Many are asking when is this wilderness season going to come to an end? When are we going to see the manifestation of the promises God and others have spoken over us? What is causing the delay? If you are asking these kinds of questions, I have good news for you. God is not slack in fulfilling His promises, but he is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to the knowledge of God (2 Peter 3:9). When it comes to the Lord God in heaven there is no such thing as delay. He lives in now time, all the time. Most will not argue with that, so then they bring it to what they call the second heaven, so the delay must be because the enemy is holding it up. This thought comes from one verse in Daniel 10:13 which says Daniel’s answer was delayed 21 days because of a principality. However, this season we have been in has been for years, not weeks, but years. So, is it possible it is not a delay due to the devil or God, but someone we have not yet identified?
1 Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” What things? All the wilderness things. The nation of Israel is an example to us as a warning, so we don’t make the same mistakes they made. But what exactly was their issue, what hindered them from entering the promised land and possessing the promises of God? It wasn’t God, it wasn’t Moses, it wasn’t the devil, the person who kept them out of the promise land was…themselves! They refused to surrender to God, they refused to submit to God, they refused to be content with God, it was them, they were the issue. How do I know this, because a whole generation had to die off, so the next generation could enter in the promised land. Is it possible the delay is not the devil, not God, but me, but you? I believe this is where we need to look, not outside of us, but inside of us. Not to someone else, or something else, but to ourselves.
I believe that the wilderness battle is a battle with self, not with God or the devil. The point of the wilderness is to teach us how to win the battle over ourselves, not the devil, not God, but us. Our battle is with ourselves, that is why this battle is taking so long. David said in Psalm 55:12-14 “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.” The closer the person is to us, the harder it is to deal with it, because they are so close, we would never suspect them to be our issue. I believe God is working out with diligence and consistency the Lordship issue in our life. He is wrestling with us, not us wrestling with the devil or some principality. Until we surrender, until we stop trying to be in control, until we say mercy and let Him be God, not in certain areas of our lives, but over our whole lives, I am not sure we will leave the wilderness.
The reason for this intense battle, the reason it is taking so long, is because our battle is within, not without and it is a battle between us and God. He is trying to get us to trust Him, not situationally, but eternally. I know many will argue with me on this point, but the truth is, the issue is not outside of us, the issue is inside of us and He is not going to let us go, until this battle over self is won and Jesus Christ is Lord over all of our life. Once He has all of us, trust me, we will possess the promised land, for He is a covenant keeping God and He is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). If you read Psalm 105-106 it will give you a history of Israel’s battle with themselves and once they win that battle, then they begin to fight the enemies who are squatting on their promise, but if you try to deal with external enemies before you deal with internal ones, your victory will be short term, that is why God is cleaning the inside of the cup in our lives, during this wilderness season, so when we enter the promised land, the enemy will be defeated with a word. Is it possible, this is what’s taking so long?
