Our desert experiences are not for destruction but for growth.By Brendan Mc Crossan Built by red Indians Built by red Indians
The Indians built this circle not sure what Purpose,either to keep livestock in or to fellowship with each other
Small desert cactus in bloom
Brendan Mc Crossan
When we go through what Christian’s call a desert experience, it means that they just went through a very difficult time, a time of feeling like they were on their own, that God has deserted them leaving them to go through terrible difficult times by themselves, and all around them is hard and unyielding. But the desert place is not really for the terrible times you are ‘going through,’ but a time when you’re actually ‘growing through.’
Just recently I have spent a month in the desert of Arizona visiting with my brother who lives there. I noticed that the ground was hard and dry. Not sandy as I first thought it would be, and it looked ugly, not like Ireland with our lush fields of green from having so much rain all year round.
Eventually I sort of got used to looking at the dry rough ground, and when my brother and I went out every night for a walk after dinner, I saw things that I didn’t notice during the day, it was cooler for a start at night, and comfortable walking with just a pair of shorts and a T shirt on; and as we strolled around his complex I saw many different kind of cactus, and some of those cactus were in bloom with flowers growing from them, and the flowers were beautiful. I also passed pink grapefruit trees from which I helped myself to an occasional one and they were delicious to eat. One night I came across a cactus tree with red fruit growing in the middle of it and I remembered in Turkey my Turkish son’s in law talking of the prickly pear fruit from the cactus plant; I had never seen one in Turkey, so I wasn’t sure this actually was a prickly pear fruit, but I carefully picked one and the next morning I ate some of it and was surprised to discover that it was just like a kiwi fruit except that a kiwi is green inside and the cactus fruit was white with little hard seeds.
Driving through the desert from Los Angeles my brother told me we would be going through thedesertforaboutfivehundred milesand from thetop ofamountain heshowed methedesert in the far distance and it looked dry and hot, I could see it shimmering in the distance.
As we drove through the desert I thought at first that it was just ugly dry ground, then I began to see cactus trees growing and they seemed to be all the same kind, then in another part a different type of cactus tree grew, some were small and others gigantic in size 40 to 80 feet high maybe more, and they grew in profusion in their own selected places. As we continued through the desert I saw different cactus again and these were smaller like little shrubs, spread out everywhere, I was amazed at all the different varieties of cactus and other plants and bushes that grew there in that barren wasteland. Then we came to a different place in the desert and I was shocked to say the least to see it was covered in dark green plants, and this lasted for about two hundred miles maybe more I don’t really know, and my brother explained that the ranchers had reclaimed the desert by diverting portions of the Colorado River through their land and irrigating the desert and growing vegetables there by pumping the water through hosepipes, sprinkling the desert with the water and feeding the plants they were growing. And the scripture came to my mind that in the last days the deserts will be reclaimed, and I remembered that Israel had done the same thing as the ranchers in the desert had done only they done it in Israel.
While in Arizona I never gave a lot of thinking about the desert, I just got used to it and noticed different things about it like animal life and plant life and I was astounded to discover that the red Indian had lived here in the middle of this desert, with heat up to and including one hundred and fifty degrees and maybe even more and that some lived in brick buildings
Our desert experiences are not for destruction but for growth.
hundreds of years ago. I visited some of the places where their ruins were and was amazed at their technology, how they survived in a dry desert and their animals also. I realised when looking inside their dwellings that the bottom rooms were very cold during the heat of the day, and found out that is where they kept their water and food when they had it. From all this I realised that people can survive and live in terrible conditions in comfort by adapting to their surroundings and embracing them instead of fighting against them and thereby causing them distress.
Two
It was not until I came home again and at the Sunday service in my church that as the pastor spoke about things we go through, that the lord revealed to me the purpose of my visiting with my brother was twofold, visiting him, and also seeing the desert for myself. Then I saw the desert through the lords eyes and realised how many Christian’s go through what is commonly known as the desert experience where everything dries up for us and there is no presence of God to comfort us or difficult times occur as they do for everyone, then I seen the desert for what it is, not a hostile environment but a place where growth and beauty can develop, because there is nothing more beautiful that to see and amazing assortment of beautiful colours from those cactus and different desert plants and bushes when they bloom. But those cacti also have spines growing from them protecting the plants themselves, and those spines are dangerous they are needle sharp and are sometimes infectious, and they cover the cactus all over without an inch exposed, so it is very hard to remove the cactus fruit that grows on some cacti. Butthinkofsomethinghere?WhenGodsendsus,orallowsustogointothatdesertareawhere we all go sometime in our lives, he makes provision for us there he just does not send us naked and alone into those places, he goes with us everywhere we go because he said. “Behold I am with you always even to the ends of the world.” Matthew 28 -20 {KJV Bible}
You are never alone in the darkest most horrific times of your life because Jesus promised he would be with those who love him and obey him. God made provision for those Indians in the desert to actually live there, and I will try and put a photo on this page if I can find it out of the thousands I took, and if he provided for the Indians wont he even more provide for us in that place.
The desert is a place of growth not a terrible place to be in; if we are patient with God and let him take care of our problems then our desert experiences will be short normally but not always. God took me and my family into the desert for ten years before we found our way out by his grace and by his grace alone, but in that desert experience I discovered that Satan the Devil can never defeat me in a battle, because even if he does, then all I have to do to obtain victory is to give that defeat over to God and he turns my defeat into victory later on for my good and his glory. You can do the same as I did, thereby getting the victory from defeat.
Our problem is we don’t feel like God is there with us in those desert times and that is where the problems lay, we don’t believe that Jesus really did say “Behold I am with you always even to the ends of the world.” We don’t believe that he is there in the desert with us because we have taken our eyes off of him, fixing them on the problems alone and not continually fixed on him no matter what. Try and imagine that you are a cactus living in the desert, what does a cactus do? Nothing, but grow is size and strength, getting stronger and stronger surviving the desert heat and nighttimecold, but its only purposein lifeis to grow stronger and taller for most cactus. This is what
God desires from you, to be there and allow him to grow you stronger and sturdier so that you can face any situation, whether you get nourished by water daily or if you have to depend on the water stored up inside you, to survive the parching noonday sun and the night-time cold, ‘our situations.’ Most cacti I seen had rough exteriors and holes in them, some healed, but fresh holes also, made by little animals or birds. God does not send us into desert situations just because he is a revengeful God, or to punish us for our sins. No! He allows them to happen to get either our attention or to make us grow stronger. He never allows us to be tempted past what we can withstand, and like the cactus he surrounds us with heavenly thorns to keep the enemy away. A cactus thorns are protection mainly but probably serve other purposes that I am not aware of, I’m not a botanist.
Isn’t it strange that Jesus had a crown of thorns crushing into his head, I seen those thorny bushes in the desert with thorns two inches in length and incredibly strong. He wasn’t afraid to face the desert thorns; he didn’t want to but chose to embrace them anyway.
The desert is a place of good growth in strength and in spirit, because you have to grow a strong spirit to survive the punishment of the desert or you can embrace the situations you find yourself in and give praise to God that he is there with you and helping you get through, and as I previously said God provides water in the desert places, in the actual cactus, and of course he supplies fruit from the cactus also to eat, he supplies our every need no matter where we are or in whatever situation your going through. Our desert experiences are not for destruction but for our growth, so I pray that you will begin to realise that you are where God has placed you for a reason and also for a season, so you can be confident in Christ Jesus to be there with you even though may not sense or feel him there, he is still nourishing you growing you stronger for greater purposes later on in life. A desert experience is not the most wonderful thing to have to go through but whatever your desert experience is be assured that God has provided a way for you to survive, to grow, and to be nourished, so thank him that he is with you in your worst moments of your life and that he has never left you and is faithful to his word to be with you always, even till the end of the world.
Mark-1-10- 10And when He came up out of the water, at once he [John] saw the heavens torn open and the [Holy] Spirit like a dove coming down [to enter] into Him.11And there came a voice out from within heaven, You are My Beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.12Immediately the [Holy] Spirit [from within] drove Him out into the wilderness (desert),13And He stayed in the wilderness (desert) forty days, being tempted [all the while] by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to Him [continually].
Jesus like us went through the desert experience so he knows what it is like for you and me. Amen