Into the Wilderness

This is Sam from the Masking Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to this podcast, which is part of the Jesus Breaks the Chains series on Truth Network. I'm evangelist Michael Bowen, and I pray that the Lord blesses you greatly. And you receive this word in love and in truth.

This podcast is titled Into the Wilderness. If you're like me, then you constantly have many struggles in your life. When I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, I was in prison and a drug addict. Back then my life was one big struggle and disappointment. I was fighting a wicked crack cocaine addiction every day of my life. It seemed like any time I would have just a little bit of a success, something would come along and knock me off my feet.

My whole life would come apart at the seams. Over and over again, this scenario played itself out until finally I found myself in prison for a second time in Texas. It was there that I finally surrendered my life to Jesus and asked him to become my Lord and Savior. And he did. Once I made Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior and became his disciple, I thought all the struggles in this life would disappear, and it would be smooth sailing from here on out.

Well, let me tell you, I was wrong about that one. You know, as I began to read my Bible, I read about the struggles and difficulties that Christians had throughout their lives following Jesus. All the disciples, all the new converts and the stories, I read how when they persevered through their struggles and trusted in Jesus, that right there gave them strength.

Second Corinthians 12 nine through 10 speaks about this. And he said to me, my grace, this is Jesus, Jesus's words, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities. This is Paul talking now. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And I would like to say right now paraphrase this a little bit. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my struggles and difficulties in my life, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Back in the scripture, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. And I'm here to tell you, for when I am weak in my struggle, if I trust Jesus, I am strong. For when I'm weak in my difficulty, when I trust in Jesus, then I am strong, because his strength is made perfect in my weakness.

It's my weakness is irresistible to Jesus. And when I asked him to come in to my difficult time, or my struggle in my life, whether it's finances, whether it's health, whether it's marriage, whether it's in ministry, he is waiting for me to ask him to come into my problem. He says, cast your anxieties and cares on me for I care for you. And he's waiting there for us to give our problems and difficulties, stresses in life to him, so he can put it in his hands, and help us through it.

I love this quote right here. It says, I am thankful for my struggle, because without it, I would not have found my strength. Another interpretation of it says, I am thankful for my struggle, because without it, I would not have stumbled upon my strength.

And that just kind of connotates that we don't even realize the strength we have in Jesus Christ. Sometimes we have to stumble upon it, and no better place to stumble upon it is when we're feeling pressed down, and stressed out, and the cares, worries, and anxieties of life are pressing us down. Financial, health, marriage, ministry, work, overbearing boss, things just not going your way, car breaks down, you don't have enough money to fix it.

You have money invested in the stock market, and the stock market has dumped, and you're out of money. All that is an opportunity for you to stumble upon your strength, stumble upon the strength of Jesus Christ that was made perfect in your weakness. I love that so much. And believe me, I have stumbled upon my strength so many times now, walking with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when I thought I just couldn't go any further. He carried me the rest of the way. And no better place was that display in my life was in my addiction. For 25 years, I was addicted to crack cocaine, and there's no way I could get out of it. I was ready to die. I thought the only way I would ever stop smoking drugs, and smoking crack cocaine, and using methamphetamine, and drinking alcohol was if I died, and I was ready to die.

I was just ready to go. I thought the world would be a better place if I died because I'd caused so much heartache, so much disappointment, and so much hurt and pain for my loved ones, and I stole from so many people, and I know I caused a lot of problems for people. Maybe I stole their last $100 from them. I stole people's cars. I just did a lot of horrible things that caused a lot of hurt and pain for people. But my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ brought me up out of that, something that I was totally overcome by, that I did not have the strength to get out of it, and the Lord delivered me.

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I'm telling you, I've been delivered from addiction for over nine years now, and I've been serving the Lord every day since the day I surrendered my life to Him on a prison chapel floor. I'm here to tell you that it hasn't been all rainbows, butterflies, and cotton candy for me. Just like everyone else, just because I'm a Christian and I've been filled with the Holy Spirit does not mean I'm immune to every day's life struggles. As a matter of fact, in some cases, I've added more struggles than I had before. Just because I have this relationship with Jesus Christ and have been reborn does not mean that I do not face the difficulties. As a matter of fact, I believe I face more difficulties now that I follow Jesus Christ than before I followed Him. It's just that now those difficulties are different, and now I also have the faith, and I know that I can get through them with Jesus as my help. I still have severe hardships and difficult struggles in my life, just like everyone else. It's just that addiction, praise the Lord, and all of its consequences are no longer one of them. I'm telling you how good that feels, because those were some very hard difficulties and bitter consequences to swallow.

But you know what? I had to, because I chose to use the drugs. No one put a gun to my head and said, Michael Bowen, you have to use this drug or you have to drink this alcohol. I chose to do it, and so I had to deal with the consequences. Then I also had to go through the consequences, and I had to make a choice that I didn't want to use drugs again, that I wanted to change my life.

Once I made that choice, there was no way I was going to be able to do it on my own. So that's why I reached for the hand of Jesus Christ, who reached down into my pit, my deep, dark, drug-addicted pit, and pulled me out by his mighty right hand. Hallelujah. The love that I encountered the day I was saved by Jesus Christ from my distresses is a day I will never forget. I was crying, crying, weeping, begging him to save me on a prison chapel floor. So now I just have different types of struggles and difficulties, and now I have the power in my life to always overcome them when I put my trust in that one who saved my soul from hell, who will always be there with me, walk with me through the fire and through the flood, and see me on through to the other side." Philippians 4, 12, 13. I know what it is to be in need.

This is Paul. And I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Or I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Paul's saying he's learned this secret of being content in every situation. He says, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

But I think he also could say, whether I'm struggling or whether I'm in difficulties, whether I have no finances, whether I don't know what I'm going to eat next because I'm out of money and out of food. In any and all situations, he knows that he can get through them through Christ who gives him strength. And I gravitated towards that. Scripture is one of my, matter of fact, it's one of my power scriptures in my life that I use in my life. Actually my mother, she knew I loved this scripture. One day she was shopping and she saw this silver bracelet.

It's a beautiful silver bracelet with that. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and she gave it to me and I wear it. It's just a remembrance of this scripture in my life and a memory of the woman who gave it to me who I love so much, who had taught me so many things and who prayed for me my whole time when I was addicted. Without her, I don't know where I'd be.

She helped me from destroying myself so many times and never gave up on me. I really love that scripture and that gift that was given to me in that bracelet. As spiritual Christians, we need to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding. Sometimes we are too quick to complain and feel sorry for ourselves and wonder why this difficult thing is happening to us. Instead of embracing it and coming to the realization that it may actually be a good thing, that's kind of an interesting concept. This hard thing that I'm going through actually could turn out to be a good thing or not turn out to be a good thing.

This hard thing is actually really a good thing in disguise. We're so quick to blame our difficulties and struggles on the devil and say we're under spiritual attack when in fact it may just be God moving us into a place where he can deal with us one on one without all the distractions of the world. When God led the Israelites into the wilderness, he did it so they would not be entangled with the influences of Egypt. God used the wilderness as a place of separation for them.

Not separation from him, but separation from an influence that was keeping them from their purpose in God. Exodus 13, 17-22 says, Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. When God did this and he led the Israelites into the wilderness, instead of taking them the normal way, down a road, down a path, through the land of the Philistines, he took them into the wilderness and he took them there for a reason. And then it goes on and it says, So they took their journey from Sukkoth and camped beneath them at the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.

So as to go by day and night, he did not take away the pillar of the cloud by day, or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. God was about to do something great with the Israelites and he needed to take them into the wilderness to prepare them for this great thing that he was about to do. God was preparing them so they would be ready to move into their inheritance as the chosen people of God, the children of God. God was about to take them into their promised land and it was through this nation, through the Israelites, through the Jews, that the Savior of the world would come, Jesus Christ. This is what this was all about, why they had to go into the wilderness to prepare them to this work of God, which the overall work of God is the salvation of their souls in Jesus Christ. So this whole wilderness thing was to prepare them for the coming of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Many things would have to happen before that time, many hundreds of years, but this was the thing that set everything in motion. Even before that, it was set in the Garden of Eden, God's plan of salvation. Then through the Scriptures we read how Abraham was set apart and was to become a nation. This is what we're seeing here, the Israelites with their patriarch Abraham. In the Scriptures, this land was referred to, this land that the promised land was referred to as a land of milk and honey.

Very interesting. Exodus 3.8, so I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And then Deuteronomy 30.20 says, when I brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised in oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they'll be taken care of. They will have plenty of food, and I believe he's talking spiritual food and physical food, and they will thrive.

Fried meaning they will progress, they will multiply, and they will be bountiful and plentiful and just have all the things that they will need. God's description of the promised land as a land flowing with milk and honey is a beautiful, beautifully graphic way of highlighting the agricultural richness of the land. God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt to a prosperous land of freedom and blessing and knowledge of the Lord. I'm here to tell you, we all have our own promised land that God is preparing us for. Just like he prepared the Israelites for their promised land, he's preparing you and me for our promised land. And we have many promised lands in our lifetime, and we move from one promised land to another until we reach the ultimate promised land, which is eternal life. You know, for the Israelites, their promised land was the place for spiritual nourishment and to enter into a covenant relationship with God. And they had to go into the wilderness before they could enter into the promised land.

And as I mentioned before, the promised land was the place and the people who our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would come through, would come out of, would be born into this world for us to be saved. You know, the Israelites, they had just come out of Egypt, but Egypt had not come out of them. So God had to take them into the wilderness to get Egypt out of them so they could enter into the land flowing with milk and honey. In the very same way, God took me out of my Egypt, which was my addiction. Just like the Israelites had grown accustomed to a life of slavery, I too had grown accustomed to a life of slavery. Except my slavery was not to the Egyptians, my slavery was to the drugs and the addiction that seated itself in me when I was a young man experimenting with drugs. And then once it was seated in me, I became a slave to it, a slave to sin, a slave to the darkness of drug addiction in my mind and in my flesh. You know, God in His infinite wisdom and His grace and mercy led me out of my addiction and He led me into the wilderness, a wilderness of my own. God led me out of addiction into prison for a year and prison for me was my wilderness because it prepared me for my new life promised in Jesus Christ as His disciple. And I still, when I got arrested, I still had Egypt in me. I still had addiction in me.

And it was going to take a lot to get that out, to pull that out. And God prepared a wilderness for me, prison, that would act in that same manner that the wilderness acted on the Israelites. It acted on me and pulled that addiction out of me and those addictive ways, the addictive behaviors, the addictive thinking and my reliance on drugs, which is a worthless idol, and my rebellion. And it took it out of me in that prison. You know, I learned so much about God when I was in prison and it was a time of testing and reckoning for me. You know, that's where I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ on that prison chapel floor. It's where God moved at me on a cold hard steel table in a dorm room with another man, moved so mightily on me, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and began praying in a new language, in a spiritual language, in tongues. And I began to have mighty revelations once I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Throughout my year in prison, you know, God led me to each of those idols that I'd set up in my life over the years, and he made me choose that day that he put it in front of me who I would serve moving forward.

My worthless idols are him. I had to give up the idols of self, the idol of wealth, fame, pride, and lastly, alcohol and drugs. You know, thank you, God. I just want to thank you right now for taking me into the wilderness of prison so I could see you clearly and be able to do the work on myself that you set before me. And also to allow you to have your way in me and for you to move so mightily on me and for me to start to understand your plan and purpose for my life. And for me to encounter your love, which was the thing that drew me in and really made me surrender my life. You know, it was the love of Jesus Christ that I surrendered to. Now, some may say that prison was the worst time of their lives, but for me, I would say from a physical perspective, yeah, prison sucks.

Let me tell you, it's a terrible place to have to be. But spiritually, prison was the most important places I've ever been in my life. Number one, it's where I found my salvation in Jesus Christ. Also, you know, in the wilderness of my prison, God was finally able to take Egypt out of me, take the addiction out of me.

He was able to change my slavery mentality and replace it with that of a king. Now I've come to an understanding that God will use this same process of taking me into the wilderness to prepare me for my next promised land. In my new life with Jesus Christ, his disciple, God moves me into the wilderness often, a new wilderness. You know, whatever he's about to do in my life, a new work or a new thing, I will always go into wilderness before. I've learned to embrace the wilderness and focus on what God is trying to do inside of me rather than focus on the difficulty, hardship, harshness, and scarcity of its landscape. You know, I've learned to embrace the struggle or difficulty because I know it's working something out of me, and God, once he gets that something out of me that doesn't need to be there, he can put something new in that's gonna help me in my promised land. Maybe the struggle, hardship, or difficulty you're experiencing right this very moment is a direct result of your prayer for your next promised land. The place that is flowing with milk and honey, whatever that place looks like to you, whatever your milk and honey may be, maybe God has moved you right now into the wilderness to get you to that new place, that new promised land that you've been praying for. It is possible that some of you are in this wilderness right now.

I'm telling you, this is not a bad thing. You just need to change your perspective and the way you're looking at things. Sometimes the Lord will lead us into the wilderness because he can place important things into our spirit while we are there. He puts things in us that he can only put into us while we are in the wilderness. It is those very things that lead us into our victory, that transform us into the conquerors that we are, and lead us into our destiny. Romans 8 37 39, Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things that come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The glory of God will shine upon you most profoundly in your wilderness. Isaiah 40 verses 3 through 5, A voice is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made love.

And let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord is spoken. Deuteronomy 32 10 says, He found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of a wilderness. He encircled him, he cared for him, he guarded him as the pupil of his eye. Isn't that beautiful how God found the person he's speaking about in here in a desert land in a wilderness and God encircled him and God cared for him and God guarded him as a pupil of his eye.

It's very sweet. Deuteronomy 2 7 says, For the Lord your God has blessed you in all that you have done. He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These 40 years the Lord your God has been with you, you have not lacked a thing. I promise you, you may think you are lacking in your wilderness, but it says right here, the promise in the world, you will not lack a thing in your wilderness. Hallelujah.

Embrace it now. Rejoice in your time in the wilderness for God is doing a mighty work in you. For your latter rains will be greater than your first, says the Lord. The Lord says, I'm giving you more.

I'm moving you to a new place. Joel 2 23 through 31 in the New King James says, Be glad then you children of Zion and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain faithfully and he will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat and the vat shall overflow with new wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in the plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God.

And there is no other. The prophet Joel referred to the fact that after planting, a seasonal rain provided moisture for germination and initial growth. This was called the early rain. Later, near the time for harvest, another watering was referred to as the latter rain. So while the first rain was important for germination, the second rain provided a nourishment that was important for your harvest.

Hallelujah. God is creating a harvest in you. The latter rain comes in your wilderness to prepare you for your harvest. Your harvest is found in your promised land flowing with milk and honey.

When you have arrived in the perfect will and purpose of God in your life, doing that which he created you to do in Jesus Christ, God promised his people great blessings represented by showers of rain. This was part of his covenant. In order for us to make it into our promised land, it is imperative that we go through the wilderness on our way. In God's infinite wisdom, this is always the path he has chosen for his people.

And this is the path he will choose for you. The path to your promised land goes through the wilderness. God brought the Israelites into the wilderness because he wanted to speak to them at Mount Sinai. This is where he spoke to Moses and made his covenant with the Israelites, telling them about their promised land. The land flowing with milk and honey in the wilderness, God also met Elijah. It was in the desert when God spoke to John the Baptist who spent most of his life in these rough conditions. Jesus himself went into the wilderness once he received the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan to prepare him for his ministry and his ultimate sacrifice that leads to our salvation.

Hallelujah. That led to our salvation. And it is because of Jesus and his sacrifice that we can have a promised land from God.

Jesus went into the wilderness and did not complain about it, but embraced it because he knew how important it was. My hope for you is that you can be inspired by this podcast to also embrace your time in the wilderness, your time in difficulties, your time in your struggles, and see its importance that it is bringing you into your next promised land. I love you all and I pray that you too can find the freedom that I've found in Jesus Christ.

Jesus breaks the chains. It was my time in the wilderness that prepared me for all the blessings I now have in my life. The wilderness helped make me the man of God I am today.

This is the greatest life I've ever lived, living my life in Jesus Christ as his fearless disciple. God bless you all. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you for listening. For more information on Michael Bowen's ministry, Sons and Daughters of Thunder, visit sonsanddaughtersoffunder.org. And remember, there is no addiction in Jesus Christ. Jesus breaks the chains. This is the Truth Network.