Wednesday, 9th December, 2020.
Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-11
Memory Verse: Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. Deuteronomy 30:6
I am yet to see a man that carries a measure of God’s glory that did not pass through a period of tests and training. This is what men call wilderness experience. A wilderness is that silent period of a man. A wilderness is also a season of turbulence, hardship, pain, scavenging, poverty and paradoxically, a wilderness is a season of preparation for your glory. A wilderness is that period of preparation between your prophecies and its performance. Let’s go down memory lane. Jesus spent 30 years in preparation and training before manifestation. David spent 13 years in his wilderness. Paul spent 3 years in the Arabia desert.
Timothy was under tutors and guardians before becoming a young Bishop. Elisha spent about 20 years of training under Elijah before he could receive the double portion of anointing. John the Baptist was under intense preparation in the wilderness before he was revealed unto Israel (Luke 1:80). But why does God pass a man through a wilderness experience before bringing him to glory? The reason is clearly written in Deuteronomy 8:2 (NKJV), “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”
1. God wants to humble you: The strength of God cannot come upon the strength of man. Man, by nature is proud. Our dreams and vision (even the once given to us by God), grace, strength, skills, anointing, academics, reputation, etc., makes us proud. A wilderness experience will strip you off your self-confidence and make you fully reliant on God. God’s strength is only being made known in our weaknesses.
2. God wants to test you: Basically, God wants to test your level of obedience. It may surprise you that strategic destiny instructions may still be coming to you from God during your wilderness experience. In fact, it is by following such instructions you will start to construct your destiny pathway to your desired glorious future; even as you build capacity also. David built his army who later became his mighty men during his wilderness experience.
3. God wants to know what is in your heart: You will need a measure of pressure to push out the whole content in an orange. Similarly, you will need a measure of pain and pressure brought by hardship to know if you truly love the face of God or the hand of God; to know what God means to you or what you need from Him. You don’t merely say it in words, God gives you the opportunity to proof it in such seasons, even as heaven and earth bears you witness. The heart of man is very deceitful, who can know it.
Quote: The wilderness has a way of curing our illusions about ourselves and teaching us to depend more and more on God – Marlena Graves
Prophetic Decree: May the work of the cross be perfected in your heart, in Jesus name
Prayer Focus
1. Thank you Father for your willingness in making me before using me.
2. I remove any interruption of flesh in my making, in Jesus name.
3. I receive grace to focus on the lessons of my wilderness and not on persons or sentiments, in Jesus name.
4. O Lord, you have my permission, circumcise my heart thoroughly by your grace, in Jesus name.
5. I receive grace to pass through the pain of my wilderness joyfully seeing the glory ahead, in Jesus name.
6. Holy Spirit, give me understanding of my times and seasons in the making of my glorious destiny, in Jesus name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Romans 8-10