Hebrews 10: 14 by one sacrifice Jesus has perfected eternally those who are being sanctified.
We have already been perfected in the realm of eternity, but in the time realm we are going through a process of perfection called, sanctification.
We are learning this process- a series of steps in what Lord wants us to do next. This process will be different in different situations. We are learning the process of how to have fellowship with God, how to walk with God, how to stand with God, how to see God working in us and through us, no matter what is working against us.
We are learning how to be with God in a situation, how to bring him into the situation, how to relate to him in the situation, how to experience him in the situation.
The problem with many of us is that we get a problem, or a difficulty and we come to God for a solution, when we should be coming to God for relationship.
If we are always coming to God for help, we are relating to him based on self. We want God to do something for us.
Everything that God does is relational, everything is relational first. The Lord is making us in His image; His primary concern in every situation is that in that situation we become like Him. This is His primary objective for us to be made in His image and the secondary objective is the resolution of the difficulty.
He comes to us in a relational context, but very often we come to Him in a functional one. We offer up a prayer and expect the lord to rescue us from the situation.
Process is us aligning ourselves with the purpose of God in the situation that we are in.
Rom 8:28- all things work together for good-the two reasons- to those who love God in the situation, and those who live according to His purpose in the situation.
We must ask the questions.
What is your purpose for me in this situation.
What is it that you want to be for me now that you couldn’t be for me without this situation?
What is it that you want to be for me in this situation?
What is it that I am learning in this situation?
What is it that I need to become in this situation?
What is changing in me through this situation?
What are you touching in me to make me more like you in this situation?
These are the things that are important to God, therefore they should be what are important to us, what we are giving thought to, we must bring our thoughts into obedience to the Christ in us.
Process is about spiritual growth, learning how to relate to God in the things that we go through so that we become more like him through our dependence upon him, walking in his personal words spoken to us.
Process is where we take the steps necessary in our situation to become like Jesus. So, we don’t lean on our own understanding, we trust Him that first we need to become like Jesus in this situation.
Because of this situation I need more of you in my life. The situation reveals where we are falling short in order that God may meet that need in our life through our laying hold of him.
And as we give ourselves to this, the situation is going to be exposed and other things become possible through it.
If all we are doing is standing on the side lines and lamenting that we got this problem, then we are not cooperating with God and we don’t get to become on earth what God wants us to be.
If all we are doing is murmuring and complaining about our situation, then we are not going to grow spiritually, we stop praying, we stop believing and we are just waiting for something to happen, we become passive.
We are learning how to hear God’s voice, but sometimes we do not hear very well so that God will use our circumstances to get our attention.
If God wants us to learn something through our circumstances, he will be totally committed to walking with us in such a way that we learn the thing and we become the person that He wants us to be and then there is a resolution of our circumstances.
There will be times when God will do something sovereign but that is at His discretion. We cannot just keep asking for that and we can’t have a spirituality that is totally based on that.
The process is that which makes us rich, learning how to walk with God, learning how to stand with God, learning how to live under the smile of his countenance, learning how to live in the exuberance of the Holy Spirit, learning how to live in the affections of God.
When we get focused on the trial we say, I will be glad when this is over, which basically means that we are denying ourselves gladness now.
We will be glad when it is over because obviously, we are not glad at this moment in time. How much longer is this going to go on for?
The longer we live in this kind of realm, the more we start thinking in terms of being a victim. Why me? Why now? We become self-centered.
The why question is the wrong question. It is a victim question; it is an invalid question that makes us a cripple when we ask it. It is not the kind of question that a person who is growing up into Jesus asks, because it is the wrong question.
What is the right question? What does this mean? And what must I do? Those are the questions that God answers.
So, what does this situation mean in context with my relationship with you?
And what must I do?
What is it that you want to be for me now since I am in this situation.
And how do I walk in that with you?
What must I do, how do I stand, how do you want me to see, what do you want me to see and then how do I move in it.
There is sometimes a subtle turning away from the Lord as we open to primary help from other sources.
David said my help comes from the Lord; He is the one who chooses whether He introduces other people into that, or He is going to help us solely Himself and we might need both of these.
It is a wonderful thing to just keep things between us and the Lord and to watch what the Lord will do in our life personally and intentionally. Process, this is what it is, and this is what it looks like.
A person who is really trusting in the lord is not concerned about time. How long is something going to take?
When we are focused on the Lord and who He is for us we become still, we become peaceful; we are waiting quietly for the Lord to do what He is famous for doing.
When we are not focused on the Lord we do not see our situation as a learning thing, we do not see it as a growing opportunity, so there is little or there is no spiritual increase within, all we want to do is get out of the situation and God will bail us out but then that situation will come around again because we have to grow up into Christ in all things.
So, we can duck a situation, but it is just going to be repeated. We have been in the same situation over and over again. We keep going around in circles, we have got to resolve this thing. We must grow up in this area of our lives. We cannot keep asking God for rescue.
We must become the person that God wants us to be. In this situation we must see it as an important thing for our personal growth.
We must see it as an important situation because this is where we are learning how to trust the Lord. This is an absolute necessity. If need be, we will keep going through this until we learn how to overcome this type of situation.