What Are You Made Of?

It is in that place of hardness, in the beginning of

the ministry that you see what you are made of. A grape

does not produce juice until it is squeezed. You cannot

have grape juice and wine, until you squeeze the grape.

Some people need to go through a little bit of pressure to

produce. Sometimes they get into trouble because of their

own stupidity. At other times, the hard place is where

they develop character.

 

The Bible says God tested Abraham. Also in

Jesus’ ministry He was led by the Holy Ghost into the

wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Some people don’t

understand how it is possible that the Holy Spirit will do

that. But God wants to see what you are made of before

He entrusts something great to you.

 

Nebuchadnezzar learned what the three Hebrew

boys were made of when he put them in the burning, fiery

furnace. They found out what Daniel was made of when

they put him in the lions’ den.

 

You Have to Start at ABC to Get to XYZ

 

So many people want to start at point Z but they

won’t start at A. Until you are ready for ABC, you can’t

get to XYZ. Be faithful with the little God gives you. It

might take five, ten, twenty, thirty or forty years to see it

come to pass, but have the stickability.

 

Stay with what God has called you to do,

irrespective of the rain, the sun, the snow, the winter, the

summer, the spring, irrespective of adversity, trials,

tribulations, and heartaches. Remain constant. Operate in

the fruit of patience and continue in what God has called

you to do. It will be a process, but God will move you

into a place where the ministry will come forth and into

maturity.

 

Kathryn Kuhlman went through hell and back

before her great ministry was born. She experienced

many failures and many hours of loneliness. She said that

she knew the day and time when Kathryn Kuhlman died.

Many people think they are out there and no one

recognizes them, but God knows and He sees. He looks

upon the heart. He is looking for a yielded and a willing

vessel.

 

There Is a Time to Come Forth

 

It is almost like a lady who becomes pregnant.

She would love to have the baby immediately, because it

will save her a lot of problems. We have had three

children. I’ve been with my wife during every birth. So I

know what my wife went through. It would have been

much easier to have all three at one time. It would have

taken nine months instead of twenty-seven.

 

As much as that lady wants to have her baby, she

has to wait for the time for the baby to come forth. When

a baby is born prematurely, it must be placed in an

incubator in intensive care. In the case of extremely

premature babies, their lungs are underdeveloped and the

child has less chance of surviving.

 

It is the same with ministries. People have tried to

give birth to a ministry prematurely and it doesn’t last
long. It will last a year, two years, or perhaps five years,

and then fade away into nothingness.

 

Two Kinds of Ministries

 

There are two kinds of ministries in the earth

today. There are the shooting star ministries that will

come in a blaze of glory and disappear or blow up. Then

there are the ministries that are solid, like the North Star.

 

They will stand the storms of life. They will stand when

everything else around is falling, when other ministries

are quitting, when people are pulling out of the ministry,

when the persecution gets hot. They will stand when they

clamp down even more on the television preachers, when

they mock the preachers in the newspapers and the

media.

 

These are men of God who will say, “We are not

going to compromise! We’ll not back down on the

healing ministry! We are not going to back down on

casting out devils! We are going to arise and boldly

proclaim the Word of God in Jesus’ name! It doesn’t

matter if they end up locking us in jail. It doesn’t matter if

we go to a foreign field and we give our lives there. Let it

be so. We will obey the call of God!” These are the kind

of people God is looking for.