(1) These Forty Years: Why the People Who Were Delivered Still Fell in the Wilderness —The Body Was Set Free, but the Heart Remained in Bondage

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(2025.12.28 The Encouragement of the Holy Spirit)

Your ancestors were once slaves in Egypt, and their lives were extremely hard. They were forced into cruel labor, oppressed under the power of the evil one, and their hearts were filled with suffering. In their distress, they cried out to the God in heaven, and their cries for help reached Him. God heard their groaning, remembered the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and rose up to deliver them. He led His people out of Egypt so that those who cried out to Him would no longer be slaves, no longer under oppression, and no longer live without freedom. From what happened in this history, you should clearly see what kind of God the Creator is—a faithful God who keeps His covenant, a God full of love and mercy.

Those who are called by God are people illuminated by the true light and led by Him on the path ahead. At that time, I directed the people I had rescued to go toward the land of Canaan. This journey required only eleven days, so that My chosen people could quickly enter the land I had prepared for blessing. That land was fertile, rich in provision, and under God’s care and blessing. It was a place where the people could begin a new life, leave behind their identity as slaves, no longer live under bondage, and enjoy blessed days with God’s presence. This was originally a short and reachable journey. As long as they believed, relied on God, and followed His guidance, they could have arrived quickly. Yet they wandered in the wilderness for forty years—not because the road was long, but because their hearts did not truly rely on God. They lacked faith, complained because of their circumstances, longed for the food of Egypt, and even wanted to return to the land where they had been slaves. As a result, they wandered for a long time, unable to settle, unable to receive the inheritance God had prepared, and unable to enter His rest.

They did not give their hearts to God. After leaving Egypt, they did not wholeheartedly pursue the direction God had shown them. What filled their hearts was only what their physical eyes could see. God sent down manna to meet their needs, and though they saw His works and provision, they did not develop hearts of gratitude or reverence toward Him. Instead, they said, “Our strength is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes.” God’s provision was abundant and never lacking. He sent manna daily so that the people could live each day under His grace. What is truly tragic about people is not physical weakness, but the drying up of their spiritual life, as they are defeated by their own desires.What they longed for were the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic they had eaten freely in the land of slavery. Comparing these cheap things to God’s redeeming grace, they forgot His mercy and salvation. They forgot how they had cried out to God because of long oppression and suffering. They forgot God’s righteous judgment through the ten plagues that delivered them. They forgot the blood of the Passover lamb—just as today you are redeemed by precious blood at a great price. They forgot God’s mighty power in parting the Red Sea, showing His ability where humans were powerless, and making a way where there was no way. They also forgot that God desired to lift them out of a lowly identity and restore them to a life of freedom and dignity.

What those chosen people truly wanted was simply to satisfy their stomachs, while they did not value spiritual grace. In the end, they fell dead in the wilderness and never personally received the lasting blessings God had already prepared for them. A faith that remains focused only on the material world in front of one’s eyes is extremely fragile and will not endure to the end.

Scripture 

Deuteronomy

Chapter 1 Verse 2

There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb

by the way of mount Seir

unto Kadeshbarnea.

Psalms

Chapter 78 Verses 10–33

They kept not the covenant of God,

and refused to walk in his law;

And forgat his works,

and his wonders that he had shewed them.

Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through;

and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

In the daytime also he led them with a cloud,

and all the night with a light of fire.

He clave the rocks in the wilderness,

and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

He brought streams also out of the rock,

and caused waters to run down like rivers.

And they sinned yet more against him

by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

And they tempted God in their heart

by asking meat for their lust.

Yea, they spake against God; they said,

Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out,

and the streams overflowed;

can he give bread also?

can he provide flesh for his people?

Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth:

so a fire was kindled against Jacob,

and anger also came up against Israel;

Because they believed not in God,

and trusted not in his salvation:

Though he had commanded the clouds from above,

and opened the doors of heaven,

And had rained down manna upon them to eat,

and had given them of the corn of heaven.

Man did eat angels’ food:

he sent them meat to the full.

He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven:

and by his power he brought in the south wind.

He rained flesh also upon them as dust,

and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,

round about their habitations.

So they did eat, and were well filled:

for he gave them their own desire;

They were not estranged from their lust.

But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

The wrath of God came upon them,

and slew the fattest of them,

and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

For all this they sinned still,

and believed not for his wondrous works.

Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,

and their years in trouble.

Hebrews

Chapter 3 Verses 15–19

While it is said,

To day if ye will hear his voice,

harden not your hearts,

as in the provocation.

For some, when they had heard, did provoke:

howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

But with whom was he grieved forty years?

was it not with them that had sinned,

whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest,

but to them that believed not?

So we see that they could not enter in

because of unbelief.

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How do I pray?(the right prayer) ( Many popular methods of prayer are wrong;The name of God, “Jesus ” carries power, and it must be spoken in the very first sentence of your prayer.

Kneel with humility

Close your eyes to concentrate.

The first sentence should begin by saying, “In the name of the  Lord Jesus  I pray.”

Then

Praise the Lord by saying, “Hallelujah!”“Praise the Lord Jesus!”

Spend time to speak with God from your heart and ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit.

Conclude your prayer with, “Amen.”

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