Why God Leads Christians Into the Wilderness | Season 02, Episode 03 | Simple Truth Podcast

Last episode we talked about what exactly is a Christian. We saw that a Christian is not someone who simply admires Jesus but a Christian is a follower of Jesus. In fact, the Bible shows that Christians should see the life of Jesus as an example for their life. We discussed how exactly this should be done and we talked about what it means to be born again, waterbaptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit. But here's something most people don't expect. Right after Jesus received all these things, he didn't step straight into ministry. He stepped into the wilderness. Why did the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness? And what exactly does that mean for you and for me? Whether you're a brand new Christian or you followed Jesus for years, you and I will face or have faced a wilderness season. And if you understand what God is doing in that season, it won't break you. It will prepare you for walking in the purpose and power of God. So, what is the wilderness? Why does God lead us there? How do you come out of it the way Jesus came out of it? And how do you get to your purpose and walk in the power of God? Let's unpack it in today's episode of The Simple Truth. Welcome to the Simple Truth Podcast, where we open the Bible to uncover simple, biblical, [music] and essential truths that can transform your life. And now, here's your host, Ted Ross. Hi, my name is Ted Ross and this is the Simple Truth Podcast, your home for biblical truth clearly taught and freely given. Welcome. It's so great to have you join us. I think you're going to find this episode to be riveting, especially on top of the last one. And so, let's get into it. Why does this episode matter? Well, what is a Christian? If you don't know and you're trying to be a Christian, you're certainly missing critical facts about God, your life, and your purpose. Without direction, a journey turns into desperate wandering, doesn't it? Too many Christians get stuck wandering in the wilderness and I don't want you to be one of them. What happens? So God draws somebody in a powerful and supernatural way. They know that God exists and they really want to live a life pleasing to God. They want to understand everything God has for them. And it's always a very difficult, you know, interesting, strange, exciting experience. So they dedicate themselves to following God. But being a Christian isn't really clear to them. So they start to wander. Sometimes they wander from church to church. Sometime they wander between various different beliefs. And what happens unfortunately is that the confusion and the frustration grow as they wander in this wilderness. They sense that they have a purpose, but they never fulfill it. That's tough. This episode examines the wilderness. It examines how a Christian gets through their wilderness season and comes out in power for their purpose. That's why I think this is going to be a really good episode. So, thanks for joining us. Here's what we saw in the Bible. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus is to live as Jesus lived. Jesus and his life is our example for our life. And Christians are being shaped into Jesus's likeness. So we went through all these scriptures and we took a look at it. So what is a Christian? Well, they follow the model of Jesus's life. And so we took a look at the path of Jesus as our example and then our Christian path as a follower. So we looked at how he began a path at 30 years old and was baptized in water and filled with the Holy Spirit and how we're to become born again, be baptized in water and be filled with the spirit. This episode is where we look at Jesus being led into the wilderness. Jesus overcoming flesh and the devil and Jesus returning in power for his purpose. We're going to talk about what it means for you and me to enter into our wilderness. What it means for us to overcome flesh and the devil and how to fulfill God's purpose. So you can see why I'm excited. I think this is an exciting episode. So let's get into it. Christians follow Jesus into the wilderness. Great. So for Jesus, the wilderness was a literal place where he was led to be tempted to be proved and to come out in power. For Christians, the wilderness experience, it's a figure of speech to describe the season in the life of a Christian where God humbles us, he tests us, and he refineses us to be able to walk like Jesus Christ. Which, by the way, it's a very bold statement for me to say that. And yet, scripture after scripture after scripture, as we saw in the last episode, it showed that God intended for Jesus to be the firstborn among the many brethren, as it says, right? The first in order for us to follow that we're to walk like he walked. Peter described him as being our example. We looked at it repeatedly. So, I get it. That sounds like a wild thing to many people. And yet, over and over again, it's literally God's purpose in your life. The importance of the wilderness. Well, the wilderness makes or breaks Christians. Becoming born again is essential. We know that. But it's really just the beginning. The wilderness experience, it transforms you. It builds unshakable character. It breaks old bondages. It matures your faith. You go from being a Christian novice into a veteran, right? someone who fully understands their purpose, who's walking in the power of God and who's living a very fulfilling and honestly a very blessed and happy life. The wilderness trains you how to use, how to trust, and how to handle God's power. That's not really something that you could just play around with. That's something that requires a real conversion of who you are so you can be able to walk in it. It aligns you with God's purpose. It prepares you for your calling. You'll be led like Jesus into a wilderness season to be humbled, to be tested, and to be deeply transformed. That brings us to simple truth number seven. You will be led into the wilderness to overcome the flesh and the devil. Jesus didn't make a mistake. He was led by the spirit into the wilderness. Let's look at Luke 4:1. Quote, "Then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness." Filled. That word filled means filled to capacity, complete, lacking nothing. So Jesus was filled to capacity with the Holy Spirit. And then it says that Jesus was led by the spirit. That means to be guided, to be induced, to be persuaded by the spirit of God. What a powerful concept. And it said that Jesus was led by the spirit where into the wilderness. The wilderness literally means desert or solitary place. If you're in the wilderness, you certainly want to be sure you're filled with the spirit. So make sure you see part one if this is something that you're unsure of or unfamiliar with. So part one of what is a Christian that is. So what exactly did Israel's wilderness look like? Let's get a visual. Let's see. This is a picture of the desert in Israel. This would be the wilderness where Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights. And you can see it's really quite a barren place. It's not that there's nothing. There's rocks and there's little bits of grass and maybe an old dead tree or something like that. But it is a very remote, it is a very solitary place. And you can imagine as we start to continue to read Luke 4 that we see the experiences Jesus had and that Jesus was fasting without food and water during this time. And you can just start to paint a visual image of really what all this means. So let's take a moment. Jesus was led into the wilderness and we saw what it looked like. And he was led to be tempted by his flesh, which would mean he really wanted things that he shouldn't have. And he was tempted by the devil. Right? The devil was an evil force, an evil being trying to stop his purpose. In the book of Hebrews, in fact, 5 8-9, it says that though Jesus was a son, yet he learned obedience through the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. I think that's a really interesting insight and it starts to help us understand what is happening in the wilderness, even to Jesus. It says Jesus was perfected by obeying the father during suffering. This was the purpose of Jesus being led into the wilderness. And this is honestly the purpose for you and me to be led there too. In the wilderness, God perfects us. And afterwards, he sends us back in power. So, while it's extremely important to be born again, to be waterbaptized, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you notice that it doesn't end there, God leads us into a wilderness season. He does it to perfect us. In fact, one of the questions we've asked before is quite often Christians, they go through these experiences, but they find themselves waning. They find themselves lacking, and quite often they're finding themselves stuck in a wilderness experience. something we're going to talk about more as our example. What did Jesus do in the wilderness? Well, let's see. Jesus fasted in the wilderness to get the benefits found in Isaiah 58:5-9. So, let's take a look at verse two. It says, "Being tempted for 40 days by the devil, and in those days he ate nothing, and afterward when they had ended, he was hungry." So, it says that Jesus was tempted for 40 days. He was tested. He was tried. He was being proved. Isn't that interesting? That word proved, that means that you test or try something to prove it's that it's authentic, that it's valid, that it is what it says it is. He was tempted for 40 days by the devil. The devil literally means false accuser or slanderer. The devil is an evil supernatural being who opposes God and God's redemptive purposes. It says in those days that he ate nothing. Jesus abstained from food and from drink. He fasted and he fasted to humble his soul to overcome his flesh and to overcome the devil. Fasting and other methods to get through the wilderness will be covered in our next episode, the successful Christian life. So, while we're not getting into Isaiah 58:5-9 right now, and we're not getting into some details around fasting, please feel free to look forward to it in our very next episode. Imagine how satisfying food is to your body when you're literally starving to death. Verse three, and the devil said to him, quote, "If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread." So imagine, we saw what the wilderness looked like, we can imagine what it's like to not eat or drink for such a long period of time. You would have been starving. And the devil tempts him then to say, "Why not turn this stone into bread?" But it was the will of God for Jesus to fast, wasn't it? And to humble his soul. He had a purpose for Jesus in the wilderness. And again, Jesus as our example, he is showing us as an example of not only what you do to get through the wilderness, but also how to resist temptation. Ever been tempted to do something you knew was wrong? I think we all have. This is what was happening to Jesus right now. That's what was happening here. In fact, this was even the purpose of it. The spirit led Jesus into the wilderness too fast. The devil would tempt him as we all expected. And this was the purpose of being in the wilderness. Again, the point of the wilderness for you and me is not just to get comfortable. It's uncomfortable. It's to convert us. is to perfect us so that we can come back in purpose and in power. As our example, what did Jesus do with this temptation? Let's see. Jesus resisted the temptation and quoted God's word right back to the devil. Verse four, but Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." Thank God. Doing God's will during temptation converts the soul and it changes you. That's a lesson for you and me. We get tempted, but when we do God's will instead of just falling into temptation, it converts us. It changes us. It makes us more like Jesus. That's really the whole point of it. Jesus chose God's word and God's spirit for direction instead of that strong fleshly desire when he really really really wanted to eat. Honestly for you and for me quite often if we skip a meal we sometimes get hangry as the saying goes right hungry and angry. Well here Jesus Christ was far from being angry. Jesus was submitting to God's will and he was doing God's will during temptation. It was converting him. Jesus knew that God's will was even more important than the food that we eat. Do you believe that? I know. I can't say I believe that. I'm working on it. Notice also the enemy's tactic. He took a legitimate desire, food, and then he tempts us to fulfill that desire in an illegitimate way. Go make it happen for yourself. So, it's legitimate to want to eat when you're extremely hungry. But it was illegitimate for Jesus to turn a stone into bread. even though we know that by God's power he could have. And so it was the devil trying to say go illegitimately do something that you legitimately desire. But the devil wasn't through, was he? He would try another way. So let's see. If food wouldn't do it, maybe power, glory, or avoiding suffering, maybe that would do it. So let's look at Luke 4:5 and 6. Then the devil taking him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, "All this authority I will give you." Wow. And their glory for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish. That word authority. So for the devil to say all this authority I will give you. Authority is power or jurisdiction. And it says, "And their glory, all the honor, the majesty, and the splendor." The devil was saying, "I will give you power and jurisdiction in this earth, and I will give you honor. I'll give you majesty. I'll give you respect." And the devil says, "This has been delivered to me." That means handed over. When did the devil receive this form of power and this honor and splendor that he could try to derive and try to offer? Well, it was handed over to him. It was forfeited by Adam. And to be honest, it was forfeited by us. When we sin, when we chase our desires in our flesh, and we don't submit to God in his kingdom, we give the devil power in the world. The devil is looking for your worship and will give you power for it. That's something we should all know. Verse seven, therefore, if you will worship me, all will be yours. The devil says worship. It's to bow down to prostrate yourself like to lie down on the ground to revere you. The devil said if you will bow down and prostrate yourself Jesus before me the devil I will give you power for it. Imagine Jesus born to be the triumphant Messiah. Right? You could see it in the scriptures. He knew in the Old Testament that that was his his purpose, the most glorious thing on earth. But now he's starving and he's humbled. Right? This is where the wilderness puts him. This is where the wilderness puts us. God has a great purpose for you and for me. God had a great purpose for Jesus Christ. And yet he was starving and humbled. So what did the devil do? He tempted Jesus. He offered a shortcut to glory and one with no suffering. Jesus knew that as Messiah, he was going to suffer. Suffer at the hands of people. It was going to be humiliating. It was going to be painful. could be terrible. And the devil says, "Well, if you'll just prostrate yourself and worship me, the devil, I will give you all these things and there'll be no suffering." Jesus was tempted to say, "I'm better than this. I don't belong in the wilderness." Jesus refused the honor of this world and he refused the painless path. There's this expression. Jesus refused the crown without the cross. Instead, he chose the gospel and he chose suffering that was ahead. Thank you, Jesus. Verse 8. And Jesus answered and said to him, that is the devil, get behind me, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Satan, that's the word, is adversary. He said, get behind me, adversary. He says, "You shall worship, you will bow down, you will prostrate yourself, you will revere the Lord your God and him only. You will serve." That is to render sacred service. You are not going to serve the devil. You're not going to bow down before the You're not going to give the devil this respect and this reverence because only the Lord your God deserves that reverence. And if you submit yourself and humble yourself before the Lord your God, boy, heaven and earth will move on your behalf. Jesus resisted temptation. He gave a rebuke to the devil and he quoted God's word to him. That's a great example for us folks. The devil then tempts Jesus with pride almost as if to say, "If you're so great, show it." Luke 4:9. Then he, the devil, brought him Jesus to Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple. It's up high, folks. And said to him, "If you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here." Verse 10, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you. Verse 11, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Have you ever been in a position where you wanted to show off? Maybe show off how smart you are, maybe how beautiful you are, how strong you are, maybe how much money you have. Right? I think we've all been in some position where we wanted to show off, but you knew it wouldn't be right. And it's especially tempting when you're brought low. So Jesus is in the wilderness. He's starving. And he is the son of God. He is the Messiah. And the devil says, "Show us if you're the Messiah." Well, let's see what Jesus did. Jesus stayed firm and he put his trust in the Father. Verse 12. And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God." To tempt is to put God to the test. To try God with a bad intent. Jesus says, "I'm not going to put God to the test. I'm not going to try him." Jesus knew that if he would humble himself and obey during this wilderness experience, then the father would lift him up at the right time. Jesus knew that. I think a lot of us know it, but Jesus knew it. And I think what happens in the wilderness is if we don't really know it, God will allow us to learn it. And that's a great thing, folks, because when you become born again, as we mentioned in the last episode, your spirit becomes alive. But a lot of your soul, a lot of your body, it's just the same soul and body you had before. There's a lot of conversion that God wants you to do because God wants you to conform to the image of his son. And so to do that, God will take you into the wilderness. And it's a wonderful thing. It's a tough thing. It's a wonderful thing, folks. And we're seeing Jesus our example as Christians, right? We're followers of Christ. We're seeing what Jesus did in the wilderness and how he did it. Jesus was willing to wait for the right time in obedience to the father. He didn't need to go grab glory. He didn't know need to revere or humble himself before the devil and prostrate himself. He didn't have to turn stones into bread. He knew the father had exactly the right time and the right season for everything to happen in Jesus's life. And that's something that you and I folks could use to learn. What a wonderful savior and what a wonderful example Jesus is. The devil stopped the temptations and he left until a better time to try again. Verse 13. Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him, that's Jesus, until an opportune time. When you resist the devil, you will flee. The scriptures say it. But he'll come back. So be ready. Don't be surprised. Be ready. Wilderness prepared Jesus to walk in God's power. This this starving, this going through this trials, this testing, this humbling. It prepared Jesus, the son of man, to walk in God's power and to fill his purpose in the earth and to do so without risk of getting consumed by temptation and fame. It says in verse 14 that then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee and news of him went out through all the surrounding region. So return Jesus returned in the power. He went back went back into town. And he left that desert, that solitary place, and he went back into towns and villages and interact with people again. And it says that when he returned from the wilderness, he returned in power. That word of power means ability, might, strength. Jesus returned in the ability of the spirit, the power of the spirit, the strength of the Holy Spirit to Galilee. And it says that news of him, reports, fames, rumors went through all the surrounding region. So Jesus was led into the wilderness to fast to weaken the fleshly nature and to help overcome it. Second, to strengthen his spiritual strength and dependence on the father. Third, Jesus was led into the wilderness to overcome the devil. And fourth, Jesus was led into the wilderness to return in the power of the spirit and fulfill his purpose. Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted. right? Placed in situations where his flesh strongly wanted things he shouldn't have. And Jesus only took 40 days in the wilderness. And he only spent 40 days because he spent 40 days doing the right things. Remember, the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness because they were doing the wrong things. Doing the right things makes the wilderness season shorter. That's the lesson for you and for me. Doing the right things makes our wilderness season shorter, the faster it converts us and transforms us and it takes us from where we were to where God wants us to be. Obeying God in the wilderness is the key to getting through the wilderness. And that's really difficult for a lot of people. They they come into the wilderness and they're surprised. And we're going to talk a little more about what happens to you in the wilderness and the experiences you have. But people often look sideways. They look up. They look down. They try to go back. They try to to try to dig under. They try to climb over. You need to obey God in the wilderness, folks. I can I can tell you from that personal experience. And that's the key to getting through the wilderness. In the next episode, the successful Christian life, we are going to discuss five disciplines to help you obey God and get through the wilderness. So, we covered Jesus's wilderness experience. So, what happens when we enter the wilderness? the wilderness experience and us. Let's talk about it. In Jesus's literal wilderness, he went to a place with no comforts, no friends, no resources, and it caused him to suffer. In our wilderness experience, we may also lose friends, lose comforts, maybe lose finances, and it causes us to suffer. Like Jesus, we have to learn how to obey God through suffering. Easier said than done, but boy, it's so important. When I was in the wilderness, to be honest, I had several close friends separate from me. I had family members who thought that I was crazy for becoming a Christian. And I spent a lot of time fasting, so I was hungry a lot. That was my wilderness experience. I had to learn to obey God in my work, in my family, in my behavior. To be honest, I thought I was a person who figured a lot of things out. And when I entered the wilderness experience, it was very humbling. And there was a lot of things I thought I knew that I didn't know. But by the grace of God, I came to learn them. And as I came to learn them, I'm a completely different person. And if you would have met me before my wilderness experience and got to know me then versus how I am now, I'm a much better person now. And I thank God for that. It's not my doing. It's the grace of God for that. And I guarantee you, if you're willing to go through your wilderness experience, especially if you're willing to commit to obeying God and doing the right things and to get through it, you'll be a better person. You'll be the kind of person who'll know your purpose and you'll be the kind of person who could walk in the power of God. That is what it means to be a Christian, folks. It was uncomfortable for me and it was difficult and I had to do things that honestly at times made no sense to me at the time. Now being on the other side of my wilderness experience, I learned that much of it was to see if I'd obey. Right? Did I live by bread or did I live by the word? Right? There was quite a few times in which it became this very simple question of if I was going to obey God or if I was just going to chase after what I thought was clever or what I thought the right thing was according to Ted. That season it really humbled me. It really tested me and it really improved me. And when you do something in obedience to God that makes no sense, but it works 10 times better than your plan that made a lot of sense. It teaches you to start trusting God because God is God and we are just people and we have a whole lot to learn, folks. What happens in the wilderness season? Well, I've experienced it. I know quite a few people have experienced it. And here's what I've seen. It begins soon after committing to following Christ, right? There's a real high when you become born again. Then you start to start walking in it. You start to start being a Christian. You start to start committing yourself into it. And then you start to encounter the wilderness experience. Things that were once easy become unusually difficult. Hidden weaknesses and impure thoughts start to rise to the surface. They were always there, but now they start coming to a forefront. God starts to say, "It's either them or me." And he starts to have you make a choice. Old sources of comfort start to get stripped away. God's presence may feel quieter to start to strengthen your trust. God didn't go anywhere. You don't have to feel God's presence for God to be present. And that's something I think you start to know when you start to go from being a Christian novice to a Christian veteran. You start to say, "I don't have to feel God to know God's there." Absolutely. God's always there. Feeling or otherwise, feelings have nothing to do with God's spirit. God leads you into situations sometimes with no obvious benefit. And you have to start trusting him in it. Reading, praying, praising, fasting, those become daily necessities. Sometimes it feels like just to get through the day, you need to read, you need to pray, you need to fast, you really need to commit to it. you really need to double down. Christians often face in the wilderness hostility or opposition from others. The Bible calls that persecution. Christians often feel strong spiritual pressure. The Bible calls that tribulation. Christians will often feel intense inner conflict. Could be temptation. Could be discouragement. It's just coming after you. Don't worry, it's all good. God's got you. Christians will often feel unexpected challenges, run into them from finances, relationships, health, and what you have to start doing is obeying God in your finances, in your relationships, in your health. But God is faithful. God leads you into the wilderness and he'll lead you through the wilderness. And he'll do it to perfect you so that you can come out of the wilderness like Jesus with purpose and power. Let's take a look at Deuteronomy 8:es 2 and 3. I remember when God revealed this into this to me. It was absolutely fascinating. So just as God humbled and tested the Israelites in the wilderness, he humbled and tested Jesus and he humbles and tests us in the wilderness. Deuteronomy 8:2, "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not." That word humble means to afflict, to weaken, to discipline. So the spirit of God would lead Jesus, lead the Israelites and lead us into a wilderness experience to humble us, to afflict us, to weaken us, to discipline us. It implies being brought low by pressure, to teach us dependence on God. It also says that God leads us to the wilderness to test us. That means to prove, to examine, to try, to tempt. It implies putting something to the test to see if it is genuine. We say how much we love God. We become born again and we say, "Dear God, I love you and I commit my life to you." And in the wilderness, we show if we'll commit our lives to him. And when you obey God through suffering or through temptation and do his will, it converts our souls. It changes us. It changes us into people who can handle God's purpose. It changes us into people who can handle God's power. That's what the wilderness is all about, folks. So, while it may not be popular for me to say you've got discomfort, you've got temptation, you've got trial, you've got testing coming your way, it's an excellent, excellent thing, folks. This may explain some things in your life. If you're being humbled, if you're being tested, if these things that I'm describing to you are happening, congratulations. and you're in the wilderness and you are in the right place because we're here not just to tell you where you are, we're here to help tell you how to get out. So, in this episode as well as the next episode and honestly just about every Simple Truth episode, we're here to help minister God's word to build up your spiritual maturity for you to fulfill God's purpose in your life. Thank God for you. I thank God for you. Deuteronomy 8:3. So God humbles us and proves us like we saw, but we do that so that we'll know God's place in our lives. So Deuteronomy 8:3, "So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with mana, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone." This is the verse Jesus quoted. But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is such a powerful verse. It says that God humbled you. He afflicted. He weakened. He disciplined you and allowed you to hunger and then he fed you with mana. Now for most of us, bread isn't falling from heaven. But God made you dependent on him. The same with the Israelites. God makes you dependent on him. and he'll often sustain you in the wilderness in ways that you may not really want. The Israelites did not want the mana. They wanted quail. They wanted meat. At times, they even said they had it better back in Egypt. That's a terrible thing to say when God's sustaining you. God may be sustaining you in the wilderness in ways you may not really want, but is God. Embrace it. And it says that he does it so that we may learn that man does not live by bread alone, but that we live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. When you're in a place like Jesus, right, you're in the wilderness and you're starving and you are looking to God the Father to supply everything, to sustain us, and you are getting tempted by the devil and your flesh just is craving for all sorts of things. And when you commit to doing God's will in the face of all of that, you start to gain a sincere and utter appreciation that we're not on this earth to live by food or by money or by sex or by any other thing that we see in all these commercials and we're told that all of us should be desiring. We don't live by those things, folks. We live by God's word. We live by God's commandments. We live by what God instructs us to do. We live by God. And that's what it means to be a Christian. A Christian is a follower of Christ. And Christ lived according to the will of the father. He and the father were one. And we are to be one. And for many of us, we're pretty far away from being one. But we're going to get there. And we're going to get there by being born again, by being waterbaptized, by being filled with God's spirit, and by entering to the wilderness to be converted. You might be saying, "Wow, I didn't even realize this was in the Bible." Boy, is it. It sounds uncomfortable. Do I have to go through the wilderness? Yes, you need the wilderness. And yes, you want the wilderness. Let's take a look at Hebrews 5. In Hebrews 5:12, we're going to take a look at this fact that God wants us to be mature Christians that can help others, right? Hebrews 5:12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. So it says, "For though by this time you should be teachers, right? This writer, that's a disc, folks. That that's a tough word. It's saying by this point you should be teachers but you need someone to teach you right the first principles the fundamentals the rudimentary elements of God's teachings and it says that you have come to need milk and not solid food when we think of the idea of a human being needing milk we think about a baby who had a baby an infant a toddler needing milk because they can't eat solid food and it says for everyone who partakes only if milk is unskilled. If you're a baby, if you're a novice, if you're a Christian novice, a Christian baby, it means that you're unskilled. You're inexperienced. You're ignorant. You're just a babe. You're an infant. You're immature. You're simple-minded. This writer wrote a pretty tough word. Adults versus babies. Which one do you think God wants representing his kingdom? Do you think he wants a kingdom full of babies or kingdom full of adults? Right. Here's a good visual for it. I believe God clearly wants adults, and the writer of Hebrews does, too. He wants people who are skilled in God's word. He wants people who can, so to speak, eat the meat of the word, that they can take solid food as opposed to someone who can only handle milk because they're an infant and because they're immature. Hebrews 5:14. In this verse, we're going to see that God wants mature Christians fulfilling their purpose, not babies. So verse 14 says, "But solid food belongs to those who are of full age." That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. That's a fantastic verse. Solid food is those who are grown up. God wants you and me to be grown-ups. People who by reason of use, we have been using our senses. We have been discerning that we have their senses exercised that we could discern both good and evil. We can tell what's good and what's bad because we have experience. I love this. Full age says the solid food is for those who are mature, full grown, perfected. It's the same word that's actually used by Jesus in Matthew 5:48 where Jesus says be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. So it says that solid food is for those who are perfect. Interesting. That's a tough one. So, be mature, be full grown, be perfected as your father is perfect. If you want to fulfill your God-given purpose, folks, you're going to have to obey God through the wilderness. And you can't give up because God is looking for adult veteran Christians, not a bunch of babies. Becoming a Christian is honestly in my life the greatest and the hardest thing that I've ever done. And I'm sure it's the greatest and hardest thing that you'll ever do. But God's got you. That's the good news of it. That's the good news of the gospel. Jesus died for your sins. He was buried and he rose again the third day. You weren't even looking for him. And that power, the same power that the father worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, he works in you to get you through the wilderness to get you to overcome, to transform you. And nothing can get in your way if you will keep going. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Simple Truth Podcast. In this episode, we covered the critical and often misunderstood topic of the Christian's wilderness experience. As we close this episode, please remember this. The wilderness is not a sign that God has left you. It's proof that he is leading you. Jesus did not enter the wilderness by accident. He was led there by the spirit and he came out of it victorious, clear in his purpose and walking in the power of God. If you are in the wilderness season right now, God is doing something deeper than you may realize. He's strengthening your faith. He is shaping your obedience and he's preparing you for what comes next. And the only way out of the wilderness is through the wilderness. You can't go under the wilderness. You can't go over the wilderness. You can't go around the wilderness. You must go through the wilderness. That's why God put you in the wilderness. And the wilderness doesn't define you. It prepares you. Prepares you for what? Well, it prepares you for power and purpose. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone else. It has been a real pleasure talking about the Bible with you. I pray God bless you and God keep you until next time. Thank you for listening to the Simple Truth podcast. For additional episodes, visit us at www.simpletruth.org