The greatest lesson and the most needful to learn, is that of walking by faith and not by sight. Truth is, many of us don’t know how to begin to walk in faith. I used to think that my believing in Jesus being God was my faith. God’s grace has shown me otherwise!

Saved in 2010, I was just overjoyed and couldn’t get enough of my Bible. I was ready to go anywhere and everywhere the Lord led. Then suddenly joy turned to mourning.

Israel was enslaved in Egypt under a very hard master. They called on the name of the Lord and He heard their cry. He rescued them by the blood of the lamb and death passed over them that they might live. He led them through a parted Red Sea and brought them into the wilderness to test whether or not they would obey the words of the Lord or not. With their lips they said they would but with their heart they tested God. Their lips also gave way and began to murmur and complain against the very God who carried them this far. So around and around they went, encircling the same mountain, never able to cross into the promise land.

It’s right about here, where I’d  start to wonder what on Earth is wrong with these people? If I had seen such signs and wonders, I would have believed God. I would have appreciated Him for leading me out of Egpyts hard labor.

As I went on, my complaining and murmuring began and in His sweet mercy,  God gave me eyes to see,  I too was a wandering israelite.

I was enslaved to sin under a very hard master named satan. I called on the name of the Lord and He heard my cry. He rescued me by the blood of the Lamb and death passed over me that I might live. He led me through a parted Red Sea and brought me into the wilderness to test whether or not I would obey the words of the Lord or not. With my lips I said I  would but with my heart I tested God. My lips also gave way and began to murmur and complain against the very God who carried me this far. So around and around I went, encircling the same mountain, never able to cross into the promise land.

We will all reach the arid wilderness. It’s not just a story from history, it’s a spiritual reality. We have professed faith in Christ while in Egypt and the purpose of the wilderness is to test, and try that declaration of faith. The test isn’t to see if we’re strong enough, or good enough for God. This testing is a refining and a proving of our faith. It’s not punishment, it’s God’s mercy and love. The wilderness simply establishes our faith.

One of my greatest struggles in the wilderness was my feelings. Feelings are so strong and we are naturally led by them. They toss us to and fro and are so very inconsistent. How many times my feelings led me astray I cannot count. One day I was near the Lord following right behind Him and the next morning I’d wake up and He was gone. I’d frantically search for Him and would say “Where did You go?” I’d drift further and further into despair until I was sinking. I’d call out to the Lord and He would rescue me. I repeated this pattern for years. This was walking by sight. Because I couldn’t feel Him or “see” Him, I just went about my day believing He had up and left me. Maybe because I didn’t pray last night, or because I snapped at my husband. Surely He is cross with me and left me.

Yet He never did leave me. It was I who took my eyes off of Him.

If we are to go on all the way into Canaan with God, we must learn to walk by faith. Walking by sight (the old man, the flesh, our feelings, thoughts, and will) told me He left.  Walking by faith on the other hand is what I needed to do and it’s just what He instilled in me so I could stop hugging a mountain!

Walking by faith looks like this. When God feels far away and I am tempted to believe my feelings, I stand on something that doesn’t change constantly, something reliable. That’s God word. His word says “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39. Did you catch that? NOTHING can separate us from the love of God! Scared of death? It can’t separate you. In need of clothing? It can’t separate you. Food? It can’t separate you. The power of the enemy? Him and his hosts, can’t separate you! And if there be any other thing that you “FEEL” is separating you from the love of God, that’s also covered here by “nor things present or to come”!

It takes more faith to dwell in Canaan than in the wilderness. In the wilderness we are prepared for greater faith in God and less faith in ourselves. We settle a good foundation of walking by faith to be able to go forth and battle the Giants . This battle in Canaan is impossible if ye have little faith. All His promises are had by faith. Sin becomes anything not of faith. FAITH. It’s a prerequisite for the promised land. The wilderness is entry level training. Faith is not automatic because it’s more than our lips can profess. It must be what our inner man acts on and until we learn death to our will and acting out from it, we will go the way of the wilderness.

Where sight would tell us we have no water or food, that Egypt was better to live in, that God brought us out just to abandon us and let us die forgotten… Faith starts to see God’s mercy and provisions and that He has provided water before and will do it again . That He has provided manna, to sustain us and it’s all we need to dine on. That the land ahead is of blessings and it’s worth the trials of this season. Faith believes God when He said He GAVE us Canaan, it doesn’t doubt that we WILL enter .. Even if it seems too far off, we WILL enter because He HAS GIVEN it! One day when it’s time to cross Jordan, faith will cross over because faith has seen Him do it before.

Faith knows as certain as anything, that ALL things are possible through Christ who is our strength. That Nothing is impossible for God. When we approach every moment of our life with this sure faith, we march STRAIGHT and narrow into Canaan. We stop going left and right around Sinai.

Faith is the only way into an abiding life with Jesus and death to self in the wilderness is the way we learn what faith really is.

“The just shall LIVE by faith” Hab 2:4

We can start living more and more by faith today by chosing to stand on God’s truth and words instead of our own words, feelings, fears and doubt.

We grow to know His voice in our wilderness experience and learn to heed it. The enemys only ground in us is by our flesh/ old man.. Jesus is in the Spirit/New man. So by learning to walk by faith in learning to heed Jesus words.. you learn which voice to follow all the days of your life. See this principal in John 10: