Week 1: April 6,2020

Isaiah 43:19 (CSB)

“ 19 Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

I’ve found myself in the wilderness time and time again in life asking God to either show me the way to the Promised Land or believing that I’d enter into the Promised Land once I got married, had the perfect job, or even when I finished school. I started to become weary in this dry and barren land looking for the promise God had spoken to me. That there is a place flowing with milk and honey, that he’d put me in my own land and I’d be free from captivity. But it seemed like a destination/place I’d never reach. The husband seemed to never come, the jobs I had never worked out, and I felt pressured to have an education. Once again I was in the wilderness pleading to God to pour down his rain (promises). Striving for perfection believing it would get me to where I needed to be.

Then one day while making breakfast the Lord spoke to me and opened my eyes. He said:

“You can be in the wilderness and have Hope. You can also be in the Promised Land and be Hopeless. You reaching a destination doesn’t give you hope because I dwell within you! Wherever you go I AM the Promised Land.”

Then it all made sense! If God is the promised land and his spirit dwells within me, then I am the Promise! My perspective/focus needed to change! I was focused on ALL the wrong things thinking it would complete me, believing a lie that I needed things in order to take me into Gods promise for my life. But the truth is we don’t need to strive to reach a destination because the promise lives within us! Therefore we can let go of these things freely into Gods hands entrusting that he will provide the rain in the wilderness!

There is no Promised Land here on earth only the wilderness, we won’t fully enter into the promised land until we meet God face to face in heaven.

So until then, we walk in the wilderness as the promise lifting up the name of The Most High King on every mountaintop and in every valley! Declaring that even here in such a place the Lord provides water form the rock, he parts the red sea, he rains down fire and sets the captives free! It’s here that he breaks the bow and bends the spear! It’s here he tells the wars to cease and calms the waves! In this place, he makes a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert! The promise is NOW!

Questions:

1.) Do you feel like you’re in the wilderness now?
2.) Do you find yourself striving for anything? Have you ever found yourself striving for perfection?
3.) What are some things you believed would get you to the promised land?
4.) What are some things you need to surrender to the Lord?
5.) How does knowing you’re the promise change your perspective on how you view things?

Extra Reading: (Optional)

• Numbers 13,14
• Numbers 23: 19 (Promise Keeper)
• Isaiah 54 (Future Glory for Israel)
• Isaiah 62 (Zions Restoration)

Song recommendation: Way Maker- https://youtu.be/1kBvpS3z9Qo