How God Uses Circumstances For Our Growth

HOW GOD USES CIRCUMSTANCES TO HELP US REACH OUR DREAMS

Going To The Next Level Series

We’ve been talking about dreams for the last four weeks.

I believe that every person in this room has a dream hidden in you somewhere.

It is our desire that we help you find and release God’s dreams for your life.

We’ve talked about taking risks that please God… that we’re to “step out of the boat.”

Last week Pastor Greg talked about keeping the dream alive and dealing with dream killers like rejection and impatience fear.

I would like to continue along that line of teaching today…

I would like to show you how God uses circumstances for our growth which makes room for the vision.

Everything that has happened to you has happened for a purpose and God desires to use your past to help shape your future.

Have you ever wondered how God uses circumstances to help you grow? Have you ever wondered - "Why am I going through this?"

Gen 42:8 So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

Gen 42:9 Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land!"

Gen 42:10 And they said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

Gen 42:11 "We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies."

Gen 42:12 But he said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land."

Gen 42:13 And they said, "Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more."

Gen 42:14 But Joseph said to them, "It is as I spoke to you, saying, ’You are spies!’

Gen 42:26 So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there.

Gen 42:27 But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack.

Gen 42:28 So he said to his brothers, "My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!" Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, "What is this that God has done to us?"

· Sometimes God has to do something to us in order to do something for us!

Three Ways Circumstances Come About:

· From my own doing

· From Satan

· From God (He directly allows them)

How many know that circumstances usually come in the form of people.

Why? Because they are the ones who are going to be around the longest. They seem to endure longer.

Three Ways You Can Deal With Circumstances

· You can remove the circumstances

· You can remove yourself from the circumstances

· You can allow God to work out the circumstances

Psalm 119:165 Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble.

Rom 8:28-29 v.28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

V.29 tells us what God’s purpose is for us - to make us like Jesus - "to be conformed to His image."

God uses circumstances in our lives to get us ready for the dreams to be yet fulfilled.

How God Uses Circumstances to Help Us Reach Our Dreams:

1. God uses circumstances to expose certain needs in our lives and then to

establish the characteristics of Christ in these areas.

How many have had things happen in your life that exposed some areas of weakness in you?

[Hint: don’t get upset at what God exposes].

Deu 8:3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

2. God uses circumstances to deal with our inner self and then for the life of Christ

to be revealed to us.

2 Cor 4:7-9 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. (NKJ)