The Wilderness Woman
About a month ago, I sensed the Lord inviting me into a time of rest in December - one that didn’t negate all activity, but created intentional space for simply being in His presence without my normal focused study. The invitation was to encountering Him in the ways He wanted to spend time with me, surrendering my approach to devotional time in His presence and any agendas I might have in prayer and conversation with Him.
I spent November finishing my Bible reading plan, eagerly awaiting the arrival of December 1st.
When I came into His presence this morning, I began to cry without understanding why. I paused and listened to my heart telling me the tears were a release of both my heart and soul in relief and gratitude. Without “doing,” I could just “be,” which is what my internal world was desperately in need of receiving.
I then began to see myself clothed in an outer garment that was threadbare, worn, and frayed. As I continued to look, I saw the most beautiful threads being woven into the garment, refreshing and renewing it, strengthening it as it intertwined with the original threads. I knew what I was seeing wasn’t a picture of being cloaked with a new garment - that wasn’t needed. The original design I was meant to be clothed in simply needed to be refreshed.
This made me think of the scripture in Revelation 12 that had caught my eye last week. The Lord had told me it was an anchor scripture for the month ahead.“But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and a half a time, from the presence of the serpent.” (vs. 14, NKJV)
In my opinion, I think the wilderness sometimes gets a bad rap. It’s generally depicted as a place of wandering and being lost, often in response to poor decisions made on our part. While that can definitely be true, I think there’s beauty to it that we’ve missed. This verse clearly depicts it as a place of refuge, protection, and nourishment. The woman had a place there that was her own, and she knew where to find it.
This verse made me see the wilderness with an entirely different perspective, and I instinctively knew December would be a wilderness month for me. That didn’t frighten me as the thought would have in the past. Instead, I was drawn to be in the wilderness, longing for it more and more as each day leading up to December passed, and the time to fly away on eagle’s wings drew nearer.
As I continued to think about the verse, the aspect of the woman having a place stuck with me. I had to know more and better understand this place she knew, so I did a word study on it. I found one of the meanings of the word is “scabbard.” In that discovery, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Daughter, your place in the wilderness is an invitation to sheath your weapon. Put away your sword, but keep it at your side.”
This was especially meaningful to me because in the Lord’s initial invitation to rest, He specifically suggested I lay aside my study of His Word, the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). It was still to be kept near, but not wielded during these particular days.
His invitation was to lay everything aside that I would normally do, have no agenda or plan, but simply fly away to the place I know in His presence, revel in Him, and allow Him to nourish me for a time. As I do, He’ll be weaving His glorious threads throughout the garment He specifically designed for me to be clothed in. I’ll be refreshed, strengthened, and renewed while still cloaked in His original design for my life.
This is the personal picture God has given me of rest in the wilderness. What does your place in the wilderness look like?
I believe the wilderness invitation to rest is there for each of us this month. What would it look like for you to fly away on the wings of an eagle to a wilderness place all your own and be nourished by Him?
Will you say yes?
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
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