29th April 2020
John 3:1-2 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
The Word of God is often found in a place, where one would least expect to find it. The Word of God is also found in the person, which we would not expect either. I love the fact, that God always does the opposite to what man does. Where man thinks he will find the Word and in whom, is pretty much always contrary to where God’s Word is discovered and in whom it is discovered.
This is exactly the case here. We see the list of the who’s who of the day. To put this into our context, this would be like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Xu Jinping, The Pope and his cardinal, all being in one place, and then hearing the Word of the Lord came to a guy name John. They would all look to one another and say, “Who on earth is John?”
The flesh in us never recognises the Spirit and because of this we are always looking for His Word in the wrong place and in the wrong people. God chooses the place, which to the natural or the flesh looks barren, dry, empty and void of life and He chooses the people, who have no credentials, don’t have it all together, very little following, nobody’s to most but somebody to someone.
2 Corinthians 12:11 I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.
Your ability to receive the life that is in this food source called “The Wilderness”, will be based on your ability to hear and see in the Spirit. If you attempt to know and understand what is being shared through the flesh, you will find yourself rejecting this spiritual food. The words I am speaking and the imagery I am sharing, are spiritual words and spiritual thoughts.
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Are you truly open to where and who God chooses to place and declare His Word? Would you and are you humble enough to receive it from the place you would never have considered and are you humble enough to receive it from the one, you never would have chosen. I hope we all are, as this tends to be the place and the vessels, that God chooses to confuse the so called wise, and to bring forth His Truth.
Q. Why does God place His Word in the wilderness and in people who are a type of wildernesses?