Desert Abundance

In both 1978 and 1979 I spent some time traveling through the desert. During that time I was often by myself, with little or no money, no food, sleeping under the stars. The only possessions I had were what I carried on my back in a backpack. I wasn’t a Christian at the time but it was there I discovered a lifelong passion. Deserts are characterized by a lack. There is a lack of the things we think sustain us. Water is scarce. There is little food. It is lonely because there are no crowds in the desert. But the desert is also full. As I lay awake a night looking up at the immensity of the stars, or walked along seeing silent wonders all around me I discovered God is. God happens in the desert. God moments are not scarce there.

Abraham was called to the desert. By faith he walked the silent lands, trusting God’s direction and provision. He saw the stars stretching from one horizon to the other and heard the promise. He met a theophany face to face. But Abraham’s story is not unusual. Moses saw a burning bush in the desert. God revealed himself there. The Israelites received the law in desert. They worshipped there, eat manna there, and drank water from the Rock. They learned that “man doesn’t live by bread alone but by every word that comes forth from God.”

David walked in the desert. God became his refuge there. Psalm 63 records his seeking heart in a dry and weary place where there is no water. Elijah increased the desert, praying for drought. He was sustained by ravens there and heard the Lord in the quiet breeze. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert and the apostle traveled to Arabia immediately after meeting Jesus on Damascus road.
And of course the forerunner knew the desert. How long did John the Baptist stay there? Many think more than ten years before his public ministry. He sought, he prayed, and he worshipped. The romance of the desert likely wore off quickly. He knew the fasted lifestyle by surviving on locust and honey and wearing only a camel skin coat. He spent his best years in empty places talking to an unseen person.

Despite all this evidence I always thought of deserts as a metaphor for a spiritual wilderness. These were those dry times when you felt nothing and where nothing happened. But deserts, both in my experience and in the Bible, are not spiritual wastelands. They are rich in revelation. God happens there. Angels lead, directions are given, secrets made known, signs and wonders burst forth, enemies routed, dreams given, promises foretold, and prophets empowered. The word of the Lord came to John in the desert. He cried out in the wilderness and God met him.

John chose the desert. He was one calling in the desert. One calling- there were no crowds at first but still he called. He willingly embraced a fasted lifestyle and God happened in and through him. We too can choose the desert. The desert is not a metaphor for spiritually dry places, but a metaphor for those places where we step into a lack of possessions and people. We leave behind what we think will sustain us and lean of the Father.

Anna never left the temple, but worshipped with fasting, praying night and day for sixty years. It was a physical and relational desert. She too was a forerunner of the Lord. Watchmen on the wall embrace the desert (Isaiah 62:6-7). The applause of the crowd is not given to those who stand on the wall, crying out through night, praying for the city. They ask in a hidden place, at a hidden time, and talk to him who is unseen.

The prayer room is a type of desert. It is rich in the abundance of his presence. But after spending four to six hours there its easy to see it desert qualities. It is often an empty room. The applause of the crowds is not there. Spending day in and day out walking in an empty room talking to an unseen person doesn’t draw a lot of people. But all of heaven is there. The unseen sees.

There is a bit of the romantic in desert. But it wears off with the hunger and thirst that the desert brings. In place of the romantic is pure romance. Romantic is dreamy, idealistic and impractical. Romance is relationship. It arises out of hunger and thirst. It is revelation, presence, and pure and holy love. It is where we learn that people do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of Gods mouth. Perhaps another way to say it is, deserts are the place where we learn to walk on water.

Christian history is filled with the stories of men and womane who willinging chose the desert. The first such story is Antony. He sought the Lord in the desert for years. Occasionally he met people who were astounded by the depth of his walk with God. The desert brings a depth not often experienced by those who live among the crowds. Rumors of signs and wonders surrounded Antony. A group of disciples becgan to pursue his wisdom, and later to protect his time from the multitudes that eventually went out to him.

Antony story is not a story of one unusual person. Manyhave gone out into the desert- both literally and metaphorically. Francis of Assisi was one such person. At the height of the Church’s political power and wealth, he stripped himself naked and served the poor, joyfully singing and preaching the life of Jesus. Most thought he was crazy. But soon his mode of life became a model for a revial movement that kept Christianity alive in a term of greed, lust and violence.

Martin Luther was locked up in a castle for two years. Basil the Great spent time in a literal desert. John Wesley struggled in the wilderness called Georgia. Many more names can be listed. The desert is God’s training program. It is the place where trust is learned. It is a place of humility, hunger, thirst, loneliness. There is little there to get excited about. Except…..God is there. He happens in the desert. Discover the truth of that in your personal experience and you will discover a richness not experienced by the multitudes. It is the beginning place for forerunners. It is the place where forerunners are prepared to prepare.

The voice of one in the desert
A lonely voice on the wall
A thirsty voice crying out
Prepare the way of the Lord

Prepare the way, the storm is coming
Prepare the way of the Lord
Make a way the Lord is coming
Make a way the storm is here

I hear voices they are crying
Calling out from the wall
Hungry voices singing day and night
Calling out to the Lord

I’ve seen the fire of the storm
Felt the wind start to fall
Prepare the way the Lord is coming
Prepare the way the storm is here.