A spiritual wilderness encounter is meant to bring transformation into the lives of those, who had been destined for destruction by the enemy. The Lord God will never abandon His own people for the enemy to have his desire fulfilled on them. God is faithful. He will always intervene on behalf of those who are loved by Him.
However there is no child of God who can ever go through this spiritual encounter successfully, without faith in the Lord God to save, to heal and to deliver.
The wilderness is a place of spiritual destitution, where faith in God is the only thing that works. To be able to make it through, you must have faith in God’s unfailing power to save, to heal and to deliver.
This is a place of spiritual, material and financial poverty that can only become prosperous with the help of the Most High God. And with God on your side as His loved and chosen one, you are bound to come out of it into your prosperity. The Lord will ensure that you are loaded with all the things, that you need to be successful in life.
That’s why the scriptures emphatically tells us numerous times that:
“Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
Hebrews 10:38 NKJV
Anyone who draws back from the lifestyle of faith, while going through a spiritual wilderness encounter is headed for destruction. Faith is the only thing that pleases God in our relationship with Him (Hebrews 11:6).
From the Scriptures we do know that all the Patriarchs had to live by faith in God, even as they were passing through their individual wilderness encounters. They all pleased God in this way, even while going through diverse forms of trials, temptation and adversities in the wilderness.
The Bible says about them that:
“All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.”
Hebrews 11:39-40 NLT
Everything that God promised them were inherited by their descendants. God’s Covenant promises to them were all fulfilled as their descendants reached perfection, while holding on to their faith in God.
Their lifestyle of faith through each of their spiritual encounters served as examples for us. They went through what they went through, so as to give us a spiritual footprint as we are following in their footsteps into our own prosperity. God was preparing something better for us through their examples, so that together with our faith we may all be made perfect.
Any Christian who is not living by faith can never find fulfillment and satisfaction in the Kingdom of God. It is through a lifestyle of faith that the Lord disciples His chosen ones. However it’s only an illegitimate child who will resist being disciplined.
Your hunger and thirst will be satisfied
Wilderness encounters with the Lord God are great for every child of God. You will become more matured in handling many things. It’s the place where a Christian begins to long for the presence of the Lord God like never before.
It begins with that moment when you start getting hungry for the Lord, to manifest Himself on your behalf in the midst of your difficulties.
That spiritual hunger will cause you to begin to seek for Him, through His written word like never before. You will also begin to understand as you pray, that you do need Him to quench your spiritual thirst.
But even though you are becoming spiritually hungry and thirsty for Him, you will also begin to understand, why the Lord God has kept many things mysterious to you. He does this always for your protection. He does not want the enemy to be able to steal what is yours away from you.
The more we become hungry and thirsty for the Lord, the more we’ll begin to find ourselves being lost in the midst of nothingness. A spiritual vacuum which can only be filled with His presence.
The desire of the Lord is that we seek Him with everything that is on the inside of us. Those who are seeking the Lord are the ones who are finding Him.
When we find ourselves before the Lord praying in the spirit, but lost; then our faith ought to be in Him. This is the moment when we should be trusting in His right hand of righteousness to hold and sustain us.
Spiritual encounters are never personal
And in the midst of all that you may be observing in that realm of the spirit, He is there with you. He has His hand all over you, to hold you when you are getting weak due to the weight of His glory. He will hold you in His hand, so that you can be able to stand before Him.
Daniel tried to explain his personal encounter in this way:
“Therefore I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me; for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.”
Daniel 10:8 NKJV
This was the best way for Daniel to explain his encounter to our own understanding. Such things in that realm of the spirit are difficult to explain to any person of flesh and blood. They are too hard articulate in our natural languages of communication.
The purpose of this encounter with Daniel was because of the revelation that was about to be given to him. The revelation was meant for Daniel to use in encouraging the people of God; especially as they were trusting in Him.
As Paul once said:
“Each believer is given continuous revelation by the Holy Spirit to benefit not just himself but all.”
1 Corinthians 12:7 TPT
No revelation from the Lord is ever personal. It’s always meant for the purpose of edifying the Body of Christ. And through this spiritual encounter with the Lord by one individual within the Body of Christ, the whole Body is encouraged to keep on fighting the good fight of faith.
The Apostle Paul said about his own personal encounter with the Lord in this way:
“It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
II Corinthians 12:1-4 NKJV
Paul was lost in that realm. He could not explain if he was in the body or out of the body. He obviously was in the presence of the Lord.
He found himself in a situation that he could not even describe, because he found it not appropriate to be talking about his encounter. He heard what was too “inexpressible” with words for the natural man to understand.
In this realm there is an awesome sense of serenity and power of God’s love, that words can’t articulate. The only language in God’s presence is love. It is the language of the angels of God.
And the only desire of the heart during this type of spiritual wilderness encounter, is to keep on longing for God’s presence to fill you up. You’ll begin to discover that He alone can satisfy that spiritual hunger and thirst within you.
Christ will fill you up
Jesus made this possible for us, through the sacrifice of His Body and the shedding of His Blood on the cross.
When He said – “it is finished” (John 19:30) on the cross; from that very moment He became the Son of God. His Body and Blood became the Body and Blood of God. Jesus became One with the Father. A Man of flesh and blood like us became One with God, so as to grant us access into becoming the children of God.
As you are consuming His Word, He is feeding your spiritual hunger and quenching your spiritual thirst. He had said:
” .. I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
John 6:35 NKJV
But feeding on God’s word and drinking from His presence, to quench your spiritual hunger and thirst is not enough to walk faithfully with Him. You are to become a doer of what you are being fed with in His presence. The Lord expects the fruit of Christ’s righteousness in your life.
There are a lot of people who are feeding on God’s word and drinking from His presence; but whose lives are not right before the Lord. They had tasted of the goodness of the Lord, but they are not living in the full benefit of it. They are not doers of what they are being taught by the Lord.
The scriptures tells us as an example, about the children of Israel while in the wilderness, that they:
“all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”
I Corinthians 10:3-5 NKJV
The result of what they did with the spiritual food and drink in their lives, became an example for us today to learn from.
They all ate of the same spiritual food and drank of the same spiritual Rock (which is Christ); but they still sinned and perished in the wilderness, because of their act disobedience to God’s word. They had belittled the Covenant promises of God, and died in the wilderness.
Their example clearly points to our acts of obedience to the Spirit of Christ today. Many are perishing today during their spiritual wilderness encounters, because of the same reason.
Can you learn something from their mistake? The scriptures warned us not to fall into the same mistake that they made. It’s the same enemy who tempted them to sin, that is still walking around and doing his works of evil today also.
That’s why Paul continued by warning us:
“Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
I Corinthians 10:8-11 NKJV
These types of examples in the scriptures are meant for us to learn something from. They are not just lessons of history, but they are the spiritual truth that can set you free. They were written for us to learn from their mistakes.
If you are going to avoid the destruction of the enemy in your wilderness encounter, then take this lesson for yourself so that the Lord can prosper you.
Lean to learn from the examples of others
The Bible says:
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
I Corinthians 10:13 NKJV
God will never allow you to face a temptation or trial of your faith in your spiritual wilderness, that His grace will not be able to carry you through it. He is using these things to spiritually discipline or train you, to be used for His glory.
The Passion translation is even more explicit. It says:
“We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT
There is no form of temptation, testing or trial of your faith, that God is not able to shower His grace upon you in bearing it. He will always shower His grace over your life, so that you can go through it all successfully without being a victim of the ploy by the enemy.
This is how He is training or disciplining you, so that your faith can become stronger in Him. If His grace is carrying you in overcoming the temptation, then you will automatically become dangerous to the enemy.
The devil knows the intensity and strength of the temptation, that God’s grace has empowered you to overcome. He fears that type of strength in your resistance to him.
And that’s what we are to be doing whenever the enemy confronts us. We are to be resisting him forcefully and persistently, until he flees away in terror of who we are in Christ Jesus.
That’s why the spiritual wilderness encounters of others from the scriptures, are there for us not only to know about them. But it’s important for us to become good stewards of their spiritual encounters in our own personal experiences.
As the scripture says:
“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
I Corinthians 10:11 NKJV
The spiritual encounters of others are there for us, that we may learn how to follow in their own examples. It’s going to be difficult for you to make their own mistakes, if you are truly learning from these examples from the scriptures.
And we can also learn a lot from their lives. That’s why we consume the scriptures so as to grow stronger in faith. Every time you are doing this, you are meditating on what you are consuming.
It will transform your life into becoming who God wants you to become in life. Be a doer of God’s word and not a reader only.
