Growing through the desert seasons – 2
September 13, 2009
Three weeks ago I spoke about the desert and our experience as we move through the desert experiences of life. Then I dropped you off in the desert and told you to come back 3 weeks later and I would finish talking about the desert. Well, it’s 3 weeks later, and it’s time to take a look at what it means to be in the desert and what to do while you’re there. We looked at 3 questions,
1. How did I get here?
2. What am I supposed to do in the desert?
3. When am I going to get out of here?
To give a really quick review, the answer to When am I going to get out of here? Simply is, I don’t know, but you’ll get out in due time. It’s not necessarily the answer we want to hear, but it’s the only answer available. We don’t know when we’ll get out, we simply need to keep pressing forward and trusting in the plan God has for us.
The 2nd question, How did I get here? Does it really matter? If it was your fault, someone else’s fault, or God’s fault, does it really matter? You see, the real question we’re always confronted with is . . . what are you going to do with what you’ve got? In other words, what are you going to do while you’re in the desert?
Most often when we’re in the desert, we’re not all too happy about it. Remember the desert can be a hot place, one where we begin to feel dehydrated and thirsty. However, the largest desert in the world is an entire cold continent - - - Antarctica.
You see, desert seasons are inevitable. Whether or not you proclaim Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you’ve live life long enough, you will experience the desert. If you haven’t, you will.
Three weeks ago, I explained that a desert of the soul can be a season when the heat is turned up in your life, or when your heart turns cold, or it can also be a time when you’re giving out more than you are taking in.
A few weeks ago, we skipped question 2, and that will be our focus for the rest of today. What am I supposed to do while I’m in the desert? I believe Isaiah 40:3-5, gives us some help ~
3 A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
What are we supposed to do in a desert? Make a way for the Lord. Why? Because He’s coming to meet you there. God isn’t waiting for you on the other side of your troubles. He’s not waiting for you to get out of the desert on your own. Nope, He’s coming to meet you in the middle of your desert experience, and He will infuse His presence into your situation, if you’re willing. But you have to prepare the way so that you can meet Him.
Now, before I get into some practical things you can do to prepare for the Lord, I want to make a couple of statements. I want to tell you a couple of things God impressed upon me this week.
1. Not every step works for every person. I can only generalize in a message. Each of us are unique and different and what works for one person will not work for the next person. However, that being said, when we prepare a way for the Lord and prepare to meet Him, in whatever way that works for us, we will meet Him and we will find ourselves singing a song to the Lord, and move out of the desert. So, remember, not every step works for every person, if you have questions about the right steps for you, come and talk to me, and we’ll work through it together.
2. I had 2 conversations with people who were in the desert this week. As I spoke to them, this thought come to mind,
Sometimes when we think we’re in the desert, we really aren’t in the desert. Sometimes when another person speaks about the desert, our personality type might be that we assume that’s us. Maybe because we’re quiet, we’re not out there with the rest of the world, but that’s just your personality. It could be that God is working on you in such a way that it feels like the desert, but it’s wonderfully spiritual growth. It doesn’t mean you’re in the desert season of life. Remember, being in the desert is not the happiest time of life. A few weeks ago, I read the words of David from Psalm 63. This is what the desert feels like . . .
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
That’s what the desert feels like. Not only do you seek God, which we should do during the good and not so good seasons of life, but we feel like we’re parched, dry from the heat, burned from the cold wind, we feel like we’re in that weary land where there is no relief.
Folks, that’s the desert. That’s what it feels like. So, if you enjoy your time alone, or feelings of solitude, it may well be that you’re not in the desert. Yet, the Spirit is moving through your life and God is challenging you.
3. One last thought before we move into the practical steps. When you’ve been in the desert for awhile, you may very well get used to being in the desert and coming out of the desert may be scary than staying in the desert. One of the things you’ll hear Bob Downey talk about tonight is that for many people who are in prison, it’s safer to stay in prison than to leave. They know what it’s like, they’ve learned to adapt to their desert. Leaving means you have to adapt to a new way of living, and that’s not always a joyous prospect. Yet, if God calls you into the desert; He will not abandon you in that process. If He calls you, He will also lead you, if you’re willing.
Okay, now, we can ask . . . What am I supposed to do while I’m in the desert?
Here are five practical steps you can do to prepare the way for the Lord to come to you in the desert of the soul.
1. Expect to meet God in the desert. It may seem overly simplistic, but if we seek God while in the desert, we will meet Him. He won’t hide from us, in fact, God’s great desire is to be a constant presence in our lives, especially in the desert, to teach us, to instruct us, to provide for us, and to lead us into spiritual and emotional growth.
You see, everything we do for God must be done in faith. If God says He’s coming, take Him at his word. Believe God is who He says He is. Believe God will do what He says He will do. He led you into the desert because He wants to say something to you. In Psalm 5:3, David said, “I pray and I wait in expectation.” Don’t wait in doubt. Don’t wait in fear. Wait in faith.
Make yourself available and expect to meet God. This means you open yourself as best as you can to God. You open your heart, your soul, your mind and your body so that you can tune into God. One of His great promises is that He will not fail you, nor forsake you; God will not abandon you or bail out on you because of something you’ve done. Instead, we’re the ones who run from God, He will never run from you. Remember, He loves you! If you love someone so much, then you don’t run from them, instead you love them, and that is what God does for you and I.
So, one practical step is expect to meet God while in the desert.
2. Start planting seeds now.
Consider the words God told Hosea, in 2:14-15 ~
14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
Do you see what God is doing in these verses? As a result of Israel’s sinfulness, God was going to allure, persuade, entice, or lure Israel . . . .where? Into the desert! Oh God’s got His ways, doesn’t He? Before you get bent out of whack, see what the purpose is?
Hosea tells us God is going to speak tenderly and will restore Israel’s vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor, which is translated Valley of Trouble, into what? Into a Valley of HOPE. And isn’t that what we want when we’re in the desert? We want hope, God’s hope to lead us to sing His wonderful songs of joy once again.
So, if God is going to restore your vineyards, as He promises, you’ve got to start planting seeds now. The Word of God is like a seed that’s planted into the soul. Let it begin to take root in you. It may take time for those seeds to germinate, but eventually they’ll grow and bear fruit. But nothing’s going to bear fruit unless you plant the seed first. In other words, you’ve got to get into the Word of God, and you’ve got to get the Word of God into you.
Along with that comes prayer. You must pray. Sometime we’ll do a series on prayer, maybe sooner than later. But very simply, I define prayer as communicating with God. It can be through journaling, speaking, singing, listening, reading; and I’m sure there are other means. But one aspect of prayer we usually forget about is the listening to God part. We talk to God, but when we’re done, we just get up and go on with our day, and if God is trying to talk to you and tell you something, you aren’t listening because you are too busy being busy. This is the hardest part of prayer, just being still and listening or trying to listen to God.
3. Eliminate unnecessary distractions.
Let me read this passage from Isaiah again . . .
3 ... make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
Isn’t this an amazingly powerful statement from Isaiah? Think about what Isaiah’s saying. When you make those paths straight, when you get rid of all the clutter that’s already in our lives . . . what happens?
All the mountains that get in our way and hinder our view are made low. All those rough and rugged places becomes level and smooth and easy to pass through.
Make the path straight, remove distractions. Fill in the low places, smooth out the bumps, remove the obstacles. When you’re in the desert, it’s like you’re in a season of crisis, so you’ve got to be focused.
As A.W. Tozer said, “Fix the gaze of your soul on your saving God.” Clutter, noise and meaningless activities are usually unnecessary distractions. That includes procrastination. There just might be too much going on in your life – too many commitments, too many yeses – you’re spreading yourself too thin. In the desert seasons you have to carefully parcel out your resources. You must learn to say no. Categorize everything into what’s important and what’s not important. Make your to do lists, prioritizing the most important items first. Then do them, and when you’re done you can check them off and feel good about your progress. Focus on the important things so you can focus on the important One. . . God.
4. Search your heart for idols.
This is the tough one. In the Hosea 2 passage, God says, In the desert, I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope … I will remove the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.”
The Valley of Achor is where Achan buried forbidden treasure from Jericho in his tent. And the Bible tells us that Achan’s disobedience was the cause of Israel’s defeat at Ai (in Joshua 7). There is a powerful spiritual principle here: Achan’s grip on forbidden things caused God to lift His hand from His chosen people. Just as in the Valley of Achor, we must make a ruthless search for idols, for things in our possession that God has ordered us to destroy.
Jonah 2:8 says, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” The question to ask ourselves in the desert season is ~ “Am I holding onto anything that is causing me to forfeit the fullness of God’s grace in my life?”
An idol can be anything we put between ourselves and the Lord. Idols are the things we sacrifice to. For example, some people sacrifice moral purity to idols of immoral relationships. We sacrifice to idols of indecent entertainment. We sacrifice our families to idols of career or power. Achan sacrificed his life to an idol of worldly wealth. Are you sacrificing to any of those idols?
But idols can also be the remnants from your past you’re still holding on to. An idol can be something that somebody said about you which has become the filter through which you see all of life – it has become a place of bitterness or a place to find fulfillment and approval. All done for the wrong reasons.
An idol can be a grudge, because you’re allowing the person who hurt you to come between you and the fullness of God’s grace in your life. An idol can also be the face that’s looking right back at you in the mirror. Maybe you’ve become God, making your own calls, running your own life. Your greatest desire is to control everything and everyone.
Are you clinging to a worthless idol? 2 Kings 17:15 says, They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.
How do you get rid of an idol? By starving your passion for it. You starve an old passion by feeding a new passion. If you’ve ever just tried to quit something cold turkey, you know it’s not that easy. Sometimes the stories of people who have smoked 3 packs one day, accepted Christ the next and quit without ever having another craving leads us to doubt ourselves. Those are rare stories, not the usual.
What we must do is fill ourselves with what is good, and that is God. It is a longing a deep desire for God in our lives, and that by the way is what we’ll be talking about starting next week . . . our need for the love of Christ in our lives. Without it, and without a daily infusing of Christ, we’re helpless in the world. This one issue is what I believe is the big problem. More about that next week – commercial’s over.
We need to feed a new passion by giving it our attention. That new passion can only be one thing, and it is not a thing it is a relationship with God, period. That is what will help you move out of the desert as you let go of whatever idols you’re holding onto. When you feed your passion for God, you starve your passion for worthless idols. When you release your grip on worthless idols, your hands become available to receive more of what God wants for you.
Lastly, we need to . . .
5. Sing to the Lord.
Look at what David wrote in his desert experience in Psalm 63 - 5With singing lips my mouth will praise you; 7I sing in the shadow of your wings. And again in Hosea 2 the Lord says, 15In the desert she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
When you’re preparing the way for the Lord in your desert, keep a song of praise in your heart. I’m not talking about whistling a happy tune in the dark. But there’s a spiritual dynamic of singing to the Lord that is important to understand. Please understand, your song does not have to be about how happy you are. Make up a song with your words which describe how you’re feeling. They are your feelings and nobody, nobody can deny what you feel. Make those words known to God. It’s okay to ask for what you need, and sometimes in the midst of that song, or listening to another song, the words you need to say or take in are right there in front of you.
Singing worship songs is a great way to stay in an attitude of prayer. The Bible says, “we should pray without ceasing.” That’s not easy to do. But if you keep a song to the Lord in your heart, it keeps you in an attitude of prayer. So let songs and hymns of praise and worship fill your entire being while you’re in the desert.
In John 4:23, Jesus said, the Father is looking for worshipers. So if you’re in the desert and you can’t find God, start humming a song, make up the words, which means you’re writing your own psalm, or sing the first song which comes to mind. Just stop what you’re doing and start worshiping Him. And God will hear your cries, but be still and know that He will come and He will find you, and He will lead you.
5 steps to do in the desert . . .
Expect to meet God
Start planting seeds now
Eliminate unnecessary distractions
Search your heart for idols
Sing to the Lord
