ENGAGING IN THE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE

[Albert Finch]

We all have areas where we are in great need of the Lord of Breakthrough, but remember that before God broke through David's enemies, he returned to the stronghold and inquired of the Lord.

"And David enquired of the Lord.....And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them (the Philistines) there, and said, The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters." - 2 Samuel 5:19,20

RETURN TO THE STRONGHOLD

Breakthrough is found in our private devotion and personal pursuit of God when no one is watching. If you are in need of breakthrough, make it a point to "return to the stronghold" and watch what the God of the Breakthrough does for you. When He breaks open, we break out.

"The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them." - Micah 2:13

"Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you" (Zechariah 9:12).

Jesus modeled this profound truth in His own life. We see in Luke 4:14 that His time of fasting in the wilderness produced great power as well as preparing and positioning Him for His next stage of life and ministry. Great miracles along with public demonstrations of tremendous power and authority were often preceded by significant time spent hidden away with His Father in secret.

When we purpose to live a life of sacrificial devotion to our Father in the secret place through contemplative prayer and fasting, we and the world we live in will become greater for it. This is one way that we can say "yes" to the ebbing pull of the Spirit in our daily life.

"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in him." - Nahum 1:7

David found the God of the Breakthrough in the stronghold, not on the field of battle. He is our stronghold. It is in our returning to Him that He restores, breaks through, and gives back more than what we had lost and better than we had!

A DOOR OF GREAT HOPE

"So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water." - Exodus 15:22

For many of us, we have experienced a wilderness while fulfilling God's PURPOSE for our life. We feel lonely, barren, and unfruitful. We have been so dry and thirsty that we find ourselves crying out to God in desperation. Our life is in disorder, and at times we are confused and irritated.

God has a purpose for our wilderness -- He does NOT plan for us to stay there!
God brought the Israelites out of Egypt for the purpose of not only proving their hearts, but also to give them an opening to be delivered from old thinking.

Many of us feel that we have been pulled into a place that at first we did not see as necessary in our apprehension of God's CALLING in our life. Truth be told, it is in this place that we are prepared to inherit and fully occupy the promises.

For some of us, it may feel like a wilderness, but if we can embrace His pull we will begin to know and experience the Lord in a new way. It is in the "valley" of our troubles that He establishes a door of great hope (see Hosea 2:14-23).

Properly recognizing and engaging in the wilderness experience is as vitally important to our divine DESTINY as when the "walls came down" for Israel. There we begin to see God and the treasures of His PURPOSE for our life in a way that we have never seen before.

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY
https://afministry.ning.com/