The word of God says that upon His second coming, which is when He comes as a thief in the night to receive unto Him His bride who has made herself ready — being the five wise virgins — that He will only receive unto Himself those who have been made ready. For He left behind those who had not yet made themselves ready, being the foolish virgins. Represented by those who camp at the level of complacency. Being the base camp of salvation. Represented by Zechariah 1:12-13. Being those who are stagnant in spirit.

Just as a bride in the natural makes herself ready for the day upon which she may be received unto her bridegroom as a crown of glory, getting ready as a bride for Jesus all happens in the “crucible of fire” that is otherwise known as “the wilderness”. Which is all those who have left the base camp of comfort of the 30-fold seed that is salvation. Which is in Stage 2 of the the three-stage journey from a baby, to a teenager, to an adult represented by the three stage maturity cycle of Matthew 7:14 — which is the journey to becoming a mature son of God (100-fold seed).

A mature son of God, being those who are led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) from glory to glory, being from the glory of salvation to the glory of the fullness of the seed deposited at salvation, is a son who manifests all the attributes of his Father – His thoughts and ways – being His nature, so that this new nature may produce the fruit of that nature, being the fruits of the Spirit. For God says we shall all be known by our fruit. Fruit is the outward sign of inward maturity. Which is the condition of being known as sons.

Stage 2 is the call to discipleship of the wilderness which BEGINS with “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” that then LEADS to the process of “the baptism of fire” throughout that process, that we may be tried and tested. God says, I will test you. In Deuteronomy 8:2, it says: “You shall remember all the way – being “the difficult way” of discipleship of Matthew 7:14 – which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, TESTING you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” In 1 Corinthians 3:13, it says, “the FIRE WILL TEST the quality of each person’s work.”

Stage 2, the call to discipleship, all happens in the wilderness. We have to leave the comfort of Egypt – being the comfort zone of “our old ways and old thoughts”, and in faith, step out into the wilderness. In Isaiah 40:3, it says: "The voice of one crying in THE WILDERNESS: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in THE DESERT a highway for our God.”

So what we can tell from this is that the wilderness is like a desert. So, firstly, as a desert, the wilderness represents the desert of heat, representing the baptism of fire. But what a desert also represents is an arid place, a barren place, an empty place, which represents the place we enter into where all the comforts of our lives (represented by Egypt) are left behind. And this is deliberate. For God wants to get us alone with Him. The wilderness is where God can meet us one-to-one, just us and Him, that He may de-weed the garden of our hearts, and replant it with the tree of righteousness, that will produce fruit after its own kind.

After entering the narrow gate of salvation of the Red Sea, Israel then entered the refining fire of the wilderness as the next part of their journey to the Promised Land. The point being that God will move mountains to be alone with us. He moved the mountain of the Red Sea and the mountain of opposition of the pursuing Egyptians. God so desperately wants this one-on-one time with us that like He says, He will allure us into the wilderness. In Hosea 2:14, it says: "Therefore I am now going to ALLURE her; I will lead her into THE WILDERNESS and speak tenderly to her.”

And how does God allure us to where we may be made ready? By a promise of something better. Because did He not have to allure Israel out of Egypt into the crucible of fire of the wilderness? And what did He use to allure her? Was it not the promise of something better of the Promised Land.

Which is the promise of a land they could call “their own”. Which is the promise of a land that flows with “milk and honey”. Which is the promise of a land where they were no longer slaves to a foreign tyrant – being the foreign tyrant of the devil, who enslaves us to the ways of the fallen nature, being his nature. For he is the fallen one of Revelation 9:1 through which we all became fallen ones.