The Doctrine of the Wilderness
There are two categorically different ways of defining the Wilderness in Scripture. One way is individual and purely spiritual regarding one’s personal experience with God (Definition #1). The other way is corporate and can be physical or spiritual, or both; and, whatever the case, it speaks of the revival of a special operation of glory for the establishment of Church Purity (Definitions #2, #3, #4, #5, #6).
Definition #1: Personal Spiritual Wilderness (Spiritual Desertification / Spiritual Famine / a Divine Plague) – backslidden believers of all ages are made to individually experience a wilderness via the evaporation of spiritual water (the Spirit of God) resulting in soul bareness or fruitlessness (this is the experience of individual backsliders rather than the corporate body of believers, thus it is not to be mistaken with the following definitions).
Definition #2: Wilderness Experience #1 – in a Corporate Physical Wilderness to the body of Israelites in the Exodus Generation, called, “the Church in the Wilderness” (Acts 7:38), the people collectively experienced the glory of God in a Physical Wilderness as a definitive precedent of the Rule of God among His chosen people (1 Cor. 10:1-12, Ps. 91; for the righteous, the Wilderness was a land flowing with RIVERS of WATER and raining the BREAD OF HEAVEN, while for the wicked it meant certain death).
Definition #3: Wilderness Experience #2 – in a Corporate Spiritual Wilderness to the body of Israelites, the national regions of Israel & Judah were invaded, conquered, taken captive, and dispersed by Assyria & Babylon of Old (Hos. 2, Ezek. 20, Hab. 3; for the righteous, the Wilderness was the wooing of LOVE in ROMANCE & the scaling of HIGH PLACES in RESTFULNESS, while for the wicked it meant certain death).
Definition #4: Wilderness Experience #3 – in a Corporate Spiritual Wilderness to the body of Israelites, the Jews / Christians collectively underwent the war-wrought captivity and or a systematic persecution of Rome (Matt. 24, Lk. 21, Mk. 13; 1st Century Spiritual Babylon according to Revelation 17:1-11; Christian Doctrine of spiritual prosperity in the current age of the New Covenant was forged in the parameters of this Wilderness Experience. Accordingly, loss is gain, death is life, poverty is riches, and humiliation is exaltation!).
Definition #5: Wilderness Experience #4 – in a Corporate Spiritual Wilderness to the body of Israelites, the Jews / Christians will collectively experience the war-wrought captivity and or systematic persecution of future Babylon (Rev. 12:6, 14; Rev. 17:12-18; for the righteous, the Wilderness will be a FEEDING or NOURISHING in a divinely prepared place, or, it will be a place of safety and freedom comparable to a MOUNTING UP on the WINGS OF EAGLES, while for the wicked it will mean certain death).
Definition #6: Wilderness Experience #5 – in a Corporate Physical Wilderness to the body of Israelites, like the Exodus out of Egypt, only now out of Babylon’s World in the aftermath of the fiery consummation, lo and behold: the surviving Israelites will voyage across a Physical Wilderness on their journey back to Jerusalem for the commencement of the Millennial Reign of Christ (and by this time every wicked Jew is already dead!).
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