A desert is a place devoid of streams, rivers or lakes; there can be no life there apart from the underground streams that become accessible through an Oasis or a well. If there is no place where the underground streams can surface, then the water has to be accessed through digging and actively drawing it up as needed. Labourious, but sufficient nonetheless. Once drawn up it nourishes those who are present at that moment to drink it, or infrastructure must be built to keep drawing the water out and distributing it for specific purposes.
Once you have this water source, you are saved, there may be desert all around you, but you will be a garden sufficient for the nourishment of those whom God puts in your path. I think that is a key element in the equation of sufficiency. If we are careless with what God has given us – not taking sufficient time to draw from the well of His presence, we will begin to wilt. We can give of ourselves generously however, in the place of His calling, doing what we see Him doing when we sit with Him in the secret place, and not run dry. As we are faithful to draw on Him as we pour out that Living Water through our own hearts to others, our “gallons per minute” increase to meet the demand.
It is all about spending time at the Well, without that, we won't last, we won't have fresh water for ourselves or others, and we may turn to whatever substitutes are available. Unfortunately these may sustain a form of life for a period of time, but it can't produce good fruit, there can't be healthy growth, if any at all. This form of life may be diverting for a time, but eventually it will produce it's own type of fruit, as Jesus said, “By their fruit you will know them”, (what their source is).
Sources of water have been fought over since ancient times, scripture tells us that Earth used to be watered from a mist that rose and fell, as well as from underground streams, however that changed with a significant climate shift that caused heavy rains and some famous flooding. No longer was all of Earth watered equally with a mist and accessible underground streams, the garden of Eden a not so distant memory, but the drastic shift in the climate that brought deserts to the earth was a result of the increased, widespread and prolific perversion of mankind. This is a picture of the spiritual condition, as the “visible speaks of the invisible”. What we do affects nature and not just by physically polluting it. Scripture tells us that nature “groans for the Sons of God (a unisex term like Man, as in mankind) to be revealed”, like a mother bringing forth children, the earth is instrumental in bringing forth the mature Sons of God. Sons who are in relationship with the Father.
So with that in mind, should we be surprised when we find ourselves in a dry place, forced to dig for water, battling forces that are hellbent on preventing the Children of God from “subduing the earth” - turning it back into the garden of Divine intimacy, beauty, nourishment and health? In places where Oasis exhist there are also fierce battles, and many, many, attractive substitutes, to keep people from drawing on the source of Living Water. It is as though we have an enemy. The destroyer of life will do anything to prevent the children of God from succeeding in their divine commission.
We have been given the means to transform the world around us, it has been slow going. Why? We are in a spiritual war and one of satan's greatest tactics is to turn what ought to be authentic relationship with God – into mere religiosity, form without power, stagnant rules of man that put people in bondage rather than set them free, decimating our hearts. There have been genuine revivals, outpourings of God's Spirit, healings, miracles, signs and wonders, but we build theology around it, enshrine it and begin to worship the infrastructure instead of the Source. The Source would not share us with anything less than Himself and so He withdraws, hoping we'll notice what we did, hoping we'll notice the impotence of our foolishness. If we notice, we pursue, we grow and we increase. If we don't notice, and continue with our new status quo of maintaining and worshiping an outdated infrastructure, we become stagnant and spiritually sterile.
One of the reasons we don't pursue Him when He withdraws His manifest presence, is that He often withdraws into the wilderness, into the desert. We may initially realize His manifest presence has left, but when we catch sight of that desert we get scared and we convince ourselves that He wouldn't have gone there, so we camp out where we experienced Him last, hoping He'll return to where we are, but that probably won't happen, as His Word tells us...”Behold, I am doing a new thing, do you not percieve it?”
Why the wilderness? Why a desert? In my own experiences I have learned that this is where He reveals His heart to us, when we choose to follow, trusting, by faith, to put all our eggs in His basket, we enter a realm of intimacy and maturity in God that He only opens to us as we prove our love this way. Eventually the wilderness and the desert will test all our resolve, even while He cares and provides for our needs (which He determines). We will run into questions about what He is doing and what He was thinking – either that, or we will tell our heart to be quiet and keep a stiff upper lip... but then we have lost the whole point.
The pursuit of God into the desert opens the door to a deeper knowing of His heart only after we open the doors of our heart to Him. As we pour out our hearts to Him in all honesty, emptying of ourselves (the good, the bad and the ugly), He comes and fills us, He not only provides for us physically, but emotionally. He satisfies our heart, and in doing so, reveals His heart for us. We get to know Him more deeply, in a way that would not have been possible in the excitement and rush of our mountain top experiences with Him. Wilderness, or desert times, when navigated well (in pursuit of God), will precede a spiritual promotion. It prepares our hearts to recieve and succeed in seasons of abundance, minimizing our ability to become corrupted. We will be able to discern God's voice among the throngs of others that will clamour for our attention in the lands flowing with milk and honey.
