Sometimes God will have us out in the wilderness so that he can separate us from everything else to deeply work on us. In the wilderness, you get tempted. In the wilderness, you will sometimes face correction. In the wilderness, you will encounter tests, trials, and tribulations. In the wilderness, God is refining you. The wilderness is not meant to break us, we are supposed to overcome just like Jesus did, and when we do we come out truly transformed. In order to truly grow you have to face those hard times, the enemy in your life, and sometimes you even have to face yourself.
Some of you are probably wondering what is a "wilderness period"? The wilderness period refers to the time when Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days and nights fasting, a time when he was tempted by the devil but overcame him. During those times, Jesus was being refined and when he was being refined he was being tested, and by the end, he came out transformed into his full identity and started to perform miracles. Relating it to life now, I would say this pandemic has been like a long wilderness period for me because it was a long period of just being separated from the world to fast and seek God. It was a period when God really started working on me. I remember the holy spirit calling me out and telling me that I needed to start living a holy and righteous life because God wanted me to start walking in the purpose that he had for me. I even had an encounter at the beginning of last year where I felt the hand of Christ holding mine, assuring me that he will be there through it all.
Correction after correction...
In my wilderness period, I received A LOT of correction and I am telling you it was not easy being shown the errors of your ways but that is how we are able to grow and change. I even got rebuked a couple of times and some of them made me feel so faint in my heart to the point where I sometimes felt like it would give out. It was hard but I felt the need to speak about this because I do not hear a lot of people talk about this in their spiritual journey and I think we should because it is a part of it. Christ is supposed to be reflected in us and through our lives but we first need to be worked on. Unlike Jesus, we were born into sin and in order for us to reflect Christ, we have to go through a process of sanctification and refining. Correction is hard and there have been a lot of tears cried but one thing I notice is that God instructs us and after we accept those corrections by following his instructions we make it right again and begin to grow and draw nearer to God.
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed" (Hebrews 12:11-13)
Our faults stunt our growth but when we correct these faults we receive the healing that makes it easier to grow. Every time I was shown an error of my ways it made me feel hopeless and heartbroken at the moment but then I was reminded that there is hope and there is a merciful Father too who sees past my faults and looks at the needs. God does this because he loves us and just like an earthly Father who loves their children would correct and discipline them for their good, so does our heavenly Father.
In Ephesians 3, which I so love to quote from, it says there is a season for breaking down and then a season to build up and I believe that my wilderness period is made up of the two. I felt like I was being broken down with these corrections after corrections but I know it was not meant to overcome me... Sometimes in the valley season, we need to be broken down so that we can be re-built again to rise up anew and strong in our identity in Christ.
Love this.
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