Transcript

0:00
Hey guys, this episode is about finding strength in difficult times. Welcome to the Christian point was Zack and Linda, I always love it when I get to do this with you, honey. Hey, I’m super excited about this content. And it’s going to be a really important podcast, we’re going to be talking about the wilderness. And we’re going to talk about actually how to get strength in the wilderness. And we’re going to share some insights related to the seasons of the wilderness. And today, I’m with my husband, Zack McConnell. And we’re here in Texas, and it’s about to be spring, and the tree leaves are starting to bad and I just really love this time of year. So we’ll be right back for this great episode of the Christian point.

0:47
Welcome to the Christian point podcast, where we’re all about growing your relationship with God. As lifelong Christian believers, your hosts, Zach and Linda McConnell explore topics that affect your world. Together, they are relearning and redirecting our path as we walk through struggles hang ups, sins and purpose. The Christian point is a lively discussion that will help equip you with tools provide focus and encouragement from a biblical perspective. Always remember, Christ is the point. Now here are your hosts, Zach and Linda.

1:23
Welcome to the Christian point. Thank you for listening today. We look at God’s word, and we take today’s hot topics, and we weigh them against the Bible. So we’re really excited about this episode. And we’re going to talk about walking in the season of the wilderness. And this season at Texas is early spring. And that makes me think of spring cleaning, and removing the stuff we need gone to improve our life. Well, to tell you the truth, cleaning and organizing is not really a task I look forward to it’s just not my strength. My thoughts are we are coming out of the season of winter. And that’s the wilderness. The wilderness is typically an intense experience when you need food and water, and God provided Manna and quail for the Israelites. And for Elijah, it was isolation. For Hagar and Ishmael. It was divine deliverance. And it was renewal for Moses with the burning bush on Mount Sinai. And people of faith are struggling these days as they watch unbelievable events unfold around the world. And we’re living in a time of exile and wilderness. And the wilderness feels familiar to Jesus followers. And during the season of lit, God calls us to self examination to repentance, and making room for the Holy Spirit in our lives. At our task is clear that we must take away the clutter from our hearts so we can fully present to God and serve our neighbors. So is that what are your thoughts in the wilderness?

2:59
Well, I’ll put the wilderness in white my my mind thinks a man’s mind. And I think about it like football camp. And when the NFL goes off to training camp, they go they leave their homes, they leave their normal surroundings. They’re normal distractions. And they’re putting themselves in a position so they’re getting prepared in focused for the season ahead. So think of the wilderness like that. Let’s talk about where you should go.

3:26
Oh, absolutely. We could go so many places. No, you

3:29
could. Linda loves to travel. Okay, well, first, I want to let you know that we think this is a really important topic. And it’s been speaking to so many people. And people are like, we want to come in here more about this. Absolutely. I

3:41
love that. So that people might just be turning in for the first time. And they’re like, What are they talking about the wilderness? What? What is that? What is the wilderness and what is not the wilderness?

3:54
Okay, this is such a great thing to talk about. First of all, I’d like to describe the wilderness as a lack of the tangible presence of God. Now, if you’re truly born again, you’ve experienced the presence of God, right? It’s when you’re overwhelmed when you start tearing up in worship when you’re in deep prayer. It’s a very real experience in Christianity. Absolutely. And we have two types of the presence God we have the Omni presence of God. And then we have the manifest presence of God. The Omni presence of God says, I will never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. And the manifest presence of God is when we sense Him. So being in the wilderness feels like when it’s God’s presence is gone. It’s not there. We feel out of touch we feel alone.

4:42
Absolutely. Yeah. It could be anything from sensing his presence or his pleasure, or hearing his voice, right. Well, like you can see the hand of God working in your life and blessing your life. Here’s the way I like to say it’s not just Feeling, you’re not saying it’s just a feeling right?

5:03
Now, the wilderness, it’s when God seems to be a million miles away, when his promises even seem further. And I think the Job said it beautifully. He says in chapter 23, verses eight through 10. But if I go to the east, he’s not there. And if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he’s at work in the north, I don’t see him. And when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way I take, when he’s tested me, I will come forth is gold. So job, you know, he’s looking forward to having been refined on the other side of his wilderness. Job said, I go forward, but he’s not there and backward, and I cannot proceed, which means that the one time he could perceive him, right, so so that’s good that he could, but now he’s having problems feeling that presence of God. So there God is working, I cannot behold him when he turns to the right, I cannot see him. But I know that he knows the way that I take. So God’s working on our behalf, he knows exactly what’s going on in our life. It’s just we can’t perceive or sensorium while we’re walking in the season of wilderness, oh, so

6:18
many ways. This was such a declaration of faith for job, oh, God is working even when we don’t feel it. Just as I’m not fond of organizing. And I’m not fond of cleaning out my closets. And I’m not find fond of cleaning out the closet, in my heart, in my mind, either. We all have stored away stuff we don’t want to think about or talk about and sometimes aren’t sure, we’ve even been forgiven for all of what we’ve done. And maybe we’ve shelled some apologies that we should have made and reconcile with a friend that is long overdue. And for a season, we haven’t thought about cleaning out those closets. And many God is having us walk in the wilderness to nudge us to do so now. And after all, God wants us to have a deep and abiding peace and not just an appearance of peace. So God will refine you as you walk in the wilderness. And as you’re being refined for the better.

7:19
Yeah, he’s working on you. He’s refining you in the wilderness. Right? That’s the real important point. I never thought of that, you know, but sometimes we can get it wrong. And we feel like he doesn’t see us and we can’t feel like he doesn’t see us and see what’s going on.

7:35
So it also seems like the promises seem even further, that it also seems like you’re going backward from the promise. And we talked about that. It’s really a time of testing now.

7:46
Wait, there’s there’s one more thing I want to bring up, Linda, I love that you said and I don’t want people to miss this, that the wilderness is when God gives you what you need. Not what you want. He gives man daily bread, he gives us clothes that maybe aren’t even worried out. But you get tired of them. You’ve worn out your clothes. It’s just I mean, you can you imagine wearing the same thing for 40 years. Oh, man,

8:11
you know, in a lot of ways. I think I’d like that. I wouldn’t have to think about anything. Now shopping. Well, I’m really okay with that. So if everyone had just bread and nothing else, no peanut butter, no jelly. Well, they had olive oil for sure. back then. And they had honey in the desert? I’m not really sure where they got the olive oil? Well, maybe they probably got it from someone who had the olive oil on hand. But yeah, bread every day, just bread, which is not what everyone really wants. Exactly. No, it’s not. But that wouldn’t be a wilderness for some people who love fresh bread and carbs. You

8:49
know, but But now let me tell you what the wilderness is not in please, please listen to this carefully. It is not God’s punishment, on your life from Jesus. It’s not as disapproval on your life. Jesus is affirmed by the Father. This is my son in whom I’m well pleased. And immediately the Bible says the Spirit led him into the wilderness. So the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness in what happened while he was in the wilderness. He was tested by Satan for 40 days. And let me tell you, what’s on the other side of your wilderness. It’s greater authority and greater power to build the kingdom of God in your life. And in others that is so important. Yes. Second, the wilderness is God is not rather, it’s not God abandoning you. God said, I will never leave you and never forsake you. Job said, I can’t perceive him, but he was working on my behalf. And third, it’s not being put on a shelf until God needs you. That’s ridiculous. God uses us daily. He uses every single moment of our life to do something in us and that God’s people To me one day when I was in the middle of a desert, and he said, Don’t miss what I’m doing in your life today, because you’re looking forward to tomorrow. And the last thing he said, it is, is it’s not a place of defeat. The wilderness is not where you go to die of a disease. You need to become a witness. Take this as a time, as Linda said, is when you get what you need, not necessarily what you want. But as Americans, let me tell you, a lot of times we think our wants are our needs, when in reality, they’re not.

10:36
Absolutely, can I highlight two things, because I know what you’re saying, but I want to highlight something, the wilderness could be a place of discipline. So it’s almost like I’ve had God put me in the wilderness. And that kind is not like a discipline. It’s like a timeout, like, hey, these people and those things were too important to you. So I’m going to fast those things in your life. And it’s not a punishment, it is punitive. It was discipline, and preparatory. So it was to prepare me. And then could you find a feat in the wilderness. It’s not a place of defeat, like we’re talking about. It’s not about you getting sick or dying, or you can’t pay your bills. The wilderness is not a place of defeat.

11:25
No one can ever get a person out of the wilderness. And they put the plan and the destiny of God on their life. If you look at Joseph, brothers, that they tried to destroy him, he said, we’re going to destroy God’s given dream he thinks he’s got, but they couldn’t do it. They actually were the ones to propel Joseph into God’s plan. Then look at the children of Israel. God said, Hey, he intended them to go into the Promised Land one year after leaving Egypt. They’re the ones that made it into a 40 year experience. You can’t shorten your wilderness experience. But you sure can lengthen it?

12:03
Oh, absolutely. You know, that I can think of a time period that was a wilderness for me. And it was shortly after we moved here. And I was just so excited. And I felt like oh, my gosh, I’ve got some female friends now. And I put those friends in the wrong places in my life. And I remember God began to talk to me and tell me that I needed to pull away and lean back and do some things with him. And instead of saying, Okay, God, I agree. I was like, no, no, I’ll just do better. And I remember going through two years of what I felt like, wasn’t alone time period, and everything seemed to blow up in my face, you probably have been there. And yet during the seasons, was when I put my head down, I got more involved in church and served, I put God ahead of everything else. And it lifted my head back up. And I had new friends on horizons, friends, actually, that needed me. And they needed me to go through this process. And friends that actually needed me as a person and friends that actually weren’t competitive with me. So sometimes even relational wilderness we can have, because God’s gonna say, I need you to have these relationships in the right places. And some of you might be in a wilderness and your marriage. And I remember for me is that, when you’ve been really open about this, you were in a season when work was more important to you than your marriage?

13:29
Yeah, and that’s so sad to say, but it’s it’s very true. And it was really hard on me, you know, having three kids and feeling spread, then I remember during that wilderness, it was a time where God said, I’m enough for you. And when I was finally able to echo god, god, you’re enough for me, he became even more than enough for me. It’s, it’s a place in the wilderness where God becomes more than enough for us when we’re going through it.

13:54
Exactly. Sack remember when we knew everything that came to us came directly from his hand. So how do we draw strength during the season of what I went through? Or what other people are going through right now? And how do we draw strength in this? And where do we get it from?

14:11
You know, Linda, I love the scripture of John 737 39. In this, Jesus was speaking, saying, Let anyone who is thirsty come and drink. Whoever believes in me, the Scripture says, it’s out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. By this, he meant the spirit of those believing in Him would be later received. You know, the book of Jeremiah says, God, You forsaken Me the fountain of the Libyan waters, and you’ve now fed on broken down systems in streams, and God wants to be our life source. And Jesus tells us that life comes from him. He says, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Absolutely. You know, listen to Scripture, if you’re going to see the outpouring of the Spirit it, you’ll see it in these terms all over the Bible. The reason is that when God pours out His Spirit in, everybody’s getting blessed. But when you’re in the desert, that’s the absence of those tangible presence of God, right? Now’s the time when you have to draw from the wells, tapping into those reserves of flowing water. You know, when you’re in the desert, you don’t get an abundance of rain. And so if you look at this, God speaks to Isaac, right? Isaac obeys God, and when he goes to the place that God tells him to go, there’s a severe famine, I mean, not just a famine, a severe famine. And then, you know, God says to this man, he says, Hey, don’t go down to Egypt. But do as I tell you, and I will be with you, and I will bless you.

15:46
Well, what does that speak to us today?

15:50
It tells us, Linda, that if you’re going through a dry time, you know, when you first get saved, you’re just you just whisper the name and, and bam, His presence is all over you. And then you go into this wilderness.

16:02
Yes. And I need to say this. We saw this play out right in front of our eyes with our first daughter, because as new parents with every whimper and every cry, we were there, and we were giving her nonstop attention, and I’d spoon feed her. Well, then the day came, and we said, wow, she needs to grow up. So I stopped spoon feeding her. And, of course, half of the food was on the floor, and it was on the high chair was an absolute mess. And we were so frustrated. And she was really frustrated too.

16:34
Well, you know, God says, I’m there. Every time you call, I am there. I am there, I am there. But then he brings us into your heart this desert because he wants you to grow strong. And that’s the way we grow strong is we have to do what Isaac did. We have to dig wells, just like the wells that the Philistines had Doug had plugged up that his father Abraham had drugged dug these wells. But the Philistines plugged them up. Now the Philistines are like what we deal with in the world, the world can plug up our Well, our wills or the river of the flowing water of life. In now it gets all muddy. So what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to restore those wells. And that brings us to praying, right? When you don’t feel like you can pray. What in what you need to do about reading the Word is when you don’t feel like doing these things? Those are the times that you need to do it the most. It’s the very time I want to pray the least is the time I need to pray the most.

17:41
Absolutely. I think everyone needs to hear that again. Can you say that one more time.

17:46
The time that I need to pray the most is the very time I want to pray the least. And the time I need to read the Word of God the most is the time when I’m not hungry to read it at all. Right? That’s when we need to develop the discipline of getting into the Word. And in my past, when I felt like I was in a desert, I thought, Oh, this will go fast. And I remember keep praying, I had to keep praying, Linda, I just couldn’t utter words. I needed to get my Bible out. And I was just so dry. I needed to get into his word I needed to get into prayer. Now remember that night, I felt like I was tormented all night long. Satan just kept screaming at me. You’re a failure. You’re not going anywhere. You’re not helping anybody. You’re no good. You’re not a good husband. You’re not a good father. You’re not a good businessman. Everything he can say Right, right. So I mean, everybody out there, you’ve experienced those things. You understand now what he does with you what he does with everything. He wants to plant doubt in fear and despair in your life. So the next morning, I woke up after that very horrible night’s of sleep and being tormented all night long. And I started praying again and it just was getting nowhere. It was worse than night before and I thought finally I’m getting away from everything not to be distracted. And I’m going to pray until I hear from God. So I went out to take a walk outside where nobody could hear me and I remember I was out there walking for like two hours. And for me that’s a lot. Right and I was so dry Linda, I thought to myself, you know, here’s the thought that came if you’re just in a desert, go back and go home in a dirt this time. And remember when that thought hit me I realized how wrong it was. I started to say in my well self you know oh spring up a wellspring up into my soul. These the words Israel lights both in the desert spring up as well and make me whole spring up. Oh, well. It’s spring in the sense of those little sparks and those words springing up. Oh, well I call the rivers of God forth and I started feeling sparks and all of a sudden been down that path and I’m praying like a house on fire. And then I came back in, I feel like I can win the world. Wow, I didn’t get the breakthrough. But it was God being back in my life. And that’s what we’re talking about, I was able to draw the water from the well. So when you don’t feel like praying and everything’s dry, dig, keep digging, because there’s a well there. And that’s why the Bible says in Proverbs 20, verse five, Counsel in the heart of man, like deep water, and the man of understanding draws it out. So right there, we have to draw it out with joy, we have to draw from the wells of salvation with joy. believe that’s Isaiah 12, verse three,

20:44
I feel like there’s a couple of things of what we’re saying is in the wilderness, and you can go back to the familiar things. So you can’t turn to the world when you don’t want to pray. And don’t open up your phone and start scanning through Twitter, or social media or Instagram or whatever. So my takeaway is, when you don’t want to pray, that’s when you need to pray the most. And we need to speak to our living water and say, like, Joe did, Hey, I didn’t perceive you God, that I know you’re there. And it’s all about faith. And I feel like when I’m empty, I’ve got the living water inside of me. And that’s what it says, I’ve got a river of life. So you begin to speak with that. So is that because I do believe so many people are in that season between the promise and the fulfillment of the promise, and they’re in a stage of preparation. They’re very frustrated, they feel isolated, they feel alone. And we know we can’t hurry this season up. But we also know that we can position ourselves so you do not prolong it. And I know there are a lot of people listening to us. And Christ is that rock that follows you through every wilderness and you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m in a wilderness. And I need to pray. So is that I’m going to thank everyone for joining us today. I hope this message spoke to you guys. We’d love to hear from you. Please write us a review, subscribe or share this podcast through Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, or go to the Christian point.com on our website. Thanks so much for listening to the Christian point was Zack and Linda, let us know your thoughts by leaving a review. And be sure to subscribe and share these episodes. We’d love for you to check out our website, the Christian point.com You can make a donation and that’ll help spread this message even more. We encourage you to leave your testimony and give us a review. And we would love to pray over you. God’s blessings and peace be with you. And remember, until next time, Christ is the point.

22:55
Thanks for listening to the Christian point. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, or visit us on the web at Deep Christian point.com. If you enjoyed the show, please share it with your friends on social media. Until next time, always remember Christ is the point

Transcribed by https://otter.ai