"So you are sick of working out those chords all by yourself? Want someone to teach you, hunh? These selfish musicians won't teach you anything . . . it's just not fair.

And your tired of being the only one who will sing, right? Why can't you get any help?

When you get through working out your own chords, you will have your own sound. An anointed sound that will minister to others.

When you get through being the only one who will sing and work, you will know how to fight the devil with a song . . . and WIN!

But it's hard sometimes to see that when you are going through your wilderness years.

I wonder if David felt that way as the youngest of his father's sons. The others got to serve in the Army, David had to go take care of the sheep.

Out there, alone in the wilderness with GOD, David learned to praise GOD like no one else, and David learned something else, too . . . how to fight. He could fight with a sling, and win where professional soliders refused to go!

In the wilderness, GOD took a young boy and turned him into the baddest singer / songwriter and soldier that the world has ever seen. He didn't learn it just from others . . . he learned it in the wilderness.

It takes a baaaaaaaaaad youngster to grab a bear by the chin and kill it by knocking it out. You don't learn that in the Army . . . you learn that in the wilderness with you, GOD and that bear.

Not many youngsters will run after a lion and rescue a lamb. King Saul didn't teach that to his soldiers in the Army . . . David learned it with GOD in the wilderness!

David learned how to praise and how to fight the enemy in the wilderness. And we will have them, too. Wilderness years, when you are growing into being a better musician by working out your own chords, a better director by learning how to love the people who won't sing, and a better MOM by learning how to sing as unto GOD, no matter what others think of your musical selections. If you are covered by the authority GOD has placed over you and you are singing to GOD, then SING IT!

Far from being the worst years of service, you will look back and consider those wilderness years to be the best training you ever had!

Let's pray. ""Father GOD, we love YOU so much and we know YOU care about us. We lift up in prayer everyone who is in their wilderness years. They are being prepared right now to come out with new songs, new praises, new ideas to worship YOU, Father GOD, in the beauty of holiness!

And I thank YOU GOD because YOU are also teaching them how to fight; they know how to keep their joy, their anointing, their integrity, their peace because YOU taught them that in the wilderness! Take them through those wilderness years, GOD, encourage them . . . and they will be a blessing to all of Your people when their time comes. In Jesus' Name, That Name Above All names, we pray . . . Amen!""