Surviving Our Spiritual Wilderness Times

There are times that we will all find ourselves in a spiritual wilderness. It can't be helped. It could be - if God had planned it differently, but the reality is that God has planned "in" spiritual wilderness times in our lives. The reason may be illustrated by the picture below.

There are trees, like the one pictured above, that baffle those who come upon it. With no source of water in sight, the tree appears to be just fine. Instead of brown leaves - or no leaves - the tree is full of green leaves. Instead of branches hanging down to the ground looking like they're near death, these branches are holding themselves up just fine, thank you. So, what is the secret to this tree's survival while others around it did not survive.

The secret is that the tree has driven its roots underground to seek 'primary water' - the water that is constantly flowing under our feet where we can't see it. The tree has given up on wishing it were planted by a lake or a stream or waiting for rain to fall on a regular enough basis that it doesn't need to rely on primary water. This tree knows that if it is going to survive and even thrive, it needs to seek primary water and stay there, feeding on it for every thing it needs.

God has given us a source of primary water: Himself. In fact, to the woman at the well, he said there was a kind of water she knew nothing about - a water that would reside 'in her belly' bubbling up into eternal life (John 4). The primary water source that Jesus was speaking of was the Holy Spirit, who he gives to those who believe in him. God has always wanted to reside with people, and his ultimate goal is to reside inside of us, in the form of the Holy Spirit. For our own benefit, God the Father has planned into our lives, seasons of spiritual wildernesses. It is necessary for us to encounter these seasons so we can learn to drive our roots down deeper, making ourselves stronger trees that can't easily be uprooted and blown away with the ever changing desert winds. As we do this, we find Jesus to be the source of strength, provision and love that our soul needs and we come out of that desert wilderness stronger than when we first went in.

Do you have this source of primary water living inside you? If you do, you have God with you all the time. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, or how you feel from moment to moment, God is with you, understanding you, interceding in prayer for you when you're crying so hard you don't know what to do next and no one is around to give you what you need. God is there. He is what you need and He will bring into your life what you are in need of.

Tomorrow, we'll talk more about this living water, without which none of us can live.