THROUGH THE WILDERNESS

H
ave you ever been in a “wilderness experience”? Odds are
that you have. Maybe you are going through one right now,
or will be in one in the near future. “Wilderness” is part of
life. Songs, poems, books, and movies have tried to communicate
the battles won and lost during these difficult seasons.
What if the main purpose of these “wilderness experiences” is
not to take something out of us but to put something within? What if
the most loving thing God can do at times is to allow difficulties into
our lives? What if the love, grace, and acceptance that we all long for
were best revealed to us in our own personal “wilderness experi-
ence”?
In this book, let us explore together the lessons and the love that
God longs to pour into us as we journey “Through the Wilderness.”

James Krechnyak Jr. graduated from Elim Bible Institute in 1995.

From there his life took several twists and turns with a mixture of
working at home with youth and in a local coffee bar, training and
JAMES KRECHNYAK JR.
staffing with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and doing missions
in places like Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Jamaica, and
Mexico. In 1999 he met Rachel, the woman of his dreams. They
married in her homeland of Ireland and have remained there since
working as missionaries with LGOM (Life Giving Outreach Ministries). In 2004,
they church planted Portlaoise Family
Worship Centre, and continue in that
work to this day with their three chil- Christian Life / Spiritual Growth

dren, Caleb, Benjamin, and Brianna.

A Division of
House To House Publications
www.h2hp.com
 Through
The Wilderness

by James Krechnyak Jr.

A Division of House to House Publications

Through The Wilderness 1

Through the Wilderness
Copyright © 2008 by James Krechnyak, Jr.
All rights reserved

ISBN 978-0-9778614-9-1

Partnership Publications
A Division of House to House Publications
www.H2HP.com

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are taken from the New King James
Version (NKJV) of the Holy Bible. © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson Inc.

Printed in the United States of America

2 Through The Wilderness

 “And you shall remember that the Lord your God
led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble you and test you. So He humbled you,
allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which
you did not know nor did your fathers know,
that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread
alone; but man lives by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:2-3

Through The Wilderness 3

 Dedication
This book is dedicated to the four most influential people in
my life. They are my wife Rachel, my two sons, Caleb and Ben-
jamin, and daughter, Brianna. There are so many others who have
impacted me and who have imparted the message of this book, but
these are the daily reminders to me of God’s love and grace, as
they teach me to rely on Christ in deeper and deeper ways.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Kelli Cooney and Marianne Lawlor for
their help in the process of editing this book, and encouraging me
to take the step of faith to “jump off the cliff” and get this book
published.
I would like to thank my parents, Jim and Helen Krechnyak,
who have always encouraged me to step out and do what God has
called me to do.
I would like to thank Keith Dowling for the personal photo-
graph used on the back cover of the book.
Last but not least, I am so thankful to God, and the daily rela-
tionship that I have with Him. Through Him I have hope, and life
has become worth living. Without Him I would have no message
to write.

4 Through The Wilderness

 Contents

Section I: The Process in the Wilderness ................................. 9

Chapter One: The Start of God’s Process ........................ 10
Chapter Two: The Process Can Bring Pain ..................... 18
Chapter Three: Failure as Part of the Process .................. 22
Chapter Four: The Beginning of the End ........................ 27

Section II: Lessons in the Wilderness .................................... 31

Chapter Five: Springs in the Wilderness ......................... 32
Chapter Six: Wilderness Breeds Fire ............................... 36
Chapter Seven: “I Need Rain, Not Storms” ..................... 41
Chapter Eight: “Don’t Stop, We’re Not There Yet” ......... 45
Chapter Nine: Wilderness Brings Death .......................... 52
Chapter Ten: Wilderness Is Not Forever .......................... 62

Section III: Into the Promised Land ....................................... 67

Chapter Eleven: Healing for the Soul .............................. 68
Chapter Twelve: From Rejection to Acceptance ............. 74
Chapter Thirteen: All We Need Is Love .......................... 78
Chapter Fourteen: Greater Grace ..................................... 86
Chapter Fifteen: Just Receive .......................................... 92
Chapter Sixteen: Finding Purpose ................................... 98

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6 Through The Wilderness
 Introduction

Jesus told stories. He used objects and situations of everyday

life to create parables that communicated deep spiritual truths. For
those who had an open heart to receive His words, they released
something of eternity. Those words were as springs in the desert
places. Those words still have the same impact two thousand years
later for people who are willing to risk believing.
The Bible is very similar in its nature. It is a giant collection of
stories, imagery, poetry, prophetic utterances, and historical facts,
all designed to lead us in our journey into understanding what
God is like and how we can know Him. One of the concepts brought
forth in its pages is that of the wilderness experience. Some of
those references are literal stories of those who wandered in these
difficult terrains, and others are figurative examples of a process
God wants to take us through in our lives.
For over a decade, my initial journey in knowing God seemed
to be surrounded by wilderness-type experiences. While I had
known the goodness of God at times in my life, I felt a long way
from the life of abundance that the Bible spoke of. It seemed to
taunt and elude me. Freedom was more of an idea and concept
than a way of life. I felt like I was a prisoner in some sort of cage.
Over the years I have come to learn that I was not alone. Many
have or have had the same story. The glories of eternity seem to be
far from a present life full of struggle and disappointment. So much
so, that some even consider why they became Christians. Was it
just to live a life of misery trying to serve and lay one’s life down
for this God who demands righteousness and holiness?
God’s message for us is that there is another way. There is life
beyond the iron bars that hold us. There is hope.

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 To me, the wilderness has been a place of great difficulty and
struggle, but also a place from which true life flows. In 1996, my
perspective of what it means to be a Christian drastically changed.
I was able to walk past the prison doors that surrounded my heart
and I began to experience the abundant life I had always heard
about.
To this day, I continue to feast on those revelations and what I
learned in those difficult and sometimes despairing places of wil-
derness. There are times when I need to remind myself of those
truths because I forget. There are seasons when God brings greater
revelation than I already have, and so I let Him teach me. The
adventure of knowing God never ends.
This book is my continuing journey into understanding what it
means to live by the life of Another (see Galatians 2:20), and my
path in knowing Him more. For it is in Him that we move out of
the shadow world, that place where we have all come from, and to
which none of us wants to return. The place that we all too often
live, when true reality for those of us who know God should be
outside the iron cage.
I pray that this book will encourage you in your adventure of
knowing Christ, and the life that He has made available for you.

8 Through The Wilderness

 Section I

The Process
in the Wilderness

Through The Wilderness 9

 Chapter One

The Start of God’s Process

My Story...Beginnings
I was around the age of five when I became a Christian. I don’t
remember coming to an altar in a Church or saying a special “Sal-
vation Prayer.” I am sure that there must have been some begin-
ning point, but in my memory, I only remember Jesus always be-
ing there.
This is the heritage that I was given from my parents. The Bible
tells us that to be “Born Again” is a decision that each individual
makes, and that it cannot be passed on from generation to genera-
tion. Neither can it be obtained through some intricate form of
osmosis by growing up attending church. That’s not the heritage
that I am speaking about. My heritage is that my parents trusted in
Jesus with their lives and committed themselves to raising us kids
in an environment that illuminated the character and nature of God.
That provided us at a very young age the chance to know God.
My parents did not have this same opportunity growing up.
Their stories are a bit different. The scars from abusive homes are
now the balm that God uses to bring healing to others. Abuse comes
in many forms, but I believe one of the most deadly is that of “un-
graceful” parents. That in short is what my parents experienced.
The out-workings of “un-grace” manifest itself in many forms.
Arms that never hug. Acceptance that is never spoken. Tears that
are never collected. Words that tear down. Fear that is put in. An-
ger. Hate. Violence.
Many know this familiar road of rejection. Rejection builds
walls around the heart, and the wounds of “un-graceful” parents
10 Through The Wilderness
go deep. Where my parent’s lives started in that place, I thank God
that they did not end there.
The beginning of my story really starts with the beginning of
my parents. The Bible tells us that when we are “Born Again,” the
old becomes new and that while we were dead in transgression
and sin, in Jesus we become alive. So it was when I was just a little
guy that my parent’s life really began. It was then that they be-
came alive.
It was the mid 1970’s. My parents had grown up in Catholic
homes, but that was the extent of their religion. There was no real
sincerity. No personal relationship with Jesus. My mother’s par-
ents had been attending a Catholic Church that was experiencing
the “Charismatic Movement,” where many were being filled with
the Holy Spirit and experiencing things similar to that in the book
of Acts of the Bible. In time, my grandparents became the first in
our family to come into a personal relationship with Jesus. In their
zeal, they tried to get my parents to come to the Church and check
it out, but they just ridiculed the idea.
On a weekend when my grandparents went out of town on
vacation, my parent’s curiosity got the best of them, and they went
to the Church. The impact of it was so powerful that when my
grandparents returned from vacation, my parents continued to go.
It was the testimonies of changed lives that got my parents the
most. Those who were in bondage to alcohol, drugs, depression,
and rejection, were now free and enjoying a life of newness in
Christ. Those people were not perfect, but my parents recognized
the difference between those lives and their own. It was only a
matter of time until they made their own decision to follow Jesus.
I was soon to follow.
So what kind of relationship does a five year old have with
Jesus? I didn’t have the theology all worked out, or necessarily
right, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto Me.” Even

Through The Wilderness 11

in the times of Jesus, the disciples, those suppose to be nearest to
Jesus, thought that children were just too young to understand the
mysteries of God. And yet, Jesus tells us that unless we come unto
Him as little children, there is no place for us in the Kingdom of
heaven. Children can have the most simple and trusting sort of
faith, that we many times lack as adults. And so was I simple in
my faith. I heard, and just believed.
I remember being up at 5:30 in the morning as a young boy. I
would climb into my dad’s lap. He would be sitting in the large
black leather chair that sat in the corner of our living room in front
of the window. It was there that I would spend the next hour. My
dad would have his Bible in hand, and I would have my ‘Picture
Bible’. I would read my way through that red hardcover book
morning after morning, as it told me in its comic strip format, about
the people of the Bible. Abel’s offering that was accepted by the
Lord. Noah’s obedience to build the ark. David the shepherd boy.
Paul and his journeys.
Life was simple but would soon be interrupted by a great
change. School. When I started first grade my sister was already
in fifth. We went to the same school. It was a Christian school run
by the church we were going to. In the mornings we had chapel. It
was in these chapel times I started to learn about hearing God. The
microphone would be opened to any of us students who felt God
was speaking something to share with the rest of the student body.
I would go up at different times and share. Some weeks both my
dad and I would get similar words that we felt were from God, and
unknowing to each other, he would share them at the midweek
prayer meeting and I would share them at school. It was not until
people, who were at both meetings, told my parents that we learned
this was going on. This relationship with God was pretty exciting!
I did well in school. I was a bit of a perfectionist, but we will
get into some of that later. At the end of every school year, there
was a big awards night, where students from grades first through
12 Through The Wilderness
twelfth received academic awards for their accomplishments dur-
ing the school year. My second grade year I received the highest
award possible. I had the highest grade point average in all my
combined subjects for the whole school! When I went up to re-
ceive my award, the principal announced that I had finished the
year with a 97%. My struggle to hold back the tears erupted in an
explosion of cries going back to my seat, because I thought I had
done better and should have had a 98%!
These are some of the snapshots from my early childhood
memories. They serve as mental photographs to help remind me
of what God did in those early years. They also display events that
paved the way for the pages of my life not yet filled. Life is a
journey, and we must always remember that. God has a way of
allowing it to make twists and turns in order to help us face truth.
Revealing truth is what God does, and whether or not we live in
that truth is our decision.
My first response to truth was to become a follower of Christ.
And so, the journey begins.

It Starts with a Dream

In Genesis 37:5 it tells us, “Joseph had a dream.” In Genesis
37:9 it reads, “Then he had another dream.” The story continues
with Joseph informing his family about the dreams, and that a day
would come when they would all bow down to him. Not only did
his dreams come across as arrogant, but they were a big claim
coming from one of the youngest in the family. Little did Joseph
know where those dreams would take him before he would see
them come to fulfillment.
Most of us are similar to Joseph. God gives us some direction
and we suddenly become the expert and go around letting every-
one else know it. Something we at least tend to do when we are
young.

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 God did speak to Joseph. The dreams would come to pass. But
in his zeal, Joseph needed the wisdom to hold back the contents of
those dreams. Zeal is good, but it will not get us to where we need
to be. It can get us started, but it will take something more to get us
beyond what lies ahead.
After Jesus finished His journey as a man on this earth, He left
His disciples to carry the movement for spiritual awakening to the
nations. The Jewish priests were jealous and wanted it stopped.
They had seen the Truth in living reality, but refused to live by it.
They even tried to destroy the Truth by killing it, but even that
failed when Jesus rose from the dead.
On one occasion after beating the disciples and wanting to put
them to death, a wise one stood among them and said that if what
these disciples were saying was lies, the movement would eventu-
ally disintegrate. He knew zeal only had so much momentum. Only
truth can sustain. And if what these men were about was truth,
then they were in big trouble for fighting against it because truth
is God.
There is another danger with zeal if it is disconnected from
wisdom. It can take us away from the truth if we allow it. How
many cults started with some piece of the truth that a group was
passionate about emphasizing? Suddenly they were the only ones
who knew anything.
God has ways of keeping us on target while revealing His truth
to us. One way is through the obstacle of “time.” Things just don’t
happen overnight. Delay to zeal can be like a bucket of water on a
day when it is below zero. It begins to freeze.
Paul tells to young Timothy in ministry to hold fast to the words
of prophecies spoken over him. Why? It was probably because it
was going to get harder before easier. So when things get rough,
and are not happening fast enough, just remember “how” and “why”
you started in the first place.

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 The funny thing about truth is that deep inside we desire it, but
many times we do everything we can possibly do to fight against
it. So God pulls out stop number one: delay.
It has been said, “The larger the vision, the longer the process
needed to build the character to sustain it.” To by-pass the process
is to bring about certain ruin. “Time” will always be a very impor-
tant ingredient in the mixture of our lives.
Joseph wasn’t the only one. Exodus 2:11-15 tells how Moses
saw a Hebrew, one of his own people, being beaten by an Egyp-
tian. In order to free the man from his suffering, Moses killed the
Egyptian and buried him in the sand. The next day, Moses saw
two Hebrews fighting and asked, “Why are you hitting your fel-
low Hebrew?”
In response, the Hebrew said, “Who made you ruler over us?
Will you kill us as you killed the Egyptian?” By the tone of the
Hebrew’s response to Moses, we can speculate that Moses had
some indication that he was called to be the Hebrew deliverer or
one of the deliverers, and was trying to act the part. The problem
was that Moses had too much of Egypt (which represents the
world’s system to us today) in him that still needed to be removed.
The pages of the Bible are full of stories of God’s process and
preparation. They say to every story there are two sides. So in-
stead of ending this Chapter with the heavy reality that God is
developing character in lives, sometimes through some very diffi-
cult circumstances, let’s look at the “process of maturity” from a
slightly different angle.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless
His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals
all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction,
who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your

Through The Wilderness 15

 youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:1-5, italics
added are mine).
I don’t know if you have ever had the chance to view an eagle
in flight as I have, but they are quite amazing birds. Eagles do
something no other bird does. They soar. I have watched on a windy
day the crows trying to push themselves into the wind, flapping
their wings, almost in a panic to get anywhere (many times the
same way we are when we are in any type of difficult circum-
stance). Even in a storm, the eagle has the ability to tilt its wings as
the rudder of an airplane, and up they go, high above the storm.
From there, they gain perspective and can soar with ease. God’s
heart for us is that our youth would be renewed like the eagle—
free from striving and struggling with inconsistency.
An eagle, as do we all, goes through a “process of maturity” to
get to that vantage point. It begins when they are young eaglets,
and mother has them snuggled in her nest in the cliff of a moun-
tain. All of the eaglet’s needs are provided for by its mother. Then
one day, she returns to the nest, but with no food. Soon she is
doing something very illogical to an eaglet. She begins to tear the
nest apart! And just when things couldn’t get any worse, she pushes
the eaglet to the cliff’s edge!
Have you ever felt like that or been there before? Where is
God when there is pain? Why do we have to go through what we
do? If that eaglet does not learn how to fly, it will die. Eaglet doesn’t
know that, but loving mother does. So she pushes baby off the
side of the mountain. But she doesn’t leave eaglet to fend for it-
self. We read in Isaiah 40:31:
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run
and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
As that eaglet falls, trying to flap its wings for the first time
with little success, mother swoops down under little eaglet and

16 Through The Wilderness

catches him or her on her wings and brings them back to the moun-
tains edge. Then the process begins again, until at some stage, the
eaglet learns to fly.
Our Father God is loving and kind, and allows things that bring
pain to come in our path, only because He sees our end is death if
we don’t go through them. It is that perspective that can cause us
to not only make it, but say as David in the midst of the storm,
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not His benefits!”
There are two types of wilderness experiences. The first is be-
cause of some sin in our lives. The second comes just because we
live in a fallen world. No matter the reason, God’s desire is always
the same. It is to bring about godly character and deeper intimacy
with Him. Your God loves you passionately, and if you can see it,
that revelation will sustain you through any wilderness.

Through The Wilderness 17