In this episode, I sit down with Ana to talk about wilderness seasons. We both share wilderness seasons we have walked through and share the process both in and out, the importance of a healthy posture before the Lord, not camping out in the wilderness and whether or not expecting God to do something is okay. 

Some important takeaways:

• Waiting is never easy, or fun.
• God’s timeline and our timeline don’t always coincide with one another. When we realize that, it makes it easier to wait because it’s no longer on us.
• We’re not meant to walk this walk alone.
• We’re not always in desert seasons simultaneously. So me walking in my promise land, I see the fulfillment of the promise and I’m there rejoicing. But I can see a friend that isn’t and still encourage them and remind them of God’s faithfulness.
• God has to sometimes take us to places where there are no distractions, and no external noise, so that we can sit there and learn His voice and what He’s saying to us with that still small voice.
• Sometimes I can get so comfortable in my wilderness seasons that I stop partnering with the future God has for me.
• We have to be careful about where our heart posture is in the desert or wilderness seasons.
• Walking into my promised land wasn’t easy. I had to fight for it. And I had to really blindly trust God because that was not what I saw coming out of my promise land.
• "Then he answered very quietly, 'Much-Afraid, do you love me enough to accept the postponement and the apparent contradiction of the promise, and to go down there with me into the desert?' She looked up through her tears and said, trembling, 'I do love you, you know that I love you. Oh, forgive me because I can't help my tears. I will go down with you into the wilderness, right away from the promise if you really wish it. Even if you cannot tell me why it has to be, I will go with you, for you know I do love you, and you have the right to choose for me anything you please.'"
• Sometimes we can get this idea that we have to have a bravado with the wilderness and we have to go in ready to be strong and courageous. But a lot of times what the wilderness does is create these deep, raw emotional moments with the Lord where you are growing so close to Him. And even in that, what the wilderness often feels like is walking in the direct opposite way of the promised land. But in recognizing while that may not make sense to us, it’s the path that God has for us, and in that my yes to Him has to be so much bigger than my yes to the promised land.
• Desert seasons are those times where you feel you have to fight to be in God’s Presence.
• In desert seasons we have to tell our spirit to push into prayer, to have my quiet time, and to spend time in the Word.
• You’re not going to be in a wilderness season forever. While this is your present, this is not your forever.
• There’s no shame in being in a desert season. It’s not time out. It’s not “I’m in trouble.” There is no shame in that season, it’s really just a season.
• The expectancy and the desire God has placed within you for the fulfillment is not a bad thing. He has placed that desire there to fulfill it.
• In the midst of expectation and wilderness season, there is always room for gratitude.
• You develop patience by remembering what the Lord has done.

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