The Stage Of Christian Life (2)

After a good time with God, the next step that

every Christian must face is to experience the "wilderness of life".

This is a time when God will prepare the born again person to be reliable servants of God,

The servants of God who live in the Spirit,

The servants of God who always rely on their Lord,

The servants of God whose life purpose is to serve their Lord,

The servants of God who see the world and its contents as nothing but trash.

The servant who always lives in holiness,

The servant of God who will destroy the deeds of devil in this world.

We can see some examples of life in the wilderness in the Bible:

A. Abraham

 Genesis 12: 1-3

1 The LORD said to Abram, "Go out of your land and from your relatives and from your father's house into the land that I will show you;

2 I will make you a great nation, and bless you and make your name famous; and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed"

Abraham is one who worships YHWH amidst the world filled with god worshipers.

Following God's commandment to leave his homeland, and he was given such a great vision by God, but what he experienced was far from his vision, halfway through his journey he had to stay in Egypt as a foreigner because of a famine (Gen 12:10) and his wife almost taken by the king of Egypt.

He also had to wait a long time for God to give His promise, namely a child to Abraham. In the midst of Abraham's joy with his promised son (Isaac), God tested his heart once again by getting Abraham to give up his son for sacrifice.

Can you imagine so much suffering Abraham went through, from the vision God gave to the vision?

Until Abraham made a mistake, he wanted to help God (he thought God was incapable) by taking Hagar, a slave, to become a concubine which produced a child for him.

Where as in the past the slave children persecuted the promised child, so until now many of God's people have been persecuted by these slave children. The mistake that Abraham made has to be suffered by God's people until now.

B. Joseph

 Genesis 37: 9

Then he dreamed another dream, which he told his brothers. He said: "I also dreamed: I saw the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing down and worshiping me."

An extraordinary vision, where all of his family, including his father and mother, bow down to him. But what Joseph got on his way in the wilderness, he was put into a well and thrown into slavery by his brothers.

His brother, in his God-given vision of bowing down to worship Joseph, sold him.

Certainly, Joseph might question the vision, whether it was true that the vision came from God, but it turned out that Joseph's belief in God was not slack. When he was seduced by Potiphar's wife,

Joseph resisted the temptation. He remained faithful to his Lord, and was not angry with all the bad things that happened in his life.

C. Moses

 Acts 7:25

"He thought his brothers would understand that God used him to save them, but they don't understand".

The Bible does not say clearly, when Moses got the vision that he would be used by God to save the Israelites, but we know that he defended his brother Israel, but they rejected him, so he had to run away and become a shepherd for 40 years.

The vision that Musa received did not match the reality he was facing, now he is a passenger in a foreign country with the title of shepherd of the goats/ sheep.

After Moses managed to save and bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt (Moses felt the vision had been fulfilled), it turned out that Moses still had to face another anger of God, because He hit the rock instead of talking to the stone, he was not allowed to enter the promised land.

For the Chosen, the closer he is to God, the closer the punishment will be if he does not obey his Lord.

For that God prepares someone in the wilderness, so that the person does not disppoint Him.

D. David

 1 Sam 16:13

Samuel took the horn tube filled with oil and anointed David among his brothers. From that day onwards the Spirit of the Lord reigned on David. Then Samuel went to Rama."

A shepherd was visited by a servant of God and anointed to be king over Israel, of course David kept that vision in his heart, but in reality, he had to suffer from being chased by the king he was supposed to replace. Maybe in his heart a question arose to God,

"Why Lord, you anointed me to be king, but now I'm even being chased like a criminal?" But did David turn away from God ... not at all not. David still loved God, this can be seen when he had the opportunity to kill Saul, he didn't do it.

E. John the Baptist

 Luke 3: 2-3

3:2 When Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

3: 3 Then John came to the whole region of the Jordan and cried out, "Repent and be baptized, and God will forgive your sins”

John the Baptist got a clear vision from God, he was the man who is mentioned in the book of Isaiah, someone who had to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. To prepare for his ministry, John lived in the dessert and ate only grasshoppers and honey.

What a preparation, John was willing to suffer, so that he could really become the person mentioned in the book of Isaiah.

But even after Jesus' coming he still wondered whether his vision had been fulfilled, whether Jesus, the son of Mary (who was also his brother), who had been to his house when he was still in the womb, was the true Messiah, and we also know that the result of the fulfillment of his vision, his head was cut off and turned over to Herod.

Perhaps he himself did not know the end result of his work was having his head cut off.

Above are stories about life in the wilderness of people who are loved by God, we see that God chastens them hard, but the end result of God's teachings is extraordinary. Everyone has their own wilderness life.

If God wants to use that person powerfully, it will take a long time, before God allows that person to engage in ministry.

Jesus loves you and all your family