The Wilderness Experiences

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. ~ Luke 4:1-2

Have you ever been in a place where you thought to yourself, "Lord, what in the world are You doing? Do You have any idea what's going on in my life right now?"

I wonder if Jesus had any thoughts like this? He had been baptized by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22) Then, the next thing we see is that He is filled with the Holy Spirit but led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil. I can imagine Him saying something like this..."OK God, You just told me You were well pleased with Me, and now You send me out into the wilderness to fight the enemy? This is not what I expected!" Have you ever felt that way?

Jesus was led out into the wilderness to prepare Him for His ministry. He went through this period of being tempted by the devil and He won as He used the Word to defeat the enemy. The next time we see Jesus, He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and He begins teaching, healing the sick, casting out demons, and performing all kinds of miracles.

God does the same thing with us. We find ourselves in the wilderness and a lot of times the enemy starts trying to convince us that we've done something wrong that caused us to be in this place. We may think that God is mad at us. We wrestle with all the wrong thoughts when in reality, sometimes God Himself led us there to prepare us! What kind of struggle are you in? What is the enemy tempting you with? That may be the very thing that God wants you to use to help others. If you're being fought physically with sickness, etc, He may be preparing you to minister to others who are sick. We must change our perspective and find out what God is trying to teach us while we're in the wilderness. We must also find out how He wants us to use the knowledge that we've gained.

God doesn't get pleasure out of watching us suffer. There's a purpose for our pain. He wants to use us to impact our world and if we will allow Him to do a complete work in us and we will learn to cooperate with Him, we will be amazed at the work He does in and through us. Our wilderness experiences will completely transform us if we will surrender to His will and trust Him to lead us every step of the way! These experiences will equip us to reach more people than we could ever imagine! Remember, it's not about us! God has a plan and He wants to use you to change your world!