The process of God is not a punishment, but a training ground for greatness, and all for God’s glory. The glory of an orange is found in its juice, and it has to be squeezed in order to be useful. The glory of a pencil is found in being sharpened and re-sharpened in order to be useful. Gold is purified by fire. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know how glorious they are. I never think about how hard the journey is, but I always visualize how great my story will be. The process is so essential that the promotion you want without a divine process won’t carry any inspirational meaning at all because it doesn’t have an interesting story behind it. Before God allows you to face your Goliath, He prepares you by allowing you to fight lions and bears in secret and win; you won’t fear when He presents Goliath to you because He already provided you with the faith (1 Samuel 17:32-37).
32“David said to Saul, “Let no man’s courage fail because of him (Goliath). Your servant will go out and fight with this Philistine.” 33Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight him. For you are [only] a young man and he has been a warrior since his youth.” 34But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,
35I went out after it and attacked it and rescued the lamb from its mouth; and when it rose up against me, I seized it by its whiskers and struck and killed it. 36“Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted and defied the armies of the living God.” 37David said, “The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.”“
1 Samuel 17 : 32-37
Killing Goliath will propel you to the next level. But how could you overcome Goliath publicly if you didn’t manage to kill the lions and bears in secret? Do not pray for God to prevent the fight, but thank Him that the process you are in is providing the essential faith you need to move to the next level. The pressure around pushes us to pray for God to prevent the fight, but His will for us provides the faith we need to be victors, not victims. The process of God may feel like running a marathon, but don’t be fooled by the devil’s program that sounds like a sprint. If you are to understand God’s process, then you are taught how to prepare in and out of seasons, so that His Greatness and Goodness in you are manifested with excellence, passion, love, and humility in the lives of many of God’s glory and done in His ways. Then, you will be where God said you will be, no matter what you have encountered on your journey up because you built on The Rock of God. Storms came and never uprooted you because you built on The One Who Conquered so that you will be more than a conqueror. What you develop in private always leads you to public glory. A Hebrew boy called David, the son of Jesse, was never famous for killing the bears and lions which wanted to eat his father’s sheep. As a shepherd, he exercised confidence by protecting the sheep in private before he was publicly confronted by Goliath. Killing Goliath is what made David famous, but what developed him was never known the public. Remember, what you kill privately won’t kill you publicly; your glory is enjoyed privately before it is exercised publicly (Matthew 6:6).
6“But when you pray, go into your most private room, close the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.“
Matthew 6 : 6
Before the elevation, God will test you to see if you will understand that it is good to trust Him, but greater to be trusted by Him. Always see the bigger picture of the Kingdom of God: don’t look at how bad situations around you have become. Where Peter and others saw a storm, Jesus Christ saw the best time to take a nap (Matthew 8:23-27).
23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24And suddenly a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping. 25And the disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us, we are going to die!” 26He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was [at once] a great and wonderful calm [a perfect peacefulness]. 27The men wondered in amazement, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
Matthew 8 : 23-27
So, when Jesus is in your boat, don’t worry about any storm, but worry about your own choice under pressure. The storm which didn’t wake up Jesus, terrified the disciples and they disturbed His sleep, yet the storm knew who was in the boat. Give your boat to Jesus and leave the rest to Him and rest in Him by faith. When your struggle doesn’t have any meaning, then your success will also be meaningless. Every pain has a meaning, and every gain has a purpose: when your rebellious nature is causing you to be humbled by life, then that has meaning, and when the enemy attacks you because you are a threat to him than he is to you, that also has a meaning. When it is God processing you to become the great manager of His blessings by not seeing yourself as an owner, but faithfully seeing God as The Ultimate Owner of your success and The Ultimate Deliverer of your struggle, then that also has a meaning. Every season you are going through carries a meaning: if you can practice the humility to listen to God rather than interpreting Him through the limited logic and reasoning you have before God The Almighty, then you will be able to hear what is really going on in your life and The Holy Scriptures will approve it to you, if you need more clarity (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11).
1There is a season (a time appointed) for everything and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven—
2A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.3A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.4A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.5A time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.6A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.7A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to keep silent and a time to speak.8A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.9What profit is there for the worker from that in which he labors? 10I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. God Set Eternity in the Heart of Man 11He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3 : 1-11
And then, it will be your decision to see it as a blessing in disguise and learn from that season because we should not spoil any given season to us by God. It is a blessing: it either processes us or promotes us, but there is no sustainable successful promotion without a proper successful process from God. This is the key to understand seasons and time. Remember that God is in Total Control: God owns all seasons and every season belongs to God, so always stand right with God and each season will carry a blessing; either you notice it immediately or when you notice is afterwards. If your intimacy with God was the tool you used when you were down and broke, then your intimacy with God should be increased more than when you had nothing; that is the secret ingredient which moves you from Glory to Glory.
