When You Feel You Are in a Spiritual DesertSample

When You Feel You're in the Desert

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness after being baptised with the Holy Spirit. There in the wilderness, He remained forty days without food, and then Satan came and tempted Him. God uses deserts to teach us how the enemy's temptations work and teach us to resist the evil one so that we don't fall into his traps when the work begins. You will be tempted in the wilderness just as Jesus was (Luke 4:1-13).

Before Jesus could begin his public ministry, he first had to overcome the temptations of the evil one. When you want to start your "public ministry," Satan will always come to see if he cannot deceive or destroy you before you even begin. Notice that it was the Holy Spirit himself who took Jesus into the wilderness. In the wilderness, God teaches you to understand the fight against the evil one and how to gain victory.

For Paul, after his conversion, God sent him to the Arabian desert for three years. There He taught Paul the difference between the law and the grace that is in Jesus Christ. When in his goodness he decided to reveal his Son to me so that I would preach the gospel about him among the gentile nations... (Gal.1:15-17). In the wilderness, God will teach you new things. In the wilderness, you need to read the Bible — as much as possible — and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and break open the Word to you – deeper and deeper.

We learn and grow spiritually to the extent that we understand the Word more deeply — and that understanding comes only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 3:16, we read: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The Berean Study Bible translates it as follows: All Scripture is God-breathed.