“‘And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai: and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran … and the people pitched in the wilderness of Paran." Numbers 10:12; 12:16
According to the meaning of the Hebrew word, “Paran” means ‘to glory, vaunt self or boast.’ One must first become aware of God’s intentions in bringing people into the wilderness to become aware of how to ‘glory and boast’ in the wilderness experience. The wilderness is God’s workshop, a design in His plans to bring us unto a name (nature) change like when Jacob became Israel. It is the same divine processing for all His sons who come from afar and His daughters from the ends of the earth:
"…even every one who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, I have formed him; yea I have made him." Isaiah 43:7
We believers are brought to a wilderness situation to see His glory and be conformed to His image. That is most important to learn about our relationship with our Father. We would prefer that God does all His work on us in the green pastures and beside still waters. Although these places are lovely and pleasant places and abundant in His house, the full development of our spiritual experience needs certain types of characteristics to be dried up. That can only be accomplished in most Christians by the howling desolate wilderness, alone and separated from other influence.
Our Father teaches us how to let Him dwell within our spirit after we are crushed, desolate, apart from the Christian crowds. It is necessary development for full spiritual growth and inner enrichment to maturity of stature. His provision in the wilderness experience makes our personal wilderness experiences differ in many ways but they all are an essential part of development into sonship, whether we like it or not!
Most Christian church leaders warn against being alone in a wilderness circumstance, believing it is a place where men revert back to ungodly living, where the Lord cannot be felt or found, where the rain of the Holy Spirit does not fall. It is considered to be a place of difficulty, dryness, and barrenness, to be avoided and of no value. Yet from time to time the Lord brings those called to sonship into a wilderness experience, separating them from the church fellowship, the family, the business, and many others pursuits to experience a deeper circumcision of heart.
He brings us to types of Golgotha in Paran, the barren wilderness. It becomes a wonderful place where we are operated on by God to circumcise our heart so that we begin to understand with spiritual insight what can be accomplished within our spirit during our time on earth. We learn to embrace the promise of spiritual life coming from God.
"…devoutness is beneficial for all, having promise for the life which now is, and that which is impending." I Timothy 4:8 concordant
What is found in the wilderness? Separation unto an “at-one-ment” experience with our Father. In other words, ‘at-one-ment’ requires a separation unto our Father's presence. This happens easily in the wilderness experience as our Father deals with us as His sons and daughters. Now we are judged concerning our own ambitions and motives, standing alone before His judgment seat.
His judgments are revealed further within our inner spiritual man in the barrenness of the wilderness experiences in our spiritual growth. He stands up within us with initiatives that separates us unto His lasting purposes. When we view our wilderness experience as a place of refinement and growth into the perfect image of the Lord Jesus Christ, we quickly see that it has great value and purpose.
Consider the children of Israel as they were led out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into the wilderness. There were different levels of separation taking place, the most obvious one being freedom from foreign taskmasters. They HAD TO COME OUT but only God could open and make a way through barriers like the Red Sea.
God still opens ways through fleshly opposition, allowing us to reach the other side while the waters close in upon our enemies. There are now no more bricks to be made in Egypt! The traditional way of living in religious bondage is behind us now. Now, we are free to follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goes. We expect to abide under the cloud of glory by day and the pillar of fire by night!
Christian men are so interested in having a ministry that is in front of the multitudes of people that, once gained, they want to keep things going that way. The solitary places are not the portion that these men want — not any place of being alone where the only communion is connection to a still small voice within. Christian ministers like to be teachers of the multitudes. They like to grab the attention and hold it by being sympathetic and understanding of people's needs, providing fellowship and religious community. But some have been drawn to come out of all that confusion and, “Come Up Hither,” be separate, embrace the desert place because it is there our Father will receive you as a Son or Daughter.
Our Father makes Himself real within our spirit. Be content to come aside, away from the Christian crowds, be separate in worship, so He can show you that which is of greatest value. He will give you the messages on His heart. He will burn His words into our thinking so that the mind of Christ rules our spirit, soul, and body. Yes, He will do it by changing our spirit into a state of oneness with His Spirit.
"Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." II Corinthians 6:17-18
In the life of every man and woman following the Lord Jesus Christ there are appointments with the Father's destiny for them. Everyone whom God has led to solitary places, desert places, lonely places, where there is no water, no way to sustain ourselves, HERE is where we hear when God speaks to us. We finally get His dealings that shape and form and fashion within us so we may be fit to enter the lasting Kingdom. We experience this while still in that dry desert where we learn to be sustained by the inner life-giving fountain of His Word.
We turn aside to meet our own personal “burning bush” in the desert place. In the wilderness, like Moses, we are equipped to carry a rod that brings deliverance. Do not think that someone is going to call you out in a church congregation, laying hands on you to impart the stature of kingdom priesthood ministry upon you. This is a different process altogether, like Moses in the desert. I don’t think that a diploma for attending Bible School will qualify us to deliver the Lord's people from the bondages of corruption. It takes something more to be qualified to bring Christian men and women out of false ideas and carnal minded prison-houses!
God intends to bring His people out from all spiritual bondage, all of our spiritual “Egypts.” Some are prepared by God now on the backside of the desert to accomplish the task. He takes away the things we thought we knew, what we believed that we needed, and the people in whom we trusted, to only HIM. He leads us to where a oneness of spirit is established within so we see face to face.
Now, we see what He sees. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. It is here in the wilderness alone with Him that we are most dramatically changed in experiencing spiritual enlightenment from Him. It is on the backside of a solitary desert, ALONE, where He receives every other prophet who has gained reward “in the life to come" when the Father’s will needs to be done.
We have learned and now say, “I understand why God has let these things happen that didn’t send any comfort in this howling loneliness, rejection, privation and misunderstanding. God brought us here! I didn’t understand at first, I questioned, Why? What have I done to miss the mark I shot for so long ago? Why am I in this condition? Is it really true we are here because God needs a prepared ministry of His lasting love and unfailing grace that will show all humanity what He has promised, even to the deepest darkest hell?”
It is true some disciples will bear an everlasting gospel, delivering God’s truth eventually to all mankind. Who will herald this everlasting gospel? Who will bring this gospel that reaps Christians from bondages of false images and church traditions that are corruptible, to raise souls of every generation from the power of death up into the portals of the city of God? Our Father appears very much concerned about sustaining that progress!
We embrace the matters on His heart in the wilderness experience. It is, for us, finding A PLACE OF PEACE AND REST WITHIN. Peace comes here and now when God appears with our "burning bush" issues. He has a great number of issues to be resolved. Out on the windswept mountain called Zion comes a voice, showing a vision that makes us behold matters eye to eye as sons and daughters flowing in a river of HIS LIFE. A mighty supernatural deliverance is flowing in His Spirit! Deliverance is now coming to a Mt. Zion people, as our Father's purposes are brought forth to ordain that change.
“And she brought forth a son, a male, who is about to be shepherding all the nations with an iron club. And her child is snatched away to God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, there where she has a place made ready by God, that there they may be nourishing her a thousand two hundred sixty days.
And a battle occurred in heaven. Michael and his messengers battle with the dragon, and the dragon battles, and its messengers. And they are not strong enough for him, neither was their place still found in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent called Adversary and Satan, who is deceiving the whole inhabited earth. It was cast into the earth, and its messengers were cast with it.
And I hear a loud voice in heaven saying, just now came the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of our brethren was cast out, who was accusing them before our God day and night. And they conquer him through the blood of the Lambkin, and through the word of their testimony, and they love not their soul, until death.” Revelation 12:5-12 concordant
These words refer to a great universal spiritual battle that is fought by a heavenly people, a battle between the dragon’s mind and the mind of Christ found in followers of Jesus. This is a spiritual battle in which THE DRAGON’S MIND IS CAST OUT of those of us who are Christ followers. Fleshly mindsets hold to the earthly order, an earthly way of thinking about God’s intentions. Each of Michael’s messengers must participate in this battle for us to be caught up over the earthly minded powers that operate within the Lord’s people.
It is now in heavenly places in His house where the man-child is standing up to the battle, and is casting down every false message, every vain imagination and every bit of condemnation spoken in His presence, casting it down, down into the earthly minded. The dragon's thoughts only feed on what is earthy, the dusty part of our soul with its earthly mindsets, determinations, everything, including the dramas of our own making — all that we love is exposed.
Oh, that's why God uses the separation of a wilderness experience as the path to a further revelation of God's mind. We learn what HE loves. Thus will God's people in this present day come out of their personal wilderness experiences into the promised land of lasting Divine inheritance in the city of God. We who follow on to know the Lord are doing this now spiritually and will gain crowns in the LIFE that is coming.
Yes, the wilderness is GOD’S WORKSHOP FOR LEADERS! He has a school for sons in this place He has designed to bring maturity to a priesthood conformed to His image. The wilderness is a necessary part of spiritual growth and development into real kingdom priesthood, developed by God’s methods of instruction by the Spirit. Through this our vision, our understanding is changed to see eye to eye with Him and expand our preparedness for touching people in the spirit of God with an everlasting blessing that enriches their lives:
"For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13
The spiritual leaders of Jeremiah's day could not hold the real living water, but were giving to the people from broken systems. There was no stream of water among them. They gave out old stuff. The rain had fallen at one time upon the house of Israel and they were still drinking from that cistern which spoke of and focused on a former day. They were not ready to hear the present word concerning the appearing of the Lamb of God.
Today we too cannot rest in a past visitation or order of the Lord. There is a continual listening for the present thought flowing in the spirit of our Lord to our spirit. We are being focused on something new, something we are receiving from fountains of living waters. We can only live, really live, by EATING every Word that comes from the mouth of God. When some messengers preach, the spiritual waters begin to flow within us too, and we are raised up until our cup is filled and we rejoice.
But if you contentedly remain satisfied with only that cup full, it will get you stuck if, years later, you are still focused on that cup, saying, “I received a cup of water from the Lord, would you like to drink?” Years old water is stale, it does not taste that good. However, if we are separated sufficiently to cultivate a Father/Son relationship in the desert, we are connected to the real fountain of living water Who is coming in our house bringing spiritual waters fresh each day.
Let us explore more of the wilderness in its unfriendly, selective workings to favor the strong, sometimes rational men who yet are militating against others. THE WILDERNESS IS UNFRIENDLY TO UNNECESSARY ACTIVITIES. Outer religious activities are dropped quickly when there is no one to impress. Only the end of our worldly mind allows quick development of inner hidden qualities of patience and mercy that come from what the Lord is providing.
Our Father desires to cultivate the spirit in us so that we disdain what God disdains and esteem what He cultivates in our inner spiritual life. Our Father delves deeply into the spirit of a man and changes his focus to now see and understand the mind of the Father coming to His Sons. The desert is a place where wildlife must especially adapt to life. In the desert most things die while only a few species have qualities that are accentuated.
This was so with Moses, who finally turned aside at the burning bush. Notice that the wilderness is dry and desolate. There is no evident blessing or revival. In the desert the children of Israel demonstrated against Moses and Aaron and accused them of bringing the Lord’s congregation into the wilderness to die of thirst. They describe their environment as evil, saying:
“It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink.” Numbers 20:5
We learn also that no seed for food and no water means the wilderness is uninhabitable. That’s why most think it is evil. So it is that God deals directly with His true leaders to bring them out into face to face experiences with Him where only He can sustain them. He has dwelt with us in His purposes. Consider His dealings with Enoch:
“Enoch walked with God [alone].” Genesis 5:24
Abraham’s separated walk involved numerous encounters with our Father. Consider also Joseph’s specifically tailored trials and Elijah’s crying out in the wilderness:
“I, even I only, am left….” I Kings 19:10
Jeremiah’s agonizing,
“I sat alone because of Thy hand.” Jeremiah 15:17
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” Genesis 32:24
And Jesus,
“He was alone there.” Matthew 14:23
In the solitary place alone is where very special things happen for the people of God. The children of Israel tumbled helter-skelter out of Egypt, but the wilderness brought them into a divine order, marching to possess new land. They became an organized army that marched in ranks into Canaan.
"He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel." Psalm 103:7
The wilderness is also the place where power is displayed in simple instruments in ordered ways.
“‘What is that in thine hand?’ And Moses replies, ‘A rod.’” Exodus 4:2
The unique power of Moses would ever after be associated with a common shepherd’s staff.
When Samson was assaulted by the Philistines,
"…they shouted against him.” Judges 15:14-15
But Samson found a jawbone of an ass, and with it, he slew a thousand men. This instrument, found often enough in the wilderness, was at that time both common and powerful.
What a contrast between GOD’S WAYS and man’s ways. God’s means are in vital energy — dynamic use of the simplest of instruments suffice!