Have You Had A Desert Experience?

Have You Had A Desert Experience? Kelly Durant

Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into[a] the wilderness

2. On the way home with our grandkids we had some hours to kill in the car and we were looking for things to do to make the time pass. We found some self discovery psychological tests online and we each did them and had fun talking about it. I thought it would be good if you did one of the tests as well as it is connected to the message today.

Imagine you are walking in a solitary desert all alone and then you come across a cube. (pause) What is it made of? How big is it? Take a mental note. Now you see a ladder. Where is it in relation to the cube? What is it made of? Now you see flowers near the cube. How many are there? A storm is coming in now. Do you see it near or far, as a danger or as something passing? This is just a piece of the test.

Now let’s find out about it. The desert is your journey in life. The cube is your ego. How big is it? Big or small? What is it made of? And the ladder near or far? It describes how close your relationships are to you. And how many flowers were there? This represents your children, or the number of people you take care of. Your fear of the future is revealed in the danger of the storm. If you are curious my cube was as big as a house made of steel, and the ladder was made of aluminum and it was on the front of the cube so you could go on top, and the whole thing had hundreds of flowers all around it! And I saw the storm far away and not a threat! Strange mental games, right? What were your answers? (See this on my Facebook)

3. Here is a reality, life with God will lead you into the wilderness, or desert at some time in your life! Do you realize how many people had to go into the wilderness because God lead them there? I don’t think any of them really wanted to go because as human beings we always seek comfort. But whether they wanted it or not it was a process that was needed for them to understand the deeper things God needed to teach them so they could be rewarded and broken into a vessel that is useful for God’s service.

Adam and Eve were forced into the wilderness out of the garden. Physically and metaphorically all of humanity is still in the wilderness and not home yet! Then after Adam there is Abraham. At a certain point in his life God spoke to him and told him to travel across unknown places.

Genesis 12: 1 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country, From your family

And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2. I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you, And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

3. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So for God’s purpose and blessings, whether we decide for it or not, may include that you and I will have to move one day! And who was the next person in Genesis to be forced to leave into the wilderness out of the city of Sodom? Sodom was a comfortable prosperous place, but it was full of sin and violence compared to many huge cities today. It was Lot and his family! And then there is another one who had to go into the desert sent away; it was Hagar, who had her son Ishmael. And what about Joseph who is next on this list in Genesis? He was sold into slavery by his brothers and was taken through the desert to Egypt. And after the children’s children of Abraham spent a few hundred years in Egypt how did they escape the idolatry and slavery? God’s man Moses called them out and took them out into the desert!

4. So God’s Word from the beginning describes how his children literally have to move from one place to another, and often move into a desert place for some time for a purpose, and this begs this question, how does this relate to you and me in our life? Can you describe a time in your life in which you felt like you were in a wilderness? A place and time where the heat and survival to live was so intense it was a life changing purge? Or maybe you are feeling that now!