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Death and the Desert

 
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ShepherdLeader.com Forum Index -> While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks -> Day 1: The Wilderness
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Dave Hampson



Joined: 12 Mar 2010
Posts: 5
Location: Fort Worth, Tx

PostPosted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:51 pm    Post subject: Death and the Desert Reply with quote

In July my wife Kathy and I sensed the Lord leading us to a new season of ministry. So we purchased an RV and proceeded to leave the church I had pastored for 16 years. With excitement and great expectation we headed out on the adventure of a lifetime. We traveled for 3 months around the US listening for God’s voice and direction as we hiked in Glacier, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Parks. We continued to listen as we traveled along the beautiful Oregon coast and gazed upward at the incredible Sequoia and Redwoods and downward at the indescribable Grand Canyon. God’s presence was truly there, but His voice for me was not in Glacier or Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons or the breakers of Oregon or the magnificence of California. He was silent... So silent that in the midst of the all the excitement and the wonder I entered into a time of wilderness. A time of desperately crying out to God to show me where He wanted me to go and what He wanted me to do.

It was during that time that the Lord showed me ever so lovingly that I was missing the point. His greatest concern was not what I would DO FOR Him but rather who I would BECOME IN Him. He wanted to do something new in me and that required a drastic awakening. As the author pointed out the “desert is a place of death.” It is in my own time of wilderness that the Lord began to reveal to me things that I needed to die to - things that were keeping me from being most effective for Him. Things like my lack of trust - real trust in Him. Things like my identity which had become more tied to ministry than to who I am in Christ. Things like legalism which had crept into my life when I was not looking.

Near the end of the chapter the author stated that, “In the wilderness we can lose our bearings. Or regain them.” When I came across those lines I read them again and again and again. I asked myself; have I in these last months lost my bearings or have I regained them. My conclusion was BOTH. Because now in my life I am less certain about where I am going than I ever have been, but I am also more securely anchored to the Rock who has my future in His hand. For in the wilderness I have learned that not only CAN God be trusted - He MUST be trusted.
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GCTS Dave Hampson
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