This word is submitted by Grant Turner [grant@alastairturner.fsnet.co.uk]

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                  Lost in the Wilderness

My child, you know I have placed a calling on your life, and have heard
the promises I have given you both directly and the through prophesies
proclaimed over you.  But as you have attempted to move in the calling
and stood upon these promises, everything has seemed to go wrong.  You
have had what you have perceived to be a number of 'false starts' that
were promising events but have seemed to apparently lead nowhere.
You are becoming discouraged, feeling alone and unnoticed.  You have
began to doubt the promises I gave you, and have become despondent and
feel that it is time to give up.  All around you seems to be an
increasingly empty desert, with no sign of My promises coming to pass.
A voice says to you that you should be realistic and start living in the
'real world' and give up your calling that seems fruitless.

But now, My child, I would say to you that it was I who put the calling
on your life, I who gave you those promises that you have held dear.  I
would remind you that I AM not a man that I should lie, and that I
change not.  You wonder then why nothing has seemed to happen, as you
have attempted to moved out in faith, with things seeming to wrong and
opportunities drying up the more you have attempted stand on My
promises.  But what you forget is that I have confirmed My call on your
life at key moments as you have walked before Me.  As for reason of the
barrenness that seems to surround you, know that I have brought you into
this place.

Yes, My child, many of My greatest servants had to go into the wilderness,
into a place where there seemed no recognition of them and the calling I
had given; where the chances of the promises that I had given them being
fulfilled seemed impossible.  It was so with Joseph, Moses, John the
Baptist; even My Son first had to face the wilderness and ultimately the
cross before He was raised up.  The reason for those called then remains
the same now for you; the wilderness was needed to develop humility and
dependence on Me, to test and expose character failings so that I could
deal with them.  Before the dream I gave Joseph (of becoming a great leader
under whom even his father, mother and brothers would serve) could become
a reality, he first had to go into slavery and then prison. He had been
bound by a stronghold of pride and arrogance that it was necessary to deal
with before he could be raised up to Pharaoh's right hand.  Likewise, My
servant Moses needed to spend 40 years in the desert before I could use
him the do the work to which I had called him.  But after this I gave this
testimony of him, that he was the meekest man on the face of the earth,
and therefore was the only man had had spoken to face to face.

So My dear child, do not despise the wilderness into which I have lead
you, but rejoice, and see it as the opportunity that it is.  Use this
time to deepen your communion and intimacy with Me, and work with Me as
I prepare you and your character to be able to handle the calling and
promise to which I will bring you.  Know that if you come to Me and
co-operate with Me now, soon things will being to change as I bring you
out of the wilderness, and will make the land blossom before you with a
multitude of openings. You will see Me bring a breakthrough in you life
that you now would find difficult to believe, and you will know I have
brought it to pass.  But remember to trust in My timing and My ways, as
I will cause it to happen at just the right time, neither to early or
late for you.  At times in the past you have acted as Abraham did with
Hagar, attempting to cause My promise to happen, instead of trusting in
Me to bring it to pass as I said it would.  As with Hagar and Ishmael
and problems that caused within both Abraham and Sarah's lives, your
attempts have also led to difficulties in your life.  Now I ask you to
trust Me to bring your calling to pass just as I promised, leaning on My
wisdom and not your own.

Finally, My child, know that I love you, that I have called you into the
wilderness and have been dealing with you in order to make you ready to
raise up you up and bring the great promises I have put on your life to
pass.  My child, I long for you work with Me in this so I can raise you
up, and see you rejoicing in the calling I have placed on you.  I long
to display you as a trophy to My divine grace and power, as it will
become evident to all that it was My hand that raised you up and brought
the promises to pass, and not the will of man.

So have patience, My child, and trust in Me and not your own understanding.