Titus 2 Men And Women

The Desert
by Denise Lower

Moses was on the backside of the desert for more than 40 years of his life.  Paul was in a desert place for three years after his Damascus road conversion.  Elijah ran through the desert and spent 40 days in the desert when Jezebel pursued him.  John was on the island of Patmos, an isolated "desert" place.  Even Jesus was tempted of Satan "in the wilderness".

So why do I think that I do not have to go through my own desert experience? Do I think I am living in a place so far down the spectrum of time, that God will deal with me differently than he did those prophets of old????

One comforting fact I find in all of the biblical examples of desert experiences (with the exception of Jesus, since He IS God and the Holy Spirit), is that AFTER the desert experience, each person came away renewed, refreshed, wiser and with the absolute conviction that God, through the Holy Spirit, had done a great work in their lives.

If I know these things, then I just have one question: why would I not want to go through one of these experiences?? Yet everything in my being screams: "I want the easy way out.....I don’t want to hurt, I don’t want to be stretched, I don’t want to experience any unpleasantness."

Yet, this is EXACTLY what these great people had to experience in order to feel, or see, or heed the Holy Spirits leading in their lives.  And in today’s society, suffering, or going through difficult times is equated with poverty, lack of success, lack of intelligence, lack of motivation and just plain ‘ole dumbness.

Which I guess, if you follow that train of thought, would lead to the thinking that allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me through the desert was a stupid, dumb, unintelligent thing that is to be avoided at all costs. A far too popular opinion in todays society.

However, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8).  A fact I tend to forget, especially when I put God in this little black box that is only so big, with never an opportunity to get any bigger.  I do not allow God to be God, let alone let his comforting, guiding Holy Spirit into my life.

This heeding God’s voice and being led by the Holy Spirit are new concepts to me.  I was raised in a church that did not acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit, let alone recognize Him as part of the Triune Godhead.  As I look back through my life, I see now places where God, through the Holy Spirit, attempted to "lead me through a desert or a wilderness place."

Yet I, in my intelligence, took it upon myself to solve my OWN problems, through the power of my OWN might.  Which left me in a place not UNLIKE a desert, only it was a desert of my OWN making, thus it was acceptable to me, even though it was a miserable existence.

The several years I spent as a single parent, working multiple jobs just to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Definitely a desert of my own making.  The MANY years I have spent in churches that "I" chose.  Self made decisions that caused many years of unhappiness in serving God.

I even remember taking it upon myself to find a "reliable" husband, one that would not cheat on me and that was a good provider.  This desert has been one of my own making, even though it has been a wonderful learning experience regarding the truth in God’s word.

I have learned many things in these self made deserts, but I wonder if I had let the Holy Spirit lead me, or if I did not try to shirk the desert experience chosen by the Almighty, if I might not have already come to some of the conclusions I have come to at this stage in my life.

I know God knows my life from the beginning to the end (Psalms 139:13-18), so none of this self proclaimed desert talk is new to Him. I am not questioning that.  I just wonder now what deserts God would have preferred me to go through.

One of the things that fascinates me about the great men of God’s desert experiences, is that in EACH INSTANCE, the Holy Spirit was able to teach each one of them WITHOUT ANYONE ELSE’S ASSISTANCE. 

Take Paul for instance. He was in Arabia and Damascus, (Gal. 1:13-24) desert places, for three years.  He did not confer with the men who walked with Jesus on this earth.  He did not have the Scriptures as we know them today. He did have an intimate knowledge of  the Jewish Old Testament Torah. He was literally taught by the Holy Spirit, led I am sure, through prayer and meditation.

Moses did not even have the completed Jewish scrolls.( Joshua 14:10)  He too, only had the manifested Holy Spirit in the form of burning bushes, storms and crabby people. Elijah depended on the kindness of an old woman and ravens and then under the shade of a juniper tree, where God’s comforting Holy Spirit assured him that he could go on.

(I Kings 17, 19)

I have just realized recently, that I have been passing through one of God’s desert experiences for the past 5 or 6 years or so. Reflecting on this experience, I can say that I have learned both positive and negative things. 

I have learned how to live and how I shouldn’t live.  I have learned what to trust and what not to trust.  I have learned that everything is NOT what it seems on the outside.

A verse I was raised on was I Peter 2:9, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light". This verse was taught to us to counter questions asked of us about how we were dressed, what we looked like, or our lifestyle.

I have been listening to the Holy Spirit and what He is telling me about that verse now is that I cannot JUST be peculiar on the OUTSIDE.  That my peculiarity must come in the form of treating others differently than the world does. I must reach out to the unloving and unloved and show them the personality of Jesus.

If I had not had this desert experience, I would not have come to this conclusion.  I would continue to think that it means I must look odd or only associate with certain people in order to be holy. My experience has opened new doors to me, that without this experience, I would not have been able to see.

It is God’s desire for us to live separated, holy lives, but NOT to the exclusion of all else, (Lev.20:7). Just read Christ’s life in any of the gospels. Christ lived and walked in this world among sinners.  He ate with publicans.  He talked to women he should not have even looked at.  He welcomed questions from unbecoming individuals. He had compassion on those less fortunate than many others. 

I am sure the blind man of Bartamas or the man laying on his couch near the pool of Bethesda did not smell very good, nor were they the type of people Jesus would associate with on a regular basis.  But He was peculiar enough, in even that day and time, to reach out and touch them and change their lives forever.

I have learned in my desert experience that the only thing to be trusted is God’s Holy Word. Anything else is only the opinion of man, and that makes that opinion fallible, just like man himself.

SO, if I allow the desert experience that God, in his infinite love, has prepared for me, I will learn DIRECTLY from that source of truth, without anyone else’s opinion thrown in. And that in turn, makes me a peculiar people. One who is led by the Holy Spirit, who learns the TRUTH of God’s great plan FOR HERSELF.

So I have learned not to fight the desert experiences of my life.  I am sure this will not be the last one, but by the grace of God, I intend to not have any more self inflicted desert experiences.  I would much rather experience God’s desert, with all the leading and teaching that the Holy Spirit can give me, than one of my own choosing any day.

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