The Oasis

 I know I've written this before, but it bears repeating....a lot. There's a huge difference between knowing about Him and actually experiencing Him. Experiencing intimacy, power, victory, healing, and His abundant life. He has for those who believe upon Him, a "promised land," just as He did for the Israelites who He delivered from their slavery in Egypt. The unbelief of Israel delayed their taking possession of that land by 40 years. What keeps us from ours? I'll put forth three reasons: First, we have little understanding of what it is He promises us in Jesus Christ. The second is plain and simple, fear. The last is our tendency to settle for His good rather than laying hold of His best.

During the Israelites wandering in the desert, they came upon a place called Kadesh-Barnea. It was an oasis and a very refreshing change from the dreariness of the desert in which they'd been traveling. They were renewed and refreshed there. It was a good place and they wanted to stay. That was the problem. This good place was not His best place. It was not His place for them. It's not His place for you.

In the wilderness places of our lives, how often has He brought us to a Kadesh-Barnea, a place of refreshment in the midst of our journey? A place where we want to stay. We have been walking through places that He meant to use to shape and grow us in our walk with Him. Places meant to take us deeper into His life and heart. In His goodness He does bring times of refreshing and renewal, but those places are not meant to be our destination, but we fall in love with His blessings there. We want to live in that blessing. We don't want to leave. He has so much for us than this, but we can't see it. We love the good place and our hearts cease yearning for His best. 

Might you be living in Kadesh-Barnea right now? You've gone through some hard places and in His love and goodness, He's led you to a place of refreshing and renewing. It's a welcome oasis but you've fallen in love with it. You don't realize that it pales in comparison to the land of His promise. We can praise Him for those "oasis" places He gives us, but they are only temporary stops. We're not meant to live there. Kadesh-Barnea was not the promised land. We'll never know the wonder of the fullness of His promise if we stay there. The good will always be a poor substitute for His best. 

With the Father, His best is always yet to come. In John 2, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, the chief steward remarked in amazement, "Usually the host serves the best wine first...then when everyone is full and doesn't care, he brings out the less expensive wines. But You have saved the best until now." Kadesh-Barnea was not His best. Not for Israel, and not for you. Don't get stuck there. Your oasis is still surrounded by desert. Move out. Follow hard after Him. There's a land to be won, settled, and lived in. The promised land. His best...for you...and for me too.

Blessings,
Pastor O