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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. 

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