A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Isn't it funny how good we are at comparing our lot in life with the circumstances of the people around us?  The grass is always greener right?  But what if – what if we're exactly where God meant us to be?
I'll tell you something that we're all really good at; it's making comparisons between ourselves and other people. We look at our lot in life, our circumstances and we compare that with the next person and ours always looks so crummy and hopeless.
We look in the mirror and we see ourselves warts and all and then we look at our friends and we think, "Wow, I wish I looked like them." Or we compare our abilities with theirs or our marriage with theirs or our house or our car or our status with theirs, whatever it is and we think, "I would love to be doing as well as they are."
You know I think, I think this is a symptom of a deep sickness in our society, an addiction. An addiction to recognition. We've become a bunch of recognition junkies because that's what they feed us on TV and the celebrity magazines and the songs that make the hit parade.
It's all about clamouring for recognition and success, whatever that is, and being noticed and rewarded. At home and at work, on the sporting field and then someone else seems to be getting just a tad more of the lime light than we are, we feel so incredibly wounded, any, any of this sound even vaguely familiar?
I remember this routine so well; I used to hate it when someone else succeeded. School friends or work colleagues, I wanted the glory and the recognition for me, I didn't want them to have any of it.
It's really sad. I mean I can talk about it now quite dispassionately but back then, this would eat away at me like a cancer. See Berni was the quintessential recognition junkie, it's a sign of never growing up, it's a sign of not making the transition from being a child, and children rely on the recognition and approval of their parents, to being an adult.
Sure we all need encouragement but that's different, that's healthy, encouragement is affirming but when we need it to survive, when we hunger after it, when it motivates what we do, then we're getting it all wrong.
Let me give you an example. Numbers and statistics. Ministries like ours on the radio are reaching millions of people around the world each week, touching lives through the media. How do you measure the effectiveness of what we do? Well some people write or call to tell us the impact the programs have had on their lives and you know that's a real encouragement, just to hear someone's story how God used the program last week to unlock something in their hearts. Can I tell you? That gives me an incredible sense of satisfaction.
But last year, last year I was at this seminar and they suggested that we establish "performance based reporting". How many people are responding to your program, how many people are coming to Christ, how many people … ? Kind of reducing Gods work down to a bunch of statistics. You see success is based on the quantification of recognition, that's what they were saying.
See how easy it is to fall into this recognition trap. Can I tell you? If in His day, Jesus had done performance based reporting He would have flunked because in the end they all deserted Him and left Him to die on the cross. And you know something; I know that certain series that we produce will have a stronger response from people than others.
A "what's in it for me" kind of title like "Reaping God's Harvest in My Life" will always have a stronger response than something like 'Flying Under the Radar' which talks about sacrifice. And if I danced to the statistics of recognition I would just tickle your ears with stuff you'd like to hear rather than the stuff that God wants you to hear and that you need in your life. And you know it's the same in every part of our lives.
We can become recognition junkies, looking for recognition whether its in statistics or whether it's pats on the back, whatever it is but flying under the radar is not about recognition, its about being the person that God made us to be and doing the things He called us to do and just honouring Him and living our lives for Him.
The apostle Paul knew that, on death row in a Roman prison, in chains, have a listen to what he writes in his letter to the Church at Philippi:
Now I want you to know brothers and sisters, that what's happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains most of my brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
Now it's true some of them preach Christ out of envy and rivalry but others out of good will. The latter do so in love knowing that I'm put in here for the defence of the gospel, the former though, preach Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I'm in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached and because of this I rejoice.
Imagine, he's been ripped out of the lime light, he's staring down the barrel at death, people are taunting him, they're going out and doing what he used to do, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and they're doing it to stir up trouble for him and to taunt him out of selfish ambition. And his response? His response is, "I don't care because it's not about me, as long as someone's out there telling people about Jesus Christ that's fantastic." There he is in a dungeon on death row.
You know, recently I was flying between Australia and New Zealand, I was up at 35.000 feet in a 747 and I pulled out my PDA, you know the phone and hand held computer and it has an electronic version of the Bible on it and I was reading this passage out of Paul's letter and I thought, "Here I am 2,000 years later, 35,000 feet above a part of the world that Paul didn't even know existed, reading what he wrote in that Roman dungeon. He could never have imagined how powerfully God was going to use him." And that's the point for me.
You see the flashy things that I can do in my own strength to get recognition, to get a laugh then nothing compared to what God can do when He gets a hold of me and uses me in His power. And you know it's the same with you. Sure, you've got some abilities that I don't have and sure, you could use them to get some flashes of recognition but when you place those abilities in Gods hands He multiplies them with a power and an impact that will take our breath away.
It's not about you and I comparing our lots with another, it wasn't about Paul sitting in that dungeon on death row comparing his lot with the people that were out there taunting him, it's not about that. God takes us through dungeons from time to time. Yours are going to be different to mine. And then He shapes us and moulds us and uses us for His glory and the way He uses you will be different to the way that He uses me. It's not about recognition. It should never be about recognition and numbers and statistics and, and, it shouldn't be.
People whom He uses powerfully are those that co-operated with Him in that dungeon, just kind of faithfully following Him, flying under the radar of public recognition, being there, standing there, doing what He's called you to do for His sake – under the radar.

God does some strange things sometimes.  He leads us into hidden places – lonely places, dark places and seems to leave us there.  What's He up to?  Why does He do that?
I love the term, "flying under the radar" and it's become incredibly special to me as I read a book of that same name written by one Douglas Webster. The whole notion is that sometimes, in combat, aircrafts fly so low, literally just feet above the ground or the sea that the enemy's radar can't detect them. They're invisible as they fly along until they reach their objective and that's the idea of "flying under the radar". It's an idea that's so important, it turns out, in life as well.
See we live in a world where people are clamouring for recognition, to be noticed, to be valued, to be rewarded, to be thanked. And in fact, it seems we're a generation of recognition junkies. I think that's what the whole celebrity things about. And yet you look around at the people that you and I really respect, I mean people of substance, people of real achievement and by and large those kinds of people, few and far between as they are, they want little to do with worldly success and recognition. It seems that they're prepared to fly under the radar.
Now I have to tell you, I am your quintessential recognition junkie. I mean most of my life, the first 36 years of my life, this manifested itself in so many different ways. In the cars that I drove: I always chose the most expensive flashy good looking car that I could possibly afford.
The houses that I lived in: it was always important that they were big and pretentious and they said something about who I was and what I'd achieved and the success that I had and the money that I had.
The way that I dressed: I always dressed, you heard of the term "power dressing"? You put on the really bold coloured tie and a dark suit and a white shirt and you know, to look like you're powerful.
The priorities I had in life: in being noticed, being seen, going to the right functions, mixing with the right people, mingling. Always making sure that at work the boss knew who was responsible for all that good stuff that came across his or her desk and taking every little opportunity, subtly, to undermine my work colleagues just so that people knew who was on top and who was the top dog.
You recognise any of those? It's a subtle thing this addiction to recognition but it's there in so many ways. I mean recognition is really important for children because that's how they build their self esteem. Parental approval is an important component of the emotional growth of a child, they need to be patted on the back often, that's how they grow. But like mothers milk, it's something we're supposed to be weaned off.
As we grow and mature we're supposed to become people who don't survive on recognition, who don't perform for the crowd. The problem is, for a long time at least, I never grew up and you know something; there are lots of people like that, they're still addicted to recognition. It's a sad addiction because its something you can never get enough of, it's like heroin; we're worried about what people think of us.
You know what weaned me off that? It was suffering in a hidden place. I look back on when I became a Christian fifteen years ago and it was at a time in my life of pain and distress. There were major things going on in my life, I still had the expensive flashy car and the high flying job and all that stuff but I was in a dark and lonely place. It was so black that words can't describe it. It was so lonely.
It was a pit so deep that there seemed to be no way out and at the time I was just starting to come to grips with who God might be, if He existed at all and like everyone who ends up in a place like that, I said, "God why? Why do I have to go through this? Why?" We all ask that question don't we? Why? And heres what I've noticed about God, He inevitably does His greatest miracles in our lives in those dark lonely places.
Joseph ... Joseph was Abraham's great grandson. Abraham has a son called Isaac. Isaac had a son called Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons one of whom was Joseph. You may have heard the story of Joseph and the Technicolour Dream Coat, Joseph had these dreams about how all his other brothers were going to bow down to him one day, he was dads favourite. I tell you, his brothers wanted to kill him, literally, but instead of killing him ultimately they double crossed him and sold him into slavery.
Can you imagine? Your own brothers trap you in a pit and they sell you as a slave, I mean that's incredibly unfair and so these slave traders took him down to Egypt and he was sold in a market to a man called Potiphar but Joseph was a class act and ultimately Potiphar put Joseph in charge of all of his affairs and obviously young Joseph wasn't bad looking either because Potiphar's wife wanted to drag him into bed. And when he refused she accused him of rape and Joseph, who did the right thing, ends up in prison.
See, life is so unfair sometimes. Now Joseph went on to become the prime minister of Egypt, second only to pharaoh but that time in that dungeon was so important, it was the place where he grew up, it was the place where he learned wisdom.
He was the youngest son, he was dads favourite, he had delusions of grandeur, he was this little recognition junkie. And God had to deal with that and He did, by putting Joseph into slavery and then into that dungeon. See this didn't last for hours or days or even weeks, this went on for years that God had Joseph in those incredibly unfair dark and lonely places. See, it seems that so often this is Gods way, to take us, to mould us and to shape us in those hidden places.
Have you ever noticed, in Gods creation, that new life always seems to happen in hidden places? A child is conceived and grows hidden in its mother's womb. This little green grub crawling around on the leaves becomes a beautiful butterfly hidden away in its cocoon. You know what?
Those hidden places are where God takes us and where we suffer alone, they are the exact opposite of the limelight of recognition. They are exactly the places He needs to take us to change us, hidden away from the worlds gaze and recognition, adulation and praise and rewards, like a heroin addict going through withdrawal but the end of it we have a new freedom.
Jesus said:
I have come to set the captives free.
And again He said:
If I set you free you will really be free.
When we don't live our lives for recognition and reward anymore we are finally free, we're finally at rest, we finally feel safe.
I look back on my life and I know that in that dark place God did His greatest work in me. He set me free from me, from being my own "little tin pot god", from the fear and the insecurity of always needing the next fix of recognition. He works in mighty and mysterious ways, not always obvious, not always pleasant but always, always with one goal in mind – to set us free.

After we've been serving God for a while – well, we get to feeling that we're entitled to be special in His sight.  And the real temptation – and it's a temptation of pride – is to put God's love to the test.
You know we all need encouragement and validation and when we're travelling down a certain path in life it's great when somehow people confirm that we're on the right path, someone looks at the career you've chosen and they say to you, "Gee you do so well at that." I mean that's a wonderful thing isn't it? And so often we want God to confirm that we've chosen the right path too. It would be great to have His confirmation and encouragement but sometimes, you know sometimes at those times God just remains silent, have you ever noticed that?
Sometimes we want the Lord to confirm that we're on the right path and He just doesn't say anything and you know, when we're walking in faith and putting it all on the line for God, it would be really nice for Him to whisper, "Well done good and faithful servant, keep going." And yet so often He chooses to remain silent and those times, it can be a real wilderness experience. Why does He do that? What's going on?
We like to live life on the surface, you know the externals. The recognition, there's the success and the things we can buy and the comfort and the travel and the holidays, you know all that stuff but God, God wants to go to a much, much deeper plain with us, much deeper way below the surface and that's why this week we've been talking about the hidden things of God. Hidden because it's wisdom that lies below the surface, hidden because it's often not until we have a spiritual wilderness experience that we discover them.
This week we've been looking at the wilderness experience of Jesus Christ. If you were with us earlier in the week you would have heard me talk about His public baptism, He went down to the Jordan River, He was baptised by John the Baptist, He comes up and heaven opens up and God speaks down and says:
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
What an awesome thing and immediately following that God picks Him up and throws Him out into the desert where He starves for forty days and the devil comes after Him with a pick axe. He goes from the middle of the river of God out into this desolation, this wilderness and its Gods way to have Him starving for forty days and He's tempted by the devil.
Over the last few days we've looked at the first two temptations. The first one was after forty days; the devil tempts Him to turn the stone into bread, to end the suffering for himself, to end His hunger, to meet His needs in His own strength rather than in Gods strength. After all why not, He was hungry? Because that would be turning your back and the will of God for your life even if that will involves suffering and Jesus turns round to the devil and says, "hang on":
Man doesn't live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
He rejects the devils temptation to take matters into His own hands.
The second temptation we looked at yesterday. The devil took Him up to a high mountain and said:
Worship me and I'll give you all of these kingdoms.
It's about chasing after worldly success, about taking the world and leaving God behind and that's so easy to do too because there's such a fine line between serving God and falling in love and worshipping the works of our own hands instead of God and Jesus said:
No it is written, "You will worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.
For Jesus it was so much more important that He be found humbly serving His Father instead of being given all the kingdoms of this world.
Today we're going to look at the third temptation; it's something that Douglas Webster in his book, "Under the Radar" called "The Great Performance". Have a listen:
The devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you're the Son of God' he said, 'Throw yourself down from here because it is written, "He will command His angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone".' And Jesus answered the devil, 'It is written, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."'
In his book, "Under the Radar", Douglas Webster puts his finger right on what's happening here when he writes this:
The career path for Christian leaders is marked by the cross, an incentive that doesn't have much cross-over appeal into the corporate world or our post modern society. Self-denial is a difficult concept to translate into today's leadership literature. The path leading to a cross is far more humbling than it is heroic and all true leaders are led along this path but the temptation to avoid the path to the cross by trying to achieve something great for God confronts us as did Jesus.
We're tempted to escape the cross with our spiritual pride intact; we want to feel enthusiastic about Jesus while avoiding the way of Jesus. You see that's the temptation. You get to a point where you've been walking with God for a while and you've been sacrificing, you've been suffering and you get to figuring, "Well God you know, I've earned something here. I've earned a short cut, it's time for you God to validate me, it's time for you God to do some miracle. To say, 'You're heading down the right path, you're special to me.'"
And so we get to asking God for something impossible. Not for the right reasons, not because we want to serve Him and bring glory to Him but in order for Him to validate that we're something special. In a sense we want God to start being our servant rather than us being His servant. This temptation is about turning the created creature relationship on its head and putting us on top of the heap and that that is why Jesus names it for what it is, putting God to the test.
Growing old is great as long as it involves growing wiser and wisdom, in Gods economy, starts and ends with one thing. You can read it in Proverbs chapter 1; verse 7 where it says:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and discipline.
In other words wisdom is based on a right relationship with God and when, when you've been doing stuff for God for a while this is a really easy temptation to fall in. And it's the temptation the devil fell into when he tried to put himself above God. To believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus, He's not only the truth He's also the way and in this wilderness we discover the hidden things of God.
When we're under pressure and hungry and tired and the devil pulls along side and tempts us … tempts us to provide for ourselves, tempts us to chase after worldly success, tempts us to make God our servant rather than our Lord, this is when we discover who we are, this is when we discover what we believe and this is the place that God would teach us these lessons in a powerful way that would shape who we are.
When we are shaped on the anvil of the wilderness and abandonment and vulnerability, we learn the most amazing lessons. This is where we discover the hidden things of God. We discover in the wilderness what humility and persistence and prayer is. In the wilderness we discover who's Lord. It's a special, special time.

You know something – worldly success and recognition are a seductive thing.  Even as we go about God's business.  It turns out though that there's a fine line between serving God and chasing after recognition.
Things are not always what they seem, have you noticed that? With people and, you know, so often with God. I don't know if you do this but sometimes I think I have God in a box that's way too small for Him, He just doesn't fit. My thinking is narrower than His and so often I'm focused on the small picture when He's working on a much bigger picture.
I'm focused on how I feel and what my needs are and He, He's focused on developing my character and on drawing me closer, on pruning me back so that I can flower and blossom. Is it just me or do you kind of relate to what I'm saying? Sometimes I plan on achieving this or achieving that for God and His plan, His plan is for me to wait humbly at His feet. God can be so frustrating at times don't you think?
This week on the program we're digging a bit deeper to discover the hidden things of God. I mean, we're people and each of us is different and we all have needs and hopes and ambitions and dreams and even when those things involve God, it's so easy just too kind of wander off and leave Him behind, to start pursuing our own plan instead of waiting on His. You know something; wait is a word that appears an awful lot in the Bible and no more beautifully than in Psalm 5, verse 3 where it says:
In the morning O Lord you hear my voice, in the morning I will lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
And you know, invariably when God's word talks about us waiting on God it means exactly what the psalmist just wrote. Waiting with expectation – not waiting impatiently, not waiting miserably, not waiting saying, "You know something; this is never going to happen," – waiting in expectation or in other words, in faith.
I wonder sometimes whether we're not more focused on becoming achievers, on being self reliant than on humbling ourselves before God and waiting on Him and becoming God achievers, God reliant.
Over this week we're looking at the great temptation when Jesus was led into the wilderness. He was baptised in the Jordan by John and when He came up out of the water, at that moment heaven was opened up and He saw the spirit of God descending on Him like a dove and a voice from heaven said:
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
What a stunning baptism and straight after that God picks Him up and throws Him out into the desert. Luke chapter 4:
Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was hungry.
I bet He was. Here's one of the hidden things of God and it's the things that we discover about God in the desert, in the wilderness, are so much deeper than when we're just racing around being successful and happy. It's really important when we start walking around in a wilderness to know what God's up to.
Douglas Webster, in "Under the Radar" writes this, he says:
Contrary to the popular notion that links fullness of the Spirit to worldly success, Luke relates the fullness of the Spirit to Jesus' wilderness experience and stresses Jesus' extreme vulnerability in the Spirit before the devil. Jesus, full of the Spirit, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, a place of testing and utter weakness. There is a close correlation between the Spirit's presence and power and Jesus' vulnerability and weakness.
Yesterday we looked at the first temptation, the temptation for Jesus to turn the stones into food; I mean to end the suffering in His own strength, apart from God. It was the logical thing to do; it was the devils logical delusion. Wasn't really a temptation, I mean after all, Jesus was famished, Jesus was the Son of God and Jesus answer was:
Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
In fact it was a firm "no" to the devil, "I will wait on God for my provision, I will trust in Him even if I have to starve to death." It puts pay to any notion of self reliance.
Today we're going to look at the second temptation and you can read it if you want to in the Bible in Luke chapter 4, verse 5:
The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and he said to Jesus, "I will give you all their authority and splendour for it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone that I want. So if you worship me it will all be yours." And Jesus answered, "It is written worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.
You see the devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed Him the most seductive prize of all, all the kingdoms of the world and the devil said, "Worship me and I'll give all this to you." Now there's a huge jump here from the basic need for bread which was the first temptation, to the greatest thing that he could show Jesus, all the kingdoms of the world. And note Jesus doesn't debate the devils authority to say this, Jesus speaks to the devil not with sarcasm or scorn but with respect and here's the temptation for us.
The temptation is that we go after worldly recognition and worldly success, that we achieve what Gods called us to do, in affect, idolatrously. That we end up worshipping the works of our own hands instead of God Himself.
Much of what's being said today about the vision of the Church seems to fit with this second temptation. Take a serious long look at what's projected as a compelling vision with hype and excitement and delusion and success. Every Church seems to have its own personalised, customised vision, where do you find that thinking in the Bible? And this fits right into the second temptation. There's a lot of second temptation Christianity going on, Christianity without Christ, what a sharp contrast between that and those beautiful words of Psalm 5:
In the morning I will lay my request before you and wait in expectation.
Jesus had it right, Jesus went to the devil and said, "No! It is written, 'worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone'." You see the devil offered Jesus all and with the word 'only' Jesus defeated the devil. Jesus said, "I'm not chasing after worldly recognition, I don't want to be in charge of all these kingdoms, I don't want people to think well of me. That's not what this is about; my life is about worshipping God and serving Him alone."
It's so easy to worship what we do for God and then leave Him behind. It's so easy to chase after the recognition and the praise of other people and forget that what we're doing is meant to be for God's glory and not our own and I don't care what it is we do or who we are, we all suffer this temptation. Can I tell you, the temptation is the greatest when we're in the wilderness like Jesus was? How tempting must it have looked to be given all those kingdoms, all He had to do was worship the devil once.
I've decided there's something so much more important than what I do for God and that's my relationship with Him. That's what this wilderness is about, learning those things, the hidden things of God in a way that we somehow just, just can't forget.

When the going gets tough, it's so much easier to sort things out for ourselves – than to rely on God.  Really…..in fact, when we're hungry, why shouldn't we feed ourselves?
It's a funny thing that from time to time God leads us out into the wilderness and then, it seems, He leaves us there to fend for ourselves. When I think of Jesus out there for forty days in the wilderness without food, He must have been starving, literally. Forty days with nothing to eat, He would have been feeling dizzy and weak and completely vulnerable. All His natural support mechanisms and defences stripped away.
I mean, if that had been me I wonder whether I wouldn't have been sitting there after forty days thinking, "All right God, so You told me that you'd called me and you told me you had some bold plan to use me to change the world and you told me that I'm Your Son so, so why aren't You providing for me? Why have You thrown me out here into the desert to starve and the only person you've given me for company is the devil himself?" Imagine you're out there in the burning sun starving, what's the most logical thing for you to do?
I remember a time when I was training to be an officer in the Australian Army, it was four tough, hard years and on more than one occasion they took us out on survival exercises and we didn't eat for days and there we were carrying a heavy pack and a machine gun and ammunition and everything it seemed except for food. And they'd give us a map and a compass and they'd say, "Well we can't get food through to you here." So they'd give us a grid reference over the radio and we'd have to navigate 25 kilometres over hill and dale where there would be a food drop.
So over you go and you get there and there was no food and you'd radio in and they'd say, "Oh look sorry, the truck couldn't get through, we'll give you a new grid reference, 32 kilometres over hill and dale." And this went on for days. And then every now and then you'd get a food drop by a helicopter and they'd drop like half a ration pack for 4 men when you're supposed to have 1 each every day.
And we had no idea when it would end. We'd get grumpy and hungry and weak and our moral was pretty low, we'd sit there at night with our stomachs, well our stomachs had given up rumbling we were that hungry and we were a small squad of 4 men and we sat there and talked about these mongrels who were doing this to us and, "Let's walk out to the nearest highway and hitch a ride home."
I look back on that experience now and it was so hard back then but it built our characters. It's something that's hard to explain but when you go through something like that it teaches you things in a way that you don't forget. And the obvious temptation in the middle of all of that was to grumble and complain, to do something to provide for ourselves, to go out to the highway to hitch a ride home, to go and buy a pizza, you know.
And its exactly the same thing when the Lord puts us into a spiritual wilderness, the most tempting thing under the sun is to provide for ourselves, to seek provisions separate from God rather than relying on Him and so it's no surprise that when Jesus was led by God out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the very first temptation of the devil is where he tried to hit Jesus in exactly that spot. Have a listen, Luke chapter 4 it comes from:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was hungry and the devil said to Him, "If you're the Son of God tell this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered, "It is written, 'A man does not live by bread alone.
Douglas Webster in his book, "Under the Radar' writes this, he said:
The popular, easy to read books on leadership are of no value in the wilderness. They're not the kind of books you want to read when you're lonely and suffering. Titles like Developing the Leader within You or Leadership 101 or Success One Day at a Time, well they never make good reading out in the wilderness. Seminary degrees and graduate programs may help but they don't produce leaders. The best networking and mentoring in the world doesn't compare to the importance of the wilderness experience.
You see, what God was wanting to teach Jesus here in the desert was not self reliance, it wasn't ingenuity or innovation or imagination or invention. It wasn't the ability to forage on the land; it was none of those things. For forty days Jesus was famished, He was weak, vulnerable before the devil and the greatest temptation of all was for Jesus to meet His needs in His own strength. After all He was the Son of God, I mean He was entitled, I mean what the heck, why not? He was hungry, He was in need, He was the Son of God no one could deny that. In fact, that very first temptation, it probably didn't feel much like a temptation at all, it was purely and simply providing for His own needs.
In many respects this first temptation was a logical seduction, the temptation to meet our needs, even the most acute need of starvation, in our own strength rather than waiting on God. Wow, that's a strong temptation, to end the suffering because we can. It happens in our lives when we're in a situation perhaps a relationship and its hurting and we go and do something that we know isn't from God but we just want to end the suffering in our own strength.
Again, Doug Webster relates this story in his book when he was pastoring a Church and all the people in the Church were giving him a hard time and his temptation was to run away, to throw it in, to say, "That's it, I've had enough, I'm going to go and look for another Church." But he went to a man by the name of Eugene Peterson who's the man who translated the Bible into the translation called, "The Message" and Eugene Peterson gave him some godly advice that went something like this. He said:
As I've continued to think and pray I want to urge you not to be too eager to solve the problems and get rid of the suffering that is coming from the murmuring congregation and to believe that God knew what kind of congregation it was when He called you there and that perhaps the pain that they inflict is being used for God's purposes of Holiness in you.
See, when we are in the desert and we've been hungering for forty days we've got this acute need, this acute pain. What we want to do is to end the pain but God's view, God knows that:
… suffering produces endurance and the endurance produces character and the character produces a hope and its a hope that doesn't disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that's been given to us.
That's what Paul writes in Romans chapter 5, verse 3.
God is teaching us not to rely on our own goods, not to rely on our own abilities, not to rely on other people, not to rely on the devil, not to rely on ourselves. God wants to teach us in that wilderness this wonderful lesson to learn to rely on Him so that when things get bad, when things get beyond us, when things are so much bigger and harder than we can ever imagine, we can think back to that wilderness and remember the last time God provided for us.
He never leaves us there longer than we have to be there, this is the wonderful hidden thing of God, that He wants us to learn to rely on Him and when we go out there and try and provide for ourselves that's the great temptation, the logical seduction of the devil himself.