There are a lot of Christians who are passing through spiritual wilderness encounters these days.
A Christian who is deliberately walking in disobedience to the teaching(s) of the Bible, has set the stage for himself to encounter God in the spiritual wilderness. This is a tough and serious encounter to go through.
As the rate of disobedience to the word of God is increasing, so also is the number of those who are encountering the Lord, through the spiritual wilderness of their lives increasing.
The Lord God is calling the disobedient back home to Himself, by taking them through the spiritual wilderness encounters with Himself, so that they can get to know Him and His ways of doing things in His Kingdom more intimately.
He’s doing just as He did to the disobedient Israel when they went into the Babylonian captivity. The Prophet Hosea had said at that time to the nation of Israel by the Spirit of God that:
“¶ “Therefore, behold, I will allure Israel and bring her into the wilderness, And I will speak tenderly to her [to reconcile her to Me]. “Then I will give her vineyards from there and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope and expectation [anticipating the time when I will restore My favor on her]. And she will sing there and respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. “It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord, “That you will call Me Ishi (my husband) And will no longer call Me Baali (my Baal). “For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will no longer be mentioned or remembered by their names.”
Hosea 2:14-17 AMP
The grace of God is increasing more and more, even as the sin of rebellion against God’s word is increasing.
And it’s noteworthy that many of the disobedient don’t even understand, why they are going through what they are encountering.
They can’t see the hand of the Lord in the midst of what they are going through. Majority of them see it more as a trial of their faith, and not necessarily as a wilderness encounter with the Lord.
But in reality, it’s much more than the trial of their faith.
The wilderness is the place where the Lord corrects, instructs, directs and teaches those who are loved by Him. He takes hold of them by Himself in the spiritual wilderness of their lives, so as to prepare them and use them for His glory.
And if you are willing to be prepared and used for the Lord’s glory, that wilderness encounter can be turned around to position you for divine prosperity.
It’s important to know how to be able to differentiate the voice of the Lord from the voice of the evil one and the flesh, while going through this. Many have perished, because they had mistaken the voice of the devil and their flesh for God’s.
For as long as you are listening and obeying the voice of the Lord while going through it, the Lord will anoint you with His presence.
He will bring His prosperity into your life through your wilderness encounter, and thereafter He will cause His grace and mercy to carry you back into His purpose for your life.
If He did it for Isaac; He can do it for you also (read Genesis 26).
The only thing that is required of you as you’re going through it, is that you be found faithful in following Him as you are passing through it.
It’s very important that you must be found faithful, because there are many people who are being spiritually extinguished in the wilderness of their lives these days, because of the stubbornness of their heart to accept the correction, instruction and direction of the Lord to them.
This is due to their disobedience to the voice of the Lord. The Lord is disciplining them through this spiritual encounter; but they are not listening to His voice by obeying Him.
The scriptures show us several times how the Israelites died in the wilderness, as a result of their disobedience to God.
And many of these Christians are dying every day also.
Many of the Israelites who were actually delivered from Egypt, never made it into the promised land. They perished in the wilderness because of their lack of faith in God’s Covenant promises to Israel.
As the scripture said:
“Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So, we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 3:17-19 NKJV
It is the ability of a believer in Christ Jesus to be able to discern the will of God, while passing through the spiritual wilderness of life, that will eventually determine his level of prosperity as he’s coming out of it.
Wherever the will of God is being revealed, it becomes much easier for the believer in Christ to go through these encounters by faith.
Where the will of God is not known, many people had often faced destruction by the enemy.
Instead of seeking to know the will of the Lord and His purpose for their lives, many are trying to go through their spiritual encounters in their own strength.
But the harder they are trying to do this, the more it’s becoming complicated for them to handle the situation.
Believe in the will of God.
The scriptures had set the standard for us in walking victoriously through the wilderness. If you are in a spiritual wilderness right now, you ought to be seeking the scriptures for the answer to the mysteries of your life.
But if you have decided to go through it by relying on the opinions of people, you are going to end up being miserable and frustrated, because the wisdom of men can never resolve the mysteries of God:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts”.
Isiah 55:8-9 NKJV
Every answer that you need are in the holy scriptures. Jesus went through the wilderness encounter successfully, by anchoring Himself in the holy scriptures.
You’re therefore commanded to keep:
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2 NKJV
Going through any spiritual wilderness encounter can be very tough and rough. It is challenging to your faith, because the enemy will always play dirty with you, as you are passing through it.
If he played dirty with Jesus, he would play dirty also with you. In fact, the devil always plays dirty.
But when your heart is firmly established in the perfect will of God, no matter how dirty the enemy may be in attacking your faith, you will come out of it stronger than when you got into it.
That’s why you will need to be Covenant minded in your walk through it with the Lord. A heart that is firmly rooted and established in the promises of God, will come out successfully through it.
This means that your faith will have to be anchored on Jesus alone and nothing else.
Instead of putting their faith in God and in His Covenant promises to them, many are navigating their pathway through it, by relying on what the world has to offer them. They are seeking the wisdom of men in understanding the wisdom and the mysteries of God.
The result of this is the devastation and destruction that they are facing every day. Nothing works in God’s Kingdom without faith in Him and in His word.
The Bible says:
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6 NKJV
Being a diligent seeker of God with your faith in His Covenant promises makes you a victorious Christian. The Lord is always pleased with the faith of those, who are seeking Him diligently in the midst of their wilderness encounters.
And you do need the faith of God to be able to go through the unseen world of the spiritual wilderness of your life. It’s a very dangerous place to find yourself in without God being on your side.
But as long as you have made up your mind to be listening and obeying the Lord alone, through His word and the voice of the Holy Spirit into your life, you will be triumphant.
It’s important to note that the scripture also says:
“So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:8 NKJV
Those who are relying on themselves and their moral abilities can never please God. They are the ones who are being defeated in the spiritual wilderness by the enemy.
It’s good to have morals; but good morals have nothing to do with defeating the enemy.
The devil doesn’t have any moral at all.
You can be religiously correct and morally right; but that doesn’t make the devil to fear you. The devil in fact knows how to make people religiously sound and correct with good morals, while making them the most spiritually dumb Christians on the earth.
He likes to see God’s people living the Christian life in this way; because he knows that as long as they are spiritually ignorant, while being religiously correct with their good morals, he can easily keep them in spiritual bondage.
He will do this so as to make Christians spiritually weak in declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ, to save the lost, to heal the sick and to deliver the captives.
This is how he is weakening and destroying Churches around the world today. He is substituting a thriving and prosperous Christian lifestyle for certain people, with a set of religious ethical and moral standard that lacks the power of God.
Therefore, Jesus is your perfect example through the Christian wilderness encounters. He was victorious in passing through it, by relying solely on the Father in Heaven.
Even when the situation got tougher, Jesus relied solely on what was written in the holy scriptures, for Him to be able to pass through it triumphantly.
The arm of the flesh will always lead to destruction. But those who are looking up to Jesus, will always overcome in their wilderness encounters.
Believe in the ministry of your angel.
Jesus relied absolutely on the Covenant promises of God as written in the holy scriptures. And as He trusted in God’s word, we were told that angels were dispatched from above to minister to Him.
The Bible says:
“Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.”
Mark 1:12-13 NKJV
The spiritual encounter of being baptized in the Holy Spirit qualified Jesus to face the devil:
“And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.”
Mark 1:10 NKJV
The same Spirit that came upon Him in the form of a dove, took Him into the wilderness.
This is why every Christian must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will lead you into the victory against the enemy.
There is a difference between the in filling and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is crucial for this encounter. You do need the baptism of the Holy Spirit for protection you the “wild beasts” in the wilderness.
This will make it difficult for them to see completely through your life.
Never forget that the enemy does not have the key into all spiritual truth. The Holy Spirit does, and He alone will reveal it to you, even as your angel is guiding you through this journey.
A spiritual wilderness is the habitation of spiritual “wild beasts”. These are blood sucking demons that don’t show mercy at all to anybody. They are out there to steal, to kill and to destroy (John 10:10).
They are there to afflict your spiritual life, health, finances and everything else that is yours. Their ultimate goal is your total destruction.
Jesus however had to rely on the ministry of the angels, to be able to make it in overcoming them. You can’t defeat these spiritual wild beasts in the flesh.
Don’t even try it. Otherwise, you will regret ever doing so, because they thrive above you in the flesh.
But your personal angel can help you in defeating them. It’s the job of your angel to reveal to you how you can overcome them. Pay attention to him.
The Bible says about the angels:
“Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”
Hebrews 1:14 NKJV
If you had been saved through the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ, the angels of God are there to minister God’s grace upon your salvation. They are there to help you in inheriting every Covenant promises of God, that are yours by faith in Christ Jesus.
They are there with you in the midst of every spiritual warfare of your life.
But they do need you to be speaking words of commands, for them to be able to act on your behalf. You have to be ready to use your mouth in cooperating with them. They can only respond to whatever you are saying, in accordance with the Covenant promises of God for your life.
Jesus had to spiritually encounter the “wild beasts” in the wilderness; but without the words that He spoke in defeating the devil, the angels could not had been able to minister to Him effectively.
Jesus spoke exactly what the scriptures says in overcoming the temptation of the devil. And in the same manner you will have to be speaking, what the scriptures says to overcome the devil, because that’s the only thing coming out of your mouth that they are bond to honor.
The Apostle Paul made us to realize from his personal experience in confronting “wild beasts” at the Church in Ephesus, who had made themselves into a spiritual stronghold among the people of God.
He told the Church at Corinth:
“Tell me, why did I fight “wild beasts” in Ephesus if my hope is in this life only? What was the point of that? If the dead do not rise, then let’s party all night, for tomorrow we die!”
1 Corinthians 15:32 TPT
These were people who had yielded themselves to the service of the devil among the people of God. And as a result of this, they had become a stronghold against the doctrine of Christ among God’s people.
There are people like this today also, whose primary purpose in Churches is to hinder the flow of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to save the lost, to heal the sick and to deliver those in spiritual bondages to the devil.
If Paul had to fight against these spiritual strongholds of men, you may find yourself in the same situation today also.
There is no spiritual immunity for us as Christians from this spiritual warfare.
Of course, Jesus has given us the victory over the devil, but we do have to take possession of the victory by faith.
In the process of possessing what belongs to you, the “wild beasts” will do everything possible to stop you.
They were there to prevent Jesus from triumphing over the devil in the wilderness. They were also there to prevent the flow of the anointing in the life of Paul to the Church at Ephesus. But in both of these two instances the angels of the Lord were available to guarantee the victory.
And your angel is waiting for your words of command also, so as to start working for you. You must be prepared to obey whatever he tells you. He will reveal directly to you what the Father had directed him to tell you in your particular situation.
That’s what they are doing in ministering to you through visions and dreams. Very often on certain occasions they may also directly contact you in an open vision.
But you must also be aware that, just as there are angels who are working on behalf of God to help you; there are also fallen angels who are working for the devil to deceive you.
The scripture says about the devil:
“And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”
II Corinthians 11:14 NKJV
The devil will work with deception, so as to stop your faith in God from being productive. Any angel that speaks anything that is contrary to the written word of God is a fallen angel.
This was why Jesus had to speak what was written in the scriptures. He was giving the angels around Him something to use in enforcing the spoken words over the devil.
And just as there are many fallen angels everywhere on assignment from the devil; there are much more angels of the Lord, who are standing by, to minister to your spiritual needs in prayer.
Your personal angel has the job of protecting you from these fallen angels. That’s why it’s important to obey him. He will reveal every trick of the fallen angels to you, so that you can be effective in binding them.
The Lord God warned the children of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness, to be careful in obeying His Angel among them. He told them:
“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. For My Angel will go before you and bring you in, to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.”
Exodus 23:20-23 NKJV
Every act of disobedience to the voice of your angel is disobedience to God. An angel of God has the name of the Lord God in him. He does not take any wrong attitude to the promises of God lightly.
Angels are aware of what led to the rebellion in lucifer, before he was casted out of the presence of the Lord God (see Ezekiel 28).
They don’t take that sort of transgression lightly at all. They are swift in judging anything that you do know is contrary to the word of God; but which you keep on doing in blatant transgression of God’s word.
There are of course certain sins of omission that can be forgiven, when a sinner repents of them.
But when a Christian knows the perfect will of God, but deliberately chooses to act in rebellion against it, then the angels will move swiftly to judge the sin, while saving the sinner.
They see it in the light of the same rebellion that was in lucifer.
All sins are forgiven when a sinner repents of them. But the Lord does not give us any license to be living in sin, while taking advantage of God’s grace and forgiveness.
The scripture says:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
Romans 6:1-2 NKJV
The Bible gave us an example again in the life of Balaam, who had been invited by Balak to curse the Israelites in the wilderness.
The Lord God had told Balaam not to curse Israel. But after numerous persuasions by Balak, he had decided to go ahead on the dangerous journey into the wilderness, against the revealed will of God to him.
Balaam knew that the Lord had told him not to go to Balak. However, the Angel of the Lord never took it lightly with him on his dangerous journey. He had to finally stop him and warned him face to face:
“And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely, I would also have killed you by now and let her live.”
Numbers 22:32-33 NKJV
The Angel was bent on killing Balaam on his rebellious path; but the donkey saved the life of Balaam. God had to open the mouth of a donkey to speak His wisdom to correct the rebellious prophet.
Every act of rebellion in disobedience to the word of God invokes the wrath of your angel today also. He will not treat it lightly.
Your angel is there to help you into prosperity with everything that you are doing, in accordance with the purpose of God for your life. Obeying him will make you prosperous in life.
Start paying attention to him today.
