From Wilderness Provision to Promised Abundance!

Joshua 5:10-12  Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. 11  And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. 12  Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. 

After crossing the Jordan and being consecrated at Gilgal, Israel did not immediately march into battle. Before Jericho, before strategy, before conquest, God brought them back to worship — they kept the Passover. In the very land of promise, they paused to remember the blood. This reveals the order of God: before you fight for what He has promised, you remember what He has already done. Before inheritance is possessed, redemption is honored. The same God who brought them out of Egypt by the blood of the lamb was now bringing them into the land by His faithfulness, and worship anchored this transition.

They were no longer wanderers sustained by miracles in the wilderness; they were now a people stepping into promise. Yet God would not allow them to move forward without first grounding them in gratitude. The Passover reminded them that everything ahead was built on what He had already accomplished. Then something remarkable happened — the manna stopped. For forty years, heaven had fed them daily. Every morning, provision appeared on the ground– supernatural, consistent, and sustaining. But the moment they ate from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. Wilderness provision ended because promise provision had begun.

God was shifting how they lived. The same God who had provided miraculously in the wilderness was now providing through the land itself. The season had changed, and what once sustained them was no longer needed because something greater had been given. When the promise begins, wilderness provision ends. This is a critical truth for people entering revival. We must not cling to old forms of provision when God is leading us into new dimensions of fulfillment. The manna was never the destination — it was the means to reach it. Holding onto yesterday’s provision can keep us from fully embracing today’s promise.

God was not removing provision — He was upgrading it. The land required participation, stewardship, and maturity. It was no longer about gathering what fell; it was about possessing what had been given. The same God was providing, but in a different way, aligned with their new season. Revival carries this same transition. There are moments when God shifts His people from survival into stewardship, from daily rescue into sustained inheritance, and that transition must be anchored in worship and gratitude, or we will misunderstand what He is doing.

Beloved, do not rush past the place of remembrance. Before you step into greater promise, return to the Lamb and honor what God has already done. Let gratitude anchor your heart as God shifts you into new seasons of provision. If something familiar begins to cease, do not fear — it may be the sign that promise has begun. Revival will be carried by those who recognize the season they are in, release what was for the wilderness, and embrace what God is now providing. The God who sustained you before is now leading you into fullness — step into it with worship, and you will walk in everything He has prepared.

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You may recall a few months ago we sent out an unspoken prayer request on behalf of the ministry without giving any details. At the time, among many other things going on, we went in for an ultrasound and the doctor told us that he wasn’t able to see a nose bone. He went on to say that this was a likely indication that the baby had Downs Syndrome and strongly suggested we get some tests done. When Rivka politely told him that we wouldn’t need any tests and that even if the baby did have Downs, he is a gift from God and there was no way we would abort him, the doctor was taken aback. He insisted that we would be causing an injustice to allow a baby to be born with a defect such as this. And believe it or not, two other doctors agreed.

At any time, how receptive your heart is will determine your response to God’s word. If your heart has been trampled, and harden by bitterness and unforgiveness, then receiving God’s message for you will become more difficult. If your heart is like shallow soil on top of a rock, then your mind comprehends God’s truths, yet these truths do not penetrate your heart to make a real difference in your actions. Or if you are concerned about the riches of this life, then your focus is on the here and now, and these pursuits prevent God’s Word from taking hold and producing quality fruit. But a heart that is on good soil, receives the Word, applies the Word, and in due time bring forth abundant fruit! This is God’s desire for you — to have a heart cultivated on good soil!

For those of you who didn’t get that title, it’s a well known children’s Suzuki violin rhythm.

Not long ago, I came across an old issue of Homemade, where Dr. Ernest Mellor writes on fostering good relationships. This is so good I had to share.

Some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States are real estate developers. They make their money by buying a piece of property that is terribly run down, seemingly useless, without any value to the naked eye and reforming it completely, making it look brand new! These businessmen are not as much interested in what is on the property as they are interested in the land it’s on!

A sailor who was shipwrecked on a desert island was captured by some of the natives of that island. They carried him off on their shoulders to their village, where he was sure he would end up being the main course. But instead, they put a crown on his head and made him king. He was enjoying all the attention he was receiving but was growing a little suspicious. He started making inquiries and discovered that their custom was to crown a stranger king for a year and at the end of that year the crowned king would be sent to a deserted island where he was allowed to starve to death.

With war drums beating even more intensely in Iran and Syria, we’ve received numerous phone calls and emails expressing their concerns — and understandably so! Nevertheless, even in this climate of anxiety, we are preparing to enter into Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) this afternoon. And as we do, we are remembering again, the deep lesson of God’s entering into His rest following the six creation days.

This is one of my favorite promises in the Bible — that God turns mourning into dancing! He takes away the anguish of being clothed in sadness and replaces it with gladness. However, notice what God doesn’t do — simply stop your mourning and make it disappear. No, He transforms it…into joy!