These same bosses who provoked character growth in me also gave me the greatest compliments. Adversity does not mean abandonment! It was at these jobs that I learned work discipline, customer service, and business protocol. He was my ever-present help in my time of need. In this wilderness, God made me realize that I was not abandoned. God stripped away the “why me?” mentality. Instead of studying economics from books, I did so by mopping floors, bagging groceries, and selling office furniture. There were times that I arrived at one store at 6:00 a.m., completed my shift at 3:00 p.m., ran home, ate, showered, then ran to the other job to work from 4:00 p.m. It was a hectic schedule for a seventeen year-old boy who really wanted to go to college. Without people, who are you? You will answer this question in the wilderness.Ī few months into the summer, I was working two jobs as a cashier in a grocery store and as a sales associate at an office supplies store. I began to look at myself more as an individual with God, rather than as part of this clan of people. The wilderness experience strips you of competition and comparison to others as your indication of your success.
I had to walk through this without human assistance. This time, the road was wide enough for only my Heavenly Father and me. Sometimes I would say, “If only my dad was here.” Dad was always there to make sure school fees were paid and my education was never interrupted. All my peers would be a year ahead of me, and I felt left behind. This shocking truth ignited a season of breaking and rebuilding in my life.įirst, I had to overcome the victim mentality that everyone was out to get me or at least to slow me down. It was no fault of mine, but I had to live with that reality. When I found out I could not go because of financial reasons, I was very disappointed. I had received my admission letter from the Ohio State University and was extremely excited. Up until that time, I had never taken a day off from school. It was difficult nonetheless, but that season does not compare to a wilderness experience that lasted an entire year, beginning in June 1998. Every fifteen-year-old leaving his parents to go to a foreign land across great bodies of water will feel the same way I did. It was a trying time adjusting to a new culture, weather, and people. All others fall away, howbeit temporarily, so God can have his fullest and most personal time with you.Īfter leaving the shores of Ghana and being separated from my parents and siblings, I felt a degree of loneliness and separation.
It is my firm conviction that what is termed the wilderness experience is that time in our walk with God when the road becomes narrow, wide enough for only you and God. I believe it was an acknowledgment that the call of God will require me to be alone like the Tishbite. leaders who are, lone like the Tishbite (Elijah), like the Baptist (John) bold cast in a rare and apostolic mold.”įor some reason, I began to tear up. “I have been seeking God to raise up an incendiary company of Spirit-led, Spirit-ordained, Spirit-trained, leaders. In the introduction by Richard Foster, he wrote: Sitting alone on the front row seat, I read the book Power Healing by John Wimber.
One warm summer day in 2005, I boarded the bus from Norfolk, Virginia, to Alexandria, Virginia. ( Matthew 4:1)Įvery man or woman of God with a true call on their lives goes through seasons we’ve come to know as the wilderness. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Excerpt from the book Sweetly Broken by Moses Asamoah.