The wilderness has served as a place of shelter for God’s faithful ones on so many occasions! It is the one place on earth specially prepared for consecrated ones.The wilderness is where the Lord’s consecrated people find refuge from the fury of the adversary. It is in these unique separate dealings of God that we are humbled to be empty as He breaks, purges, purifies, and prepares us for His direct purposes that we are separated and taken into the wilderness.
A state of being separate refines us to fit the appointed dealings which cause spiritual growth and development to maturity. Provision of food — His word — is made for His faithful to be sustained, strengthened and enabled to grow spiritually and increase in understanding. There is a "place" in our lives that is to the exclusion of all else. This is a place where we stop to recognize God, end the struggle in our minds of knowing good and evil, frees us from religious bondage to place us into oneness with our Father. Here, to the humbled soul of His servants ,He reveals Himself face to face and teaches them by the Spirit about the truth of scripture.
"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would keep His commandments, or not. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knew not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Deuteronomy 8:2-3
This wilderness experience of Israel is a type and shadow of now being separated apart from the crowded places that are still in bondage. Now we are drawn into a desolate wilderness, a place being sown with the Word of God. Now the church of the first born defeats the carnal reasoning of man’s interpretations of the scripture to prosper with truth.
A wilderness place is a virgin place which offers no recognition to the flesh because fleshly ways do not prosper here. Very little grows in the desert places. Yet, through the spirit, kingdom principles are sown by God into our hearts to blossom like the desert rose. In our wilderness experience, it is easier to see what the Father's Word and Spirit has declared to us;
"Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4
The principle working in the wilderness experience of the children of Israel was that manna rained from heaven. Notice — it did not come up from the desolate earth, but the manna of God came DOWN DAILY to sustain their lives while wandering about the desert. The supply of yesterday's manna did not do for today, anymore than yesterday’s dinner will suffice us for today’s meal.
We still cannot devote our live to traditional heavens built about yesterday’s manna (revelation), for it was strength only for that former day. We cannot live on the memory of the experiences of past generations. We cannot live on the lingering aroma of blessed fellowship we have had with the Lord's people in days gone by. We cannot live on the recollection of mercies and miracles received in previous moves of God.
Every day we need fresh manna, new grace, and new dimensions of life. The manna only held good for one day. It has to be gathered fresh every morning because the manna of one day grows corrupt and worthless before the next. We learn this in the desert where we no longer desire the glory of yesterday’s faded visitations. We are not disturbed because we see that yesterday’s move is being polluted with ambitious minds and religious efforts to draw men backward. In a short time “religious” men become weariness as they settle in earthly stagnation and spiritual immaturity piled high as being normal in Mystery Babylon.
Who has pressed on to GO ALL THE WAY INTO THE PROMISE OF GOD'S NEW DAY? Thank God! There is ONE, Jesus, and with Him a people who are having the Father’s name written upon their forehead to sing a new song. All the great moves of God of bygone generations have become like a swaggering harlot, a cesspool of strife and corruption where multitudes are brought under the domination of false ideas to fall victim to sectarian spirits, saying such things as: "We, and we alone are the church of Christ; we, our group, are the only ones worthy of heaven's blessing."
Many say they are sons of God, many claim to be of the man-child company; and many profess they are kings and priests, saying “Our movement is that which is bringing the kingdom rule over the nations with a rod of iron.” Many ministers have gone thru the motions of lip service, but the real glory is seen as given by God's life within, while we are proven worthy, in every department, to be sealed and registered in heaven. We are no longer covered in the greedy filthiness of Babylonian’s prideful garments, nor using human ways of feeding worm-ridden manna to God's people. While He provided it for a former time, now, kept over and preserved by man, it is no longer good food for God's people today.
The worms of man’s tradition mixed into church worship are obvious to all who are taught by the Spirit in the wilderness of being separate. Separated brethren are pressing on after the upward call of God in Christ Jesus! We find this order working within those who seek to follow the Lord and become completely committed to “following the Lamb whithersoever He may go.” What they hunger for is RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE, longing to be found in those qualities of God’s life in our life TODAY, in our now.
Now being separate from the old, we can be raised spiritually to truly enjoy His life within our spirit, as miraculous deliverance that is processing a change in us by His Spirit. He is offering us AGE LASTING LIFE as some faithful brethren know that God always brings to pass what He speaks. The Christian church needs a new feeding of His Word, expanding grace into deeper dealings of God’s Spirit.
Hidden manna from the throne brings further revelation of Jesus Christ, brings greater dimensions of the law of life in Christ Jesus, in daily manna from the throne of God. The ark realm should be opened in our inner man to find His supply of hidden manna good for THAT ONE DAY — for the Day of the Lord, as our forward journey into God gets fresh bread for the new day, the bread Jesus taught us to seek;
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11
GOD GIVES! Yes, this is a given. You cannot buy the bread of life. Its price has never been quoted in the markets. No futures market or money market can purchase its reality. God never sells the bread of life. He gives. Buy? No, you cannot buy this bread. You may buy books and sermons and papers and tapes and CD’s from preachers who have merchandise to sell, but you cannot buy your way into a supply of God’s treasures.
You can get a “prophecy” or a “blessing” from the prophets who peddle favor in return for your offerings. But you cannot buy with money the Word and Spirit of God. Can you buy with money God's pardon? Can you buy with money real peace? Can you buy with money righteousness? Can you buy with money the mind of Christ? Can you buy with money the image of God? Can you buy with money the kingdom? NO, you cannot buy with money the truth; but what you cannot buy with money God gives. This is ROYAL GIVING.
Listen,
“It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32
Listen again,
“Everyone that thirsts, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17
Listen yet again,
“The gift of God is age lasting life.” Romans 6:23
The spiritual pictures of the book of Revelation painted a woman in the wilderness, who “… hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her… in her place, where she is nourished…” There is startling drama in the figure which represents the dragon casting out a vomit of water from his mouth which becomes a flood to sweep away the woman.
"As soon as the dragon found himself hurled down to the earth, he sprang in pursuit of the woman, the mother of the male child, but she was given a pair of the great eagle's wings to fly away from the serpent into the desert, to the place where she was to be looked after for a time, two times and half a time. So the serpent vomited water from his mouth, like a river, after the woman, to sweep her away in the current," Revelation 12:13-15
The “flood of vomited water” is a spiritual symbol for a flood of religious words. Instead of the “water of the Word,” it is a mixture of teaching that “floods” out of the serpents “mouth.” It’s a flood of erroneous teachings of scripture, word streams with lies and misinterpretations of God's intent. The serpent spirit has always fathered lies about God. The flooding of the serpent’s mouth has been cast out among Christians, causing deceitful decisions and false accusations based in carnal reasoning. The serpent wants to swallow up our understanding of God with a horrible flood of plausible words and experiences, deceiving the multitudes unable to withstand his deceitfully mixed flood.
Yet the Lord's truth and His understanding shine forth in the revelation of reconciliation, sonship, and the kingdom of God as revealed by the Spirit of God. We get the truth by the sovereign, quickening revelation of the Spirit, yet we have to approve those ideas out of scriptural texts of the new testament in order to accept and believe. Though a thousand objections flood in clamoring opposition, and brethren use all manner of proof-texts to convince, God's revelation prevails.
The revelation of Jesus Christ is not given in the serpent’s flood, but rather a clear revelation comes as the spirit of truth taught within our spirit, where He can explain it. We too search the scriptures to see “whether these things be so” as the Lord quickens and teaches us out of the scriptures until eventually we see how misapplied the letter of the word has been. How false ideas have threaded their way into the Lord's people! Any half truths held by the majority of Christians are like stopping signs short of God’s glory.
Some of these teachings are laced with fallacies, some held in myths and religious superstitions that have mixed truth and error into a “cup of indignation” in the hand of a religious harlot. Yet these ideas fall to nothing before the SPIRIT ENLIGHTENED MIND. The mind of Christ becomes so real, so substantial, so established within believers that for us, truly "our death is swallowed up in His victory." Multitudes in church make merry while feeding on the flood of serpent food that is deceiving the Lord's people.
Yet, the spirit of sonship is given to us to supply words and the new life stream of LOVE that convincingly and confidently comes from our Father.
“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” John 13:34
Under Moses, the command was to love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with all the strength. But, man was impotent to fulfill this order because of his own weakness and limitation. What man could not do, Jesus Christ came and did completely. Now, instead of man being instructed to love God, as the law of Moses demanded, man is asked to BELIEVE in what the Father has done in His Son, the Son who always did love God as the law demanded. Now Jesus knew God commanded life through love:
"And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." John 12:50
"A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you,” John 13:34
And now the Father is inviting us to behold how much He can love us as He invites us to let His love abide in our spirit, just as Jesus did and does. God is GIVING wonderful love that conquerors all flesh within us, by filling our spirit with love for the divine that operates on our heart to circumcise it. God abides with those He loves.
“We love Him, because He first loved us.” I John 4:19
God, our Father, does ask us also to believe His heart intent is toward blessing His sons and daughters and toward bringing a blessing for all men in due time. By this revelation, we receive entrance into a love sent by His Spirit. Here is LOVE flowing out to us as a fountain in that separated place. Here it flows into the stream of like minded saints who make up the river of God that supplies love for the brethren, the spouse, the family, associates, the neighbor, on to loving even our enemies and those that are using us despitefully. He makes it possible within! We are under the New Covenant and believe that His spirit rules within us to instruct, lead, supply love, peace, and enjoyment of life. It is FREEDOME from the old to know God by the Spirit! That’s it!
"But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor." I Timothy 1:5-13 NASB
“He who is believing in (Greek: into) the Son of God, has the testimony (evidence) in himself;” I John 5:10 concordant
“And this is the record (maturia — witness, evidence), that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son, hath life” I John 5:11-12
What is the evidence of our testimony? Ah, our testimony, our witness, is evidence of Christ within making THE SPIRITUAL REALITY OF A SONSHIP RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD! This is not in just being enrolled in a church fellowship, but rather being an active member of God’s family. John says the evidence is INDWELLING the life of His Son. We need sonship! Sons are not looking after the things that are coming on the earth, nor burdened with earthly cares, not focused on earthly minded things, nor in any religious system on earth. Sons have surely profited being separated out until our spiritual life was focused on Christ and are gaining oneness with the vision given of the Spirit to possess "the evidence within."
Overcoming sons of God are now sealed with the mind of Christ and can discern the ominous and destructive influences of the dragon’s lies now being manifested in the multitudes of religious ones among Christian ranks. Many a prophet learned from the Father in these solitary places. Here they received truth taught by the Spirit and learned to resist any opposition with PATIENCE and ENDURANCE. They knew what God wanted from the moment they received the upward call. They know the Father’s Spirit and must put on the whole armor of God to win, to stand as remaining victors on this spiritual battlefield.
Oh, yes! Many shall overcome the dragon and the beast, and they no longer "belong" to the earth. We are redeemed from earthy tribes, separate from our national heritage nor do we "belong" to any of the many man organized churches anymore. The redeemed belong to the heavenly Jerusalem with the “spirits of just men being made perfect”. They now dwell in righteousness and peace.
We are REDEEMED, bought back as the Spirit of our Father quickens our spirit. He judges if we are looking at the things He is doing and knows if we now mind heavenly things! Are we are focused on heavenly thing, learning what is happening in His throne in the new Jerusalem, in matters of the Father’s business of making victorious ones of us? We belong to the King and ABIDE in one spirit with the heavenly Lord of All, while, in the eyes and understanding of men, we appear to be in a desolate wilderness on earth!