The Wilderness E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passion Translation
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 203

Beschreibung

"How long, O Lord?" "When will you answer my prayer?" "Why must I wait so long for your promise to be fulfilled?" The Christian journey is not endless bliss with perfect relationships and an abundant financial portfolio. Perfection can only be found in Christ. Even though lovers of God experience fullness of life, they still face unexpected trials, unpredictable difficulties, and seemingly unsolvable problems. Every child of God will have a wilderness experience, but not everyone has to have a wilderness wandering. In The Wilderness, Brian and Candice share some of their difficult seasons as tribal missionaries in Central and South America where they encountered demonic powers, lost their possessions in a flooding river, and experienced their daughter being bitten by a venomous snake. Combined with the wilderness encounters the Israelites faced, these stories will help you understand your own challenges of faith, delayed answers to prayer, and miraculous interventions that display God's glory. God wants to bring you from the wilderness to a miracle. You will make it through to the other side and discover God's heart of love for you!    

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC

Racine, Wisconsin, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

THE WILDERNESS: WHERE MIRACLES ARE BORN

Copyright © 2016 Brian Simmons and Candice Simmons

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5179-8 (softcover)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5316-7 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation® (TPT). Copyright © 2014, 2015, 2016 by BroadStreet Publishing Group, Racine, Wisconsin. thePassionTranslation.com. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Additions in brackets or emphasis in the text are from the authors.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

Cover design by Chris Garborg, GarborgDesign.com

Interior design and typesetting by Katherine Lloyd, theDESKonline.com

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

E

VERYONE

H

AS

O

NE

Chapter 2

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

M

IRACLES

A

RE

B

ORN

Chapter 3

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

A P

LACE OF

M

YSTERY

Chapter 4

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

F

AITH

G

ROWS

Chapter 5

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

W

ORSHIP

D

EEPENS

Chapter 6

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

W

E

F

EEL

O

UR

L

IMITATIONS

Chapter 7

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

G

OD

P

ROVIDES A

H

EALING

T

REE

Chapter 8

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

O

UR

A

TTITUDES

A

RE

A

DJUSTED

Chapter 9

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

A

N

O

ASIS IN

H

IDING

Chapter 10

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

S

ONS

B

ECOME

S

OLDIERS

Chapter 11

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HY

W

ASTE A

G

OOD

O

NE

?

Chapter 12

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

A P

LACE OF

S

ATISFACTION AND

C

ONVICTION

Chapter 13

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

M

ANNA

R

AINS

D

OWN

Chapter 14

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

F

AITH

I

S

T

ESTED

Chapter 15

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE THE

W

EAK

B

ECOME

S

TRONG

Chapter 16

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

Y

OUR

F

RIEND

I

S

W

AITING

Chapter 17

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

A P

LACE OF

B

EAUTY

Chapter 18

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

H

E

A

LLURES

U

S

Chapter 19

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

W

E

L

EARN TO

L

EAN

O

N

O

UR

B

ELOVED

Chapter 20

T

HE

W

ILDERNESS:

W

HERE

W

E

F

IND

H

OPE

Chapter 21

W

ILDERNESS IN THE

W

ORD

CHAPTER 1

THE WILDERNESS:

EVERYONE HAS ONE

When you see the word miracles paired with wilderness in the title of this book, you might think, Are you kidding? We all love the word miracle, but wilderness—not so much! We’ve all experienced difficult seasons at one time or another and have hoped for that instantaneous miracle to appear. Over and over you can hear the cry of our hearts through the psalmist, King David, as he says:

“How long, O Lord?”

“When will you answer my cry?”

“Why must I wait so long for your promise to be fulfilled?”

We can all identify with those words, for we’ve all had unresolved issues surface in our journey with Christ. So in spite of what others may tell you, the Christian journey is not a life of endless bliss, with a perfect marriage, perfect relationships, and a perfect financial portfolio. Perfection can only be found in Christ, for the world we live in is a fallen world. And even though life is sweet for the lovers of God, we all still face times of unexpected trials, unpredicted difficulties, and seemingly unsolvable problems. In a word, this is the wilderness.

Every child of God will have a wilderness experience, but not everyone has to have a wilderness wandering. The “wilderness” is something every true Christ follower must pass through. The good news is you will make it through to the other side. However, let me tell you what many will not. You won’t escape going through a wilderness or two on your way to paradise. The wilderness—everybody’s got one.

There are at least ten named wildernesses in the Bible. Even Jesus entered into a wilderness season immediately after His baptism. He was tested with many ordeals. And the pathway to glory will invariably lead us through the wilderness. Between every promise and the Promised Land of fulfillment will be a wilderness. But the great promise of grace is always with us, for the Lord will never lead us into a path that He has not already ventured. He was victorious in His wilderness test, because He placed His hope in God alone and trusted in the living Word of God to sustain Him.

There’s a children’s song that my wife and I once taught our kids to sing as they were growing up. The lyrics are simple but the lesson they teach us is not.

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness,

All I have to do is follow.

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness,

All I have to do is follow.

Strength for today is mine all the way,

And all that I need for tomorrow.

My Lord knows the way through,

All I have to do is follow.

Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus.

Anywhere, everywhere, I will follow him.

Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus

Anywhere He leads me, I will follow Him.*

When you have no place to turn, and you feel like your progress is slow and your spiritual growth seems even slower, remember the words to that children’s song, “My Lord Knows the Way.” One step at a time and one day at a time, we move through our lives on this planet. Unexpected twists and turns come, but so does the glorious revelation that Jesus has gone before us through the darkest times of our lives and promises to take us through them to the other side, where all is glory and peace.

God’s loving and watchful care over our lives is eternal. He has invested sacred blood and the life of His Son for us. He will never disappoint those who trust in Him. His ways are good and perfect. All I have to do is follow Him.

Open your heart to the truth we present in this book. Let it settle into your soul. You may want to read some of the chapters more than once to understand that your life is such a beautiful treasure to God that He will “polish” you with what seems like the abrasive sand of a desert-like experience.

In the pages that follow, we (Brian and Candice) share with you some of the difficult seasons we passed through while we were tribal missionaries in Central and South America. We encountered demonic powers and were forced more than once to confess our deep need of Jesus. We will tell you stories of how God spared our daughter Joy after she was bitten by a large snake while playing at the river, and how we lost months of supplies in a flooding river. You’ll read about our life journey as it unfolded over the years of our missionary career.

But the true story in this book takes place in the many wilderness encounters that the people of Israel faced after leaving Egypt in the powerful miracle recorded in the book of Exodus. The Israelites’ stories give us insights into understanding our own stories—challenges of faith, delayed answers to prayer, and miraculous interventions that displayed God’s glory. At the end of each chapter we’ve also included “God’s Whisper,” which are words of encouragement and hope we believe God has for you.

We’re so glad you’ve chosen to read about our journey of faith. Jesus is the true Hero of our story, and we are thrilled to be able to share part of it with you. We hope you enjoy it and can find comfort and strength in whatever situation you face today.

All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us. And just as we experience the abundance of Christ’s own sufferings, even more of God’s comfort will cascade upon us through our union with Christ.

If troubles weigh us down, that just means that we will receive even more comfort to pass on to you for your deliverance! For the comfort pouring into us empowers us to bring comfort to you. And with this comfort upholding you, you can endure victoriously the same suffering that we experience. Now our hope for you is unshakable, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings you will also share in God’s comforting strength.

—2 Corinthians 1:3–7

* Words and music by Sidney E. Cox, © 1951 Singspiration/ASCAP, all rights reserved. Used by permission of Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc. See: http://hymnal.calvarybscv.org/291.html.

CHAPTER 2

THE WILDERNESS:

WHERE MIRACLES ARE BORN

It was our very first visit to the jungle as we were preparing to move in among the Kuna people as tribal missionaries. The hour-and-a-half flight took us into some of the deepest parts of the Darien Gap, a dense tropical rainforest that covers large portions of Panama and Colombia. We were finally moving to the village after years of prayer and preparation. Our hearts were pounding as we stepped down out of the Cessna 185 “bush plane.” We were now in our new home, the Paya-Kuna tribal village of Pucuro!

Would the people welcome us? Would they be friendly to our family? Would their hearts be open to our message of new life in Jesus Christ? The first words we heard from the Kuna people were not what we expected.

“KILL BRIAN! KILL BRIAN!”

First it started with one man, then an entire crowd gathered at the jungle airstrip. They were shouting something strange: “Kill Brian! Kill Brian!” My first thought was, That’s a weird welcome. I hope it’s not too late to get back into the airplane!

As they saw the look of fear on our faces, they began to laugh! Just then, one of the men in the village quickly stepped forward and said to me in Spanish, “We’re calling you ‘uncle.’”

That was my first language lesson that day. I learned that the words Kill Brian meant Uncle Brian in the Kuna language! They were celebrating our arrival with cries of “Uncle Brian! Uncle Brian is here!” And so our adventure began. What would these days hold for us and our three small children as we would live in this forgotten jungle village? What challenges were waiting for us, and what dangers would lurk in the days to come? It was like a scene from Survivor!

Our life in the jungle was filled with many self-emptying opportunities to surrender our lives of convenience. Everything was out of our comfort zone: the heat, the language, the food, the outhouse—everything! We lived as the people lived, ate what they ate, and lived among them. Our wilderness exposed our weaknesses. It always does; that’s the nature of every wilderness experience.

Consider this: as a servant of Christ, you will one day enter a season of helplessness where you no longer call the shots and know what to do. It will seem as if you don’t have what it takes to survive—finding yourself in a place and a season where only Christ will be your strength.

The One whose name is Living Water is within you. This wonderful Jesus brings you a life-giving stream, fulfilling every need no matter how difficult the many surprises of life can be. He is within you as a well of water “springing up into everlasting life!” (John 4:14).

This “springing well” begins to flow inside until praise rises up out of you again. Before you know it, the springs are watering everything around you—and every dry place within you. You will see things differently, you will feel differently about the people around you, and you will see things you didn’t even notice before. When Jesus shows up in the wilderness, it disappears. It becomes a garden.

The Lord will always show you where to go and what to do, filling you with refreshment when you are dry and in a difficult place. He will continually restore strength to you. You will flourish like a well-watered garden, and be like an ever-flowing, trustworthy spring of blessing. (Isaiah 58:11)

We learn in our difficult season that even though we may be in a wilderness, our hearts don’t have to be a barren wasteland. Our wilderness starts growing flowers when Jesus flows from within us. His presence satisfies the deep thirst that dries up the soul and places us in a weary land or a weary season. Whoever heard of roses blooming in a desert?

Even the desert will bloom like a rose. Every dry and barren place will blossom abundantly, singing joyously of the new day! (Isaiah 35:1–2)

Your wilderness (your life with its surprises and setbacks) will blossom with a rose; and that rose is Christ! Jesus, the Rose, will be found in your desert days, bringing a new fragrance and a new song. What you thought was an impossible climate for overcoming will become the canvas for a rose.

Miracles are waiting to be found in your wilderness. Even in a wilderness, God can work in power. He doesn’t need perfection to pull off a miracle. He’s done it before with nothing but chaos all around. It was called creation! There is no shortage of power with God. He can make lame ones leap and broken ones sing.

Most of us have an attitude that translates the word wilderness into “something terrible.” In fact, the Bible teaches that the wilderness is the place where miracles are born, the place where we hear God speak, and the place where He truly reveals Himself to us. We have found our greatest difficulties in life to be the incubator of miracles!

What about you? Are you finding yourself in a wilderness? A difficult place where pressures surround you? Have you found the only way out is to lean on your Beloved?

MEETING GOD IN THE WILDERNESS

For nearly eight years, we lived in an actual wilderness. It was the jungle region of Central America known as Darien Gap. It had no road; it was so abandoned and obscure that the only way to get there was to take a dangerous river trip in a dug-out canoe or a flight in a small airplane that was designed to land on a short, grassy airstrip. And we had very few conveniences. No electricity, no running water, no Internet, no iPhone or Facebook. Thankfully our years of missionary training prepared us for what we faced, or at least for some of it! With our three children, we served as tribal missionaries with New Tribes Mission, reaching the forgotten Paya-Kuna people with the good news of Christ’s love. It was a wilderness in more ways than one!

We faced various trials and tribulations during our time in the jungle. It seemed like every demon came out of the jungle to fight against us, starting with demonic powers that came when one of our daughters was bitten by a deadly snake and miraculously survived. And early in our ministry, we were targeted by the enemy when our narrow dug-out canoe overturned in a flooding river. We lost all the supplies meant to sustain us for months, and we nearly lost our lives.

These situations were major wake-up calls for us. We realized we needed to readjust the focus on our spiritual lens. Yet in the midst of our wilderness, we met the God of the Bible. God answered our prayers, and as a result He converted dozens as we asked Him to speak to the hearts of the people. God displayed miracles, dreams, and powerful signs and wonders on our behalf. Our family can testify that even a wilderness can blossom like a rose when we allow God to be everything to us.

God will even lead you there, into your very own personal wilderness. That’s right. Just like the Hebrews, between you and your Promised Land lies a wilderness of discovery and, at times, disappointment. Yet in the wilderness we find that the surprises of life yield the most beautiful fruit. The supernatural power of God is more often displayed in a wilderness than in a church service. God will use your wilderness to release the virtues of Christ growing within!

GOD’S WHISPER

I know about your hard times. I’m moved deeply by that which troubles you—in your home, at work, with your family, with your health. I have never yet failed to help you when you have turned to Me. I have seen your hunger for more, and I have prepared a place for you at My table. Satisfying grace will be your portion. Mercy that sustains you even when you stumble—that will be the gift I bring to you. Even in your hard times, you have chosen to never leave Me. So I say to you, My beloved, I will never leave you.

CHAPTER 3

THE WILDERNESS:

A PLACE OF MYSTERY

We are all taking a journey through the wilderness, heading toward the land God has promised us. So what exactly is the “wilderness”?

The best definition I (Candice) can give you is this: it’s a place in life you’d rather not be in, a place of dissatisfaction where you know something better exists. It can be the difficult place you find yourself in today. It can be an unfulfilling career, a broken marriage, or the sting of loneliness that doesn’t go away. It’s the place where you’re humbled and stripped bare—the place of not knowing and not understanding. God may lead you on a path where a shroud of mystery covers your way.

Let’s face it, at times we all walk into a place we didn’t ask for, a place where we might never have chosen to go. If you’re feeling crowded, stressed, and locked into a place you’d rather run from—that is your wilderness! It can be called a “season of discontent.” It is a time in your life when you feel stuck, unable to get out of it on your own. It can feel like you’re in a waiting room and you’re thinking, How much longer can I handle this, Lord?

TESTING BEFORE THE MISSION

That has been my experience more than once. After we finished Bible school and our missionary training, we were ready to go to the mission field. We were ready to give ourselves to reach a tribe of people that had never heard the gospel. We were excited and knew that God was calling us. But we soon learned that knowing God’s will is not the same as knowing His timing.

When we were ready to move forward, our finances had totally dried up. Brian had to step away from ministry for a season and find employment to take care of the needs of our family of five. God opened a door for him to work at an aircraft factory, where he was given the title “utility worker,” meaning he was the one who fueled the airplanes when they first came out of the factory ready for their test flight. During the testing of the aircraft, he kept it fueled and ready to fly. But our hearts were set and ready to go to the mission field. We wanted to go to the jungle; fueling airplanes was never on our radar.

But it wasn’t just the airplanes being taken on a “test flight”; Brian was also being tested. That season seemed to last longer than his patience. He still remembers the day he was fueling up a turboprop with his hands freezing cold, telling God that he loved Him more than ministry and that he would do anything just to be closer to Him. He would even fuel airplanes if that’s what God wanted.

It wasn’t very long after that prayer that the season changed. Finances came in, and we moved forward and set a date to go to Panama. God broke through the limitation of Brian’s wilderness when Brian set God first in everything, including ministry. God is so good!

What about you? Have you been waiting and waiting for your season to change? Do you feel limited and confined in a place that can only be described by the word wilderness?

Some of the negative things associated with the wilderness include testing, trial, persecution, suffering, spiritual dryness, and what the ancient writers describe as the “dark night of the soul.” But the positive, life-giving discoveries far outweigh the pain and perplexity of it all. We must return to authentic humility, simplicity, renewed gratefulness for the smallest of pleasures, the kisses of God that bring restoration, and the cup of joy running over again, even in the “jungle” of life.

EMBRACING THE MYSTERY

As a result of the fall, the wilderness became a physical reality on earth. But even though the wilderness was released on the earth as part of the curse, God is a redemptive God and uses the wilderness not as a means to harm us, but as a part of our spiritual re-creation. Satan’s plan to harm us backfires if we allow the wilderness to do its perfecting work in us. The apostle Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 10:11:

All the tests they endured on their way through the wilderness are a symbolic picture; an example which provides us with a warning, so that we can learn through what they experienced. For we live in a time when the purpose of all the ages past is now completing its goal within us.

So, all that happened in the wildernesses of the Old Testament was meant to be object lessons for you and me. It’s true that we can learn from what they experienced, but that doesn’t mean you and I are exempt from our own wilderness experience.

We wrongly assume that we must understand everything today. But there are questions that you cannot google an answer for. There are things and places that Wikipedia doesn’t even have a listing for! We hate not knowing what God is doing in our lives, yet it is rare that we perceive the “why” until we graduate to our next season. In our wilderness we press for the meaning of the mysteries of our lives and demand answers that may not exist—or at least we are not meant to know why until we carry more of Christ within.

Somehow, in our wilderness, we must be content to not understand everything, to not be offended with God’s treatment of us, and to be willing to “faithfully embrace the mysteries of faith while keeping a clean conscience” (1 Timothy 3:9). At times, some of the greatest miracles we discover in the desert are the miracles that God releases within us. Christ conquers our soul when we run out of answers.

Every mystery becomes a miracle if we will wait. Most of what Jesus taught was not always understood immediately by those who knew Him best. Later they understood what they had received. There must grow inside our souls a willingness to hear what we do not understand and treasure it within, even if we can do nothing about it until the time comes for the mystery to end.