The Wilderness Gospel: By Rick Sarver

As we look at the children of Israel, who wandered around in the wilderness , we see an interesting comparison to many in the church today.

Nehemiah 9:19-22
¹⁹ Yet in Your manifold mercies
      You did not forsake them in the wilderness.
      The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day,
      To lead them on the road;
      Nor the pillar of fire by night,
      To show them light,
      And the way they should go.
 ²⁰ You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
      And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,
      And gave them water for their thirst.
 ²¹ Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness;
      They lacked nothing;
      Their clothes did not wear out
      And their feet did not swell.

The Bible says, that God brought them out of Egypt which is a type of  salvation and deliverance from the world and the power of Satan.

They were  all baptized in the cloud and the sea, a type of baptism into Christ and the Holy Spirit.

God also provided for them in the wilderness. He fed them, He gave them water to drink , God led them and gave them instruction. He clothed them and He was their Healer .

The Bible said that their feet didn't even swell and all of their needs were provided for them and because of the kindness and mercy of the Lord, even though the children of Israel rejected God and refused to go into the promised land, God still did not reject them, He continued to provide for them and be with them and the Bible said they lacked nothing.

Now although this sounds good, but we must never forget that most of those who God made provision for never did enter into the promised land. They died in the wilderness, because they refused to enter into the Rest of God.

Now the Gospel we often hear preach today says this "come to Jesus and be saved , be delivered from the power of satan, be baptized, God will be your provider , healer and your teacher, God will take care of all your needs and make you comfortable until death, but is this really the full Gospel  of Christ ? or is this just another type of  wilderness Gospel that falls short of  what Gods  real ultimate intention is for our lives?

What Gospel did Jesus preach?  We see over and over in scripture that Jesus and the disciples preached a gospel called the Gospel of the Kingdom . Do we really know what the gospel of the kingdom is?  We often preach the Gospel of salvation, but are we preaching the Gospel of the kingdom?

Yes, the Gospel does say that God will bless us , heal us , deliver us and take care of us, but what about Gods ultimate purpose for His kingdom? Could it be that much of the church has been taught a wilderness gospel that has kept much of the church wandering aimlessly  around in circles with no clear vision or direction for Gods kingdom purpose on this earth? Didn't God say that we should pray that His kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in Heaven?

And How does this really happen? I believe the key to seeing Gods Kingdom manifest in this earth is in Rest! As We enter His Rest then we in essence give God the green light to go to work in and through our lives!

The Bible is clear that we are to not make the same mistakes that the children of Israel made in the wilderness and that all these things happened as an example for us in whom the end of the worlds come. 

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 

For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

The only way that we will ever fulfill the purpose of God in this earth is by entering into the Rest of God! If we do not enter His Rest then we too will wander around aimlessly just like they did.

True Kingdom work always begins with Rest!

God full purpose for bringing them out of Egypt was not to just provide for them and make them comfortable in the wilderness until they died, but it was for them to enter into the promised land, which is called a place of Rest.

Gods purpose was for them to go into the promise land and possess the land, of course the bible does
say the main reason that they would not go in because of unbelief. Can we limit what God wants to do in our lives? Yes we can! We can limit God by refusing to believe that His word is true.

In these last days, we are called to participate with Christ who now lives on the inside of each us, to see His kingdom purpose established on this earth.

The Bible says  "It is God who is at work in us both to will and to do His good pleasure", but we must participate with the Lord in order for Him to work through us. The greatest way to see the manifestation of Christ in and through our lives is for us to cease from our own dead works of trying to real hard live for God and enter into His rest. As we Rest, God Works.