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The View from the Desert

Time alone with God—how do you fit it into your hectic schedule—especially if your mission field is the whole world? Join us today as we consider a little-known part of the Apostle Paul’s life. Our topic: “The View From the Desert.”

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.

CONNIE: Lonnie, as we record this program, we’re looking back over what has to go down as one of the most hectic, busy years in the recent history of Voice of Prophecy. You’ve held two major evangelistic series—one here in the US and one in Africa—both broadcast by satellite all over the world; you’ve traveled extensively for speaking appointments and dealt with some significant crises right here at the home office—it’s been a long year, I know. And my question to you is—when things are going so fast, how do you manage to still have time for strengthening your own personal relationship with God?

LONNIE: It can be challenging, of course. No matter what your life work is, there’s almost always more to do in a day than the day has hours for doing. So it has to come down to a matter of priorities. For myself, I find it best to put God first in each day. To get up from bed with a prayer on my lips and kneel immediately, committing the day to God. And I always make time for devotional reading and study right then, early in the morning as well. To get the day off to the right start.

CONNIE: I like that—priorities—putting God first. But some people just aren’t “morning people,” you know.

LONNIE: Well, that’s true of course, and some like to make sure they have a devotional time at the end of the day—or in the middle of the day. The important thing is to make sure that other things don’t get a chance to crowd out our time with God.

CONNIE: Bible study is an important part of any devotional life, and that’s the reason we make the Discover Bible lessons available on the Internet and via the mail, and today we want to invite Kurt Johnson, the director of the Bible School to share an update on what’s happening there.

LONNIE: Kurt welcome back to the program today.

KURT: Thank you, it’s great to be with you.

LONNIE: Kurt, I say this sincerely, but you and your department, the Discover Bible School, is really the right arm of our ministry here at the Voice of Prophecy and it’s doing something big time out there.

KURT: It’s just a privilege to be a part of the Bible school, because we see when those lessons go out and touch the lives of people…well, we see those lives changed, and they become more like Jesus.

LONNIE: That’s right! And now with the website and the Internet, and when we were affiliated with Lifetalk Radio and some of the website hits and so fourth, we were up into the millions of hits now of individuals out there everyday trying to find Jesus and to find some answers.

KURT: That’s right! Because the Bible really is that which meets the needs of our lives, because there’s this emptiness that is there…it’s kind of like going out into the desert and you know you get thirsty for water, the sun’s beating down on you, your body gets dehydrated and Jesus said that He was the living water. He was the one that when we take Him into the life that He will meet that need and we will no longer be thirsty.

LONNIE: It’s very interesting, in our North American site, in particular the United States, there is a thirst and people are going back to the Bible, back to the word because they want to find answers, they want to find out what the prophecies are saying, and the Voice of Prophecy has been a pioneer here for the past few years, haven’t they?

KURT: That’s right. In fact our Discover Guides and lessons are really meeting the needs of people…people today are really wondering, what’s going to happen next? You read the headlines, you watch television, and you say what in the world is happening. And as they study those Bible lessons and get into the books of Daniel and Revelation they start to find the answers.

LONNIE: And of course the Voice of Prophecy is doing everything they can to get people acquainted with the Bible School. We have a great beginner’s course with the Discover Guides, but we also have the Focus on Prophecy lessons that deal with the prophecies exclusively. Priests, nuns, other denominational ministers and followers are requesting these materials.

Talk to us about some of the exciting things that are taking place in terms of translation and reaching out to other parts of the planet.

KURT: Well, we have Bible Schools in over 145 countries, and that’s a real blessing of God. And a lot of these Bible Schools haven’t updated they’re lessons in years, so what we have been doing is helping them to translate these lessons into “Discover”, and right now, “Discover” has been translated into 25 languages around the world and another 30 are being translated even as we sit at these microphones.

LONNIE: That’s right! Even some exciting things here in North America with the Native Americans are beginning to take place. But when we were in Africa just weeks ago, you were at my side and the president of Zambia was there for the opening night of the Discover graduation that was going out by satellite to two-thousand downlink sites. We found out that people in Zambia are translating as fast as they possibly can to get the Lord’s message out to as many people as possible. Remember some of the unusual languages?

KURT: Yeah! There was Bimba, and Tonga…and we had about two –million plus lessons shipped in big containers to Zambia, and it was a rush to see all the people just gather in throngs to read the message and for many in their own languages. You know, when you were preaching those lessons night after night after night, it amazed me that the people would come, who had their jobs during the day, they would bring their lessons and study right along with every sermon, and they would do their lessons and we would try and correct them as quickly as possible so we could give them back their guides for study.

LONNIE: Even the policemen and guards were there filling in their lessons, even as they worked. It was such a great experience!

Now, back here in America to Minnesota, tell us who Pat is?

KURT: I just met Pat a few nights ago…about two years ago in Minnesota our Bible enrollment cards were mailed to every home in that state, we were offering everybody the opportunity to study the Bible, and Pat sent in for the Discover Bible guides. There was one of our churches that were handling the lessons as a little branch to the Voice of Prophecy, and they sent the Discover guides to Pat and he began to study them. Well, one day he went to the hospital and he had an appointment with the doctor there and he was in the waiting room with his Discover Guides and his Bible diligently studying, and there in the waiting room was another man, and he recognized the Discover Guides. In fact, once they began to talk to each other come to find out, that the gentleman there in the waiting room was the guy who had been sending Pat his lessons, he was the instructor, but they had never met each other.

LONNIE: God put them together at the right time.

KURT: They got acquainted, and the instructor began to assist Pat and discussed with him all of the problems that he had in his life and Pat finished his studies and came to the Lord and was baptized and is now a member of our church.

LONNIE: Amazing!
“Solitude”, Marylou Luthas, from the Midnight Cry CD, Track 10 (#).

CONNIE: Amen! That was Merrilou Luthas singing “Solitude,” and if you’re looking for something good to do in your quiet times with God, please remember that the Discover Bible Guides are available to you as basic guidelines to Bible study.

LONNIE: You can study the lessons on the Internet, at our web page VOP.COM, or you can call our toll-free number or write to us and ask to receive the lessons in the mail anywhere in the U. S. or Canada.

CONNIE: The number to call for the free Discover Bible Guides is 1-800-872-0055, and we’ll also give our mailing address later in the broadcast, but right now let’s listen to Lonnie’s message, “The View from the Desert.”

The View From the Desert

Life transforming moments—those Aha Moments.

Were you with us last time when we spoke about Saul’s life-transforming encounter with Ananias—the moment when the scales fell off his eyes? Have you had a life-transforming moment? A moment when everything changed instantly?

Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing when the news about September 11, 2001 came to us. Because suddenly our world was transformed.

Or perhaps you’ve been in the doctor’s office for a routine checkup and suddenly had the word cancer come into your vocabulary in a whole new way. It happened to me __ years ago. In a life-threatening way. A life-changing way. Because, believe me, when you take a long, hard look down the “valley of the shadow of death,” it makes you think about the value and the importance of everything in your life.

But for Saul of Tarsus, the life-changing moment didn’t come as a result of a threat to his life—not in a physical sense anyhow. For him, it was his spiritual life that was suddenly turned upside down and threatened in a way that he could never have anticipated.

Everything he believed about God’s plan of salvation was suddenly called into question.

Three days after his experience on the road to Damascus, Ananias came to him and prayed for him and laid his hands on him, and Saul immediately received his sight. The scales fell off his eyes and he saw not only the light of day, but the light of the gospel. Acts 9:18-20 tells us what he did next: “So he was baptized there and then, and after . . . he had spent only a few days with the disciples in Damascus, he began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ ” (Jerusalem Bible).

But something else happened as well. It’s revealed in Saul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia. When he wrote to them, Saul (who was by then known as Paul the Apostle) explained where the gospel he proclaimed had come from. He wanted them to know it hadn’t been given to him by the people of Damascus. It hadn’t even come from the church authorities in Jerusalem. No. It had come directly from his own communication with God. “I didn't go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was,” he wrote. No, I went away into the deserts of Arabia and then came back to the city of Damascus” (Galatians 1:17, TLB).

That one verse in Galatians fills in some essential information for our quest to understand the Apostle Paul.

Now, what do you suppose Saul/Paul did out there in the desert? I don’t picture him sitting under a palm tree at an oasis sipping coconut milk and being waited on hand and foot at a luxury resort, do you? No, I imagine he probably went to some small village where he could live undisturbed—incognito—no representatives of the high priests in Jerusalem coming to call. No Christians from Damascus stopping by to give him their unique spin on the gospel.

Saul needed some time to himself—with no one but his God to talk to. Because his life had been shaken to the core.

He’d been picked up, spun around, put down, and even though his feet were on the ground, I imagine his head was still spinning! Don’t you?

He needed some time to get his bearings and to figure out just exactly what had happened and what it meant for his future. “Where do we go from here?”

You know, friend, often on this broadcast you hear us encourage our listeners to get out the Bible and study it for themselves. To have that quiet time with God, when it’s just you and your Lord in close, thoughtful communion.

And I just can’t emphasize this strongly enough. If we’re really going to know God and understand His plan for our lives, it’s going to take some time. There’s no “Eight Minute Abs” methodology for developing and cementing a strong relationship with God.

Saul had had his vision on the road to Damascus.

He had experienced the three days of darkness, fasting and praying.

He had had hands laid on him by Ananias, and had seen the scales fall of his eyes. His eyes had been opened. He had come to believe in Jesus as his Savior. He had been baptized, washing away his past sins and coming to depend on the grace of God instead of his own good works for salvation.

But still there was something more he needed.

He needed that quiet time apart from all outside influences—that time in the desert with God.

I can picture him there, in a little rented house perhaps, with the scrolls of the Old Testament spread out before him, scrolling from passage to passage, seeking understanding. Ferreting out God’s eternal plan of salvation for the world as it had been revealed to prophets and priests throughout the centuries.

What did the recent events in Jerusalem mean for the salvation of the world? Where did his own encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus fit into God’s plan?

Most important of all, who was this Jesus he had been persecuting, and what was He doing in heaven at the right hand of God?

There were a lot of questions. And Saul was God’s chosen man to go looking for the answers.

As you know, many of Jesus’ disciples and apostles were just simple fishermen who’d had no formal schooling. Sure they knew the Scriptures to a certain extent, but they weren’t scholars. They didn’t have the thorough knowledge of the symbols and shadows that had been hidden away in the ceremonies and services of the Sanctuary—the Temple—in Jerusalem.

They could understand Jesus’ ministry on one level—the things that He taught, the healing He did. But they couldn’t take it all in on the larger scale that a man like Saul could. That’s why Saul had a special mission to fulfill when he left Damascus and went out into the desert to commune with God.

He needed to figure out what Jesus was doing up in heaven. Why would a Man who had died on earth suddenly be up there, standing in the very throne room of God. What kind of answers did the Scriptures have? These are the kinds of things I think Paul was trying to understand when he went out to the desert. And when he returned from getting what I like to call “The View From the Desert,” he had learned much that he could share with the world.

I wish we had time to go into a full examination of this topic today, because it’s an extremely interesting study of God’s grace revealed in the Old Testament. But I’ll be brief.

On Mt. Sinai God instructed Moses to build a sanctuary where He could dwell among His people. This wasn’t anything like a church sanctuary—it was a tent surrounded by a large courtyard. The tent itself was divided into two rooms known as the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.

It was all a representation of how things are in heaven, and the Most Holy Place represented the throne room of God. This was such a sacred place that only the high priest was ever permitted to enter it, and even he could go in only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. On that day he would sprinkle the blood of sacrificial animals on the Mercy Seat—the very throne of God on earth—to make atonement for the sins of the people.

This was a ritual that had been carried out for centuries—first in the desert sanctuary as the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and then in the Temple that King Solomon built. But the true meaning of the ritual had never been fully understood. In fact Saul may have the first one ever to fully comprehend what had been portrayed in type and symbol for all those centuries. Writing to the Romans, he explained the meaning of those symbols. Here it is in Romans 8:34: “Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

What is Jesus doing in heaven, at the right hand of God? He’s interceding for us just like the earthly high priest interceded in the temple on earth! This is explained in more detail in Hebrews 8:1 and 10:12:

“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”

“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (NKJV).

Can’t you just picture Saul out there in Arabia, sitting, pondering, studying, praying, until finally it becomes clear to him: The reason Jesus had to die and then ascend to heaven is to make atonement for my sins! The reason He’s in heaven now is to serve as my intercessor—my High Priest—offering His blood as a substitute for the death I deserve!

Suddenly God’s whole plan of salvation becomes crystal clear to Saul, and he’s ready to proclaim the gospel on a whole new level! Because he’s taken the time to study these things out in the Scriptures until he fully understands them. Understands them on a personal level. Understands what they mean for his own salvation, and for the salvation of the world.

Now he knows why Jesus, the Son of God, came to this earth. He came to teach us about God, and to do something more. He came to die. To shed His blood. So that when He returned to heaven, He could take that blood into heaven’s own sanctuary to make atonement for the sins of the world. To bring cleansing and forgiveness to all who would accept His death in place of the punishment they deserved for their sins.

And that is what Jesus is doing in heaven right now. That’s why He’s in heaven.

This is the glorious truth that God revealed to Saul out there in the desert. After his conversion. After his vision of Jesus. After his baptism, as he continued to study the Scriptures. No doubt the Lord taught him many things while he was all alone in Arabia. Things that helped him learn to love and trust Jesus in whole new, deeper ways.

Saul’s example can teach us as well.

Have you had your time in the desert with the Lord recently? Have you gotten out the Bible and studied it, seeking deeper understanding of God’s plan for your life? Have you asked Jesus what He would still like to teach you about Himself? Have you asked Him what mission He has for you? If not, why not begin to plan right now, to take some time soon—to get The View from the Desert. In fact, why not take a moment right now, as we listen to this beautiful instrumental rendition of the classic gospel song, “The Love of God,” to ask the Lord how you can be closer to Him in the days ahead.

The Love of God”, Steve Peterson, from The Prayer CD, Track 8.