Only by the Holy Spirit can we fully fathom the amazing promises of God.

Heb. 4:1 “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

Heb. 4:7 “TODAY, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart.” We do not have to wait until we get to heaven, the Father’s House, to enjoy the promises of God. We are THE FATHER’S HOUSE. Our bodies are His holy temples for His habitation for divine purpose. There is a spiritual dimension where we can daily walk with God that is neither weird nor wacky, hearing His voice, experiencing the joy of a constant drawing us to “realms above”, yet with our feet fixed firmly down here, but carrying His Presence.

As we look at our circumstances with spiritual eyes, we view them as Paul did: 2 Cor. 4:16-17, ” – – – though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day. For OUR LIGHT AFFLICTION, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

The greatest glory I can give God is praising Him IN my circumstances, instead of asking Him to remove them. Paul and Silas, with bleeding backs from being whipped, praised God at midnight in their prison cell, Acts 16. They experienced the joy of God, a treasure which lifted them above their outward circumstances. The source of their joy was the living God, completely independent of their circumstance.

I am the choice of God, but every day He offers me choice – to walk in the fullness of my salvation & choose life – or not! If God has declared it, it is my responsibility to believe it and walk it out. What God removes in the earthly, He replaces with the heavenly! I have to learn to ride the wave of my circumstances (like a surf rider) in Him, instead of drowning in my sorrow and murmuring! The refining fire of the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in our circumstances. How is God ever going to change us except through our circumstances? There is a “more excellent way” but few find it!

Sometimes God takes me back in time to put things right and take responsibility for my life choices. Very often, to produce a further advancement forward, the Holy Spirit first takes me back to repent of wrong judgements/choices that have resulted in unwelcome, and sometimes unrecognised consequences. How much of my present life is a product of my past? I am forgiven but I have to live with the consequence of past choices, but after repentance, God’s grace and mercy make the burden lighter – and grace is a large habitation!

God moves me forward through the conviction of His Holy Spirit. Condemnation is of the devil and takes me spiralling downwards, but conviction of the Holy Spirit leads me to repentance and freedom. Until I am forgiven, I am under the penal judgement for sin, but when I am forgiven, I am under the loving chastisement of my Heavenly Father – this is His refining.

If I do not choose to bow to His refining hand, I either stay stuck where I am, or God turns up the heat of His refining fire.

God wants to remove every prop of dependency in my life that is not of Him. He has allowed us props along our journey, and we have wrongly thought His blessing on our lives was the tick of His approval – but we have to recognise that God does not necessarily sanction what He blesses.

The rebellious children of Israel demanded of Samuel, the seer, a king to rule over them, (instead of God), so they could be like all the other nations. God told Samuel to grant them their request, but it was never God’s purpose for them, all the kings were in permission.

Everything is God’s will – but there is a big difference in His “perfect will” – purpose, as opposed to His permitted will – permission.

We are all in permission somewhere in our lives, but God is bringing us out of those places into His fulness – divine purpose. We are in the refining process of having all our props removed till “we live and move and have our being” totally in Him.

Philip. 3:10 declares my deepest desire and request, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,” but I am not so keen on the next phrase, ” – – and the fellowship of His sufferings,” but this is where I am refined by the hand of God. We are in training to live to God, and not to man, that the character of the indwelling Christ be wrought in our lives.

All creation is groaning, is straining on tip-toe to see the sons/daughters of God come into their birthright, to live in the supernatural provision of God. The Promised Land, the beyond of God, is our inheritance. For each of us there is a life to be lived, in Him, where He has called us to, and placed us. Where the appointment is, the provision is!

At the judgement seat of God I do not want to be presented with a book from the Lord, telling what “might have been” if I had bowed to His refining hand.

Do not dismiss the following ditty lightly!

I think my life as a tame old duck
Dabbling around in the farmyard muck,
Fat and lazy with useless wings
But sometimes, when the north wind sings
And the wild ducks hurtle by on high,
It cocks a wary and puzzled eye.
It’s quite content with the state it’s in,
But it’s NOT THE DUCK IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN!