Everyone admires the minister on the platform. Few people think about the years that happened before that moment. The late nights alone in prayer. The seasons of confusion and trust. The obedience that made no logical sense to anyone watching from the outside. That is the wilderness. And the wilderness is where God does His most essential work.

Jesus Himself, before launching His public ministry, spent time in the wilderness. Before David stood before Goliath, he spent years in the fields tending sheep, learning to trust God in the small moments. Before Elijah called fire from heaven on Mount Carmel, he heard God in a still small voice in his private place. Public authority always flows from private intimacy.

God Trusts You in Private Before He Trusts You in Public

Jesus said it plainly in Matthew 6: when you pray, go into your secret place and close the door. That secret place is not just a physical location. It is a posture of private obedience, a willingness to worship, yield, and listen when no one is watching and no applause is coming. God will not give you the platform before He can trust you in private. He tests the character before He expands the influence.

This is why sensitivity to the Spirit of God matters so deeply. Galatians 5:25 tells us to walk in the Spirit. That walking is a learned practice. It develops through small acts of obedience: following an impression to reach out to someone, responding to an inner prompting even when it seems insignificant, trusting what God places in your heart moment by moment. That practice in private becomes precision in public.

God Sees the Finished You Right Now

Here is what makes the wilderness bearable: God already sees who you are becoming. He is not watching you struggle and wondering how it will turn out. He is working from both ends simultaneously, the finished version He already sees and the person He is developing in you today. He told Jeremiah before he was formed in the womb, He knew him. What He has purposed in you will come to pass.

Trust the process. The wilderness is not your punishment. It is your classroom. And everything you are learning there is exactly what you will need when the doors open.

-Terrence Burton