By: Joanie Buchanan

Have you ever found yourself in a place you never dreamed you would be? Have you said, "O God, how did I get here?" The enemy of your soul can be so subtle you can get in trouble before you realize it.

If we allow him he will chip a way at our life until we become weak and faint.  We seem to forget that God has promised away of escape. However, we continue like stubborn sheep trying to find our own green pasture. From a distance the other pastures look so inviting we continue on a path following what we see instead of what we know. 

Yet God, our Great Shepherd has warned us time and again, "Stay away from those forbidden pastures.  The land looks fruitful but it is barren and the enemies have set up ambushes. This path is the way of disobedience and only leads to an ultimate destruction for you." God's word says, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord , And in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.   Psalm 1:1-3

We go on passing the fertile pastures of obedience until we have lost our way.  So, what do we do now?

We began to rationalize in our own mind, "It has taken me awhile to get here and I am too tired to turn back. My body is tired and weary from the journey. I am so hungry, cold and thirsty that I feel I can not go another mile. What will people say?  Surely I can not tell anyone how I have messed up my life, would they really care to know anyway?  It seems no one was there for me when I really needed them. And who's there for me now? I am alone. I am scared. What do I do now? Which direction do I go in? How do I get back to where I was?"

Deep in the recesses of our heart we know we have made the wrong choices. We have strayed away from the path God has ordained for us.  "Now what am I to do with this messed up, broken life?"   Do we continue going on?  Hoping that just ahead we will find the safe haven we have been looking for. We try to convince ourselves that turning around is too hard. It is too late to try to start again. Our heart becomes so heavy that we began to cry, "God, help me in this awful dilemma." We began to rehearse the Word of God that has been dormant in our mind for such a long time. 

Suddenly, the Word of God begins to explode in our mind,  "Call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things you know nothing about."  David said, " I cried unto the Lord and he heard my cry and he delivered me."  Once more the presence and the power of the Great Shepherd is real again.

Wilderness experiences are not all bad. So many times we find God's voice much louder and clearer in the barren places.  No one is around to distract or condemn you. There is no where else to go and nowhere else to look but up. We are ashamed that we walked away from his love and provision. Ahh, but in the stillness of that moment, the rushing of the Holy Spirit starts to sweep over you. In the hush of the moment you find refuge. The answers that you desperately looked for are found. Your frightened soul is comforted. His precious words of Life set you on an everlasting journey of restoration and rest in His arms.

There is a flood of living water that brings life to the dead areas. The words from His mouth feeds your barren and dry soul.  How sweet to be back into the arms of the Great Shepherd. Your vision is no longer blurred. You see life clearly from God's perspective. You see now that the green pastures were not what you thought that were. Life comes from a deeper source with a greater capacity to see things as God sees them.  

We must stop looking to the world for answers. We will not find satisfaction in getting more things, or depending on others, but by surrendering our lives to the will of God..  No person on this earth can fulfill our inner most being.  It is the Good Shepherd that we must rely on for all things. What we think for a moment is tantalizing to our flesh is nothing but a false delusion in the recesses of our own carnal thinking.

I beg you to cry out to God as I have. To seek God with all your heart. To get your focus off of the things and the people of this world.  It will never make you happy.  None of these things can give you peace. That's what we all desperately look for.  Our role model is JESUS. Use your Wilderness to cry out to God.  HE is the only one that can provide the way that leads out of the barren places. God at times will stand back and let us try it our way. HE will let us go through some deep hurts, because He knows in our pain we finally run to Him. He is only a prayer away.  "BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD."

He so desires our Worship and Adoration.  He does not want what we have--He wants us. I love what Job did in his darkest hour, the word says, "He fell on his knees and worshipped."

Praise Him for turning curses into blessings. HE is the God of the impossible!  Sit for awhile, cry if you must, then turn it all over to Him and let Him get you out of that place. It could take awhile but learn your lessons and start walking out. It doesn't matter why you were there, the reason isn't important. Just remember it's only for a season. This too shall pass!!

Beloved, let us learn to be sensitive to His voice and learn the meaning of a "Servant." It is not the proud and haughty that receive from God, but those who know all their strength and power lies within Him. Then and only then will we understand the words of the Lord, "My sheep know my voice and they know Me and follow ME."  The Lord is calling you out of that wilderness. Will you hear His voice and follow Him today?

God Bless you,

Joanie
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