From Wilderness To Promised Land
From wilderness to Promise Land
Ie; Passing through for your portion
Message: Waves Of Glory Christian Embassy
08-10-2025 Sunday.
The Hebrew letter "Tet" (ט) is the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In modern Hebrew, it represents the sound "t" as in "tall". It also has a numerical value of nine and is associated with the word "tov" (טוב), meaning "good".
Here's a breakdown of its key aspects:
Sound: In modern Hebrew, Tet has a voiceless alveolar plosive sound, similar to the English "t". Numerical Value: Tet is associated with the number nine. Meaning: It's linked to the Hebrew word "tov" (טוב), meaning "good," and is often seen as representing goodness, purity, and even the feminine principle. Symbolism: Tet is also associated with the womb, pregnancy, and the idea of something hidden being revealed, as the number nine represents the nine months of pregnancy, according to Jewish mystics. Ancient Pronunciation: While modern Hebrew pronounces Tet as a simple "t," some scholars believe it may have been pronounced with a pharyngealized "t" [tˤ] in ancient times,
Everyone has a portion that God has orchestrated to come into and build off of our lives each and every year around this time of Great Transiton. Israel has their portions and inheritances also allotted to them through and by God.
This is a time to war through as we are passing through the land so as to obtain the new portions God has for us which are all tied to and attached to The Promise Land.
The key is Movement.
Keep passing through until God reveals His Portion He’s got for U! Not everything others have is for you. But God won’t forget you! You have A Portion of Promise.
Deuteronomy 1:1-11 KJV
These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. [2] ( There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.) [3] And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them; [4] After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: [5] On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, [6] The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: [7] Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. [8] Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. [9] And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: [10] The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. [11] (The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)
Numbers 14:7-8(NKJV) 7and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’
I have found that the wilderness experience of Israel was not the point of their deliverance. The wilderness was designed by God to transform them from a mob of slaves into a nation. This nation would then be able to fulfill the call God had on their lives.
It is the same for us as believers.
For Israel this process was typified by two places, the wilderness and the promised land. The goal was the promised land. Today I want to contrast those two places and the lifestyles they represent.
For us to get to our land of promises we need to know what it looks like. What defines it and how is it different from the wilderness time of preparation.
The wilderness is a place where we simply survive to get to the next test. There was never any ground taken. In the wilderness Israel was continually “passing through.” The whole point of the wilderness was preparation.
A good example is the battle fought with the Amalekites in Exodus 17. They did not fight them in order to take territory to dwell in. They fought them to be allowed to pass through the land. Nothing was established.
In our lives I believe we need to examine the battles we are fighting. Are they simply for survival? Do they establish anything in our lives? Do they take ground for the Kingdom of God or do they just allow us to pass through until the next trial comes? Any area of your life in which you answer yes means you are still in the wilderness in that area.
When Israel got to Canaan there were probably far more battles to fight than when they were in the wilderness. However in Canaan those battles were to take ground. They were not just passing through any more. They were not just surviving.
They were possessing the Promised land God had given them.
We need to move from simply passing through life to possessing life.
We need to stop fighting battles that just get us to the next day and begin to win some wars that will establish us at new levels in the natural and in the spirit.
If you are still in the wilderness, that’s fine. It is part of life and growth but don’t stay there. Understand that you can go beyond the wilderness and begin to possess the land God has promised you.
The Wilderness is all about preparation.
In the Wilderness Israel received the law and the commandments. This was to prepare them to walk right before God. They learned to believe God daily for food and God provided manna. However manna was not the point. The point was to learn to trust God. In the Wilderness God did many things to provide for them in very miraculous ways. Yet this was not God’s best for them.
As we are growing in Christ we are being prepared to walk as adult Christians. God will allow certain things in our lives that he will not later. Why? Because when we come into adulthood the stakes will be higher. When we are being prepared we are provided for, often without much faith on our part but if we want to take our promised land we are going to need to believe God for ourselves.
If the wilderness is about preparation, the promised land is about occupation.
We are to occupy until Jesus comes. It is often easier to win a war over a nations military than it is to occupy the nation afterward.
When we occupy we must govern, not just the occupied territory but ourselves as well. We become responsible for the place we occupy.
Fully walking in the land of promises is the ability to take responsibility for our actions and for the move of God in that place.
Deuteronomy 29:5-15 KJV
And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. [6] Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God. [7] And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them: [8] And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh. [9] Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. [10] Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, [11] Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: [12] That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: [13] That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. [14] Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; [15] But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
The wilderness was a land of miracles of provision. For many of us this would be the highest life we could attain to. Every morning Israel awoke to a miracle when they saw the manna on the ground. They experienced the miracle direction of the pillar of cloud and fire. Their clothes didn’t wear out, They got water from a rock and even more miraculous the rock traveled with them.
This sounds like the most spiritual kind of life. However when they entered Canaan all that stopped.
The promised land was not a place of miraculous provision. It was a miraculous land. It was a land where provision was the norm not the miracle.
For us, I believe we need to recognize that while individual miracles of provision are certainly available and exciting, God has something better for us.
To fully fulfill our destiny we cannot be expending all of our faith believing for miracles to pay the bills or remain healthy enough to function or for our children and marriages to survive.
The promised land is the place where destiny had to be fulfilled. That means we need to use our faith to believe for others to be set free not for our own survival.
How do we get to that place? By realizing that God has given principles in the Word that will free us from the need for daily miracles by making our lives miraculous lives. However walking in principles requires adulthood responsibilities.
Healing is great. However if I have applied the principles in the Word that give me divine health I can pray for the healing of those around me. Miraculous provision financially is wonderful, however if I am walking in divine prosperity I have both resources and faith left to help someone else.
A child rescued from addiction or some other terrible thing is great, but children raised in the Lord who walk upright before him can rescue someone else’s children.
If we really want to fulfill what God has for us we must learn to walk through the times of preparation and childhood and get to the promised land of adulthood. This is not a onetime thing for us. We are always both preparing in some areas and walking as adults in others. There is no shame in being in the wilderness. Just don’t stay there. There is so much more life for you to live and so much more God wants to do through you in our wonderful land of promises.
The season changes and it is time to come out of the wilderness. This is what I sense the Lord is doing in a number of lives at the moment.
A number of people have been in the wilderness wandering around and going through this period of sanctification. But the Lord calls you out now to step into the Promised Land and move into the fullness of you in Christ.
I have seen the time of moving into the wilderness occur after you have been saved or when you have sought a deeper position in the Lord. This happened in my life and for a number of people I know. You initially experience the joy of being saved and knowing we have a Lord and Saviour and this newness goes on for a while.
But if you then choose to step into more of Him then He will accept that from you and start to grow you into your identity and who you are in Him.
This will come with time in the wilderness.
This time in the wilderness for His children is shown throughout the bible and happens to all those who stepped up to be who they were meant to be in Christ.
Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
Abram has his time in Egypt before coming out and becoming Abraham. He went through a process of transformation and although we aren’t told a lot about his time in Egypt it is sure God was doing a work in Him to bring Him to a point where he could be named Abraham.
Israel has to come out of Egypt and the wilderness to enter the Promised Land to enable all that was said over Israel to be achieved. This time in the wilderness was a cleansing time to enable who the Lord wanted in the Promised Land to come in.
The old died and the new came in.
Matthew 2:19
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.
Jesus came out of Egypt to the Promised Land so He could fulfill His ministry
This was a parallel for us to understand. Jesus was sinless but he had time out in the wilderness before He came into His ministry in Israel.
When we have come out of Egypt (the wilderness) it is so that we can fulfill out ministry.
We die to the world (Egypt) in the wilderness so that we come into Him and His kingdom.
Matthew 3:3
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
We need our wilderness time to prepare us for the Lord and make us straight and righteous. When you have reached that place we can come into what He has and we come into the Promised Land.
WHY WERE WE IN THE WILDERNESS?
Deuteronomy 8:3
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.
4 “Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
5 “You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you.
He wants our heart and we need to be broken to come to that place. If you are in the world comfortable it is very hard to truly come to Him and fulfill all you were meant to be. In the wilderness you can come to Him and truly understand that it is ALL Him. Without that understanding it is impossible to stand up to the giants in the Promised Land and walk in the victory.
Look at Joseph who spent all those years in prison (his wilderness). He was transformed in that time from being of the world (himself) to being of the Lord. He could then step into the calling, promises made over Him. He was glorifying the Lord and it wasn’t about himself.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WILDERNESS?
Psalm 66:10
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
11 You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment
He brings us to fulfillment to a new place of peace. How long will that take, fourteen years for Joseph, forty years for Moses. How long for you.
Psalm107:4
They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;
They found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He delivered them out of their distresses.
He brings us from our distresses to a new place of peace in Him. We lean on Him.
1 Peter 4:12
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;
13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
Acts 14:21
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,
22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
1 Peter 5:10
10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
You are going to go through fire, through tribulation through tests in the wilderness. He has a transformation task to do to you as He can’t release you to the Promised Land until you can carry it.
He wants you to recognise it is Him that does it (not you), it is his glory (not yours), and He wants you to be able to handle the giants in the Promised Land.
You have a task to do in the Promised Land so He prepares you for it.
Matthew 7:13
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
In the Promised Land he wants us to find the true way in Him. This is a narrow path not a wide worldly path. It is a walk and not all come out of it in fact few do. Because it isn’t necessarily an easy time in the wilderness and you can get stuck there. Avoid being stuck there. Surrender and transform.
But now is the time He is saying you who have been walking in the wilderness and have found this path it is time to come out and step into the promises. He says “ I am calling my children out to be who they were meant to be, to walk in all they were meant to be, now is the time, not tomorrow, not next year. But now. Be obedient and follow my calling and I will bless you and anoint you.”
Be one of the chosen and cross the Jordan.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
He brings you out of the wilderness so He can complete His word over you. This is the season where you will start stepping into the words He has spoken over you.
Rejoice.
7 Lessons from Joshua – Leaving The Wilderness Season
01: YOU WERE NOT PURPOSED TO STAY IN THE WILDERNESS
I’m not sure I’ve met someone who ever loved a wilderness season. In some ways, I think it’s because we fear we might get stuck there. It’s this weird in-between where we’re secure in eternity yet longing for something more.
Yet, the wilderness is crucial from moving from the pain to the promise.
It’s the place where sanctification happens. The process of God writing a better story within you, building your character and faith for the journey ahead.
In the process of building a better story, it’s also a place God wants to loosen your grip on the past, surrendering it to him to live a new ending with him. The key to moving through the wilderness and into the promise is surrendering your story to God – working to change the narrative so you can move forward in His power.
As Deuteronomy 8:15-16 says, “He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions…to humble and test you so that in the end, it might go well with you.”
The story doesn’t stop in the wilderness. The wilderness was used as growth to build character for the coming season. God has put you on earth for a purpose, not to stay stuck in the wilderness but to move forward into the purpose. It’s time to move.
02: YOUR PAST STORY MATTERS – DON’T GET RID OF IT
You may hate the story you’ve lived. Maybe you’ve even questioned where God was in that story. A story of heartache and pain, leaving you stuck in places you hate. But God wants to use that story, not to harm you but for good.
The Israelites had spent over 400 years living in bondage to the Egyptians, crying out to God and begging for His deliverance. Their story is one of slavery, yet in God’s good nature, He heard their cries. And He delivered them.
Yet, not long after the Israelites entered the wilderness, they began forgetting what God had done—returning to the old patterns that kept them stuck in slavery. All because they refused to surrender the story to God.
But we can’t forget our past because our past reminds us not of our shortcomings but of God’s great power. If He saved you one, He’d do it again.
In a world that tells you to find a new story or run away from the old one, I’m here to remind you that where you’ve been is part of the story. Whatever the Jordan-sized problem that keeps you stuck in the pain of the past, know God wants to use that and transform that story into one that showcases the power and glory of Him.
Don’t discount your story by chasing a different life. Own the story you’ve lived through, call it by name and remember the power of God who delivered you from that will do it again and again. Let it be a story of redemption rather than a story of shame.
03: THERE ARE GREATER THINGS AHEAD THAN YOU LEFT BEHIND
The Israelites had a hard time seeing the promise as better than what they left behind. They even questioned going back to Egypt, the same place they begged God to deliver them.
Numbers 13 shows us that just a year after they entered the promised land, God told Moses to send out a group of men to scope out the promised land, take an inventory of the land, and bring back some of the abundance.
This is what they reported when they returned home:
“We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey, and there is some of its fruit. However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.
Eleven of the twelve men returned after seeing the land’s goodness, the milk, and honey and reported the negative. They spoke out of the fear of the past, believing that where they were going was no different than what they had been delivered from, even though God promised something completely different.
The Israelites feared the pain more than they feared the God who had delivered them from the pain, keeping them stuck in the place they wanted to escape. Isn’t this also our story? God gives us a vision of something better, but we can’t see it because we’re still living out of our past?
It’s time to stop letting the past have the last word. Don’t look back but forward. Knowing God uses your history to deliver you, not keep you stuck – allowing that story to be transformed into a new story, bringing His Glory to Earth.
04: YOU HAVE TO MOVE TO SEE GOD WORK
The story continues with the Israelites staying in the wilderness for forty more years. The generation of spies who disbelieved God’s goodness for the future had to die in the wilderness while God raised a new generation of people willing to enter the promised land – a generation who would faithfully take action.
That’s the thing about deliverance. It takes obedience.
God didn’t just deliver the Israelite’s. He required them to walk in trust that He would. He didn’t erase the pains of their past but showed them how he would deliver them through it. God wanted to uproot the idols of their past pain and know they were a believing generation.
Moving out of the wilderness takes action.
The Israelites had to walk to the banks of the Jordan and step in it before God unleashed the miracle. And this wasn’t any ordinary river. As Joshua 3:15 “Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season.”
Some commentaries say that the Jordan at that time in history was nearly one mile wide and moving at roughly 40 miles an hour. Without God, crossing it was impossible. But God, just as He promised, would pull back the waters just as soon as they faithfully obeyed.
But this took looking past their fears to see God. I think, in many ways, we all are facing a Jordan-sized problem. One that threatens to overtake us, keeping us stuck in the wilderness. But just like God pulled back the raging waters, he’ll pull back your Jordan-sized problem – if you faithfully obey.
WILL YOU FEAR GOD MORE THAN YOU FEAR YOUR PROBLEMS?
“As soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge, the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass… was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Isreal crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.” Joshua 3:14-16
The Israelites faithful obedience led to the blessing. Their faithful obedience led to the trust that the pain was not greater than the promise. Their faithful obedience declared fear over God more powerful than the thing that kept them stuck. And that is what God is asking us to do.
Take a step in the direction he is asking you. Faithfully obey the little thing. Do something outside the habits that have protected you because you now have God protecting you. And if he can split a sea and cut the waters off of a river to deliver his people on dry ground, how much more will he do for you?
05: FOCUS ON GOD NOT YOUR PROBLEMS
Problems like to capture our attention. Our minds are very good at keeping fixated on what might hurt you. But this often gives them more energy than they deserve, keeping your problems in the driver’s seat and making you feel like God has left.
But God hasn’t left, no matter how much your problems have made you believe it. God is there, in perfect view. Just like He was in the story of the Israelite’s.
That was partially the purpose of the Ark of the Covenant. As they crossed the Jordan that day, God gave specific instructions so His people wouldn’t lose sight of it.
“When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests, you are to break camp and follow it. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between yourselves and the ark. Don’t go near it so that you can see the way to go, for you haven’t traveled this way before.”Joshua 3:3
Something changes when we shift our focus from our problems to Him. It gives us direction. It gives us an unexplainable power, like Peter walking on water. Peter could only stand on the surface as long as he fixed his eyes on Jesus. As soon as he looked away, he began to sink.
Where you focus your attention determines your power. Stop focusing on the pain and focus on the living God who has the ability to deliver you from the pain.
06: DON’T LET YOUR PROBLEMS BE A THREAT
I overlooked one of the more fascinating aspects of the story for years. It was how or where God parted the water. It seems like a small detail with little significance, but it can completely shift your fear if you look closely.
“The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.” Joshua 3:16
This is one of those times the maps in the Bible make a difference. Adam, the place of the water rising was roughly 20-30 miles from where the Israelite’s crossed.
All this time, I assumed the waters stood up, creating a wall of water like walking through a sea of skyscrapers. I also imagined how terrifying this would be to wonder when that sea of water would engulf you as quickly as it rose. Just like our problems like to do.
That wasn’t the case and isn’t the case with our God.
We can only see for 10 miles on a clear day, meaning the wall of water that rose 20-30 miles away from where they crossed wasn’t even visible.
God, in His goodness, doesn’t just deliver you from the threat that feels like it might overcome you. He takes it away, removing it from your site. Take some time to process that knowing that whatever threatens to overtake you has no power. Live in the freedom that you can stop fearing what isn’t there. Your problems are not a threat.
07. GOD DOESN’T STOP AT SAVING YOU, HE WANTS TO USE YOU.
Hundreds of thousands of people and their belongings crossed the Jordan that day. Yet not one of them died. Not one of them got lost. No one was left in the wilderness. And He won’t leave you here.
In both the Old and New Testaments, God promised to bless his faithful followers and bring them into a restful place. God’s purpose is to prepare an eternal homeland for his people and to use you to do that.
God sees you, and He is sanctifying you in this season. But don’t stop there. God has called you for a reason. He has given you purpose and spoken life over you. Use that to keep moving. And use that to move beyond your past into the future glory God has gifted you.
He won’t leave you to die here. He had a greater purpose in the promised land. We all have a Jordan-sized problem – don’t let it win. Surrender it to God and let Him write a better ending. The best is yet to come. Trust God and move with him. It’s time to move into the Promise and let him write a better ending.
Be blessed.
Apostle Sarasin