A Lifetime of Preparation People that have been chosen to be carriers of God's power for healing and deliverance in this

last great harvest have had a lifetime of preparation and humiliation. They are people like David and Joseph who have seemed like the least in their families, and who have been often rejected. They have endured a lifetime of restriction and usually poverty as well. While many others have seemingly succeeded and prospered in their life, these people have been the ones that were overlooked and considered as the ugly duckling in the family. This can create an attitude of low self-worth and of feeling like a failure. But, like David and Joseph, there comes a time when this restriction and preparation ends, and it will be time to go help many with God's divine power and purpose in your life. Like Joseph, you will move from the dungeon below, to the throne room above in one day by God's mighty power. You will be assigned a place and a purpose for carrying out God's plan to save and help many. Like David, you have been trained to kill the bear and lion with God's help, so that you will have all the faith you need to defeat the Goliath's that you will soon face. The main keys here are humility and faith. To move in God's power these attributes must be developed through many trials and years of secret training. Though many have spent years being prepared and trained secretly in a cave, the day is soon coming, and may even be here now, when you will be sent out from your cave with a new mission given by God, and you will be joined with others just like you. Remember though, that even though many others around you have seemed like they have prospered while you had to sit and wait, the gifts and resources that God gives you in the end to help others, will be much greater than anything you could have built on your own.

A Time for Miracles and New Life We are entering a time right now where we will see many miracles from God to restore and bless us so that we can be whole and have more than enough to help others with. Those of us that have been in the Wilderness for a long time have kind of "survived" their way through it, and been kept at a very restricted level of finances, grace, and ministry because we have been in a state of preparation and transformation. A caterpillar's only job in a cocoon is to change and survive the process. You'll notice that the Israelites in the first wilderness really didn't have any real responsibility except to; 1. Get to know the Lord, 2. Get to know themselves, and 3. To learn to repent and do only what God was leading them to do. When the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire moved, they packed up camp and moved with it. We also have been doing this same things for years now and many of us have kind of just settled now. Like Moses after forty years of preparation in Midian, many of us are about to see God's burning bush that will contain fresh direction to commission us into our calling for this revival, and harvest of souls. Like Joseph in prison, we have done our best to just kind of get through it and look for a way out (Gen Ch's. 40, 41). When Joseph interpreted the dreams of the Baker and Cup Bearer, he asked the Cupbearer to remember him and help him to get out of the prison, once he was restored to Pharaoh, but he forgot him. It sais that "the vision tested Joseph" and I'm sure your vision has tested you. God has used our gifts periodically during our Wilderness, and showed us some possible ministry doors, or ways that it looked like might be our door out of

the Wilderness, only to find it was kind of a false start and we then faced more time of preparation. It can be easy to think we are ready to go forward, but God knows when we are really ready. He also knows that we just have to keep our eyes and focus on Him, and on the areas of growth that we need to be working on, rather than "Oh God, get me out of this Wilderness!". We are entering springtime right now, and although it may seem like your life is pretty dead, God is going to bring you into a "spiritual springtime" as well. He is going to create new life in you from what feels totally dead. But He needs to first clear the way, for the miracles that you need. We must finish the last areas of change that He wants in us. It is time for one last push to have this spiritual baby you have been pregnant with for so long. We don't focus on the miracles, we focus on God and what He wants us to do to serve others. He just wants a stable foundation in you to build high upon, no more cracks of sin, or character flaws that can cause the foundation to fail once you put weight on it. He has plans to build very high upon the foundation He has built in you. And like Joseph, you will be greatly used to help feed many people in every way, as we go forward into our time of plenty, to bring in this great harvest of souls. We will walk in complete holiness and obedience, and we will overcome in every way. Another thing we have to do to prepare the way for miracles is to forgive those we have been bitter with. You might say "Well, when they apologize, then maybe I will consider it". Perhaps you feel like you are the one who always has to apologize, and they always get let off the hook. When you are a leader, you have to be willing to do what other people aren't willing to do. Plus God works with the willing. How can God bless and forgive you, when you won't bless and forgive others? I have had to forgive someone recently that did things to me and my family when I was younger that were absolutely atrocious. They never apologized for anything, so I just finally wrote them off. God reminded me recently that this unforgiveness would block His miracles and my relationship with Him. So I prayed by faith as the Lord led me and forgave this person, and I have left it in God's hands to deal with them. There was no big emotion involved, I just did it to be obedient. Your job, is to let the Holy Spirit show you, what and who you need to forgive, and just pray by faith to forgive them even though you feel like you might hate them. Trust God, that as you pray to forgive, and as you obediently deal with the last areas that need to change in your life, that God will do the rest. Obedience is not about how you feel, it's about just doing it. Many times, obedience may mean doing things that you absolutely do not want or feel like doing. If God sais that it's time to forgive and repent, then you must just do it by faith and understand that that is the key to going forward, and healing your relationship with Him. We don't focus on the miracles, we focus on obeying the Lord and having a right relationship with Him. Get ready to finally see those promises you have been hanging onto for so many years finally fulfilled. God just needed to prepare you for the responsibility that comes with His blessing. We don't throw our carkey's to kids, and neither does God. As many people as you can help, you can also hurt. We need to grow up before we are given much. Here is a prayer to pray to help you to go forward. Get ready for new life and many wonderful miracles. "Lord God, please forgive me for holding onto my bitterness, unforgiveness, and resentment toward _________. I just forgive __________ right now by faith and I release them from the prison I have kept them in, in my heart. I ask God that you would bless __________ and help them to serve you wholeheartedly. God, I don't want there to be anything between you and I blocking our relationship, or your blessing on my life. Thank you God, for helping to clear the way for the miracles you want to do in my life that will help many. I love you Lord, and I

release all things into your capable hands. help me to leave these people, and my old sin habits, in your hands for good now, and not to ever pick them up again. In Jesus name I pray, amen." Some scriptures;
MT 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

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MT 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

MT 18:22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

MT 18:23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

MT 18:26 "The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

MT 18:28 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. `Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

MT 18:29 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

MT 18:30 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

MT 18:32 "Then the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,' he said, `I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

MT 18:35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

About Giving in the Wilderness

I just want to encourage you financially today that if you have given and not seen a big return yet not to take it personally or get exasperated, because in the wilderness God deliberately restricts you externally so that He can change you internally to bless you later when you are ready. How much manna do you think God expected the Israelites to give in order to get them out of the wilderness? The answer is none.
LK 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

This principle of reciprocity does work but what God really wants in the wilderness is complete obedience. No amount of fasting or giving is going to get you out of your wilderness early, it is only complete compliance and obedience that will move you forward into your promised land. God knows you have had to live on very little during your wilderness and He has plans to bless you, but He must prepare your heart first.

DT 6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

You will be given much to help many but your heart has to be broken first from all greed, materialism, sin habits, and idolatry of security so that you won't run off or rebel once He blesses you. We must become holy and obedient before God can place too much in our hands because not only can we be hurt by it, but we can also hurt many others with it. Trust God to bless you as you give Him complete obedience.

DT 8:10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

Aging and the Wilderness I just wanted to talk a little bit about aging and the Wilderness because I know there are some of you who might feel worried about so much time passing, and whether your body will be able to make it through the battles of the promised land you will soon face. Although you may have seen some signs of aging during your Wilderness time, God is able to slow down,

reverse, or completely arrest the effects of aging while you are in the Wilderness, and you can go into your promised land just as strong, if not stronger than you were before you went in. God preserved Caleb and Joshua in this manner and He can do the same for you;
JOS 14:10 "(Caleb speaking) Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.

So when you come out of this you may have a few gray hairs and a few more wrinkles but God can hold your age if He chooses. I also believe that there will be some in this last move of God that will have their lives extended like He did with Hezekiah (2 Ki 20:4), and that this is a revival that will include everyone that has been faithful to the Lord through the Wilderness. This is not just a revival for the young, it is a revival for the faithful. Trust also that whatever you lost in finances and possessions during your Wilderness, that you can be miraculously restored to even better than what it was before you entered your Wilderness. God will do whatever is necessary to make you strong and restored for this coming revival, so do not worry about whatever time has passed since you have been in the Wilderness. God is your strength.

PHP 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

DT 6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Avoiding Distractions I just wanted to talk about some of the possible distractions that we may face as we walk forward together into this coming time of great revival and harvest of souls in the earth. It would be nice if we could have a problem-free revival, but we have an enemy that will try to work through any undealt with area of the flesh, the world, or himself that he can find still alive and kicking in us. Since most of us have been through the wilderness though, many of these problem areas have been fairly gone through by now already. But there is usually a few blind spots left and we will also be facing many new challenges that we have never faced before, so we must still be very careful in the days and weeks ahead. Here are some of the more common distractions that you will likely encounter during this time of revival, but I'm sure you could add some as well. 1. Gossip and Slander When you walk in God's power and blessing you can expect to have every imaginable evil thing spoken against you. You will be called all kinds of silly names and be accused of every wicked impropriety and sin that you can imagine. The best thing that you can do is to not let it get your goat, or try to defend yourself. Satan wants for you to fear what people think about you and have you try to defend yourself. Don't allow your energy to be diverted away from God's work, and allow the Lord to defend you if you really need it. People come to receive

from the Lord, and nothing will dissuade them if God is leading them. Jesus was called a glutton and a drunkard, and He warned that people would do the same or even worse to us. 2. The Pharisees The ultra religious legalistic crowd will try to pick apart everything you say and do, and they will criticize everything good or bad that happens with the ministry God calls you to do. These people will also show up at your meetings with bullhorns, hand out leaflets, start web sites denouncing you, or condemn you on TV. They may also tell everyone that you are a cult and that you are bilking the sheep, and/or warn everyone in your city about how the Devil is destroying their town through your ministry. Once again, you must not let their attempts to interfere with God's work distract you. Jesus was constantly being harassed by the Pharisees, but He did not allow it to slow down what God had called Him to do. He confronted them publicly if necessary, but only as God led Him to, otherwise He just ignored them and focused on what God was telling Him to do. 3. Satanists and Witches You have to understand that these people think they are doing Satan and society a big service by trying to interfere with your work, disrupt your meetings, place curses upon you, or intimidate you with threats. You may find sacrifices placed at the doors of your meeting places, get threatening intimidating letters, emails, or phone calls, or have them posing as Christians in your meetings. You may also feel spiritual pressure from some of their attempts to curse you, but they have no real power over you and you need not fear if you just pray and keep your eyes on God. It is good to have intercessors praying for the work God has called you to. Worship is a powerful weapon as well, and it helps to make sure that all sin is confessed and repented of in your camp, and that you know those whom you walk with. Simon the sorcerer did his best to blend in with the new Christians that were being saved, but he was exposed in the end and rebuked. 4. Temptation Temptations will come along, especially when revival is taking place, so be aware of this and do not think that you are beyond being tempted to sin. You can expect to have people tempt you to sin sexually, to misuse or be dishonest with finances, or to be tempted with pride through flattery or offers of promotion. You will also be tempted with jealousy, selfish ambition, rebellion against the leadership, betrayal, or temptations to leave and get away from all the stress, strain, and responsibility of dealing with all the problems and challenges involved with revival. Being honest and accountable to each other can go a long way in preventing sin to enter the camp. Teaching the truth of the word, counseling, and communicating with one another can help everyone to remain pure. Ananias and Sapphira learned the hard way that the Holy Spirit will call people out on their secret sin. 5. Internal Power Struggles Revival is a wonderful and exciting time and because so many people are being saved at once, we will need a number of people to help lead and organize what is taking place. It would be nice to think that all people are genuinely humble and free of selfish ambition, but there are always a few in the bunch that seek glory and power for themselves. They slander the leadership and criticize their decisions behind their back, they flatter the people and try to make themselves look like the true leader in the midst (Absalom). But God hates this kind of rebellion and also the poison that it spreads into the hearts of all the impressionable sheep.

The spirit of Jezebel looks for people with a big chip on their shoulder toward authority, so just be aware of this potential problem not only in others, but also in yourself as well. The only real leader in our midst is Jesus Christ, and a good leader just does what Jesus is telling them to do. He alone died for us, and He alone deserves all the glory. We must trust God to give us whatever level of responsibility that He knows is healthy for us and healthy for those around us. Aaron, Miriam, and Korah rose up to challenge Moses and God took it very personal, so we must not test God in this way either. 6. Family Strife When there is a lot of successful spiritual work going on, it can create a lot of added stress upon your family life. It may also bring on a lot of spiritual warfare and pressure that tries to get you to fight with your mate and/or children in order to discourage or distract Gods work. This is another good aspect of the wilderness because we will have usually already learned to manage a lot of spiritual warfare, and weather stressful situations together which has rounded off a lot of the rough edges in our familial relationships. But, revival tends to take up a lot of our time, and we must not allow ourselves to become workaholics again to the point where we are completely neglecting our families. Try to involve your family in the revival activities as much as possible, and take breaks when you sense you are reaching the point of overload. Pray for each other constantly, and walk in love. 7. Doctrinal Disputes This is another tactic of the devil to get people to argue and bicker between themselves over issues that really just divide, rather than unify. If you are going to discuss any doctrinal subject, allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and do not be suckered into foolish debates over issues that really do not apply to the problem or situation at hand. There is always going to be something that people do not agree with, so avoid the Pharisees trap of baiting you into a doctrinal mud-wrestling match. Mix love into everything that must be discussed.
2TI 2:23 Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

Like I said, there are other distractions out there as well, but these are just some of the more common ones that I wanted to mention. The wilderness has been a very needed element in our lives because most of these weak areas are dealt with there. Some things though, like greedy people trying to steal from you, or exploit you, only happen when you have something valuable that they want to take from you. Praise and flattery usually only happen when the power and anointing of God is heavy upon your life. A manipulative Jezebel spirit usually only comes around to deceive and seduce when there is a position of power that they want to try to control and exploit. So like all other things, we will have to hang on to the Lord and to each other in an even greater way in the coming days, months, and years ahead. Deception can only happen if you think you are beyond being deceived, so hopefully we will remember some of these snares and keep our eyes and hearts open to the Holy Spirit's direction as we walk this revival out together.

MT 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

20 Remember the words I spoke to you: `No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well.

LK 10:16 "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

Avoiding the Pit of Self-pity If you have been in the wilderness for any length of time, then you have no doubt run into many circumstances where it would be easy to feel a lot of self-pity. Perhaps God was shutting down your old life so He pulled the plug on everything that you had been trusting in and relying upon and it looked like He was just being mean or abusive toward you. Or maybe it was a medical or financial need that needed to be met, and you were so sure God was going to meet that need a certain way, but it didn't happen that way at all. Maybe you thought God was going to come through by midnight, only to find yourself waiting there at 12:30, or 1:00 a.m., and so on until you finally realized that it wasn't going to happen that way after all. When this kind of a testing of our faith comes, Satan is usually right there to accuse God of child abuse and he will tempt you into telling God off for all of His recent bad treatment. Job went through one of these stripping sessions and he lost everything in the process, his children, money, livestock, servants, health friends, and good reputation. Everything was screaming at Job to get mad at God and cry foul.
JOB 2:9 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!" 10 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

I used to think that I had a lot of faith until God began shutting down my life, and like Job, each thing or person that I valued was being stripped away from me in a very short amount of time. Finally, I was living in an apartment and ran out of money and the lights got turned off, then the phone was turned off, I had an abscessed tooth, and then I had no food. I was actually supposed to be the landlord of this place and people would come to pay their rent and it was pitch black in my apartment. I saw a picture on the wall someone had made of Jonah inside a big fish and boy did I feel like Jonah right then. All of the glorious prophetic words that I had heard in the past seemed to just fly away, and now Satan was trying to get me offended with God. At first I really resisted, but then as my tooth was killing me and my hunger pangs were harsh, I finally let God know what I thought about all His rotten treatment after all I had done for Him. All the buried anger that had built up in me toward God just flooded out. I told Him that if things were reversed, that there was no way I would ever treat Him like this. It felt good in my flesh to finally vent my anger and frustration, but I could also feel that God was carefully listening to my ranting.

JOB 40:1 The LORD said to Job:2 "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!"

We all think that we are super Christians until we are actually tested and shown what is really there, or not there. God already knows what is there; He just needs us to see it. He also needs to show us just how sovereign He really is and that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of His mouth. That was not the last self-pity session I ever had, but I learned that I had accumulated a lot of bitterness and pride over my relationship with God over the years where I kind of felt like He owed me since I had left and sacrificed all to follow Him. I had also had an abusive childhood, which seemed to be mirrored with some of what God was allowing to happen in my life. So that mountain of pain began to flood out with the right amount of triggers to draw it all to the surface. The wilderness is about bare minimum living conditions because God wants to break us of the world, and our idolatry of it. Telling God how you feel about something is fine, but harboring bitterness toward Him, or believing that you are entitled, will not fly. The wilderness is about getting to know your true self, even all the ugliness we keep buried and pushed down inside.

The dictionary defines self-pity as, "A feeling of sorrow (often self-indulgent) over your own self sufferings". But self-pity actually goes deeper than that, it is believing that someone or something is either giving you something that you don't deserve, or denying you something that you do deserve. It is saying that someone is not treating you as fairly as they should be. We can get ideas in our heads that God must treat us a certain way all the time, and we are not used to Him suddenly taking the reigns and taking absolute control of our lives. Especially when His actions are exactly what we don't want. But God knows that for us to grow, heal, and mature spiritually, that we must face who He really is, and who we really are. We live in a kingdom of absolutes and unhidden truth, but we have been living in our own self-made world of delusion for a very long time. God's plans are to have a real honest relationship with you where everything is laid on the table. God is a realist and He can show you more reality than you think you can handle, but His motives are always for your good, it is never meant to be punitive or abusive. God has great plans to bless you and use you in life, but He must dig up all the old lies that have been buried in your heart, and He wants to teach you that you can always trust Him no matter what happens.

JOB 42:10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.

Being a friend to the Holy Spirit I wanted to talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit, what He is like, and what it is like to walk with Him to accomplish ministry. Real ministry will flow from your relationship with God, Jesus, and His Holy Spirit, and it is not just merely a bunch of knowledge that makes us ministers of the gospel. The Pharisees of old knew the scriptures well but lacked enough real relationship with God to even recognize that He was standing right in front of them in the person of Jesus Christ. There was no power flowing through the Pharisees lives, it was all just talk and external show; but for simple fishermen that just knew and walked with Jesus, they became empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and heal the sick, cast out demons, and to preach the gospel.

The wilderness has all been about being prepared so that we can be vessels of the Holy Spirit, and so that He can flow through our lives to help other people. God builds relationship with a human through the daily interaction of His Holy Spirit and in time we get to know Him as He truly is. It is out of this actual foundation of relationship that is built between us and God through His Spirit, that we can become conduits of His power and anointing to help others. Around the later stages of the wilderness, you should just care about people anyway, and about having enough of God flowing through your life to truly help them. When we learn to get to know the Holy Spirit, we see that He cares deeply about what hurts people, and that He desperately wants to help them. The Holy Spirit is a real person with real feelings and He can be rather sensitive about certain things that we do, think, or say. He will talk to you during a day and teach you about what is really important to God and in doing so, our heart is slowly reshaped into God's heart. The Holy Spirit will go after any flesh, selfishness, rebellion, pride, or fear that keeps us from serving God fully. He will point out little things now that could actually become big things later, in hopes that these wrong attitudes and actions can be corrected on a small scale, so that God can trust us on a larger scale. God can never trust mans flesh; He can only trust in Himself formed in that man, so our self-life must be replaced with His Spirit-life. As we cooperate though, we go from level to level, and we learn to love and serve others with right hearts and attitudes as God does. Now we are reaching a time in history where many Christians will be empowered by God's Spirit all at once, and where many people will be getting saved all at once. All of your wilderness time and relationship building time with the Holy Spirit will be put into practice as you walk through a day and do what the apostles of old did. You will walk together with others who have been prepared just like you have been, and together under Gods direction you will go and demonstrate the power of God to a very lost, fearful, love-starved, and hungry world. We must be careful in the days ahead to practice all that we have learned and to fellowship with the Holy Spirit on an even a closer level than normal. Although God is love, you have probably also noticed that He can be very severe if need be, so we must stay in step with His Spirit and not offend Him with careless or selfish behavior. We must continue to honor Him and focus on helping the lost to get saved. You may not necessarily agree with how someone else ministers. But if it is the same Holy Spirit that is working through their lives as in our life, then we must do our best to not dishonor the Holy Spirit just because we may not necessarily be crazy about the person that he is using. If someone is sinning, or if they are teaching error, then they should be confronted; but generally the Lord will step in and deal with them if something is getting that far out of balance. God rarely will flow through anyone in power that is practicing sin or error. He will pull His anointing back until they repent. We need to ask the Holy Spirit about people and see what He has to say about them. There may be no shortage of criticism for those that walk in God's anointing, so just understand that you will have all manner of evil spoken against you if you are a friend of the Holy Spirit. Our focus in the days ahead should be upon entering into an even deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit so that we hear the truth clearly about things. We must also have a heart full of love so that we do not become bitter with the evil that comes against us. It will only be with the power of God through His Spirit that we are able to help anyone, so we have to do things His way and allow Him to take the lead in all that we do, think, or say. As we get to know God better through the daily friendship and fellowship of His Spirit, we should also be able to get to know and walk with others who have a deep relationship with Him better as well. Flesh will never get along with flesh, but as the Holy Spirit flows through us, we should be able to

recognize that in others and be friends with them because He is living through them. We must be careful not to grieve or offend the Holy Spirit. This is the time for us to become better friends and servants of God and of His Spirit, and with those that allow His Spirit to operate through their lives. There are many souls at stake here, and God is looking for people that He can trust to flow through in power.
JN 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. The Holy Spirit is our personal Teacher and Counselor. We were meant to have a close intimate relationship with Him. Allow Him to be your friend and helper and allow yourself to be His faithful friend.

2CO 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The Spirit is here to fellowship with us.

We have to be careful about attributing the works of the Holy Spirit operating in a believers life to a demon.

MK 3:28 I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." 30 He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit."

Stephen speaking to the group of Pharisees that were about to stone him AC 7:51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him-- 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."

Blessing Envy
MT 20:15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

It can be hard when you have been in the wilderness for so many years sacrificing everything and suffering to do the will of God, to hear other people talk about how blessed they are. It can strike a sharp contrast between your life and theirs, and make you resentful that God doesn't value you enough to bless you the same way . It can be very easy to smile on the outside while we are full of pain and offense on the inside, but God sees the truth.

GE 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

If you keep growing, repenting, and developing good and consistent obedience in your wilderness time, your promised land will indeed come. We must choose though whether we will live or die in our wilderness just like the Israelites did.

Trust that God does want to bless you too, He is just developing you more and differently than the other person that you see getting blessed more than you. Your best blessings are just ahead of you faithful servant.

DT 5:33 Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

Blind Spots
HEB 12:15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

One usual requirement for us to leave our wilderness time is that we see, accept, and work out the weaker parts of our character and behavior that we have been blinded to, because it is those very areas that will be our greatest threat once we go to war in our promised land ministry. Knowing our weaknesses is one of the best gifts that God can give us because by clearly seeing the damaged roots of our hearts, we can then stop being deceived and used by Satan to hurt people, and find healing from the Lord.

GAL 6:3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

The nature of being self-deceived is that we do not think that there is even a problem to deal with, but usually we will hear certain things over and over again as we walk out our daily lives. As much as we would like to just dismiss our faults, they are still there whether we accept them or not. Usually others know our weak areas even better than we do because we have been too afraid and insecure to face them. But just because we don't see or agree with something someone else sees, doesn't mean it's not there.

LK 6:39 He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?

We really should let God help us to work out our own blind spots before we start pointing out other peoples spots, but at times we may hear a corrective word from a flawed person and it may not be the Devil or flesh, it may just be God trying to help us. If we hear the same criticism from a number of people then we need to consider that it could indeed be a problem, and not just an evil spirit. The only way to discover a blind spot is to get clear vision in that area so that we can see what's actually there.

EPH 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

If the Holy Spirit has been trying to tap on your shoulder and tell you that you have a blind spot in your character and behavior, then it is best to just fully humble yourself, accept that you are a flawed and damaged human that God is healing and repairing, and then work on correcting it. We should not surround ourselves with "yes men", but with people that tell us the truth in love. Rather than getting offended in our pride when we are told we have a blind spot, we should accept the truth and allow God to help us.

PR 27:6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

Here is a prayer to pray if you need it:

"God, I just ask that you would show me the blind spots in my life and help me to be humble and allow you to help me to correct them. I ask Lord that you would show me the truth in these areas in a way that I would know for sure that it is you telling me and not just the Devil or someones flesh trying to hurt or deceive me. Thank you for helping me to overcome these weak areas Lord, and I know that your light will help me to overcome every dark area I have been blinded toward. In Jesus name I pray, amen".

"Call Me Mara"
RU 1:20 "Don't call me Naomi, " she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."

The name Naomi actually means pleasantness, but after the loss of her husband and two sons she became a broken woman and changed her name to Mara which means bitter in Hebrew. If you have been stripped of most everything in the wilderness then you too can end up feeling just like Naomi where you become very heartbroken and bitter over how you have lost so much that you loved and valued in your life. We may love and trust God, but there are times when we just don't understand why He did certain things in our lives, and we can become very angry and full of cynicism inside.

HEB 12:15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Many people stand at the end of their wilderness and their lives seem outwardly like they are in shambles riddled with poverty, sickness, and heartbreak over what did or did not happen during their long years of letting God renovate their life and heart. We have a choice though to either get bitter or get better after everything that's happened and we must not just focus on the devastation we think we see on the outside of our lives, but rather we should focus upon all the good changes that Jesus has made on the inside of us. He has purified and healed us in ways that we are not even aware of.

RU 4:14 The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughterin-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth."

God later blessed Naomi through Ruth her daughter-in-law and she ended up being the great grandmother of king David. You may have had a pretty crummy deal as well all throughout your life, and then the wilderness just seemed to intensify your apparent lack of blessing, but I want to encourage you today that God has used all of this tough stuff to shape your

heart and character to become more like His. You are going to see in the weeks and months ahead my friend that like Job the latter part of your life will indeed be more blessed than the first part, and God will make it all well with your soul.

JOB 42:12a The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.

Criminal Records Those of us who have been set apart to undergo the Wilderness process have unknowingly been being prepared even before we entered this barren expanse of testing and transformation. We have experienced many things from birth that were a bit different from others where it seemed that were always getting the short end of the stick in all areas of our life. We always seemd to be the last not the first, the tail not the head. We may have even been led to think that maybe we were just cursed, but we were actually only restricted by God, and like Joseph, we were to undergo many tests that would build our character into someone who would someday be a man or woman after Gods own heart. The thing is, after we have been treated unfairly and/or unkindly by so many people that really should have treated us much better and differently, we can file some of their offenses away in the file cabinet of our heart neatly arranged in a folder called "criminal offenses". We put them in a cold case status and although we have left it in Gods hands, we have not forgotten how unfairly and badly they treated us. Before we graduate from the Wilderness, the Holy Spirit will pull out these old files and bring each case to resolution so that we can truly forgive from our hearts. You see, unforgiveness blocks our relationship with God, and ties His hands to act on our behalf so we must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to deal with all that we have kept stuffed down inside. Forgiveness is actually more about us than it is about others. You need to forgive especially for "You", not just them, because when you don't forgive, it just poisons your heart with bitterness and resentment, and it blocks up Gods pipeline of love and anointing that should flow through us unhindered. Like someone said, "Not forgiving is like taking poison, and expecting your enemy to die", they have usually moved on anyway and we are the only ones really suffering from their offense. Although God allows many things to happen to us to develop our spiritual character, there comes a time when we must settle all accounts, and move forward into full forgiveness. Joseph had to do this to move on and be free from the pain of the past. This is what happened to him during his life; 1. He was mocked and rejected by his brothers and finally tossed into a pit and then sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites (alot of room for bitterness there I would say). 2. He was working very hard and doing a great job at Potiphars house only to be falsely accused of being a rapist and thrown into prison. 3. He was sold out and abandoned by the the Pharaohs Cupbearer after Joseph had ministered to him and helped him. You will undergo many tests and trials where you will be tempted to keep a criminal record of wrongs on certain people, and although God wants us to keep healthy boundaries, it is time

to hand these records over to the Lord, and not let this hinder your progress in moving forward any longer. Usually we know who we have been angry with, they are people who have repaid our good with evil, people who we trusted and who sold us out in our day of need, people that have taken things from us that were not theirs, and they didn't care in the slightest what they did to us. They are the Judas', the Nabal's, the King Saul's, Potiphars wife, the Delilahs, David's brothers, and the many others that God allowed to do us wrong, so that right could be formed within our hearts. It hurts God when someone hurts us, and rest assured He will deal with it in His time, but He is the only one qualified to deal with a humans judgment because He is the only one that has all the information concerning that person and what they did. Nobody ever gets away with anything because everything is recorded in Heaven. Literally everything. Ask the Holy Spirit today to pull out all the old criminal records files you have been keeping on people, and be willing to go through each of them with Him. He wants your heart and spirit to be clean and pure so that God can bless you and flow through you unhindered. It also hurts God when something is hurting you, just like it hurts you to watch your child be in pain with something that is hurting them. The Holy Spirit will take you back and you may or may not have to face the offender. God deliberately sent Joseph's brothers back to face him after what they had done to him, to give Joseph and opportunity to resolve this old criminal record and heal from the terrible pain they had caused him. Plus his forgiveness paved the way for him to be reunited with his long lost father Jacob. You will go on to feed many just like Joseph did and God wants you to be free from the pain of your past and from what people did to you. Allow Him to heal you today and send you forward to take your place in this great harvest of souls.
1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

MT 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

GE 45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

Curse God and die!

JOB 2:9 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

This is one lie you will hear more than once during your wilderness time, especially around the end of it. After all, you have waited for so long, sacrificed everything, and you have trusted God at some of the most untrustable times and still

here you are in your pain and problem. The truth of it is, that God wants to develop the inside during your wilderness so He allows the outside to get pretty challenging and scary at times.

JOB 2:10 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

We must be very cautious when it looks like God has forsaken us because He has promised to never leave or forsake us, so even if everything looks at its worst God will still remain at His best for us. We must be extra careful in these times where it looks like God has abandoned us not to say or do things that would be sin. So no matter how tough things are for you today my friend, try to bless God and keep trusting Him.

DT 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Cutting Corners
MT 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Because God is gracious and used me even in a time when I had sin habits in my life, I thought that maybe He would just overlook some of my shortcomings and let me out of my wilderness time early. Then one day while in prayer the Lord impressed upon me that unless I was willing to fully cooperate, repent, and let Him change and purify me completely, that I honestly wasn't going anywhere and I would stay stuck.

Once I realized that God was not going to let me cut any corners concerning my time of sanctification and that I would stay stuck there if I did not let Him change me, I got a lot more serious about working out my problems and sin habits. I knew after that, that I could die out in this wilderness if I kept procrastinating and the only one to blame for it would have been me. God will not do it all for us, we must do our part.

God knows that if he overlooks any area of sin or the flesh still left alive in our soul that it would be our downfall later on when we entered our promised land. So really by not fudging for us God is actually being merciful, not being mean, and He knows when you are truly ready to move on. So I would just encourage you today that whatever He has been after in your life, to get serious about it so that you can finally go forward.

JN 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Dealing With The High Places

2KI 23:19 Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the LORD to anger.

For most of us who have been having our souls gone through in the wilderness most of our more overt and obvious sinhabits have been dealt with, but there are still a few ambiguous idols in our lives that still need to be eradicated, and that's what I want to briefly touch on. Israel got rid of most of their idols in Canaan that were fairly easy to deal with and more obvious, but they always left the idols that were harder to deal with and less obvious in the high places intact. This always angered God and interfered with their relationship with Him.

We too have our own high places that are a little harder to deal with and less obvious like TV, food, unforgiveness, and Internet idols that need to be brought under God's control. God knows how to take us to the root of what drives our needs, and He knows how to truly meet our needs. Most of the time when we run to idols, it is because our spiritual and emotional needs are not being met. Trust God in the days ahead to bring new light and revelation into these tougher idols and to give you a heart like Josiah to destroy them. Jesus will help you.

JN 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

P.S. There is also an addiction group here that I manage to receive further recovery support.

Dislikes and Likes Another interesting part of the wilderness, is that God usually makes you face your dislikes, and temporarily denies you some of your most cherished and important likes. He does this so that we can face our fears, and also to pull down some of our most precious idols. Much of our time in life, we avoid what we dislike, and cling desperately to the things we love, like the pleasures that we feel we need to get us through life that ease our old pain. God knows that the enemy may try to use these weak areas against us, to pull us off course. When all of these problem areas are settled, it de-fangs the monsters we fear, and lessens our extreme need for certain things that we think we would just die without. Most people know to some extent what their dislikes and likes are, but the Holy Spirit reveals and identifies them to us very clearly, so that we know our triggers and traps, and the possible danger they could present in getting us to maybe say "no" to God someday. Your dislikes may include: Being under an unfair leader. Living with other people. Having to share, giving, having to wait, or relying or depending upon God or other people for your needs. Having to work a lowly considered job, not having insurance, not having control over things.

Not having as much money as you would like, looking poor, mans disapproval, no earthly health care, being corrected, or looking like a loser. You can fill in the blanks for what your other specific dislikes may be. Being denied your likes may include: Not having a car, not having the foods that comfort you, not having the drugs that comfort you (alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine). Not having the sweets or snacks you like, not having your normal entertainment fix (TV, computer, movies, sports, or games). Not being thin, not having make-up, not getting peoples normal approval or compliments, having your beauty lessened. Having your talent or position lessened, not getting promoted like others around you (that seem to deserve it much less than you). Not having a boyfriend or girlfriend. Not having a husband or wife, not being single, not being able to defend yourself. You can fill in the blanks with this one too. Just remember that if this is happening to you, that God is doing this for your good, and you will surely not die. We just don't realize the kind of power that our desires and fears have over us until we have to face life without them, or with them. Like Paul, God wants us to be able to be happy whether we are abounding or abased, whether we are talked badly about, or whether people think we are as wonderful as chocolate. God just wants our life to be balanced, and for us to be able to say yes to everything and anything that comes from Him, and no to anything that doesnt. He wants us to have control over our life through His Spirit and word, rather than our flesh or evil spirits controlling us thought our fears, desires, preferences, or dislikes. God has so many good things planned ahead for you, and He just doesn't want them owning you. And when your greatest fear does come, seemingly making you look doomed, God wants you to know that He will help you and protect you while you obediently walk through it. Like Jesus said, the evil one came, but he found no place in Him to exploit, because there was no place to exploit. We must be completely released from sins grip and control, for God to be able to trust us with His power and resources. Always remember that no matter how scary or empty things may feel during this process, that Gods motives are always good, and that you can trust Him 100% to finish what He started in you. He always knows exactly what we need to set us free.

Doing Laps One of the interesting aspects of the wilderness is that you never fail a test, you just keep getting the same one until you finally pass it. Like the Israelites, you may do many laps around Gods "mountain of change", until you are finally ready to enter your promised land.

This can seem like a very long and frustrating process, but it is actually a mercy that God doesn't allow us to go forward until we are truly ready. You see; sin always keeps us stuck and opens the door for the enemy to attack. When we are purified in the wilderness, it destroys any open doors that the enemy may have to come in and thwart the work and blessing of God in your life. When you are really done with sin, you will go forward and not have to spend any more time by the roadside fixing spiritual flat tires. Sin stops you, but righteousness releases you to move forward. When Achan sinned by keeping some of the gold from the spoils in his tent after they had been instructed not to (Joshua chapter 7), it not only caused his death, but also the death of those connected to him. Obviously, Achan did not have his greed and fear problems worked out in his heart before he entered his promised land. When we allow God to work out all these bugs beforehand in our wilderness time, it is actually a great benefit and blessing to us and protects our future in every way. You may be slogging around many different mountains during this time of transformation. It may be the mountain of fear, addiction, smoking, profanity, drugs, alcohol, rebellion, greed, lying, eating disorders, sexual sin, unforgiveness, idolatry, need for control, bitterness, resentment, past hurt, past loss, spousal strife, anger, violence, or whatever particular mountain the Holy Spirit may have you dealing with right now. God will not stop until this mountain of sin is leveled completely, and can no longer harm you, or others. So, if for some reason you blow it in some area today, and you end up "taking another lap" in that area, try to just smile and say "oh well", and start walking it out. And know this, that "He", is the Author and Finisher of your faith and that "He" knows exactly how to change you. There will come a day when you will be finished in that area, and your days of going around that particular mountain of change will be over. Your laps will end, and you will be free and ready to take the new land that God brings you into, hindrance-free.

Doing Right, When it Looks Like God is Doing you Wrong When you are in the wilderness, it is inevitable that you will face circumstances and situations where it looks like God has really let you down, and it can draw all of your old buried anger, resentment, and animosity against Him right to the surface. Plus Satan will be right there to accuse God of child abuse and he will pat you on your shoulder and say "How can God treat you like this? Especially after all you've sacrificed for Him, and put up with for His sake. God will always let you down when you trust Him, and He just wants to control your life so that He can harm you!" So we may let it all come pouring out and vent all of our pain, resentment, and disappointment at Him. But it is how we express our feelings toward God that makes or breaks us as His servants. God will allow trials to come along in our wilderness time to test us, and to expose the lies that have been lurking inside us. He does this to show us the truth about our condition so that we can repent, but also He wants our faith to rest upon who He is, rather than on whatever good or bad things that happen in our lives. God understands that we have emotions, but He expects us to hang onto the truth about who He is. Grumbling just sees the problem and complains, whereas faith prays and trusts in God's character to find the answer.

We tend to be willing to put up with a lot in our wilderness, but there are some basic needs and demands that we feel that God is required to meet. When it doesn't happen in the way or timing that we think, we can get a bad attitude pretty fast. Comparing yourself to others situations, and self-pity can be real joy killers in the wilderness, but when you see who God really is, how He loves you, and you remember what He has done in the past, the problem no longer seems to be so big. God just waits for your honest response and then He moves. He is not being lazy, mean, or cruel, He just needs to show you where you are really at with your faith in Him. God is in fact trustworthy, even when things happen that could easily be misinterpreted as God being neglectful, uncaring, or abusive toward you. The main areas you can expect to have the hardest time with are your basic needs that you feel God is obligated to meet like your health, your family, your bills, food, water, housing, looking respectful in front of others, and so on. These are things that we feel are "automatic" needs that God should meet, and when that line has been crossed you will have to face how much or how little faith you really have in Him. You have two choices, you can either get mad at God, or you can trust in who He sais that He is. What happens when you get sick and have no medical care, or when you have to live in pain because of a bad tooth and can't get it fixed right away? What happens when you get an eviction notice or when they are turning off your power, lights, and telephone? What happens when you thought God was going to do something to bless you, or rescue you out of a problem, and it doesn't happen that way? What happens when you look like a loser to in front of other people and God doesn't allow them to understand what He is doing in your life? What happens if your family has to suffer because of all this? What happens if someone you love and need suddenly dies or your mate walks out on you, commits adultery, or divorces you? I know this sounds like a lot of "what if's"; but in the wilderness, you will have every area of your heart tested and purified so that your faith will rest upon God's word and character alone, and not on anything else. When your faith rests on who God is, and not on just what happens around you, nothing can shake your faith anymore. Then you become safe for God to use on a greater scale because now you cannot be tempted to grumble and complain against the Lord like you used to be in the past.
PHP 4: 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

JOB 1:22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Remember, we have all grumbled against the Lord at some point, but God wants us to know Him for who He really is, and not just for who we like to think He is. Also remember that we learn things progressively, and go from level to level with our faith. You may have learned not to get upset about money issues anymore, but still get annoyed when you have to endure physical pain for a season. Either way, God will eventually get to every untested area of your heart and test you so that you can come up higher. Seeing yourself fail a test is actually a blessing if it brings you into a new more real faith and walk with Him. Job went through many things to demonstrate the sovereignty and wisdom of God, and he also faltered a few times. He was tested in all these areas just like you, and in the end God blessed him with twice as much as he had lost. God was Job's great prize, and so God must be our great reward as well. If you have grumbled and complained against the Lord, then ask His forgiveness, and forgive yourself. There are no perfect people, only a perfect God that is transforming us all into His image and perfection day by day.

Facing the Green Eyed Monster We are quickly approaching a time where many of us who have successfully completed the wilderness will begin to be used as channels of Gods power and resources to a very lost and needy world. Because of this, many so-called Christians will get very jealous and envious because they will think "they" should have what God has given you. The problem is, "they" were not willing to undergo the training and dying to self that it took to get it. Just like in Jesus time, you can expect the modern day Pharisees to be some of your worst enemies as we enter this last great harvest of souls in the earth. They will do whatever they can to shut you down, but as long as you don't give up or give in, there is really nothing they can do to interfere with Gods plans. We must check our hearts though for any weak areas that could be exploited by these persecutors of the anointing; like any fear of man, fear of rejection, pride, sin habits, dishonesty, idolatry of reputation or position, or any other area that could be an opening in our spiritual fence. Ask yourself this, how do you respond when someone gossips, criticizes, disapproves, or verbally attacks you? Do you get defensive and react to appease or disqualify that persons attack, or are you secure enough in God and in who you are in God to not defend yourself and let God vindicate you in His timing? It is really tough to be sold out or abandoned by those closest to you that you thought you could trust, but you might as well expect some of this to happen with the anointing, especially if they are afraid it might cost them something. Remember also, that even if you are working through a problem in your soul, or if you did make a mistake, that we are all a work in progress and whatever needs to change, or whatever possible mistake you made is just between you, God, and the other people involved. You are not required to defend yourself to people who are not directly involved in the matter. There are accusing, critical, faultfinding spirits that try to attack someone who is plundering the kingdom of darkness and they will whisper into the ears of people that are jealous or resentful of what God is doing through you. There are also doctrinal Pharisees that try to dissect everything you say and discredit it somehow with the bible, but do not be drawn into their foolish arguments. If you really get that off course the Holy Spirit will send a Nathan to you to confront you, but it will usually be someone who speaks Gods words, and not the Devils.
2TI 2:23 Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

MT 22:15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

MT 22:18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

If the Holy Spirit identifies a weak area in your soul, then be willing to face it and make the changes that He wants you to make. You will likely have to keep facing what you fear until you give the right response to the test consistently. If you fear man then you will likely be attacked by man, and God will watch you to see how you react. If you take the matter to

God without fearfully retaliating or defending yourself, then you will pass. If you fear gossip, then you will likely be gossiped about and be tested on how well you keep your mouth shut about it and keep it in Gods hands. It is ok to respond to a problem or false accusation if the Lord tells you to, but it is not ok to allow someone to control you just because you are feeling fearful or insecure about what they said about you, or did to you. Judas may sell you out, but Jesus will not, and we must trust Him.

MT 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

God will one day vindicate everyone who has been unfairly slandered and/or mistreated for the gospels sake, and we must be secure in the fact that God loves and approves of us and will stand with us no matter what. When you are secure in Gods love for you, there is little room left there for fear or insecurity. Trust your Father that He will defend and protect you when you really need it, and trust Him even when you have to bear the reproach of being falsely accused like Joseph was. Many of us in the wilderness were driven into the wilderness by some very shameful circumstances just like Moses or Jacob were. Trust in Gods long term plan for your life and just understand that all truth will be revealed one day, and that your reputation is always secure with God and with those around you that really know Him and walk in true spiritual discernment.

MT 10:26 "So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Final Weeding MT 13:40 "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. The above scripture talks about when Jesus Christ returns and any person that does not produce good fruit in the kingdom and who only takes up space and resources will be pulled up like a weed and then removed from it. But God has been doing a personal weeding beforehand in His own people where anything that has just been draining our spiritual nutrients and crowding out the good fruit is being pulled up and gotten rid of. PR 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Many people are at the very end of their wilderness weeding time where only a few spiritual sapsuckers remain in our life, but these last few weeds are proving to be very tough ones because many have become discouraged after so much work and so little blessing to show

for it. Some have even replanted a few weeds because we think we need them and satan has tricked us into thinking our weeding is just a waste of time. LK 14:29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Once God's rains come any weeds left in our lives will also grow, so we must make sure that all the weeds are pulled up before God's power and the pressure of it comes. God plans to build high upon the foundation He has built in our life so He will not fudge or budge on making sure that foundation is truly sure first. We must all cooperate with God to pull every remaining weed in our life so that our witness is not blown later on. 1SA 15:22 But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. You might feel really weary right now of waiting for God's blessing, but what God is waiting for is just complete obedience on our part. He doesn't need us to make big sacrifices, He just needs us to fully obey His directions to repent. After God begins to flow through us in power our lives will come under tremendous scrutiny, so all things must be made right first. Finish God's weeding and His power and blessing will come. MT 12:33 "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.

Finances and Occupation Another interesting aspect of the wilderness, is your finances and occupation. While living in the wilderness, you may live on "just enough" and you will receive only as much daily financial manna as is needed. Also, you may be blocked from working at your normal occupation and be retrained into a new line of work that is less distracting and more survivable in a down economy. Though it seems like "not enough", God will make sure that you have what you really need and even throw in a number of very special and wonderful treats along the way. You may go on a cruise without a penny in your pocket. For many of us, we have learned to become very dependent upon the Worlds system and so called security, and the idea of being outside of that system may be terrifying. We have spent many long years toiling and building a foundation of security for ourselves, and God wants us to be able to lay this all down at His feet and trust Him to provide everything we need. Though you may not get everything you "want", God will make sure that your "needs" will be met. A well will only run dry if God is driving you to a new place. This is all about building your faith, if you understand that it can get you through a lot faster, with a lot less resistance and resentment. Sometimes the provision will come at midnight, or even a little after midnight just to build your faith, and it may come from the least likely source that you thought it would. God is not trying to be cruel; it's just that real faith means real need and real trust. Without a real problem, you cannot exercise real faith. During this time, Satan may try to accuse God of child neglect and abuse, but after you get used to God coming through for you, you will see that you actually have more security through God than you did before when you tried to make it happen on your own.

You may ask, "Do I tithe in the wilderness?" well that is between you and God. In the New Testament in the book of acts, they gave God 100%, not 10%, and they gave as God directed and required them to. The Israelites did not tithe on their manna in the Wilderness, but when it came time to build the Tabernacle they gave everything they had with joy until finally they actually had to ask people to stop giving. The Tabernacle is Jesus, and as we listen to His voice, you will know what He wants from you. His yoke (load you carry) is easy compared to the legalistic laws some modern day Pharisees will try to lay on you. Jesus' words are always simple and peaceful (even if corrective). Satan's words are always pressuring, critical, and condemning. It can be very humiliating to live by faith and your friends and family may think that you've lost your mind when you let go of the Worlds system of finances and safety nets. But you will see in time that you will be able to cease striving and enter Gods rest. He may even ask you to give your last bit of money to someone who may not need it as much as you do. Just like the Widow of Zarephath that gave her last bit of flour and oil to feed Elijah the prophet, it is a test of trust on both sides. You must not only give by faith, but you must also learn to receive by faith. How do you think Elijah felt when he took this poor womans last meal? Can you imagine the gossip and the ridicule of the neighbors? You may also be blocked from doing your old job, and the grace that used to be there to do it will just not be there anymore. Like I say, God can make you smell like a rose, or stink like a skunk to anyone He wants, and it is good to follow His grace (God's help, and endorsement) and avoid the hand-slaps that come from rebelling and trying to force something that He is not supporting. God just does this to guide you; He's not trying to be a control freak. The new occupation that you get will be more peaceful and less distracting so that you can still work on your wilderness transformation and not get over-distracted with some high pressure career or company. Besides, when you are working for God only He can fire you, not a human. You may end up working for many "Laban's" during this time, and you will have to learn to be like Jacob, and just trust in Gods authority flowing through an imperfect, exploitative, and unfair human that is over you. Trust God as you go forward for everything that you need. This may be the hardest at first, especially if you have children, and there may be a little crying or grumbling in your tent, but God will help you to see that you can trust in His goodness and character no matter what you see in the natural. All your problems and needs are the same to God; there are no hard problems for Him, they are all easy. Our cooperation and faith releases God to move on our behalf. Pray about everything, and enjoy the wonderful adventure you are on. You may want to go back to Egypt at times, but God has seen your life lived already and knows exactly how to bring you through this difficult time, and into a healthy, happy, and consistently holy life. All things are possible with God, and all things, means all things. We may think that we are waiting on God, but God is actually waiting for us to grow up to be trustworthy with the real riches of the Kingdom. You have probably heard about the 3 G's that you must be careful of in ministry; the gold, the glory, and the girls (Guys if you are a girl). We must see the dangers that live inside our hearts to effectively resist their temptation. God is building maturity and character in His people, so that when He pours out His power and finances, it won't go to our heads and trip us up. You are going through Esthers beauty treatments because you will be presented before the King very soon. Rejoice that you have been counted worthy of this great honor, and be excited about the wonderful things that God has planned for you. God will never fail you.

Following God's Grace I want to talk a bit about a very important principle that if you understand it, it can save you a lot of headaches and heartaches throughout your wilderness experience. It is the principle of following God's grace in everything God has called you to do. You see; grace has a number of definitions, but the definition that I am speaking of is grace as, "God's ability or divine enablement upon any activity, relationship or situation". Here is a biblical definition:
2 cor 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Grace in its simplest definition, is just "God's help" or endorsement on something. With it, you can do anything that He wants you to do, because it is His divine ability flowing through you. But without it, you can't accomplish anything, even with tons of money and talent poured into the endeavor. So basically, you need God's grace to do anything, and this is what we must look for if we are going to succeed in our time in the wilderness.

In the wilderness, either something has grace, or it doesn't. Whether it's a job, a church you attend, a relationship, a ministry you serve with, or a place you are living. If there is grace upon it, then it works and flows rather effortlessly, but if the grace has been pulled away, it is almost impossible to keep that thing alive and bearing any real fruit. You may have already seen some of this and scratched your head wondering what was going on.

Before you went into the wilderness, there was much more of a general grace over your life that gave you more of a freedom to make your own decisions, and walk through the world. But, as soon as you entered the wilderness, now your grace is much more specific in every part of your life. Now, you can only be joined to the very limited choices and resources that God has placed His grace upon, and if you try to go beyond this then you end up striving in your flesh.

Trying to make something work that has had the grace pulled away, is like trying to do CPR on a body that is dead and that the spirit left days ago, it's stinks, and it's just a lot of hard work for nothing. But on the other hand, if you let go of those things, and look for the things that God does have His grace upon, then you enter His rest, and those things that exist through His power, will live and work because God's Hand is keeping them alive.

You may have already noticed that things which have this grace on them just seem to have an energy and life to them that make them work and mesh very easily, kind of like a magnet with opposite poles that attract each other. Conversely, those things without Gods grace on them have a repulsion to them, and are riddled more than usual with problems, conflict, and setbacks.

So, I want to encourage you today, to ask God to show you what He has placed His grace upon in your life, and what He has taken it away from, and to tell Him that you surrender your will from now on in all these areas. There is no point in wasting your time fighting God on something that has no life in it. Like David, he finally accepted that his first child with Bathsheba would not live, so he let it go. So we also must also let it go if something has no life in it, and just trust God.

Follow your grace and have fun. God knows exactly what will really bear fruit in your life, and what will be truly satisfying to you in the long run. In the wilderness, God is usually most interested in attracting you to people, places, and things, that will help you to grow, heal, repent, learn, and mature as quickly as possible. And He wants to keep you away from things that hinder or distract His work in your life. He doesn't want you in the wilderness any longer than is necessary. Trust Him today to lead you forward by His grace.

Forgive, or Forget It! Now that many of us are nearing the end of our wilderness experience (hopefully), God wants to bless and restore us with all that we need to go forward into this harvest field with. He wants to give us more than enough of His power and resources to live and to give to others. Most of us have been in a survival and a "just enough" mode for so long that we are sorely in need of large amounts of finances and divine assistance to be restored in every way that we need to be replenished. In order to be able to go forward though, there is something very important that God will require from all of first, and that something is complete forgiveness of anyone and everyone that has hurt us in the past, and that we have been holding a grudge against. We must either forgive, or stay stuck in the wilderness until we do. God has all the time in the world, and can wait us out if need be.
MT 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

You see, God has forgiven our many sins, and when we refuse to forgive others, then it puts our forgiveness back in jeopardy and everything gets put on hold. If you want God's blessing on your life then you will have to forgive, there is just no other way. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you whom you still have unforgiveness, bitterness, or resentment toward, and He will be faithful to show you. He has probably already told you before, but maybe you pushed it away because you felt that you had to stay mad at the offender until they apologized to you. We also do not forgive because we are afraid that if we do, then the offender will just come back into our life, take advantage of us again, and hurt us all over again. So we harden our hearts to protect ourselves, and just write that person off until they do what we want them to do to pay for what they did to us.

RO 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

When you forgive, you are placing the judgment and justice for what that person did to you back into the hands of God where it belongs. The offender is not getting away with what they did to you; you are just letting God deal with them, rather than you. God is the only One who has all the facts about what really happened, and He alone knows the true motives of men's hearts. They will face judgment someday just like you will, and if they did not repent for what they did, then they will be punished. Plus, it is ok to keep a boundary between you and them and to not let them back in your life if they have not repented. You are not a spiritual punching bag. When you first meet someone, there is usually a certain

level of openness that you allow them in your life and then you walk with them a while. If they abuse that boundary then the boundary gets moved further out, but if they treat you properly with respect, then the boundary gets moved in.

LK 17:3 So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him."

MT 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Usually when you don't forgive and stay bitter and angry, it only hurts you. Plus, many times the offender didn't realize how badly they hurt you, and you can clear up the impasse just by talking to them. No matter what the offender did to you, or to someone you love, God requires us to forgive before He will bless and forgive us, because we have committed and been forgiven by God for many of the same sins that we are not willing to forgive others for. It is hypocritical to expect God to forgive us, when we refuse to forgive others.

MT 18:23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

MT 18:26 "The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

MT 18:28 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. `Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

MT 18:29 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

MT 18:30 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

MT 18:32 "Then the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,' he said, `I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

MT 18:35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

God isn't playing around with this forgiveness issue my friend, so if you want to get out of the wilderness, then allow the Holy Spirit to show you whom you still carry any unforgiveness toward. It may be your spouse, ex-spouse, parents, children, siblings, a pastor, friend, a church, or someone who abused you as a child. Just remember that as you pray and

give that offenders offense against you over to God that He will deal with it properly at just the right time, and in just the right way. Every time the old bitterness tries to pop into your mind, just tell yourself "I have given their judgment into God's hands, and I no longer carry it"; then pray for the offender that God will bring the blessing of conviction and repentance into their lives. When the books are cleared between you and God, then you will truly be ready to go forward, and all that God has been wanting to give you will be released. This is your day to forgive and to go forward into Gods blessing.

LK 6:41 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

LK 6:37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

MK 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. "

Getting Out of the Wilderness If you have been in the wilderness for a long time, you have probably thought about ways that God is going to get you out of the wilderness by blessing you in some way or another. Maybe you thought that you were going to win the lottery, and everything would be made right that way. Don't feel bad if this is what you thought, we all try to grab on to a way that makes our restoration possible in our mind, because we need to see a practical way of restoration in order to cope with the stresses of being stripped bear in the wilderness. There is a danger though of thinking that things must happen a certain way, and there are evil spirits that can try to take advantage of our fragile and fearful condition to try to plant things into our minds that may bring great disappointment and frustration when they don't happen. These false leads can actually exasperate you and get you wrongfully mad at God. The biblical pattern of restoration always starts with you being ready to go forward. Our preparation and the finishing up of any incomplete areas that need to change, is what must be our main focus in order for us to go forward. We can't change in the flesh by our own actions or strength, but we can change when we cooperate daily with the Holy Spirit's work to help us to change. If you have been resisting changing in some area, then now is the time to stop fighting and to give in to the work of God. Once you are ready (and you may not feel ready), the word of the Lord will come to you and tell you that it's time to go forward, and it will be the power of God that propels you onward to accomplish God's will and plan for this harvest. We may want the easy and obvious way out, but God will make sure it is done the right way only through Him.

All the restrictions that have existed for so many years will suddenly begin to lift, and the way ahead of you will no longer be blocked and your path will be made clear. And now, you have been so trained to follow God's direction that you will only do what He tells you to do when He tell you to do it, rather than running ahead like you might have done years before. You will just begin to feel a release, and you will see the new way open up before you, and you will go forward in God's blessing, timing, and power. You will lay hands on the sick, and they will be healed, you will drive out evil spirits, and you will preach the gospel with an anointing like never before. You will give very accurate prophetic words from God to people in the streets. Because now you have a foundation that can carry Gods power without falling, fainting, or being discredited because of some old sin habit, or some old unhealed emotional wound. You will walk in obedience, anointing, and power, people will be saved, healed, and delivered, and God will get all the glory. So my dear Brother or Sister, though you may feel weary and spent right now from all the years of working on change, God will make all things new in your life, and you will receive Gods fresh strength and resources. Like Job and Joseph, you will be blessed far beyond what you could have been before you entered this time of change and healing, and you will live in super-abundance in order to help the many people in need that God sends to you. Gods blessing may cause some people to be jealous or envious, but they did not go through what you did to prepare for it, and you need not apologize for what God gives to you. God's heart has been shaped in you so that you can go forward and help the many people who do not know Him, or who have needs that God wants to meet. Trust that God will do all that He has said He would do for you. Though you thought you might die out here in this wilderness, you will in fact be given new life and direction and you will go forward very soon. While you have been in this humbled state, God has been bringing you up to a higher level spiritually, and soon the outside will match the higher level you are at on the inside. People will wonder where you came from, much like John the Baptist coming out of His wilderness and preaching. Like Joseph, you will provide for many; like Moses, you will lead many through their wilderness time; and like Job, you will be an example of God's great blessing and ability to restore. God's power is the best and greatest gift we should seek and desire, because it can cause people to have the faith they need to be saved. So trust God today, to restore you in the best way possible. Trust Him, even though He does it His way.

Getting Ready for Restoration So, here you are at the end of your wilderness, and your life seems like it is in ruins and you are wondering how in the world you could ever be restored after it looks like a hydrogen bomb went off and blew everything to smithereens years ago. Your health, your finances, your career, your relationships, your possessions, and everything else seems destroyed beyond recovery, and you are now left with nothing but an old dusty tent, a scowling mate, and a few scruffy little confused sheep staring back at you. Well, if this is you then don't worry, in the natural yes, it's impossible to ever put things back together again. But God will soon move mightily on your behalf to restore not just the little you sacrificed back in Egypt, but He will bring you into a super-abundance in your Canaan so that you may abound in every good work that He calls you to. God wants you to have more than enough to live on and to give to others, He just didn't want all those things to be a distraction to you while you needed to focus on letting Him change

you in the wilderness. When you have died to all greed and pride connected to this world and the folly it chases after, then God can trust you not to self-destruct when He blesses you. We cannot afford to take even one sin problem with us into our promise land, lest we fail and fall in battle. We must die to these things in the wilderness in order to be made safe to use. We serve in a Kingdom that consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and it's not about having the money or things that the world chases after. When God has all of your heart, then He knows that these other things cannot. We all think we are ready to manage Gods power and resources, but then when God shows us just how corrupt and selfish our flesh actually is; we then realize that it is only Him living through us that we can be trusted. We must decrease, so that He may increase. So how will your restoration look? Will you win the lottery and be paraded down the street for all who judged you as a big loser to see and be ashamed of themselves? Well, lets just say that God has a biblical pattern for restoration that normally looks a bit different from this picture. God isn't so much interested in making you look good, as He is in making Himself look good through you, so that people will have faith in Jesus Christ as their savior and be saved. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to those around us. Like Joseph, God has shaped your heart to care about the lost and needy of this world, so that He can flow through you to help them. Like the Israelites, God just needed to expose all of the hidden sin and unbelief in us first, and get rid of it so that He could move through us without our sin ruining it all. God just needed to make you safe enough for Him to use you to help others. The biblical pattern for renovation and restoration usually happens this way: 1. The people or persons are taught to live by faith, purged of secret sin, have their vision killed off over and over again, until finally their faith rests upon the vision-giver alone, and no longer in the vision itself. God just does this to expose and purge us from all selfish ambition and non-loving motives. Then, a burning bush appears and starts up a conversation to give them fresh direction and faith. 2. The power of God moves suddenly, and a series of miracles catapults that person from the lowest darkest place of obscurity, into a place of light and visibility. He appoints them to meet a critical need, and to do something important for the Lord that is meant to help many others who are in need. God sends them with His power and with a message, that the great "I AM" is there to help them. 3. They are given a task and many battles take place in the process to acquire and accomplish the vision that God is fulfilling through them. They conquer by the power of God and are blessed in the process with more than they could have ever accomplished by their own efforts, or plans. God is given His rightful glory, and the surrounding nations watch in awe and are blessed. 4. They go on to live a stable, blessed, and holy life with Gods anointing and power flowing through their lives like a river. God sends many to come and be refreshed and blessed through the land of milk and honey that He has created in them, and like a tree, many will come and eat the fruit of God that He bears through them. They are grateful for the wilderness, and even for Egypt. But greatest of all, Jesus Christ is glorified, and many lost and needy souls get saved, healed, and delivered because of what God has done in their lives. You can expect some of your restoration to happen instantly, and some will happen in stages, depending upon how well you respond to the new things God is adding to your life.

We will be banded together with others who are also being restored, and together we will accomplish all that God calls us to do in this last great harvest. We will walk as one Body, in unity. There will be a few Achan's in the bunch that may try to hide some gold, or there may be a few Annanias' or Sapphira's being dishonest about the money. There may even be a few Judas in the group that end up betraying you, but the Spirit of God will expose anything that is amiss among us to keep us healthy. You will dance for joy when you see all of the fresh strength, healing, provision, and blessing come pouring into your dry, dusty storehouse. You will be given an abundance to help many who will experience a great famine both spiritually and economically. The need of the world will be Gods opportunity to show His goodness so that they can believe and be saved. I just want to say one last thing about Gods restoration and blessing. Finances and provision are meant to be a tool, not a trophy. Our greatest blessing will be His spiritual blessings. Gods presence is our great and exceeding reward, and it is Him that our hearts have been seeking throughout this whole process. He alone is our "Pearl of Great Price", and nothing in this world can compare to His glory at all. God longs to dwell among His people and to fellowship with us, His heart is to heal the sick through you, and to preach the message of the gospel through you with such a powerful anointing that all who hear it get saved. Yes, your greatest reward is God Himself coming and dwelling in your midst. Our greatest blessing comes not from numbers in a bankbook or a gathering, but from the hand of our Father caressing our brow as we pray and worship at His holy feet. Your heart has called to Him for years because His heart has been calling to you first. This is your season for Gods blessing and restoration, and like Solomon and David, God desires to show His goodness to you, and especially through you, to the lost. Some scriptures to help you:
EX 3:7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

DT 6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

JOS 5:9 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.

Getting Real Most of us that become Christians learn to behave in certain ways, what to believe, what to do and not to do, and what to think. We go to church, read our bibles, try to stop ourselves

from sinning, or apologize to God or other humans if we do. But many times, we just seem to be fighting off this monster we call "sin", and depending on the amount that we are either sinning, or not sinning, we think that demonstrates how good or bad we are doing. But the reality is, we cannot change ourselves by ourselves, only the Holy Spirit and the truth can change us. Abstinence is not necessarily deliverance. God must show "us" the real "us", both the good and the bad, so that we will be willing to repent and change. The wilderness is about us getting to know ourselves and God as we both truly are. We can get very religious and fake along the way of our Christian walk. We don't really mean to, we just don't know any better until God helps us to see the truth and to change. The Pharisees of Jesus day were like this where they looked really holy on the outside, but the reality was that they were still very corrupt, fake, and controlled by sin on the inside. The only thing that gets the Pharisee out of us, is the daily work of the Holy Spirit and Gods word. God sends us into the wilderness to show us the truth about ourselves so that we can live in the truth and be free from sin. You see, we have a new nature, which is Jesus Christ, but the old nature needs to let go of all the lies it has believed and accumulated over the years to let the new nature come out. The Devil sowed these lies (weeds) into our hearts, but the Holy Spirit helps us to pull them out by the roots by giving us a full understanding and revelation of His truth. Whatever is buried in your heart is what you can expect to see coming up to the surface. Your heart is like a garden; when you look at it from the surface you may see edible fruit, but there is also some weeds there, which we seem to keep the tops pulled off of, but the roots keep them growing back. The roots are the lies that we have believed, the unhealed pain from the past, and all of the bitterness and unforgiveness we have held onto. So God just uses the Holy Spirit to dig it all up where you see the whole thing, both the good and the bad. You see all the buried garbage, you see all the bugs, and you see all the roots of sin. Also during this time of upheaval, there won't be a lot of fruit grown because it is a time to fix and clean up the garden, so that it can grow better, purer, and more healthy and delicious fruit to eat. You are shut down to be fixed up. As Jesus throws out all of the junk, He first shows it to you in all its ugliness and tells you how it got there; then He asks if you are ready to throw it away. Some of these things look good but produce either no fruit, or bad fruit. As we see and understand how it has been poisoning and choking off the good fruit in our garden, we then become more willing to let it go. We thought some of it was good fertilizer, but we all know what they make fertilizer out of. You may miss the old thing you just gave up at first, but in time you will be glad you let it go. At first, this process may seem impossible and overwhelming, but with the more junk that is removed, the less you will have left to deal with, and the more strength you will have to devote to the remaining stuff. Plus, in time, your skill at weeding will improve because you learn to recognize the weeds better. Don't feel bad as you are going through this difficult process. It may look like a big mess at first, but it will get much easier in time. Everyone and I do mean everyone has a garden just like yours, but just with different things growing in it. It may be easy for them to look good while your garden is getting all dug up, but nevertheless, all their stuff is still down under the surface until and unless the Lord helps them to dig it all up. Just be glad that you're getting your stuff dealt with here and now so that you don't need to do it later. As the Lord shows you the real you, you will learn to love and forgive yourself better. You will also be able to spot weeds in other peoples gardens that have been in yours, and lovingly help them to pull them out. You will lose the religious falseness you used to have and become more genuine and able to relax and live in peace.

Getting "Scrooged" In Your Wilderness

DT 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

Like in the story of Scrooge where he had to learn about his real self by the three spirits of Christmas, complete with all of his character flaws and lack of love for people, so we in the wilderness have had to learn from the Holy Spirit about the real us and how we need to either change, or face a very uncertain and limited future. The wilderness is really more about us getting to know us, than it is about our sacrifices, and it is absolutely critical if you are ever going to walk in God's power. Because even if you are not familiar with your own character flaws, Satan and his demons certainly are, and they will do their best to exploit these flaws and your ignorance of them once things really start moving forward in power.

Getting rid of our sin habits and behaviors that lack love toward people is a huge blessing, and I personally would much rather learn about them and change them in the here and now, rather than waiting until I die and learning about them in front of Jesus and all of the host of heaven who are watching my life review. So I want to encourage you on this Christmas day my friend, that even though you may have been experiencing for many years what Scrooge only did for just one night, the end result will be a changed heart and life for the better, and besides, there are many Tiny Tim's out there who are waiting for God's help and miracles through a renovated you. So cheer up today my spiritual Scrooge, because God is with you.

Groundhog Day Going through the wilderness is much like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray where he just keeps repeating the same day over and over again until he finally changes and gets it right. You get up in the morning, work on change and getting to know yourself and God better, go to sleep, and then get up and do it all over again. Life seems to stand still for you when you are in the wilderness because until your self and flesh are not controlling your life anymore, you will not be allowed to go forward.
JN 10:10 The thief (Satan and your addiction that he inspires) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Since God cannot violate our will He has no other choice but to let us keep having our own way until we get sick enough of it to finally want something different and better. We have lived a lifetime of running our own life and making the same mistakes over and over that have been limiting God from using us in power, so God takes us into the wilderness to change all that. Jesus came to give us life, flesh gives us death.

LK 21:34 "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.

So if you are sick of living in your Groundhog day type of life and want something better, then I would encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you forward into real maturity. We are truly living in the last days now and time is running out, so we must be wise and not careless with our choices. We all stand before God alone to give an account for our life here on earth in the end. Trust that as you cooperate daily with God's work through your wilderness, that your Groundhog Day will finally end for good.

JN 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

ISA 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Health, and Health Care in the Wilderness Another difficult and perplexing phenomena in the wilderness, is experiencing strange health problems never experienced before, and the seeming lack of normal medical care or finances you need to treat them. This may, or may not affect you, but if you are going through this I want to encourage you today that God is with you, and does care very much about what's happening to you right now. Your sin has not caused this, God just wants to help you to overcome your fears concerning experiencing certain health problems. He will also help you to come into a deeper place of faith in order to trust Him for healing, or to trust Him even if you don't get healed for a while. God's focus here is on faith and on overcoming the fears that have kept us bound. Plus building faith for your own healings will also provide a deeper foundation of faith for when you are empowered to pray go and pray for others to be healed. Many of us are used to having regular health and dental care, and the idea of not having it can bring out some of our worst fears. "What if my looks are harmed, what if I lose a tooth, what if I'm disabled and can't work, what if my children get sick, or what if we die?" You may get a big case of the "What if's", more than once. We don't realize how much doubt exists in our hearts until we can't fix our own problems and we are then forced to trust God for real to give us the help that we need. It may seem like you get more serious health problems in the wilderness, and maybe you do, but also this may be the first time you are facing these kinds of problems without health care, so they may just seem bigger and more scary than usual. If you carry a lot of security and self worth in your looks and beauty, then it is possible you may face a problem that will seemingly decrease that beauty. The fear of man, and our need for man's constant approval, is a big idol in most of our lives. If this happens to you, just try to remember that God is not trying to be mean to you; He is just allowing your self-worth and beauty to come from Him alone, rather than in how beautiful or nice looking we are. Like Job, God can either prevent or allow whatever situations to occur in our lives that force us to face our fears, and to topple our most precious idols. This is all about coming into, and developing true faith in Him. He wants you to see that you are complete in Him.

He will also lead you into a place where you must trust Him to heal your body in a very real way. He, and those He sends, will be your only avenue of help in the wilderness. If you are really in the wilderness, then you probably already know what I'm talking about. The wilderness is as real as it gets, because there are no more safety nets like their used to be. Whatever you are facing physically right now, God wants to heal you, and for you to overcome your fears or pride involved in that particular situation. He may heal you right away, or He may just let you carry the problem for a while until His purposes are accomplished. Like Naaman the leper, some pride and fear may need to go before you can just believe and be healed. The Children of Israel in the first wilderness faced these kinds of fears and doubts, especially concerning the bad things that might happen to them or their children out in the desert (the "What if" syndrome again). They lacked true faith in God to trust Him even though they had seen God do great things in the past to help and protect them. Doubt may knock on your door when you do not see an immediate answer to your problem that you can implement yourself. Also, demons may also try to lie to you in this time of deep trial, and accuse God of being a deadbeat Dad. Listen to this:
NU 14:1 That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" 4 And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt." (Sound familiar?)

I know it seems very easy to judge these people as being faithless and rebellious, but you may find yourself saying these very same things a few times in your wilderness. You will realize that real faith is only born out of real need, and from seeing God act on your behalf to help you. There is usually always some evil spirit hanging around trying to accuse God of child abuse, but like Job, even if you find yourself scraping your sores with pottery, allow yourself to trust in God's goodness. Remember all the good things He has done for you in the past, and that His motives are always good. Your health insurance in the wilderness is God Himself, and He will not fail you. Trust Him today, to give you all the health care that you truly need during your wilderness time.

Hearing God's Voice I remember when my Christian aunt from the Missouri came up to visit us in Seattle, and she would try to witness to me and tell me about this "Jesus" character that she served. I obviously wasn't a Christian yet, and when she talked, it sounded like she had just chatted with God over a Big Mac at McDonald's. I thought she was either crazy, or very irreverent for talking like that about God. To me, if there was a God, He was probably very far away, and I seriously doubted that He had time to listen to our small talk, or petty problems. After I did get saved and I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I did begin to hear God faintly, but usually in more of an impression inside me of how He felt about something. I guess you could call it His "still small voice". I had always longed to talk to God, just like we talk to each other, but I thought He must not want to talk to me because I was either too

sinful, or I couldn't hear Him clearly or loudly enough, so He must be silent. I found out later on that God is talking all the time, and that He very much wants to communicate with us. The question is; why do we have such a hard time hearing Him speak? We need to learn to listen with our spiritual ears, and in such a way that we can distinguish His voice from others. There are several sources that we hear things inside our spirit from. It can either be from our mind, from an evil spirit, an angel, another humans spirit, or it can be God's Spirit. In time, with the more you learn to listen when you pray, you will begin to better distinguish which voice is talking to you. God wants to communicate with you more than you know. So how can we tell who is really talking to us? Well God's voice is always positive and peaceful, even if He's correcting us. Satans and demons voices, are always negative and non-peaceful; and they are either tempting you to sin, or they are trying to make you feel negative in some way, or pressuring you to act rashly, rather than waiting on God. A humans spirit can transfer thoughts and emotions but this will usually only happen with someone you are spiritually tied to, like your spouse, friends, or family. God forbids witchcraft, which is using your spirit, or an evil spirit illegally to influence or communicate with another human. Our main focus in spiritual communication should be on us communicating with God alone. The spiritual realm is kind of like the Internet with lots of traffic, and you can choose what you want to log into with your words, prayers, thoughts, or actions. When you log onto God's web site so to speak enough times, you learn what that place is like just like you would become familiar with a favorite web site you go to a lot. So if something else is trying to hack into you, you know that it's not God, because you are familiar with Him. Jesus said, "My sheep know My voice". And the more you listen with your spirit when you pray, the better you recognize it. God can also turn up the volume if need be so dont worry about missing Him. Gods words match up to scripture. The next time you pray, just ask God to help you to hear His voice better and verbally bind up any spirits other than Gods spirit from communicating with you. Yield your spirit and shut down your brain. It's kind of like back floating with your soul. God also speaks in different ways, so ask Him to show you how to understand Him individually. He communicates with me a lot in picture form, kind of like trying to make a sentence with just pictures alone, like metaphors. I have heard Him speak audibly once, and it really startled me. But most of the time, I just wait before Him and listen. Worshiping can help to greatly enhance your hearing as well. Most of our communication in the world is pretty easy, we turn on the TV, radio, or computer, and there really isn't much effort involved. But with God, you have to be willing to put some effort into it because it is a totally different form of communication than our five senses are used to. You are using your spirit sense, which takes a little getting used to, but it is not hard once you do get used to it. Just don't give up, and ask God to help you. Know this day, right now, that God is waiting to talk to you. Yep, right this second. So go, enjoy, and know that He has such good things to say to you. You will find that He thinks much more highly of you than you do yourself. Remember that He is listening to you very carefully, and that He speaks plain English; you need not talk to Him like He's the Pope. He loves you, and He waits and wants to hear from you.

How To Get Out Of Debt After The Wilderness

For most of us after the Wilderness we have seen most of our possessions and finances fairly decimated and depleted, and so now we need God's help to get out of the dark hole of debt and poverty that has been created, and to be restored and replenished financially. First of all you must understand that God wants to bless you so that you have more than enough to meet your needs and the needs of others. He wants to give you all you need to live and to give to others.
JER 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

There is really so much in the above scripture because after the Wilderness we can feel pretty depleted and doubtful. Since we have undergone so much apparent loss it can be hard to have the faith that we need to trust that God wants better things for us, but He definitely does. We must have hope and faith again in order to believe for better things to come. We need to stop just surviving and be willing to thrive and receive God blessing. God has plans to prosper you so you just need to discover what His particular plan to prosper you is.

The following are just guidelines that can help you to get out of debt after the Wilderness and if followed properly, you will progressively start to see a turnaround. Try to remember that your situation didn't get this way overnight, and it may take a little time to turn things back around again. But they will turn around. Here are the guidelines:

1. Stop spending your money on sinful things (i.e. things that you use to commit sin)and just know that when you stop God can then legally bless you again. Spend your money on right things and do not hide or stash money or things away. Let God tell you what to buy and do not spend money you don't have. Check your motives as to why you are buying things. Also, when you stop practicing all sin your faith level for God's help will also rise because you will not feel like God is angry at you all the time.

2. Ask God specifically what His financial restoration plan for you is and be willing to do whatever He wants you to do to begin making more money no matter how degrading you might think it is at first. Some things may start small and humiliating, but can quickly grow into something very wonderful and prosperous. Let go of any preconceived ideas about how you think God must restore you like winning the lottery, or getting some big instant financial miracle. God does do big financial miracles but this can be a distraction to us if we are not willing to do other things to make it happen. The main thing is to just stay open and willing to whatever God wants to do.

3. Start giving out of your need to people or ministries that God shows you to give to and that look like fertile soil to sow into. Ministries that really help needy people are good ministries to give to and God will kind of tap you on the shoulder as to which one He wants you to give to. You may not have much, but give out of what little you have any way, even if it is your last penny because God sees your gift no matter how small. You can also give your time, ministry, and work to others as a gift.

MK 12:41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor

widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."

LK 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

4. Lastly, seek God and what He wants and needs to change in you first before getting too distracted over your desperate financial state. God knows every critical need that you have, every creditor that calls to harass you; every physical, mental, or dental need that you and your family have, and He truly wants to help you. God must obey His own financial laws though, so we must untie His hands by forsaking all financial disobedience, and begin to practice financial obedience in all areas of our life.

MT 6:31 So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Things are about to turn around for you my friend if you are willing to do things God's way financially. When you get out of your survival mentality and take the step of faith to meet someone else's need, you will start to see your own needs being met. If you want to take a step of faith and you feel led by God you can also give to this ministry as well. I do not believe in begging or pressuring people for money, but I do believe in telling them the truth about God's principles of reciprocity so that He can bless and help them.

MAL 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.

"But you ask, `How do we rob you?'

"In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.

"If Only We Had Died In Egypt!"

NU 14:1 That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. 2 All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert!

For some of us we cannot believe that the Israelites in the wilderness could be so negative and unbelieving, but then after you have had a tough slavery like life yourself, and been in one of God's modern day wilderness experiences

yourself for a while, then you may start to grumble, complain, and cry about your situation just like they did. You may even be saying to yourself, "Why did I ever let God do this to my life? I wished that I could go back and do things differently!". You see, in our hearts we are not so different from the Israelites after all.

NU 14:11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?

When things seem their darkest and that God has ruined our life then we must think back on all the miracles that God did to get us out of our worldly Egypt-like life, and then to lead us through our wilderness while living by faith just like the Israelites did. We have a choice, we can either treat God with contempt and get Him mad at us by giving in to self-pity and complaining, or we can look toward the promised land that awaits us if only we will grow up and repent of all the sin that has been keeping us from going there. It's really all up to us.

NU 14:19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.

God knows we are suffering in our wilderness, but He also knows that unless we are truly ready on the inside, that there is not point in pouring new life into the outside because we would just mess it all up if we are not ready. Just know that God has been waiting on us to change and repent, it's not us waiting on Him even though it may seem that way. Don't allow yourself to be found crying in your tent, and don't allow someone else's grumbling to poison your heart with doubt. Trust God all the way and become fully obedient and you will make it.

1CO 10:10 And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel.

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

It's Never Too Late

JOS 14:11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.

The wilderness usually takes a lot of time for all of us, so do not think you are just a slow learner, or that you have failed. You see, God chose people that had bad childhoods, lots of problems, and who looked like they had little chance of succeeding in life, and those are the very ones that He heals, fixes, and empowers to send out and help others that are just like they used to be. Jesus wanted people that could have true compassion and understanding toward those they would one day help. The fixed but once broken make God's best warriors.

JOB 2:9 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

But there is a slight problem with this, it takes a lot of real life time to successfully bring someone through the wilderness, plus you have to basically shut their life down to keep the distractions low. So at the end you may feel too old and broken to believe for those original promises that you have clung to for so many years. Bitterness and cynicism can easily set in and satan is right there to tell you how God has ruined and destroyed your life to the point of no return, and that you might as well just curse God and die. satan loves to destroy faith.

NU 14:24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

Caleb had some big dreams that He held onto for many years, and God preserved him until he finally saw their fulfillment. God even made him just as capable as he was before he entered the wilderness. So no matter what promise you have been holding onto (marriage, children, finances, healing, empowerment, reconciliations, etc.) or even thrown into the trash by now, dig it back out and re-grab back onto it. Things are never too late with God, so don't give up or give in to self-pity, because God always keeps His promises to the fully obedient.

LK 18:27 Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

God can suspend your age, make you have children while infertile, make you a millionaire when you're broke, send you a mate at 80, and heal any unhealable disease. Nothing limits God, and we shouldn't either. The Lord loves to take the impossible and make it possible for us because then everyone around us will see how impossible our miracle was, and how God alone was the One that made it happen. The bible is full of impossible situations and needs where God broke in and did a miracle. God is well aware of your reproaches and disgraces.

LK 1:25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

We have a massive harvest of human souls that is just beginning, and God wants you as whole, restored, and capable as Caleb and the Israelites were when they entered into their promised land. But God only pours His finest oil into vessels that are truly clean and free of cracks and holes that could contaminate, or cause the oil to drain out once poured in. You may feel weak, sick, broken, weary, or discouraged right now, but God is about to show up in a very big and real way for you. So do not give up, because it's never too late with God.

JOB 42:12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.

It's Time to Come Out of Your Dungeon We have entered a time of great change, upheaval, and transition, and it is also a time where God has deemed our time of preparation as being completed. I understand that many of us do not feel

very completed right now, and that there isn't a whole lot of virtue flowing through our spiritual veins right now, but just like Joseph when he was in the last stages of his prison time down in Pharaoh's dungeon, he too felt weary, and at the end of all hope for ever getting out of there. But then came the day where God came in power and set him free to serve the many. And just like Joseph, now God is going to miraculously bring you out of your dungeon, and right into the throne room of the King above. It is time to take off the old, and to put on the new. It is time to be released from the old familiar Wilderness life, and to be gloriously released into your Promised Land. It is a time of new refreshment, empowerment, restoration, anointing, and establishment. Things are allowed to become there most hopeless and needful just before God moves on your behalf. So kiss your dungeon goodbye, because deliverance has finally come!
GE 41:14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.

Learning What Not to Do During your Wilderness, you may experience what you might consider to be a lot of failures, or serve under leadership where you see a lot of the wrong leadership characteristics being displayed. The reason God allows this is because many times He wants us to learn what "not to do" so that when He moves us forward with more anointing, power, and resources, that we will avoid doing the same wrong things that we have seen others do around us. Every good King David will end up serving under a King Saul for a period of time in their training time. Jacob ended up serving under Laban for a long time who seemed to have many of the same negative character traits as Jacob did. Laban deceived and exploited just as Jacob had done to his brother Esau and his father Isaac, and because Jacob suffered under Laban's unfair exploitation and mistreatment, he learned not to treat people like that anymore. You see, we all have the potential of developing certain negative character traits that lie dormant in us so God just wants to head us off at the pass so to speak, so that we learn what it is like to be mistreated like that, and so we don't do that the many people God send to us during revival. So don't feel bad if you have made what would be considered a lot of mistakes during your Wilderness time, or if you have served under some difficult leadership, because it will actually help you not to make bigger mistakes and cause worse damage to others later on. Like I have heard someone say, "As many people as you can help, will be as many people as you can hurt", so be grateful for God's lessons of what not to do back here. You will go on to help many people like King David did with what God has done in you, and you will also avoid making fatal errors like King Saul did. Learning what not to do, can be more important that learning the right thing to do sometimes. Knowing our weak areas can teach us to depend on God's strength.

Letting it all hang out Another perplexing aspect of the Wilderness, is an almost complete loss of control over your sin habits. It seems that Gods grace (help) and virtue (spiritual strength) have flown out the window, and you are doing and saying things that you would have thought long gone. You

may even be mysteriously and easily getting caught for things that you used to do without anyone finding out. This experience can frighten and baffle even the most seasoned Christian. All your past pain buried deep withing you may also be rising up and you cannot seem to stuff it back down this time. You may feel that an emotional breakdown, or even Hell must not be far away. God allows His hand to be lifted, and the normal restraint to be removed, so that all your buried pain and sin problems will come out full strength, and you will truly be forced to face them and allow the Lord to eradicate them once and for all. You see, most sin habits are there because we are trying to relieve inner pain, with outer pleasure. Even boredom caused by a lack of Gods Spirit is a form of need and pain. Like a car can only really run well on gasoline, we can only run well on God. Sin never satisfies, so we have to keep using more and more, and the guilt and shame we carry increases our pain and hunger for more sin. Not to mention the problems it causes us in our lives and relationships. God wants us to be satisfied, and healed so that we can live a truly happy and holy life. The sin idols (fake God) never really meet our need, they actually create more of the very pain we think they are relieving. Like cleaning out a cluttered closet, you have to pull everything out, to really clean it. Instead of putting sin band-aids on our pain, God wants to heal it from the roots. If you want to heal the fruit, you have to heal the root. This crazy time will end, and you will end up a pure, holy, and compassionate person, rather than being judgmental toward others trapped in sin. What you are experiencing now, will actually become part of the foundation of the new ministry God is calling you to. We have a whole world of people trapped by sin and who's lives have been destroyed. You may think, "Well, that may work for others, but my sin problem is just too deep to ever change me", but believe me, the Holy Spirit knows you to the core, and He knows exactly how to expose the lies living within you, and replace them with a new revelation of the truth that causes you to be able to let go of the sin. It will be the truth that sets us all free. The lid of restraint, and Gods grace will return at the proper time, but not a second before. This is obviously not a open ended credit card to sin, God is actually watching over you and protecting you from going all the way over the edge. God wants a full deliverance and He knows what it takes, and how long you will need. Be at peace, and know that "He", is the Author and Finisher of your faith. He just needs to show us our utter inability to change ourselves, so that we can fully receive His abilty to change us. We cooperate with His work rather than striving and failing in the flesh to change. He will share His glory with no other. A true testimony requires alot of tests. Just hang on, you will make it through this.

Little Strength and The Sentence of Death

REV 3:8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

I just want to encourage you today that God knows when you have very little strength left to endure a difficult situation where most of the grace is gone. And even though you may feel like fainting or digging in your heels and saying no more

Jesus is still very aware that you feel like you are at the end of your rope and at your breaking point, so keep your trust in Him no matter how weak you may be feeling right now.

2CO 1:9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

When we come to end of a certain phase that God has led us through everything can start to feel dead or like a dead end. There is a temptation to give up and give in to self-pity and you can almost feel the sentence of death like the above scripture. We serve a God that wants us to rely upon Him and not on the circumstances of our life. God is bringing new life to you today my friend so hang on because help is coming!

Living by Faith For most of us, for the most part, we have called the shots in our lives, and made most of our decisions, and we hoped and prayed that God would support and guide us in them. God took us deep one day and said "My Child, will you go deeper with Me?" and we said "Oh God, I want all of you, I want to know you, and I want to walk in your power, and I'll do anything you want". So guess what? He said "OK", and then all hell broke loose. You may have lost your job, your family, your friends, your possessions, and most of your sanity as God allowed all that could be shaken, to be shaken. You may have eventually found yourself huddled in a corner babbling to yourself, "God, what's going on? Where are you? Why are you letting all these terrible things happen to me? Like Dorothy, you may have tried to click your heels three times and say, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home", but there you stayed. And God may or may not have let you in on the secret of what He was doing in this wonderful new work in your life. If all this and more is happening, then you have entered the wilderness, and you will not live by bread alone anymore, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The reason He will not tell you everything that is happening before it happens is because He needs you to react and grow naturally as you round each corner. If you knew everything that you would face before you faced it, then you might just run off and tell God to forget it and to just go find someone else to torture. You may feel right now like you are on a crazy amusement park ride, but rest assured you have entered the University of the Holy Spirit and you have been chosen to participate in this last great harvest of souls in the earth. You are going through the same training as Moses, Joseph, John the Baptist, Job, Paul, and many other believers did that would someday be trusted with stewarding God's power and resources went through. You are a modern day Joseph and all this will turn out for your good and many other peoples good when you are done. If God has brought you into the wilderness, then He knows that you can make it through to the other side. My dear Friend, be at peace, and know that this will all be worth it in the end. You are learning to live by faith by being forced to trust God for literally "everything". Like the Israelites in the first wilderness, you cannot go back to your old life in Egypt, and you cannot enter your new calling in Canaan, until you have been truly prepared, so that you can succeed without failing

or falling into old sin habits once you begin. You may have been restricted all of your life (Christian and non-Christian), but it was because God has kept you aside for this new move He is doing. You are part of a secret army that God is preparing in the caves to be used mightily to help many. Though you may want to, and actually try to run, there is nowhere else to go. Like Jonah, you are in the fish and you might as well ride it out and let God shape His heart in you. Like Joseph, you must do your time in the dungeon, but you will be brought up to the throne room when you are truly ready. Though nobody else will understand what is going on with you, or why you cannot rise up and fix your situation, just know that you are not alone, and that Jesus will walk with you through every step of this challenging time of purification and transformation. Marriage during the Wilderness If you are going through the wilderness with a spouse, it can be the best of times, and it can be the worst of times. You will see the worst of each other coming out while you are being transformed, and you may feel very vulnerable and judged at times. But remember, your spouse can be a great help and comfort to you as well. You may feel like you are out in the middle of the ocean languishing, but at least there is someone languishing there with you. You are not alone. A spouse or ourselves, can be a prophet of God or of demons during the wilderness, sometimes both in five minutes, and we must be very careful about what we say to our spouses, especially during times of heavy spiritual attack. There is always some rotten evil spirit that knows exactly the right thing to say that will hurt the other person deeply, but conversely, Gods Spirit can also speak through you if you allow love, and not bitterness to live in your heart during this difficult time of change. Forgiving, and letting go of the past, keeps the way clear for peace. We can choose every minute to either be salve or salt in someones wounds. In the wilderness, all of our old wounds that haven't been healed are laid bare so that they can finally be resolved and healed. One kind word or gentle touch can make all the difference in the world to someone who is facing their old pain. We must seek to cover and comfort our wilderness partners, even though it would be easy to take a cheap shot at them. Love never fails so choose love. So, as you help and minister to your partner during your time in the wilderness, you are actually helping yourself. The old scripture that states, "What you sow, you reap", has kind of taken on a kind of a negative connotation of just experiencing the bad consequences for our wrong actions. But when you sow good into your wilderness partner, good will be reaped back, and it will help you get through your wilderness much faster and easier. Anger just feeds the fire of strife. By showing kindness and love, the spiritual life you save, may be your own. You may be seeing someone at their worst right now, but God is only doing this to form His best in them. You will progressively see them change if you choose to pray for them, and don't give up. You will see their wonderful transformation and affirm their testimony of how God changed them and set them free. Pray for those whom God has joined you with in your wilderness time, and refrain from being critical or condemning; things will go much easier for you if you do. God put you two together to help each other through this tough time, so love and help each other.

Only the Lonely Being in the wilderness can sometimes be hard because you have to spend a lot of time disconnected from most of the rest of the world. You may feel like your life is going nowhere, and that everyone else is passing you by in their lives by having kids, buying homes, going forward with their careers, paying taxes, and all the other normal trappings of the world. You may wonder if you are just wasting your time, or just kidding yourself about what is happening in your life. But remember this, that what you are doing right now is the most important job in the whole world. You are letting God grow you up so that He can flow through you with His power for healing and casting out of evil spirits. Very soon, this world is going to need Gods power more than ever, and God just needs some mature and safe people to flow through. Namely "You". What could you do in the world more important than that? You are not the only one in history that has gone through this arduous process. There are many others who did their tours of duty in the University of the Holy Spirit to get prepared for God's great call on their lives, including Moses, Joseph, Paul, Jacob, and David. And they all did great things for God that helped and saved many people. This is the last great harvest of souls in the earth, with so many lost, needy, and fearful people that need Gods help through you. God needs safe and solid field workers to send out to help them. Like the caterpillar that has to go into a cocoon for a while to be transformed, so you are going through this spiritual transformation to be ready for this last great harvest of souls in the earth. Especially as these perilous times come upon us, people will be looking for the real God, and for real answers to their problems. Who is God supposed to use, if not you? All the patriarchs were just normal people like you, yep just like you, no different. Someday soon, you will be let out of your cocoon and you will be transformed like the butterfly, and God will show you off as His beautiful work of transformation. He will flow through you in power because He can trust you now. You will be joined to the other wilderness Christians who are coming out of their wilderness time. You are not alone my friend, there are many others going through what you are, you just don't see them right now. So, as your spirit groans to be free from this lonely existence, just remember that God is doing a complete work in you, and like the butterfly, you can only be let out of your cocoon when your transformation is complete so that you are fully formed and healthy. What harmful habits are safe to take out of the wilderness with you? The answer is none. Don't worry, like Job, all that you have lost or sacrificed will be returned many fold, and you will forever be God's trophy of transformation and grace. Jesus walk with you in the wilderness

"Ouch God, That Hurts!" When you are in the wilderness, God prunes you down to the roots, not just the branches. This process is inescapable, and no matter how much we complain or try to manipulate our way out of it, God will keep putting these painful issues in front of our faces until we finally face them. Whatever past unhealed emotional pain, sin problems, unforgiveness, bitterness,

resentment, or idols you have been hanging onto in your life, the Holy Spirit will go from one to the next so that everything that has been poisoning your heart and life can finally be removed. Then, all the spiritual sap that used to be wasted on stuffing your pain down, can then go to more positive things that will produce good fruit in your life, and in Gods kingdom. This process can be very painful, but it is absolutely necessary in order for you to be truly healthy.
JN 15:1-4 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

So as you can see, whether you bear no fruit, or whether you bear a lot of fruit, you will face pruning either way, there is no way to avoid it. You might as well just relax, smile, and say "Ok God, this really hurts, but just show me what's next and I'll do my best to cooperate with your work". Just try to remember, that the Holy Spirit knows everything that has been going on inside you, and everything that is hurting you or keeping you from going forward. He knows if you've been abused; if you've been divorced or if you lost your kids; or if you have suffered from a loss or addiction. It hurts Him to see you hurting. If you have ever seen your child sick, then you know how much it hurts to see them suffer. God is no different, and He cares a thousand times more than you do about how much something is hurting you.

Although this can be a very difficult process to endure, the Lord wants us to learn to come to Him for more daily sap from the Vine especially while we are going through this painful time of healing and change so that we can stay strong and healthy branches. Sometimes, because of sin, shame, or just plain distractions or unbelief, we don't bother coming to Him as often as we should. We must have daily spiritual intimacy with the Lord to receive His daily spiritual nourishment, and without it, we can get dry and hardhearted very quickly.

JN 15:5-8 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

I would encourage you today to continue to surrender and cooperate with God's daily pruning process during your wilderness time. I know that sometimes we may feel like a child that has had a bandage ripped away from a very painful old wound, but God knows that this must happen for Him to bring the healing that you need. Trust Him as your loving Father, that even in your worst time of pain, that His motives for you and this process are nothing but good. Satan may try to slow down this work by accusing God of child abuse, but don't listen to him. God has never done anything to anyone except from a motive of love, and He is working out a plan in you that will bring you complete freedom and joy in the end.

Overcoming Rejection

In the wilderness, and usually throughout most of our lives, we are constantly being prepared to be used by God on a high level; that's why the preparation takes so long and is so thorough. God is creating a whole army of modern day Joseph's and Moses'. Because of this fact, all during your life, you may experience a lot of rejection and misunderstanding by people. You may also feel, that no matter what happens, that you will always be at the short end of the stick during a dispute, and that you have to always be the one to suck it up and apologize every time, even when it is clearly someones else's fault. Rejection can sting especially bad if you already have a poor self image, if you are carrying a lot of shame around inside you because of past or present failures, or if you have not forgiven yourself or someone else for past sin and mistakes. When someone criticizes or cuts you off in a relationship, it can feel like they are confirming all the "bad" you already believed about yourself, and are trying to keep buried. This can lead to angry and revengeful behavior that causes you to become abusive, fearful, insecure, obsessive, bitter, and resentful. The bible states that Jesus was despised and rejected by men, and that He was a man acquainted with sorrows and grief. God knows the deep searing pain of being rejected unfairly, but yet He does not reject or retaliate in return. God knows how to comfort the brokenhearted, and it can be at some of your lowest points in life that you seek Him out and find Him the most. God knows everything about everyone, and we must receive God's love for others and ourselves, in order to deal with the problem of self-rejection, or rejection by others. If God has shut the door on one of your relationships, then try to just leave it in His hands, rather than banging on the door, or slipping notes under it. I know this can be hard to do because you may feel compelled to try to justify yourself, and God may not allow you to do it. God will break us of our fear of man, and need for approval by everyone, and He does this by allowing you to be clearly misunderstood, and then forced to trust God with it, rather than manipulating, controlling, condemning, or serving your way back into someones good graces. God just wants you to accept yourself even with all of your mistakes and faults, with everyone disapproving of you, with people gossiping about you, and/or with people being unforgiving toward you. You are a fallible human, but you are a work in progress, and although you are not perfect, someday with Gods help you will be. God doesn't want what other people do, or don't do to control what you do, or don't do. He wants you to trust Him, even if all other people seem to forsake and reject you. Job went through this process, and in the end he was greatly blessed, and had a much deeper faith because of it. Receive Gods approval and acceptance today, and be free of your fear of rejection from people.

Pursue Your Passion You may have asked yourself many times, "What am I here for, what is my purpose, and what am I supposed to do with my life?" These are commons questions, especially for people who are in the wilderness, or soon to be crossing over into their promise land ministry. Now I want to ask you a question, if money and time were no object, and there were absolutely no restrictions whatsoever, what would you want to do with your life to help others? Remember there are no restrictions, so you can do whatever you want. Now I want you to briefly write those things down on a piece of paper. What you are looking at on that piece of paper are the

passions and giftings that God has created in you to help others with, and they are actually God's passions being expressed through you. Whatever your hearts passions are, remember that God gave them to you because He wants to fulfill them through you. You may feel that you have missed out on certain things in life, but I guarantee you my friend, that God has plans to fulfill those passions and desires you have burning inside your heart. Your job in the wilderness is to allow the Lord to purify, prepare, and heal you so that He can allow your passions to be fulfilled. God just needs to build a solid and stable foundation in you first. Perhaps your heart is to feed the poor, take care of orphans, lead worship, be a doctor, serve in addiction recover ministry, lay hands on the sick to receive healing from God, cast our evil spirits, teach God's word, preach the gospel, politics, or whatever else your passion is. God has not forgotten you, so allow Him to finish His work of preparation in you so that you can step into your destiny.
JER 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Repairing Your Foundation I used to rent out a basement apartment from someone, and one morning when I got up I noticed that the floor was all wet. I traced the trail of water back to the wall of the foundation and went up and talked to the landlord about it. I guess their yard had a lot of clay in it so that when it rained, the water could not drain and it just built up against the foundation wall right by where my bedroom was. It only happened when a strong storm came, and with all with the cracks in the wall, the pressure just became too great to hold the water back and the flood came rushing across the carpet. This water could ruin everything that was on the floor, and it could make for a pretty miserable morning when I was trying to get up and get ready to go to work. The Landlord asked me if I wanted to help fix the problem since it was me that was mostly being affected by it, so I said sure. He gave me some waterproofing paint that was supposed to stop the water from coming in from the inside, but I had to tear a whole wall of paneling off to finally get to the cracks, and what a pain that was. But in high hopes I painted all the cracked areas I saw, and then I closed the wall back up and just prayed. That night it stormed again and the water just came back. Then the Landlord gave me some vulcanized cement to push into the cracks, so this time I was sure it was fixed, but within a few days the rain returned, and so did the flood. I was feeling frustrated at this point. The pressure was just too much and it popped off the patches I had made. I finally gave up and surrendered, and we called in a professional. The professional said that we had to dig down to the bottom of the foundation of the house and repair the cracks from the outside to fix the leaks. He also said we had to keep the water from building up against the house by setting up an extended drain that would force the water away from the foundation. But, I certainly wasn't going to dig down through 8 feet of clay to try to fix this problem. I had more than done my time. This one professional wanted a lot of money to do it, but we found this other guy from Portugal that would do it for a really good price, and he said he loved to dig. He got my vote. He had the hole dug and the leaks fixed so fast that it was unbelievable, and my carpet never got soaked after that again. I

learned after that, to go right to the source of the problem with the right person to fix a serious problem like that again. So why did I tell you this story, to teach you about basement leaks? Uh, no. You see; your life is like a house that has a foundation that is holding it up. That foundation is made up of all the building blocks and damage that took place during your childhood and adolescence years. So whatever is built on that foundation during your adulthood, rests on all that old damage as well. Many of us have some major cracks in our foundations that allow floods of trouble to come pouring into our lives every time it storms, because the pressure is just too great to hold it back. We have tried to repair these cracks ourselves with different methods, only to find out that the crack is still there when the next storm comes. Many of us get so tired and frustrated that we finally give up and call in a professional to help us, namely Jesus Christ. Then the inner working of Gods Spirit and word can go into their repair mode to start fixing us. The cracks in your foundation are the things that did or didn't happen with your parents, and others who hurt you or who didn't give you what you rightfully needed while growing up. Believing you are a failure is a crack, believing you are stupid is a crack, believing that you are ugly is a crack, believing that you are evil and unworthful as a human is a huge crack. When trouble or stress comes, the pressure gets to be too much that we try to plug up these cracks with addictions, sensual pleasure, unhealthy habits, mistreating others, or whatever else that we think will fill up that crack inside us. But in the end, we stay unchanged, and finally think "What's the use, I can never change, I might as well just accept the cracks, and try to clean up the flood damage when it comes as best as I can". We just learn to clean up and hide the mess better, and hope that the crack doesn't grow any bigger, but cracks usually multiply and grow bigger in time. When I was younger, I had a spiritual experience that I will never forget. I have never heard God speak like He did to Moses, but there was one morning while I was in prayer that I heard a voice speak clearly to me, and it said "I need to build a new foundation in you". I thought this was great, but I didn't fully appreciate what it meant. Then came the many painstaking years of God digging down to my foundation and showing me where all the cracks were, and He even told me how they got there. He would have me get into the pit with Him, face and identify the crack (the lie and unhealed damage working in my soul that let evil in), forgive the crack-maker and myself, and then move on to the next crack. This went on for many years until I noticed that the storms could no longer flood my spiritual basement anymore like they used to, because there were little or no cracks left to leak through. But I had to be willing to give up and to allow God to help me "as is" and not try to take control just because I didnt want to face a particularly painful crack. I want to encourage you today, that if your life has been like a really leaky basement, and you have been flooded out many times and had everything in your life either damaged or destroyed because of it, that God is with you right now. God wants to repair all the cracks in the foundation of your life that have been hurting you and those around you. He knows you are weary from living with these leaky cracks, and that's why He has allowed you to come to the end of yourself, so that you will finally get the professional help from Him that you need to fix them. He alone knows all the history of your foundation and what it takes to repair all the damage that has been done to you. He is the Master foundation builder so trust Him to help you exactly as you need it. Also, remember that God wants to bless you and to use you in life, so He needs a stable foundation to build on in you. If you try to build on a damaged foundation, the whole house

will eventually fall in. So He has waited to build on you until you are strong enough to withstand the weight because He cares about what happens to you and to those who will live in the house above with you. The higher the building, the deeper the foundation must be, so if God has spent more time on you than some others around you, then just know that He has plans to build very high upon that foundation that He is building in you, and that He can't cut corners. You will be so happy and pleased to see all the work you and He can accomplish together, and God will turn the very cracks that used to plague you, into trophies of His grace and a testimony of what He can do for others. Some scriptures to help you:
MT 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

1CO 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Resigning Yourself to Change If you have just entered the wilderness, or even if you have been in it for a while, you may feel that you want to find a quick way of escape at times. Sometimes the fire can seem almost unbearable, and you may just want out. This is normal, and you are not the first person to feel this way. Most people that enter military boot camp often ask themselves, "How did I get myself into this mess?" The children of Israel felt this way, and they tried to run when God told them they would be in the wilderness for a long while. They tried to go forward even though God warned them not to, and they ended up badly defeated by the Amalekites (Numbers 15:39-45). When you enter the wilderness, most, if not all of your choices end, and you find out that God is much more sovereign than you had previously thought. There are some people who simply tell God that they will not give up "this" or "that", or that they will not do "this" or "that". Although it's a tough truth, you can die in the wilderness if

you flat out refuse to comply with what God is requiring of you. But know this, it takes an awful lot to get to this point, so don't freak out just yet and think that you've blown it. You haven't, or you probably wouldn't even be reading this right now. The best thing you can do at this point is to just relax, submit, and re-cooperate with whatever the Lord wants to do with you. All grumbling, and rebellion, will just be a waste of time, and it will just lengthen your stay in the wilderness; or worse, it can bring on some "loving correction" by the Lord. Complaining is like spiritual quicksand, the more you do it, the deeper in despair you sink. Being thankful and praising God lifts you up out of it. Just know and remember that God is doing these things to help you, and to change you so that He can use you in this last great harvest of souls in the earth. This broken world needs you so it's all good, even though every other word may be "Ouch". Not to mention, you don't want to have to drag all of your undealt with sin problems into Heaven with you when you die. There were a lot of not so glorious scenes in my life-review video that I am very thankful will now be edited out because of His work. Complete repentance erases the bad parts of our life-review tape. Though you may feel very weary right now, you will make it through this my friend. God will take care of your needs. He's very kind and compassionate, and He knows how hard this can be for you. When you see all the positive changes He creates in you, you will be so happy and thankful you went through God's wilderness experience. And the more that gets fixed, the less you need to fix. Your energy can then be focused on other good things, rather than just using all of your energy to keep all the old pain pushed down inside you. You will be 100% free in the end.

Should We Expect Someone Else? When you are in the wilderness, you will invariably run into times where you may question whether or not you have missed it, or whether you even heard God at all about being in the wilderness. Like John the Baptist in prison sending his disciples to go ask Jesus if He was really the Christ, or whether they should just expect someone else.
LK 7:20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, `Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

We all hit rough spots in the wilderness where doubt and depression come knocking at the door of our hearts to question whether we are off course, or whether we just imagined that God wanted us to live this crazy life of the wilderness in the first place. You may not even get a resounding "yes" from heaven when you pray about the matter. You may feel just as alone and abandoned as John did in his time of suffering and trial in prison. This is a time when you must trust God and just stand in faith, as you have had to do so many times in the past. Like I have heard it said, "When you can't trace His hand, trust His heart." Or, "When you suffer in darkness, remember what you learned in the light".

Think about this, if you were really that far off course and delusional, don't you think that God would have broken in at some point over the years and told you that you had taken a wrong turn? Of course He would have, and you are very likely not off course, your faith is just being tested and deepened. You see, God just wants our faith to rest on our trust in

His goodness and character, and not on the circumstances or feelings that we either have, or don't have during this difficult time of training and transformation. And if and when God wants to talk to you about it, you may get an answer similar to what John got:

LK 7:21-23 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

Try to think back on all that God has done for you, the miracles He performed to save you, the times He healed you or paid your rent miraculously, and all He has done to take care of you throughout this long wilderness time. Like I say, there is no way you could have gotten into this kind of life by accident. It takes careful planning and many restrictions put in place, to care for and keep someone in the wilderness. Your time of revival and blessing will come if you don't give up. You can get through this. Just remember that God only leads people into the wilderness that He knows can make it through it to the other side. God has not forgotten you, and the best thing that you can do is just concentrate on accomplishing whatever He wants to change in you that has been keeping you from going forward. These apparently little things that you are currently working on right now, can become big problems later on if not corrected back here. You will make it through this, so hang on my friend and know that your redemption from all this draws near.

So you want to go back to Egypt During your wilderness experience, you may feel very tempted (more than once), to want to go back and return to your old life where you had a lot more control over things and the freedom to make more of your own decisions. In the wilderness, your ability to choose is very limited, if not non-existent, the trials are tough and all the old pleasures and perks of Egypt (old self-directed life), come flooding back into your mind and heart.
NU 11: 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

You may also find yourself having a few rant fests with God, where you decide to give Him a piece of your mind about how you think He's mistreating you. If this happens, try not to beat yourself up over it, or think you have lost your salvation for mouthing off to God. God obviously doesn't like us grumbling or complaining anymore than He liked the Israelites doing it in the first wilderness, but He knows you're hurting. Just remember that God's motives and actions are always good, and that He is only allowing this to happen for your growth and blessing. Here is what His original intentions were for the Israelites:

EX 3:7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8a So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey

God wanted to set the Israelites free from the oppression of the Egyptians (world, flesh, Devil), and to bring them into a land of bounty and blessing (anointing, holiness, favor, and abundance). God has also heard your cries to be free from the grip and oppression of your sin and the world, and now He has brought you out of it to be trained and to be transformed in your wilderness of preparation. But like anything truly challenging, it is very tough when you are right in the middle of it. Remember God's forest of goodness, when you are in the trees of bitter trial. There will be a pillar of fire to guide you (the Holy Spirit) and His daily manna to feed you (His daily words).

It may feel good to grumble, or give in to a sin fix in the wilderness, but it can bring severe consequences if we just throw up our spiritual hands and say, "I'm out of here". Here is what was written as an admonishment to those of us in our modern wilderness:

1CO 10:6 Now these things occurred (judgments against the wilderness Israelites) as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry." 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel.

Because the wilderness involves such pain and suffering, it is a place where you may feel the most tempted to indulge in some old familiar sinful pain relief habits, but God wants to help us through these rough spots instead. In the wilderness we are expected to face and relinquish all idols in our lives, including and especially old familiar sin habits. We are not to test the Lord by accusing Him of being neglectful or abusive; and we are to stay away from complaining and criticizing God in our dilemma. Joshua and Caleb chose to hang onto their faith, and to remember all of the good things and miracles that God had previously performed for them. If your faith does get shaky, try to do the same thing, and remember back to all that God has done for you.

Nu 14:6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them."

Like Caleb and Joshua, refuse to give in to fear and rebellion, even though your circumstances are tempting you to, keep your trust in God firm by reading the word, praying, and worshiping often. In doing this, the number of wilderness "melt downs" you experience, can be greatly decreased or avoided. God deliberately allows impossible needs and trials to come in the wilderness, so that He can show you that He will take care of you, and defend you. Without an impossible need, there would be no need for a miracle. God expects you to walk in faith, and to allow these things to build your faith.

So if you're frying up a manna burger as we speak, or making some manna kabobs, just trust that God loves you, and that He will be faithful to you, to lead you all the way through your wilderness, as you keep your faith, trust, and focus on Him. The wilderness is not for the spiritually indifferent, it is God's elite training school, and it is very challenging. It involves, and transforms every area of your heart and life. Nothing is left untouched. Jesus said that the way to life is

narrow and few find it. You are one of the few and you serve a very big God who will help you through each and every step you take ahead in this difficult and demanding desert of change.

Standing at the Edge of Your Jordan For many of us who have been in the Wilderness for a long time, we now sense that we are at the end of it and we are standing right at the edge of entering our promised land ministry life. We are at a place where we are tired, weary, and really not up for anything beyond God's miracles to restore us. I want to encourage you today, that just like Jesus waited for Lazarus to be really dead before the miracle of resurrection came, God has allowed your life to become good and stinking dead before He resurrects you with new life, new strength, new provision, new vision, new power, new hope, and new giftings to help the many people he wants to help. God knows you are eager to run across your spiritual Jordan river right now and that you feel like you cannot take even one more day of the Wilderness, but He wants you good and dead before He performs His string of miracles to resurrect you. Partly because you need to be stable and purified to stand during His times of blessing, and also because He wants you and others to see that your restoration was a complete miracle and work of His hands, and not of human hands. This is a time to finish whatever needs to be finished and to be listening for His voice to speak new words into your heart. You will soon be given the order to cross over.
ISA 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Tearing Down the High Places When you are going through the wilderness, you will progressively be shown all of the different areas of your character and behavior that need to change. Luckily, God usually only gives you a few things to work on at a time, so that you do not feel so overwhelmed. As you progress and cooperate, you will see these problems melt away, and your life and relationships will improve greatly. When you are mostly done with this work of purification, you will likely be whittled down to just a few remaining problems, which can be some of the more harder things to let go of. This is not unlike the High Places in Israel, where they got rid of almost all the sinful idol worship shrines, but still left a few isolated places, called "High Places", that God was not happy about. You cannot get through these last problem areas by sheer will; this is a supernatural work of God that we must cooperate with. We can be completely free though, if we ask God for, and submit to His help. All good change that happens in our lives is a product of Gods work and our cooperation. Sin can be easily traded off during your repentance work in the wilderness. You may give up porn, but start smoking. Or you may stop using profanity, but then start overeating. A lot of people just end up with overeating, television, or Internet addiction in the later stages. We

substitute the more gross sins, for ones that are not so ugly, or detectable. Either way, God wants to root our all of our pleasure idols and High Places. He just wants us to see that He can truly meet all of our needs if we will trust Him, and let go of all our false gods. Replacing one idol with another is not freedom; its just substitution. True satisfaction comes only from the Living Water that He gives. Remember, it is not that God doesn't want us enjoying ourselves, He has created many ways for us to enjoy ourselves spiritually legally. Giftings, jobs, ministry, relationships, sex (with your spouse), alcohol (in moderation), food, marriage, children, fellowship, friends, family, etc. You can even look at the variety of fruits and vegetables at the store and see that God took great care to give us a wide variety of beautiful and delicious foods. If He didnt care about us that much, why would He bother? God wants us to live satisfied and happy. The problem is, Satan tries to pervert the normal healthy use of things, and to try to get people to overuse, get addicted to, or to make idols out of them, where the "thing" becomes what they use to turn to for comfort and security, rather than God. We tend to want pleasure idols we can control, but they can easily end up controlling us. Do not be afraid to let go of these last remaining problem areas of your life. And remember 100% purified, prepared, and holy, is 100%. It is entirely possible to be much more happy without idols, than with them. Jesus Christ is our great and exceeding reward, and we are instructed to find happiness in life through God. God desires to do great things in your life and He just needs to be able to trust you to serve and worship Him alone, and to not be controlled by idols. The main areas Satan tried to get the Israelites to fail in the wilderness in were idolatry, sexual immorality, and grumbling and complaining (unbelief). And they needed to learn that only God alone can bring us true and lasting life gratification. I would encourage you today to let go of these last few remaining idols in your life that you have been clinging to, and to not just replace them with another idol when you get free. But rather, turn to the Lord in a deeper way through prayer, worship, and reading His word to find true and lasting satisfaction in life. God wants to bring you into the realms of Heaven, and walk with you in the Garden as He did with Adam. God will give all to someone that He can trust. God cannot trust in Mans flesh, but He can trust in His Son that has been formed in that renovated person. God loves you dearly, and will do all that He can to help you to get free. Let Him purify you completely today.

The Big Picture JAS 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. In the harsh wilderness your big picture can become very small because most of us have already lived a very restricted and limited life compared to that of others. So it can be easy to look back and think that you had a really substandard life with little to show for it. Satan also likes to exploit this issue and accuse God of neglecting and abusing His children to the point of ruining their lives after they gave and sacrificed everything in order to follow His call. So if you are sitting here at the end of your wilderness looking at a tiny little picture of a hard crazy life, then just understand that there is a much bigger and more important picture and plan that exists that will lead you to something even greater than all you may have lost. You

see, God only restricts the outside to fix and prepare the inside and since we are at the end of man's rule on the earth and will reap God's final harvest here, we must be truly ready. It takes a lot of time to really go through someones soul and to repair all of the damage that has been done in their life. Even Enoch wasn't ready to be taken to heaven until he was 365 years old, and you have been on the fast track. Besides sin, God has to eradicate all pride, fear, greed, and any other area that we don't love others properly. So as you can see, it is a rather detailed process to be fully and completely prepared to walk in God's power. God not only needed holy and obedient servants for this last harvest, He needed people that have lived with the common problems that the world struggles with (i.e. addictions etc.) and then fix, heal, and empower them to go minister to everyone else around them that need God's help in the same way. Your life was no mistake my friend, so be patient because the best is still yet to come and as soon as the inside is ready you will see the outside abound. JER 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

The Blessing Of Knowing The Real You You may get discouraged at times because during the wilderness you are shown all of your faults and shortcomings which you have no power to change apart from God's help, but I want to encourage you today that it is a great blessing and benefit to know your weak areas because then you have the ability to change them. God and Satan already know your weak areas and God wants to correct them, but Satan wants to exploit them to hinder and distract you from doing God's work and fulfilling your call. Now you know the areas where you fail and you cannot be blindsided by them and tripped up by some demon that wants to get you off track. If you were a military commander would you want to know if there was a weak are in your army before a battle, or would you rather just go into battle and get defeated? Well the Holy Spirit has shown you your weak areas so that He can change and strengthen you. God is even going to use what He helps you to overcome to help others, so do not fear. So try not to feel bad if there is a problem that has plagued you over the years because God has definite plans to help you to overcome it. Satan loves to criticize and condemn people before their time of change so they will give up or get in their flesh to try to change. Just know that your Father loves you and He has not forgotten about your problem. He knows you want to be free so try to be patient. God eventually gets to everything so just do your best and know that this will turn out for your good.
RO 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

The Coming Spiritual Baby Boom One of the main reasons that we have been set aside from normal life and prepared in the wilderness, is because there is about to be a great revival in North America and many people will be getting saved all at once. We are about to experience the biggest spiritual baby boom that this continent and the world has ever seen, and these new babes in Christ are going to need mature Christians to help them to mature and bear fruit for the kingdom. You may not have seen a lot of people getting saved recently, or in many years and heres why. The Church has been in a renovation mode where they are being pruned to be able to bear more fruit and have a more stable life that is free from sin-habits and character flaws. Healthy fruit comes from a healthy tree. These new converts will need a lot of care and attention so that they can grow deep roots and bear fruit that remains. Just like with human newborns, these spiritual babies will cry a lot, need to be fed a lot, and they will need their stinky diapers changed a lot. Once they can walk a little, they will get into all kinds of things they shouldn't in the name of exploration. Once they can talk, they will ask you a thousand questions an hour, and it can make your head spin. Spiritual babies can also fight with their siblings and do whatever is necessary to fight for attention and approval. These little munchkins can even cuddle with you one minute, and then bite you the next. It can be very challenging work, but it is well worth it, and you won't have to do it alone.
MT 28: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Although we may function as parents, we must always remind them and point them to their true Parent, which is God himself. Spiritual youngsters may try to worship you if you let them, and if you do let them, you will become their personal God and devil every time something good or bad happens to them in their lives. We must remember that only God can nourish and care for them properly, and only God deserves all the praise and glory for what He does in their lives. So if they try to flatter, praise, or make you Holy Ghost Jr. in their lives, we must help them to get their focus back on their Creator and upon the One who died for them. It is best to steer them away from calling you by some silly title too, just be brother or sister so and so, and leave it at that.

Promoting and helping these new converts to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit can make all the difference in the world. He will be their 24 hour teacher, counselor, and mentor, and they will grow much faster with His help. Also, praying together and showing them how to listen for Gods voice can help to create greater intimacy between them and God. Don't let them try to use you as a mediator between God and themselves; show them that they can hear God too. This spiritual baby boom will be parented by many spiritual fathers and mothers, so don't worry about it becoming too overwhelming. We must allow the Lord to take care of them through us. As you pray for daily strength, anointing, wisdom, love, and patience, God will then fill you up with what you need to give to them. We can only give to others, what God first gives to us.

So I want to encourage you today that if you have felt spiritually barren all these years, that is about to change. You are about to become a parent to many, and this will be an exciting and wonderful time to be alive and to be part of this great

new move of God in the earth. This task ahead may sound daunting, but you were born for this exact moment in time to do this exact thing. Allow the Lord to tie up any lose ends while you are still in the wilderness so that you don't take those bad habits with you and pass them on to those you disciple. God has plans to use you on a very large scale to help many and it has taken a lot of preparation time to get you ready. You may feel over your head at times as this baby boom goes into full swing, but it will continue to drive us all to God. So, get the nursery ready my friend, the spiritual baby boom is here.

ISA 54:1 "Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD. 2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. 4 "Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. 5 For your Maker is your husband-- the LORD Almighty is his name-- the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.

The Danger of Comparing

NU 11:4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

There is a real danger in the wilderness especially around the end of it where you may be tempted to compare how good others peoples lives seem compared to your difficult wilderness life. When this happens you can fall into self-pity, depression, and get a real attitude with God. Of course satan is right there to accuse God of child abuse and demons will even tell you how to tell God off. If you fall into this trap the result can just be deeper depression, anxiety, and sadness when you self-destruct.

PS 42:5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God.

The best way to get out of the pit of self-pity and the trap of comparing is to tell yourself the truth and to thank God for all that He has given you. Sure your life may be different than other peoples lives, but God is developing faith in you so you must be completely dependent upon Him and limited to the bare essentials. God wants to bring long term change to your inside so He must cause your outside life to help make this happen. God will be faithful to you so try to be thankful and walk in truth.

JER 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

The Dark Night of the Soul There is something that happens during the wilderness experience that is almost indescribable to someone unless they are either in it, or have been through it. Many in the prophetic community have identified it as "The dark night of the soul" experience. It is a time where you may feel as though God has left you, and all of hell has come to have dinner and nachos with you. It can be a very dark and scary time that you wonder if you will survive at all, or go down to the depths of the netherworld in flames. The length of time this period lasts is completely dependent on the amount you either surrender to, or fight the process. The dark night of the soul, is a time where all of the sudden everything seems to be going every way but yours, you get stripped of everything, and cut down to only survival rations. Everyone around you seems to be misunderstanding you, or bringing up every evil thing you ever did, and making you look, and feel pretty bad. It is a time when your choices end, and God allows every negative thing about you to be placed clearly into yours and everyone elses view whether you like it or not. It can be a time where you may despair of life itself, and death starts looking pretty good. It is a time when your soul and all that is of "self" get puts to death, and boy does it hurt. During this time, you may feel like Jonah stuck in the big fish with nothing to do except to contemplate your mistakes and powerlessness over your situation. You may feel like Joseph stuck deep inside Pharaohs dungeon, feeling very trapped and wrongly accused, and saying "Why God, why?" Or you may feel like David after his sin and failure with Bathsheba was exposed, and everyone knows about it, and is waiting for you with their rocks of judgment and condemnation to stone you dead. Like Job, you may have all kinds of people trying to tell you what you should do, or how and why you got yourself into your bad situation. But no matter what happens, there is someone who knows what is happening, and that someone is God. God has only placed you in this position to heal, purify, and prepare you, so that you can be given much to help the many. He's not doing this to be mean or cruel as Satan has accused him of. He is only doing this so that when your time of blessing and empowerment comes, that it doesn't lead to yours, or other peoples harm or ruin. He does this to purify your motives for serving Him and for serving others. He does this, so that you will have genuine compassion for those who are struggling with their faults, character defects, and sin-habits, and so that you will no longer wrongfully or arrogantly judge them. He does this to show you that it is by His grace and His strength alone, that any good comes out of you, and not by your own greatness. You will get through this dark, difficult time my friend, and the very areas you seem to be so denied in right now (finances, health, ministry, relationships...) will be the very areas that you will be super-blessed in later on. You will be free of your fear of man, and the need for everyones approval. Your faith will rest in God alone, and not on anything that ever happens or doesn't happen in your life. There will be an end to this scary time, and believe it or not, you may actually miss this time of death to your soul. You have asked God for His best, and this is the road to it. Be of courage dear fellow soldier, God will not abandon you and your dawn will eventually come.

The Fear of Man

The fear of man can be a real big thing when it comes to your wilderness or prophetic training. When you go into the wilderness, all hell breaks loose literally, and every unpleasant embarrassing thing that you don't want to happen, seems to happen. For a while, you may feel just like Job, seeing one thing after another, seemingly destroyed before your very eyes, while all your friends and family just look on wide eyed and shaking their heads in disbelief. If you have any fear of man in you, then you will feel mortified because your reputation takes such a beating during this time, and there is little or nothing you can do about it. Once you enter the wilderness, there is no way to go back to Egypt and to put your old life back together again. If you are a prophet, the fear of man can also be a great stumbling block, because if you fear what people say, think, or do, because of a prophetic word you give them, then you may only say what you think they want to hear. Some people only want to hear good, positive messages, and will chaff and squawk if anything less than blessing comes out of your mouth. A true and mature prophet is full of God's love for people, so whatever they speak should have God's love and heart mixed in with it, even if it's corrective in nature. God's words will always speak the truth we need to hear, even though we may not want to hear it sometimes. Besides, even though most people may act shocked, many times, God has already tried to talk to them about their problem, but they either wouldn't listen to Him, or they didnt like the answer that He gave them. Either way, whether you are in the wilderness, and/or undergoing prophetic training, you will learn in time, that the only persons opinion that really matters in life is God's, and those He speaks through to you. God is truth, and it will be His truth that judges us. There will always be someone who doesn't like or agree with something you say or do because we are all different, and we all have different preferences and opinions about things. Real promotion or punishment comes only from God's hand, and whatever reward you may get from man will not last anyway if God didn't give it to you through them. Though all others forsake you, and misunderstand you, and say all manner of evil against you, God is the only One whom you will stand before in your lifes judgment, and give an account to for your life's choices. Everything that happens to you must go through Him first, literally everything. We must learn to trust in God alone. God is the only one that we should fear. This is what Gods word has said about it:
LK 12:4 "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

PR 29:25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

So let me encourage you today that if you are being rejected by your family, friends, or fellow Christians just because you are going through the reproaches of your wilderness transformation, then do not fear what people might say, think, or do. People have no real power over you anyway, they do not judge your life in the end, they cannot harm you beyond God's limitations, and they cannot reward you with anything beyond God's will that you can keep. Most of the time, all they can do is gossip, and this will only destroy your pride, which is a good thing anyway. Trust in God today to be your protector, provider, and promoter. He alone is worthy of our trust, praise, reverential respect, and awe.

The "Insuff" I just wanted to briefly touch on something that may, or may not be a factor in your recovery from sin in the Wilderness, and this may help you get through some of the tough times ahead. In my experience, and with the many people I have ministered to, and learned their story from, I have discovered a phenomenon that I have called the state of being an "Insuff " (insufficient). This condition may, or may nor apply to you. These people have certain things in common, and if you know the condition, it will be easier to endure the symptoms and recovery, and implement the cure. Here are the common traits I have observed in literally hundreds of people; 1. One or both parents were drug abusers- Usually there has been a clear pattern of drug abuse in the family line that seems to get passed down to the children. When a child sees this, they not only learn this behavior as part of life, but they also believe that parent is no longer safe, so they take control and vow that they will never fully trust authority again, and they will be in control. But God is an authority that can and must be trusted. Drugs are a means to control our bodies and emotions, but they actually strip us of control. 2. Trauma, abuse, and neglect in childhood- These people have been through things in their childhood that have told them that life is not safe, and that they must be in control. This may include physical and/or sexual abuse (sometimes the sexual abuse may or may not be remembered), being neglected or abandoned (including adoption), emotional abuse by an angry controlling critical parent, or abusive siblings or schoolmates, poverty or being in want, having a parent that is a drug abuser of some form, etc. 3. A deep sense of needing something extra to face life- They will adopt pleasure habits (drugs, alcohol, smoking, porn, masturbation, controlling others, creating hidden stashes, television, food or eating disorders, relationship obsession etc.) usually visible in adolescence and this will continue into adult life, without these things the person feels empty, lonely, bored, and unprotected. When they cannot feed themselves with some form of pleasure, they feel uneasy and endangered, and will try to get them back again. It is likely this condition is caused by a genetic chemical imbalance (sins of the father), this condition is worsened and developed by further drug abuse and/or pleasure idolatry, and the person is actually trying to "re-balance" themselves with chemicals and pleasure to feel right again. Early psychological trauma, and spirits of fear and addiction push them as adults to practice pleasure idolatry, and self-protection, but these spirits lose their power with each day, week, month, year, we refuse to feed them. You can be free. This problem can be greatly remedied by; 1. Renouncing the sins of your ancestors and your sins verbally and repenting, it strips the spirits of any legal rights they have to torment the successive generations, also renouncing the idols of fear, control, pleasure idolatry, anger and unforgiveness toward parents, and distrust of God to protect and provide for us in life. 2. Facing the pain of your childhood, when we go back to the roots of the trauma, and acknowledge our pain, anger, sin of others, and forgive them and ourselves, it lessens the load of pain on our souls that we carry, and frees up more energy to live life again, less pain to medicate. It also helps restore our trust in God as we let these things go.

3. Take care of our bodies. We must realize we are in a state of unbalance, and pray for God to heal us. We must be careful about what we put into our bodies knowing that we are in a state of unbalance, and will be naturally seeking balance through anything that gives us the illusion of relief. Caffeine or stimulants can aggravate this condition. Exercise can also be a great help in offsetting this problem. 4. Prayer, facing your fears, like I heard someone say "Do it afraid", learning and accepting the truth that although God may allow evil to exist and act in this world for a set time, He is ultimately in control of everything, and everything that happens in your life, must go through Him first. He sets boundaries and limits to what happens to you. Obedience brings blessing, disobedience tends to bring pain and poverty. God will be faithful to you in the wilderness, to help weed out all things that hinder your progress.

The Out of Church Christians One of the things that happen to many people (not all) who are in the wilderness is that God pulls them out of their regular church. This can be a baffling and perplexing experience to undergo because these people can be some of the most active and dedicated people in the whole church, and all of the sudden for some strange reason they feel like they just can't go anymore. The grace is gone; but the habit, family pressure, and religious pull can still be very strong. Try not to freak out, or beat up on yourself if this does happen to you. Many people still believe that good works buy salvation and atone for their sin, so not being able to gratify this lie can be very disconcerting and unsettling. Obviously, the Church is actually the Body of Christ, which are you and I, the Christians. The Church is not a building, or some religious organization that has created a franchise of ministry outlets, complete with trained clergy in their particular brand of religious preferences. Churches are not bad in themselves, it is when Man organizes a religious system and progressively removes all real control or direction from God, that things start to go wrong. It can become just a dead religious farce, devoid of any real spiritual life because God's direction and leadership have been ignored or rejected. God's presence and blessing will leave if humans push His plan aside. Now, before you run wildly out your church and paint "Ichabod" on the front door, I just want to say that God removes most Christians from church to get the sin and religious mindset out of them. It is "you" that He wants to change, and later He will rejoin you to others who have been changed just like you have been. Many of these "Out-of-Churchers", become part of house churches, or they just serve God at home in a very real non-religious daily personal interactive way. God develops great intimacy and obedience during this personal fellowship time, and you become like Adam walking in the Garden with God every day. Usually God only takes you out of a church to transform you because He doesn't want a bunch of religious distractions hindering you. Our self-righteous works of the flesh keep our self-life thriving, and we tend to overlook some of the areas that really need to change. In the wilderness, you are stripped of all your beauty, giftings, and the religious praise of men. This will only last for a season though, and it is a time for "you" to deal with "you", and not a time for you to rebuke and correct the church that God took you out of. You may feel tempted to criticize your old church since you no longer feel a grace to be there, but many of these people there are still very much our Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

Beware of some bitter, rebellious, and "anti-religious" people that want to condemn everything that God has used to help the Church up to this point. We are in a time of change, and we are returning to the simple first century church model that is directed and empowered by God alone. God is organized, but God is usually interested in developing relationship, and not interested in dead rituals that exclude His leadership. Try to use your out of church time to work on changing you, and let God deal with the denominations. In Jesus, there are no denominations, and He is creating true unity in His Bride in this last great move of His Spirit in the earth. This is a wonderful and exciting time where we will all grow up and walk as one. God will finish His work in you, and He will rejoin you to a new group of matured and purified people. Trust Him to keep you, and to lead you through your out of church time, and remember that the Church is you, not a building.

The Pharisees and the Fishermen Most people know about the ultra-religious Pharisees in the New Testament that seemed to like keeping man-made rules, and looking good in front of others, rather than having a heart full of love and compassion for others, like the apostles (mere fishermen) did. And in most evangelical denominational circles, we wouldn't dream that any kind of this spiritual pride would exist. Unfortunately, without God's daily infusion of His Spirit, and Word, it is an automatic condition that develops. We must have real spiritual food every day, to remain humble and loving every day. You see, unless we go through the humbling process of the wilderness, we are all a mixture of both the Pharisee, and the fisherman. Until you have been beaten by your own sin, and had to cry out in utter despair and helplessness from a dark pit for God's mercy, it can be easy to look down on someone else with either more of a problem, or a different problem than we have. In our hearts, we must never forget that we are all a product of His workmanship. Like Gods word states, "Those that have been forgiven much, love much". God not only looks at our actions, but also at the attitudes of our hearts. Do we love without selfish strings attached? Do we forgive when wronged, or do we stay bitter and resentful? Do we have compassion on someone who is struggling with sin, or do we secretly judge them in our hearts? The wilderness experience creates true humility, love, and compassion deep down through and through. We needed the wilderness to see our need for God in everything. Now we truly know, that no good thing apart from God, dwelt in us. In the wilderness, we are shown our true self without our beauty, giftings, titles, status, possessions, praise of men, or ability to resist temptation like we used to. We endure much sorrow. We honestly see that apart from Him, we are powerless and helpless to change ourselves by ourselves. We see that our pride is worthless, and that it is totally a work of grace that saves us and keeps us day by day. He shows us the real truth about us and about Him, so that we walk in true humility. Accepting and walking in the truth about who God is, and who we really are, is humility. It would be good for us all to remember, that when God leads us out of our wilderness, and into our promised land with all its great blessings and anointing, what we were truly like without His grace and virtue pulsing through our spiritual veins. We must understand that fishermen can become Pharisees very easily if they do not spend intimate time with God on a

daily basis. He is the Vine, we are the branches. No condemnation here, just a sobering truth, that we are only as strong as our last nourishment from the Vine.
JN 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

God wants us to just walk in the truth concerning all things. God wants us to love and accept ourselves and others, even with all our shortcomings, because we are all a work in progress, and we all need His help for anything and everything. And He wants us to live and walk in love, compassion and mercy everyday, remembering the great love, compassion, and mercy that He showed us while we staggered through our wilderness time.

Fishermen focus on catching fish, and good shepherds feed and protect the sheep. Soon, there is going to be a spiritual baby boom, with countless new Christians coming into the Kingdom because of the great revival sweeping over North America and the world. Try to remain gentle, humble, and merciful, even as God was with you. Stay close to the Lord, and make time every day to fellowship with Him, and to read His word. You can only feed others, what God is feeding you, so stay filled up. If you stay close to God and listen to His voice you will remain a strong fisherman, and your heart will be kept Pharisee-free.

The Prophetic Picture of Acts If you have read the book of acts in the bible then you are familiar with how the Holy Spirit was poured out. Also you will remember how many people were saved healed and delivered, how the apostles were persecuted by the Pharisees, and how some of them were jailed and later executed for their faith. I believe that the book of acts is not only a record of history, but that it is also a prophetic picture of God's plans for the end time revival in North America, and for the great harvest of souls in the earth. Some of these things are already happening in other places in the world. I believe that we as the Church remnant have been in a stage of preparation like the original disciples were in the upper room just before Pentecost. We are about to receive a fresh corporate outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will empower us to heal the sick, cast out evil spirits, and preach the gospel in power. I believe that we will see many people get saved all at once, and that like the original outpouring of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will direct and govern us as a body. I believe that God wants us to take His power, love, and gospel to the streets, and to all public areas. I believe that all those who get saved will lay down everything that they own to be shared in common with other believers, and that all things will be for corporate use and distribution to help whoever is in need. I believe that there will be groups of Christians living in homes and meeting in homes regularly and that the Church will again become a church of the city. I believe that we will operate with a system of elders and deacons just like in the first

outpouring. I believe that God will give us large pieces of land to live together on, and to bring new converts there to grow. I believe that along with this great outpouring, there will also come a great persecution by not only the world, but especially by the ultra-religious, non Spirit-filled, non-discerning Pharisees. I do believe that a few of these Pharisees type Christians will have an experience with Jesus just like Saul did on the road to Damascus, but that most of them will fiercely attack all those who flow and operate in the power of God. We must stand our ground and let God deal with these people. We will also see many witchcraft and Satanic people attempt to come against us, and some will try to sneak into our ranks, but some of these people will see God's power and be saved. I believe that this persecution will become severe around the end, especially after most of the harvest is already brought in, and that the Antichrist and his spirit will imprison and kill many of the true believers, while many other nominal Christians will renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. But I also believe that we will stand before world leaders and preach the gospel because of this persecution. I believe that many of us will be miraculously released from jail and prison, and there will also be some who get teleported like Philip was, so that they can travel during a time of great travel restrictions. I believe that we will be working closely with angels sent to help us. I believe that we will see much greater things take place in these last days than what we saw happen in the book of acts. I believe we will see great miracles of provision like the fishes and the loaves, and that God will miraculously provide for Christians in a time of great economic downturn and government control and persecution. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming very soon, and that it is time to wash our robes by the power of His blood, spirit, and word. This is an exciting time we live in my friend, so get ready to be part of the greatest move of God on the earth ever. God will be faithful to lead you all the way through your wilderness, through revival, and into His glory.

The Real Purpose of Prosperity Most of us who have been in the wilderness have learned to live by faith, and on God's daily manna of financial and material provision. We have learned that we don't need a lot of the junk that the world chases after and that God really can be trusted to give us what we actually need to live. We have learned that "things" and the pursuit of financial and material wealth is a trap and a distraction, so we are usually fairly balanced in this area by now. Most of us are honest, humble men and women of God who have learned to give to the Lord and to the needy as the Holy Spirit directs us to. Because of that God wants to bring an increase in our income because He wants us to have more to give. God wants to help the world through people that are dead to greed, and who can carry His love and heart to meet the needs of the needy within a city.
LK 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

MT 7:9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in

heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

LK 12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now on the other end of the spectrum, we have some preachers that treat God like a bank machine and they manipulate (swindle) people into giving their money to them with the promise that God will prosper them if they do. Their motive is pure greed and what they do is most evil and despicable in God's eyes. Because of this, the Pharisees have tried to turn all teaching about prospering financially and reciprocity into some kind of con-artist ploy. But once again we have to keep the baby, and just throw out the demons and lies with the bath water. We need to have proper teaching on this subject so that we can receive all that God wants to give us by faith to help finance this last revival, and to meet the needs of the needy with it. It is not a sin to have money; it is a sin to be greedy, selfish, and self-indulgent. We just have to go through the wilderness first though to get our priorities straightened out, in order to change our heart.

MT 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

PR 10:22 The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

God does want us to have all that we need to do His work and to help others with, but He doesn't want money or things to be a hindrance, distraction, or idol to us. The world always misquotes this scripture when they say, "Money is the root of all evil" when in fact it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. We need money to live and to buy the things we need. God wants us to have more than enough to live and to give to others, but He needs us to mature enough first where our love and walk with Him will not be damaged by adding things that would pull us away from Him. You don't throw your car keys to your toddler and neither does God, but when your child reaches adolescence and shows responsibility, you are willing and desiring to do all that you can to bless them and help them in their adult life. Some people try to sidestep the growth work though, and turn Christianity into a money scamming operation. This is very sad.

1TI 6:9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

TIT 1:10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. (Pharisees who became Christians)11 They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach--and that for the sake of dishonest gain.

2PE 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction

on themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

MT 7:15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

So you see, this whole greed and money scamming thing is nothing new, it has been going on for some time now. But we must not make the mistake of labeling everyone that teaches that if you are obedient to God's financial principles of reciprocity, that they are heretics. Just because some people have learned to be obedient to the Holy Spirits leading about who they should give to, they should not be persecuted because God is using and blessing them. Most of this spiritual manipulation comes from the pulpit because pastors push the sheep to give to keep the religious machine going, all the while the poor and needy of their city are ignored. God is done financing people or religious institutions that are just feeding themselves and ignoring the poor of their city. He is looking for obedient givers that will give exactly what He tells them to, and to exactly whom He tells them to give to. Ironically, it was the original Pharisees who were always pointing their fingers at everyone, while at the same time they scheming to cheat people out of their money.

MT 23:25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

1TI 6:3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

Pharisees love to argue about doctrine, but their motive is usually to dominate, control, and eventually exploit. It will never take long for a Pharisee to ask about your finances, and where they go.

MT 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

AC 5:17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life."

In the coming days, you will be experiencing post-wilderness restoration where God is going to begin to open up new avenues of financial blessing to help to restore you and to make you a channel of resources for this revival, and to give to the poor. This world is about to experience a severe economic downturn and they will look to God and to us to help them. The Holy Spirit will tap you on the shoulder and tell you what to do with what He gives you. Freely you will receive, so freely give. You will be persecuted by the modern day Pharisees who will be jealous of God's apparent blessing upon

you, because they will be angry that He is not blessing them too. They will do everything they can to discredit you, but you must not allow it to distract you from this harvest. Your job is to just do what God tells you to do in this revival. He is the Lord of the harvest, so allow Him to make you a modern day Joseph to manage His storehouse of provision for the needy of this world. God wants to draw people to Himself by helping to meet their needs.

MT 5:42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

AC 4:32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

PHP 4:14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

"Time Wasters" For most of us who are leaving our wilderness, the Holy Spirit has been tapping us on the shoulder about things that have been wasting the time and resources in our lives. It is time to fully repent of all sin and to cease all works that do not produce good fruit for the kingdom. We have also entered a time where we will become very busy with God's work and so many of the not-so productive things that we used to fill our time with will need to be pruned away. It is a time where God wants us to come to Him in prayer and to know Him at a deeper way, but in order to do that we will need to identify what has been eating up all of our time and to vigorously free up that time. Things like TV, computers, movies, hobbies, excessive work, fleshly ministry, or whatever else has been eating up all of our time will need to be revealed and released. Entertainment or hobbies are OK to a limited point, but we have gotten so used to filling up all of our time with them in order to get through and endure our wilderness time that they can easily crowd out the new things that God wants to bring into our lives. Allow yourself to let go of your old familiar wilderness pacifiers and to embrace the new promised land activities that God wants you to be involved in. Some things we do just because they are familiar to us and they give us a sense of security, but such things can easily become an idol, hindrance, and distraction to the new season we have entered. Understand that God wants to give you new things and in order to do that you will need to let go of the old things to be able to receive them. It is our time to work and to war, and instead

of living in a tent and eating manna you must take up your sword and join together with others like you in order to take the promised land that God is leading us all into. This world is in big trouble and they need to see the power and love of Jesus Christ through people that have been carefully prepared in the wilderness. It is time to shake the sand out of our spiritual sandals and to cross the river together. This is your day to stand up my friend so allow the time wasters to be shaved off from your life and get excited about all the new things that God wants to give you and to do through you to help the many lost and needy souls who are looking for answers.

To Fast, or Not to Fast? If you have ever fasted, then you know how challenging and rewarding it can be. Personally I do not like to fast; I suppose some people do, but I do enjoy the closer fellowship and sense of intimacy and communication that I feel with the Lord when I fast. I have fasted for different reasons (direction, healing, provision, protection, and assistance) at intervals of (3,7,12, and 40 days) and I have quit a lot of fasts where I just did not feel the grace to complete it. I have learned that it is best to just wait on the Lord as far as when, how, and even if you should fast, so that you have His direction and help in order to complete it successfully. Usually, I have fasted when I have been at a major crossroads in life, or had a critical need where I felt like I really just needed to hear from God. Motive and God's leading are very important in a fast, so we really need to ask ourselves why we are really fasting. If we are fasting to lose weight and then just tacking on some spiritual needs to it, then it is likely that our fast will not succeed because our motivations in fasting are improper. In the coming days, as we transition out of the wilderness and into our position in this revival and promised land type ministry, you may feel the need to fast at times to receive fresh direction and provision as God leads you forward and restores you. The old wells and roads may suddenly start drying up and fading out so it may be a good idea to consider some fasting and prayer as you go through this time of great change and transition. The main thing is to be led of the Lord and although we may fast just to get closer to God, we have to be careful not to fast just because we are fearful about losing something, or of not receiving something. Just trust that the same God that took you through your wilderness, will be the same faithful God that leads you into your promise land. Your wilderness took many miracles, so just understand that God can do just as many new miracles as needed to lead you out of it. Most of us probably already know the basic biblical guidelines for fasting, but I will briefly list them below just in case you do not know them. 1. Don't let everyone know you're fasting just to look pious or holy, and try to just look and behave as normal as possible when you fast. You want your reward to come from God, and not from man.
MT 6:16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

2. Make sure it's God's leading and timing for you to fast. Don't start a fast just because you're getting fat; start a diet and exercise program instead. Pray about when you should start your fast, how you should fast, and how long your fast

should be. If there is no grace for you to start a fast, then just walk in faith and keep praying about what you wanted to fast about; God will help you.

MT 9:14 Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

3. Make sure your motives to fast are clear. Good reasons to fast are getting healed, facing big decisions, the salvation or healing of others, deliverance from demons, financial needs, protection from an attack, receiving empowerment, direction, or whatever the Holy Sprit leads you to fast for.

PS 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered.

AC 13: 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

EST 4:15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

Fasting doesn't buy you anything from God and He doesn't need you to starve yourself in order for you to have your needs met. Fasting can be nothing more than dead works if we are doing it out of fleshly motives. Fasting just demonstrates our desire to communicate with God through self-denial and physical suffering to receive His help. It is the willful putting aside of the flesh for a season, and the elimination of a lot of the distractions that normally hinders our ability to hear God's voice clearly. Fasting actually draws out, tests, and purifies what is really in our hearts. God is actually more interested in the change of heart and actions that fasting can produce, than He is about seeing you having to go through the suffering and pain of going without food.

JOEL 2:12 "Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

ISA 58:3 `Why have we fasted,' they say, `and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed? "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer

with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

As far as the actual mechanics of fasting, people fast on just water, just juice, or abstaining from certain types of foods (Daniel's fast). The fast may last for just one meal, one day, or as long as you feel led and have the grace to fast. Ask the Holy Spirit how He wants you to fast, and for how long. The body can usually safely fast for up to 40 days. Do not fast if you have serious health problems, or if you are anorexic or bulimic. Fasting does clean out most of the toxins that have accumulated in your bodies systems and colon, and the first week or so may be the toughest days since your body is cleaning itself out. Drink lots of water, and just try to grit it out. Hunger comes in waves and will usually pass in a few hours, and the sharp hunger pangs will usually subside after about 10 days when your body switches over to burning your excess fat as a food supply. Your body will eventually figure out that it is fasting, and will adjust to it.

Normally, when you wake up in the morning, your body may feel weak, but it will not be that hungry. Do not exercise on a fast, it will just intensify some of the negative symptoms. Most of your challenge after this point will be mental, so avoid food commercials, being around people who are eating your favorite foods, and just understand that some temptation and spiritual warfare may come to try to knock you off your fast. When you are the most tempted to quit your fast, just remind yourself that this wave of hunger will pass, and that all food is just flesh and foliage. If you break a fast, the food usually doesn't taste as good as you thought it would anyway. And when you are tempted to eat a certain food, just remember that you will eat those same delicious foods again when you are finished with your fast. When you break your fast, especially if it is a long fast, even though you will be very tempted to do so, do not just start wolfing down food. Break your fast with some watered down soup, juice, or a liquid nutritional supplement. Also, you may want to be close to a bathroom just in case you have diarrhea or throw up. The rewards of deep intimacy with the Lord, fresh direction, healing, protection, and provision, can be very wonderful, so do not give up and God will lead you all the way through your fast.

Trading Your Cross In

MK 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

There is going to be many instances (especially in your time of wilderness) that you will want to take the cross that God has called you to carry and trade it in for one that is a little more lighter and easier for you to carry. The cross is meant to be an instrument of death and a burden to have to carry around, but in your life it will become a tool that God uses to transform you from a fleshly selfish person, into a more loving and giving person like Jesus. Our cross is meant to kill us and replace our old character with Jesus' new character, so it is always meant for our good, and never our bad, and we shouldn't keep trying to get rid of it.

Some crosses you may have to bear for a time may be a difficult marriage, financial need, physical challenges, disobedient children, being denied and restricted from your own will and desires, losing family and friends while God is renovating you so that your progress is not hindered or distracted, losing your possessions, losing your physical beauty, losing your giftings, having to walk with or serve under very difficult people, losing your place in ministry, being given over to the consequences of your sin or an addiction, being blamed for things that you didn't do, or anything else that transforms your fleshiness into His righteousness.

Your particular cross is specifically designed for you alone and it will not fit anyone else, it is not transferable nor interchangeable, because you need your specially designed cross in order for you to mature properly spiritually. So I just want to encourage you today my friend that if you have been tempted lately to get rid of your old crosses and trade them in for new and easier ones, that you need them and there is no point in trying to run away from them because a new similar cross will just be waiting for you. "Wherever we go, there we are", so we need our crosses in order to change us. Crosses don't last forever, so hang on to yours.

HEB 12: 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

What Has Your Pain Created in You? For many of us who have been in the wilderness for a while, and also throughout our lives, we have experienced great pain, loss, and disappointment. And it almost seems like there has been an invisible force restricting and restraining us from being involved with the very things that we feel we were designed to do, and from the very people we have a burden for and feel most called to minister to. Some of this is to break us from any flesh connected to our vision and natural giftings, but some of it was meant to do something else. Your pain, being denied, and all your disappointment, can be used to create an even greater desire within your heart to do something even bigger for God, than if you had gotten it all the way that you wanted way back when. You may have had to die over and over again to how you thought God was going to fulfill His vision in your life. But if your vision was from God it will remain, and through all the pain, your heart will be developed by God to help an even greater number of people than you originally thought. Joseph had received a vision when he was a boy about God using him to help his family and provide for them, and guess what happened? The very people that he thought would appreciate and receive him rejected and deserted him. They threw him into a pit, and sold into slavery. Then just as Joseph started to feel like the vision might still be fulfilled by serving in Potiphars house, it seemed to just happen all over again when he was falsely accused of rape and imprisoned. But with each rejection and denial, it was getting Joseph closer to the palace, and to his place of his true greater ministry. Joseph thought that he was just going to originally help his family, but God had much bigger plans for him to help many more people. Joseph just had to have his vision crushed and purified enough times, so that all that was left in the end was the vision itself and the desire to help whomever God wanted him to help. It no longer mattered who it was, and all conditions or preconceived ideas about how it would or should happen were abandoned.

You may have been denied things in life that seemed to be the logical conclusion of what God wanted to do with you, and although it crushed you, it got you closer to purer motives for serving, and to your place of greater ministry. God is more interested in developing your heart, than He is about you just running around and doing things. Perhaps you were denied children and it created a great sorrow in you because it seemed that you were destined to become a parent. But now, that denied desire has been purified and amplified, and now you have set your sights on feeding and parenting the many hungry children and orphans of the world. Rejection by the few can drive you to help the many. Perhaps you have a desire to provide for people but you have been denied the ability to make a lot money, and to succeed financially. But the Lord needed to purify your heart first, and fill you with a greater love for even a larger group of people to help first. Joseph kept getting his idea of his vision crushed, but all this pain and rejection was preparing him to feed not just the few, but all of Egypt. Your life may look like a big failure and wreck like Joseph's did while he was spending day after seemingly wasted day languishing in Pharaoh's dungeon. But your desires and vision have been being purified, broadened, and amplified during this time to help many more people than you had originally anticipated. It is no longer about you; it is now about just doing what God has designed you to do, for whomever He calls you to serve. As long as you don't give up, you will in fact be used on a greater scale to help many people. And although the original vision didn't seem to happen the way you thought that it would, your heart has been secretly prepared to do an even greater thing for even more people than you had originally planned. Its not about numbers, its about God helping many people so that they can get saved. You may have carried a great heartache over certain losses and apparent failures over the years, but that heartache will end up driving you to an even greater number of people in the end. Your life was not as mistake; so let God speak to you and heal your heart from all the old pain that has haunted you. God will make everything right in the end my friend and you will see the wisdom in all that He did in your life.
GE 45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

GE 45:8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

What Is God Waiting For?

DT 23:14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

For many people who have been stuck in the wilderness for what seems like an eternity they have been asking in their hearts, "What is God waiting for?", because things just seem to be dragging on forever. What God has been waiting for is a full commitment to complete and consistent obedience from us. You see, for many of us we have walked in complete obedience for short seasons, but then when things got tough we ran back to our old familiar sin idols. Sin idols are what we run to when we don't trust God anymore, and what keeps us from being blessed and going forward.

The Lord has spent many years revealing "us" to us with both our strengths and weaknesses in order so that we will have all the understanding and revelation we need to fully repent of all that has been limiting God from flowing through us in His full power and blessing. It is no different than the first wilderness with the Israelites where God waited as long as it took until they were actually ready to go to war and take the land. We stand at the threshold of the greatest spiritual war in the history of man, so God will also require us to be legitimately ready to fight and not to falter because of old sin.

The need out there is so great and God has only shut us down in order to grow us up, so that we can reap this critical harvest of souls in these last days. If you have already complied with everything that God is requiring of you then you are blessed and you should pray for everyone else until they too cross the river of holiness into their promised land. If you are ready to truly go forward then take everything that God has given you and put it into practice by fully repenting. This is your day to stand not just for now, but for eternity. As it is in heaven, so it must now be for us on earth as well.

So remember that we are not necessarily waiting on God, God has been waiting for us to commit ourselves to living a consistently obedient kingdom lifestyle. We can no longer afford to have "relative holiness" where we just compare ourselves to how holy or unholy someone else is around us. We must compare ourselves only to the daily righteousness that is practiced in the kingdom of God whether it is in heaven, or the part of God's kingdom here on earth expressed through us. So make the transition to complete obedience today, and then you will be allowed to go forward and be blessed.

DT 11:31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

"Whole-iness" You may have wondered why it may be taking so long for you to get through your wilderness time and one of the main reasons is that God wants us to be completely whole so that we can live a truly holy and stable life once we enter the promised land ministry He has planned for us. We have spent years in the world accumulating emotional wounds and sinhabits and it takes a some time to get to the roots of these problems and eradicate them for good. Usually God only gives us what we truly need during our wilderness time in order to keep the distractions to a minimum so that we can just focus on Him changing and healing us, but now things are about to change.
JOS 7:1 But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD's anger burned against Israel.

Soon we will seem to have more freedom to choose. How much unhealed emotional pain and sin problems do you think we can afford to take with us into our promised land? The answer is none. Any shred of undealt with flesh or sin left intact can lead to not only our downfall, but to the downfall of those who are walking with us, so you can see why God cannot afford to cut any corners back here. The wilderness carries its own challenges of trusting God when you

have no apparent control or security so as we enter our promised land ministry we will have to be extra careful not to turn back again to old idolatry habits just because we think we have more of an ability to do so.

JOS 22:20 When Achan son of Zerah acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.' "

Our actions and choices will soon affect many other people. You have heard the expression "We are not out of the woods yet" and that will apply to all of us who are now leaving our wilderness time. The lessons we have learned in the wilderness were meant to help carry us through the battles of our promised land. God wants us to all be whole together so we are not just waiting on ourselves, but on each other as well. Trust that everything God is doing in your life right now is absolutely necessary for your journey ahead and try not to grumble, complain, or rebel when things get tough. Be patient as God puts the finishing touches on your "whole-iness" and move forward.

1PE 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

Why Tithing Doesn't Work In The Wilderness

1SA 2:7 The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.

If you have truly been in the wilderness then you may have wondered why the principles of reciprocity don't seem to work for you like they do for other people who are not in the wilderness. Well the answer is, that if giving did work for you then you would get yourself out of the wilderness prematurely and thus nullify the whole reason for why you were sent there in the first place. We go into the wilderness so that God can change us so we are severely restricted and limited during that time so that we do not run away, and so that we will be forced to focus on making the changes He wants.

LEV 27:30 " `A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

Just like the Israelites in the first wilderness, God did not expect them to tithe on their manna, but He did expect them to give to Him from the firstfruits of their produce once they entered their promised land. God did accept certain offerings during the wilderness in order to build the tabernacle and He will also require us to give in certain situations during our wilderness. But of you try to sow your financial manna during your wilderness you will just end up with less manna to live on. There is no way to give your way out of your wilderness, the only way out of the wilderness is to change.

PS 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

I remember one time in particular when I was so frustrated with living off of the "just enough" level of finances that God had given me, I was watching a reputable Christian television show that promoted reciprocity, so I decided to put God to the test and I gave everything above and beyond what we had in order for God to give us more finances (we had some really pressing financial needs at the time) and you know what happened? Nothing! We ended up with even less money to live on and the Lord told me to stop trying to escape and to just make the changes in my life that He required.

AC 2:44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Now many of us will be stepping into our promised land ministries and just like we learned to give God 100% during our wilderness, so we must give Him all that we have and accumulate during the Great Harvest. Our security lies in God alone and not in anything we own or earn. Our focus with all the financial plunder we will receive during our promised land service will be to meet the needs of the needy. Many people will live out of a common purse of funds where everyone pools together their resources for the benefit of all. Trust God during your wilderness and promised land to provide for you.

1SA 2:8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.

Wilderness Nuggets I want to share a few things that God has spoken to me throughout my wilderness journey that have helped to propel me forward. Sometimes during our wilderness, we may faint because the trial or training feels like it is too much to bear. We may also get distracted and start to swerve from the main path God wants us on, or we may start to coast because we are getting weary or lazy and just don't feel like trying anymore. Sometimes we may just dig our heels in and sit down and refuse to go any further. Because of these things, the Holy Spirit will usually intervene and speak a timely word to us to help to get us to get back on course and making the progress God wants us to make in order to change. Here are some nuggets He shared with me during my wilderness time and I hope that they can be as much of a blessing to you, as they were to me. 1. Focus on the daily progress you are making on the inside of your soul, and do not allow yourself to get distracted or discouraged by the shut down condition of your outside life. Focus on your own growth and areas that need to change, and not on the areas that need to in the other peoples lives around you. When you get discouraged or impatient about how you have to painstakingly work on changing your behavior every day, just remember that God shut down the outside to change the inside, and that He just wants the least amount of distractions as possible. When you come out the other side and see all the wonderful work that He has accomplished in you, then you will be thankful for even the restrictions you had to live under while in the wilderness, because they shaved off time for you. Also, try to just focus on your own personal growth and try not be distracted by what God may or may not be doing in others

around you. A leader does what most others will not, so don't get upset if God requires more from you than from those around you. A leader is in the lead. 2. If you choose to believe a lie after knowing the truth, then that is your own choice, and you alone will needlessly bear the suffering that it causes because you alone chose to believe the lie and ignore the truth. Walking in the truth is a moment by moment choice, so choose truth. Sometimes in the wilderness, we may have to watch our vision die more than a few times, or get our hopes up only to see them dashed again and again. We can get a real attitude against God because it looks like He is mistreating us or doing a poor job of leading us. We are faced with a choice when this happens, we can either allow ourselves to give in to self-pity and anger and start railing at God, or we can re-embrace the truth about our situation and keep our peace. Like Joseph in prison, there will be times when we think we see the way out only to find it to be another false door. We must learn to trust in Gods goodness and wisdom, especially in our times of greatest disappointment and disillusionment. 3. Learning to love is the root key to all that we do, and is a critical requirement to leaving the wilderness. We must learn to mix Gods love into all that we do for and with people because that is Gods foundation for serving others. You may learn a lot in the wilderness academically, but if you are still criticizing, judging, and/or mistreating those around you, then you will need to deepen your love walk in order to get out of the wilderness. Who you are at home, is who you really are. So if your family are angry with you a lot because of how you are treating them, then that shows that you need more of Gods love flowing through your heart and life before you are safe enough to be released from the wilderness to serve the many. God is love and we must allow His love to live through us in order to help people. 4. You can be stranded in the wilderness if you choose to be, either by unwillingness, rebellion, willful digression, or non-repentance. But God will do everything possible to help you to move forward as long as you stay willing. This may sound like a rough word, but it actually helped me to get more serious about my daily work on personal growth in the wilderness. Somehow I though that it would be 95% God and 5% my cooperation. But after my wilderness just kept dragging on, I asked the Lord one day what the hold up was. He said that He would not release me from the wilderness until I was actually ready, and that I had better start getting on the ball and working on changing, or I could be stuck there forever. This motivated me greatly to start cooperating more and complaining and coasting less. He wasn't going to budge or wave some magic wand over me to change me, I had to take it very seriously and understand that God is a very responsibly minded parent that won't just pass you through if you are not truly ready to move ahead. Somehow I thought that He would just step in and do some miracle to change me so that I would be free, but it just takes work. Just like an earthly father would not put his son in charge of the family company if that son had serious problems that needed to change, God will not put His children in charge of things unless they are truly safe and ready to serve. If God sent you forward prematurely, then those unfinished areas would eat you alive and ruin what He was trying to build, plus it could hurt a lot of innocent people. There is no going back to Egypt, and no going in Canaan until we are actually ready. But do not be afraid, God only leads people into the wilderness that He knows can make it through.

Would God Make A Fool Out Of You?

1CO 4:10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

Would God make you look like a fool sometimes in life? The answer is yes, especially if you have been led out into the wilderness to have your soul gone through. God shuts down everything in your life to overhaul your mind, will, and emotions, and He is not concerned about your reputation, He is only concerned about healing and helping you. Like the original Israelites in the wilderness, God puts you into a survival lifestyle and everyone around you may look at you and just shake their heads like you have lost your mind, because they still have a lot of control over their lives. The wilderness strips you of most of your beauty, virtue, and giftings for a season, and it causes you to live in very challenging circumstances for as long as God says so. You learn to live only on God's daily manna, and a lot of humble pie.

God may have done all kinds of things in your life in order to get you to focus only upon healing and changing. You may have had to leave the ministry or a job under difficult or even disgraceful circumstances, you may have had to go jobless for a while, receive money from people you'd really rather not have, eat from a food bank, sleep on people's couches, live off of the grid, have your sin exposed and found out by everyone, gone through addictions and treatment centers, been abandoned or rejected by friends and family. The list can go on and on, but you get the point. Just remember that like the original Israelites, there is a promised land waiting for you and it is the souls of mankind. You may have had to look like a fool for a time my friend, but God is only doing this so that He can live through you in love and power.

DT 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

You will Soon Be Clothed in Power

LK 24:49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

For many of us as Christians, we have prayed for many people over the years for different things and we have seen God help some of these people. But we have longed to see God heal people and deliver them from evil spirits as we laid hands on them on a much greater scale. So God sent us into the wilderness to prepare us to be more stable and responsible so that He could in fact flow through us in greater power to help those in need around us. The disciples had

walked with Jesus for several years being prepared to operate in Gods power, and so Jesus finally sent them out to preach the gospel in power and these were the instructions He gave them;

MT 10:7 As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.' 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10 take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.

MT 10:11 "Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

I believe that these same guidelines and principles still apply to us today. We will soon be going to the streets, the malls, and many other public places preaching the gospel and having God demonstrate Jesus power to heal and deliver so that people will believe and be saved. No matter how many people you have prayed for before where nothing happened, now you will lay hands on people and God will in fact heal and deliver them. God just needed to build a more stable, humble, and holy life in you first, so that He could flow through you without you falling or failing because of sin or pride. No matter how good your gifting is, God will only grant His power to people where Jesus character lives through them so that His power and message will not be discredited by bad character or sin. Always remember that as many people as you can help, will also be as many people as you can hurt. Here are the above scriptural guidelines in a nutshell:

1. Pray for everyone that God places in your path. With God's power comes great responsibility, so you are on His schedule and you must be willing to go and to do whatever He tells you to no matter how inconvenient it may seem, or how tired you may feel. Don't be choosy about who you will or won't pray for; if God tells you to pray for someone, then just pray for them.

2. Don't charge them money for what God does unless He tells you to. There will be times that God will allow you to receive from others to help meet your needs, to meet the needs of others, or to do something that God wants to do, but you must not charge people for what God gives them through you unless He allows it. If they want to give an offering and God tells you that it is ok to receive it, then that's fine, but otherwise just turn it down and tell them to thank God for what God did for them. Freely you have received, so freely give.

3. Don't take along a bunch of extra supplies and money when you travel for extra security. God will provide what you need as you just go forward and do the work, so just trust Him and do not let fear drive you to make back up provisions for yourself. This may mean leaving your credit cards at home and just allowing the Lord to give you what you truly need while serving. God wants His ability and goodness to receive the glory for your provision, and not your Visa card.

4. If you travel, stay with people that God wants you to stay with where peace reigns in the home. If it is the right place then don't move around to other peoples homes. If God wants you to stay in a certain persons home, then just stay

there regardless of your preferences or how you feel about the people, and don't go to a hotel just because you think it would be more comfortable and easier on you. You never know what kind of ministry or hidden blessing awaits you in each home you stay in.

5. If the home or the town you are ministering in does not receive you, then just move on and leave them to themselves, God will deal with them later on. Try not to get all upset and rattled just because some people will reject you and refuse the ministry God wants to give to them through you. They are rejecting the Lord, not you (unless you are doing something inappropriate), so try not to take it personally or argue with them about it. Just ask the Lord what He wants you to do next, and then move on. You will have both good and bad reactions and experiences from different people while serving.

6. Be wise, careful, and discerning as you walk out what God wants to do, and stay clean from all sin and defilement. Be discerning and wise about what is really going on with people and in the spirit realm, but avoid being paranoid or overly suspicious over everything that happens. Stay away from practicing any secret sin while you are doing God's work especially. We must walk blameless because there will be even more "blamers" while you walking in God's power.

Now, when you begin to walk in power, you can expect opposition to come and to try to intimidate and discourage you. They will challenge, oppose, refute, slander, criticize, and gossip about everything they can, and these modern day Pharisees will attack you just the same way they attacked Jesus and the disciples when they walked in God's power. But do not be afraid, God will be with you and you must stand your ground and not give up. Spend time with God every day and do not allow yourself to get so busy with ministry that you neglect recharging yourself spiritually and physically every day, even Jesus knew when it was time to take a break.

MK 6: 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." 32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

People and spirits may try to flatter you when you are walking in God's power, but you must remember who you were without God's power and virtue flowing through you when you were being renovated during your wilderness time. Just agree with them that God is good and give all the glory to Jesus. God showed us who we were without His grace in the wilderness so that we could walk in true humility once He moved through us in a greater way. This is all about helping them anyway; it's not about us. Trust God to deal with attackers when they attack. The disciples ran into these kinds of problems, and this is how they dealt with it.

AC 14:8 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

AC 14:11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

AC 14:14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you.

AC 13:6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun."

Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

AC 8:18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money 19 and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."

AC 8:20 Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

These will be exciting, challenging, and very busy days ahead where we will see many new people come into the kingdom all at once. Prayer, worship, and reading and teaching the word will be our daily manna. Remember that new Christians still have a lot of their flesh still intact, so it will take a lot of patience and grace to walk with them. Share the load with others and don't try to be a spiritual Superman. Lead new believers to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that He can help them to grow and heal more effectively. He is the master Teacher and Counselor so teach them to hear His voice and to become more dependent upon Him, rather than upon you. This harvest will be bigger than any other in history, and the opposition and warfare will be intense, so we must draw upon God and each other for the strength and support that we need. Get ready to be clothed with power and to go forward to conquer in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ.

AC 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

Your Place in this World Most people that God has set aside for this new thing He is doing in the Earth, have spent a lifetime of baffling restriction and restraint from developing any real major purpose, or clear

position or calling in life. Like nomads, they go through life, just doing what God puts in front of them, and they accept the fact that they may not be allowed to, complete a college degree, own big homes, have important titles, or attain a high rank or status in the big machine of life. You may feel like Cinderella, always getting the work without the reward, promotion, or credit, but like Cinderella, your character is just being prepared for a much greater future service. Like John the Baptist, you may do a lot of Wilderness time in practical training, rather than the elite schools of men. It is the University of the Holy Spirit, and it is the best training available. God only restricts the outside, so that He can develop the inside to do something far greater. The higher the building, the deeper the foundation needs to be. Rest assured, when God is satisfied with the inside, He will withhold no good thing from the outside. Like Joseph, and his time managing the resources of others on a small scale, God was secretly preparing him for something on a much larger scale. If you are wondering what your gifting or calling is, there are several ways of getting a good idea. First of all, what is it that you really like to do? What do you really enjoy doing that blesses others? Second, what has God already used you for in the past? Do you sing, preach, pray, counsel, prophesy, give, help others, or something else? Natural ability, experience, and God's spiritual support on a gifting, can give you a good clue. Third, who, or what do you feel a special burden for? What pulls, and touches your heart? Whatever God has shown you that He wants to do with your life, hang onto that no matter what. Though like Joseph, even as the vision tests you, don't let it go. Now, God may allow the vision to seemingly die just like He did with Moses and Joseph, but He does this so that we know deep down, all the way through, that it is 100% God, that is making things happen, and that it is His timing and direction that will guide us down the road to our destiny. He wants us to truly know, that apart from Him, we really can't do anything that will count. When your heart is full of love and compassion for others, there will be no more room for selfish ambition, or the other ugly attributes that poison and pollute our giftings and service. When we have Gods heart beating in us, we will do everything from right motives, and our labor will not feel so burdensome. We will work to be seen only of God, and not of men. Like Joseph and Moses, God has been subtly, and carefully reshaping your heart, and transforming it into His own. Our job right now, is just to cooperate with the direction of the Holy Spirit in His daily work of transformation and purification. You will find out your place and purpose in the world soon enough. Like Jesus said, the field is ripe, and the laborers are few. But God has been secretly preparing many mature laborers that can accomplish much, as they walk in unity and love for one another. God has heard the groanings of your soul to know your purpose, and He is the One that has placed all these desires within you to know. Jesus is the gentle Lord of the harvest, and He will show you your place, and you will be very satisfied in the job He gives you. Like the finest Masterpiece, God has really taken His time with you to do a complete and lasting work.

Your Record of Faith If you have been in the wilderness for a while, you may have noticed that God will usually not do things the easy way, and that He has engineered your wilderness activities, needs, and challenges, to require pure faith to get through them. Whether you have had to pay a bill that

you have no money for, be healed for a physical problem that you have no medical care for, or to help you to overcome a sin habit. God wants to build a record of faith in your life that He can use to encourage and build up other peoples faith with. The very stumbling blocks that used to be your reproach, will later be used as stepping stones to build a path to a ministry to show others how God can help them just the same way that He helped you. Someday, you may actually be thankful that God allowed some of these problems to happen in your life, because they will provide the very foundation of faith and experience that your service to mankind is later built upon. It can be frustrating at times because you may find yourself just wanting God to give you an easy way out of your problem. But what God is doing is building a treasure chest of faith that you can open up and pull out a past miracle from to give people faith to believe that God will help them in just the same way as He helped you. When God decides to do a miracle in your life, He will allow a situation to become absolutely impossible before He will step in and act. He does this so that you know completely that it was Him that helped you, and so that nobody or nothing else will receive the glory but Himself for what He does. God wants people to believe in Him, and that's why He allows your problem to become so unsolvable first. You can either choose to get offended, or to get excited when an impossible problem crops up. But when you see enough times of how God has faithfully helped you, you will learn to better trust in His love and desire to help you, and it will also show you just how reliable He truly is. God just wants to build your faith. God has built your faith so that you can believe for even greater things as we enter this time of great revival and spiritual warfare. All of the faith that God built in your wilderness will help you to have faith for the tougher battles ahead in your Canaan. When you have seen God provide and protect you enough times, you will have faith and not fear when you see an impossible need, battle, or enemy rise up in front of you in your promise land ministry. Try to see your challenges as an opportunity to add yet another great victory to your record of faith. Although we may get weary at the end of our wilderness, we cannot just expect everything ahead to be easy. It is a war. Let's not just talk about what God once did, but let's allow Him to take us to an even greater level of trusting Him. What God does in your life now, will result in lasting eternal glory for Him.
1SA 17:37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

JAS 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

JAS 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

1PE 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

DT 7:17 You may say to yourselves, "These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?" 18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19 You saw with your own

eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.

HEB 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

All of Hebrews chapter 11 is a good record of people in the bible who walked by faith.

Your True Relatives

MT 12:48 He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Sometimes it's hard in the wilderness because you tend to lose many meaningful people in your life. But we must remember that we live in a kingdom where only those who do the will of God in their life will be allowed to be prominent people in our lives.

LK 18:29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

We don't stop loving people just because they are not part of our life, but just understand that God's main focus is to help you to reach spiritual maturity and anything or anyone that would distract or hinder this process must be released.

GE 37:34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.

Jacob knew what it was like to lose someone very dear to him for God's purposes but if you read to the end of the story God reunited Jacob with Joseph later on. Trust that what God has taken out of your life can be returned to you later on if it His will.

GE 45:26 They told him, "Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt." Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.