A River in Your Desert

You overcame it. You made it through. You had interceded, sought the Lord, and provided for others relentlessly. Day and night. Year after year. Yet somehow you were left in a desert, a dry and lonely place, vilified.

Some dry places are creations of our own. What used to be flourishing habitations become unrecognizable. It's not a matter of abandonment. It's a matter of misalignment, misplacement. It's not about your offenders; it's about your Kingdom identity confusion. It's about the role you assumed. Not the one you were assigned. You misused your gift by applying it to situations that were not in His plan.

So you dried out your provision. You didn't even partake of your Milk and Honey. You stayed in the way of God so long that you blocked your blessings, your progress, your promotion, even breached your protection. What the Lord fought to provide for you, you gave away. Instead of taking on all of the freedom of "The Newness" you brought into your land, the habits of your forerunners- the generational habits of dependency you were destined to break. You confused people pleasing with Godliness. You heard in the spirit who sat at your table, but fed them anyway. Not with the expectation of surrender, but the misguided hope of obtaining friendships. You were feeding a longing, not walking in your armor. You misappropriated your own land of plenty until you found yourself in a strange place. A place that left you open and defenseless to attack.

BUT, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a God of promise. And He honors the promise He has over your life. That same God who met you in the day of your youth, the time of your amnesty and reconciliation. That same God had a foolproof plan for your deliverance. "Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." That God. He paid the price already for your redemption. A redemption that was deeper than you knew. Where you thought it was one-and-done, He already knew. He knew you'd slip. He knew you'd even fall. He had already forged a way of escape. God kept you in that season for a reason. He encapsulated you so you could see from inside a safety net. So you could walk through the trouble, yet be unharmed. So you needed an involuntary break from the battlefield to learn how to fight. He needed you to see from a different perspective. Not only could you see the good, but you could see the attacks and their source. You thought God was angry with you because of this. But He wasn't. He was teaching you to see with more clarity. He was training you how to move in your true identity. You thought God had forsaken you. Instead, you mistook how important your true role in His Kingdom is for you. Important enough for His radical transformation.

So God brought an Esther, an Anna, a Deborah, a Hannah, a couple of Davids to intercede. Through them, He bread crumbed you from revelation to revelation. Each holding a significant part of your story in their possession. Each of them ministering into that place in your heart you felt had become barren. As you had mid-wived others, they helped you with your full delivery. None of them stood any ground in that former place of plenty. They had not taken. They had appeared from nowhere into your dry place; swords and shields in place. They fought for you. They carried you, weary, to the next goal post. They lingered. They walked with you. Their oil was burning. They were the ones hidden in the

secret place. They each gave you a status check: "Yes, your baby is still alive." God used them as earthly companions, not only to administer First Aid, spiritual CPR, but also to remind you that He had them in His bosom all the time. They were ready as a ram in the bush. You never had to make do with people who never valued, respected, or appreciated the baby you carried. Your companions understood assignment. They understood how to carry their own babies while prompting yours to leap again.

If you had not been one of His, perhaps your story would end differently. But because you surely are His, your story will always end well. He is the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of the Paths to dwell in. He is Thee Whom who says “behold, I will do something new; now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. He is the One who makes all things new. The One that will take your disaster area and turn it into overflowing provision. He is the One who doesn't have to take you out of the fire to deliver you. He can stand in it with you and just be The Safety. The miraculous love of God is a wonder. He is worth seeking. He is worth waiting for. He's a God who keeps you safe and He is a River in your Desert.