What are the ingredients of you? What comes out when you are hard-pressed? Sometimes Holy Spirit allows you to go through a situation in order to show you where you are at spiritually…. When you are “hard pressed” the truth of where you are in spiritual maturity gets revealed by your response of the pressing. It can be both painful and revealing at the same time.
I have found that my reaction to pressing situations reveals what God wants me to work on to mature deeper in Him. I write that sentence as if it was easy, but I’d be lying to you if I told you it was. When you are in pain – how you handle that pain can really be revealing. If you have been praying, “Father, I want MORE of you. If there be any evil within me, please reveal it, please change it.” Opens up the door of spiritual growth. And it CAN be painful. What I believe God wants to see when He allows what the devil means to use to hurt us or to test us (to see how we respond – are we going to respond in the flesh or are we going to respond by handling ourselves in the manner that God shows us to in His Word) – THAT is the test. How are YOU going to respond to pressing moments in life?
Think about it this way – if you are a parent perhaps when your child was small, you had him/her lean up against a wall and marked where they were in their physical growth process. In years to come you can look back fondly on those marked dates and times of growth. I believe that we have “markers” that God shows us where we are at spiritually and when we pray that God would grow us – that growth can be shown in how we respond to what life brings our way. Just as the case with Job, ol’ slewfoot is not allowed to do anything to us that God does not allow. Take a look at Job 1:6-12:
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”
I believe that ol’ slewfoot who is also called, “the accuser” goes before the Father and says, “Watch and see the pot stirring that is going to occur when I put these two sisters (who are so very different) together. One of them you have been trying to teach not to walk in the flesh and to walk in accordance to your “spiritual fruits” (see Galatians 5:22-23) And the other, who you are trying to heal of people wounds. You just sit and watch what happens when the first (who has always gotten a kick out of pot-stirring reactions) and the other, who has confessed “not liking people” get together. It is sure to be a whole fireworks display that will really show you WHO it is who is winning this battle.”
satan had to get God’s permission. Remember, only God is omnipotent. Ol’ slewfoot forgot that God sees ALL, knows ALL and IS in complete control of ALL things. (Hey – that’s how Jesus was victorious overcoming on the Cross… Ol’ slewfoot didn’t see that one coming… Thank You Jesus and Praise God).
So maybe our God, who is all knowing – allows the situation to occur because He knows ultimately, He can use what satan used for evil, for His good. If you are a born-again believer who has truly made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, God uses such tests (as He did with Job) to GROW YOU. The question is – do you have a discerning spirit and are you able in the midst of the pressing (and often pain) to see how it is God wants you to respond to situations? OR do you choose to fall back on how you would handle it in the past and respond in the flesh? (Which when Holy Spirit reveals it to you – and He will…) Also shows you where the marker is on your spiritual growth chart…
How you treat others and how you respond to situations is a definite show not only to others, but to God what your “areas are needed for improvement.” We either glorify God in humbly recognizing and acknowledging what it is that we need to work on in order to grow spiritually, or we stay stuck in a spiritually stagnant level that (like a dog chasing his tail) we will remain in until we submit and acknowledge the areas Holy Spirit shows us needs areas of improvement. Areas that need healing in order press forward in Him so that we can become ALL that God desires us to become. SOME MISS THIS. I pray we don’t. What is GOD telling you or allowing you to go through so that you can grow in Him? How are you responding to those pressing moments? Are you fighting against the current? Finding yourself stuck in the same place? More to the point – WHO is it that is being glorified by your reaction to those moments? Is it God or is it satan? Spiritual growth can be very painful, God allows us to be squeezed to see what it is that comes out of us in the squeezing. No one knows our potential like the One who created us. But we ALWAYS have a choice. To allow ourselves to grow in Him, trusting that those painful times will rid us of the impurities that will make us into a vessel that will hold ALL that God has for us and enable us to be able to pour out into others OR shows us that there are holes in the vessel of us and until we allow Holy Spirit to reveal where those punctures or weakened areas lay within our spirits so that He can heal, strengthen and make us into vessels that can hold ALL that God has in store.
When we confess to be Christians, we need to remember that the definition of Christian is to be “Christ-like” and the way to become “Christ-like” is to respond to situations and actions as the way God shows us through His Word. The Bible is full of REAL-life people (like you and I) and how they responded (or didn’t respond) to what God was telling them to do. Instructions on how they were to respond to ALL life’s situations. It is the living Word. How we decide to apply the Word to our own lives and to grow from what Holy Spirit shows us “needs growing” is up to us and it shows where we are on the individual markers we have for our spiritual growth. Another way to determine where we are spiritually is to look at what the Bible says about fruit of the spirit. To use it as our ruler, again, this can be found in Galatians 5:22-23:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.”
I’m quite sure that after Job went through ALL that he went through and came forth honoring and glorifying God by the way His faith stood steadfast that it was not the last battle in his life that he experienced, maybe they weren’t as intense as that one (we only know what is written in the Word of God) but throughout our lives, as long as we have breath in our bodies, God Will through His Holy Spirit, allow us to be placed in situations where we can see where we are in Him and where He wants us to be – the question is, no matter what will we trust Him? And will we allow Him to work on those areas that will bring glory to His name and allow others to see Christ in us? The decision is up to US.
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