How To Endure The Wilderness Season And Come Out Victorious | Ep 2

When we talk about the wilderness season, perhaps two scenarios in the Bible immediately come to mind. 

1. Jesus went into the wilderness immediately after His Baptism and fasted for forty days and forty nights, and the enemy tempted Him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
2. The Israelites went through the wilderness to get to the Promised land. But, they delayed their journey for forty years because of their unbelieve. (Numbers 13, 14)

I believe every Christian must go through a wilderness season because it is the season where God does so much spiritual work on us. In my last post, I talked about How to surrender your life to God completely, and I promised to talk about how to endure the wilderness season after you have fully surrendered to God. 

Regeneration Starts After We Surrender To God

Firstly, when you have surrendered your life to God and affirmed your belief in Jesus Christ, immediately, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you, and the regeneration process begins. Titus 3:5 AMP He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

For Jesus, the Holy Spirit led him straight into the wilderness for the enemy to test Him; He did not have to undergo a regeneration process because there was no sin found in Him. Matthew 4:1 NIV Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

But for us, we have to go through the sanctification process to become like Christ and have the mind and character of Christ. This reason is why the wilderness season is essential. 

Reasons God Takes Us Through The ‘Wilderness Season’

Let us look at some of the reasons why God takes us through the wilderness season. 

Testing: Deuteronomy 8:2 says, ‘Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. We go through the same testing; most often, God will give a set of rules, and He tests you to see if you would hold on to His words and commands and obey them. I encourage you to hold on tightly to His words; please obey them no matter what. 

Humble Us: Some of us come from a world where all we know is making it big, we work hard and strive for the material things of the world, which in itself is not a bad thing, but these are things God wants to give to you. He loves to bless His children with extraordinary gifts. Some of us define success by what we have and our accomplishments, and this can breed pride in us; as in ‘look at what I have accomplished’ – think Nebucadenazzer; because of his pride, God had to humble him in the most humbling way.’ You can read his story in Daniel 4:28-37

The Bible says pride goes before a fall Proverbs 16:18 – God does not want us to walk around with pride. Instead, God wants us to humble ourselves so that He can lift us, not in a worldly sense, but in His righteousness. 

Character Building: Romans 5:3-5 NIV Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. This verse in Romans talks about how our suffering builds perseverance and that perseverance produces character. When God builds our character, we have hope, which the Bible talks about; it can be uncomfortable when God takes you through the character-building process. Nevertheless, he teaches you to love others unconditionally and forgive people who may have hurt or even betrayed you. In conclusion, there is a lot of transformation going on within you. I will encourage you not to resist the Holy Spirit’s work; the longer you hesitate, the more uncomfortable the process. 

Renewal Of The Mind: Romans 12:2 NIV Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. The Holy Spirit will take you through a mind renewal process; He will help you overcome all the mental stronghold patterns you have formed throughout your life. For example, thoughts such as I am not good enough, nobody wants me, or even prideful thoughts such as I am better than everyone. To pull down your negative thought patterns, you can pray using 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Also, to renew your mind, look for Bible Verse that counteracts your current negative thought patterns and pray them over yourself. 

Living On Manna: God will also strip you of certain things this season. For example, He may lead you to leave your job, and your finances may be affected; hence ‘living on manna’ God will provide for you, but He will send you just enough to pay your bills and to take care of yourself. This period will also teach you a lot about how to manage finances. 

Teach Us To Be Patience: God will teach you how to be patient even amid opposition and naysayers in this season. Hebrews 10:36 AMP For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised. There is a need to remember that although you may be experiencing uncomfortable situations, they will not last forever during the wilderness season. Still, it is part of the character building. 

Teach Us Self-Control: Proverbs 25:28 Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. The Word tells us that a person who lacks self-control is like a city with broken walls; therefore, a person must possess self-control and not get angry quickly because anger can cause disruptions in your life and the life of other people, and God does not want that. Also, anger leads to bitterness and unforgiveness. Therefore, during this season, if you lack self-control, God will take you through the process of healing you from that. 

Teach Us How To Love: God is love, and He wants His children to imitate Him and walk In love. Therefore, the greatest commandment is this ‘Matthew 22:37-39 NIV Jesus replied:” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ In this commandment, Jesus tells us to love God, which is the duty of all mankind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The Holy Spirit will teach you how to love, even when we face difficult people who may be unlovable. He will teach us about compassion and empathy because we need them to walk in love. 

Take Us Through The Forgiveness Process: The forgiveness process is crucial for our relationship with God and other people. I have a post here discussing the power of forgiveness and why everyone needs to go through the forgiveness process. Some of the reasons include so that God will also forgive us when we go before Him in repentance also so that God will hear our prayers when we come before Him. In addition, forgiveness has both spiritual and physical benefits for our health. Therefore, when I counsel people, I make it a point to ask if they have to forgive anyone because that is the first step to our healing, especially from trauma. 

Reveal Our Purpose To Us: God will reveal your purpose during this season. Everything He has planned for you to do before the foundation of the world He will reveal to you in His right timing, and this is why the wilderness season trains your character so that you can do God’s work with diligence and discipline. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that ‘For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’

Teach Us About Finances: Six points above in this post, I talked about living on manna as God will strip you of certain things. For example, I explained that God might have you leave your job while He prepares you for the work He has for you. Since you live on manna now, your finances will be affected, but this is God’s way of training you about how you view money and its purpose. Also, you will learn to depend on God for everything entirely. Remember, we can not serve God and serve money simultaneously. Matthew 6:24 NIV ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’

Teach Us Endurance: Hebrews 10:36 CSB ‘For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised.’ We need endurance for this walk with God our Father. Remember, the enemy is prowling like a lion seeking someone to devour, which calls for vigilance and endurance to run the race. 

Teach Us To Overcome Fear: Fear is an emotion that grips almost everyone, mostly from trauma that we have experienced. Of course, everyone’s trauma is different, but we feel the same emotion, fear. Our childhood experiences and traumas profoundly impact our lives as adults; when we go through traumatic experiences, our body finds a way to protect us, releasing hormones. Long traumatic experiences can affect us in ways such as PTSD, fear, anxiety, depression, stress, anger, shame, and guilt. The Holy Spirit will help us overcome these emotions and give us His Spirit Galatians 5:22-23 NIV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

Heal Us From Trauma: The regeneration process is also to help you overcome the effects of trauma you have experienced either from childhood or adulthood. These effects may include anxiety, depression, fear, bitterness, resentment, guilt, insecurity, low self-esteem, and lack of confidence. I help clients work on their trauma to overcome them; please contact me if you need a Christian counselor or therapist. 

Teach Us To Overcome Anxiety: Philippians 4:6 NIV Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 

Matthew 6:34 NIV Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

The above verses talk about anxiety and worry, and that is not a character trait that a child of God has to have. On the contrary, the Bible tells us not to be anxious about ANYTHING; it is very important to know because God has a solution for whatever situation we have. In addition, we should approach God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. We should present our request to Him and not worry or doubt when we submit our request. 

In conclusion, if you are in your wilderness season, it’s a place of isolation, repentance, character building, learning self-control, depending only on God, learning about your purpose in life, preparing for eternal life, and learning how to battle the enemy with the help of God. All this will prepare you to become who God created you to be, so when God presents you to the world, you are a new person ready to do every good work God has prepared for you in advance. 

In my next post, I will discuss going through the regeneration process with prayer and fasting.  

Stay blessed!