I type a letter to the Lord, my fingers furiously flying over the keyboard: “Why, God? Why?” I write to Him.
Those words, the questions of why, I ask more than nearly any other. There are just so many things in my life I don’t understand, so many situations that make absolutely no sense to me at all. I’m in the middle of one right now, in this very moment even as I sit here and write these words.
While I frustratingly wrote to the Lord, a picture flashed through my mind: Joseph sitting in prison followed by the image of the Israelites walking through the desert. The Spirit then said to me:
“Everyone has their time in the desert. Many have to go through prison to fulfill their prophecies.”
I sat, stunned. I didn’t understand, I still don’t fully understand, but I’m beginning to.
The Israelites HAD to go through the desert because they needed time to rid themselves of every form of idolatry before they could take the land God promised them. They still believed in the gods of Egypt, they still looked to the world before the Word, they still didn’t fully and completely trust in the Lord alone, so they needed time to “kill off” every form of false-truth in their lives in order to conquer what God destined for them.
Sometimes, we find ourselves in awful situations, situations that make absolutely no sense and come with a flood of unwanted emotion. I’m in the middle of one of those situations right now, but I believe God is letting me know, letting us know, that it’s often the difficult circumstances that lead to the fulfillment of the promise.
Joseph rejected sin, yet he found himself sitting in prison for two years. He put the Lord first, worshiped Him above all else, refused to allow himself to wander regardless of temptation and pressure, yet, he still ended up behind bars. Because Joseph did the right thing, he was taken to prison, but because he refused to turn his back on the Lord, he was given everything, and more, he was promised as a young boy.
Also, because the Israelites kept walking and allowed God to cut away everything He needed gone from them, they eventually took the land promised to them for generations.
You may feel like you have been forgotten, got lost, somehow made a mistake because you find yourself walking through a desert or sitting in a prison. Relax.
If you’re in the desert, allow the Lord to burn off everything the world has tainted you with because whatever He has for you in your Promised Land can’t be achieved if even a bit of the world resides within you.
If you’re in prison, know that the Lord is with you, He has never left you and He never will. There will come a day when the prison walls swing wide and your promotion swiftly brought before you, but until that day, seek the Lord with all your soul and find courage in the fact that right now, when you sleep and when you arise, your God is working on your behalf, aligning things in the spiritual that will eventually be mirrored in the physical.
While the Israelites wandered, the Lord cut away ever lie, every hurt, every wound they received while in Egypt so by the time they got to Canaan they were able to go forward with great strength and take what was promised to them.
While Joseph waited, God created a path to promotion and immense prosperity.
Your Promised Land is near, keep walking, your promotion is on the other side of that door, continue to believe it will soon be opened.
The Lord will take you right where you need to go and bring you right to where you need to be. Your God has you, He has not forgotten you.
“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.” -Genesis 41:14
“Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them–to the Israelites.” -Joshua 1:2
A Woman Standing 