Seeds always grow in the dark richness of the soil in which they are planted.  Seeds grow in darkness, because when a seed is planted into the ground, for a season the seed is in darkness before it sends its leaves to the surface in search of light.  Nobody likes the dark period, but it’s in the dark period the power is released for you to spring forth.  When the seed is underneath the soil, somthing happens.  You could leave the seed on top of the soil and nothing would ever happen except tht it would be eaten by a bird or other animal.  The seed fares poorly on the top of the ground.  It has to get inside of the soil for it to really take root, and deep inside the soil is a dark, dark place.

Greatness always starts with darkness.  On the way to anything worth doing, there will be times of darkness.  In the Bible these often come in the wilderness.  These are times when your resolve, commitment, maturity and discipline are tested before you can go on to the next period of fruitfulness in your life.  Not even Jesus escaped this.  Before His ministry began, the Bible tells us of his tests in the wilderness with the devil (Luke 4:1-2, 13-15).

After Jesus was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and God spoke his approval over him (You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased), Jesus was ready to step right into his ministry with power, right?  Wrong.  Instead of being led out to preach, the Spirit of God led Him into the wilderness.  There for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus prayed and fasted.  We have no record in the scriptures of God ever speaking to Him during this time; in fact, the only person who showed up was the devil!  The Bible tells us that Jesus was tired and hungry and that was when Satan came to try to trip him up.

The wilderness is not a fun place.  It is the place where you wanter looking for the right direction and wonder what is happening with God.  Did you do something to offend Him?  Has he abandoned you?  Or is He just busy with more important people? Did you really hear correctly in the first place?

The wilderness is a place where you are hungry, where you long to see God move in your financial situation for it to straighten out, where you are tired from working long hours and working so hard for such small results.  It is also a place where hearing from God was not as it had been before.  You pray for direction and guidance and it seemed God was ignoring those prayers.  And just as it happened with Jesus after 40 days of praying and fasting and calling on God, the devil was the only one who showed up.

The wilderness was a testing and training place to see if you are ready to handle more power and responsibility from God.

When Jesus’ time of testing was over, he returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee, he had new power in his words and his fame spread instantly, God’s favor was also upon Him as it never had been before while he was on the earth.  Jesus faithfulness and continued commitment in the wilderness won him access to more of God’s miracle working power as he resisted and defeated the devil with the Word of God.

If we can show the same faithfulnews and commitment through our wilderness times, then it will open up new power and authority in our walk as well as accomplish the destiny God has put within us.

Jesus is our pattern. Do we want to walk in more power?  Do we want to know the will of God and speak nothing but what God tells us to say?  Then we need to be in prayer constantly and daily just as Jesus was, and we need to know the Word of God until it oozes out of every pore.  That way, when we are tempted, we respond with God’w Word; when we are in crisis, we respond with God’s Word; when we are stressed, we respond with God’s Word; and regardless of what happens, the Word of God is the first thing that comes to our minds an to our mouths.

When you are led by the Spriit into the wilderness as Jesus was, then it is a test to prepare you for promotion.  It is a temporary holding place to make sure you can handle the power and responsibility that god is about to release upon your life.  Do you have the commitment and resolve to see it through despite persecution and hardships?  Do you have the discipline not to get caught up with the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, or lusts for other things and keep your priorities straight?  Do you hav ethe maturity to press on with what God has already put in your heart and not waver because you haven’t had a “fresh word” from him lately?  Or are you so hungry for God’s voice that you will push to hear any voice regardless of whether it agrees with the Bible or not?

We can only pass the wilderness tests if we stick to God’s Word and continue to seek intimacy with Him through the entire experience.  If you pass the test, you are ready to be promoted to the next level.