The Walk To The Promised-Land Is Worth Fighting For

Are you in a season where you feel stuck? Everything else is moving around you and somehow your life seems to be paused on purpose. Maybe you found yourself in this wilderness season with God and it’s been going on longer than you’d hope. Or maybe you have been in the waiting, waiting for the promise God has spoken and you have yet to see it.

If I were sitting right there next to you, I’d tell you I understand every bit of it. I get how lonely, devastating it can be at times, at how you find doubt trying to creep in and the enemy trying to fool you thinking God won’t keep his promise by removing you from this place. You begin to wonder, you begin to feel, you begin to think more than you normally think, and you begin to think of a way out.

I get it sis. There is a lot to see when we walk the road to the promised land. What I do know is this:

The road to the promised land is worth walking too and fighting for.

In the times of us walking in the wilderness, we mustn’t lose our sight of the Lord. We must stay steadfast in prayer, worship, and reading the Word.

Each wilderness season will look different. Not one will look the same.

The wilderness isn’t a place to harm you, it is a sacred place between you and the Father, as he draws your heart to His. He will either remove people from your life or remove you from your regular life. Whether its removing you from a job, from a church building, removing you from the “known” place to the unknown all to grasp your attention. Imagine the Father trying to embrace you, His daughter, cupping his hands over your chin and saying “daughter, I see you, do you see me?” His heart my friend is to capture your heart. He doesn’t want partial of your heart, this is lukewarm and where lukewarm is he spits them out, Revelation 3:15-16. Instead, He wants you hot for the Him, running after Him, giving Him your whole self.

The wilderness is a place of what I call, Open Heart Surgery. He takes you through these times to open up your heart and remove little by little of what is hidden deep inside. Whether it’s jealousy, envy, pride, grief, sorrow, anger, malice, etc. In this place He does what I like to call a Deep House Clean. He removes the rotten apples, rotten tomatoes, all the rotten fruit so that good new fruit can be produced in your life. Galatians 5.

When we enter into the promised-land, he wants us ready for it. He wants us going for it. He wants us to enjoy the sweet honey, the fresh air, that beautiful freedom scenery. But we can’t enjoy it if we are stuck in our ways. He wants to get rid of the old in us so we can continue to walk in the new and embrace the new!

The wilderness season can feel lonely. And many don’t understand unless they have walked a wilderness season themselves. But can I share this truth with you? Even if your feelings feel lonely, you are not. God is with you and for you, Deuteronomy 31:6. He may be silent, yes, but only because He wants us to pursue after Him and seek Him all the more. He will go after us, yes, but its in these moments He is bringing us to the place to truly get to know His name.

I recently walked another wilderness season where he took me to so that I could know His name more. I knew of this name, I knew what it meant, I heard of it also, but it wasn’t until I walked in this season where I truly was getting to know Him by this particular name. A name that goes even deeper and means dear to me. We only learn these things when we get silent and pulled away from distractions and clutter to be focused solely on Him.

See friend, He takes us through these times not only for our sake to be cleansed, more holy, walking new, but to know Him more intimately and receive His teachings. We cannot know Him unless we truly have our eyes set before Him and are removed from the “comfortable” places to the uncomfortable.

Now before you ask, God is a God of comfort (Psalm 46:1-3) and the Holy Spirit is our comforter (John 14:26). But what I am saying here is when we place ourselves in this routine that we have become so use to, it begins to turn our relationship with the Lord dry and dull. So He then removes us from this “regular” routine to draw our full selves and our eyes back onto His.

Let’s think about it for a second. I want to clarify it like this, and no do not take this out of context. We can attend church every Sunday and Wednesday, we can attend every holiday service, but outside of this, what we are learning? Are we taking anything with us daily when we are home? Have we become so use to the routine that when He takes us out we begin to panic, worry, get anxious on what is going on? Do we begin to feel lost when church doors closed and worship is being banned? Has it become a religion rather than building a relationship with the Lord?

This my friend, is why He is doing what He is doing in these wilderness places.

Now there is no judgement here. But what I am saying is, the Father doesn’t want a routine, He wants OUR FULL OPEN SELVES! He wants our true hearts that are all HOT for Him not for church not for people not for other things. There was a time He had to pull me out of the church building and I never understood why at the beginning. It wasn’t until the end of the wilderness season where I began to see why. You can read more on that here. He does these things for our good and His glory! He isn’t a in the box kind of God. He is God who works out of the box and does what He needs to grasp His children hearts for growth, for cleansing, for deeper sanctification.

If we begin to feel stuck, as if everything else is moving and we are on this pause, there is many reasons it could be. When this happens we ask the Lord “is there any hinderance from me moving forward, if so show me what it may be so we can deal with this together.” You can even ask him “Why am I feeling stuck or on a pause? Will you show me what you are teaching me in this?” It could be routine. It could be something being done that He never gave consent for. It could be disobedience not obeying to what He said to do. It could be going back to the same sin you already laid at the cross. It could be busyness and He is doing a forced pause for you to truly be still. There is numerous of reasons, it is always best to pray and ask the Lord for Him to reveal it to you. And He will. He is faithful to do so.

Friend, if you are in this wilderness season, I want to encourage you to keep your boots strapped, or keep them off if He tells you (cause sometimes He will tell you to take off your shoes and stand), keep your eyes focused up on His, don’t get swayed to the left or to the right, don’t worry what others are doing, don’t even grumble dear friend (I know it can be hard but trust me when i say this, when I turned grumbling to thankfulness things shifted), don’t rush through it allow the Lord to move you through this on his pace, ask the Father “okay Father, what are you teaching me in this? What are you trying to show me in this? Lets walk this together.”

The wilderness is a beautiful refining season to walk in, even though it may not feel beautiful in that time, it truly is. You will face opposition and even get tempted. Even Jesus was tempted by satan in the wilderness. Matthew 4:1-11. I highly encourage you to pull your bible out and read it. Or click the verse to be taken to read it. One thing I want you to take note of in this verse is how Jesus replied to satan each time. He didn’t scream, yell, or even give in. He spoke back the Word of God. And this my sweet sister, is the very reason it’s important our swords stay sharpened, the Word of God, in our lives. The wilderness teaches us this along with so many other things.

Here are some of the things you can learn from being in the wilderness:

• Knowing what true intimacy is.
• Knowing His name personally.
• Knowing what it means to have Him as your first true love.
• Growing closer together.
• Abiding in Prayer
• Learning True Worship
• Becoming a surrendered woman of God.
• Becoming a God-fearing woman of God.
• Bringing heaven to earth
• Learning who you are and who he sees you as
• Purifying, he purifies your heart, mind, body and soul.
• You learn the enemies tactics to fight him off.
• You learn deep secrets within yourself so God can remove them and cleanse you.
• You become free from shackles and chains you never knew you had (the bad rotten fruits of the spirit).
• You learn how and why to place the Armor on.
• You’re taught to fight the battle using the Sword, the Word.
• You begin to have the Word you read staying deep within the heart, it imprints in you and you’ll suddenly see later how impactful knowing and memorizing the Word can be.
• You learn the Word of what is truly implies to and means.
• You learn Gods character.
• You learn to let go of self-reliance and learn to rely solely on Him.
• Spiritual eyes are opened.
• Growth not only in your intimacy with the Lord but in your walk with christ
• Growth in your spiritual gifts.
• Growth in the fruits of the Spirit.
• Open Heart Surgery to become who God wants you to become-redeemed, holy, new, WHOLE, cleansed.
• Growth in discernment.
• Teaching your ears to tune to the Holy Spirit and be sensitive to it.
• Training you to become the Warrior that is within you.
• Equipping you to walk this out so when others come behind you, you’re equipped, ready to help, encourage, and love on them through their wilderness journey.

This place, is a place of refinement, teaching, sanctifying, pruning, and purifying. Yes you will more than likely encounter opposition as I stated above, but don’t let this leave you grumbling and instead let it have you leaping in joy KNOWING who is with you, who has your back, who is for you, and who you are BECOMING!

The wilderness is never a place that is meant to harm you. It is a place that is sacred, learning more of who our creator is and knowing more of our identity in Christ. We gain wisdom, we gain knowledge, we gain heavens perspective in this place. It is also a place to reveal our hearts and what we have allowed in that is false so it can be worked on with truth. It is a walk worth fighting for to step into the promised-land.

Before we can take our step into the promise land, we first must learn to heed instruction from the Lord, be trained, be ready, have rotten roots uprooted, and be attentive to His voice.

He has not forgot you my dear friend. He has not forsaken you either. He has not brought you here by accident but on purpose filled with grace and mercy because He Loves You! He adores you! He wants your whole heart and whole surrender. He wants to bring more for you that your mind cannot fathom.

Are you ready to walk this wilderness out with the Lord in full confidence knowing this season in fact does serve a purpose?

Below are just a few questions to help you through the process of walking in the wilderness or the season of feeling “stuck.” Journal them in your journal or answer honestly in your mind. This can help self-reflect on the heart and help you to get your gears going with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection Questions:

1. Describe how you feel in this season? There is no wrong answer. When you begin to describe how it feels while walking this season, you are able to determine the root so it then can be surrendered to Jesus.
2. Do you notice any changes happening around you? (not around the world but what you currently are facing)
3. Has your time with the Lord increased or become dry?
4. Where has your heart been laying?
5. What have you been feasting on lately? (news, social media, books, the Word, prayer, etc.)
6. What thoughts have came nonstop?
7. Where Has the Lord been calling you in this season? (Worship, Being Still, Pausing + Reflecting, Repenting, Being Prayerful, etc.)
8. What can you lay down today to begin this walk with more gratitude?

With each of these we can take to the Lord, surrender them, and begin to dive into the Word allowing the Word to penetrate our minds and hearts.

Questions I Get Asked:

“Why are we pulled into the wilderness? Did I do something wrong to get here? How can I speed things up? Why is my wilderness longer than the last (or the other persons)?”

Friend, I don’t have a specific answer to your wilderness. Only God can answer your question as to why He tugged your heart. As I mentioned earlier a few times, being in the wilderness isn’t a bad thing. We see it bad, we see it as “God left me in this place” but honestly, there is so much more as I mentioned above, that happens in this place. We must begin to see with our spiritual eyes, heavens lens, and not the flesh lens. Once we place the spiritual lens on, we are able to see this wilderness through a new perspective.

There are many reasons God pulls us into this place. And most are to get us clean, stripping our minds and hearts to become more christ-like, walking in our identity. Not the worldly identity but the identity God has given us. Every wilderness season is different. None look the same. I hope you don’t mind me sharing just a glimpse of my wilderness seasons to give an example.

One wilderness season, my very first one, I had no clue it was even a season… but it was a new move, with no family, no friends, no church around, no community that was the same, it was all new. Especially moving 2 weeks after giving birth to a new little one. Every single bit of it was new. But it turned out to be an adventure. It showed me stepping into the unknown not knowing exactly what will be coming next isn’t always a bad thing but brings beauty of stepping out. It showed me friends. It showed me serving. It showed me God in a mighty way. It showed me stepping out of the familiar actually brings more fruit-bearing to our spirit.

Another wilderness season is when He pulled me out my church building for a few years. If I say I was okay with it, I wouldn’t be truthful. I disliked it very much but in that place God had to uproot religion and other things within my heart.

I have been in a few more but I wanted to give just a glimpse and show you only HE can reveal that to you of why you are in this place. The main point of Him doing this is like I mentioned, to draw our hearts to His, unteach us what the world taught us and instead learn from Him, be cleansed, purified, sanctified, growth and so much more.

Don’t give up in your season friend. Keep going, keep looking at the prize ahead, run with endurance and pause when you are told to pause. Ponder on all that the Lord is teaching you in this and be sure to journal everything you can because one day, you will look back and see the fullness of God in it all. You will see drastic change and growth from it.

May your wilderness season show you growth, blooming, planting, cultivation, ears to hear the Holy Spirit, eyes to see in the spiritual realm, patience as you continue on day by day. May it strengthen, encourage, empower you and bless you and it fold over to your family. May it pour into your cup a hundred fold and you pour it out onto others.