Dear sis, God calls us to journey well. Let’s talk about it!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to sit at His feet daily! There was a prayer I prayed about 8-9 months ago and I praise God because I am living in that prayer. I wanted to work from home so that I could study His word and be with Him all day. I was blessed with a WFH job that allows me to have deep, unrushed, quality time with God. I remember how busy I stayed, too busy for God and that is when the enemy slid into my DMs… wooing me, keeping my eyes far from Him. Thankfully I could hear God calling me and I went towards His voice. 

In my book, Living With God in the Season of Ambiguity, there is a section called, A Deeper Connection with God and I talk about the transition from “me” time to God time and how it changed my life. I wrote, “The goal here was to take notes and live it out loud. My conversations started changing, my behavior was shifting… I became a different person.” This book is about my season from closing my store to waiting to see what God has in store. It reminds me of the journey the Israelites took when God freed them from the bondage of the Egyptians through their time in the wilderness. 

If you have not read Exodus or Numbers, I would encourage you to do so… it was life-changing. I know people will say, “We don’t live in the Old Testament” but Hebrews 4:12 NIV says, 

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The Old Testament is still the LIVING WORD… and if you have a soft heart, God will see that and speak to you. 

I am currently reading through the Bible in 52 weeks and we are in Numbers. Numbers dives into the years of the Israelites living in the wilderness. We all experience the wilderness, I am currently in the wilderness. I noticed that as I read through these chapters, God is reading me! I realized that I was in the wilderness and God wants me to go through the wilderness without complaining and being obedient. 

The Israelites were frustrated, they were filled with unbelief, they were ungrateful, and did not trust that God will bring them to the promised land. They were complaining, they wanted to go back to Egypt, they despised the manna, God’s gift to them, they were afraid and they let all of that keep them from entering the Promised Land. 

I listen to God through the journey of the Israelites, He wants us to journey well. There is a purpose here in the wilderness, God is doing something in us and through us. There is a transformation that needs to happen in our mind and heart. He will not take old ways and old behavior into the new land. Mark 2:22 says, And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

How to Journey Bad

1. Listening to everyone but God– In Numbers 13:26-33, God told Moses to send 12 spies to the land of Canaan. 12 spies were in Canaan for 40 days, it was filled with milk and honey. In fact, the fruit was so huge and plentiful that 2 people cut a cluster of grapes and carried it on a pole. The spies came back with a bad report, all but 2. They lied and exaggerated the truth. Caleb however was like no! We got this, let’s go and possess the land. Caleb was full of faith, the rest were full of fear. The fear infected the rest of them and in chapter 14, the first few verses show that the Israelites cried, wept, and complained. They even wanted to go back to Egypt. Then God judged them! They were not able to enter that promised land! 
2. Complaining– This is an attitude, a character, a behavior issue… Reasons why you complain, you don’t trust God, you don’t want to do it God’s way, you don’t want to do the work. Faith without works is dead. God provided manna, and they complained about that. 
3. Not obeying God– Many times we want to just do it our own way! We want to do it fast, we want to take short cuts! For some reason, we think we can do it better than God and that is a lie! Breaking the sabbath like in Ch 14: 32-36 or even when Moses struck the stone twice in Ch 20 of Numbers when he was only supposed to speak. 

There are so many other things that made the Israelites’ journey bad, I encourage you to read it! So if this shows how not to journey while you are in the wilderness, then how do you journey well?

God wants us to trust Him and obey His commands!

We journey well when…

1. You are in constant communion with Him. 
2. Surrendering your life to Him and allowing Him to guide your footsteps
3. Revering God in all that you do. 
4. Looking to Him and believing in Him so you do not perish but have everlasting life. 

I have to surrender daily to God so that I do not go and do things my way. I talk with Him daily, asking what I should do, where I should go, and what to say. Even though I am in this season of ambiguity, or in the wilderness, I know that there is purpose in this preparation for the next phase.

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Resources

• Join the Facebook Group where we are reading the word and meet up on Zoom on Tuesday evenings
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• Grab my new book Living With God in the Season of Ambiguity https://amzn.to/3GgD4az
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