Do you know what people used to do on the farm to grow delicious, sweet, juicy strawberries? They would put manure on them. Do you know what the Indians used to do in order to get some of the most amazing corn ever grown? (Corn, or maize, as they called it is indigenous to America—no other country had it.)
The Indians would ram a hole in the ground with a sharp post, drop a fish in the hole, and put dirt on it. Then they would drop a kernel of corn and cover it, and from that would grow the biggest, sweetest corn. Do you know why? It had to grow through a dead fish. Nothing rots faster or stinks more than a dead fish—but it made sweet corn.
The sweetness of Christ and the beauty of His nature doesn’t come forth except in the stench of tribulations and testings, in the crucifixion of the self-life.
This is the environment, the hostility of Sodom and Gomorrah and the satanic hordes—out of that we come up strong and healthy.
The next time that you become discouraged in your heart over circumstances, the pressures that have been put upon you, the things that have befallen you, remember that all of these things have happened by divine intent. That is God’s way of teaching you.
Some of the most beautiful things that He has ever sent into your life were edged in black. God knows how to bless you. He is creating in you something of Himself.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.… Romans 8:28, 29.
How beautiful it can be. Sometimes you look at your own problems and say, “I know this sounds good, but everybody can believe it except the person who is going through it.
If you had a good look at yourself, if you could appraise yourself, you wouldn’t murmur. People can be so selfish and self-centered and not even know it. They can take all the good blessings of the Lord with arrogance and only involve themselves with more things and more pursuits until their lives are nothing.
There was one young man in the church who is growing into a fine man. But there is something you wouldn’t know about him—God almost made him a loser in the early years of his life, because his nature was such that he could have set his course and become a success.
But where would God have been? So I watched God put a few adverse things to his life. Why? It slowed him down. God threw some manure on him because He wanted to produce fruitfulness.
You can’t come into this walk with God too happy, or you won’t amount to anything. You have to come in with a few sorrows behind you, a few pressures, a few heartbreaks. By the time that living Word is planted, there will have been a lot of manure in the soil because God wants this to be the hundredfold that comes forth from the planting of the Word.
Out of the trial that you go through comes the ministry. If I were to mention the name of one of the new elders, you would respond, “Oh, he is a fine man—so efficient,” and you could enumerate all the things that he has done and been.
The Lord had to kick the devil out of a certain elder. That’s the only reason there’s any sweetness in him. God does certain things to us, puts pressures on us, and after awhile a certain unexplainable feeling—a realization comes that deep down within, God has done something that needed to be done. He has taken out some gross immaturity, something egocentric.
Did you ever think you would thank God for what you’ve been through? But you can. You wouldn’t be here, worshiping the Lord as you do, if God hadn’t put pressures on you, and that’s why you weep for joy. There comes something in this wisdom and all of us have faced it. The disillusionments, the disappointments, the heartbreak, those things were like pressures, convulsive pressures that would crush you. But they won’t. They’re like the muscles of a womb.
The birth process is quite an experience—for a little baby to have to suddenly be disturbed, to be ejected, forced out from the warm liquid environment in which it was living, to suddenly gasp and start breathing—the pain of coming forth into the world must be almost equal to the pain to bring into the world.
God is bringing you into sonship; constantly He is endeavoring to bring you to new levels. Don’t hesitate to get down and say, “Lord, disturb my life, whatever You have to do,” and don’t get rebellious when He does.
When we delay setting up counseling appointments, were not being negligent; were just waiting until the right moment. We want to be sure the person’s heart is prepared. Then when we minister to them, “This is the end of the wilderness,” we mean it. We see the brothers and sisters go through such pressures before the doors open for them to minister, because God puts them in the battle of faith to teach them just to accept things by faith.
Sometimes you wonder how people endure the testings. But if everything went well for you, if God didn’t disturb you, you’d go your selfish way, so self-centered that you wouldn’t be any good to anyone.
I’m not trying to make little of what you go through, for I too, have been through it. But if I were in your position, I would say, “Lord, I had an ambition to go out and preach Your word” (or whatever it was you were called to do) “and it was such a thrilling thing to me,” and then take a look in the mirror at the one who was to do that, and you will be amazed at the change that took place in your life.
You may begin to realize why God has ordered your steps as He has. You will preach the word, and it will be far more glorious than you ever anticipated; but first, you are going to become that Word and it will shine through your life so beautifully.
If there were any barometer that would dictate how high the blessing is to go, it would be the thoroughness of the testings and the preparation that God puts a person through.
Oh, to see yourself until you are thoroughly sick of yourself and say. “Lord, I’m going to really walk with You.” And you lay everything right before Him, look up and say, “Thank you, Lord, for that manure treatment. Don’t let me be rebellious; let me be grateful and let me consciously submit to what You’re bringing out in all of this.” Amen.