Because we know so many are entering times of refining, we need to really understand what refining is, what it does and what it may look like. That way we will recognize it when it shows up, and work WITH God and not against Him in the process. If you work against Him, you will only be in the wilderness longer.
In the times of refining coming, I think it stands to reason people will be refined the ways they have been refined in the past - Simply because those ways work. Because those ways bring the results the Lord wants to see.
The Israelites were led from their homes to the hot, barren desert. The desert is a place of NO comfort – its too hot during the daytime, too cold at night, they were among scorpions and snakes – and there’s very little water and almost no food at all.
Are we going to lose our comforts? I think we definitely will. Why?
• Our lack of comfort forces us to focus not on relaxing or enjoyments of the flesh, but on Him
• Our lack of comforts eventually produces a desperation for His comfort
• Extended periods of lack of comfort will force us to turn to The Comforter of our souls for comfort, which is what He wants
In some of my darkest hardships, the moments of total desperation are when I got to know My Lord as my comforter. I even felt His feathers cover me once early in my walk on a dark night of my soul, before I ever knew this verse:
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. – Ps. 91:4
And in that dark night and for months afterwards as I walked out that difficult journey, He comforted me and reassured me again and again through His Word.
There are some crises, some events that are so painful, nobody BUT the Lord can comfort you. But it is in our weakness that His strength is so clearly evident. As we faint in our minds from the pain and brokenness of what is happening, He rises up in our spirits and reminds us to praise Him, to thank Him for the blessings still so evident in our lives. He reminds us that This too shall pass, if we will just hold our heads up as best we can and keep putting one foot in front of another.
When we have miscarried that baby so greatly longed for, when a child has gone astray and is facing prison, when our spouse has chosen the affections of another over us…When a long-held dream comes crashing down and there is nothing we can do now to make it come true…When someone irreplaceable in our lives dies…And we are left alone in this dark world to try to get through each day without them…When people we care about walk away with no explanation…When friends leave us when we need them most…
So many situations break our hearts as we try to make our way in a world that is not our home that there just is no remedy for, we struggle to understand what is happening and WHY it is happening to US, when we TRY to do right things.
Many people refuse to believe in the Lord because of the injustices in the world they have laid to HIS account. But though all these things break our heart irrevocably, He has promised to work them for good in our lives as He comforts us through them. He has promised He will love us and never forsake us, to be ever-present with us as we walk these dark unfamiliar roads otherwise alone.
We don’t always get the answers to why bad things happened in our lives, but He has promised us crowns and rewards and eternal life is we will face the tests and pass them in spite of our pain. And He is there, ever interceding on our behalf, and cheering us on each time we make a right choice.
Are we going to be in lack? You betcha. Why?
Well, what does lack do?
• Lack gives us compassion for others in need
• Lack forces us to turn to HIM as our Provider when we have exhausted other means
• Only real lack can teach us total dependence on God
Are we going to be persecuted? You bet. Why?
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. – 2 Tim. 3:12
Well, what does persecution do?
• It toughens our skin against others’ unbelief
• It makes us more resolute in our faith – it sort of HARDENS our faith like a rock, so that in future persecutions, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED
Refining to me looks a lot like when you are training a child.
Mom!
What.
Can I have some cookies before lunch.
No, that will ruin your appetite.
An hour later.
Mom!!
What?
Can I have some cookies before lunch.
SILENCE.
Important!! The Teacher is always silent during the test.
I have noticed the Lord often will not answer me on anything
1. He has already answered me on
2. On anything I really KNOW the answer to, but I’m hoping for a different answer
3. On anything His Word gives me the answer on, but I don’t want to go research it
Mom!!
More silence.
Okay Mom, if you don’t answer, I will ASSUME its okay for me to have some cookies before lunch.
Silence.
She hears the cookie jar lid rattle.
PUNISHMENT for disobedience follows. Mom had already answered, the child just wanted a different answer and WAS WILLING TO COMPROMISE what he KNEW HE SHOULD DO TO GET WHAT HE WANTED.
This is just one example of what testing in the wilderness often looks like. You see something (OR SOMEONE) that looks comforting, so you start asking for it. He has already told you – No, I don’t want you in a relationship, or in a relationship with that person, or I want you just to focus on Me right now….but when you don’t hear Him answer, you still reach for the cookie jar.
Just to see if you can have what you want with no consequences…but it never really works that way,
does it? There are ALWAYS consequences.
Punishment for disobedience follows, because He needs you to learn to be obedient. Not only for Him, but for YOU. Because disobedience swings wide the gates of hell and unleashes consequences in your life you are NOT going to want to deal with. Disobedience lets the enemy into your home, into your relationships, into your finances. Is that really what you want??? Are those cookies really THAT good???
Each time you flunk that test, you have to stay longer in the wilderness, because you need to be able to pass the test several times in a row until it becomes automatic to get out, and you are being tested on more than one thing at a time while you are walking through that fiery desert. Remember the Israelites.
Only when we are refined and stop acting like spoiled brats who throw tantrums when we don’t get our way and who keep reaching for the cookie jar can we REALLY BRING HIM GLORY. Our refinement glorifies our Lord.
If you want a part of the Bible to look at concerning refining – look at Hebrews Chapter 12. Let me read the first 11 verses here –
Hebrews 12:1-11
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
A teenage kid gets prideful and too big for his britches, suddenly thinking he can DO EVERYTHING FOR HIMSELF. He don’t need no parents telling him what to do!! So Dad withdraws, watching silently as he goes about trying to do that. And watches as he gets overwhelmed and begins to realize he CAN’T do it all, and sure can’t do it ALONE. Dad watches, waiting for him to ‘get it’ before the teen finally comes running to his father for help.
An unruly teenager is trying to find his path in life. One evening he decides a local gang member is the person he most wants to emulate. The guy’s cool, he’s clever, he’s always got a pocket full of cash, and he seems to have it all together. PLUS he’s getting ALL THE GIRLS! This surely is his path.
His Dad tries to show him that’s a bad path and will have a bad outcome, but all his warnings and promises of punishment fall on deaf ears.
So Dad steps back and watches. SILENTLY. As the gang member leads the young man into drugs, into crime, into destruction.
FINALLY the young man realizes his Dad was right all along. This guy isn’t his friend at ALL!! All he’s doing is leading him into trouble!
The young man finally runs to Dad for help. Of course by then everything in his life is a huge mess.
A potty training toddler pouts, deciding he does NOT want to do all this work!! He wants things to go back the way they were where everything was done FOR him and he didn’t have to put out any effort. He liked it just fine before. This is TOO HARD!! He wants to go back to Egypt!
So Dad picks him up and puts him in his crib on a Time Out where he lies in his own mess until he finally decides maybe doing it Dad’s way IS worth the effort after all….
All of these little stories of child-rearing are examples of what it looks like when we are in the wilderness making wrong choices. Everyone faces similar tests as they are being refined. The Israelites faced these same kinds of tests.
How soon, how easily and how often we pass them with a right heart is what determines when we get out. I say with a right heart because God don’t just want our behavior right, He wants our HEARTS right.
Because He tries our heart and our reins.
Psalm 7:9-10
9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
That word translated reins there means affections.
So God TRIES our hearts and our AFFECTIONS.
Everyone is CALLED to follow Jesus. He said “Take up your cross and follow Me.” But not everyone is chosen.
If you want to be one of the Chosen, you have to pass the tests.
Isaiah 48:10
10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
It is when you are there in the wilderness and you refuse to run from the furnace of affliction because you love God too much to let go, you love Him too much to run back to Egypt, you love Him too much to hold on to your sin….that He CHOOSES you.
And when you can stand in that fire with darts flying at you from all around, with Job’s friends screaming doubt at you from every corner…when you can stand there and say “I’m not moving, Lord! I refuse to let go UNTIL YOU BLESS ME!!” THAT is when you become the CHOSEN.
And in that moment, it don’t matter what side of the tracks you’re from, it don’t matter if you are rich or poor, if you’re beautiful or so homely people can barely stand to look at you, It won’t MATTER THEY REJECTED YOU, it won’t matter HE LEFT YOU, it won’t matter that you lost the house,
because HE CHOOSES YOU.
And when that happens, the world will fall away from you because you cease to care about it. And nothing else will matter, and the attacks can’t touch you because He is your shield. HE BECOMES YOUR WORLD. And you know that whatever happens, it will always be second to this, because HE CHOSE YOU!
And THAT is the other purpose of the wilderness – to draw you into deep intimacy with Him, To help you fall more in love with HIM every day as He guides you and provides for you, & teaches you about Himself.
