want to get back on the job, Cathy - thank you so much for posting - God bless you!
ReplyDeleteGlynda,
ReplyDeleteI too am encouraged by your introduction so far, and are now eagerly awaiting your book. I have gone through the financial desert, and see that I am going through an unemployed one (5 mos) and as things deteriorate, will be going through others. I encourage you to keep plugging away at it, even when satan discourages you, know that we are all behind you 100% as your cheering section. If you get down, go on your own chat room, we will lift you up again!! :)
ska, Thank you SO much for your very encouraging comment. It is hard sometimes when you must put every other single thing aside to complete a task. It makes life feel a little like 'all work and no play.' :-) I am work-oriented almost all the time anyway, but the urgency the Lord has given me for this project is really strong. He spoke eight messages to me personally in an eight week period as the vision of what the book actually will contain began to unfold and He said it is very important, both that it be done and that it be done by the end of the year and that I must focus solely on writing for now. He said that people are going to really need the book for what is coming. Being just me, it is hard for me to imagine that anything I could write could ever hold any importance, but He has continued to emphasize it, and I know it is because what is being written is actually His wisdom, not mine. Thank you for commenting, Susan, and for your encouragement! (and I will remember what you said about going to my own chat room if I get down - LOL!!!) It helps so much to know you are all behind me on this!! ~ Glynda
ReplyDeletei need to read your book like many yesterdays , the Lord put me in the wilderness years ago in a dream , but didnt know what it meant, wasnt in the word, a new christain The Lord wants us in His Word to learn these stories to learn to increase our faith and be able to handle these situations that unfold in our lives ,bless you and your book to reach all that need to hear it--- Iam in the word now -----
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