At God’s Table
Then they spoke against God; they said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” Psalm 78:19 NASB
Wilderness – Can He? Can God prepare a table in a place where no one can live? Life as it comes to us says, “No! God is not able to provide in the midst of our empty places.” And we go on wandering. Looking for the answer to our need. Living with the pain of our desolation. Struggling with the demons. We leave midbar and venture to yeshimon. We trade doubt for despair.
If God is good, why is there wilderness? Why must I experience it? Why do I have to struggle so hard to survive? The world says, “No, God can’t prepare a table. I have to do it myself.” Years later I realize how wrong I have been. But years later my skin is parched, my feet blistered, and my hands crippled. Unless God prepares the table in the wilderness, nothing that I do will satisfy my hunger. I will go deeper and deeper into yeshimon, the place of waste.
“Oh, I know that God can provide for the man who is willing to live on nothing. But I have a family. I have a business. I have responsibilities. I can’t bury my head in the Bible and pretend that God will pay the bills. I have to go to work. I have to earn a living. After all, people are depending on me.” Yes, it’s all true. So?
Is that how you look at God’s provision? God takes care of the spiritual and then pushes you out the door to take care of the physical. If you believe that God is not intimately involved in every single aspect of your life, you are living in yeshimon and shouting to the creator, “You can’t prepare a table for me. After all, there is nothing in this place to work with.” You’re right. God calls you back to midbar, His home in the wilderness, in order for you to see that yeshimon was a place of your own making. In the wilderness, God prepares a table for you. It’s waiting—in the wilderness, not in the waste places.
Do you know why we don’t see God providing? Because we won’t let Him. We see that we are in waste places and we immediately start importing resources, building protection and providing for ourselves. We refuse to vacate. God provides for those who are willing to be emptied of waste places. That’s the purpose of wilderness. Emptying us of self-reliance. But we resist. Emptying is scary and painful. Emptying means confronting weakness, confusion and limitation. But emptying is essential if we want God to be the chef. There is no room for waste places at the table in the wilderness.
What are you doing with the waste places of your life? Are you trying to construct a city for protection or are you letting God drain you of self so that He can be the chef at your table?
Topical Index: midbar, yeshimon, waste places, table, Psalm 78:19
This is great from a philosophical standpoint.
How does a person live this out?
One of the sayings within Christianity is or was: “Let go and let God.” In my own experience this was usually said by people who had lives with a lot of security built in. It sounded good and wise but how does a person do that? I didn’t observe any greater reliance by them on God.
IMO it can breed passivity.
How does a person carry this out in the real world?
Perhaps this should read: “Hang on and let God”. Hang on to the promises He has made through His written Word. Allow His Spirit to teach the depths of the meanings of His words.
When I read “let go” it tells me to make no effort to live out my faith. “Hang on” tells me to read, study, eat, savor the sweet Aroma of Him, which should in turn minister to those within the circle of your life here, and one Day should resound to the Glory of the One Who has enabled you!!
This has been a really hard summer for me. I lost my mother several weeks ago. It doesn’t matter what your relationship is with a parent, the end is always hard. On top of that when I got back from Arizona I immediately came down with pneumonia. It was the scary kind that is antibiotic resistant that I caught from my mom. That necessitated a hospital stay. All that to say God has pushed me to the middle of the wilderness, there is no way I can fathom to handle any of this. In all of the pain and discomfort I have experienced the Lord has shown himself. My Mormon friends brought my family Kosher food while I was in the hospital and the hospital made me Kosher food (though I had to explain to the dietician what it entailed) while I was there. It was an opportunity to share some facets about God they many of them never considered. Living in a very small farming community of predominately Mormon people, being somewhat different opens the door to conversations about the character and nature of YHWH that many of them never considered without having to make them defend the position they hold.
When you ask the Lord what you should do, sometimes you get answers that don’t necessarily seem like they are answers at all. It has been my experience if you will do them anyway, doors get opened, provision appears.
All this to say, thank you Skip for these message lately on living in the wilderness. They are immensely comforting to me.
OUR GREAT WILDERNESS DINNER INVITATION
When we are empty and ready, the invitation shows up.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and
dine with him, and he with Me.” Rev 3:20
He comes right where we are . . . with all of His promises!
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of
My Hand,” Jn 10:27-28
He gives us His comforting perspective about this worldly
wilderness we find ourselves in.
“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome this world.” Jn 16:33
He gives us more good cheer by telling us what will happen
in our world if we DO what He says.
“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it;
but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 Jn 2:17
He says it’s His recipe for success. Be DOERS of My Word.
Sounds good to me.
Let’s eat!
Sounds good to me, too, Rich!! Joining you in the Feast!!
Helen
I read this and I know there is something here that I really need. Something I’m desperate for but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
G-d . Awareness!
When I see the word “table” and “wilderness” together, I think wilderness is always a time of relationship, the time to stop! SEEK! Prepare! A time of G-d, a time G-D is going to do something, create something, teach me something, show me a change , prepare something. May, I be open to acceptance of who I am at this moment in the wilderness. Help my heart too see it from your perspective, G-d . Awareness! Please G-d help us see ! Give me a heart to love you more, to seek you even in this time in the wilderness. May we learn mature on the way. Teach us to stop , listen, empty , start to forgive, to feel, grieve, love, see, communicate ,to be with others, to see this heart time in the wilderness, seeking G-d, face to face .
Elul the new month , it is preparation of the heart deep contemplation in the month of ELUL. The 40 days of preparing and emptying untangling , emotions, attitudes , resistances. May all our hearts seek and he will provide, G-d may our will and hearts cooperate with you , teach us , and may we be teachable, changeable, fill our hearts with your will your desires . We ask for the provisions, and may i see it and recognize when you bring it . May our hearts, ears, wills be sensitive to his opportunities . Prepare me G-d for my time with you, and what, I want to ask and seek and forgive this year 5775 ! in the High Holidays and Yom Kippur, is the time and season he is in.. Blessings.in your wilderness .
Matt. 4:4 says that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Is there anyone out there in their flesh that has any way to believe this or even to understand it? I am finding this also to be true that I must live by faith (another inscrutable statement!) – IF I am making a move toward love, instead of running FROM love, that is. (Running requires no faith!) If I am moving toward love, my next step, my next breath, even, is only possible through faith if for no other reason than that love is simply too scary and inexplicable to my flesh otherwise!
In my life, I tried my best, but still ran completely dry, before I even got to a place where I could experience either of the above verses. Of all the ascetics that have tried to reproduce this place, I wonder how many of them failed? At every step of a self-induced process, pride lurks. This is why it must be true that there is none that doeth good, no, not one. The harder we try, in fact, the behinder we get. So what to do? Not try?
But it is not true that there is nothing I can do. At any point in my life, I can choose to turn around and look love in the eye, and accede to its demands. All I need is to know why I should, and how I should, and have the motivation to do it. The “waste howling desert” (KJV) can give me all these treasures.
What is my waste howling desert? Ultimately, I found it all to be the sum of multiple constructions based on my own fears. I had to face them when my tank ran dry. To run from fear is only to materialize it in reality. I think Job must have realized this too when he declared that his worst fears had come upon him. So what to do? Stop running and building security systems and indulging in altered-reality behaviors. These activities and mindsets only reinforce the problem. At one point, my health was so poor that all my endocrine systems had crashed. For a whole year I was on full gastric support because I had no digestive function left. So much for food doing me any good!
My fears show me my blank places where love should be. To listen to a fear does the same thing for my heart as doing something about pain does for my flesh. Fear is pain in the brain. It says that there is an injury or a deficiency or a foreign toxin. What are these? They will be beliefs about love in my heart that are not so, and therefore do not line up with the Word, thus producing a whole bunch of stinkin’ thinkin’ in my brain. I do not need to insulate myself from my fears: I need to listen to them. They diagnose my heart’s condition. What is hurting my heart, and keeping me from being able to meet life on life’s terms? All of the problems of my heart have come from false beliefs that crept in when a traumatic event, or a lie from someone – most often, diabolically, in the name of love – ‘taught’ my heart and my thinking and my body an untruth about love.
To honestly listen to the beliefs of my heart, and then to line them up with the Word, and make a new choice about what I am going to believe, has been proving to be my cure. I have discovered that all of my sins that I have examined to date have been based on one or more false beliefs about love. This has been astounding. To truly repent and remove the sin for good, then, has to do with replacing that false belief with a true one, and thus making a better choice about what I am going to believe in that place to base my choices and actions on. The frontier of my fear, then, is proving to be a rich trading post where I have been trading the false beliefs for the true ones that I find in the Word. One must be repented for before the other can be activated. The fear then just seems to roll up its tents like Arabs and silently steals away. The fears in my life have been a symptom of something that I was believing that did not agree with the Word of God.
I really DO live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!
Laurita,
I find your comments compelling because I can relate. I think you might have some more detailed insights that would be helpful. Please consider documenting your journey, even if you feel anonymity is appropriate. I know that some of my “beliefs” hinder my growth, and I also know someone has already experienced the answers to some of my issues, as you point out so clearly about fears.
Gayle,
I appreciate your consideration for my personal life, and I thank you, too, but as I understand that I am redeemed, so I also do not consider my life ‘my own’ any more. I also understand that I signed onto a deal that asked of me my witness as my commission. That being said, I also know that my Saviour is no respecter of persons, and that what He has done for me He is willing and able to do for another. In other words, I believe that my experience, with accompanying results, is reproducible. This is the reason I feel that sharing my journey is merely what I owe in return for my salvation. Halleluah! Besides, I consider it good practice for the next world, which, I understand, will be a very public place!
It is true that my life has been pulled out of desolation and disease, and that it has clearly been such an amazing blend of grace and obedience that I cannot tell where one left off and the other began. The key to it was to become convinced that there was a way out of my wilderness because I was privileged to have others share their journey with me, IN DETAIL. You are correct. We say the devil is in the details, but I say that is just one more reason why we should focus on them for the purpose of identifying our enemy so that we be no more children, or, in my case, just plain duped. My faith rose because of two things: I saw something that had worked for others, and I was handed a correct diagnosis of my problem, with accompanying description of the cure.
The door out, for me, was to understand that there is no essential difference between spirit, mind, and body. I think the western mind has been too long in a desert of fracture and alienation on all levels. What may have started out being an attempt to overcome the horrible results of superstition and ignorance and the hopelessness inherent in trying and failing to answer to an entire pantheon of demanding gods and uncontrollable forces by trying to separate and examine and CONTROL the dynamics of our existence has undoubtedly left us bereft of many of the tools and methods and benefits of a sense of interconnectedness with ourselves, the world and others around us, as well as a sense of the numinous, which is the way we experience our connections with God. This is just one of the many reasons I can appreciate what Skip has been called to do, which is to return us to that fork in the road, and require us to look again at what may have been left behind.
I think that one of the biggest things that got left behind was the Law, which serves not only as a way to keep us out of trouble, but also as a way to diagnose our trouble. The details of my cure were, basically, a correct naming of sin, and a correct naming of the obedience that cured the sin. In the process of learning that so much of sin had to do with wrong beliefs and thoughts (and no, it sure did not look much like any church doctrine that I had ever seen!), I also found that there was a correspondence in my physical life that was astounding. I came to appreciate that the way I thought and acted DIRECTLY influenced and even created my reality; not only in my body, but in everything in the world around me, particularly my relationships with myself, others , and God. The understanding that I am a direct extension AND CHOOSER of reality, and not just a passive observer on the banks of the river of time, like Skip puts it, COMPLETELY changes how I go about dealing with that reality.
I came to understand that a whole bunch of wrong understanding, reinforced over and over by wrong thoughts and reactions, was actually CAUSING my problems. I was not a passive victim, I was, in fact, the driver of my train, the rower of my boat. In other words, if I wanted a different outcome, all that was required was that I change something IN ME. I was not powerless, nor was it up to someone else. So much for whining or rebellion.
I learned that I was not a passive victim of my thoughts; that it was scientifically determined, in fact, that thoughts originate outside the brain (this amazing research has been done by Dr. Caroline Leaf, who has been a pioneer in the study and mapping of the brain for many years. Try googling her.), and that there is a split second that you can choose whether you want to think it OR NOT. This is how we can obey the injunction to take every thought captive. We really can! If you do choose to think a thought, it becomes a physical structure in the brain, and thereafter becomes the source of an entire cascade of signals to the body, whether for good or for ill. Literally. Righteousness or sin becomes flesh at this level. Every cell in the body consequently changes in response. I really am the “captain of my fate”, but certainly not in the way I had been taught!
I am built to express love in every dimension. To the extent that I have figured or learned or OBEYED how to do this, I am in peace, homeostasis, wholeness, harmony. There are three basic reactions, all based on false beliefs about love, that drive all sin (this is a quote from Dr. Frans Cronje, who is the head of the international association of Barometric Medicine, no less. Try googling him.). They are reactions to life as either a threat (fear), an offense (guilt), or an insult (shame). These reactions drive us, and their results are faithfully reproduced in corresponding cells in the body. The antidotes, of course, lie in the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy and peace, which should be the correct reactions; but, if I am believing things that are not true, I will not be able to have these reactions. The fact that they show up as a result of our CHOICES is what makes them FRUITS of those choices. Sin, on the other hand, is a root. Obedience is the other root. If I am not actively practicing love in my life correctly as defined by the Law of that love in all dimensions; toward God, myself, and others, then I am being driven by one or more of these root states. Obedience to the Law is a root condition that sets me free again to do what I was created to do, which is to be a conduit at large for the love of God.
I can and would be happy to share my notes that I compiled from several sources that I ended up basing my walk out of the sins that were driving my diseases with anyone, if you wanted. I can also share sources of research and other ministries that are being faithful to their understanding of obedience as a foundation for health and freedom. You could email me at lauritahayes@gmail.com.
God bless us all until we come into a unity of the faith that once was delivered to the saints. Amen.
Thank you for this wonderful testimony. I will definitely be in touch!
Soul Provider
Our enemies are these three: Sin, self and Satan. Our enemies have three Sources: the world, the flesh, – the devil. All of these have been clearly “identified” for us all – in the word of God. We need not wonder- we need only “look!” We need only to “look, – and live!”
The scriptures state concerning satan: “We are not ignorant of his devices..” Devices, schemes, ploys- “whatever..”- he has a limited arsenal! – And quickly, may I remind (at least myself) of this? ~ Greater is He who is in you, – than he that is in the world! ~ And may I also say- NOT by a little bit! Who is greater? The creation? – or the One who created (and creates) it? No matter if we be men or angels, the Potter forms and fashions the clay!
The “world” is further defined.. (God wants us to see clearly) ~ For everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–comes not from the Father but from the world. There is a “world system” that is anti-God! and anti-Christ!.
Lust, Sin and Death.. satan’s LSD. What is lust? “Can we talk?” (thank you, Joan!) Lust is strong desire. A craven craven’. I (self) strongly desire to have, to do, to be. Lust is NOT wrong! (gasp!)
Lust is “misdirected” passion! We have “missed the mark”- sinned- erred, blundered! I’m telling’ you young William, -Wrong target,! Don’t shoot at that!- Shoot at this! Huh?
It’s a new day and I want to instill in everything that has breath a new burning..- a new (lust for life?) – a new “strong desire” for (gasp!) – what is right!! What is pure! What is true! – What is lovely! What is of good report! Things that have virtue.. Things that are worthy of praise! THINK on these things..
We spend entirely too much time and energy (passion), too many resources on “wrong things..” – I say- “what if?” What if we were to “choose” (where there’s a will- there is a decision!) to follow Christ? “What if?” What if we were to ask Him (He is our Living Redeemer!) to aid and assist, to empower and enable, to be our Guide and our Stay? For He is “not only”- but also! Not only our Savior, (our Deliverer), but He is our Strength and the Source of all things “good.” ~ For of Him, and through Him- and to Him- are all things! (to whom be glory forever!)
“Can God prepare a table in a place where no one can live?”
As surely as the sun rises, HE can, and will, IF we seek, cry out and wait upon Him to do so.
In the Exodus, He definitely provided abundant manna and quails for the multitudes, and water out of the rock.
Personally, I have been through quite many a wilderness, even as a child, but somehow, coming from a background of Bible believers on my late Dad’s side of the family, I felt ABBA’s Presence with me, and experienced time and again, His hand upon my life guiding, protecting, directing my paths and decisions and providing in amazing ways. I couldn’t have done it on my own, mapping, nor planning for myself in any way. It’s simply amazing and astonishing.
I believe that it was my late Granny’s prayers that covered me, for she was a very staunch Bible believer. How blessed to have such person/s in one’s life.
Right up to the present walk in my life, YHWH is still leading me out of unscriptural, unhealthy ugly situations. HalleluYAH! The key I would say is boldly crying out to Him in our help of need/s. ABBA always hears!
Shalom.
This post is incredibly challenging for me right now. My family is walking and living in a wilderness (and it seems like we’ve been there for years). My husband has been without work for months (and even with trying to find work, has had very little success). Our savings are gone, and we have finally reached that point where there is just not enough money to pay the bills each week. Each time we try to do something to fix the situation, God brings another catastrophe (medical or dental issues for the children, broken down cars, work that cancels last minute, etc.). I have truly lived in the “I’ve got to fix it myself” world since I’ve been in charge of making sure everything “works” in our family. And now… I cannot fix this.
I find comfort in the remembrance of a dream I had in which God pretty much told me I wouldn’t be able to fix it. I know He certainly is capable of preparing a table in the wilderness and that He is there. Yet, in the midst of struggle and pain (especially acute when you have two small children, one of whom has a disability), I don’t know how to walk this out. I cry out… but if His answer is more pain and more crushing and more struggle, eventually I stop crying out because I don’t even know what to say. I don’t want to pray my will over my life (I know His will is still, somehow, better). And, knowing that at least part of this is for my husband to learn, all I can do is watch and wait.
I know that things could be much, much worse. However, I know that it is incredibly difficult to KNOW that He’s always there when it feels like He’s removed His hand and is letting life pummel us. After confronting my fears of not being able to pay our bills (which seems that would not be something God would be for – not paying those we owe), losing our good credit and name, not being able to properly feed my family, and more, there is still nothing I can do. And I don’t know if there’s something we’ve done (or not done) that we’re being punished for, or if there’s something we’re supposed to learn (in which case, it would be helpful to know what it is). Perhaps this shows a misunderstanding of God (of this, I’m pretty sure).
And so I wait. What else can I do? I have no choice but to let God provide. Even if I don’t understand what that looks like, how it’s possible, or even if He will actually provide. Promises are wonderful, but either I don’t understand the promises, or they’re not for me and my family, or I just show that once again, I don’t understand the deep workings of God.
Ah, faith. Such a simple word. Such a difficult thing to live and walk.
Sorry for the short essay. I’m learning some difficult things (or hope I am learning). It feels good to share a little of the struggles of my soul, especially when this post (and the ones after it – Sept.2-7) so speak to this wilderness where I wander.
May the God of shalom fill our hearts with shalom beyond what we can understand.
Thank you, Amanda. I remember when you willingly helped others. Now it is our turn. OK, people. This is why you committed to this community. Time to step up.