Why The Holy Spirit Leads You Into Hard Places

Jesus gets baptized, and the very next move in Matthew’s Gospel is not a platform, a spotlight, or a comfortable victory lap. The Spirit leads Him into the wilderness to be tempted. That detail stops us in our tracks, because it forces a question most of us avoid: what if some of the hardest seasons of spiritual growth are not detours, but Spirit-led training?

We talk honestly about wilderness seasons that feel unpleasant and exposing, the kind that make you aware of your limits and your weak spots. We share why mistakes don’t have to be the end of your walk with God, and how failure can reveal both your character and the grace of God in a way no amount of “head knowledge” can. Accurate teaching matters, but information alone doesn’t form a disciple. Obedience does, especially when it pulls you outside your comfort zone.

We also tackle a sensitive tension in church life: staying connected versus staying obedient. We’re not calling anyone to be disrespectful or rebellious. We are saying that loyalty to a denomination, a ministry team, or a familiar role can’t replace hearing the Holy Spirit. From Moses to Elijah to John the Baptist, Scripture shows wilderness as a recurring path where God forms people for real assignments. A powerful testimony drives it home: saying yes to a “good” church need can still put you in the wrong place if God didn’t send you.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Key Verse

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Everybody, welcome to another WoeFo Yo Short. This is Seda. Was going back through the Gospels, my favorite gospel, the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has just been baptized in the River Jordan at the end of chapter three. And here in verse one of chapter four, it says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

That's your verse.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

He has been led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Bones and I have had full episodes, sometimes a series of episodes talking about the temptation and what all that was about. But I wanted to

Led By The Spirit Into Testing

SPEAKER_01 1:06

kind of stress on one thing. Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted, but he's led by the Spirit. It was not pleasant. It was eye-opening. It made us very aware of our own limitations. But there were temptations. We did not, at least I can tell you, I did not pass the test the first time, for sure. Sometimes on the second time I didn't pass the test. And it revealed a lot about my character, the fact that I had to go through these things. But what it revealed more was the grace of God and how it actually works, and how the character of Jesus Christ and how the workings of

Mistakes That Reveal God’s Grace

SPEAKER_01 2:15

how God operates, how it actually happens versus some theoretical thing you're hearing from a pulpit. Even if it's 100% accurate what you're hearing from the pulpit on Sunday morning, even if it's 100% accurate what you're hearing in your Bible studies, uh home groups, even if what I'm saying is 100% accurate, it really doesn't benefit you a whole lot, just being head knowledge. When you really pick up and start to step into your destiny and what God has called you to do is when you are following the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit to wherever He has called you to be. And that isn't always easy. Guess what? You make mistakes. That's part of it. No, I did. Guess what? The mistakes and the experience and the learning experience that happened through those mistakes are part of what shaped me and solidified my actual walk with the Lord and my relationship with the Lord.

Obedience Over Loyalty To Institutions

SPEAKER_01 3:31

It was these very things. And there's going to be a lot of people that don't like the wilderness teaching. We mentioned this before. Well, you need to stay connected. You need to stay connected. And I'm not really going to even debate it. All I know is that being obedient to the Holy Spirit is going to reap much better fruit than being loyal to your denomination, even being loyal to your ministry staff. And I'm not saying be disrespectful to them at all or anything like that. By all means, if you're called to be in the body that you're in, help out. Be obedient. Be a team player. However, you have to make sure that all this stuff that goes on is not at the expense of hearing from the Holy Spirit. And there might be times, this is kind of targeted toward you who are going to be experiencing this or might be going through this. There's going to be times where the Holy Spirit might say go for some of you. And the key thing is be obedient. And you're going to have pushback, and they're going to say, well, that's not, you know, you're isolated, you know, and you're being a lone wolf, or you're being a lone sheep, and

Biblical Wilderness Patterns And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 4:40

the wolves can get the sheep, and all these other things. And all I'm going to say is the wilderness experience that Moses went through, the wilderness experience that Elijah goes through, the wilderness experience that David goes through, the wilderness experience that John the Baptist is just out there ministering in the wilderness. The wilderness experience that Jesus goes through, the wilderness experience, even with Paul and John being isolated on the Isle of Patmos. There's something about following the leading of the Lord that will get you along, get you to be intimate with him. I cannot stress enough that what is going to yield fruit is your obedience.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

And rather than be cookie-cutter, churchgoer, be a little bit dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Be willing to obey. And again, not stir trouble, not to be a jerk, not to make yourself seem all fluffed up and important, but you have to be willing to walk away. You have to be willing to go and be led into your wilderness season so that you can come

Be Willing To Go And Grow

SPEAKER_01 5:55

out empowered and you will endure temptation in there. People are, oh, you know what's bad out there. There's a lot of temptation. Yep, you're right. And you're going to have to man up, woman up, and you're going to have to be led by the Spirit and be in the Word so that through Christ you can overcome that. You're going to have to go undergo some testing, or else you're just Charlie B. Pew Sitter for the rest of your walk with Jesus. Now, if you're called to be Charlie B. Pew Sitter, hey, that's great. But if you have a call, and we all do, be willing to go out, be willing to accept the criticism, be graceful about it, uh, walk in love, and you know, oh, there's temptation out there, there's this bad thing can happen. Well, that's kind of the point. Kind of the point of going on an adventure. Uh, you're not going to go on an adventure uh just being kowtowed to and being comfortable all the time. Part of what makes it an adventure is you're going out there, you're getting past your comfort zones. Even in your walk with the Lord, you're going to be getting outside of your comfort zones and you're going to be pushing some boundaries. You're you're going to end up doing some things that you know. It's not that you just didn't think they were possible. You know they're not possible with just you. And all of a sudden, as you become obedient and walk in that obedience, even though you might mess up, the fruit that's yielded from you walking with God and being led by his spirit, all of a sudden, Jesus just shows up on the scene and you're going, Oh Lord Jesus, uh, this is your doing. And it's marvelous in our eyes because sure couldn't do it ourselves. Be willing to

A Testimony About Misplaced Assignment

SPEAKER_01 7:55

go. I was just listening, coming in. I was going to talk about this and had something planned uh coming in from work, working a little bit overtime, and the guy was giving his testimony about he was called to be on the mission field, and he was miserable for three years just because he agreed to help the pastor save the church that was failing, and just went to a dark place and he hears this voice going, you know, what do you do? Well, I go on mission fields, I write books. He said, Well, what are you doing here? And the next thing you know, he's praying, he's travailing about it, he's he's torn up. And said, The loudest he ever heard the Holy Spirit talk to him. So he turned around. He said, What are you doing here? I said, Well, I was I was helping the pastor save the church.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

He said, The pastor told you to do that, I didn't tell you to do that, and he's not me. Again, I know this is going to challenge some of you.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

And I'm not going to say, be rebellious. What I am going to say is be obedient to God, be obedient to the word, and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. By doing those,

Closing Challenge And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_01 9:05

we spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and that's how it expands. Woe FOYO. Everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woefoyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For Bones and Myself, this is C Dub, reminding you that if you're going to grow, you got a woefo yo. Get in the word for yourself.