One of my favorite bible stories to meditate on is the life of Joseph. Here was a young boy, so gifted, so anointed, so highly favored by God and his father. He was given clear prophetic insight into his kingly anointing and regal calling at a young age, yet when the visions came by night releasing this word of destiny over his life He was immediately thrust into slavery. He was immediately taken what seemed like the opposite direction of his destiny. But this is the way of God. The only word that has any glory on it is the word that is tested through the caricature of this life.
The bible declares that until the time of the fulfillment of Joseph’s prophetic promise, the word tested him in Egypt (Ps.110:19). The word which comes to empower you with hope and faith to walk out God’s plan for your life, is the same word that tests you and oftentimes orchestrates the opposite in your life. We must truly learn to walk with eyes of faith and not with our natural sight.
John G. Lake was destined to break ground on one of the most impactful miracle ministries in human history, yet his family was plagued with sickness and affliction all his life leading up to his revelation of Christ the Healer. The trials he lived through in agony became his great opportunity. It released a cry out of his soul which he later coined “the god-cry which cannot be denied”. Look at how God used that cry of faith in this man’s soul, forged through the crucible of his own pain, to see hundreds of thousands healed throughout the world in his time. Look at the ongoing impact of his faith, his teachings, and his ministry models (such as the healing rooms) throughout the world. It’s come because a man was tested by the word.
Prophet Kenneth E. Hagin Sr. was given a promise by the Lord Jesus Christ in a divine visitation which His mother experienced while she carried him in the womb. This child had inside of him a faith movement that would go around the globe and change the expression of the charismatic church in one generation. Yet at 16 years old, bedridden from multiple ailments, illnesses, and diseases, that promise died and went to heaven in that boy. The Lord graciously explained his situation while the young boy stood before him in glory. Jesus explained that his harsh childhood, racked with suffering and pain, was because Satan had warred against the word that God had spoken over him, even from before the womb, like Jeremiah the Prophet. He was called as a prophet to the nations, but the warfare was intense as that word was tested year after year when He was a child. Although the Lord Jesus sent him back into his earthly vessel to carry on his life upon the earth, He was not granted the manifestation of healing sovereignly upon his return. He continued to writhe in pain and agony in that bed many more months, as He faithfully read his bible everyday; something inside telling him, “The answer’s in there. Keep reading!”. One day, in the months to follow, that boy got out of that bed completely healed of three incurable deadly conditions, and when He did the faith movement got up with him. The word of promise to change the world with the gift of faith was tested in that man’s life.
I want to encourage you today dear reader. You have a mighty call on your life, you have destiny words that have been spoken over you. If you’re not aware of these words yet then seek the Lord while he may be found, and hear the grace of his voice activating divine promise in your life. It’s there for the finding if you have the heart to seek it out.
But I wish to also encourage all of those who are on this journey currently carrying the word faithfully in what seems like a barren land; a land that could not naturally produce the promise of this precious seed of life you carry. Like Joseph of old, you may be looking around at your cubicle, your job site, or your classroom feeling like this is the furthest thing from what God ignited your heart with when he spoke hope and faith to you through his word. Remember that as Joseph looked at the walls of his dungeon, in his last phase of “word testing” before his miraculous ascent to the right hand of the King, the walls which He looked at were the walls of promotion. Those walls were not his end. Turn your discouragement and fear into divine opportunity today. Do not settle for a mere earthly reality. Yes, the walls are real. You can reach out and touch them, you can smell the dungeon, you can see the food they feed you everyday. But the word of God upon your life will produce. It will makes streams in the desert for those who continue to believe. See the word world which you’ve been called to live in, according to the divine promise, and press on to that place in God you’re called to live. Don’t let these present surroundings fool you. Don’t let discouragement or fear of not manifesting the promise overtake your spiritual sight. See these things as a sure sign that indeed the word is being tested because God intends to give you what the word has promised. See the enemy’s persistent war against you as the sure indicator that this word of promise will surely come to pass. Make the enemy pay for every time He casts his shadow of depression and doubt upon you. Go back against it with ten times the action, the effort, the faith, the pursuit of the call of God! As you do the Lord will be with you and you will find the world of your word around you soon enough. You will create with God in faith as you stay the course and never give up!
God Bless You,
Stephen Powell
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