The Wilderness: A Path Way To Ministry

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The Wilderness: A Path Way To Ministry
DAY 1: THE WILDERNESS 7/4/19
I began a forty-day journey on July 4th to explore Biblical Leadership. Dr. Laniak, in his book “While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, launches a spiritual explorer into a wilderness experience where one might begin a process of learning valuable principles of how to be a better shepherd leader. I was fascinated by learning for the first time the enormous challenges and endless opportunities that wilderness could offer to a follower of Christ.
Great Biblical leaders such as Moses and David have received their calling, a special revelation from God and learned to draw closer to God. It is interesting to note that the root of the Hebrew word for wilderness, midbar means “word.� In the wilderness of Sinai, Moses received the Torah. In the wilderness of Zin on their way to the promised land, the Lord taught the children of Israel what it is to depend on the word of the Lord.
God deliberately lured Israel into the wilderness where he proposed to them. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days in the likes of what the Israelites went through for forty years. Jesus effectively used the “Word of the Lord� to ward off the enemy before he began His ministry. He frequently withdrew himself into desert, lonely places where he spent time with His heavenly father in solitude.
It looks like Wilderness is an inevitable pathway of preparation for the effective ministry of leadership in the life of God’s children. Either God deliberately draws us, or intentionally we escape into the wilderness, it is the only place where God meets up with his children to inform them and conform them into the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ.
By reading the first chapter I realize that the wilderness is a path way to ministry where God is waiting for me to learn important lessons of ministry. I remember my Quiet Days at St. John’s the Evangelist Monastery in Cambridge, and St. Joseph retreat center in Milton Massachusetts how God met me in solitude as I remained quietly in His presence.
On this first day of the journey I am asking the Lord to lead me into, and through my wilderness so that I might meet Him alone in the desert place. Please God help me to cultivate unhurried rhythms of solitude and be disciplined to observe them regularly. Father I want to be a humble shepherd leader and lead the flock you have entrusted to me at Hope Church in Sharon into the presence of our Good Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ who has the words of eternal life.

While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks: The Wilderness Day 1, Pages 21-25
Francis Balla (D.Min) Student ID 163124