Mark 1:40-45 tells the story of Jesus healing a man with leprosy. After this healing, he tells this man to not tell anyone anything, but to go directly to the priests and to offer the things Moses commanded for cleansing. “However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city; BUT WAS OUTSIDE IN DESERTED PLACES and they came to him from many directions.” Another version says, “…He had to stay out in secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.” For some time, I have been meditating on the desert Fathers who fled persecution in Egypt to live lives of solitude in the desert. They made homes in these dangerous desert places under harsh environments devoting themselves to a solitary life.  However, they turned these intense environments into a place of God’s glory and presence, so much so that people from all around would come to seek them out in the desert. This is very similar to this excerpt from Jesus’ life. One of the Fathers was St. Anthony of Egypt. He took the verse Matthew 19:21 literally, “If you want to be perfect go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 

I think these desert fathers and mothers were a beautiful picture of bearing fruit in a wilderness place, from a place of adversity they found a safe haven in the presence of God. They pressed into him creating those havens of streams of living water in the desert. Beauty hidden in obscure places. They were fleeing very adverse circumstances and literally running for their lives in some cases; but they created these places of presence in the wilderness which seems contradictory. I myself have found the hardest places and greatest areas of pain in my life have been the places I encountered Jesus the most intimately. In times when everything in me was in pain; but I chose to press into Jesus he always met me. He could handle the fullness of the depths of my heart. He could handle my questions and wrestling and anger at times. My relationship with Jesus is the most intimate. He knows dark places I have been that no one else does and you know what He walked with me in those places.

Many people want to run from the dark places for fear they will be consumed by the darkness; but Jesus wants to meet us in those broken and intense places. I always liked the story where Jacob wrestled with God. “This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break” (Genesis 32:24). All alone Jacob wrestles with God through the night until He blesses him and changes his name to Israel, because he fought with God and man and won. Jacob names that place Peniel which means, “face of God.” Honestly, I love this intimate picture. I have wrestled with God in my life; but I always come out knowing Him in a new way and having a deeper revelation of who I am. I love Psalms 139 that reads poetically, “I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!…If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And your right hand shall hold 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,” Psalms 139:7-12. I believe Jesus wants to give us treasures in the darkness and hidden riches in the secret places (Isaiah 45:3). When we call out to Him and seek Him, we will find Him. I desire to be one who releases life in desert places; but this comes from a place of fully knowing and surrendering to Him. We get to the place where nothing else matters; but beholding Him and making Him known to the nations. Jesus is my beloved and I am His.

In meditating on these things, I began to see in the Bible this theme of God encountering people in these places of solitude even specifically in the wilderness. Jesus oftentimes would withdraw to isolated places to meet with the Father. Luke 5:16 “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” John the Baptist was a voice who cried out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord (John 1:23). Before Jesus started His ministry, he was led in the wilderness for forty days to fast and was tempted. I see this pattern of Jesus always retreating to be with the father. He did not fear the lonely places. He was living in a community. He was ministering constantly and surrounded by His disciples; but He always slipped away to isolated places to meet with the father. My heart is desiring to learn what it looks like to create these places of habitation of the glory of God wherever he sends me. Whether that’s a village in Zanzibar or homes of people in Jordan or traveling throughout the states. I feel like David who cries out, “My soul years, even faints, for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” Psalm 84:2. My Spirit is crying out for this. I am on a journey with Jesus constantly growing; but I am learning the more I connect with Jesus and feed my Spirit he pushes out the desires of the flesh. I am training my body and learning to be disciplined to run this race with endurance. However, in that there is a joy unspeakable and full of glory as I am following Jesus and trusting Him not my own understanding. I can take his hand and follow Him anywhere in the world he leads, because I am never alone. His hand is in mine.

I read these two books by Andrew White one is called Glory Zone in the War Zone and the other Hidden Treasure Secret Riches. Both of these have stories of men and women who faced intense situations of isolation, war, and persecution yet saw the glory of God revealed in those places every time. I highly recommend purchasing these books. One story was of a man Abu Yousef. He was an older man who lived in Iraq in his eighties. He lived in a war-torn area that had a lot of violence and poverty. He himself was blind. There was a mission that would come every week to bring him food, pray, and encourage him. He lived in a place with no electricity, close family, or money. One day ISIS came through as well. They searched homes, took every Bible, and burned them publicly. This was so tough. Andrew White came to this area. The team always had military escort; he brought an audio Bible in Arabic for Abu.This man received this book like it was the greatest treasure. Andrew shares, “Many, like Abu Yousef, had regular visions of Jesus in their dreams, but the day I walked into his house and placed the new solar-powered Arabic speaking audio Bible in his hand, he wept, with joy. I showed him how easy it was to charge the device by simply placing it in the sun, and I gently led his old, wrinkled fingers to feel the single on/off button./ The following month when I returned with my usual convoy of bodyguards and army tanks to Baghdad, Jedidah to do my home visits, I went to check on my old, dear Abu Yousef. When I  knocked on his door, there was no answer, so I entered the house and called his name. There was still no answer, so I went through His yard. There he was, sitting in the sun with the solar powered Bible talking to him as it self charged from the ledge of his stone wall. He took my hand and trembling with emotion, he said with these words, ‘Abouna, for the first time in my whole life, God is speaking to me all day in my house.”

Reading this story, I was captivated by the beauty of the presence and glory of God being with this man in his small home in Baghdad in the middle of a war-torn area God’s glory was there.. He was content feeding on the word of God and did this until the day he died. He treasured so much the Word of God. There is even a young girl I am discipling in Zanzibar, whose hunger for God’s word inspires me. It is beautiful watching her encounter Jesus and get revelation for the first time about who He is through reading the New testament for the first time. Each story comes alive off the pages into her heart. My prayer is that each of us remembers the treasure of God’s word and may we never lose the wonder of constantly being in awe of unveiling new depths in our relationship with Him!  I was so moved by this story of Abu and challenged. The closing lines of the book reads, “Learn to rest, like Abu Yousef, in the soundwaves of Heaven, and let Him turn your place of restriction into a place of glorious encounter.” This is my prayer for each of you beloved ones. I pray that you learn to be a tree planted by the streams of living water bearing fruit in every season and releasing the rivers of life in desert places. Even if your life feels like a dry, desert place in this season I pray that the refreshing rivers from the throne room  of heaven wash over you right now where you are. I pray you let Jesus give you rest and break off every ungodly yoke bringing bondage. May he cleanse you, washing you with the water of His word. You are not alone. You are not forgotten. He is with you and longs to meet you where you are. You can trust Him with your heart. He already gave all for you, will you trust Him with all of who you are? He is not a man that He should lie, what He has spoken will come to pass. Trust Him and look to Him. Do not look to man, look to God. He is with you, lean into His strength and do not lose heart dear one. 

Blessings and love.