Luke 21:12-13 KJV

But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

• DAILY READING – Acts 13:26-52; Joshua 20-21; Job 30

Pastor Christo Kulichev,  an evangelical pastor  in Bulgaria became a marked man by the Communist party in Bulgaria for his outspoken faith and preaching. On January 9, 1985 he was arrested, tried, and imprisoned for his disobedience to the Communist regime. His crime was that he preached in his church when the state had appointed another man to preach in his place.

His trial was a mockery of justice. He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment. During his time in prison he made Christ known every way he could. When he got out he wrote, “Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in church. God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free.” Though it seemed the communist government  were restricting him, they only ended up helping to expand his ministry. Sometimes what may appear as tribulation in your life may be God expanding the scope of your mission. In Acts 8, when the apostles were scattered they went about preaching the Gospel to many cities.

Sometimes we can suffer tribulations as Christians  without understanding the reason why. In pastor Christos’ case he was imprisoned for preaching in his own church. Though he had committed no crime, he was thrown into prison. But whatever phase or stage we find ourselves, we must realize it is all for a purpose. There is a plan God is working out. Though things may not look good at first, understand you are being pruned for a reason. Just submit to God’s will and let patience have its perfect work. And as Job said ‘When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold’. [Job 23;10]

When you are a child of God things don’t happen to you anyhow, there is a reason behind every season of life. Your life is following a divine script.  When Joseph’s brothers sold him into a foreign land, it seemed like the end of the road.  But rather they had only sent him to the place of destiny.  Sometimes God can use your enemies to scatter you from the familiar only to bring you to the place of destiny. Change is often not comfortable. Leaving behind the familiar and venturing into the unknown can even be scary. But in the case of Moses, Joseph, Esther, Daniel, David, it seemed none of them could come into their destined place until they have first been scattered.  In Isaiah 66:19 God said ‘and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations.., to the isles afar that have not heard My Name, neither have seen My Glory, and they shall declare My Glory among the gentiles’.

That is the purpose; to declare His glory. We are created and prepared for the purpose of manifesting God’s Glory.  Everything that is being done in our lives is for the purpose of declaring His Glory. Even the trials and tribulations you seem to be facing right now,  are for the purpose of manifesting His Glory. God said in Isaiah 43;7  ‘Even everyone that is called by My Name, for I have created him for My Glory’.  And verse 21 says  ‘this people have I formed for Myself, they shall shew forth My Praise’.

Despite the gross darkness, the glory of the Lord is rising upon you and the gentiles shall come to the brightness of your rising. What looks like tribulation right now is working out for your good, and The Lord shall be glorified through your testimony.

We are destined to be vessels for the revelation of God’s glory. And it is only when we have been pruned, purged and prepared that we can be vessels of honor fit for the master’s use. There must be a preparation before there can be a manifestation. So everything that is happening , every phase and stage, is simply God preparing us for the greater purpose He has created us for; to declare His glory.  Isaiah 48;10 says . behold, I have refined thee but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction’ and Job 23;10 says ‘But He  knoweth the way that I take, when He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold’. This is why in everything we give Him thanks, everywhere we go we proclaim His Name. and  even when the enemy thinks he is persecuting us, we are only being purified by the fire to bring to God worthy praise. Because the greater the test, the sweeter the testimony. This is why wherever we go, we proclaim His doing, we use every available means and opportunity to preach the Gospel.  We must preach in season and out of season.  To every place we come to, we ask ourselves “To whom can I witness here?”  In everything, God must be glorified.

When we trust God we will let Him have His way in our lives, knowing that our lives are ultimately to declare His Glory. Even when it seems we are being scattered, He is at work to cause all things to work for our good. We trust Him not only with the present but also with the future, knowing that He that has begun this good work in us is able to bring it to perfection.

PRAYER: Lord, please give me  the grace to see your will being done in my life despite what may seem like a scattering, please give me the wisdom to discern your voice as You guide me through the storm into my place of destiny..

quote :

The test you are going through in life today is not for your destruction, it is for your testimony. – WORDBITE 222. 

 [ADAPTED FROM TRIUMPH OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS]