Through the Lord Jesus Christ, God will destroy completely the entire kingdom of unclean spirits from the least to the greatest. Total victory is ahead for the Church, the Body of Christ. The Son of God appeared in order to destroy the works of the devil.

The mission of Christ (the Anointed Deliverer) is to break the yoke of Satan and set men free. Christians are to take up this mission, following the Lord Jesus wherever He goes, being filled to overflowing with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

After coming across the "Red Sea" (being baptized in water into the death and resurrection of Christ) we soon find ourselves, not in any promised land of power, glory, and excellent fruits but in a "waste howling wilderness," in an uninhabited desert, spiritually speaking.

The "wilderness" experience is the school of the Holy Spirit. In the wilderness we learn to "eat manna" (to depend continually on Christ for our life, our strength, our wisdom, our holiness and righteousness). We are taught to "follow the cloud by day and the fire by night" (to wait patiently for the leading of the Holy Spirit; to walk in the blessings that come during the "day," and also to follow the judgments of God's Word through the "nights" of our discipleship).

We learn how to be healed spiritually and physically by gazing at the "brass serpent" (by looking to the redemption that flows from our Lord Jesus on the cross). We understand that God means exactly what He says and that those who disobey the Lord's revealed will for their lives soon find themselves in difficult and painful situations.

We Christians are taught many lessons in the wilderness. It was in the wilderness, at Mount Sinai, that the Ten Commandments were issued by the Lord. In the Christian experience it is in struggling faithfully through problems and troubles, as we attempt each day to follow the Lord, that we begin to come under the law of the Spirit of life. Trouble, perplexity, persecution press us into Christ so He can be formed in us.

One of the principal reasons for wandering in the wilderness is preparation for war. When a Christian is first redeemed he may not be wise or strong enough to stand up successfully during vigorous spiritual combat. Think about the meaning of the following passage:

And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 13:17,18)

This was a long unpleasant detour to the south!

We learn valuable and eternal lessons during our "wilderness wandering" if we respond readily to the Holy Spirit and are good students. We are taught how to follow God; and we become strong in the Lord provided we exercise faith, courage, perseverance, and single-minded resoluteness in our determination to follow Christ all the way to the fullness of the realization of the promises of God (Hebrews 3:14).

To be continued.