OFFICIALLY OUT OF THE WILDERNESS!

Today is 18 Jan and it marked my official exit from the wilderness. It is a great day of celebration because an important milestone in my life had been crossed. The preparation and training had been completed. I had passed the faith test and graduated. God is not only moving me on to my new season, He is also promoting me. He has crowned me with honour and glory, restored my strength and trust in Him and given me a new mantle. 

More than just ministering to the Joseph people, I sense that God is also setting the stage for the prophetic movement. It really wasn’t a coincidence that the moment I exited my wilderness, the moment God released me from my prison, this year’s church theme was about the seer anointing! This is all part of God’s plan and His divine timing. It was perfect, just like how Joseph was brought to Pharaoh to interpret his dreams. 

 

I was so encouraged that not only am I out of the wilderness, out of that narrow and stuck place, God is catapulting me into the palace. It wasn’t something I had expected but now I see how my obedience in stepping out as He leads was bringing forth fruits. At a time when the enemy was attacking the prophets and discrediting their words, God came on the scene to mightily defend His prophets. 

 

God has affirmed that we, as a group, are moving in the right direction. We are really on the right track. Not only that, I saw the Joseph ministry has a great potential to be a blessing even to our church. Purely because it will meet a gap in equipping the people in the workplace ministry.  I am excited about where God is bringing us in the days to come.

 

But today will be my rite of celebration with the Lord. I will not be thinking of any new plans. I just want to enjoy the sense of completing this big chunk of my life, reflecting on the journey I had walked through with the Lord. I know I have been declaring the end of this season and reflected upon the journey at various points in the past. Yet I still didn’t seem to have crossed the finishing line. There was always a little more to press on. 

 

There had been so many false closings in my life until I didn’t dare to get my hopes up again. But the Lord is faithful. If He said there is an end to the stretching and tests, then there will be an end. Last Dec, God impressed upon me that the end has truly come. We had been studying the life of Joseph and saw the significance of 13 in his story. There are 13 chapters in Genesis talking about Joseph and he suffered 13 years in the wilderness. 

 

Not only that, other great men in the OT like David also wandered in the wilderness for 13 years before he was crowned king of Judah. It was significant because God has to convince me that 13 years is the finality. Else I would be wondering why not 7, 10, 12, 15 or 20 years. Besides the timing issue, God also showed me the signs of me being released from the prison. Clearly He has set me in position in this Joseph ministry while I was still in prison in 2019. But He has launched me out this year. 

 

Of course I could choose to focus on the fact that I still hadn’t seen my manifestation yet but to me, that didn’t matter anymore. The most important thing is God has moved me on to the new season. I was just very relieved that I was no longer stuck, no longer circling the same mountain year after year. The enemy could no longer taunt and torment me about that. God has restored my strength and healed my battle wounds. He has also opened my eyes to see what He has been doing in the last 13 years. 

 

Many things He said to me in those years finally made sense now. Clearly those experiences were so precious and didn’t go to waste. There is a greater anointing released in my life because God has caused me to overcome those areas that used to hold me hostage. I believe this would be used to help others get out of their bondage in future. Now He has set me free! Oh how sweet is that freedom! Only God knows how much I needed to be set free from those incumbrance than to see the manifestation. 

 

To Him, the manifestation is easy but to get me to cooperate with Him in the purification process was the tough part. Many people had given up in the midst of the crucible. But to those who overcome, a crown of rewards is awaiting them on the other side. So yes I am expectant of the rewards God has in store for me. And I know He is not holding back this dream from me. This promise will manifest very soon now that all this is finally over. My appointed time has come. 

 

I am going back in time to 18 Jan 2008. Back then I was so expectant of a promise coming to pass but got discouraged when I looked at my external circumstances. I felt my work in my previous company was meaningless and I was restless again, hoping to move on. Then I went for a company’s strategic planning exercise and it got worse. Hence I sought the Lord and asked Him what is His will for me in the next season of my life.

 

God said: ‘Can I not show you now? I want you to trust me. It is a faith test for you.’ Then I asked if He could give me a verse to hang on to in the meantime. ‘Be still and know that I am God’ was His answer. I was satisfied with an encounter of God even though I didn’t have an clue about His will for my next season. I totally had no idea what He has planned for me. I thought it was only about my baby plan. There was so much more at stake. 

 

He was bringing me through a personal journey with Jesus. I thought I already had a history with God in my waiting for a previous promise which came to pass in 2005. But obviously that history wasn’t going to take me where God is taking me to in my future. I needed to know the Lord in a much deeper way and He needed to root me in my identity. The entire wilderness process served to bring me closer to Him and for me to know my identity. 

 

My identity in Christ and my personal history with the Lord are things that the enemy can never take away from me. Because these are not based on my performance. The devil can never steal my identity. It is who I am in Christ. He may strip away my ministry, my role as a mum or a wife but He can never take away the truth that I am always a beloved daughter of God. Even if I do nothing, the Lord is pleased to have me by His side. 

If God has shown me His will for me in that season, I would have said no to Him right there and then! No wonder God, in His wisdom hid His will for me. God wanted me to trust Him to reveal bit by bit, and to take one step at a time. How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And now as I look back, I would have it no other way. I saw how God caused all things (even the painful and senseless things) to work for my good. 

Through it all I saw His faithfulness even when I was faithless. His love for me and His faithfulness were the only things I could hold on to during the tough and challenging seasons. In the toughest times, I held dearly on to this verse Psalms 27:13 ‘I would have despaired of heart had I not believed I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living.’ Now I can say that the Lord has shown me His goodness in my life. God is really so good.