I will never forget the first time I was thrown into the wilderness. That first wilderness walk was not voluntary, and I had no idea what had happened to my life. And I wanted my life back. Badly.
I was in a fairly strong walk with the Lord, meaning I had a lot of faith, but not all that much scriptural knowledge at that point, having walked with Him only about two years when it happened. I was still refusing to stay away from sins I knew I should leave alone. But He had my heart and I was drawing closer to Him all the time.
It would be years before I learned that the wilderness is a time of refining when everything solid around you no longer is, when you feel as if someone just yanked the rug out from under your life and you desperately look for something solid to hang on to until they put it back.
As you walk through the wilderness, trying to find some direction for your life, others will gaze at your life and whisper, wondering if you have sinned and displeased God and you are being punished for it. They will wonder if you are insane as you continue to speak of faith in the face of what appears to be loss and tragedy in your life.
The enemy will send many for these purposes, and he himself will also whisper - he will accuse you - to others and to yourself. He will accuse God before you, trying to persuade you to abandon your faith, to think it is all a big game to a god who does not care about you. He will try to convince you that God can't possibly come through for you as if He were a weak and puny god, not the mighty Jehovah God we know from the Bible.
He will continually suggest many scenarios of failure to you and try to get you to buy in to at least one of them. He will tell you nothing will ever get better, that things will always be this bad, except as they grow even worse. He knows if he does not stop the power of your faith, it is he who will fail.
And when you feel alone there in the wilderness and nothing around you seems certain, when you don't know which way to turn for help and everything that worked for you before has stopped working, his accusations and scenarios of failure will sound almost like truth. He will tempt you to become angry at God, to lash out, as he did Job.
This is where many will abandon the wilderness and run back to Egypt, never attaining the golden treasures the wilderness offers them. But those who continue on in the face of the fiery trials are molded by the master of all potters, refined like silver, and through affliction become vessels fit for the Master's use. They will be changed from glory to glory into the image of His Son, little by little, if they yield to His refining, and they will walk out of the wilderness with a gift in their hands they could have attained by no other path.
This is where many will abandon the wilderness and run back to Egypt, never attaining the golden treasures the wilderness offers them. But those who continue on in the face of the fiery trials are molded by the master of all potters, refined like silver, and through affliction become vessels fit for the Master's use. They will be changed from glory to glory into the image of His Son, little by little, if they yield to His refining, and they will walk out of the wilderness with a gift in their hands they could have attained by no other path.
Glynda, we've never been without complete provision before. Frightening, but - "Thy will be done."
ReplyDeleteAs you are on a time-table in writing this book, under the hands of the Lord, there is something heavy on my heart. As much of your pressed time is being tied to writing, I wish to appeal to your viewers and ask if we might bind together in praying for lost souls and relieve you some in this area.
If we pray daily for lost souls and ask God's Holy Spirit to enter their hearts and allow them to SEE Jesus as they've never seen Him before, come to KNOW Him as they've never known Him before, come to UNDERSTAND Him as they've never understood Him before, and FEEL HIS LOVE in a way they've never known love could even exist----and then ask God that these lost souls not only not lose their soul, but instead will become His most faithful advocates and earthly servants- WE WILL SAVE MANY!
God listens to our prayers and we must take souls away from satan as we can't simply care about ourselves. If we do this, it would surely bless Glynda's writings. By saving lost souls, as Glynda says, the blessings would revert back to our own family and loved ones. God bless, love, and use us in a way which is most beneficial to HIM. Nothing fails in God.
With great warmth to all your viewers,-maf.
maf - Thank you.
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