Grace Part 2: When Grace Leads Us Into The Wilderness

There are times when God's grace leads us into the wilderness, much like Israel's story of bondage and slavery in Egypt to miraculous deliverance into the wilderness. The true deliverance, that of their souls, was to be accomplished in the wilderness. The wilderness was where they were to learn how to worship God..."let My people go, that they may worship Me."

The booty they fled Egypt with, the miracles that got them out by the skin of their teeth - were all just enough grace to convince them to actually leave Egypt. It's almost like a divine trick for our own good, because something very important is at stake: us and His heart. The principalities and powers are watching the mystery of God's wisdom unfold, they are watching to see if we'll persevere long enough to prove His heart is good. Out of all Creation we have been given the highest honour and the most difficult challenge: Everything Sonship offers has been extended to us, but will we persevere to win the prize? The challenge is knowing and trusting His heart enough in order to fling ourselves headlong into the agony and the ecstasy of refinement and restoration. God uses the wilderness to refine and restore and reveal the original creation that is us by stripping off layers and layers of skins. Since the fall, satan has been trying and succeeding at conforming us to his image. It takes some work to shed that image and reveal our original glory.

It is grace that leads us into the dark night of the soul, because without grace we never would have agreed to what got us there in the first place. We made the clincher decisions, because we thought they were good! They were. We just didn't think they were the "character-building" type of good when we wholeheartedly submitted to His leading (divine appointed blindness is also part of the grace package I found).

So where is the passion and joy now? Well, what's keeping us from running [away]? Pat yourself on the back, if your still in the race - that's passion. Passion has a focus and it is joy. His joy, which will also become our joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. It's true. I've lived it, several times, while simultaneously feeling like puking, dying, falling off the grid, planning a visit to the Doc for some cocktail or daydreaming of a private room in a psyche ward. God is merciful. We are pig headed. When I yelled at God that I had trusted Him (that lovely grace) and that I was nowhere near the promised land, quite the opposite it seemed, He surprised me with His loving presence manifesting around me that turned my angst into calm. He led me into the wilderness and He was letting me know He was there, but it was up to me how long I would stay there.

Humility, I believe, is the only way out. Whether it's confessing one to another or confessing to God alone, it is the recognition of sin in our lives (which sometimes can only be pointed out by others if we were deceived/believed a lie) and repenting of it that ends the wilderness season. God desires to deliver us, His Beloved, from bondage and sometimes that means "wounding us to heal us" or "tearing us down to build us up". After repentance comes a miraculous change in perspective with the fruit of the Spirit accompanying and in some cases even change in actual physical circumstances occurs. One day there was angst, the next day there is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control. Last, but not least, you gain true spiritual authority, authority over that which you have conquered.

There is another side to wilderness that I will touch on. Sometimes the wilderness is a hiding place where God has taken you to hide you, protect you, feed you and strengthen you in preparation for the next season. This can feel lonely at times, but very special, as you truly are being fed in spirit, soul (and perhaps body too) directly by the hand of God. It is a very intimate place with God, a place where you feel His holy jealousy for you. It is a place of secrets and conception.



I will write 'Grace Part 3: Grace For Battle' in the coming weeks.