Today I continue sharing from my communion time with the Holy Spirit on the wilderness season of preparation from Isaiah.40:3 & 4 which read these words: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth;

Firstly you will notice that there is a cry from the Spirit in the wilderness which is a lonely place free from human distractions to prepare the way of the Lord. The wilderness season is not the time for us to think up ways on how to solve problems or fix things through human ability.

We are to prepare our hearts to lay hold of the way of the Lord on how He will change the present conditions to line up with what He has declared will happen on our behalf even though it looks impossible from the natural standpoint.

We are told that Moses knew the way of the Lord which explains why he could perform so many miracles by the hand of the Lord to change outcomes and free the people of Israel from Egypt. In Luke.4:1-15 we see Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord.

He comes out triumphant from the wilderness season with an explosion of ministry activity characterized by miraculous events which broadcast His name everywhere because He brings beauty out of the ashes in people’s lives.

You will notice that Jesus emerging from the wilderness triumphant was completely in obedience to the Father’s will not His.

Make straight in the desert a highway for the Lord. This is where we get rid of all the mindsets and narrow ways of processing situations which are not straight but bent based on our family customs, traditions which make the word of the Lord null and void.

As we lay down these narrow ways in the desert we embrace the straight paths which become a highway free from congestion for the Lord to flow freely with His way of doing things in us which have the ability to create what the Lord wants.

This process will take time depending on how willing we are to let go of our ideas and opinions by accepting the Lord’s thoughts and changing to just obey them willingly.

It took the children of Israel forty years wandering in the wilderness because they refused to change their ways and embrace the way of the Lord. It took Jesus forty days which is our example because he paved the way for us to follow.

Every valley shall be exalted. Just think about all the valleys in your life. The lowest places you have walked through in disappointments and regrets will be exalted to prominence in your life. The Holy Spirit pointed out how Psalm.23 which reads though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

The shadow of death is real and the Holy Spirit said that the valley of the shadow of death will be exalted in my life as my story of triumph. We always want to talk about the mountains we conquered but the Holy Spirit wants to exalt the low places we came through by His hand which glorify the Lord and not us.

Every mountain and hill brought low meaning the things we want to boast about that we accomplished and are our trophies the Lord wants them brought low so His work in our lives will have the exalted place.

In the wilderness season we are confronted with how we view these things and our responses will determine whether we will go on to experience the greater glory the Lord has spoken of or stay in our perceived place of victory with our mountains and hills of acclaimed success.

You will remember that satan used putting Jesus in high places of human glory as part of the temptation but wanted Jesus to bow to him for it. In the wilderness season there will be much of these grand positions offered but which require bowing to satan.

In Job.41:34 we read these words spoken by the Lord to Job: He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride.”

In the wilderness season as we prepare the way for the Lord we see how much pride is in us which we need to deal with and let go of otherwise satan will remain the king over our lives even though we confess we hate him. If pride is our motivation satan is at the helm of our lives and we are subject to his dictates because he is the king of pride.

The Kingdom of Jesus operates by humility which is raised to glory. Philippians.2:5-11.

The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth. Most times we never want to accept that as believers we are crooked so we never deal with crooked places because we believe believers can’t be crooked. Well in Isaiah.55:7 it speaks of the wicked forsaking his way.

The word for wicked is wickered or twisted or crooked which implies we can have twisted, wickered or crooked thoughts which we must forsake if we are going to operate in the way of the Lord.

In the wilderness we must confront those crooked thoughts about things which rob us of the Lord’s best for our lives by straightening them out with truth which comes as we embrace the word of the Lord outside our biases.

In Acts.9:11 we read these words: So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.

We see here Jesus referring to street called straight as the place Paul was as he was converted after meeting Jesus used to show how the crooked places in his life would be changed to smooth out the path for the way of the Lord to be manifested in his life as Ananias is sent by Jesus to confirm that his life is truly changed and on the path to glory as he received his sight back and was filled with the Holy Spirit who would guide him into all truth.

From that point on Paul walks in truth and the path Jesus planned for him which is exactly what the wilderness season should do to position us for the glory of the Lord being manifested in our lives.

Through this wilderness season all rough places will be made smooth so the glory of the Lord will be revealed. I will share the aspect of the glory being revealed in my next post so you can work through this revelation from the wilderness which is absolutely necessary to walk in the plan of God for our lives.

May every grace abound towards you that empowers you to have no delays in the wilderness but only the necessary time to have you in shape just like Jesus to experience the triumphant glory of the Lord.