THE WILDERNESS SORROW: THE WILDENESS COMFORT.
So many of us travel here...........by Tom Watkins

Hosea2:14..........."Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and drive her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
"And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt."

Achor: Suffering and pain....as a door of hope. There can be no faith in continuing prosperity. We must be made prostrate to look up. There lies nothing good in you, nothing....but only in need, and in made lowly, do we desire Him....or we deny Him and wallow in the mire as we live out our days.

Those of us who are truly born the second time by God, must diminish as He increases....this is Christ formed in us, the most valued possession of the Father. Nothing else is of value to Him, and nothing else will last in Him. Everything you have, will ever have, must diminish, and be consumed.

All of your loves will vanish; the love of your parents, your siblings, your spouse, your children, your body, your future and all of your accomplishments; will vanish in the End, and all you will carry away with you is that which Christ has formed in you as a child of the Living God.....and furthermore, even the memory of them will vanish in His holy fire. "THE FORMER THINGS SHALL BE REMEMBERED NO MORE!"....Jesus

So, we the called out ones, HOW to we attain Him...alone and wandering? We must die...and it is a dying that we cannot attain...we must be slain. It is deeper than discipline, more than rebuke...it is beyond submitting.
"WHY, OH WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!"..Jesus cried to His Father as he agonized through His death, the most horrible of them. Jesus had the sentence of death laid upon Him, for the only life ever that will last, is resurrection life.

It is exactly the same with us. We must be slain, and it cannot by nature be suicidal...it must be willing to the process at least, and trusting. Consider Isaac; meek and sweet in his fathers arms, and seeing the sword descending upon his breast, did not cry a curse to his father Abraham....both the Father, and the son were willing, and trusting. So it must also be with us.

"And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."..vs: 23

Sowing in the Earth is the same as "A SEED FALLING INTO THE EARTH AND DYING!"...meaning God plants you to die, and when the death is in it's fullness, a rising awaits us, just like Jesus, the forerunner. We are being slain, each and every last one of us who belong to that holy remnant. We are yet corrupt, and sinful, and selfish...but we are yet his. As the seed must shed the husk and the dross in the hopeless regions of the earth, so we too, in like fashion, are shedding the ugly heart exposed. God is doing this, for His purposes, in order to resurrect, on this
Earth, a holy people.

This is what the "wilderness" is about. The Lord has shown me three stages of this emerging and amazingly holy church of bright sisters and brothers...shining with Agape presence. We must be faithful unto death, He said. This includes the death we are living now...until possessed by her, that hidden life in the seed, breaks out with a SPROUT, and a STEM, and a BUD, and a LEAF, and a FLOWER and some sweet FRUIT!...and God takes a bite. This is the process. In America, I believe there are about TWO MILLION coming forth with their wedding clothes on.

That is sad, but most of us have already fell away, one way or another.
We MUST be alone now...We must....because of Sovereign use, and faith. This trial of your faith is the most important event of your life, and HOW you respond to this wilderness will shape your eternity. Will you complain? Will you turn to the lust nature and pleasure yourself out here? Will you demand to choose your own Destiny, and go your own way for fortune or fame or tranquility? You have these choices, your not a robot.

You will die if you do, separated from Him , for whom the Lord Disciplines, He loves...and if you cannot or will not endure this...You are not a beloved child....YOU ARE A BASTARD CHILD. There is a difference.

It is found in the heart of precious JOB, who was given his very own wilderness experience as a spectacle to men and angels. Forsaken by all and in agony, stripped of all things and all things beloved, along with his health...in deep suffering, we hear the CRY!.....The sweetest Cry a Father ever heard from a son in agony:

"EVEN THOUGH YOU SLAY ME YET WILL I WORSHIP THEE!".....and his confession that he would stand before Him, as himself, blessed one day.
So, God is in your life, and you wander, and wonder...but let it be by faith...
Brother Tom Watkins