The Wilderness

Let's discuss how to navigate life when you find yourself cold & uncomfortable in a wilderness season.

Anchor Verses: Deuteronomy 2:1, Deuteronomy 2:7

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Transcript

Camille Allison: 0:08

Hey friends, welcome into another week's episode of Her Soul. I'm Camille, and I'm so glad you guys are here because today's episode is so, so good. I was thinking actually, that I was just going to turn the podcast into its own little Bible Study. I mean, That's basically what we do now. You know, I literally sit down and I get in my Word. I studied my Bible. And during that time, there's certain revelations that are receive God and print certain things on my heart. And then I just share them with y'all. And, you know, probably maybe like 95% of the time. Each episode is associated with a Scripture that we break down, we understand the background and the context, and then we pull out some application. Today's episode is no different, but, um, I was so inspired. So moved by this. We. Just came off of a family vacation and sort of all of this came about while I was on family vacation. And I was just so thankful for the message that I had to share it with you guys. But this today, we're going to be looking at Deuteronomy. Now. A lot of people. Kind of like skip over the Old Testament. They don't think that it's, you know, as exciting as other parts of the Bible. And I can understand why you might think that at first glance, Um, certainly in my journey, these were never the chapters that I went to read first, but, um, Deuteronomy specifically. I've been working my way through from the beginning. these, the Old Testament gives you so much meat and potatoes. And if there's one thing I would say is that yes, a lot of people who are new to their Bible reading, will start with Jesus. And yes, that's important. We need to understand who Jesus is, what He means, what His life meant for our life. Right. But we also need to understand who God is. And. The Old Testament is exactly the place for that. There is so much that we learn about who He is. How He designed us to be what was His initial vision plan and purpose? For His world, His creation and all of us in it. We learn how He loves. We learn about His faithfulness. We learn about His expectations in regards to us, and we just are able to fall in love with who God is. And so I just want to encourage you without. Going off on a tangent, just encourage you to, to read the Old Testament so that you can come to that same understanding and comfort of knowing who God actually is. So today we're going to be looking at Deuteronomy chapter two. And some other, um, scriptures that are mentioned as we go through, but we'll start with chapter two, verse one. And. Deuteronomy let's look at it. Today's episode, we're talking about the wilderness season. And being in the wilderness and what that actually means. And I don't think we've ever talked about this on the show, but I thought it was so interesting. Let me read verse one to you. It says then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness, along the route to the red sea. As the Lord had directed me for a long time, we made our way around the hill country of Seir. Now let's zone in. Zoom in on that first portion, it says, then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness. And as I'm reading this, I'm like, why did they have to go back? So let's, before we dive into that, let's understand the book of Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy also known it can be translated as second law. It's not really a second law. It's more so a recounting of. Uh, Israel's journey. So Moses is giving basically like his final speech, final sermon to the Israelites, just to remind them of who they recall to be how God has provided for them. Been so faithful to them throughout their journey. He reminds them of their past mistakes and is doing this in order to give them hope as they move into the promised land because they are on the edge of moving into the Promised Land they're like right there. Right. So that's what the book of Deuteronomy is about. Deuteronomy chapter one. Um, we see towards the end of the chapter, that Moses is reminding Israel about the time that they rebelled against the Lord. Um, in the situation with the spies where they were so afraid to go into battle. That they complained. And they said we weren't going to do it. And it actually says that God got angry, that they decided not to do that. Right. And so, as a result of them being afraid and not being obedient to what God was telling them to do. God said. Uh, chapter one, verse 35. He said, no, man, from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors except Caleb son of Jephunneh. Also Joshua was allowed as well. The scripture says he will see it and I will give him and his descendants, the land, he set his feet on because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly. Right. So were Moses, Moses is reminding them of this. Not to scare them, but instead, really to like give them hope. He's talking to the second generation of people. At this point, the first-generation. Is basically all. Um, have all died off during the 40 year span that they were in the wilderness and he's talking to the second generation, that's getting ready to go in. But he's reminding them of the past mistakes of their ancestors. Right. He also brings up the fact that. Uh, verse 45 and this is how we get into chapter two, verse one, it says. You came back and wept, before the Lord. But He paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. And so you stayed in Kadesh many days all the time you spent there. And it's because the weeping was not genuine. It didn't come from a sincere place. It was a selfish place. It was more so a weeping because, oh, we got in trouble. Sort of thing and they were afraid of the consequences they were faced were facing. Instead of weeping because they had a true change of heart. Does that make sense? So chapter two, verse one, we see a very sad turn of events after all of this. They've rebelled. God has, uh, punished them. They're sad because they're being punished. And then chapter two, verse one picks up and says, so then we turned back and we set up toward the wilderness and this is what I really want us to focus on today. Why did Moses and the Israelites have to go back into the wilderness. What, what was it? So what we know from scripture, Is that they went into the wilderness as a result of their disobedience and their lack of faith. Right. They wandered in that desert or in that wilderness, excuse me, for 40 years until that generation passed away. Excluding Caleb and Joshua. Right. And what we can learn from the Israelites. Is that rebellion required consequence. Now, let me stop here and put in a little note. Thank goodness we do not live under the Old Testament Law. We are covered by Jesus and his grace. We don't necessarily, um, receive the same sort of punishment as the Israelites did. Our punishments are not. Harsh in that sense, if that makes sense. Okay. But in this time, what we see for the Israelites is that rebellion required consequence. If you find yourself in a wilderness season. Today's episode is going to be perfect for you. Because in the wilderness and the scripture says that they were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, right. How many of us are in our wilderness season. Can recognizes that we're not where we need to be, but we are wandering. So today we're going to talk about number one. What is the wildness two, how did we get there? Three, how do we get out? And like I said, if you are currently in a wilderness season, and I think we all have our own wilderness seasons at some point or another. Then this episode is going to be super important for you. Because it will help you figure out how to navigate. How to navigate what we need to do to get ourselves together, to get out. Some of us. Are in a wilderness right now. And we are so deep in that wilderness that we don't know how we can even get out. We don't know how to climb our way out. We don't know how to get up. And this results, you know, in us being paralyzed either by shame, by fear, whatever the case may be. But today's episode, we're going to talk about how to uproot whatever that is. That's keeping us stuck so that we can get out. Okay. So, what is the wilderness? The wilderness is a season of testing. We're in application. Okay. The wilderness is a season of testing. It's a season of refinement. We know that the Israelites had to learn to trust God again for guidance. In fact, verse seven of chapter two, we learned that God provided the whole time. He says, Moses tells them, you know, and this is him recounting to them so that they can remember Moses says, The Lord, your God has blessed you in all your work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness these 40 years, the Lord, your God has been with you and you have not left anything. How reassuring that is for the Israelites to know that. Yeah, you're right. We went through a really tough season, but God did carry us through. Sometimes we're so wrapped up in ourselves and what we have going on that we can't really see or fathom or understand that God is with us the entire time. Providing along the way in the small ways and in the big ways. Now as far as, how did we get into this wilderness season? For every person it's different. But if we go in with the understanding that God is trying to teach us something in the wilderness, We can easily pinpoint it. For many of us, we were in the wilderness. And we don't actually know how to get out. Many of you guys have been wandering for a very long time being paralyzed either by shame, fear, guilt, whatever the case may be. And you're not exactly sure how to get out. But let's take a look at the Israelites. The Israelites got into their wandering or into their wilderness season because they rebelled. They didn't trust God. They didn't have faith. And so I'm just encouraging you to take a look at your life right now. And let me know, let yourself know. Is there an area in your life that you have not released to God that you have not allowed yourself to let God lead the way. Right. Have you been stubborn in trying to keep control of that area that you have missed every step that God has put before you. Okay. Sometimes when we walk outside of the line that God already had prepared for us. We delay our destination, or instead of our journey, becoming the straight path from point A to point B straight into the Promised Land. We ended up going A, B, C, D E F G, instead of following the route that God had for us. And so our own disobedience causes the delay to the Promised Land. Where have you not been hearing God or where have you not been listening to Him and following His instruction in your life? For everybody, it's going to be different. And it depends on exactly what your wilderness season entails.. When you sit down. And I encourage everybody to do this. When you sit down and really look at your life to understand. What's going on. You know, especially if you aren't in the best place, mentally, spiritually, physically, right? It's time to sit down and do an audit of where you are in life. You know that you're not in the best place. So now we need to figure out how did we get to this point? And this stuff is not easy. In fact, if you are a person who is open to seeking therapy. Christian based counseling is always a recommendation. It's always something that I'm going to encourage you guys to do, because there is freedom in that and your Christian based counselor can help you navigate. Really tough things, right? So if you are in the season of wilderness, you need to sit down and you need to write, you need to find a Christian based counselor. You need to really dissect your life, and we need to figure out what has gotten you into this wilderness season. We've got to figure out why you are stuck there. What is paralyzing you because once we figure out the root of your wilderness, Right. The root of why you, why you haven't been able to progress in life? The reason why you haven't been able to move forward in a certain area. Once we figure out the why then we can move forward. We know for the Israelites, their wilderness season was all about learning to trust God again. And what if you guys, that is the very same thing we're called to do in our wilderness season? Hmm. Have you ever thought about that? We have gotten ourselves to a place and there'll be a specific reason. Okay. But generally speaking, we've gotten to this place because we've been disobedient in some way, shape or form in some manner, right. We've gotten to this place where now our disobedience has caused too much of a delay. We are wandering we're in the wilderness. We don't know how to get out. We're in the thick of it. Israel had to learn in that time in that 40 years. How to be obedient. How to listen to God. How to trust him wholeheartedly. What if my dear that's the same thing God is telling you to do in your own life. Step back, take your hands off of things. Stop trying to control everything and let me work. Listen for His voice. Get in your Word, seek Him out in prayer. Spend time with Him so that you can understand how He speaks to you. And then listen to Him. Learn how to trust Him, learn how to put your all in His, in His basket. Once we get to a place. Where we are trusting God. We have gotten the key to how we get out. Because when we are able to return God's faithfulness with our obedience, with our listening ear, open heart. Our open mind, do the things that He has called us to do. The instruction becomes easy to implement. Now that we know what God is telling us now that we can see clearly we know how to navigate ourselves out of this season. And again, if you are in the wilderness right now, this is a super duper important. I've got one person on my mind that I've been thinking about this entire time that I've been doing this episode today. And I know this is a message that she really needs to hear and absorb into her heart because she's specifically. Has been paralyzed and it's not something that just happened overnight. This has been going on for years. Okay. Years. How does a person get out of a wilderness that they've been stuck in? After awhile it becomes the only thing that, you know, After a while that wilderness becomes your normal. And now instead of living free. Like we're supposed to do instead of living under the instruction of God and living in the freedom of Jesus, like we're supposed to do. You're so familiar with this stuck place with this wilderness that you just think that this is it. This is another term for this is complacency. I've got this one person on my mind and I'm praying for her constantly because when you can wake up. Do an in-depth analysis of your life, figure out how it is that you got to this place you can uproot the thing. How you say? Lean into God. And he's not far away sometimes when we've been in the wilderness so long. Conditions have been terrible. Okay. Conditions have not been ideal. Yet. It pulls, it causes us to really search out God. Right. We can get so distracted by all of the things that are not so good. That we forget how to hear Him. We forget that we need Him. We forget to see Him. In the midst of all of that confusion and disarray. Yet. The one thing God wants us to do is to shut out all of that. And to focus in on Him. So that we can see the light. If you want to, if you want to look at it like that, how are you going to get out of the wilderness? You have got to sharpen your focus. We know that God tests us in certain seasons. To produce something that He needs from us. He's specifically refining us so that in the next step, Whatever it is that He's building us building up in us. We'll be ready to, to implement. But you can't stay stuck. Delay is also disobedience. That's a lesson that I've had to learn time and time again, it doesn't matter what we think we can handle if God is calling us to something at any given moment that is what we need to drop everything to pursue. Can you trust God with all your heart and with all your soul. The Israelites rebelled and their consequence was that that entire first generation could not move forward into the Promised Land. Can you imagine? Can you imagine that type of punishment? Yeah, you can actually, because while it's not exactly this. In our rebellion. Is, this is crazy in our rebellion we cut ourselves off from God. We do our own selves, a disservice. It's not a God who suffers at the end. It's us. And though our consequence might not be like that of the Israelites there is suffering that happens when we purposefully refuse to listen to God. A suffering of the soul that takes place. And then like my friend who I'm thinking about. And like the Israelites they're gonna look up and you've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. 40 years. When you could have followed God's instruction from the jump. Meditate on that. I'm going to leave it here. I was going to do more. I have so much more notes, but I'm going to leave that for next week's episode. I want you guys to. Let's just meditate on this first part. Because this is a heavy, this is a, um, this requires a lot of you. It requires a deep dive. It requires you to do an audit of where you are. Right now. And so take this week to journal this out, to really dig and do some heart work. And then next week, come back because I'm following up with some more. And we'll talk more about pulling ourselves out after we've been stuck for so long or after we've been disobedient. I love you guys so much. I really just want the best for you. And so I'm sharing this from my heart because I don't want us living a life that's stuck. In this place that it doesn't have to be. I love yall. I will see you next week. Let me know what you think about this week's episode. If you have any comments you'd like to give every place that you can connect with me on social media is down below, but I'm basically CamilleAllison_ everywhere. Um, you could also connect with the show, HerSoul_xo on Instagram. And then, um, leave a rating or review. I would really appreciate that. It helps get our show to reach more listeners. And yeah. Check the show notes for everything you could possibly need. There's some free resources, as well as some links to journals and products and things like that. And I will see you guys in next week's episode. I praying for y'all. I love y'all so much by y'all be blessed.