End of the Beginning

I've been reading some blogs of some other people and have decided to follow their example to write and share my experiences, revelations, and anything else on this blog. I hope that God will be able to flow through my sharing on this blog to impart more of His life and living water into you!


Also, today is the last day of my first semester in college (except for finals), thus part of the reason for the title of this post.

I am a person that analyzes small details and sometimes get lost in them, but in the past few weeks, I’ve realized that once you have a goal, and once you start on the path towards it, these little things will not matter so much to you, only reaching the goal. For example, on a journey through a forest, if you are too hung up on making sure you're shoes are always nice and clean, you are lost. Your goal is the trivial objective of keeping your shoes clean. But if, say, there is a great feast on the other side of the forest, it is doubtful that you would care whether your shoes get dirty. Your goal is then to reach the feast. A lot of things are like a journey, a walk to a destination that we take, whether to understand something, to achieve a skill, or even to fulfill a dream.

Well, as the title of this blog suggests, the journey that I (as well as many other believers) am taking is a journey by faith. We follow where the Lord leads us, which is ultimately to fulfill His dream, His heart's desire, what He ultimately wants (maybe more about that later). Anyways, we need to be in His presence always, even fearful to lose His presence. We are a senseless contradiction without God, not knowing where we’re going. We need His leading. And on the way, if you are fatigued, you can take Christ as your rest; if you are hungry, you can take Christ as your food; if you are thirsty, you can take Christ as your drink.

Actually before we can take this path, we have to find it, and practically that just means leaving the world, because the path that the world is taking and the path that the Lord is taking are completely separate. However, to separate yourself from the world and find the path of the Lord is not enough to finish this course. Separation is just moving from one pathway to another. You have to move! Walk! Go forward!


The Old Testament has many types and pictures. One picture is of the children of Israel leaving Egypt in the book of Exodus. In type, we are like little children of Israel in Egypt (the world). How can we get out? The way is by eating the Passover Lamb! We eat and find ourselves in the wilderness. Then what? We eat more: we take the manna and grow. The Lord leads us in the wilderness for forty years, testing us.

Actually, this is a point that really enlightened me. Long story short, I first touched the Lord in a real and meaningful way in a summer school of truth way back in middle school, and I really wanted to dedicate my whole life to the Lord and for what He is after. As a kid, I was really active and, thankfully to my parents who provided such an encouraging atmosphere, was able to pursue what I wanted to. However, there was a real struggle when it came to pursuing the Lord, especially in high school. I wanted to pursue the Lord and give my life for His purpose, but He wasn't letting me do what I wanted to do. I realize now that this period was when the Lord was leading me through the wilderness, testing me, causing me to just take the manna. The Lord was dealing with me. My diet was still the worldly, Egyptian diet, and He had to teach me to take Him as my only food, as the manna. He didn't want me to serve Him in my natural man; He wanted me to enjoy Him. Before we can serve the Lord, we must firstly enjoy Him. I really struggled with this, and I just kind of "gave up" and learned to be passive, to take Him as the manna (I'm still learning).


However, this semester as my first semester in college on my own, away from my parents, I feel like I've entered into the next stage. After forty years, the children of Israel finally entered into the good land, signifying Christ and all His riches! However, there are already occupants in the good land, so we have to fight to enjoy the riches of the good land! We cannot just take freely and passively like we did in the wilderness where the Lord supplied us with manna every morning; we must fight the inhabitants of the land to enjoy all the riches of the land. If we don’t fight, we can’t enjoy. But the Lord has promised the good land to us, and actually, in ourselves, we can’t fight; we have to just trust in the Lord who fights for us. We have a will, and we have to choose actively to take ourselves to the land of the enemy, trust in the Lord to defeat the enemy, and then we can partake of the good land (typifying Christ)! We may be afraid just like the Israelites were, but if we just have faith, Christ will win the battle! Anyways, the point is that I feel like I’m in this good land now, where I cannot be passive any longer and must actively pursue Christ and trust in Christ to take me on to enjoy all the riches of the good land!

So praise the Lord! This has been the end of the beginning of a wonderful journey, and I continue to trust in the Lord and follow His leading.