God’s Forming Process
Ensuring Biblical success that lasts
God is forming your tomorrow
Whenever God gives you a word for the future, He will always give you a road map to the future. We are individually on a journey and God is taking us to a good place. When you are faithful and live a life of devotion to the Lord, He will never take you to a place of shame or failure. He will always take you to a place where you are magnified and you can glorify God. You are the living witness and testimony of who Jesus is and God forms you so that you can be the image of who He is.
It can be said that initially, we are not very good ambassadors of God’s Kingdom. But as we submit patiently to God’s forming process in our lives, we will begin to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ. This takes time and patience. God wants to form our tomorrow so that we can experiences Biblical success that lasts.
I believe that every born-again Spirit-filled child of God should experience success. Perhaps you have failed in the past, but that does not mean that He will not shape your future into something beautiful. At times we run so far ahead of God that we leave God behind and our lives become a mess. But God in His goodness and mercy always brings us a few paces back so that we can follow His process, because He is always busy working in our lives.
The Bible says that God formed Adam from the dust of the earth. Everything starts out with a creative process and it makes us realize that we are only dust, no matter who or what we think we are. We are no more than mere dust.
God formed Adam from the dust of the earth. We are imperfect vessels and have so many weaknesses. But God created each one of us special and unique. He has good plans for our lives. God’s hands were upon us when we were in our mother’s womb and He has never stopped forming us.
We are all different because we have different assignments. Do not try to be someone else because when God’s fingers shaped you in your mother’s womb, He formed you so that you could perform a unique function.
But you need to know that the hands of God are still on your life and He has never stopped forming you.
Philippians 1:6 - Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ
Whatever God makes is beautiful and wonderful. God may take a long time but be patient and allow God to take that time in your life because He is perfecting that which concerns Him.
Sometimes we believe that we have to work very hard in order to please God. But God knows that you are never going to come up to His standard. If you will allow God to do a work in your life, you will not have to work so hard trying to please Him.
God has given the New Testament church anointed leaders that help Him to form Christ in each of us. He is still forming our mouth, our ears, our feet, etc., until Christ is fully formed in us. It is a process and it takes time.
You must do your part
God is taking you to a place of success. He is taking you to a good place. So just be patient and allow God to place His fingers on your life and form you.
But this is a two-way process. In order for this to work we will have to cooperate with His process. God will never do anything in our lives unless we give Him permission and make ourselves available for Him to do a work in us. We can work against what He wants or we can work with Him. It comes down to a simple choice. We can either work with God or we can oppose His efforts to form us.
Most unhappy people are those going through a forming process reluctantly. Many Christians have an identity crisis because they are not who God wants them to be. As He forms you, you will begin to change from glory to glory. We cannot fit into our yesterday. We can only fit into our tomorrow.
A person who has been accepted into college has the potential to pass. The entrance requirements of any college are set so that every person that is accepted by them has the potential to pass. But sadly not everybody passes. Any student who fails at college probably did not cooperate with the forming process.
In order to pass, you have to cooperate with the learning process as prescribed by professor of the faculty for the course you have chosen. If you do not and decide to do other things, you will fail.
After salvation, each one of us has the potential to do the impossible because of God’s anointed Word and the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to succeed.
As this process takes place, we sometimes do not understand everything that God is doing, but we have to cooperate with His will for our lives. When we are reluctant to change, we will become stuck which will mean we will not move forward into our divine destination.
How should your tomorrow be defined?
Prosperity, miracles, signs and wonders, receiving, giving, covenant, holiness, fruit, success, victory, health and healing, promotion, growth, profit, possession, blessings, ability, protection, and much more.
This is what He is forming in your life and this is what will define you. This is who you are prophetically and this is the image that God has of you. There is so much to look forward to when we submit ourselves totally to the Lord’s care. He will never allow us to be hurt or ashamed when our lives are entrusted to Him.
Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
At times God’s plans hurt us for a time. There are some decisions and choices we have to make and as God begins to form us, it can be painful. For example, there are some people we cannot walk with anymore and we may have to withdraw from them because of their lifestyle or mindset. This may hurt a bit, but it is necessary in order for our future not to be hurt.
God’s forming process produces repentance. When God becomes intimately involved in your life, a spirit of conviction will come upon you which will move you to repent of past sins. God’s forming process also produces holiness, character, faithfulness, and favor.
There are a number of things we can do in order to ensure that we work with the Spirit of God.
1. Do not love the world
1 John 2:15-16 - Do not love the world or the things in the world; if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.
In order to grow into your spiritual destiny, there are things of the world that need to be separated and removed from our lives.
2. Be active in the local church
To be part of the process, you need to submit to a local church.
Local church government is provided by God to ensure the best conditions possible for each individual to fulfill their ministry.
Many Christians do not join a local church because they think the institution is foolish and unnecessary. However, nothing of spiritual value will be added to your life outside of the local church. Submitting to the leadership of a church activates the power of God for our individual destinies and purposes.
God places individuals in local churches so that they can submit to their leaders and learn from them. Spiritual development seldom takes place outside the institution of the church.
3. Be active with your calling
As you discover your spiritual gift you are going to discover who you are. You have to be active with your calling by exercising your spiritual gift. As you start out by faith, you may not know exactly what God has called you to. However, over a period of time, God will begin to give you more clarity.
Many college students, who start out in their first year of study, seldom know exactly what they want to become. But when you speak to students who have entered into their third or fourth year of study, they know exactly what they want to do with their life. As you allow God to grow you and as you become more and more involved in the things of God, you will discover what it is that you love doing. This will encourage you to function more and more in your calling.
God’s forming process eventually matures you and teaches you to understand who you are.
Be comfortable as you start out with the Lord even though you do not know exactly where you fit in with God’s plan. Over time, it will become more and more clear to you, especially when you become involved with the things of God.
4. Be teachable
You must be teachable. If you enroll in any institution of learning, there are some things that you have to learn and accept. You may have to simply accept things as they are taught without questioning what is being taught. You will have to accept that your mentors know exactly what they are speaking about. The same applies to God’s institutions of learning. Many Christian fail in their walk with God because they refuse to accept what God teaches through His Word and they are not willing to allow their minds to be renewed.
5. Produce fruit
As we learn to discover who we are in Christ, we must produce fruit. There must be some evidence of God’s working power in your life as time goes by. You cannot stay the same year after year because God is forming you, which will cause fruit to be produced in your life.
John 15:4 - Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you.
There must be a place that you are committed to in order to learn, so that you can produce fruit.
6. Practice righteousness
1 John 3:10 - In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
How do you practice righteousness? Righteousness simply means doing things right in the sight of God. The Word instructs us to practice righteousness. It encourages us to make every attempt to do things that are right in the sight of God. There are times we may fail, but we must always try our best to attain the standards God has set in His Word. It has been said that practice makes perfect!
For example, you may not be a great prayer warrior, but this will come by lots of practice.
There are things that we must change in our lives, but these will only come through practice.
At times we may hurt others by saying the wrong things. We need to practice how to speak right. We need to practice how we can encourage other people. We need to practice how to work effectively with our money. There is a right way and there is a wrong way to do anything especially when we desire to please God. When in doubt, find out what God’s Word says about your situation, and do your best to change. It may not manifest straight away, but may only come after a lot of practice.
7. Be anointed
Isaiah 10:27 - And it shall come to pass in that day that His burden will be taken away from your shoulder and His yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
When you are anointed with the Holy Spirit, you are supernaturally enabled to break bondages from your life.
Everyone that comes to the Lord comes with all kinds of bondages that have been placed on their lives through various means.
That is why we need to allow the anointing oil to form us so that these bondages can be broken and the works of the devil destroyed.
There are works of God and works of Satan. God never stops working. He is busy working in your life and forming something beautiful from a weak and broken vessel of clay.
The devil also works very hard to keep people in bondage and to prevent them from being rescued from eternal death by a loving friend and Savior.
God bless you as you submit to God’s forming process. Be patient, because in time something beautiful and powerful will be formed in your life and it will represent the true nature and stature of our Lord who has loved us before we were even formed in our mother’s womb.
