Gal 3:5 “So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
This scripture was on my heart this morning that I share with you.
Nothing is wasted, every process has a purpose, and as Jim and I process the things we are hearing and receiving in this conference this morning, we are reminded of Isaiah 54:16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord.
The times we aren’t seeing what we hope or expected is an opportunity for growth and expansion. Every time we question and explore, get frustrated, is an opportunity of going deeper with the Lord in seeking revelation, understanding, wisdom and knowledge.
We have a choice in these times to keep moving forward in understanding, in gaining wisdom, allowing the Spirit to do its perfect work in us, or to wander off, away from Christ, away from those in which the hammering may be seemingly coming from, or the situation that brought the pain and away from breakthrough that can be ours.
One might say the season is over, but often I have seen and experienced in my own life and walk, we can move on without allowing the season to perfect in us what the Lord is wanting to perfect, and we jump out of the ‘fire’. The beauty with health issues is you can’t jump out of the fire, you have to keep walking through it, along with other seasons we may find ourselves in, we don’t have a choice.
With, and in every season, we can bear fruit in the Lord. The fruit of the spirit as it says in Gal 6, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and so on. “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction, whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Eternal life, that place of knowing God and being known by Him. His character, his nature being perfected in us. The purity of a life in Him and through Him who is perfect, who is holy, who is pure.
The refining process of being hammered by the blacksmith in order that we become who God created us to be, can be an uncomfortable one at times, but one that is worth the purpose of the process as we come through the other side seeing the things we long to see in the Lord, being free in who God made us to be, in all the beauty He put inside each one of us, that has been covered over, but now revealed to the whole world, the sons and daughters arising and shining, and the glory of the Lord rising over each one of us. Isaiah 60:1. What an exciting and beautiful place, full of colour, full of light, joy, peace, full of such a beauty, too wonderful for our eyes to comprehend.
As Jim and I sit and watch in this gathering of believers, seeing people free, expressing the creativity and beauty of who God made them to be, all in different places but all longing for Him, we sit in peace and rest in the knowledge of what He is doing on the earth in this season. The sons and daughters arising and shining in the Glory of the Lord and that is exciting to see and know what God is doing in our nation and the nations of the world. He has the victory, death has lost its sting, so although much is happening in the world as it says in Isaiah 60:2 “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you, and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you:”
God is at work in our nations and it’s exciting – Arise and shine.
