Why does the Lord leave His people on a physical or spiritual wilderness after He takes it from the power of Satan? Because wilderness is a perfect place for sifting His people and also for the growing and strengthening of the spirit of those believers, which take God and His Word seriously. Also, for learning to discern their spirit from soul and for walking in the spirit and not only in the soul. Here, our soul suffers, is afflicted, not satisfied because in wilderness it has nothing to do, it does not feel appreciated or even considered useful by others. In wilderness, there is nothing to do, you cannot plow, sow, reap or build houses, we only sit under a piece of canvas, which is called tent, and we are discovering that everything around is uncertain, vague, hopeless, harsh and nothing could be planned or have hope for a better tomorrow and where death is always nearby. It is thus a realm where we can discover rather quickly whether we live in our soul or in the Spirit of God. The only opportunity, which we have in wilderness as an alternative to a premature death is to stand up and go, and go, and go and continue in going – by faith and hope – until we arrive at “the river Jordan”. Israel perished in wilderness because it refused to walk in faith and hope. Israel was not only in wilderness, but wilderness was in Israel! Do we as Christians also have wilderness in ourselves? As long as we will have it in ourselves or keep it there, we will be approaching our grave and not the Kingdom of Heaven. Do we see this? Really? From these pages it might appear that our greatest enemy may be our laziness! We may not even care whether we will live until tomorrow morning or not. After all, a slothful man is someone who is lazy even to eat; he rather keeps his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again (Pr. 19:24).
Our dreams, desires, imaginations, even our prayers alone will not bring us into the Kingdom of Heaven. For that we need a spiritual strength, perseverance, steadfastness, invincibility, stability, fearlessness, faith in the Lord, which is spiritual and not mental, which means, it has power and strength we can stand on in any circumstances. Nowhere has the Lord said that he, who will be doing a lot of religious works, will be saved, but He says: “And ye shall be hated of all men for My Name’s sake; but he that endures to the end shall be saved” (Mt. 10:22)! The Lord puts a tremendous importance upon the questions of perseverance, steadfastness, stability and strength of the spirit; and we get such a spirit in “wilderness”. Of course, here we talk about spiritual wilderness, which we can have also at home, in office, at worksite, also in our own self or anywhere else.
If after years of walking, there is yet no CHANGE in the character of Christians, nor is in them an increased measure of the Life of Christ, of His Character and Personality, then such ones are walking in their wilderness in circles and they will never get to the Promised Land. No work of the Spirit of God is seen in them and if, once in a blue moon, a sign of life appears in them, it is like unto a canary bird that would fly into their wilderness, would make a peep and fly away. If we do not change in our wilderness, we will never change. What is very important is the fact that we will not be in this wilderness for ever, but only until the Lord will call us out (S.Sol. 3:6+8:5) because we have found Him (S.Sol. 3:6+8:5) and He achieved in us His Purpose. And this length of time is for each of us different. Because that wilderness will be around us or in us only until it is exchanged for the Kingdom of Heaven, which we are seeking, and also finding (Mt. 6:33).
Just as Israel was to walk across the wilderness in the way, which God outlined and which was leading into the Promised Land, so we ought to walk across our wilderness in the way that was also outlined by God and which leads into the Kingdom of Heaven. Apostle Paul compares this way to a running track. During running, no runner looks at the tribune, how are the people dressed, whether they are looking at him or waving or smiling. Every true runner looks at the track ahead of him and on the finish line – which in our case is Christ, because HE IS our objective, goal, destination – in Him we are to finish our run since in Him we are new creations (Heb. 12:1,2/ 2Cor. 5:17). For Israel, there was no other way into the Promised Land and their last step was to cross the river Jordan, which represents the death of our natural man. The Ark of the Covenant rested on the bottom of river Jordan together with the priests, which were holding it on their shoulders (Jos. 3:17). For the Church, there is no other way to the Kingdom either, and the last step is to cross spiritual Jordan, which also represents the death of our natural, old, sinful man. He, in fact, died already with Christ when the “Ark of the Covenant” – Christ – was on the bottom of hell and death after His Crucifixion.
Before our entry into the Kingdom, we all, which will inherit it, shall be changed. What is corrupted and mortal will be made incorruptible and immortal (1Cor. 15:50-54). Here we speak about the BODY, not about the soul or spirit, which are already immortal. Verses 51-54 are applicable first of all to the Bride since She enters the Kingdom of God as the first at the Coming of the Bridegroom-Christ to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This will take place anytime BEFORE the seven years‘ Tribulation Period. At the Coming of Christ, His Bride shall receive a NEW IMMORTAL BODY, as also He, the Bridegroom, received at His Resurrection.
All those raptured at the last (seventh) trump, it means, before the end of the Great Tribulation and before the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth (Rev. 16:1-21), will also enter the same Kingdom of God. There will also be those which survive the seven years of the Great Tribulation or they will be born in the Kingdom. This Kingdom will not be a “heaven on earth”, but a government, rule of righteousness and truth and of an iron rod upon all (natural) inhabitants of the Kingdom. After 1,000 years, the people living in the Presence of Christ the King Personally, will again be deceived and will follow Satan and not Christ!, so that they could fight against the saints in Jerusalem (Rev. 20:7-10). This is an unbelievable and a totally unimaginable fact, which shows an absolute depravity of the natural human character and an absolute impossibility to correct it and to clean it from evil.
We started this Part with the title: Our third step into the Salvation is to make a definite decision to give our old life to the Lord, so that He could change us into His Image, which is the Will of Our Father in Heaven. This title is very nice and brief and this step seems to be rather simple. However, I am sure that even after reading the Part 9 to this very line, we do not necessarily know how to give our life to Christ and we still may not be “ready to move”! Our natural tendency is to open to Him our heart a little bit when He desires to bless us, but not to allow Him to do in it anything! This is the truth whether you believe it or not. There are two reasons for it and they are pretty simple. Firstly, even in our most honest intention to give our life to the Lord, there stands in our way our head with pride, foolish thoughts, imaginations, doubts, stubbornness, fears, selfishness, etc. Secondly, even in our earthly existence, we give our life and the whole future only to the person, whom we truly love. In general, it is known as “marriage” and it is usually sealed only on the basis of something, which is generally known as “love”, which again is something that nobody understands anyway. Therefore, if our love for the Lord is smaller than a “mustard seed”, then we will never truthfully give Him our life because it is impossible! Period. This is as if a woman should give her all life to a man, whom she never saw, never touched, knows him only from reading his book and whom she actually does not love as she should or would like to. She might have the same feelings before her wedding as some of you here may have right now.
We do not see marriage as Our Creator does. The first fact is that without love marriage does not exist! The second fact is that the true intention of our earthly marriage is to represent our Heavenly Marriage with the Lord! The third fact is that we probably do not even remember what we promised to each other in front of the altar or at the City Hall. The fourth fact is that love is a dream, and marriage is alarm-clock. The fifth fact is that marriage is a union of two persons, which are “giving” themselves to one another until they will die; yet, none of them had realized, was aware, conscious or had any clue about it. Neither were we conscious or aware of the fact that right after signing the documents in the church or at the City Hall, we stepped out into an absolutely unknown future – two absolutely unmergeable, incompatible beings! What had merged these unmergeable beings and what was keeping them together? The power of their first love… and when that one started to diminish or “cool off” it was the power of the Holy Spirit, because God established marriage and NOT man. Hence, God was accompanying us and strengthening us where our human weaknesses and love were failing.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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