Times in the Desert

Time in the Desert.

I have heard Graham Cooke talk about how he loves the times the Lord takes him into the desert and that has just never resonated with me. I've been in dry times before, desert experiences with the Lord, and I just wanted to go back to the sweet times of intimacy, communication and grace.

This morning I was reading through a few chapters in the Book of Joshua, and I saw something I hadn't really seen before - that the Israelites that were entering the promised land were a different people than those that had escaped Egypt 40 years earlier. Instead of a nation of slaves, they were a warring nation that was skilled in warfare and armed for warfare. Somewhere in the midst of the desert they had acquired swords and javelins, and learned how to use them. Somewhere in the desert they had lost the slave mentality, actually I think that identity died with the people who died in the desert.

As I was thinking about this, I realized that there is much to welcome about this experience in the desert, if I have the right attitude. I sometimes think that most of those 40 years were spent on changing the attitude and culture of the people. So, in the desert, the people were changed from slaves to free people who were able to fight for their freedom and possessions, they were given new identities. In the desert, they learned how to fight and how to wield weapons for warfare. Following their time in the desert they were able to move into their promise and occupy that place. They had a new attitude, a new identity, and new skills.

I now see the desert as a time of maturing, forming and forging of new identity and impartation of gifts and skills needed in my next season of blessing and increased territory. I think I understand more why Graham says he enjoys the desert times. They aren't really times of punishment but rather formation, preparing us for something greater in God, preparing us to step into and occupy the promises of God.