(2) These Forty Years: Why Those Who Have Received Grace Still Remain in the Wilderness — An Evil Heart of Unbelief and Rebellion

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(2025.12.29 The Encouragement of the Holy Spirit)

Today, many of God’s chosen people are still walking the same path their ancestors walked in the wilderness. Though they have received forgiveness through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus and have been redeemed and brought back to God, they remain rebellious, harboring an evil heart of unbelief.

When we look back at what our ancestors experienced in the wilderness, we see that God intended to give grace to His chosen people—to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians, free them from slavery, and lead them into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet along the way, they rebelled and disobeyed. They did not fully trust in God or fear Him, and as a result, they failed to enter the promised land of Canaan.

We should also reflect on our own journey of faith. After believing in the Lord, have we obeyed the leading of the Holy Spirit and followed the path the Lord has shown us? Have we continued to walk on the righteous road that leads to eternal life, cutting ourselves off from sin, with no deceit in our hearts and without putting God to the test? Have we overcome in every trial and grown through them?

Or have we gained nothing on the path of faith—still living in hardship, complaining, spending our days in groaning, tears, and sorrow? Or are we continually tempted by the devil, falling again and again into the traps he sets, never truly learning the lesson? Or, like the ancestors, do we long for the glory and pleasures of the world and become unwilling to keep walking the path of sanctification?

Scripture clearly records what happened in the past so that believers may avoid repeating the failures of their ancestors. In faith, some experience no spiritual growth, become stagnant, or even fall backward. We must often reflect on the reasons for those past failures and take these historical lessons as a warning. To be able to receive blessings yet fail to obtain them—such people are more pitiful than those who have never believed. Therefore, do not harden your hearts or imitate the unbelief and rebellion of the wilderness generation. Such people cannot escape God’s judgment.

I do not desire that the spiritual lives of God’s chosen people die because of sin. You must understand God’s works and discern the purpose He intends to accomplish. Worship God with a sincere and honest heart, and continually learn the teachings of the truth. When you receive grace from God, you will have true peace. As the years of your faith increase, your faith will grow stronger, bearing more fruit of the Holy Spirit. Each day, you will enjoy the abundant love the Lord gives, share in the Lord’s feast, eat spiritual food, and drink the ever-flowing spiritual water. Your life will become vibrant and full of hope, and in the end, you will enter eternal rest.

Scripture 

1 Corinthians

Chapter 10 Verses 1–11

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant,

how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Numbers

Chapter 14 Verses 22–24

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness,

and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully,

him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

Hebrews

Chapter 3 Verses 7–14

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

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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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