Jesus is present in our past today, He has dealt with our past, so that nothing in our past can hinder our future if we surrender it to God.
If we want a future in which we fulfil our destiny, we need to get the disclosure, the revelation, of the things that God is revealing. We need to be connected – even if it is a nanosecond before it happens – to the supernatural realm. God wants to reveal every day to us. He wants us to be like Jesus, who saw what the Father was doing. How did He see what the Father was doing? Because He was connected to, and lived in, two realms. We need that revelation.
But it is a process.
First, a lump of coal. James 1:2 says ‘Consider it all joy, when you encounter various trials. Now, in our life we all have various trials. Let’s not simply dismiss trials as the devil. Sometimes it is true that it is the enemy wanting to mess things up, but actually we can still seek what God will do in it. Don’t try to avoid the pressure and heat of life, instead allow the pressure and heat to turn coal into a diamond. So often we try and avoid what God wants to do in us, and so He is not able to refine us and purify us because we get out of the heat and the pressure. We try to avoid the trials. We need to count it joy, because it transforms our lives, and God can bring good out of anything we face. Now that does not necessarily mean that He brings all those situations about, but that He can bring good out of them.
Then a lump of gold ore. If you want a nice golden nugget out of that, you need to deal with the things that are in your heart, the stones, memories, pains, hurts, curses, unforgiveness. Strongholds. We call it ‘stuff’, and we have all got ‘stuff’. So, we have to allow the pressure of God’s presence to transform us.
Here is a heart full of worries, anxiety, fears, cares, burdens. Read the parable of the Sower and you will find that what stopped the Word of God producing fruit was just that, worry. What are we going to do? We are going to count those things we are going through as joy and live in an attitude of praise; even if we have to do it in the compost heap, which is again application of pressure and heat.
It is about trust. ‘Overcoming trust’ is surrendering ourselves and our lives to God and trusting Him completely. Let’s stop trying to do it ourselves – all we do is mess it up – let’s allow Him to do it. Seek first His kingdom, and everything else gets added, everything. We don’t have to worry, have fears, cares, burdens, and so on. Seek first the Kingdom, put God first, then what happens? New soil, new growth, new and good things that God is going to reveal to us and bring into our lives.
Then we got some grit, and a pearl. Frustrations, annoyance, irritation, things that cause you to be impatient: grit. Some people are like grit! Some ‘stuff’ is like grit. You can let grit cause an infection or you can let grit produce perfection.
Again, if we have the attitude of patience and perseverance through all that goes on in our lives, if we enter into God’s rest, then we can turn grit into pearls. Jesus had the right attitude: He was gentle and humble in heart. Meekness is strength under control, and Jesus was surrendered to God’s control. He was strong and powerful, but He humbled himself, only doing what He saw the Father doing, only doing the will of the Father who sent Him. We need to take His yoke upon us, as Jesus says in Matthew 11:27-29: ‘Take my yoke upon you; learn of Me for I am gentle and humble in heart. Find rest for your souls’. Pearls of wisdom can come from grit and irritation if we allow the process to transform us. If we seek first the kingdom, we will certainly find ourselves in that ongoing process of transformation.
God wants us to come to Him with joy and praise, even in the difficulties we encounter, because it transforms our lives.