The Valley, Part 1: A Desert

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness....


I was led in hope, in joy at what I had just beheld upon the mountain.
The word of God had spoken and told me that what I desired--this noble thing--was indeed on His heart. He had shown me a glimpse of this child, this girl, magnificently clothed in royal colors and walking a road in the footsteps of Christ as a co-heir to this glorious inheritance.

I am going to St. John's next year. He wants to satisfy this desire to me in abundance.

As one looks forward in great anticipation to the fulfillment of their inheritance, I longed to receive this blessing. I was filled with the greatest nostalgia and weariness at its distance. You see, what I desire from this is the fellowship and fullness that is offered there. It is my promised land, so to speak, flowing with milk and honey.

To understand the depths of this longing, you must first understand the nature of the desert I had found myself in the midst of. Like most deserts it was dry, and as I wandered I grew more and more thirsty. It was lacking. In my desert, no food fell from heaven or living water flowed from the rock.

It seemed that the Lord had pushed all people out of my life when I needed them most. Also my eyes opened to the fact that I was a wanderer on enemy territory, and the Lord never intended for any landscape in all the earth--desert, valley, mountain, hill--to be possessed with any sort of darkness. This is the nature of a world ruled by a prince whose only motive is to steal, kill and destroy. Wandering in my colors of another kingdom, I saw despair, weeping and oppression all around me.

All I wanted was to drink the joy of my inheritance.

"The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the LORD will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them."

In the midst of it all He was near. Sometimes I wasn't aware of it, but He was always SO very close. His truth was written upon my heart.

He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Eventually the Spirit led me to a place where I could lie down and rest. I was still hungry, thirsty, and weary, but I rested in the truth of his promises and that he was near. In this rest, which I found in the words of Isaiah, he spoke to my heart:

"I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs."

In little ways he encouraged me. When I fainted, his angels attended to me. He gave me THIS.