
The Settled Word
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT) For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
3 Things we must learn about the wilderness seasons that we go through:
1. Discern the season we are in and the purpose for it.
2. Learn the appropriate behavior for each season.
3. Discover the benefits of each season.
Psalms 104:19 (AMPC) [The Lord] appointed the moon for the seasons; the sun knows [the exact time of] its setting.
How to discern the wilderness season we are in.
Job 23:8-10 (NKJV) “Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
Learn the appropriate behavior for each season.
Numbers 14:34 (NLT) “‘Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’
Discover the benefits of each season.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 (NKJV) And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
3 purposes of the wilderness season are:
1. For us to grow; spiritually most of all.
2. For us to learn humility.
3. For us to be purified.
We grow spiritually when we obey God in the midst of our trials.
Hebrews 5:8 (NKJV) Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
We need to learn humility.
Isaiah 57:15 (NKJV) For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
The Apostle Paul said in 56 AD: I am the least of all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:9 NKJV
In 62 AD: To me, who am less than the least of all the saints. Ephesians 3:8 NKJV
In 64 AD: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them all 1 Timothy 1:15 NLT
We need to be purified and refined.
Job 23:10 (AMPC) But He knows the way that I take [He has concern for it, appreciates, and pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I shall come forth as refined gold [pure and luminous].
Psalm 56:8 (NLT) God remembers me and keeps me at the forefront of His thinking: “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”
Psalms 46:10 (AMPC) Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!
Psalm 139:7-12 (NLT) I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
Psalm 119:89-90 (NKJV) Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.
Revelation 5:1-8 (NKJV) And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.