Wilderness periods of our lives—those dry and desperate seasons when God seems distant and detached, perhaps even indifferent or impotent—can seem an abnormal and painful part of our lives that simply must be painfully plodded through and somehow endured. Yet, far from being something abnormal and life-threatening, like a cancer invading our bodies, wilderness periods represent a fundamental element of our life in the Spirit and part of God's well-orchestrated plan to guarantee that we become and possess everything he desires for us.