Do Not Shy Away from Trials

The letter of the Apostle James is a collection of sorts of advice from a pastor, a very pastoral man. The Apostle James was the brother of Jesus Christ, and it is a letter that has advice of different kinds, about different things, scattered throughout it. He goes to one thing and then moves on to another; it is like having a very wise father or a very wise grandfather who sits down with you and begins giving you advice, and the advice, directed by the Holy Spirit, comes out in a very beautiful way.

Sometimes it seems as though the pieces are not connected to one another, but they are simply like jewels, pearls on a necklace, and each one has its own life and its own coherence. But one of the things that strikes me is that James writes to Christian Jews who were, that is, in different cities and different places. That is why he addresses those who are in the dispersion, the diaspora; they were in different cities, and many of them were under persecution specifically for being Christians.

And that is why I believe he begins by speaking about trials and difficulties. The Lord has laid it on my heart for us to talk a little about this, because I know that many of us have burdens and difficulties, and sometimes, as we look at the burdens, difficulties, and trials we are going through, we think: Where is God? What happened? Why does He not hear me? Why does He not answer my cry? Is it that He does not love me? Is it that I am in sin? Is it that I am not praying enough? Why does God allow me to go through this time of drought? Or why does God allow trials in the lives of God’s children? It is not because God does not love us; it is not because God is not powerful; it is not because God fails to keep His promises. It is because trials and difficulties play a positive role in the lives of God’s children.

Trials are not an exception to God’s love in our lives. Sometimes God has to bring trials because they are part of God’s dealings with us and His work within us. Remember that when each one of us comes to the Gospel—and even sometimes after we have grown in the Gospel—there are all kinds of attitudes, characteristics, and traits of our character and personality that cling to us, or that are produced within us by experiences we have had and by circumstances. These are negative things that harm our lives and sometimes lead us to harm others; sometimes they keep us from hearing from the Lord, and sometimes they are stumbling blocks in our lives.

And so the question is: How is God going to remove those things from us and form the character of Jesus Christ within us? Interestingly, one of the things God uses to shape His children is trials. Trials and difficulties often put us in a position where we have to look upward or inward.

You know, sometimes when you are going through a trial, you do not really want to be around a lot of people or at parties; it is as though you are directed inward to seek more of Him and to examine yourself more deeply. Trials are designed by God, and the most powerful and graphic instrument illustrating the positive power of trials is the cross of Jesus Christ.

For on the cross—which was the most terrible suffering a human being could undergo—God used that terribly grim and sinister instrument to produce the greatest amount of blessing the universe has ever experienced. Through the crucifixion of His Son, the Lord released power and healing for humanity, brought destruction and defeat upon the powers of the devil and upon the legal claim Satan had over humanity, using precisely the greatest suffering any human being has ever experienced.

And so I believe that through this, God gave us a very powerful picture of the fact that sometimes the most terrible pain and the greatest suffering can, in God’s hands, be used for our blessing and the blessing of others.

Many times, when we are going through trials, let us not think, “God has forgotten me,” but quite the opposite. Many times, that is when God is closest to us. And that is why Jesus, for example, in Gethsemane—suffering as that cross approached, alone, abandoned by His companions—is like a picture of the believer when he is going through difficult situations and it seems that God has forgotten him, although God is there, because God was with Jesus at that moment as at no other moment in history, preparing His Son to be…

That was the culminating moment of Jesus’ entire journey and the purpose for which He came to earth. When we Christians enter the economy of the Kingdom of God and of the Gospel, remember that one of God’s most powerful purposes is to shape us according to the image of His Son Jesus Christ.

And that is something I do not find preached very often in churches. And certainly, in Pentecostal churches and churches of faith, victory, and power, as we have confessed, teaching about the cross as an element in the formation of God’s children is lacking and conspicuous by its absence.

You know, I see that most of the suffering we, the children of God in the church of Jesus Christ, go through is not because it comes from the devil, but because there are things within us that have not been dealt with by the Holy Spirit. You know what I mean, right?

There are traits that we do not surrender to the Lord, and pastors generally do not teach about that dimension of the Christian life; we do not teach about the place where God wants to form Christ within us.

Look, the most important thing for you as a child of God is not that you have money, or fame, or find the person of your dreams, or have a big house, or even that you gain victory over your illness. God’s greatest purpose is for Christ to be formed within you and for you to come to reflect the character of Jesus.

What is the character of Jesus? The fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, patience, humility, kindness, joy, and peace. And you cannot attain any of those things unless you are taken through the cross and experience certain things that God will arrange as a treatment for you, so that you may become like Christ.

And paradoxically, ironically, if you go through that crushing mill of trials in the Spirit, when you come out of them, you emerge stronger and more powerful than ever. Then God can perform great miracles through your life. Then God can speak with authority through your life; then you can counsel someone and testify to people with the authority of Christ Jesus.

That is why you should not shy away from trials; do not shy away from difficulties, because if you look at all the disciples, all the Apostles went through trials. Nearly all of them were murdered and martyred—nearly all the Apostles, including James. The Apostle Paul died by beheading; did you know that? A man as powerful as Paul. Peter died by crucifixion. John wrote his epistle of Revelation—do you know where? On a deserted island to which he had been exiled: Patmos, the island of Patmos. They exiled him to a rocky island in the middle of the sea, with very few people there; they put him there. And nearly all the disciples went through different trials.

Do you think that if those great men of God went through trials, we are going to be exempt? No. And trials are part of… Now, that does not mean that the Christian life consists only of trials, brothers and sisters—no, quite the contrary. The Christian life is power; it is victory, but it includes trials. And if you want one, you need the other as well. Whoever wants power and authority also needs trials, because they are part of the training.

How is a soldier formed? Do you think a soldier is formed on a golf course, playing golf, and then going to the club to have a margarita and eat a steak all the time? Where is a warrior formed? He is formed on the battlefield. He is formed through training, drills, and the disciplines of a soldier. Why do they put them through those exercises? To form the character of a soldier within them.

Have you seen a soldier being trained, with a drill sergeant shouting in his face and spitting on him as he insults him? Why do they do that to him? Because they want to develop manhood in him; they want to get all the babyishness and spoiled-little-boy behavior out of him and form a warrior, a man who can stand up to the enemy.

The same thing happens when we enter the Gospel: we do not enter simply to have a good time. That is a mistake people make nowadays. People are told, “Come to Christ and everything will be all right.” That is a lie. And then do you know what happens? When people go through trials, they do not know what to do with them. There are many churches where people are taught only, “God will always heal you,” and many times people have faith, pray, fast, come to church, give, serve, shout, cry out, and fast again, but God does not heal them, and they say, “God does not love me.”

But they are not told that there are times when God will use those things for His glory and honor, to form you. Now, when you have an illness, cry out to the Lord, ask Him to heal you, and keep crying out. But know that if He does not do it, that does not mean He does not love you or that He has no purposes for your life. He is using these things as well to bless and strengthen you.

That is why I want this teaching to be engraved upon us, and I am going to continue working on it. It is found throughout Scripture. Look, for example, at just one passage I am going to use: Luke, chapter 13. There is a parable, and if you do not understand these things in this way, they will fly over your head at a hundred miles an hour, and you will not know what it is talking about. Luke, chapter 13, verses 6 through 9: the parable of the barren fig tree. I am going to show you where the trial is here.

“…He also told this parable: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none…”

A serious problem: when there is no fruit, the Lord becomes upset. Remember the barren fig tree that had many leaves, and the Lord reached in to look for a piece of fruit, a fig, but there was nothing. It was all leaves, very leafy, very beautiful, but it had no fruit. When I was in Puerto Rico, there was a lemon tree in my father-in-law’s yard, and he told me that it had not borne fruit for over a year; it had not produced a single lemon—it was on strike. And I said, “Goodness, there has to be at least something, one little lemon somewhere. Let me see; perhaps there is something.”

I began searching; I climbed onto a chair and searched leaf by leaf, but I did not find a blessed lemon on the entire tree. That tree truly was on strike. I prayed that the Lord would cause it to bear fruit, and we will see the next time I go. What a shame! Do you know what I had to do? He has another sour orange tree, and I was desperate for some juice, so I took two sour oranges, squeezed them, and added all the sugar I possibly could, until no more would fit. At some point I found the sweetness in the orange, and it was absolutely delicious. Has anyone ever drunk orange juice? It is really good; it tastes delicious. Just a little something there.

It says that “…he came looking for fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser”—the vinedresser is the person who tends it, the farmer who was the laborer working for the owner of the vineyard—“and he said to the vinedresser, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down. Why should it also use up the ground?’ Then he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and fertilize it…’

Holy! Lucy already…

“…until I dig around it and fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, well and good; but if not, afterward you can cut it down…”

Examine yourself a little. Look at what it says here. What is that fig tree? Who is that fig tree? You, I—we are the fig tree. And what does the Lord expect from you and me? Fruit. And what is that fruit? What fruit does God expect in us?

It says that God has placed us here so that we may bear much fruit. What is the fruit? Souls, okay: that we may win more souls through the Gospel. What else? What other fruit can we bear? Compassion for others. What else? Love, service, patience, faith—all of those are fruits: works for the Gospel, support for the church of Jesus Christ, giving to the Lord in different ways. Doing whatever is necessary to advance the Kingdom of God. Bearing fruit means that your life is a resource for humanity and for the Kingdom of God; when God needs you for something, He has you there, ready as an instrument to be used.

And people do not understand that we have been placed in the Kingdom of God to bear fruit. You were not placed there to vegetate, to be a parasite. Many people come to church to see what the church is going to do for them—whether the pastor will visit them, whether he will greet them—and they are like children whose diapers have to be changed constantly.

Imagine changing an adult’s diapers; how unpleasant that must be, don’t you think? But there are people like that. They are adults; they have grown old in the Gospel, and their diapers still have to be changed. But do you know what God calls us to do? To bear fruit. To be soldiers, warriors, instruments, servants of the Lord. And the church is the place where you are trained. Understand that.

If people entered the Gospel with that mindset—that it is about serving and bearing fruit, not about having things given to me—and of course, you do receive. That is the good thing about the Gospel: you receive and give, receive and give, give and receive, give and receive. So understand this: that fig tree is planted to bear fruit, and the owner of the fig tree goes to the vineyard from time to time and says, okay, I want to take a few figs home, and he finds none. He does not find them. And then the vineyard employee, the worker, the one who tends it directly… the vinedresser.

A question: Who is the vinedresser here? Jesus. And what if we also said the Holy Spirit? Because God places the Holy Spirit within us to form us, to work in us, and the Holy Spirit is also Jesus Christ dwelling within us. But I would say that the vinedresser, whether Jesus or the Holy Spirit, is that power of God within us that forms us.

What does a vinedresser do? He cares for the fig tree, pruning it, working it, fertilizing it so that it will bear fruit. His calling is to work with that fig tree. What does the Paraclete do? The Comforter does precisely that. The Holy Spirit has been placed here to guide us into all truth, to teach us everything God wants from us. Many times I do not like that word “Comforter”; it is a poorly translated word. Paraclete, which is translated into Spanish as “Comforter”—when people hear “Comforter,” they think of someone holding a handkerchief for you to blow your nose when you are crying. That is not the Holy Spirit. Paraclete in Greek means the one who stands beside you, supports you, backs you up, pushes you, and encourages you.

The Holy Spirit is like the cheerleader at a football game, the one saying, “Yes, go on, give it all you’ve got; you can do it.” He is the one encouraging you; I would call him the encourager instead. The Holy Spirit is your coach; the Holy Spirit is the coach, the encourager, the discipler, the disciplinarian—that is really what the Holy Spirit does. That is why it says that the vinedresser is the one responsible for ensuring that the vine—the fig tree—bears fruit.

The owner, who in this case is the Father, says to the Holy Spirit or to the Son, “For three years…” How many Christians are there in the church, brothers and sisters, who bear no fruit? They do nothing; they are lazier than the [inaudible] upstairs; they do not move. They do nothing. They simply arrive on Sunday, sit down, and do not even sing. At least do something—sing off-key, but do something to show that you are alive. No, they do nothing. They come to church and sit there in a daze, believing, “I have already paid, so God, you have to give me what I need.” You have to bear fruit.

The Lord is continually examining our lives. How are you growing? Are you learning more of the Word of God? Are you praying? Are you sensing His presence? Are you changing? Are you surrendering part of your being? Are you acquiring more Christlike qualities? Is God using you to evangelize someone? Do you bring glory to the Lord through your character? Are you giving Him the traits of yours that do not please Him so that He can replace them with others? What are you doing to bear fruit?

Fruit is everything that pleases the Lord, everything that brings Him pleasure, everything that makes the Father proud when He looks at you and says, “That is My daughter; that is My son. How wonderful! Look at how this child is growing; look at how this child is being used for My glory!”

And when God comes, in a sense, and visits you, it is as though He were saying, “Child, what are you doing to grow? What are you doing to become more like My Son Jesus Christ?” So that image of the owner who comes to the vineyard and looks for fruit represents the Father, who is always looking within us and expecting us to show Him something we have learned and how we have grown.

But what happens? Every time this man comes, it is a barren fig tree; he finds no fruit, and then he becomes upset with the fig tree. Remember what I said last Sunday: the Father has two speeds. One is grace: He invites you to eat, opens the doors to you, invites you into His home, and prepares a dinner for you. But if you despise it, He becomes angry.

And that is what people do not understand: failing to bear fruit does not mean that God says, “Well, you know what? It is all right. The poor thing bears no fruit; he is useless. Amen. What can I do? He is just a boy… It is all right, do not worry; stay there.” No. God becomes upset.

What is another example of this? The parable of the unfaithful servant: the son gives one mina to each of his 10 servants. He leaves, returns, and asks them to account for what they did. One day we are going to talk about that. He asks each one to account for what he did with the gift, the talent, that he gave him. One of them takes the mina he was given and makes 10 more minas. A mina is an amount of money—let us say $300—and one of them turned that $300 into $3,000. And when the owner comes and says to him, “What did you do with my money?” he answers, “Lord, your money earned 10 times more; I have multiplied it for you by 1,000 percent.” “Wow,” he says, “amen, good and faithful servant.”

Another says, “Lord, your $300 earned $1,500, five times more.” “Thank you, my son; very well done!” Because the Lord does not care… there are different endowments. Perhaps God gave you so many gifts that you will be a Billy Graham and win 10 million people to Christ. But perhaps He gave another person only enough to win 100 souls in his entire lifetime, or 50, or 20. God does not care so much about the absolute number of things you do; what matters to God is that you do the very best you can with what He has given you.

It says, according to the gift you have received, according to the measure of faith you have received. God gives different measures of faith to different people. Not everyone will be a pastor, not everyone will be an evangelist, not everyone will be the director of a great international mission. One person’s endowment will be to serve as an intercessor, and no one will even notice that person in the church, but that person will bear fruit because, without realizing it, that church is being strengthened by that person’s prayers. And that is all that person will do. She will never deliver a sermon, never preach at a conference, but she is a faithful intercessor. There are different gifts, different things. What matters to God is that you make an effort.

See, I command you to be strong and courageous. But what happens? There was a third servant who says, “Lord, here are the $300 you gave me, because I know that you are a severe man, that you get involved wherever you have to, and even when there is nothing, you make it happen, and you are demanding. So I was afraid, and instead of investing this in a business, I put it in a greasy handkerchief and placed it under the mattress. So here it is.”

And do you know what the lord says to him? “Wicked servant, I judge you by your own words. How can you say that I am severe? And if that is true, why did you not take the money and at least put it in the bank so that it could earn 3 percent interest? You could have given me at least $305 or $310. But even if it were only $10, you should have done something.”

Notice that what is interesting is the reaction of the owner, of the executive. It is not a reaction of, “Oh, you poor thing. That is all right; I know you were afraid. Do not worry; maybe next time.” No. He becomes extremely upset. He grows angry and furious with this man who, instead of putting to work what the owner had given him, simply put it away to stagnate. And he says:

“…Take it away from him and give it to the one who has 10.” And the others are scandalized: “Lord, but he already has 10. How can you take the one from him and give it to the person who has so much?” He says, “No, because to the one who has much, more will be given; and from the one who does not have, even the little he has will be taken away.” Because God expects us to work, and He becomes angry and upset.

A barren Christian makes God nauseous, brothers and sisters. That is why we have to… the spirit God has placed within us is a spirit of greatness, excellence, and power, and if we do not use it, we are wasting the power of God. That is why Christ says that whoever does not gather with Me scatters and wastes, because there are only two alternatives.

God has placed a spirit of power within you. That is why, my dear sister… I asked you to pray, and you said, “No, I cannot, no…” But when you began to flow, the words came out… you could have continued praying for two hours. We have to dare. The Spirit is within us. If I had time, I would show you the passage where Paul says, “I pray that you will understand the great power God has caused to dwell among you, which is the same power that raised Christ from the dead.”

All of us have been endowed with power, and if we do not use it, we are wasting the grace and power of God; we are insulting the God who endowed us with the power of His Son. And so God expects you to work, because He says, “I know what I placed within you. Do not tell Me, ‘No, I am just a poor wretch.’ No, I gave you power. And if you do not use it, it is because of your own foolishness, and that upsets Me.”

It says, “…cut it down. Why should it use up the ground as well?” And here is the key. The vinedresser—the Holy Spirit, who is the intercessor; Christ, who intercedes for us—says, “…leave it alone for one more year. Give it one more chance, until I dig around it and fertilize it…”

Digging. You know what happens… digging and fertilizing—that is what often happens when one prunes. I told you, I think it was last time, about pruning a plant. When a plant is pruned, violence is done to it: its branches are cut off and its beauty is taken away. Digging means… doing violence to the soil around it, fertilizing it, working it. That is where God often digs around us and removes our supports. Sometimes we have things around us that strengthen us: money, friends, health.

And that makes us very self-sufficient, very sure of ourselves. In fact, sometimes there is soil around us—good behavior. There are people who have behaved very well throughout their life of faith, like Simon the Pharisee, and have never so much as broken a plate. And do you know where that leads? It often leads to self-sufficiency and pride. And when someone falls or has a problem… “Look at that fool; why does he do that? That sinner…” Instead of showing mercy, they judge him, because they are judging according to their own condition. And so they have no mercy, no compassion, no patience, no love for others. And God says, “You know what? I am going to dig a little around him. I am going to remove a little of that self-sufficiency,” and sometimes a fall comes. Listen to me. God sometimes allows that, because the devil is always nearby, trying to…

Sometimes a fall may come; a difficult situation may arise in a person’s life, and it is part of God’s work. I know that sounds difficult to you, brothers and sisters, but I tell you, I have already come to understand clearly that there are things God sometimes chooses, and I can prove it to you. If you wish, give me two more minutes.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh. No one knows what the thorn in the flesh was, but Paul calls it an angelos Satan, in Greek, an angel of Satan. It is translated as “a messenger” because I think the translators did not like the idea of God sending an angel of Satan. Which is what? A demon. “God sent me a thorn, a messenger, an angel.” The word angelos in the original Greek means either angel or messenger. So they chose the gentler one, “a messenger,” because it is more poetic, less scandalous.

I believe God sometimes even uses demons, ladies and gentlemen. Again, I do not have much time, but believe me, I am not drinking any tea; the only thing I am drinking right now… There are cases in the Bible in which God uses a spirit—for example, a lying spirit, as in the case of Ahab. He sent a lying spirit to make that man stumble.

Sometimes there are strange dialogues involving God. In Job, God converses—it says that one day the sons of God came to present themselves before Him, and among them came our friend—may God rebuke him—Satan. He appeared, and God converses with him. There are many mysterious things in the world, brothers and sisters, concerning how… One day we will understand; there are mysteries.

So Paul… I believe that the thorn Paul had was a thorn… an inner struggle he had. I believe it was a struggle in his thoughts. It does not say, but judging by what he says, it was a satanic force that struggled with him, with this great servant of God. Why? Because it says that God gave Paul such great revelations that he could not even share them with any human being, because God took him to the third heaven. It says that he heard things there that he was not even permitted to share with anyone. He says, “And so that the greatness of the revelations would not make me excessively proud”—that is the word he uses—“God sent me a thorn, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me.” Yes or no? Am I making it up, or can you read it there? Second Corinthians, chapter 12.

“…concerning which I asked Him three times to take it away from me, and three times He answered me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, because My power is perfected in weakness…’”

Why “My grace”? Because this great man of God—so powerful, so enlightened, with so many supernatural experiences, hearing the voice of Christ Himself—needed something to make him humbler. Because if he became proud over the great revelations he had received, the devil would strike him even harder. So God preemptively sends him a scourge, a struggle, to keep him lowly, humble, and dependent on the grace and mercy of God, so that he can also have compassion for others, brothers and sisters.

Many times God’s servants, God’s priests, have to undergo inner struggles in order to have mercy on others. That is why great men of God like Martin Luther, the great Reformer, suffered from terrible bouts of depression that incapacitated him for days and days. Charles Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of the nineteenth century, also suffered from terrible depression. Mother Teresa, a woman of God—you know that when Mother Teresa died, she asked that her diary, her spiritual diary, never be published. And the Catholic Church, just so you can see this, decided that humanity needed to see this woman’s inner life, and in her diary Mother Teresa speaks about her great spiritual barrenness. She went through periods when she believed that God did not love her. Buy it.

These great people, servants of God, often go through difficult situations. And sometimes God allows situations of testing and difficulty because that is how these people are formed to become compassionate people, merciful counselors, humble people, because otherwise pride makes them easy prey for the devil, as he did with Peter.

Peter, when the Lord says, “All of you are going to abandon me,” full of self-confidence says, “Lord, even if all these big, lazy cowards abandon you, I will never abandon you.” And the Lord laughed and said, “Peter, Peter, not only are you going to deny me once, you are going to deny me three times before daybreak.” And Peter did so three times… and the third time, he cursed so that they would believe him. “I know this… Jesus.” He says, “And once you have been strengthened, go and strengthen your brothers.”

And God allowed Peter to go through the terrible trial of knowing that he had denied his Master in order to humble him. And that is why there is that scene when the Lord says to Peter, “Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.” Three times he denied him, and three times the Lord gave him the opportunity to say, “Yes, I love you, Lord.” Because the Lord has mysterious ways of working with us.

Look, brothers and sisters, learn about the mystery of God’s dealings with us. God deals with you in the smallest things in your life. I have learned in my life that the Lord is involved in the most secret neurons of my brain. He knows every cell of my being by name, and there are billions and billions of cells, trillions of them, inside my body. And I believe that he knows every one of them. God gets involved in your life, in your affairs. He manages every minute, every detail of your life, and he is interested in one thing: working on you, shaping you, guiding you.

I have learned that every minute I have God watching me, working with me, and speaking to me, all the time. So I take nothing for granted. Everything that happens in my life, I take it as, “Lord, okay, what are you up to? What are you doing in my life right now?” Everything.

When it says here, “I am going to dig around it,” that is what it means. Many times God is going to dig around your life; he is going to remove your supports. That is why many times a person is full of money, full of fame, and suddenly bankruptcy comes and everything comes crashing down, and that is where they come to know Christ, or that is where they say, “Wow, I really was so far away from God.” And in that trial, if they go through it with God—because that is the key—you can do one of two things when the trial comes upon you: either kiss the hand of God that slapped you, or curse him and say, “I’m leaving.” It depends on how you deal with it.

If you use the trial for your benefit and bless God while you are going through it, that trial will be the most precious thing that will ever happen to you in your life. Now, if you curse it and reject it, it becomes a dagger that makes you bitter and destroys you. Which of the two are you going to choose? If you use trials positively, those trials will bless you, strengthen you, dig around you, and prune you, but then they will enable you to bear fruit.

Then it says, “Dig around it, let me fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, well and good; and if not, then cut it down.”

What does the Bible say? That if it does not bear fruit, they cut it down and throw it into the fire. If salt loses its flavor, it is good for nothing; it must be thrown away.

Remember that. That digging, that pruning by God, is the process of crucifying the self, the grain of wheat that falls to the ground. Another beautiful image of this says, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The grain’s outer husk has to break so that the life inside it can come out. When a grain of wheat—or any bean or any other kind of seed—falls into the ground, it begins to rot; the moisture in the soil and the chemicals break down the grain so that the life, the genetics of that seed, can begin to sprout, and a little plant springs up that produces a great deal of grain.

But if it remains whole and does not break, it remains a single grain. It is the same with your life, your character, the outer husk, the things you love, your humanity, your carnality—that is the grain’s outer husk. Many times God has to break it, and tears, blood, suffering, and agony have to flow; but from there your soul breaks open, and the life of God that is inside you comes out. Then comes the blessing, then comes fruitfulness, then comes joy, then comes victory, then comes lightness.

The trials in my life have produced a man who, I believe, is a little better than he was before them—and yet how far I still have to go, brothers and sisters. But I have already learned that, despite the pain and suffering, I have to say, “Lord, I want to go through this trial with you. I am going to go right into it; I am going to hold on to you until the storm passes. Then afterward I am going to open the window, and I am going to bless you, and I am going to hear the birds singing, and I am going to be more useful to you, and I am going to have more joy in my life; I am going to be lighter.”

So let God dig around you and prune you so that you may bear more fruit and become more like Christ. Amen. That is part of trials, brothers and sisters. Glory to the Lord. I hope we are blessed by this word.

Stand up and receive this teaching. Ask the Lord to give you discernment tonight. Father, I bless your people. Give us discernment to know when to wage war, when to resist, and when to bow our heads and let you shape us. I bless your sons and daughters tonight, Father. Pour out your grace upon them, and send them forth with your blessing, in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.