There Is Great Value In the Testing

PC: Sharon Surman Photography

 I heard him say to the weary, discouraged ones: (9.9.22) 

“My heart for you is so wide, so high, so deep, so long. Come jump into the river of my love! Come rest in my love. Let my love wash away all insecurities, all striving. My love for you is pure. My love for you is strong. My love for you is breaking down your defenses, these walls in your heart erected from pain and rejection. 

Like Joseph, I desire to add to you. I desire to increase you. I desire to bring you to a place of abundant fruitfulness. This fruitfulness, I’m calling you to must begin in your heart. Fruitfulness begins with pruning. 

 Like Joseph, I’ve called you to walk a road of testing. This testing has come to teach you dependence on me. This testing rids you of pretense- it is a place of utter humiliation. This testing must bring you to the end of yourself. This testing invites you to lean not on your own understanding and lean into me for strategy. It encourages you to pick up your cross daily. It encourages you to lay aside all selfish ambition and vain conceit. It pushes you to seek my love and forgiveness above all. It’s the crucible for silver and fire for gold, so you will come out a sterling vessel fit for use in my kingdom. 

I do this because I desire to see you succeed in carrying the weight of my glory that I wish to pour out on you. Without the fire, the weight would crush you. I see your desire for a platform, for a public ministry. So I lead you out into the wilderness to test you, as I did Abraham. As I did David. As I did Moses. All my servants went through the fire. Remember, a father disciplines those he loves. I love you, fiercely. Don’t allow the enemy to lie to you to tell you I’m a cruel Father. I will never forsake you! I uphold you with my righteous right hand. The enemy wants to sift you, but I’ve prayed for you that your faith may not fail. 

Testing comes to test your heart. Man looks at the outward appearance. I look at the heart. The testing reveals if you have false humility or real humility. Testing reveals any desire for man’s praise. Testing comes to enlighten you and deliver you from generational hinderances. Testing is a growth plan that brings acceleration to greater maturity in me. 

Testing brings you to a desperation for my mercy and grace. In the testing, you learn of your access to my mercy seat. In the testing, you learn to lean on your beloved. As you receive my mercy and grace, I expand your love for me, for yourself, and for those around you. Your heart grows like the grinch!

You go from being a Pharisee- judge of those around you- to seeing yourself as the worst of sinners.  You begin to see your sin rightly like the tax collector Jesus described in the temple beating his breast saying, “be merciful to me, a sinner.” Your sacrifice will be your broken and contrite heart. You go from being the older brother of the prodigal son who doesn’t know his identity, to the son who receives his father’s acceptance, love, grace, and mercy in abundance. 

I’m so excited for you!  You can do this! I’m here to help you! Rejoice in every opportunity to be stretched. Don’t despair in the struggle. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus who endured the suffering of the cross for the joy set out before him. Like a tough workout, this testing is strengthening your capacity to love and to endure opposition. 

I’m growing you in love! I’m growing you in endurance! I’m growing you to prosper like a tree planting by streams of living water- Never wilting, always fruitful- no matter the season! You are stepping into your identity of “overcomer” and soon will be living in your identity as “more-than-a-conqueror” as you surrender to my work in your heart. You are growing in confidence in my ability to see you through the toughest of times. I’m teaching you rested faith. 

“But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.” Hebrews 3:6-8

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.” Proverbs 17:3

Kaeley ♡