Category: Trials

Visions Becoming Reality

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Oswald Chambersby Oswald Chambers

The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7

We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.

Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.

The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.

by Oswald Chambers

Called, Tested and Purposed by God

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David Wilkersonby David Wilkerson

The apostle Paul says of God, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Simply put, every person who is “in Christ” is called by the Lord. And we all have the same mandate: to hear God’s voice, to proclaim his Word, to never fear man and to trust the Lord in the face of every conceivable trial. Indeed, God’s promises apply to all of his servants. That is, we don’t need to have a message prepared to speak before the world. He has pledged to fill our mouths with his Word at the exact moment it’s needed. But that will happen only if we trust him.

Paul tells us that many are appointed as preachers, teachers and apostles, and that they’re all going to suffer for that reason. He counts himself among those: “I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things” (2 Timothy 1:11-12). He was saying, in effect, “God has given me a holy work to do. And because I have that calling, I’m going to suffer.”

Scripture shows that Paul was tested as few ministers ever have been. Satan tried to kill him time after time. The so-called religious crowd rejected and ridiculed him, and at times even those who supported him left him abused and forsaken. But Paul was never confounded before men, nor was he ever dismayed or put to shame before the world. And, interestingly, he did not burn out. On every occasion, he had an anointed word from God to speak, just when it was needed.

Paul could not be shaken — and he never lost his trust in the Lord. Instead, he testified, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (1:12). Simply put, “I have committed my life fully to the Lord’s faithfulness. Live or die, I am his.”

Beloved, you may be facing battles and the heavens may seem as brass to you. But the Holy Spirit is faithful to restore you and raise you up. He will see you through every dark night, so don’t let the devil break you down!

by David Wilkerson