HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Genesis 50:20 (AMP) - As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present outcome, that many people would be kept alive [as they are this day].
Psalm 34:19 - Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
No one likes pain.
If you do there is something wrong with the way that you are wired.
As you mature you learn to embrace pain, and to make pain work for you.
When I was playing football one of the things our coaches would tell us constantly during practice and in the weight-room was – “NO Pain, No Gain”.
While this is true and motivating it still doesn’t feel good.
Pain is important because it is a signal designed to alert us when something is wrong. Our response to pain is important because we can pay attention to it and get to the root of the problem, or we can ignore it or numb it and allow it to persist until the cause of the pain damages us. We live in a time when people want to be comforted and told that everything will be alright. The truth is that somethings are not going to be alright unless change is made.
Now in a world where hurt, depression, disappointment, and difficulty are in great supply we need encouragement, help and a lift up.
When developing soldiers into Navy Seals all of them must go through “Hell Week” before they can earn the Seal Trident.
When my son was going through Ranger School it was an intensive time of training and testing that took them to the very limits of their physical, emotional and mental endurance before they could earn the privilege of being known as member of the “Special Forces” community.
Every believer will go through seasons of pain because God has a greater purpose for their life. We must also realize and deal with the fact that God has a greater purpose when He allows some pain to come into our lives. – Remember there is a purpose that is greater than the pain.
Joseph was about 17 years old when his brothers sold him into slavery, and he was 30 years old when the vision that God had given Him, that He would become a great leader, was finally fulfilled.
The years in between were filled with a lot of painful experiences: the betrayal of his brothers, being sold into slavery, being falsely accused of rape by his master’s wife, and then being thrown into prison, and seemingly forgotten. Even the people that he helped and promised to help him forgot about him as their life turned to the better.
It was the dreams and promises that God had given Joseph as a teenager back in his father’s house, that assured Joseph that he had a divinely ordained purpose and destiny, that he never forgot.
As Joseph trusted God, and responded to his suffering in faith and humility, God used his painful circumstances to mold and shape him for his destiny. God didn’t cause his suffering, but God used his pain to prepare him for something much greater.
God works the same way in all of our lives. Not through the same set of circumstances and pain but through our own unique trials that prepare us for a greater work of Glory.
We must refuse to allow the intensity and frequency of our pain to keep us from seeing the activity of God in our pain.
Wherever Joseph went, as a slave in Potiphar’s house, in prison, or before Pharoah, God was with him, and gave him extraordinary favor.
In spite of his pain, God’s hand was upon him, and he experienced promotion and doors of opportunity even in the midst of his painful experiences.
The intensity of his pain did not prevent him from seeing the activity of God. – for many of us the only thing we can focus on is pain. Joseph kept his focus on God’s purpose.
Just because you are in pain does not mean that you are not in God’s will. As a matter of fact, you are probably right in the middle of His plan.
The way we respond to our pain is more important than the weight of our pain.
Often when we experience pain it consumes us and attempts to control our response.
We need to make the choice, like Joseph, to see our pain from the perspective of faith and humble ourselves before God and allow Him to have His way in us.
When you look at those used mightily by God what sets them apart is their response and how they deal with difficult situations.
They were not grumblers and complainers.
They did not blame God or curse Him. -Sometimes they did question Him.
Even when wronged they stayed humble and had a good attitude.
Joseph in his deepest trials continued to walk by faith and to stay humble before God.
God always lifts up those who humble themselves before God even in their times of pain.
There are times that God allows us to feel the pain and weight of our own shame and conviction as we reap what we sow.
There are times that the pain we feel is the sorrow of our own poor choices that lead us to the natural consequences of sin, pride, selfishness, and plain stubbornness.
2 Corinthians 7:10 - For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Repentance is not only feeling sorry for what you have done and the results that you have gotten but to a real change of heart and mind.
Pain changes both our behavior and our way of thinking. – Once you touch a hot stove you are sorry you did it and adjust your life accordingly.
Someone said that this verse could be translated – The Pain you feel in response to God dealing with you has produces a real change and deliverance.
This is what happens at the time of Salvation. We see the depth of our sin and the pain it brought to Christ making His sacrifice necessary.
In the same way God allows us to feel Godly sorrow even after we
are saved to deal with our sinful ways and the effects it has on ourselves and others.
The impact of our pain will exceed the experience of our pain, when we allow God to use it for His glory.
Philippians 3:10 (AMP) - And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did];
Paul was able to experience resurrection power because he knew what it was to die to himself. Throughout his ministry he suffered and endured the pain of many trials and tribulations sharing in the sufferings of Christ. Because of this many people came to Christ and Paul saw many incredible miracles.
There is not growth without suffering. We suffer with Christ, and we share HIS suffering and His results
Because Joseph understood that there was a purpose greater than his pain, God was able to use him to not only save Egypt from starvation but more importantly, his own family, they were the seed to the nation of Israel.
Even greater than that, it was through Joseph’s faithfulness in the pain that the Savior of the World would come just as God had promised through the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
This is why Joseph could look at his brothers and say.
Genesis 50:20 (AMP) - As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present outcome, that many people would be kept alive [as they are this day].
THE PURPOSE IS GREATER THAN YOUR PAIN!
May God bless you this month. Know that there are amazing things that God is doing in and through your life.
Thank you for joining us as we fast and pray through the month of September for our church during the remainder of the year. Also make our nation a matter of prayer as we head into another election season. Our hope is not in politicians but in Jesus. How we vote is a reflection of the moral direction of our nation.
May God’s richest blessings be on you and your family.
You are Loved.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 - And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~ A.W. Tozer – It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
It is necessary that God takes anyone who wants to know Him, serve Him and be mightily used by Him through seasons of pain, trials and hardships that break you, OF YOU, but won’t leave you wounded and broken.
We watch God take people in the Bible through this. David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Job, Peter and Paul. Every one of them were broken to the point where they truly wondered if they were broken beyond repair. They doubted themselves and wondered how they could ever be useful to God. Some wondered if they had wasted their life. Others just wanted their life to end.
It was in their greatest moments of despair, failure, betrayal, dismay, depression and pain that God developed them into the mighty instruments of God that they became.
Brokenness is painful, but it develops humility and dependance on God that very few experience.
In the same way that olives are crushed to produce oil, in the same way that grapes are crushed to make a fine wine and in the same way that flowers are crushed to make perfume, we must be humbled before we can be mightily used by God.
If God is breaking you, although it is challenging, painful and emotionally draining, you can rejoice knowing that God thinks that you are worth the refining process. God will take all of us through trying times to refine us, heal us, break us from things that hold us back and draw out what is valuable inside of us.
The truth is that many of us will go through several of these times during our lifetime and in our walk with God.
Broken times come in many forms and in many ways. Some of them are unique to just you and others are things that we all must experience. These times leave us weak, questioning ourselves, God and our choices. They leave us with a keen awareness of our own weaknesses, sins and shortcomings.
Brokenness is an absolutely adequate word to describe how we feel. Utterly at the end of ourselves and over almost everything.
You need to hear this. – Just because you are going through a season of brokenness does not mean you are broken. It may feel like it.
What is happening is you are being refined. Stop asking the questions – What is wrong with me? Why am I such a failure?
Ask instead. What is God doing in all of this? How can I cooperate with Him?
There is a great shaking going on among the body of Christ. Those who want to know God and be used mightily are being broken and those who are arrogant are being revealed.
Before David could be King, he had to go tend sheep.
He defeated giants; He was anointed but he was not released to lead until he learned how to tend.
David had to learn to be a keeper before he could be King.
Moses spent forty years in the desert before he could spend forty years leading Israel through the wilderness. You must have been there before you can take people where God needs them to be.
The Anointing that comes from brokenness will cost you.
Deep heart-searching change is painful and labor intensive as well as emotionally and physically exhausting. – Isaiah compared these times to childbirth. Isaiah 26:17 - As a woman with child Is in pain and cries out in her pangs, when she draws near the time of her delivery, so have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
Someone said – There is always travail before you prevail.
It is human nature to pride ourselves in our ability to be unbroken. The British call it “having a stiff upper lip”. In America we revel in the idea of never allowing anyone to see you sweat. We become hard so no one can ever hurt us or our heart. We put on the façade of having it – “All together” – sometimes so well that we believe it ourselves. We spend much of our time trying not to appear cracked, hurt or weak. We are told to always project strength.
Half of what is taught in churches today is all about how to keep ourselves strong, intact and to be the best version of ourselves.
We come to God crying out to be whole when we would do just as well to say with all sincerity “Lord, wound me, break me, mold me, shape me, fill me and make me like you.
All of us struggle with pride on some level.
I can assure you if we do not allow God to break us of pride then pride will ruin us. Today with all the talk about achieving our dreams, on becoming self-reliant, self-sufficient and the best version of ourselves and living our best life all we have done is become self-righteous. We talk about becoming leaders, and influencers and less about becoming the servant of all.
We are so busy trying to be great that we have lost our ability to relate. We are so busy focusing on impact that we have lost the common touch that was able to transform hearts.
Humility is a lifelong struggle for all of us. All of us struggle with pride, image, accomplishment and capability. God values humility and brokenness over ability and giftedness.
It takes brokenness to rid us of pride. The sooner we realize that we are flawed, broken and utterly dependent upon God the sooner we will experience true joy and freedom.
In God’s economy it is only when we are weak, it is only when we lose our self-reliance that we are truly strong. We self-righteously try to talk ourselves right out of weakness.
I have a revelation for you. It was when Jesus was literally broken, His body whipped, physically weak. He was forsaken by God -emotionally abandoned and alone. It was when he was hanging naked on display for all to see – humiliated and dishonored –that He broke the power of sin and death.
Modern Christianity wants nothing to do with this weakness and humility stuff and we have never been weaker.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 - And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul said when I am weak then I am strong.
Someone needs to hear this – you have been asking to minister in the power of God, but you want to feel strong, you want to feel on top of the world, you want to feel invincible.
My friend that is where pride comes in that will destroy you.
God is bringing us to the point where we realize that we don’t need to be great. We don’t need to be strong in ourselves, He is bringing us to the point where we are STRONG IN THE LORD AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT.
Not our own. That is where God works best.
I am excited about what God is doing in the life of those who love Him. There is a precious, powerful work that is happening in the body of Christ. It is not easy; it is not comfortable, and it certainly is not fashionable. IT IS necessary in these last days.
Know that you are loved and not alone. This work of brokenness of complete dependance on God. This thing that is completely different than the way the world works – is God doing His perfect work in us.
May it be our cry today – Lord break me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay
Psalm 34:19 (AMP) - Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, But the Lord rescues him from them all.
A while back I ran across a sermon called – The Doctrine of Suffering. I began to sense God stirring something in my spirit. The truth is that many people are going through some pretty difficult times. The hardship and suffering are deep, painful, exhausting and you are looking forward to this season ending. I believe that God wants to do a Healing work in many of us that will be lasting and impactful.
Contrary to much of what is taught today, God never promised us a life free from trials hardship and suffering. As a matter of fact, He promised us just the opposite. John 16:33 (NIV) - “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (NLT) I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Hardship and suffering are a normal part of life, even for Christians.
Trials, hardship, and sorrow hit all of us. They are not something strange or unusual.
1 Peter 4:12-13 - Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
When we go through trials, suffering and hardship we need to realize that it is not something unusual.
~ Charles Spurgeon – The question of suffering is not a question of if we will face it, but when. Suffering is one of life’s certainties, as is the good which God produces through it.
Ecclesiastes 7:14 - In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider:
Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him.
I don’t want you to miss that – God has appointed the one as well as the other. Another translation reads - but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Now I realize that is going to mess with some people- good times and difficult times come from God. He allows them both.
~ Carter Conlon – Of Times Square Church – There are some people who have such an aversion to the idea of hardship that they immediately shut down at the mere mention of it. If they don’t hear a message that makes them happy and assures them that everything is going to be fine, they quickly leave in search of a place where they will only hear good news.
Listen this is all fine and good until the reality of hard times come and unspeakable things happen: now not only do you have problems you have no foundation of hope on which to stand.
At the core of hardship is the mercy and goodness of God. God is always faithful to strengthen us and to strategically prepare us for whatever we will have to face.
We need to realize that hard isn’t bad but that HARD IS HARD.
There is purpose in the pain. Someone needs to hear this – God will never allow your pain to be in vain. Regardless of where our pain comes from or what it is – God will never waste your pain.
James 1:2-4 (NLT) - Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
The Bible says that God blesses us with the opportunity to know the joy of growth and victory. The big key is to go through these times PAITENTLY. WE are to patiently ENDURE. Enduring means it’s not easy it is hard. Know that God is building His character in us. If you focus on the hurt, you will continue to suffer. If you focus on the lesson, you will continue to grow.
One of the reasons so many people are hurting is because they have decided to either ignore the pain or they just pretend that it is not really affecting their lives. On more than one occasion Jesus asked people if they wanted to be healed or what do you want me to do for you.
One of the things that we need to get settled in our spirit is that – We need to understand that it brings God joy to heal us, restore us and to set us free. You need to believe this. Healing in every aspect, Spiritual, Emotionally, Physically and Mentally is not just for others but is for you. If this is settled, you will know where to go and where to look when you need help. If not, you will find yourself constantly searching for both solutions and healing.
I believe that at HCC we are in a precious season of healing. We have seen three people in the last several years, literally come back from a death sentence health wise. We have seen many other remarkable healings. I believe we have yet to scratch the surface of what God has for our lives. In this year of OVERFLOW, I believe we are going to see not only the healing of bodies, but of depression, release from difficult situations, freedom from addiction and joy in place of tremendous sorrow.
It is the hard and difficult times. The times filled with sorrow and pain that God uses for His glory and for our benefit. Hear me – God will never waste your pain.
Thank you for your faithfulness to the Kingdom of God and to HCC.
You are precious to God and to us
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay