Flourishing in the Wilderness

I have got a bit behind in my blog writing recently. Life has been Choca-block and it seems that every time I sit down to write, the baby cries, the phone goes or some crisis seems to appear. However I have taken the chance today as I sit in a coffee shop with a deliciously strong Americano to consider my next blog in the series of five things I have learnt in 5 + years of infertility. 

I am a wholehearted believer in God’s timing and I think it is great that this should be the next in the series as it is the name of my book that has been recently released (I certainly didn’t plan that when I wrote my first blog in the series early in 2019)

Through my five + years journeying through infertility I have often felt like I have been walking through a wilderness alone, dry and completely without direction. However through it all God has taught me so much about how I could not only survive in the wilderness but I could flourish. The only way I could do this was through having faith in God and his word.

God showed me a picture through a good friend and a prophetic man of God as we pondered on the verses of Ezekiel 47. Verse 9 in the message version says:

‘Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds.’

I wanted to flourish, I wanted to see life abound and so I actively sought ways in which I might flourish in the wilderness of infertility. God taught me so much and a while later God called me to write a book, and that is a whole other amazing story in itself!

I have been absolutely blown away at how God has used this book already to speak in to the lives of people going through many different types of wilderness. When I first put pen to paper I never expected God to move so powerfully. In fact I did briefly consider giving up! That was until whilst speaking at a women’s conference, someone prophesied over me about how God would bless people through the book that I was writing! I had only told Paul about it all so I knew it was a kick up the bum from God to get writing!!

The book has been out less than a month and in that time I have heard some amazing testimonies of how God has spoken to them through the words in the book. I don’t share this to blow my own trumpet, but only to bring Glory to God as they are certainly his words and not my own. I have had a letter from one man who had started to realise that he couldn’t start to love others until he truly loved himself and who has begun to flourish in an incredibly tough and arid wilderness. I have heard from a dear lady and prayer warrior who has come to realise the wilderness she is journeying through and is using the book to help her flourish even though she struggles with frailness and loneliness. I have had parents buy the book for children walking the road of childlessness and friends buy to support others through grief and despair.

I have always clung to a number of verses in Isaiah 61 and have had them spoken over me prophetically for many years. but as I sit here in the sunshine with my miracle gift of a daughter asleep beside me I know that all of his promises are yes and amen! 

So if you are going through a wilderness today, or know someone that is, may I suggest a little book, written by a broken women in the midst of her wilderness and discovering just how she might flourish in the living waters of God’s word.

  

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

    to proclaim freedom for the captives

    and release from darkness for the prisoners,

 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

    and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

   and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

    instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

    instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    a planting of the Lord

    for the display of his splendour"

P.s. if you do buy the book (which you can purchase from eBook and paperback here: Flourishing in the Wilderness ) and God speaks to you please leave a review or contact me, I would love to hear your stories and to pray for you as you flourish and thrive.