From Pressing to Possessing

     How bad someone really wants something will be determined by what they are willing to go through to get it.  We ask God for many things and have no idea what we are really asking for.  We pray we want more of Him, we want more love, we want to go deeper, we want to step into our calling, but it is one thing to want it is another thing to achieve.  For many of our prayers to be answered it takes going through the fire.  Something in us must die to have more of Him!  The bible says to count the cost (Lk. 14:28).  We spend so much time blaming others for our misfortunes when it was our own prayers that brought our situations to being. 

     For one to receive promotion from one grade to the next it takes passing tests.  Are we passing the tests of life?  This is determined by what comes out of our mouths, until we can Praise God in everything we are not fit for the next level.  It is our heart that God is after.  He wants a people that have a heart after Him.  So when He gives us what we ask for we will use it for Him and not for ourselves. 

     We have gone through a time like Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1: 8-9 "we were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.  In fact, we expected to die. But as a result. we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely on God, who raises the dead.  He is manifested in our transparency, when we have nothing left to hide, have allowed Him to expose and remove all darkness, then He can be now fully seen.  All of the earth is moaning and groaning for the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God, and we believers are looking forward to being fully delivered from sin and suffering.  We are getting closer to that day but we can begin seeing a foretaste even now through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:22-23). 

     We are in transition from the wilderness to the Promised Land.  God is calling us to put away childish things (1 Cor. 13:11), to stop complaining and start Praising, to remove fear and walk by faith, to no longer wrestle with flesh and blood but to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power, to be clothed in the armor of God and take our rightful authority in Christ Jesus until the enemies of God have become His footstool (Eph. 6:10-13, Heb. 10:13).  We must put off the grasshopper mentality and now believe God we can go forth and slay the giants of our land (Numbers 13), until earth and heaven are one, His will has completely been done (Matt. 6:10).