By now, I hope you’re liking this new series. I am because, it’s easier to write than my typical style and it’s fun to post these short story glimpses in a more casual format. In today’s episode, I want to talk a little about how God uses our training process to help ensure we don’t shipwreck before (or after) we fulfill His intended purpose for our life.

The Road More Avoided

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)

There’s something I began learning in the last 10 years about the true nature of humanity. When it says in the Bible that we have severe problems at the deepest roots of our hearts, it is not an exaggeration. The problem however, is that most of us never find out what is really hidden below the surface. We mostly go through life ignoring and brushing away anything ugly that pops up in our thoughts and behaviors.

We would rather hear someone tell us how wonderful we are and fill our ears with platitudes. But, to instead find out what we truly are and work towards getting it fixed, we’d rather not. It’s easier to live a lie than to confront reality. Especially when it’s about our own deep rooted ugliness.

When God put me in His Ancient training program, I began learning about why all the famous Bible characters had to go through a wilderness time. Seriously, none of the churches I used to attend ever taught on this. Rather than get into a lengthy and detailed explanation of all that I’ve been learning, lets just hit on the main points.

Avoiding The Eternal Problem

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV)

In God’s infinite wisdom, He knows that we humans will do whatever we can to avoid dealing with the hard subjects. He knows that there are horrible character flaws hiding way down in our hearts, some of which were put there many generations ago. Unless we are forced into situations that will drive out those evil flaws, we will always have them in us.

What most churches will never tell you is that there are many dangers lurking in the future, including in the realm of Heaven. Ok, so that sounds ridiculous now, doesn’t it? Heaven is perfect and there’s no sin there. Sounds good, right? Yep. Except there’s one big problem with that.

There is this one angel who was created in perfection, lived in a perfect environment, and yet he turned into the ruler of all that is evil. Lucifer became Satan when there was no such thing as evil. It happened once, perhaps billions of years ago. But, when we think of our own eternity in Heaven, we never stop to wonder if the same rebellion might happen again. Perhaps by one of us.

Ok, so this is probably too deep for most readers. It is a very heavy topic. And we are mostly dealing with the process of discovering and fulfilling our purpose here on Earth, right? True. Well, let’s come back to earth now and look at the more immediate things.

Success Can Be Very Dangerous

For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

1 Kings 11:4 (KJV)

How many people have you either met, or observed from a distance who became completely corrupt when they became popular or wealthy? Hollywood, business and government are 3 great places to start looking.

If God has a plan to make you prosperous, and you’ve never been put through a lengthy wilderness experience, how do you know you will not follow the same path as Lucifer?! Simple answer: you don’t.

The wilderness is God’s mandatory training ground for anyone who wants to fulfill their true purpose in this life. Have you ever really thought about what I’ve just written here? Have you ever wondered how some people start off “good”, only to turn and become evil later on? Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and wondered about the same thing.

Most of us never do. As I said at the top here, we go out of our way to make sure we never have to deal with the truth of who and what we really are. If you’ve never been through God’s expressway to destiny, then you’ve never come face to face with yourself. And, from my last 10 years of experience, that is a very bad thing. As unpleasant as those last 10 years has been for me, I can say it has caused some amazing personal transformation in ways I had never imagined.

The Ultimate Goal

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Matthew 11:29 (KJV)

I look back at how I used to be in decades past and, well, it’s pretty horrible. Sure, there are some good things but, all those deep rooted flaws I never knew I had… yep. Facing the truth has a way of making us much more humble. And that right there is what God is really getting at with a wilderness training ground.

It’s the only way to expose and clean out the stuff that would otherwise stop us dead in our tracks before we ever fulfilled the reason God put us here. And even if it didn’t, how do you know that you wouldn’t still end up like Lucifer after you became wildly successful?!

Learn to ask the right questions. The hard ones. Don’t take the easy way out. Learn to confront yourself. God’s way. You’ll be glad you did, for a very long time. So will everyone else who knew you.

This is a very long and unpleasant road. But the end result is worth it.

To be continued…

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