We are born into the kingdom of God carrying the fullness of Christ. Col. 2:9-10, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made full, and He is the head over all rule and authority;” Even though we are born into fullness, only to the degree that we walk in faith do we appropriate the fullness that we already carry. The Christian life is a life of faith. It is a life of restfully trusting in, and drawing from the very fullness of Christ, who we are in union with. If experiencing the fullness of Jesus, which is already hours, is the result of faith, then the real question is, “how do we grow in faith.” The answer that most people would give would be for Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This is certainly part of the truth but there’s more to the story of how God causes us to grow in faith than that, because the context that God uses to teach us how to hear in faith is almost always the wilderness. Lets look at some other scriptures. Deut. 8:2, “ You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Song of Solomon 8:5, “Who is this coming up from the wilderness
Leaning on her beloved?”
It’s in the wilderness that the Holy Spirit teaches us to lean on our Beloved. Faith only works through love, and in the wilderness the Lord prunes our heart to love Him more, and then speaks on our hearts to trust Him more. Hosea 2:14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.”
The more he awakens our heart to love Him with greater passion, the more sensitive we become to his voice, and the more prepared we are to trust Him. It’s in the Wilderness where he secures his place as our beloved, and we learn to lean on him more in the restful gratitude of increasing faith.