[Original Publication: April 2021]

Stop fighting God's discipline.

"Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." —Deuteronomy 8:1-5 (New International Version)

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Have you felt like God has slowed you down in this season? (or stopped you altogether?) I've been in "the slowed down place" these past several months in my business and it's been hard to understand—even harder to explain; especially to close friends & family—but God recently helped me see it more clearly and I wanted to share in case it will help you too. There's a lot to it so I'll probably be talking about this all month long, but to start us off, realize this:

The wilderness season you're in is a rite of passage.

As we see in our scripture this week, the Israelites had to go through it. Jesus Himself went through it too (Matthew 4:1-11). Now that I think about it, Abraham had a wilderness season (Genesis 12:1-5), so did Isaac (Genesis 26:1-6), Jacob (Genesis 31:38-42), Joseph (Genesis 39-41)—the list goes on. Do you see a pattern here yet [Name]?

God's kids go through wilderness seasons.

You're God's kid so you're not exempt. But hopefully that excites you! Because entering your wilderness seasons means 3 things:

1. You're ready for it. You've reached this "rite of passage" stage because you've developed & matured in your walk enough to get to this point. Look at you getting grown!
2. You're definitely God's whole entire child. And He's using this to personally let you know He loves you enough to discipline you and prepare you for the next stage of purpose He's planned for you.
3. That next stage though!? Life after the wilderness is lit! Abraham, Isaac & Jacob got wealthy after their seasons. Joseph got a promoted to a position of prominence & met his spouse. The Israelites entered their promised land. Jesus' ministry took off & God gave Him His team. You're being set up for something dope. Believe that.

I know you may be frustrated and tired of being in this space (I know I am!) but the best part about the wilderness is that it's temporary. You're going to get through this and what you gain in this season will catapult you into the enlarged territory that's reserved for you on the other side. So stop fighting it. You ain't gon' get out of it anyway so you might as well just relax and learn what you need to learn because, best believe, you're gonna need it later.

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Still hungry? Eat more //

• Matthew 4:1-4 → I believe Jesus recognized that He was in a wilderness / testing season because He used the same language here as in Deuteronomy 8:3 above. Recognizing the season you're in is empowering because when you know you're being tested, you know you've already been given what it takes to pass.
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 → More support for the statement I made in the previous note.
• This 7-minute message spoke about the wilderness season as a "bootcamp" and seeing it that way helped me so much! Let it minister to you too.