REFINER’S FIRE
Most people can’t handle a fast rise to the top because instant change is required. This is the reality of upgrade and forward. It is one thing for God to reveal His wonderful plan for you. It is another thing for you to conform your life to the image of that plan. Let’s go back to the example of Saul.
Saul was the king of Israel in title, but not in his heart. He was made king instantly and never conformed his way of thinking or sought after the will of God. That’s why God went and found a man “after God’s own heart.”
You see, David was willing to go through a very difficult process to conform his life to the image of the Lord’s plan to be a Godly king. And, he had to do it before he ever saw the plan manifest.
David was ostracized by his family and sent to tend sheep – a thankless and dangerous job. He faced and killed an evil giant, something no man in Israel, including Saul, would attempt. He endured Saul’s jealousy and numerous attempts to hunt him down and kill him.
He endured years of exile in the wilderness surrounded by snakes, scorpions and scoundrels. He was shamed, slandered and scorned publicly by those who should have respected him. Yet, these things prepared him for his upgrade to king.
Poor Saul was exactly the opposite. He ended up begging for death on the bloody slopes of Gilboa. It wasn’t his upgrade that killed him. It was his inability to change once the upgrade happened that cost Saul his life. There was a whole new life of responsibilities required of him, but he never embraced or owned up to them, or the God who made it all possible.
That’s not you! You go after God’s heart, so be prepared to embrace your upgrade despite hard times, setbacks and disappointments. Fire is needed to refine pure gold so ask Jesus to turn up the heat and hang on!
For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance. – Psalms 66:10-12
From my book Living Life /Forward
TODAY’S PROPHETIC THOUGHT
I know your heart, and know you can handle change. Be prepared to accept this change and use it for My Kingdom, even if it’s hard.