By Andrew Williams
Series: The Year of the Prophet- Month 3: The School of the Wilderness (Preparation)
Week 13: The Death of Ambition (The Final Surrender)
Anchor Scripture: “They shall go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.” — Psalm 84:7 (NKJV)
The Teaching
As we approach the end of our season in the School of the Wilderness, it is time to take an inventory of your “gains.” Most people view the desert as a place of loss—loss of comfort, loss of reputation, loss of “self.” But for the Prophet, the wilderness is where you exchange natural weakness for Desert Strength.
The strength you carry out of the fire is not the loud, frantic strength of the world; it is a “quiet, steel-like” endurance. In the desert, you developed “muscles” that the platform could never produce:
- The Muscle of Dependence: You learned that you can survive on nothing but the Word of God.
- The Muscle of Immunity: Having been rejected by men and hidden by God, you are now immune to both the flattery and the criticism of the crowd.
- The Muscle of Discernment: In the silence, you learned to distinguish the “whisper” from the “noise.”
You are not leaving the wilderness empty-handed. You are coming out with a “substance” that cannot be shaken. You have been “tempered” like steel in the heat. The very trials that tried to break you have actually become the “bones” of your authority. When you stand before God in Zion (the place of public ministry), you aren’t standing on your talent; you are standing on the strength of the desert.
Prophetic Insight
The devil thought the wilderness would make you “bitter” (Day 73), but it actually made you “better.” The strength of a prophet is found in their un-buy-ability. Because you have lived on “ravens’ bread” (Day 63) and survived the “silence of God” (Day 64), the world no longer has anything to offer you that can tempt you to compromise. You have found a strength that is “made perfect in weakness.” This desert strength is what will allow you to stand before Kings without trembling and stand before the broken without pride. You are now a “seasoned” vessel, ready for the weight of the Word.
The Activation
Take a moment to look back over the last 90 days. Identify one area where you are “stronger” today than you were at the beginning of this year. Is it your patience? Your prayer life? Your ability to handle rejection? Acknowledge this as “Desert Strength.” Say to the Lord: “I thank You for the muscles I built in the dark. I am ready to carry the weight of what’s next.”
Daily Prayer: Lord God, I thank You that You did not lead me into the wilderness to destroy me, but to strengthen me. I thank You for the ‘quiet steel’ You have forged in my soul. I choose to carry the lessons of the desert into the assignments of the future. Let my strength be found in my total dependence on You. I am ready to go from strength to strength. Amen.
