“If God wanted to use you to impact your world for Jesus Christ, what circumstances would have to be created in order for you to respond to His call? Would prospering you materially encourage you to this end? Would a major change in what you are presently doing be necessary? What would your response be should God and the angels conclude that the only way to move you into a position of fulfilling God's purposes was to remove some things that might be very dear to you? Would you agree with their plan if you knew this would be the only way you would achieve the purposes for which God made you? Hard questions, aren't they?” Os Hillman
This is the very thing God does in many who have been called for a special mission. Joseph sold into slavery. Locked in prison, being falsely accused, and then forgotten about for years. Moses lost his position in the royal family and was sent to the desert for 40 years tending sheep. Paul a Jewish leader and fast rising star, gets knocked off his horse and goes blind. The disciples are called to leave their jobs and family to follow Jesus, not knowing where they were going or what they would be doing.. Imagine what kind of disruption this had on their lives. There are many examples of God bringing major upheaval in the lives of those He called for His purposes. Why?
“ The reason is that we do not seek God with a whole heart in times of prosperity and comfort. Prosperity and comfort tend to breed complacency and satisfaction. It is rare to find the man or woman who seeks God with a whole heart who does so simply from a grateful heart. We often must have pain or crisis to motivate us. Eventually, that crisis bridges us to a new calling, and we embrace that calling if we are open to the Holy Spirit's work in us. We can actually thank God for the change that was required to get us to this place, but it is not without anguish of heart.” Os Hillman
Author Ken Gire wrote in Windows to the Soul.
Help me, God,
To realize it is in being crippled that I learn to cling,
and in limping that I learn
to lean,
that victory comes not in how courageously I struggle
but in how completely I surrender,
and that this is how I am to grow,
by being defeated,
decisively,
by constantly greater things.
Help me to understand that Your power is perfected in weakness,
so that when I am rendered weak,
You are given the opportunity to be shown strong.
We Grow “by being defeated decisively, by constantly greater things.” So if we are experiencing a lot of loss, A lot of Crippling defeats, it is because God is doing a work in us to bring about a death to ourselves so that the Life of Christ will be manifested in us. “For it is God who is at work in us both to will and to work for His good Will.”
Are you wanting Miracles? Do you want more of God? Or does God want more of you even if you aren’t seeking him? Sometimes we don’t have a choice in this. For it’s His plan, not ours. Sometimes we are in the way and he has to strip us of everything.. How do you teach others to lean if you aren’t leaning? How do you comfort others if you never need comforting? How are you going to show what surrender looks like in your life, if you never have to fully surrender? How are you going to tell people to walk by faith if you have everything worked out and planned? “If anyone wishes to come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. If anyone wishes to save his life he will lose it. If anyone losses his life for My sake will save it.”
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