Daniel Kolenda - Wilderness Survival GUIDE

Copyright 2019 Daniel Kolenda

Wilderness Survival Guide

Daniel Kolenda with Bob Gladstone

Published by Christ for all Nations
PO Box 590588
Orlando, FL 32859-9927
Visit us at CfaN.org

BOOK ISBN 978-1-933446-22-6
PACK w/ DVD ISBN 978-1-933446-68-4

Cover Design by Designstogo.net
Interior Design by SimpsonProductions.net
Bible Study content by Christie Kinde

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author and publisher.

Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1979,1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Scripture quotations marked NASB, are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963,1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by Permission

The Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, by The International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Scriptures marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

I f youre going through hell, keep going! So said Winston Churchill during one of the worst crises in world history. And these words of wisdom still apply to anyone passing through a trial today. Adversity does not have to become our destination. It can be a pathway to something greater.

Maybe you are passing through a difficult season in your life. Perhaps you feel spiritually dry and alone. You might feel as though your prayers are not being heard and you wonder if God even knows where you are. You are not alone. Millions of believers have passed through these troubled waters and experienced the same emotions. King David sang about the deep sunless valley of the shadow of death. John of the Cross wrote of the dark night of the soul. Even Jesus went through times of suffering when He had to offer prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death (Heb 5:7). People often refer to such seasons as, The Wilderness.

The wilderness is a hard place. But its as crucial for our lives as it is painful. While a desert season feels terribly wrong, and loneliness and despair may seem to reign, God is with you and He desires to use the wilderness for your eternal good. To reap its benefits, however, you must understand its nature and purpose. Thats the reason for this book. It will look to the Bible as a spiritual Survival Guide for the desert the supreme source of wisdom both for enduring the wilderness, as well as navigating safely through it to Gods promised destination.

But first things first. If you have not been born again into the family of God, then the wisdom that follows cannot apply to you. Before a person receives the mercy of God through faith in Jesus Christ, he or she is lost in a perpetual wilderness that stretches beyond this world and into the next. And theres no way out except one: repent and believe the Gospel. Entering Gods Kingdom by making Jesus your Lord and Savior makes you a child of the most loving, powerful, and wonderful Father. He knows how to guide and take care of you as you traverse lifes journey, even when it leads you into a wilderness. His wisdom for the wilderness is what I want to explore in this book.

To do that I will adopt six tips survival experts give for those stranded in the wilderness. As you will see, the secrets for surviving a physical wilderness bear striking parallel to those for surviving a spiritual one.

S urviving a physical wilderness takes more than the skills to build a shelter, start a fire, and purify water. It requires a certain psychology, a mindset, a will to live that overcomes the fear and stress associated with crisis. In fact, some people who possessed the skill still died when stranded in a physical wilderness because they lacked the will. And others who lacked the skill but had the will, found a way to survive.

Upon entering a spiritual wilderness, our tendency is often to let our imagination run wild. Will I ever make it out? Why is this happening to me? I dont feel ready for this. Does God not realize what Im going through? Is He angry with me? Is He judging me? Is He even real? Though its natural to ask questions like these, obsessing over them depletes our resolve to believe God. And since these questions relate to the very nature of God, their responses must be biblically sound. Thats why our study begins here. In the wilderness, perspective is everything.

So if you find yourself in a wilderness: dont panic. Take a deep breath. Take a moment to remind yourself who God is, who you are in Christ, and what the Bible says about His faithfulness during troubled times. Fear makes you susceptible to lies from the enemy. He will lie about Gods faithfulness and love for you. Hell even lie about Gods existence, or about how valuable you are to Him. Such lies are meant to sap you of spiritual stamina. But thats just when the will to live must rise the will to live in the Spirit while you pass through desert regions.

For Gods children in the wilderness, the will to live does not merely refer to a desire to survive. It refers rather to an earnest determination to believe God. During spiritual drought, you must determine sometimes against all circumstances, emotions, and even the advice of friends that God is real. He is good. He is faithful, and you will make it through to the other side with Him. Dont let the enemy or circumstances define who God is for you. Refuse to allow yourself to believe anything but Gods Word. Resolve as David did during a spiritual desert: My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! (Psa 57:7).

One of the most important things you can understand is that even when it seems like everything around you is spinning out of control, if you are a child of God, there is nothing that touches your life that is not ultimately under Gods supervision. Everything in your life is somehow Father-filtered. He loves you dearly and deeply. He is watching over you, and wont allow anything to separate you from Him.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38-39).

Allow Gods invincible love to cast out all of your fear.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because Gods love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Rom 5:3-5).