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29th March 2020

The Wilderness - The Place of Abundance

Greg Simnor
One of the greatest mistakes we make as God’s people, is to carry a conviction of belief, that the wilderness is a place of dryness, barrenness, desolate, parched, lifeless, empty, and lacking anything of life. 
 
This convictional belief can’t be any further from the truth when it comes to God, and yet as stated, it is a belief that I have heard come out of the mouths of many followers. We say things like “I am having a wilderness experience or a desert experience”, and the context for these statements are one of despair, destitute and death. 
 
We believe this because we haven’t yet had our eyes opened by the Spirit and discovered the incredible life that is directly in front of us. We are no different to the Israelites who couldn’t see the Eternal Life that was directly in front of them when they were in the wilderness of Zin, the temporal place. 
 
I have incredibly good news for you if you believe the wilderness is a place of nothingness and have made it your mission in life to avoid the wilderness at any cost. 
 
There is an “ABUNDANCE of LIFE” to receive, come into and live from, in the wilderness. 
 
Numbers 20:1-11 Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there. There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “ If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! Why then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them; and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “ Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.
 
Exercise: take some time to marinate on this passage of scripture and ask questions of the passage. 
 
Where did Moses bring the water forth from? V11
What is this object where the water came out a foreshadowing of? (Eat John 4:7-38)
Why did the people assemble themselves against Moses and Aaron? V2-4
Have you ever done this and maybe never even realised it?
What lens were the Israelite people looking through in the wildernesses? V5
How did the Israelites get access to the water?V11
Why is it important we look to God and others to help us access the life in the wilderness?