Fertile Soil...

Some of the most fertile soil God can use to instruct us and teach us valuable truths about Himself and His Kingdom, is trials.  Current Christian thinking conditions us to run from these times as if we are in some new dispensation devoid of conflict.  While God is desiring to reveal Himself to us, we often are busy “confessing” away the very vehicle with which He can use to teach us such deep truths about His nature and our relationship to Him!  The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9…..”We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.”  The Word of Faith teaching of “confessing away all trials, struggles, and difficult periods that has invaded Western Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, has hindered and for many nullified the effectiveness of Romans 8:28 where God gives instruction on how He will use the very trials, and attacks of the enemy to our benefit, utilizing them as periods of instruction concerning His Nature and our relationship to Him in this…..”And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

In the midst of those periods of trial, there is a “hiding-place” God has created just for you, where there is provision, protection, love, and instruction!  This is the “cleft” of the rock where the Shepherd will protect His sheep!