LESSON 2
“And the LORD went before them.” (Exodus 13:21)
1. The first truth and first anchor is “and the LORD went before them.”
2. On your way to the wilderness it is good to know that the Lord goes before you, not behind you. When the Lord is behind you it seems to indicate that He does not want to be involved in what you are doing.
3. I was brought by the Lord into an intense and pleasant prayer pattern. The Holy Spirit always flooded me with the Lord’s presence and power. The personal joy was so great that three hours in such an atmosphere seemed like merely 30 delightful minutes. It lasted only several short weeks.
4. Then the Lord left it. What a disappointment! I attempted to force its reinstatement by forcing myself to be on my knees daily for long periods of time. But the Lord was no longer interested in continuing this past pattern. He wanted to bring me into another prayer pattern.
5. After some days in my attempt to get the old prayer pattern moving, the Lord came and stood behind me and asked, “What are you doing on your knees? He certainly did not want to be involved in what I was doing. “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, “this is the way, walk ye in it
when you turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left,” (Isaiah 30:21)
6. No voice behind you is a good sign. Some believers are distressed over the fact that they never hear God’s voice. Do not be too concerned. In disobedience, out of the will of God, the Word says, “You shall hear.” Now that is true, and that becomes necessary. But what about a walk of obedience?
7. God’s speaking may be very infrequent or even nonexistent in a walk in His will. Once we are in God’s will, there is no need for His speaking unless there is a change in His will. We simply continue to follow in obedience.
8. He goes before you as we follow in obedience. We have heard His direction. On the other hand we may not have been conscience of His leading. Something got us going on the right track. We may hear His voice in front of us as we go in obedience or we may not hear His voice as we continue on the proper path. Do not be overly concerned about His silence, but rather focus your attention upon the first anchor, He goes before you.
9. The Lord goes before us. The Lord is there. That’s a fact. If He goes in front of us, then He arrives before we arrive. He goes before you. This is a needy and valuable anchor. We should recognize, feeling or no feeling, that the Lord is present and He got there before we did. This is a tremendously valuable truth to the person who finds himself in the wilderness.
10. It would be to our advantage to know (before we wake up and discover that we are in the wilderness) that we are on our way to the wilderness. For if we know we are on our way to the wilderness, it will help to cushion the shock of the wilderness when we do arrive in that land of stark contrast.
11. If the Lord goes before us he knows the circumstances to which we are coming. This indeed is an anchor for our soul. It will hold us in difficult places. Our Shepherd goes ahead of us. What a great comfort. He knows every place which we experience in the whole of our lifetime. He has been leading you; he has gone ahead.
12. The Lord is our Shepherd who goes ahead; He knows where He is leading me. He goes there before He begins to lead me there. He walks ahead of me as he leads, “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them as the sheep follow him.” (John 10:4)
13. He allured her into the wilderness, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her.” (Hosea 2:14) By His wonderful approaches He allures her. He did not lay all His cards on he table. There are hidden factors. She did not know where she as going.
14. It is His mercy and love for us which keeps certain factors hidden from us. If we knew that we were going into the wilderness, chances are that we would balk and turn another path. But the Lord is clever and entices us, “Come, come right this way.” God’s call is always to come up near Him.
“And the Lord said, here is a place by Me and you shall stand on the rock.” (Exodus 33:21) This is the initial invitation; this is the initial leading into the wilderness.
15. The promise of Him leading us into the wilderness comes with another promise, “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5) We go to the wilderness to have our questions answered, where no one can hear us scream. God leads us into the wilderness so we can learn to lean on Him.
16. In order for truth to be an anchor, it must grip our inner being. It is not to be gathered by mentally assenting to it, although that certainly will help some what. We must remember truth is not mental gymnastics of the spirit. If we are to have faith in the truth and if we are to gather truth, it will be by the Holy Spirit, by His work in our lives (through His dealing and judgments), and revelation. God measures man by how much revelation of God he possesses. Revelation is God’s measuring stick.
17. On our part it will necessitate an ongoing surrender to the ways of God. More and more surrender in us the more truth will grip us. Regardless of the circumstances or the situations in which we find ourselves, we will know and live the truth. It will be a sure anchor for your soul.
