Power Of Challenges

One Hundred Year Blooms

Key Scripture:  "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors.

So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." James 1:1,2, The Message

Power Point;

     I love the thought of being "well-developed, not deficient in any way" don't you?  I am, however, not particularly fond of the means leading to that end!  After a few years of extreme testing, I think I have learned a few things. 

1.     Promises are wonderful when they are applied to our lives.

2.     Tests are God's method of choice to help us apply promises to our lives.

3.     Promises fulfilled are sheer gifts to us when they are "pressurized" because they are God's answer to every problem we face. 

"We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you-your tickets to participation in the life of God." (2 Peter 1:4)

     Do you remember when you were in school, and you got to class and the teacher said, "Today we are having a "pop quiz"? You heart started beating faster and you began to wish you had really studied your homework instead of talking on the phone to your friend. If only you had been better prepared.

The thing is, Beloved, God never takes you through a test for which He has not completely prepared you. You have all the promises, all the power, all the provision you will ever need to force your faith life out into the open. Each test is an opportunity for you to examine yourself and see how your faith is shaping up.  God is quite clear that faith is the only way for His children to be like Jesus, and to experience the benefits of our inheritance. His promises believed, and received, and walked out in faith are your "tickets to participate in God's life".  (2 Peter 1:4)

     Faith requires equal force to force it into the open. You already have a "measure of faith".  It's meant to grow, and the growing comes when you say "YES!" to God's promises and refuse to let them lie dormant in your life.

     Here's the good news.  I was recently reading about a phenomena called the "hundred year bloom".  Mahesh Chavda, in his book, "The Hidden Power Of Prayer and Fasting" describes it this way:

"...outpouring record rains yielded a once-in-a-lifetime- bloom in Death Valley, California.  Desert seeds that had lain dormant for 100 years suddenly sprang to life after the unusual rains...people streamed from all over the world to see this amazing sight."

     Beloved, when the rain in your life comes, it's coming to bring life to all the seeds of God's promises that are lying dormant in your life. When the tests of your faith come, (and they will), they are coming to bring more of God's life into your life. They are meant to cause the promises to bloom.  They are meant to teach you how to release more resurrection power to the dead places and things that you are still holding on to. They're meant to be a sheer gift from your Heavenly Father so that you can bring His heavenly inheritance into fruition for you and in you.

One Hundred Year Blooms

     My grandchildren live in the desert. Rain is a special treat for them.  When those heavy rains come in January and February their mom allows them to play in it.  No umbrellas, just splashing around in the puddles and lifting their faces to taste the rain. That's how we need to look at the "rain" in our lives isn't it?  Your job is to look at the rain as an opportunity to be refreshed by the promises that God is highlighting for you at that moment. Focus on those wonderful promises and refuse to be distracted from their hope. 

"It's the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts." (2 Peter 1,The Message).

     The storm will soon be over. The Son will shine again with even greater brightness. You'll learn to play in the rain, and the rain will become an agent to force your faith life out into the open, if you let it.  Your choice!

Power Thought:

Faith is knowing Who you know, and knowing His plans for your life to bloom with His promises. How are you shaping UP?

The book, "It's Time To Power Up" is available on Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2014, Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work