Adversity is not simply a tool. It is God's most effective tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives. The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth. Once we begin to understand this, and accept it as a spiritual fact of life, adversity becomes easier to bear.
-- Charles Stanley
It's hard to view difficult times positively. Every time we hit a road block in life we often get discouraged or begin to think we are just unlucky. As growing believers in the kingdom, we have the ability to look forward and see that God is molding us for growth. Charles Stanley's statement about adversity being God's most effective tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives is true. As he continues sharing that our circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth.
I can truly say that it is all true. If you have been following along through my blogs "The Project of Finding Strength & Purpose in my Wilderness", you will begin to see how the Lord has been moving in my life. From the unexpected passing of my sister, to the journey of my career, from miracles I've experienced in the past to the darkest moments of my life. I am approaching the halfway point to this series of my blogs and God has been working throughout these moments and seasons in my life.
In today's writing, we will dive into the next chapter of John Bevere's book and cover what "God's Super Highway" is. The wilderness is where God has located a super highway. This is where His way is prepared and the road to the high or exalted life of how God lives and thinks. JB shares that in all of history, few have followed this highway. Yet now, God is preparing many to journey upon it. In Isaiah 35:6,8:
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert...
A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness"
God's highway is simply called holiness. One of the definitions of holiness is "the state of being pure". Jesus says, " God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8). Jesus will not return for an unholy or impure church; He is coming for a church without a spot or wrinkle. It wasn't until I experienced the passing of my sister mixed in with all the other circumstances in life that weren't going my way that I realized God was working in my life to help me grow spiritually. It also wasn't until God directed me to this specific book by John Bevere that I started to realize God was beginning to purify my life.
This wasn't something I knew ahead of time that the Lord would begin doing this. It was in the midst of my wilderness journey that I began to open my mind and heart to what God wanted me to know and do, and that I understood this period of purification. During this time, we assume that God will automatically remove all the bad habits at once in our lives and "purify us", but that's not the case. We will continue to encounter our bad habits and maybe even more if we try to do it with our own strength.
The more we attempt to doing this OUR WAY, the more God will stretch us until we allow Him to do it HIS WAY. I had no idea that the chapter to my career would take 5 years until God revealed what He has been preparing for me. I had no idea that losing my sister so early in life would bring me to a point of being able to see forward and use these moments in life to encourage others and to share my story of how God has been working in my life.
His ways are not our ways. Most of the time, we see things in the way that we want to see it rather than seeing what God's way is. After I graduated college, I was blessed to find a job within my field the year after. I worked in the IT department for 5 years before I was given an offer to become a project manager at another company. From a job that was 20 minutes away from home to a job that was 2.5 hours away from home. In that moment in time, I thought this was the next step God was leading me to so I took it! Despite the drive, I was leveling up in my career both financially and professionally; however, after 2 weeks on the job, I realized, I entered the first part of my wilderness journey.
The environment was not healthy, the people were not healthy, the job was not healthy, and getting sick every week due to stress was not healthy. I tried to last a year to see where this job would take me but after 4 months of this unhealthy lifestyle, it was time for me to venture out. I returned back to the company where I did IT work but this time around, there were no available positions for me to get back into so in the mean time, I had to take whatever was available. In the midst of that job, an opening in my old department was posted and it was the job I created when I was still there.
When this posted, I thought God was opening the door for my return to the department where I would be doing what I loved to do and what I was doing before I left for a couple of months. I figured in my mind, my old director would hire me right away since I was the one who managed that position and who knew the operations of those responsibilities. I thought to myself and said THIS IS IT! God is placing me back. But I was wrong. My old director chose someone else. He went a different direction with the candidate he chose. It was surprisingly interesting and at the same time didn't make any sense to bring someone in with minimal background of what the job entailed. (Not saying the person was incapable).
So after I was told that I was not the chosen candidate, I began to ask God, "Why". Why wasn't I chosen? It was the easiest choice to make. Getting back the person who created it all and saving money with less training time. So I began looking for a new job again. I wasn't contented in the job that I was in at the time. It was definitely steps below my advancement and in a field that I was not part of. Then after I came to peace with what I was doing, God opened an opportunity in which I thought was going to be the next best thing. After 1.5 years, I was promoted and transitioned out of my department and location and moved into a larger department and further location.
It was supposed to be the next best thing for myself and also the company. I was hired to overlook operations, workflows, etc., for the clinical programs and to evaluate the efficiencies and inefficiencies of how they were running things. As exciting as this whole thing was supposed to be, once I joined this team, it was the opposite of what was sold to me. I was utilized as an assistant, doing work that was very inefficient. Taking part in things that had nothing to really do with the purpose of our jobs. During my time in this place, I thought another opportunity was on the horizon for me. I took the initiative to evaluate a process that affected multiple departments and to streamline a process for the company as a whole. The manager for one of the corporate departments appreciated my work and wanted me to join their team.
Just when I thought there was light at the end of the tunnel, it did not work out. There were plans for another promotion and transfer for me but it was placed on hold due to approval. With this, I was stuck again. Doing everyone's work which was inefficient. I didn't understand God's plan for me. Why was I still in this place? I was in this department for 3.5 years and was begging God for guidance on what to do. None of the internal plans and opportunities in the company were working out for me and the department I was working for at the time was honestly a joke. I was not being utilized correctly and they never encouraged or helped me advance in my career. One of my managers even told me to become a nurse if I wanted a raise since they're in such high demand. (Which is the total opposite of my IT career).
I had to navigate my way and do my best to put forth my abilities and experiences in some shape or form in that department to make sure I was doing and giving my best despite the road blocks. Again, it was just another moment in my life that I had to really accept, submit to God, and be at peace with my current situation in hopes that God was planning something greater for me. The problem was, I was trying to help God bring His plans to the surface instead of allowing Him to do it. The moment I stop looking for a way out and decided to wait on God to make a way, something opened.
It was an opportunity to work at the corporate office for my company. It was a position that was more inline with my experience, degree, and ability. I was shocked to have found it the day after it was posted, and that God revealed it so much quicker than I thought. The week I found the job opening, I applied and received a response. The following week I was interviewed then the week after I was offered the position. I couldn't believe all of this happened in less than a month. It's hard to explain the shock and excitement I was feeling throughout this whole process. From waiting so long and not knowing what was next to a fast moving promotion.
Looking back on this part of my life, I realized that the Lord was trying to see if I was still keeping Him in the forefront of my life or if I was just going to Him for the time being. Just like the Lord had Abraham put Isaac on the alter. God wanted to see if Abraham's love for Him was less than the promised blessing God gave to Him. This would prove if Abraham was serving the dream, serving God to get the dream, or if he was serving God and trusting the Lord for the fulfillment of the dream.
In reading that in John Bevere's book, it made every question I had in regards to my career over the last 3.5 years make sense. It all became clear to me. I was full of joy not only in the blessing God gave me but joy in the circumstances of my journey. It allowed me to grow in my faith and to see God's movement in it all. We have the tendency to not see the positive moments during the harshest seasons in our lives. But looking over this part of my wilderness journey, makes me feel more blessed for the tough seasons. It is in these moments that we grow deeper with God, that we see the blessing through the storm, that we are actually thankful for the bad because it reveals so much more than we ever expected.
Going back to the beginning of this post, I introduced holiness. Holiness is a work of God's grace, not an outward restriction of the flesh. God gives grace to the humble, not the proud. The proud person thinks holiness can be achieved without God's help by following written guidelines, rules, and regulations. The humble person knows this is futile and relies on the grace (strength) of the Lord. A close relationship (union) with God is pure, because only through such a relationship (union) can anyone be empowered to keep the laws written on the heart.
But God is not looking for an outward form of holiness. He wants an inward change of your heart, for a pure heart will produce pure conduct. Jesus said in Matthew 23:26, " First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish (the heart), that the outside of them may be clean also." If our heart is pure, we will not desire to act in a way that dishonors Jesus. The wilderness is one of the crucibles God uses to purify our motive and intentions. God is in the process of preparing our hearts prior to His return for His church. God is raising a generation of people that will show His glory, not their own. A people made in His image, walking in His character.
Unfortunately, today too many believers have a form of godliness, but not a tender heart that burns for Jesus. People seek only their own pleasure, comfort, and benefit. They seek only the benefits of the promises and unknowingly or conveniently exclude the Promiser Himself. In a state of deception, they delight themselves with the things of the world, expecting to receive heaven too and this is not what God desires. In James 1:27 it says, " Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means... refusing to let the world corrupt you." Jesus is going to come back for a church that is holy, without spot, blemish, or any such impurity (Ephesians 5:27), a body of people whose hearts are unpolluted by the world's ways.
Presently, the world's ways have leaked into the church. We have become infiltrated by its culture, and thus we are tarnished. In America, the church's values are polluted with worldliness and many are insensitive and do not realize the need for purification. This is unfortunate and churches have these types of people coming to church every Sunday thinking they are coming to remove their impurities but, after they leave the doors of the church, they return to the pollution of the world and outwardly reflect the opposite of purification.
Throughout this chapter in John Bevere's book, he gives great examples of the refining of God and how that process can be applicable to our spiritual lives. In Malachi 3:3, it shows how Jesus will refine (or purge) His church from the influence of the world, just as a refiner purifies gold. What is the fire God uses for refining us?
1 Peter 1:6-7 says, " In this you greatly rejoice, though not for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved (distressed) by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it (your faith) is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
God's fire for refining is trials and tribulations, which of course is the central theme of the wilderness journey. Once you are purified by the fiery trials, you become transparent. A transparent vessel brings no glory to itself, but it glorifies what is contains. Once we are refined, the world again will see Jesus. The fire or furnace is affliction, not a literal physical fire, as with which silver or gold is refined, which explains why He says, "but not as silver." Our trials are the intense heat that separates the precious from the vile.
God does not remove them against our will. That is why Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:21, that the person wanting to be purified "cleanses himself." If we want to justify or make excuses and continue to allow flaws to hold us back, God will not force us to release them. The process of suffering will have no value. Purification on the highway of holiness is a constant, ongoing, and often painful process. Jesus says in ,Matthew 5-8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
If we ask God to purify our hearts, He will remove the impurities hidden from our eyes. God knows our innermost thoughts and intents, even though we don't. We need to really learn how to recognize and welcome the seasons in the wilderness. As fiery trials hit, let us not become angry and blame others, but look for the purpose.
Let us examine our hearts and allow God to remove what is not pure. We need to be holy because He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). We need to remember that refinement strengthens that which is already good and cleanses or removes the things that weakens or defiles us. We need to welcome God's refining so that we might be a vessel of honor, able to beautifully and transparently show His glory.
Comments