=> Many times in our wilderness experience, God will begin to show us our promise. We will have an opportunity to mix the word of promise with faith or to choose to enter into fear over the resistant forces that we will have to face in our quest for God to manifest the promise. One of the greatest dangers of our wilderness season is that we may choose not to mount up with a mind to war over our promised inheritance. In the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings, a whole generation was led astray by the leaders, who discouraged the people from entering into war over God’s promise for their lives.

 

When we find ourselves in the wilderness, we always have that same choice. We can trust in God’s faithfulness and be filled with anticipation or we can give in to fear and be filled with anxiety. We have to remember what God has done in the past and choose to believe He will provide again or we can focus on our problem and grumble in unbelief. We can lift up our hands in praise and commit our lives to Him or we can throw up our hands in despair and try to find our own path. We always have a choice, and the choice we make determines our future. <= (note: excerpt from the prayer letter of Chuck D. Pierce, Glory Of Zion International Ministries from the 26.10.2017)

 

 

Sometimes these wilderness seasons carry experiences connected with the loss of a loved one.

We can also find such cases in the Word of God because it is important to our Heavenly Father how we should deal with such circumstances.

 

One situation is the occasion with the death of the two sons of Aaron who entered unprepared into the presence of God and died (see Leviticus 10:1-2).

 

1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command.

2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

 

Someone once said about this event that they with their hearts so strongly desired to be in the very presence of God which led them to forget the protocol established by God so that they died.

This event shook the heart of their father Aaron who was at this time operating in the office of the High priest.

 

Despite this event, Moses encouraged and instructed Aaron not to leave the place of the presence of God. Because he was anointed (called) by God to fulfill his calling an being available for God and the people of Israel (see Leviticus 10:7).

 

7 Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting or you will die, because the Lord’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said.

 

If we face similar painful circumstances in our lives, it is important that we run into the Lord with all of the inner pain in order not to get stuck by the grievous situation!

It is the desire of God, our Father to bring us into a new season and deeper into our promised land!

 

 

Abraham, our forefather of faith understood this principle while his father Terah/Tharah got stuck in trauma.

 

Abraham's leaving Ur (note: means “moon city” => city of darkness) in Chaldea (note: means “manly, warlike” => own strength)

 

While our forefather of faith, Abraham left with some of his family members and with his father Terah/Tharah (note: The name means “laggard” => a person who does not make clear decisions; see James 1:6-8 or in the same pronunciation it also means “to scratch his skin self-destructing/not to forgive oneself, because of the feeling of complicity in the loss or death of one person”, see Leviticus 19:28) during a transitional phase the city of Ur in Chaldea , Abraham got confronted with the trauma of his father (Genesis 11:27-32 i.c.w. Genesis 12:1.4).

 

27 This is the account of Terah’s family line. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.

29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah.

30 Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

 

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. …

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

 

The settlement of the father of Abraham, Terah/Tharah in Harran shows that his soul was traumatized by the death of his son Haran, which caused an emotional feeling of pain in him, that blocked him in form of suffering to leave his present circumstance and to go into the land of promise “Canaan” (note: means ”lowland, nether lands”; the root word of “Canaan” is “Cana” and means “to bend the knees” => a sign of humility and surrender to God).

 

 

Death has a sting that causes pain in our hearts and souls.

Therefore, it is necessary that we deal with the pain of loss correctly so that it doesn't prevent us from entering into our good future or abundance which the Heavenly Father has prepared for us in our lives (see 1 Corinthians 15:55-56 i.c.w. Luke 9:62; Philippians 3:13-14).

 

55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

 

62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

 

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 

Even though Paul speaks of the sting in the form of sin, it cannot be denied that the feeling of pain can also be like a piercing sting in our hearts.

 

 

Based on the place of death of Terah, we can recognize the piercing pain that didn't let him get over the loss of his son Haran (note: “Haran” means “mountainous, path or road”) in his life.

The name of the region “Harran” or “Charan” means “a barren place or dried up by the sun” (note: => represents weary by painful experiences).

 

 

This doesn't mean, however, that we aren't allowed by God to mourn as human beings.

On the contrary, God gives us enough time to mourn over the loss of people we have loved. This becomes clear, for example when Aaron died on Mount Hor and the people of Israel mourned over him for thirty days (see Numbers 20:29 i.c.w. Numbers 33:38-39).

 

… 29 and when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, all the Israelites mourned for him thirty days.

 

38 At the Lord’s command Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt.

39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

 

Despite all the loss that we face in our lives at different times, we should make our hearts aware that we must conquer the phase of mourning in order to be able to go forward with joy in life and enter the next time period of the harvest which is a phase of delight (see Psalm 126:5-6).

 

5 Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.

6 Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

 

 

When Isaac lost his mother Sarah, he also had a deep sorrow in his heart, but it didn't controlled him in the manner that he closed himself off from his good future. He rather opened his arms to an even deeper love which God gave him, Rebekah, who helped him to get over the pain of the past, so that he didn't get stuck in suffering (see Genesis 24:67).

 

67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

 

 

I would like to encourage each and every one of you who is going through such challenging phases not to allow yourself to be controlled by the “bitter water” of past pain/trauma in the coming future, but to deal with pain properly by handing it over to Jesus Christ (see Isaiah 53:4) and seeking fellowship with those who have a similar character or vision as yourself so that you continue to move ahead encouraged and strengthened.

 

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

 

Let us fully embrace the middle cross of Golgotha and receive all the power of victory from the Lamb of God, who is Jesus Christ, who got slain for us.

 

Amen and Amen.

 

In His Wisdom,

 

Daniel Glimm