“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
— Matthew 19:26:
Testimony of God’s Miracles Through a Job Season of Suffering
I heard the voice of Jesus Christ of Nazareth in prayer, and was miraculously, instantly healed of what doctors called incurable, as a family member called me “weak” for. I only asked Christ if it was His will to heal me.
I was in an abusive Egypt of my life, unemployed, with bad credit—and God led my exodus, after many signs and wonders which pushed past my fear, into a miraculously approved new rental four-bedroom home. I only prayed for a peaceful one-bedroom for myself.
I was unemployed for 12 months, after hundreds of rejections I ceased striving due to grief, and just weeks after my Exodus into a new home, God blessed me with a FAANG job I never even applied for. I only prayed for any job.
What years of striving couldn’t achieve, God did in three weeks—God led my exodus out of an oppressive environment full of spiritual warfare, into a miraculously approved spacious, new home while I was unemployed, with terrible credit, and no cosigner. While I was grieving, traumatized from abuse, with no plan but to obey God’s call to flee.
Post-exodus, I landed in the hospital for the first time in my life from a sudden stress-induced illness, and the Almighty Adonai delivered me once again as I decreed healing Scripture, and stubbornly refused to take the rest of the 13 doses of three medications. Family couldn’t understand, one person attributed my healing to the only one of the fourteen doses taken, since for them, it had been a chronic issue. I only—believed and praised.
In the wilderness, I spent months not earning enough to cover bills, but the Lord’s math covered it all.
Then He provided me restitution after it looked like by sight—all hope was lost, and I’d taken my eyes off a possibility.
I experienced heartbreak for an unequally yoked man for the first time in my life, and the Lord delivered me and lifted my spirit. I only begged in tears for the Lord to heal me because I could not function, much less carry out His work in that state.
I was rejected by a six-figure tech job after a second round interview with two arrogant interviewers—I’d told God I knew this wasn’t for me. And it motivated me to apply to seminary school. I was accepted the next day after rambling theology and testimony to an admissions officer who said I ministered to her personally, and God has His hand over my life.
I was a former atheist—a severely depressed and anxious teenager, and the Lord saved me at 19, and healed me of all mental affliction, gave me a new heart and spirit. I had lost my cradle-Catholic faith as a pre-teen, faith not rooted in any reading of Scripture nor teaching like the wayward seed, after experiencing grief from an unanswered prayer. I felt called to read the Bible for myself, and prayed for revelation. And the Lord not only revealed Himself in study of the KJV Bible and prayer, but healed me.
The Bible Is Alive, God Desires An Experiential Relationship with Us
The past two years of immense suffering, and miracles have drawn me into the most intimate, experiential relationship with God. And He has shown me how:
- God is still the God of the Bible, the God of miracles—Elohim, El Roi, Jehovah, Yahweh—all meanings His glorious name encompasses.
- God’s Word—is ALIVE, and it is sharper than a two-edged sword—winning against snares of the enemy, spiritual warfare, and speaking life through the power of the tongue
- The Holy Spirit is a person of the trinity residing inside us– instructing those who pause, listen, obey–as David did God, before beating the Amalekites despite being outnumbered manifold times in the thousands.
- Jesus Christ only needs our undoubting faith to fulfill the Father’s will and blessings, not our plans, not our striving.
I Heard Jesus Christ Speak to Me—Then I Was Healed
It was December of 2024, I couldn’t eat anything but about three foods, couldn’t sleep, writhed in pain, ended up deeply malnourished, and anemic as a result. I was diagnosed with a stress induced chronic illness which has no cure, and prescribed three daily pills. I took all the supplements, and natural remedies. I went on a special diet. It did nothing to resolve my illness—an illness born out of spiritual affliction from emotional abuse.
It is only at rock bottom that you literally meet the living God, not just theologically—it is when your faith is tested and you shed all human agency and reliance upon things which “moth and rust” on this earth.
One night, I was sobbing after a horrible emotionally abusive argument where I saw the demonic spirit behind the aggressor’s eyes as they blackened, gleaning with a smile on their face. No one will understand this unless you’ve dealt with a jezebel spirit who targets you (typically the generational curse breaker is scapegoated).
I ran to cry in the shower and at my lowest moment, sick, recently fired, emotionally abused by people not knowing they were operating under dark principalities as Paul warned us—in that moment Christ spoke to me and healed me.
Below is a the journal I scribed with a transcript of Christ’s miraculous healing of my chronic illness. I have been disobedient for far too long in screaming it from the rooftops for the glory of Christ and our purpose in the Great Commission for the saving of lost or wounded souls.
The First Miracle: A Conversation with Jesus Christ
A conversation—that’s what prayer should be. But what I didn’t expect was to be healed during prayer, instantly and miraculously.
It was the first time I heard Jesus Christ so clearly. It brings me to tears to think how none of us, not I can ever deserve such love, such power, such care, such protection. But that’s the point—it is agape love—self-sacrificial, God’s love.
By December of 2024 I had been sick for a few months—a chronic illness for the first time in my healthy life. All stress induced—psychosomatic, four pills per day, no relief, curled up in bed in pain, malnourished, unable to stand for prolonged periods, all food was like poison to my body.
Until suddenly, until suddenly—the floodgates of Heaven opened up, I heard the voice of the living God as I sobbed on my bathtub floor.
This came after looking into the face of sadistic, gleeful evil—my abuser triggering more reactive abuse and grinning at my tears. Already sobbing about that, I started begging God for at least physical relief for my ailing body.
Here’s how it went:
I’m sobbing, desperate, wounded emotionally, physically, letting nothing but the hot water comfort me in the most emotionally negligent, and hostile environment.
Then I seek the Lord’s comfort.
“Do you want to be healed?”
“Yes, but..I didn’t know if you wanted to heal me yet God. I had and have faith that you can heal me, but doubted whether it was your will.”
“Healing is my will, I am asking if you want to be healed.”
I keep on repeating, “only if it Your will.”
“I never asked for you to pray in doubt, trying to discern whether [healing] is My will, but to pray with faith, as if it has already been done.
Do you believe I am able to do this thing?”
Then I fall to my knees.“Thank you thank you, I do want to be healed, thank you for healing me in Jesus’ name.”
And suddenly, I feel the pain leave my body, as if it flows down and out of me. I gasp.
Then I eat, and feel no pain after.
The illness never came back since Jesus Christ healed me in December of 2024.
Prophetic Ways the Lord Has spoken to me:
A prophetic dream warned me of job loss about 6 months before it happened, and ordered my steps. This was followed by an external sign when I didn’t want to follow through.
By sight, it wasn’t working out, until God blessed me at His perfect kairos timing during this wilderness season, with something sowed a year prior.
Living in answered prayers
We are often living in answered prayers, and God will instruct us in the ways in which we should go. Sometimes an intuition we have is the Holy Spirit if it does not contradict God’s Word.
I unknowingly spoke prophetically about the job I’d end up in after my last toxic one fired me. I used to tell my family all the time many years ago, while I was still happy at my job, that “from here, my resume would get me into FAANG.”
After my miraculous exodus, I got a call for a FAANG job I never applied for just weeks into freedom.
God Speaks to Others Prophetically for His Purpose for You
The Almighty Adonai delivered me once again a year later, post-exodus, from yet another stress-induced illness that landed me in the hospital for the first time in my life. I stubbornly refused to take medicine after that, and woke up healed after proclaiming His Word and crying out to Christ. Family couldn’t understand, one person said it became a chronic issue for them, and said surely it was the one out of 14 doses I was supposed to take that did it. What’s impossible through man, is possible through God.
But He used someone—truly a servant of the Lord—to rescue me in an emergency. The Lord sends helpers. I was alone, having an emergency, and this family member arrived in a rush, right on time without me even alerting them.They said they felt a premonition.
“Where is your God?”
“Where is your God? Why doesn’t He hear you?” a family member sneered at me as I fought for my pet dying of cancer’s life during my Job year of pure loss—unemployment after half a year of scapegoating at work, lost my business, one pet emergency, then another, demonic spiritual warfare from spiritually oppressed family at my lowest until God sent undeniable prophetic signs to flee from evil.
God was in the entire valley of the shadow of death, carrying me through as Psalm 23 promises.
And God was in the mountain tops, glorifying His mighty name equally when He delivered me by His hand alone. Nothing I can boast of myself, as the apostle Paul said.
I am not my lows, I am not my highs, I am a servant of God, saved by God. God who delivered me as an atheist 9 years ago, of depression and anxiety, and healed my physical body from two stress-induced illnesses twice in the past two years.
God who opened the floodgates of heaven over me, doing what I couldn’t do in 27 years, in just 2 weeks—an Exodus out of my own Egypt—a miraculously approved new home and FAANG job I didn’t apply for when I took a step of faith outside of the camp like Moses. After many prophetic signs, when God knew I wouldn’t do it for myself.
God is the God of ‘suddenly.’
And suddenly, God opened a door no man can shut.
And then another one.
I crawled out of that household sobbing, grieving, having panic attacks, alone in the flesh, but never in the spirit.God carried me through the waters, and led my exodus out of my own Egypt.
God is the God of suddenly, it may seem like blessings take too long or aren’t happening, but when it’s the appointed time, God will make happen in an instant, what human effort can’t make happen in a decade.
Scripture to Abide In
God provides restitution after loss if you love and obey God
Isaiah 61:7 – For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them
Zechariah 9:12 – Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;”
Job 42:10 – And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before..
Joel 2:25 – And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
God works all things for good in His kairos time
Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Isaiah 60:22 I the Lord will hasten it in his time.
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Matthew 6:33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Those that love God, according to His purpose, in His time. God cares for His children, walking in obedience to Him, according to His will, in His time.
The Great Commission – Our Only Purpose
Matthew 28:19-20 – Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
The Purpose of Suffering: Why Does God Allow Us to Suffer?
The harm of prosperity gospel that views Christianity as a transactional relationship only becomes so heinously apparent when you are on your knees sobbing yourself into a headache for a year straight, even begging God to take you up like the prophet Elijah did. It does not speak about the martyred disciples, it does not sermonize on, “in this world you will have tribulation, but I have overcome the world,” nor does it edify the church body all going through their own individual “thorns” based off the teachings of Paul.
Prosperity gospel does not speak about Job seasons that turn into a year or maybe years for you, nor does it tell you how to hold on for the almighty hand of God who will flip it all around in a second in a way where your years of striving never could.
If you are going through a Job ‘season,’ or maybe it feels like a Job life—this is for you. It is only at rock-bottom that any human being can truly encounter the living God. It is at every pit in life that I have had inexplicable miraculous encounters with our blessed Lord Jehovah, Rapha, Yahweh, Adonai, Elohim. And no, it is not just about God being Jehovah Jireh (the Lord who provides), and rescuing me out of trouble but showing me His love and peace which surpasses all understanding in the most unbearable times. Times where I stood alone carrying an urn, sobbing out to the heavens while waiting for a rideshare because I was rejected by my own family, and times where I just literally had no way through my human agency.
It is at rock bottom that you encounter God, and it is at the end of yourself—of your human autonomy, that God steps in so that He may be glorified. Remember Lazarus? Jesus let his beloved friend’s body sit for four days. Of course Mary and Martha felt human disappointment despite their great love and faith in Jesus Christ. They didn’t understand God made them wait for a great glory—ressurection of their friend Lazarus (who Jesus wept over), not just healing. Jesus didn’t heal Lazarus in time and instead waited to resurrect him to prove to them that He had the power to also be resurrected upon His atoning death at Calvary. We often don’t understand waiting in our own lives, nor suffering, but the promises of God to prosper us (yes, even on this earth) still stand even if we may suffer and lose, and come out the other side of tribulations and refining fires with our own ‘thorn’ in our flesh of what seems like an unanswered prayer.
Strength Through Suffering
When I lost my beloved angel of a pet, I couldn’t understand the purpose, and while my human brain still can’t, I know God did not cause it and He grieves with me. What I do know is everything I’ve learned about suffering from a Biblical perspective and through revelation from the Holy Spirit.
It’s important to understand the ‘why,’ and God’s comfort through it, before even stepping into the other side of it—deliverance, restitution for what the locusts have stolen, healing, and blessings. You can not just discuss testimony from the other side of the mountain, without discussing the living water and Holy Spirit and divine strength that will carry you when you can not even lift yourself off the ground.
God’s Promises Are for Earthly Life Too
And yes, God’s promises aren’t just about eternal salvation, He will deliver you and does have plans to prosper you, so don’t fall into self-imposed Christian nihilism of “only being a pilgrim on this earth full of ‘vanities of vanities’” as I did. Meditate upon God’s Word (Joshua 1:8), reside in fervent prayer (Acts 12:5-9), in stubborn, child-like faith (Matthew 18:3) which surpasses all understanding instead of walking by sight (Hebrews 11), praising the Lord even while sorrowful (2 Corinthians 6:10), decreeing life (Proverbs 18:21) and rebuking evil (Mathew 18:18), and cling unto the hem of Jesus’ garment (Luke 8:43-48) to both allow Jesus to renew your heart and mind (Ephesians 4:23), and for Him to work where He does best—where you feel helpless in your human autonomy. Put on the full armor of God and wage war in the spirit (Ephesians 6:10-18)! Faith precedes the blessing.
Suffering
Christ suffered while being murdered by human beings. He forewarned us we too would suffer and even be persecuted for His sake. So when unbelievers point to suffering as an argument against the love of God it makes zero sense.
Christ Himself said evil can not cast out evil (Matthew 12:26)—evil and suffering comes from this natural fallen Eden
.
Two kinds of suffering: self-imposed from disobedience and sin, and natural consequences of the fallen world that God allows like He allowed Job.
There are natural consequences from sin – antithetical and countereffective counterfeits to our God-given desires. Exodus 33:19, God says to Moses, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” With Job-like suffering, God weeps with us, and puts a limit to every storm.
Romans 8:19-23
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 2
0 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Suffering is not the absence of God’s love
Christ suffered for all of us. Job—God’s devout servant, cried out he wished he was never born, Elijah prayed for God to take him up, David was depressed, Moses had anxiety. The disciples were all persecuted and many martyred.
Delay Isn’t Denial
God’s plans, which are best, have a divinely appointed time
David, anointed to be king since childhood despite his small stature, spent 12 years running from Saul hiding in caves. Abraham waited 25 years for a son, Joseph 13 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Jacob worked 14 years for Rachel, Hannah waited years for her prophet son Samuel to be born. He will turn your life around once you surrender and trust in Him. Be still and trust in God’s perfect timing. That God’s plan is better than your’s because He is omniscient and loves us beyond measure unconditionally and sacrificially (agape).
Hebrews 11:3: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
The Refining Fire
Through a year of loss, God stripped me completely of dependence upon my own human ability, pruned the bad fruit. He Swallowed me up into the belly of the whale, and spit me out into my calling.
Self-Serving Gospel
A relationship with the living God is not a self-improvement tool, nor is it a candy dispenser. Prosperity gospel contends that we are rewarded according to our righteousness, or works, or charity. Self-serving Christianity that completely absolves itself of the message of the entire Bible to take up your cross and serve Christ, and love one another as Christ has loved us (sacrificially), is just more self-help worldliness masquareded of the gospel that commands us to be disciples of Christ, not just believers. Even evil knows Christ exists. And the second step for a Christian who has been rescued out of the pit of worldliness or tribulation, is to serve and crucify your own selfish desire to live for yourself daily.
This is why the Scripture speaks about lukewarmthness. It is more than habitual sin, it is a matter of a selfish heart that accepts salvation, loves God, and then lives for itself instead of heeding the command to make disciples of all nations.
Job – Was a Righteous Man
Job was the most righteous man and God allowed for him to be tested—giving the enemy permission— for that reason. To prove Job would not deny God despite any tribulation sent against him by the enemy.
Job’s friends wrongly accused him of having committed some sin to bring the wrath of God upon himself, but it was not God, it was the enemy.
Jesus even told his disciples sickness is not punishment.
John 9:1-3: And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
It is true—the enemy does not try to rob an empty soul. And evil does not attack evil.
Remember, Yahweh Himself said evil can not cast out evil (Matthew 12:26).
The enemy is defeated, so God allowed trials in Job’s life, but He placed a limit. For Christians, the sanctification, or pruning process of the refining fire and ‘Job seasons,’ looks many ways.
But above all you have to remember, God did not cause the suffering, but He will work your entire life for good. And our ultimate hope is in eternity, but do not fall into Christian nihilism because God wove you in your mother’s womb, numbers the hairs on your very head, and created you for a purpose He will reveal if you just surrender your entire life and every decision to Him.
His promises still stand through our tribulations—of his agape love, forgiveness, protection, provision.
Testimony
“Where is your God? Why doesn’t He hear you?” a family member sneered at me as I fought for my pet dying of cancer’s life during my Job year of pure loss—unemployment after half a year of scapegoating at work, lost my business, one pet emergency, then more spiritual warfare from someone while at my lowest until God sent undeniable prophetic signs to flee from evil.
Until suddenly.
Suddenly, the God opened a door no man can shut.
And then another one.
I crawled out of that household sobbing, grieving, having panic attacks, alone in the flesh, but never in the spirit.
God carried me through the waters, and led my exodus out of my own Egypt.
God is the God of suddenly, it may seem like blessings take too long or aren’t happening, but when it’s the appointed time, God will make happen in an instant, what human effort can’t make happen in a decade.
Storms
“Storms” are meant for sanctification, and God will carry us through them, not let us evade them. God’s ultimate goal is discipleship, not just salvation. This is the part most believers miss out in life—He called us to make disciples of all nations.
Dr. Stanley taught me this—God may not be the author of every storm (natural consequences of sin and disobedience may cause them), but God’s sovereign presence, provision, path, and protection is in every storm. You are never alone.
Isaiah 43:2: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isaiah 41
Psalm 121
In one Dr. Stanley radio sermon, he speaks about the sea of Galilee storm, and how Jesus went up on the mountain top to talk to God, while the disciples feared the storm. While the disciples thought that they were off course in that storm, God was using that storm to get them to God’s desired shore.And what people miss is this—God uses storms to get us to His willed destination.
God’s purpose for storms is never to allow us to sink. He has plans to prosper us, give us hope and a future. When the disciples in that storm in the sea of Galilee arrived on land, they had arrived with Jesus onboard, and that is God’s very intention. We can not carry ourselves through lives storms. We can’t even arrive at God’s best without Jesus’ ‘onboard’ of the ship of our souls.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
God allowed Peter to sink just far enough for him to realize his utter dependance on Jesus to walk across the stormy, treacherous water.
Peter didn’t sink until he took his eyes off God.
God wants us to take a leap of faith towards His will, even when we fear, trusting that He equips us where He calls us. And the Holy Spirit resides in us, not only to seal our salvation (verse), not only to enable us to live a holy life of continuous sanctification, but to also carry out His purpose as disciples of Christ.
God’s timing is not the same as ours, and we will remain in storms as long as God wants us to be to accomplish His purpose. So the prayer becomes, “God what are you trying to teach me?” Not just, “God save me now.”
And most comfortantly and importantly—God is sovereign in storms—even ones caused by us.
This revelation brought my overthinking, hyper-anxious mind that constantly ruminates if one non-sinful decision could ‘take me out of God’s will—which is the best.
It’s a laughable though anxious thought, really. Dr. Stanley said that while the disciples feared, and were being battered around wondering if they’d arrive at their destination, God knew exactly what would happen, and the perfect timing. God is the sovereign God of the seas and of our lives. Sovereign God is always in control. He may not have created that storm, human free will may have, but he will carry you through the waters.
You may not know where a storm is leading you, but God didn’t reveal it to the disciples either. God does not have to tell us the future, that would not be faith, it’d be sight.
So people who look for constant ‘signs’ and ‘confirmations,’ need to trust in God’s very word in Scripture as the ultimate sign of his faithful, everlasting promises of his presence, protection, provision, and agape love.
Dr. Stanley said, “he who holds the future holds us. and if he who holds the future holds us, and he who holds the future and holds us is living on the inside of us, we can trust the future to him no matter what.
Rock Bottom
It is at rock bottom that you truly encounter the living God and all His glory. This is why storms, a Job season, tribulations are meant for sanctification meant to conform us to Christ’s likeness, and ultimately discipleship. My Job year stripped all my remnant desire to create meaning in a bohemian matrix of girlboss entrepreneurship and travel vlogging and vanities of vanities, as some sort of ‘step-up’ from the “corporate matrix.”
Psychologists may wage on about “positive disintegration”—that is, rebuilding from a place of loss—but this worldly approach through human strength is building upon sand.
Rebuild your house upon rock—upon Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the only peace, way, truth and life and God’s favor surpasses all human effort.
Have faith like Peter to step out into the water, and set you eyes on God, not on your circumstances—lest you start to sink. God waited until Peter saw his total dependance upon Christ, cried out “Lord save me,” and Jesus reached His hand forth and saved him. Jesus always has an eternal grip on us. So where is He in your storms? Upholding you, if you will just let him, carrying you through the fires and waters.
He will never leave you nor forsake you .
God says, “don’t don’t look about you,”
I am your God I will strengthen you ill uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Philippians chapter 2 my peace I give unto you not as the world gives give unto you let not your heart be troubled neither
John 16
Claiming Faith in the Wilderness
Not even an echo answers your wails—you’re in the wilderness. You cry out to God—your only life-support, how death would be kinder than suffering—how you understand why being put out in legal in Belgium. But then you hear a voice answering your aching wails of “I don’t want my life Father,” telling you, His loved child, “then give your life to me, for it is not yours to live or take.”
The Lord promised you something—He put a Holy vision in your heart, yet youve faced suffering, delay, loneliness, heartbreak, spiritual warfare, and conflict from every end. This is a guide and testimony for anyone going through the wilderness, who is alive because of God. God has not said no—you are alive, God has a plan for you.
Evil comes from the world in attempt to tear down the faith of children of God—Jesus warned us, “in this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” Jesus has overcome death, He has overcome sin—for us, none of us could ever earn the forgiveness and salvation His grace and love blesses us who repent and ask for forgiveness for.
Remember, God is not a man that He should lie. He only has plans to prosper us. That vision of that land overflowing with milk and honey is alive and God has called you to it for a purpose. Out of love for God and spite for the enemy, you must not work harder, but SURRENDER harder to God, in all your ways acknowledging Him. I’ll explain everything God has taught me and told me amidst my desperate cries and trials.
The biggest lesson is—those who lacked faith caused a 40 year delay wandering through the wilderness—they decried God who had given them manna in the desert and even caused their foot not to swell. They measured giants against their abilities and cowered from the promise land in fear, instead of measuring them against God and knowing God created every atom in this universe and He will deliver you if you so much as believe.
Here are some of the biggest lessons the wilderness, I am not yet out of, but has has delivered me from the most important things in, has taught me.
God tells you, “Jesus wept too, but He still trusted me to move forward with His purpose.”
It’s okay to cry, but this season, this year of the wilderness has taught me the difference between crying and trusting God anyway—praising and resting in Him, versus despairing, fearing and self-sabotaging into an endless spiral. Whatever you have gone through, or may be going through, Jesus knows how you feel, and is embracing you as He will never leave you or forsake you
Jesus even asked God for mercy, He knows how much we would rather avoid pain as He’s felt that fear and human brutality in this world.
(Luke 22:42: “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Jesus felt pain and fear, “Jesus wept”
Faith Is the Key to the Promised Land
Matthew 13:58: And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Only Caleb and Joshua out of the millions of Israelites (600,000 plus women and children) made it to the promised land.
The rest died in the desert due to disobedience, and the rest by lack of faith. Constantly decrying God’s exodus out of the hand of Egyptian oppression. And having little faith—measuring the giants in the book of Numbers against their own capabilities, instead of against God’s, forgetting the former promises. Numbers 13 and 14 teach us to not measure our giants against our ability, but to surrender it to the Almighty God, lest you won’t see promise land.
I don’t know what your own Egyptian slavery is, but Jesus said, “are you of little faith?” He has never and will never leave you or forsake you if you surrender it all to Him.
Ask God to help you have faith
- Pray, praise and rebuke problems and infirmities – take on full armor
- Praise and even music was used by David to break Saul’s depression
- Rebuke – we have been given authority to bind and rebuke evil
- Pray over every situation
Have blind faith, faith that delivered people throughout the Bible as Hebrews 11 highlights.
Believe it is both God’s ability and will by praying in faith and thanksgiving
Life and death is in the power of the tongue—if in Jesus’ name you can rebuke evil, don’t you think that in Jesus name you can also speak blessings into this life according to His will?
- Mark 12:24: Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
- Matthew 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
- Matthew 9:27-29: And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
- Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
- Matthew 18:18: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”.
- Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven
- Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
God does not answer prayers made without faith, or with ‘double-mindedness.’
- Matthew 13:58: And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
- James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
The Purpose of the Wilderness
Deuteronomy 8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
Deuteronomy 8:2-7 answers this directly, the wilderness is meant to deliver us of the Egyptian slave mindset, humble, test our faith and heart posture, test our obedience, make us rely fully on God alone, not exalt ourselves on human effort. That was the purpose of daily manna, and God chastising those who stored excess manna.
Deuteronomy 8:2-7
2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
3 And he humbled thee, and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man
live.
4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.
6 Therefore thou shalt keep the
commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
7 For the LORD thy God
bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
God can not take an unsanctified, undelivered mindset into His sanctified blessings. You would not be able to handle the blessing and ruin it.
Which is why in the wilderness, God will specifically reveal to you alone what you must be delivered of, and put you through trials and tribulations that test and grow you as you reach the end of your human agency in striving, at the depths of suffering.
Generally, we are instructed to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.
We can feel sorrowful, but always rejoicing in Christ, allowing His supernatural peace to abide in us. We can feel negative emotions, but not identify with them. A
Isaiah 43:19: Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
God’s Comfort
Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Philippians 4:6-7 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Matthew 6:26-29 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Decree God’s Word over your life as you reside in constant meditation of Scripture, praying without ceasing (including Psalms—Psalm 91, Psalm 28, Psalm 23, etc.). Memorize them, as I have.
And remember, a Job year, a wilderness is not forever. It is the testing of your faith, patience (James 1:2-4), refining and pruning of your character (Romans 5:3-5) so you may bear good fruit (Matthew 7:17:18), and for exhortation of others who have gone through the same (2 Corinthians 1:4.) God did not cause evil in this fallen world, but He has plans to prosper you (Jeremiah 29:11) and is with you in the valleys (Psalm 23), in the storms (Isaiah 43:2), and on the tear-stained floor when you have come to the end of yourself. He puts a limit to every trial (1 Peter 5:10), and glory awaits those who obey and love God (Romans 8:18)/
God Has Called You and Is With You
Your specific purpose in the Great Commission for Christ, is often where you’ve faced the most resistance from the enemy. Abraham was called to be a father of nations, but didn’t have a child until old age because he was infertile. David was anointed to be king, but was persecuted by a king. The enemy can not stop the assignment God has for your life, as long as you do not give the enemy foothold through unrepentant sin.
God uses storms to prepare you, as he used the prison to prepare Joseph for the palace, and persecution as David ran from cave to cave, to prepare him to be king.
Above all, it is testimony. To suffer from this natural world (from which all tears will be wiped away in eternity), and still proclaim Christ. That is the testimony of the disciples who were martyred. And that is the testimony many Christians secretly carry—how we found, or grew in Christ in the pits of despair.
James 1:2-20: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing
Romans 5:3-5: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Matthew 7:17-18: Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
2 Corinthians 1:4: Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Isaiah 43:2: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
“Blessed is the crisis that made you grow, the fall that made you gaze up to Heaven, the problem that made you look for God,”
– attributed to St. Padre Pio.