Then a voice came from Heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. (Mark 1:11-12)

In our Bible is a slight separation between these two scriptures, yet, in the original form that would not be so. There would be no paragraph heading, etc. So, if we take a look at the flow of things, this is quite interesting, isn’t it?

Often we hear from God and are heading in the right direction soon to find an immediate and unexpected divine ushering into the wilderness. From here we endure much emotional and physical abuse of the enemy. But remember these words, “…in whom I am well pleased…”

Satan begins to tell us we did something wrong or made a wrong turn when all along the wilderness has always been the way to promise.

Jesus faced off the devil here. He endured a constant taunting, a constant being pushed to a point of weakness, a constant heckling. He had to discern from half-truths because the enemy was using scripture in the wrong manner to deceive Him. But, the Spirit of God was not fooled. His intimacy with the Father protected Him. The Spirit knew the truth and fell for no lies.

Here we also see the beautiful sending of the angels to minister to Christ in His time of need. Have you ever been there? Isolated and alone? No one around to help you fight the battle? Yet, Christ comes onto the scene with angelic hosts to lift your head and help you stand back up?

I have.

I know I write on the wilderness season quite a bit but I need to bring us back to the truth of this walk with Christ. Our finest hour may very well take us directly to a wilderness. We are squeezed here, pruned here, and we will see things in our own hearts that we likely didn’t even know were there.

The Holy Spirit will also begin to unravel belief systems that are laced with error. Teachings that perhaps are half-truths or no truth at all but our past circles and environments had a certain bent so we just ate what we were fed and believed what we were told. Christ will do much pulling back of the veil in the wilderness. His heart is so near that you will soon see Him pull back the covers on hidden snakes that have been abiding with you and Jesus. Stealing your freedom and stealing your destiny.  Many of us had no idea they were even there.

Power ignites in the wilderness. Whether it’s for the first time or a fresh baptism, we receive the more that Christ desires to give us. Because He has emptied us of pride, human influence, false humility, loyalties that mean way too much, and even hardness of heart that keeps us from breaking when others break we are finally able to be filled back up with His power, His love, His pure heart.

The wilderness is essential.

It is a divine boot-camp of sorts.

It is where we cross over from who we once were to who He wants us to become.

You, and I, will never be the same after a wilderness season.

Never.

Like Joseph, your bothers may not even recognize you.

For you carry yourself entirely different now and just like in Mark1:22 you’ll hear others quietly whisper, “And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority…”