Page 92 - The Road from Babylon to Zion

did not have any meat in the house. For a time we got down to having only a bag of
grits and some butter. In the darkest hour we even went without electricity in the
house and I had to cook the grits on a gas grill outside. Yet during this time the
Father gave me the grace to thank Him that we had food and that we were not going
hungry. I meant this with all the sincerity of my heart.

When we did not have meat I thanked Yahweh for what we did have. I did not want
to be as the generation of Israelites in the wilderness that murmured and complained
against God. I did not want to be disqualified from entering into the promised rest.
Though I did not demand it, the Father did give us meat. It was only a short time that
we were without meat, and it would have been a short time for Israel, too had they
not murmured and complained. They did not have to die in the wilderness. They did
not have to suffer a forty year delay to enter into the promised land.

What the Israelites underwent was a symbolic representation of the test before the
saints today. Yahshua declared that He is the bread come down out of heaven. In the
same way He is testing the saints to see if they will be satisfied with Him, and Him
alone. All those who travel to Zion will go through wilderness places. They will know
lack in some manner or another. It may be a lack of food. It may be a lack of clothing.
It may be a lack of shelter. It may be enduring sickness. It may be deprivation of any
number of things. Yahweh will allow us to suffer these things to see whether we are
pure virgins in our hearts, or not.

Will we blubber like babies saying, “Did you bring us out to this wilderness to die?”
Will we demand quail, and dream of the leeks and onions that others are eating? Or
will we be satisfied with Christ, our manna, our daily bread?

I am speaking from a place of experience when I say that the test is not easy. Our
flesh desires many things that compete with our devotion to Christ. We must crucify
the flesh with its affections and lusts (Galatians 5). When the flesh yearns for that
which is withheld by the will of God, we must buffet our body and keep it under
subjection to the spirit. We must make the good confession that we are satisfied with
Christ alone.

This is the purity of devotion found in the inhabitants of Zion.

The glory and fulfillment and joy and satisfaction of those who dwell in Zion is seen
in this verse that we have looked at already:

Revelation 14:1
Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and
with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and
the name of His Father written on their foreheads.