- 1 Cor. 16:14
God has planned your deliverance before you even knew you needed to be delivered. In the story of Jonah and the Whale, before Jonah messed up, that whale had already been created, and put in place to receive Jonah at the exact moment he got tossed overboard. God has your deliverance already lined up.
Most of us have been in such a state of constant trials and tests recently that we feel we will never be delivered. God has promised so many things to us and some of us have been waiting years, yes, even decades, for that promise to come true. Do not lose heart. God never makes a promise He cannot keep. If He said it, He will bring it to pass.
It used to be that God would put us through a test by allowing some type of persecution or betrayal, and then when we passed the test, God would be waiting there for us with a reward for being obedient and enduring the test. However, in the last few years, the tests have been longer and more frequent, and when the test is over, God is not immediately rewarding us. We are wondering to ourselves what we did wrong because God was not standing there at the finish line with our prize. We become disappointed and start to doubt whether or not God was pleased with us at all. Did we fail the test?
Have you noticed that the trials and tests we have had to endure have been plentiful, even to the point where some of them are overlapping? We feel we are at a breaking point, and we scream at God and say, “Enough!” We begin to say, “How much longer, Lord? Can’t you see how badly they’re treating me?” “Why are you not answering my prayers?” “Don’t you hear my cry?” We continue to pray, begging God to deliver us, but to no avail. We think, “Has God forgotten me?” “What have I done to cause God to not answer my prayer?” Why is God doing this to us?
I can tell you in one word, “Endurance” – God is building endurance in us. He has to as the world is becoming more and more evil.
In the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 12, Jeremiah is asking God why it is that wicked people get to prosper and we, the people devoted to God, must suffer under their rule.
God replies to Jeremiah in Verse 5 saying,
“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
God is teaching Jeremiah to have endurance. Things in this world are becoming tumultuous, and it requires a strong faith, a strong courage AND endurance to go forth and overcome without getting tired in the middle of the battle. Would you run in the Boston Marathon if you had never practiced walking around your neighborhood? Would you swim across the English Channel if you had never set foot in a swimming pool? No, of course not. You would exercise and practice and build up your muscles so that you would have the strength to finish the race. That is why God is putting us through a season of heavy testing right now
.
Let God be your coach. He is standing beside you as you read this article and He is cheering you on because He knows you can do it. He knows you can do it because He is the One that created you, and designed you to fulfill a certain destiny. Did you ever wonder why your favorite color is yellow and your friend’s favorite color is green? Or why you love to go camping and your friend won’t go camping because there is no place to plug in her blow dryer and curling iron? God has personally designed you with your own unique DNA to be able to do the things He has already planned for you to do in these last days. God knows you have what it takes to pass EVERY test, and He promises you that you will be rewarded for doing so.
God never sets us up for failure; instead, He makes sure that we have all the tools and resources necessary to not only run the race, but to be victorious and not faint in the middle of the race.
God encourages us in Galatians 6:9 by telling us,
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
I know God has promised you ladies a lot of things like marriage and ministry, and you are still waiting for God to bless you with the desires of your heart in other areas of your lives, as well. Some of you are single and trying to pay a mortgage you can no longer afford, or you are raising children as a single parent, or both, and quite frankly, you are exhausted. You wonder why God is making you do this alone. You think if you had a spouse, you would have help paying the bills, or help raising the children.
Why is God making it so hard for you right now? God is getting ready to raise up a very precise army of women warriors – women that have the endurance to persevere, to move forward against all odds and to claim major, major territory for God’s Kingdom. I know it can be disheartening, and disappointing, and discouraging, while you are waiting for your deliverance, but do not give up now – you are so close to becoming the woman warrior God knows you are, ready to be sent out to disciple, to pray for, to heal and to deliver other women.
God is also using this time to show the world we love Him not for the rewards He gives us, but just because we love Him and we want to glorify Him (i.e., brag and boast) to people how amazing and wonderful God is. God knows the exact date of my deliverance, and I trust God that He knows what He is doing. Let people point their fingers at me, and make fun of me saying, “Look at her; she can never catch a break; her life is a mess. Now, along comes God with a deliverance so amazing, a miracle so wonderful that people stand there with their mouths open watching as God pulls me out of it, and lifts me above it. You see, miracles can often lead unsaved people to Christ. They see someone in what seems like a hopeless situation as God dangles us and our mess in front of them, and then they see a God they have never known come through and make everything whole, again.
I get made fun of all the time because of the many trials and tests God puts me through. People snicker and sneer at me; they even call me names and talk about me behind my back. I don’t care. God is not ashamed of me. He is proud of me. What people say about you, or think about you does not matter. You may look silly to people around you, but they are the silly ones because they have no clue that God is using you for greatness!
I told the Lord when I was a little girl growing up in New England that I was willing to suffer so others could have life. Wouldn’t you know it, but that is the one prayer that God answers for me on a daily basis! Ha. Ha. Seriously, I chose to be used by God. I get verbally attacked by family members, co-workers, and even church leaders, and I truly don’t care because I know that my God is putting me through these outlandish circumstances because I told Him I was willing to suffer as long as He needed me to suffer if that is what it took to win souls to Christ. Plus, I know that my God has already planned my deliverance – and it is going to be a whale of a deliverance.
God has planned your deliverance before you even knew you needed to be delivered. In the story of Jonah and the Whale, before Jonah messed up, that whale had already been created, and put in place to receive Jonah at the exact moment he got tossed overboard. God has your deliverance already lined up.
Most of us have been in such a state of constant trials and tests recently that we feel we will never be delivered. God has promised so many things to us and some of us have been waiting years, yes, even decades, for that promise to come true. Do not lose heart. God never makes a promise He cannot keep. If He said it, He will bring it to pass.
It used to be that God would put us through a test by allowing some type of persecution or betrayal, and then when we passed the test, God would be waiting there for us with a reward for being obedient and enduring the test. However, in the last few years, the tests have been longer and more frequent, and when the test is over, God is not immediately rewarding us. We are wondering to ourselves what we did wrong because God was not standing there at the finish line with our prize. We become disappointed and start to doubt whether or not God was pleased with us at all. Did we fail the test?
Have you noticed that the trials and tests we have had to endure have been plentiful, even to the point where some of them are overlapping? We feel we are at a breaking point, and we scream at God and say, “Enough!” We begin to say, “How much longer, Lord? Can’t you see how badly they’re treating me?” “Why are you not answering my prayers?” “Don’t you hear my cry?” We continue to pray, begging God to deliver us, but to no avail. We think, “Has God forgotten me?” “What have I done to cause God to not answer my prayer?” Why is God doing this to us?
I can tell you in one word, “Endurance” – God is building endurance in us. He has to as the world is becoming more and more evil.
In the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 12, Jeremiah is asking God why it is that wicked people get to prosper and we, the people devoted to God, must suffer under their rule.
God replies to Jeremiah in Verse 5 saying,
“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
Cross Creek Bridge Ministries
P.O. Box 572391
Tarzana, CA 91357
Tel: (818) 881-2009
Toll-Free: (877) 303-CCBM (2009)
Cross Creek Bridge Ministries is a qualified IRS Section 501(c)(3) Organization