Renouncing Self-Deception and Walking Through the Process That Leads to Blessing

We have to put hands and feet to the changes we want to see in our lives, with the anointing and power we have received through that encounter with the Lord. So we have to take that gasoline, put it in our tank, and turn it into concrete actions that lead us to those concrete actions and transformations we believe God is going to give us, because God works through His Word in us and with us to bring us to the goal, right?

God wants to break your bonds; God wants to free you from the things that are binding you in your life: mental and emotional bonds, wounds from the past, distortions of your character. But, brother, you cannot remain there merely praying and fasting and doing all of that. No, at some point God tells you, “You know what? Take concrete action.” You have to make specific efforts, and then you have to submit yourself to wholesome and holy conversations, find someone who will talk to you about how to achieve that, and then begin with one action at a time—sometimes very small actions—so that it can become a reality in your life.

Prayer only takes you so far; prophetic declarations only take you so far. From that point on, you then have to begin moving to other levels. And I was saying—you will remember that I said—that in the Pentecostal world and in every Christian sphere, there are grand declarations, but the reality we inhabit is very different because the mechanism that makes these transformations and actions possible is missing. And the purpose of these sermons is to alert us to some of the components of the success and growth that we need, right? The ingredient of vision has to be strengthened by the ingredient of action.

We have said that successful and powerful people in the world have the ability to execute and turn into action the great visions and projects they conceive in their minds. We have also said that sometimes it is intimidating. When you begin to put a vision into practice—a project or something you want to accomplish in life—those beginnings are always somewhat frightening because we do not know whether we will reach the goal, or the beginning itself shows us that this is more complex than we thought, more difficult, and sometimes in our first efforts we hesitate and stumble. That process is always somewhat imperfect, and we cannot allow that to intimidate us.

We have to keep moving forward little by little, bringing the vision down from the abstract into the realm of the real and the everyday, right? We have to take visions and turn them into actions. We have to bind ourselves in a disciplined way to the visions and dreams we have. And again, when I speak of visions, that word may sound very lofty. What I mean is any project you want to accomplish: learning English, buying a house, going to college, getting your GED, as we were saying, losing 25 pounds, improving your relationship with your wife, saving for a new car, whatever it may be; stopping yelling at the children, completing the four discipleship courses, becoming a man or woman with a practical knowledge of the Word of God.

These are small visions set within the larger framework of the great vision of being a man or woman who is filled with the Spirit, powerful, and engaged in a continual process of transformation. And you have to bind yourself in a disciplined way to what you conceive in the Lord, to that process which is sometimes discouraging and disheartening. We have also said that if, despite our fear, we remain committed to the project, the vision, and what we long for, little by little the vision will come to life and draw us toward it, committing us more and more deeply to it, because there are other allies who are also engaged in the same process, and they will hold us accountable and we will hold them accountable, and together we will move forward.

Why has God created His Church—the Church—this mystery of gathering on a Sunday or a Wednesday, the community of faith? Why did Christ create this? Why did Christ establish the Church in the world? Why did He not do something else? Why did He not conceive of something else? Because there is something about being united as a family of faith, the Body of Christ, united and complementing one another, encouraging one another, drawing momentum from one another, spurring one another on, and sharpening one another through the friction of life as a community, and that encourages us to keep moving forward.

If you do it alone, you will never reach the great goals of your life. God does not like lone rangers; He always does things in community. In fact, He does not like being alone—notice that—and that is why He also created us and the angels. I believe God was never alone, and even when perhaps there were no angels, there was the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, because what a beautiful principle of unity that is. God is not some single monad; no, God likes to pour His divinity into concrete things and do things in community, and we also learn from that.

You need companions on your journey through life to help you. The Church is imperfect—I was saying that this week—the Church is imperfect and sometimes neurotic, I would say, you know? And sometimes we hurt people, but I was saying to the person, “But there is nothing else. Where can one go outside the people of God?” We say, “Lord, where shall we go?” The world out there is worse. If you think the Church is bad, go out into the world and stay there for a few years, now that you have come to know the Lord here, and then you will see. No, God devised the Church.

And when we are struggling against our own weaknesses and are there fighting the devil hand to hand, we need someone to lift us up and tell us, “Keep moving forward.” And we have to pray for one another, minister to one another, and continue along the path of faith. Then our visions help us, and our brothers and sisters help us too and hold us accountable to continue, and we cannot turn back now because we have already begun the race.

So we have to move from the abstract to the concrete, from conceiving our project to completing it—in our case, for example, a new sanctuary is part of a vision. Never allow yourself to be intimidated by the magnitude, difficulty, or complexity of a dream or project when you contemplate it in its initial entirety. Visions have to be tackled one piece at a time, and they have to move from the most abstract stage to the most concrete project, until they become a specific design with specific contours; then you tackle one component after another until you achieve full execution.

That is what we have seen with this new sanctuary. We began with an idea God gave us; then we moved to a more specific project; then we proceeded to make a literal architectural design; and then we went part by part. This morning, when I passed through there on my way to the basement, I looked at some photographs that are there near the platform, and wow, I saw a couple of pictures of the holes we dug to lay the foundations for the new sanctuary. It seemed to me that an eternity had passed since that day, and I stopped there for a moment to look at the blue lines—you can see them—around the edges marking where we had to pour the concrete up to that point, and I said, “Wow.”

I remember that work, how dirty and disheartening it was, because there was not even the encouragement of already seeing a structure. They were nothing but ugly, dirty holes filled with mud and sometimes with water that rose in them. But we went from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next, until—glory to the Lord—we are now almost ready to celebrate the blessing there for many, many years.

Because you have to go step by step. Do you remember what I told you? How do you eat an elephant? You eat it one bite at a time, okay? And visions have to be broken down into their constituent parts and tackled one by one, beginning with what is easiest and most accessible and moving toward what is most fundamental. You have to bind yourself to the dream; you have to bind yourself to the project, persist in it, and carry it out one little piece, one bite at a time, until you see it completed.

I think I read to you what it said. The thing is that, because I have two services and sometimes God gives me—this morning, for example, God stopped me at one thought and I did not even advance in the sermon, because that happens—then you do not remember what you spoke about with one group and what you spoke about with the other. Perhaps this is new to you; perhaps I already said it to others, but in any case, it is good to reinforce these things.

Do those of you who were at the twelve o’clock service remember what Saint Francis of Assisi said? Perhaps I read it at nine, but Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Begin by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible, and suddenly you will find yourself doing the impossible,” right? Perhaps your spiritual strength right now is enough only for a very small goal. Well, if that is what you can accomplish, do that, and then move on to the next thing.

There are young people, for example, who tell me, “I want to study medicine,” but sometimes they have not even completed high school or have not even entered college. I tell them, “Well, look, begin by going to a community college. If it has been a long time since you left high school, go to a community college and spend two years there. Take biology; perhaps the level of the courses is less demanding. Then, when you finish and have your certificate or your associate degree, take those credits, find a four-year university, transfer the credits, and then proceed toward your bachelor’s degree.”

And who knows whether, during that process, God might tell you, “Well, stay there, finish, and graduate, for example, as a registered nurse, male or female, or earn a certificate in some area of medicine, medical technology, or whatever it may be.” Now, if God gives you the strength and encouragement, then continue and enter medical school, because by then you will know what you want to do, and one day perhaps you will be a great surgeon for the glory of God. But you have to begin where you are and then move forward little by little. You have to think that way; you have to ask God for wisdom, all right?

Many people want to be great theological giants and preach throughout the entire world, yet they have not even gone to an institute to take a Bible class. You have to proceed in order, because God is a God of order, right? We have also said that there are certain qualities of character that are required and serve as the platform for reaching our goals. What is required is determination, energy, persistence, the ability to think systemically, learning to seek allies who will help you, and analytical ability. Each of those things would take a great deal of time, and I do not want to dwell on them too much.

But there are preliminary qualities you need to cultivate in your life. It is not merely about the goal, about moving blindly toward the goal, but about asking the Lord to take you through a process of personal formation that allows you each day to become more solid and stronger in your personal constitution, so you can get where you want to go. Do not become so enamored of the destination that you forget there is also a long road to travel and a great deal of work to do during the process.

Many people do not possess these qualities because their childhood, family, and cultural backgrounds did not allow them to acquire them. Many times, those of us who come from undeveloped societies are not taught these things in those cultures. That is why our cultures are sometimes dysfunctional at the level of government, the economy, and infrastructure; there is rampant corruption in our societies.

You go into a government office, and there is the secretary chatting away with her friend while a huge line waits for her to attend to them, and woe to anyone who tells her, “Miss, get to work”—they will eat that person alive, right? (laughter). And if a little friend of hers from high school shows up, it is, “Hey, so-and-so, come over here!” and they put that person ahead of the entire line that was waiting. Then we bring those bad habits with us and take them into the family; we take them into the Church. We transfer our culture into the Kingdom of God instead of allowing the Kingdom of God to transform our culture.

So we have to ask the Lord, “Lord, form in me the character of a person of integrity, a serious person, a systematic person committed to the truth, who proceeds soberly through life and does not deceive himself about anything, but who, with the clarity the Holy Spirit provides, examines himself honestly and asks, ‘Where am I truly in my growth? Who am I?’”

When I am standing there naked in the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror, who is that man, that woman I am looking at? It is not the person who is all nicely dressed, with earrings and accessories on Sunday. No. It is that person who is there alone at night when I lie down and when I get up. Tell Him, “Lord, strip away all this public attire and let me see myself as You see me in the light of Your Holy Spirit,” because that is one of the most powerful qualities for personal growth: honesty, and seeing ourselves exactly as we are and where we are.

Because if you do not know where you are, you will not get where you need to go, you know? And that is why the Psalmist always says—that verse which, for me, is a motto—“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts, and see if in me there is a way”—a way of what?—“of wickedness.” What is the way of wickedness? It is everything that is not aligned with the Kingdom of God.

Every lie, every distortion, every tendency to exploit others, every deceit, every weakness of character. Everything that hinders my progress toward the image of Christ Jesus: examine me, teach me, and then guide me in the everlasting way. Because, you know what? Neither you nor I can trust what we see about ourselves.

We are like anorexic people who are as thin as a stick, but when they look in the mirror they see themselves as fat, because the mind deceives you; and many people think they are spiritual titans, but they still need to go to kindergarten for their formation. There are people who want to be pastors and do not realize that first they need to be discipled, learn to be followers, and keep quiet for a few years; then, if the Lord wants to promote them, He will do so in His time.

Because they do not know themselves; they do not know how far they still have to walk. That is why I think it is the apostle James who says: “Not many of you should become teachers, knowing that you will receive a greater condemnation.” Nowadays there is a proliferation of teachers and pastors; everybody wants to be a pastor, everybody opens a little stand somewhere in the city to start a church because no one wants to be a follower. In fact, no one even wants to be a pastor nowadays; everybody is an apostle nowadays, and we pastors have almost become conspicuous by our absence. In fact, now it is no longer even apostle; now there are patriarchs.

The ridiculous charades we evangelicals invent! And there are people willing to let themselves be deceived by that foolishness, and they flock to these places, because where the Truth of God does not reign, brothers and sisters, manipulation, exploitation, abuse, and childish congregations that do not grow arise, because they are not feeding on the Truth, they are not allowing the Holy Spirit to deal with them; and so we have childish leaders shepherding churches that are worse than they are. May God deliver us from that and help us. Perhaps some of that applies to me too, and I will have to go home and ask myself: Lord, could it be I, Father? One of you will betray Me—me?

We have to be honest. Sometimes I leave here to heal the wounds I inflicted on myself while preaching. But in the search for truth we must always bind ourselves to the Word of the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to help us. And you know what? That is why, many times, before the Lord gives us what we long for, before He leads us to those places of tender pastures and the fulfillment of our dreams and goals, He says to us: all right, I am going to take you there, but you may not like the road by which I am going to lead you; and you know what? It is also going to take longer than you think, because I am not simply going to hand things to you just like that.

We say: Lord, give it to me instantly, and let’s go home now. And God says: no, no, that is not how it works; I am going to take you through a process. Do you know that God is the God of processes? Because the processes we live through by the Holy Spirit create in us knowledge and discernment of what is truly within us. When God takes us through the desert of life and painful experiences, that creates in us an understanding of who we truly are and of the road we still have left to travel.

And you know what? The best leaders, the best parents, the best pastors, the best husbands, the best counselors are people who have themselves been put through God’s mill and are still bleeding, and who know: look, only by Your grace and Your mercy can I do anything good in this world, because if You left me to myself, I would do nothing.

If you see a leader or counselor who is too self-assured, run away for your own sake—yes, indeed. And unfortunately, that is what we seek most: people who seem invulnerable, Iron Man 4, right? And that is what we seek, and that is why there is so little wisdom among the people of God at this time, and among nations as well.

I am going to speak about us in one sense. Sometimes we are so poor, so backward; our societies do not function. There are beautiful things, but the truth is that there are countries that ought to be gardens of blessing and prosperity because they have every natural resource, naturally intelligent and hardworking peoples, and a long history and culture, yet they do not function. They are broken down like a car that will not run, and it is because we generally choose our leaders for their ability to speak loudly and impress people, and we want people who will manipulate us; so our countries are filled with demagogues who rise to power with a single purpose: to squander the money, steal everything, and leave us like shorn sheep when their government ends.

And we put them there because we are always looking for people who speak loudly, who declaim, who give good speeches, who appear invulnerable; and sometimes, you know what? The people most capable of transforming our nations are people who, when you look at them, seem incapable of hurting a fly.

Do you know that the great leaders of great corporations—studies have been conducted on this—are not usually very flashy people? There is a book, “Good to Great,” that has caused a sensation, and another called “Built to Last.” They are two books that I recommend you read. They are about corporate life, but they also have many applications, and studies have been conducted showing that the great executives who built these corporations that last for decades and decades and decades, and that are the best in their field, are generally leaders who do not draw attention to themselves.

They are even leaders who are rough and awkward in their relationships with others, and they are also leaders who always give the credit to their team instead of taking it for themselves. Some say that when something goes well, they give the credit to their team, and when something goes wrong, they assume responsibility; whereas we very often look for the person who squanders our money, who steals the money, who dresses well, and who talks about false prosperity. And then we are not looking for integrity, a solid word, wisdom, confrontation, the Word of God that enters and penetrates, digs into you, and leaves you bleeding a little, but then the oil and the wine also come and heal you, and you emerge blessed.

And we must choose leaders like that in our churches and our societies, because people of character can then take us where we need to go. For example, in this country, unfortunately, I believe that the leaders who can lead this nation to the transformation it requires in terms of spiritual values are not in the Republican Party, for instance, at this time; they are not on the right, in the conservative world, nor are they in the Democratic Party.

Unfortunately, those leaders are sober-minded people who sometimes dislike the public arena because they do not want to enter that gladiatorial circus that politics in the United States has become nowadays, where they air all your dirty laundry, distort you, and demand ten-second answers from you to glorify some television channel; or sometimes they summon you to an interview, and what they want is to glorify themselves through some mistake you made.

And thoughtful, sober-minded people do not want to get involved in those processes. So what we have are these gladiators who manipulate the public but lack the wisdom and spiritual depth this nation requires, as well as the ethical values and intelligence needed to make the transformations this nation requires. Because we have a childish people who want people to tell them what they want to hear, just as there are people who want churches to tell them what they want to hear.

And the apostle Peter already said it. He says that in the last days people will have itching ears and will heap up preachers who tell them what they want to hear according to their own lusts. Look it up there; I am not the one saying it—the Bible says it. And what we need in our lives is people who tell us the truth, people who, when you think you have hit a home run, tell you: no, man, you barely made it to first base, and you had to crawl there. And instead of taking offense, you take the bitter pill, savor it, meditate on it—okay, all right—and submit yourself to the Truth of God. The Word says: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

So, many times, in order to bring out that truth that is inside you and give you introspection, self-knowledge, and the critical capacity to understand the truth of God, He first has to weaken you, put you through the mill, bleed you dry, and show you that you are worth nothing, that you are nothing without God. Then, when you are lying there with mucus running from your nose, He says: now we are going to work; come, let’s go now, because I am going to teach you. Now we really can work, and you can do something great.

And that is why God puts us through these processes. Again: God is a God of processes. That is something that has always made a deep impression on me. And God is a God of journeys; what happens is that we want to jump from here to the end of the journey. Like Star Trek, right? We get into some kind of capsule and, “Beam me up, Skadio”; we want to materialize and—whoosh!—in just a moment we have already arrived. He says: no, no, it is not like that. I did not watch Star Trek, so I do not know what you are talking about. You have to walk; you have to travel the road.

He sends Abraham on a journey and tells him: leave your land and your kindred and go to a land that I will show you; and on that journey Abraham learns many things. He betrays his wife, for example: when that king falls in love with Sarah and wants to marry her or take her as a concubine, Abraham is afraid and says that she is his sister, getting her into a terrible predicament and nearly causing a divorce there. And the king, who did not know that she was Abraham’s wife, says: why did you not tell me? Your God almost killed me because you did not warn me that she was your wife. And there Abraham learns about his cowardice.

And during the journey with Isaac as well, at the end, when he finally has his son, whom he has caressed in his mind for decades, and now that he has him and he is a teenager, He tells him: now kill him and offer him to Me as a sacrifice. And Abraham has to go through that process: do I love God more than my son, or my son more than God? And so he has to be confronted in that terrible wilderness, walking for three days with the wood under his arm and his son by the hand, to go to Mount Moriah and there kill his son and give him to his God, whom he thinks is a dictatorial and immoral God who demands that he surrender his son to Him.

But there Abraham learns obedience; he learns sacrifice. During those days of personal crucifixion, he had to examine his entire journey and determine where his loyalties lay. And when he is ready to plunge the knife into his son, God tells him: no, that is all right. I only wanted to see what you were going to do, and now you and I are going to work together. And then the true journey begins: God gives him a new identity, gives him a calling, gives him a promise, changes his name, and blesses him. And do you know that the place where Abraham was going to kill Isaac is the place where the sanctuary, the temple of Jerusalem, was built? Because the places of our crucifixion are also our places of true worship of the Lord.

That is why Romans chapter 12 says: “I beseech you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which constitutes your true worship.” To truly worship the Lord, we must first be crucified and put through the mill. To achieve our goals, we must first die and pass through the wilderness so that God can then do something with us.

Do not fall so deeply in love with the goal that you forget the process that leads you to it. There will be moments along the journey when God will tell you: okay, now stop here for a while, because I want to teach you something at this point in your journey. And very often, you know what? We see the intermediate moments of the journey as failures, useless delays, and obstacles instead; but no, they are moments of formation. They are steps that God is building so that you can move on to the next stage of your life and then be able to retain the blessing when you reach it, so that no one can take it away from you.

And you have to drink the very last drop from the cup of crucifixion and formation, because if you do not drink it all, you will damage the process and will often have to start over from scratch. Do you know that life is full of people who, when God tells them: okay, you want to achieve something; let’s work together—and when God places the cross before them and says: okay, this is the process you have to follow—as soon as they take the first little drop from the cup, it is bitter, and they say: I do not want it? And then they proceed to fulfill their dreams in their own way, using the technology of the devil and of hell, and they think that through it they will deceive God or the devil, but they deceive neither of them. They reach their goal, but they reach it illegitimately and therefore cannot retain what they gained, because they did not go through the process God wanted them to go through.

So we must always ask ourselves: Lord, how are You building in my life, and what is Your pace, and how can I come alongside You and walk at Your pace to get where You want to go? Because God always takes His time; we are the ones who are in a hurry. God is always perfectly calm up there on His Throne, while we are thinking that we are going to sink. God says: No, calm down; I take My time. I am doing a work in your life. I am taking you on a journey, and that journey sometimes includes bitter and difficult things: failures, struggles, abuse, disappointments, betrayals—and God is using all that material to accomplish His purpose in your life.

God does not waste a single thing, my brother. He recycles everything and turns it all into gold. So I also encourage you: if there has been any kind of failure in your life, if you were sexually abused, if you went through a divorce, if you failed God in some terrible way, if there is an aspect of your life that you know is painful and harmful to someone or to yourself, take a look and ask Him: Lord, how can I use this black and dark material, like the cross, to turn it into life and blessing and growth? Because God takes crucifixions and turns them into resurrections.

Many times, before Resurrection Sunday, we have to go through Crucifixion Friday and the Saturday of the tomb, where no one sees us and we are there under God’s dealings—God and us wrestling there. No one sees that, but God is dealing with you too. And that is why I tell you, brothers and sisters, that when we reach our goals, we must arrive according to God’s methodology and God’s process.

There are things that I believe God has told me and promised me that, as I have said before, I have been waiting decades for, and I still have not seen them. I am already saying to Him: Hey, Father, see what You can do, because the years are passing and I am not getting any younger. But God is a God of processes, and He knows what He is doing, and we have to be willing.

Speaking of running the race legitimately in the pursuit of our dreams and goals, and returning to that point about drinking the full cup of crucifixion, notice that God Himself submits to that process. For in His vision of a transformed Earth, of humanity reconciled to Him, and of a history that reflects the purposes He has for His creation, God has not taken a magic wand, touched the world, and changed it overnight into a garden of virtues. He has spent thousands of years dealing with this clumsy, disobedient, and arrogant humanity, and He still has not suddenly stepped in, changed everything, and turned us into robots that do His Will.

He could do it if He wanted to, but when He created us, He gave us freedom to choose, and so He says: I have to abide by what I declared concerning that man and that woman, and I will not violate their freedom even if it kills Me and even if they are suffering—not that it kills Me, but that I die of grief, because God dies of grief when we go through tribulations and difficulties. And we have to learn to respect those processes because God also—how does God work? Through His Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; He works through men and women who are devoted to Him and whom He uses as His spokespeople; He works in subtle ways throughout history; He places humanity in different situations so that people may gradually learn and become aware and can then gradually change.

A day will come when, once all Scripture concerning humanity has been fulfilled, God will send His Son and bring all the madness of history to an end; meanwhile, He keeps working little by little. And when Christ came to Earth, He had to go through the cross because there was something that had to be accomplished on the cross; there was a debt that had to be paid. God does not say: Oh no, forget about sin; it does not matter. I will erase it from here and that is the end of it. No. He had said: The soul that sins shall die. There was justice that had to be fulfilled, and God said: Okay, the only thing I can do is send My Son to die so that the purpose may be fulfilled, so that the law may be fulfilled, because God does not violate the law; God does not violate His Holiness or His purposes.

He sent His Son; He Himself paid the price and went up on the cross. That is why, when the Lord tells the disciples, “The Son of Man must die and be crucified and abandoned and betrayed,” and Peter says to Him, “Lord, may such a thing never happen to You,” the Lord says to him, “Get behind Me, Satan,” right? Because Peter could not conceive that the Son of God would have to submit. No, to him a sovereign simply takes possession of things and does not die on a cross. But God is a God of processes, and He respects Himself, and He had to go through that process.

And when the Lord Jesus Christ washes His disciples’ feet, Peter also—a carnal man who is himself in process and who needs to be taken through his own experience of pain in order to become a humble man—when Christ wants to wash his feet, says: Lord, never; I will not allow You to. And Jesus tells him: If I do not wash them, you have no part with Me. Because sometimes we mean well and want to be holier than the Pope. No, we have to let God work on us; we have to respect the laws of the Gospel, the principles of the Gospel, walk, understand, and God will take us through little by little.

And when you learn from that God who builds in that way, then you will see the processes in your life very differently, and you will understand that God is using everything that happens in your life—everything, everything. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ always says: Let anyone who has eyes to see, see; let anyone who has ears to hear, hear. Because God is always speaking to us through the processes of life, always taking us where He wants to take us through one intervention here, another there, and another over there, while what we often see is the devil at work. No, it is God at work to take you where He wants to take you.

He is the God of journeys; He is the God of processes. He takes His time. Returning to Israel, if you read Deuteronomy chapter 7, I think it is, or 8, where the Lord tells the Jewish people: “When you enter the Promised Land, which you are now about to enter,” the Lord says, “remember where you passed through.” I think today we sang that chorus, “Remember where God brought you from,” or something like that. We sing those things, but we do not understand what we are saying, you know? We forget very easily.

But the Bible says: “When you are there in the Promised Land, that land flowing with milk and honey, enjoying houses you did not build and drinking water from wells you did not dig, remember the forty years you spent in the wilderness and how I took you through that suffering.” I will finish with this, but I believe it is important because God has me focused there, on processes.

Okay, chapter 8, Deuteronomy 8:2. Look at what it says: “And you shall remember all the way”—journeys. Forty years walking through the wilderness. Sometimes we do not walk through a physical wilderness; sometimes the wilderness is within us, and sometimes God leads us to walk through this infinite world that is our inner being, our psyche, our emotions, our spirit. It is a very large world; it is a cosmos, the inner cosmos. God sends you traveling within yourself through the experiences you undergo.

It says: “And you shall remember all the way by which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness.” Look at what it says here: “To humble you, to test you.” Do you think God does not afflict? There are people who want to fix God and say: No, God never afflicts; God never does. God often afflicts—do not say He does not. God does whatever He perfectly pleases in your life, and sometimes God does place you in seasons of suffering in your life and permits it or facilitates it or whatever, because God’s medicines are sometimes harsh and difficult, but they are good and necessary.

Sometimes they are like the scroll that Jeremiah ate—I think it was Jeremiah—which was bitter in the mouth but sweet in the belly. Then it says: “You shall remember the way by which your God has led you, to test you, to humble you, to know what was in your heart.” Now, does God know what is in the human heart? I believe He does. I believe God needs no accessories to know what is in the heart.

I believe it is so that we may often know what is in our own hearts, confess it to the Lord, and make it evident to God, to the world, to other people, and to ourselves. And that is why, many times, what God does when He places us in difficult situations in life, in His desire to take us where He wants to take us, is lead us through difficult times and wildernesses. We are going to suffer; we are going to weep; we are going to cry out.

I could stay here all day talking to you about Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Peter, Paul, Samson, Jehoshaphat—listen, it is an immense list. Before all of them reached the place where God wanted to take them, He first tested them, and they endured difficult times in the wilderness, grave mistakes, dark nights, and great weeping, because God wanted to form men and women for Himself who would be capable of carrying out His work without suffering loss in the end.

And one of the things we need most is to know ourselves and know what is truly within us, and actually come to delight in knowing the areas in which we limp—not because we are masochists, but because we know that in acknowledging my weakness and my need there is great power, because that is where the true transformation of my life and success begin. And until I acknowledge what I have and what I am, what I am not and what I do not have and what I cannot do, I cannot go on to do great things for God, nor can I be a blessing to anyone.

The happiest person is the person who has first been crucified, you know? The person who travels lightest is the person who has gone through tribulations and struggles, interpreted them in the light of the Gospel, and knows that God is working through those things and leading him to become more and more glorious in the image of Christ Jesus. We have to imitate Christ in His crucifixion as well as in His victory.

Then the Lord tells them: “Israel, I have brought you through that wilderness to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. And He humbled you and caused you to hunger and sustained you with manna”—simple food—“which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man shall not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord shall man live,” right? Amen.

You know what? He tells them: “Your clothing never wore out on you, nor did your foot swell during these forty years.” Do you know that while God is taking you through the process you need to undergo to reach where He wants to take you, or where you want to go, He will often take you through times of difficulty? But you know what? His mercy will never abandon you. Somehow, you will look around when it seems that He is nowhere to be found, and you will see Him winking at you from behind a wall or behind a column, and He will say to you: No, I am here with you. And He will give you something to sustain you; He will never leave you completely.

The Lord has said: I will never leave you nor forsake you. You will go through deprivation; you will go through tribulation and difficulties, but there will always be a sign of My Presence in your life. I will do something so that you never hit bottom. Let me tell you: Even if the water is rising to your neck, it will not overwhelm you; you will not drown. When it seems that it is already reaching your neck, say to Him: Thank You, Lord, because I know it will not rise much farther than this.

And the Lord arrives at the right moment. While He is working with you, He covers you, hides you, and tells you: While you are going through that process, I am going to protect you and keep you, and I am going to show you My mercy and My goodness. That is why He says here: “Your clothing never wore out; your foot never swelled,” and it was true. The Lord provided for them even in the wilderness.

There was no Marshalls there; there was no Target; there was nothing. The Lord says: “Your shoe will not wear out, your foot will remain healthy, and your clothing will be miraculously preserved. I will send you simple food, but at least you will have something to eat, and you will receive all the nutrients.” I have always said that manna must have been the most nutritious food ever eaten on Earth, better than those fat-filled steaks we sometimes eat.

And finally He tells them: “Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.” Always be careful, because you have a God who loves you too much not to discipline or correct you, right? Verse 7 says—and with this I truly will finish: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into the good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees, oil, and honey; a land in which you will not eat bread in scarcity, nor will you lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper; and you will eat and be satisfied, and you will bless the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.” Glory to the Lord. Amen.

So remember: Oh yes, God wants to give you your dreams; God wants to give you your goals; God wants you to accomplish things; God wants to give you that abundant life for which Christ came. But you have to go through a process. Sometimes we preach to people the last two verses that I read, and we are very selective about what we preach, but there is a process for reaching that, and you have to submit; you have to drink the cup of crucifixion down to the last drop, as Jesus Christ did.

He said, “No, I am going to drink that cup. I wish it could pass me by, but if You want me to, Father, I am going to drink it, because I have to do this God’s way.” Always run your races and always live through your processes God’s way, submitting yourself to God’s truth and God’s dealings, and you will see that instead of dying, you will live; instead of growing weaker, you will grow stronger. Instead of being left alone, you will be surrounded by spiritual children and by people who will want your company, because you will be a superman, a superwoman filled with the Holy Spirit, capable of counseling others, sharing your experiences, and blessing others with great lessons and teachings.

Where is your need? Where are you right now, at this moment? Ask the Holy Spirit right now: “Father, reveal it to me.” Let us bow our heads for a moment, and I myself am going to pray for myself: “Lord, where am I, and where do You want to take me? What are the areas of my life that I need You to work on? What are the minute transformations that You want to bring about in me? Which cells in my brain do You have to change, and which thoughts do You have to replace? What are the wounds, the memories, the methods that I have to change and replace with resources from the Kingdom?

Teach me; let me interpret life in the light of Your Truth, my past in the light of Your Truth, and the things You have wanted to do in me in the light of Your good purpose and of Your desire to turn me into a man, a woman crucified, transformed, and formed by You. Teach me Your way, Lord; deal with my life. Burn away everything that is not of You, and shape me into the likeness of Your Son. Crucify me so that I may then become a resurrected man, a resurrected woman in the image of Your Son.

Let me pass through the night of the tomb and the night of the crucifixion so that I may enter the glorious Sunday of Your resurrection. I surrender my life to You; make of me whatever You want, Lord, however You want to form me. I give You permission, Lord; I give You permission. I want to run the race according to Your purpose.

That hymn from the beginning, Vanessa—the one we sang, the one that goes, ‘the day is,’ etc.—that one is very, very good; choose it. Stay right there, brother; keep holding fast to God’s process. Right now, let God lead you. Father, enlighten us. Your Word says: ‘Search me and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. If there is any wicked way in me, then lead me in the everlasting way, Lord.’ Take me through the process, Father.

I renounce lies; I renounce self-deception; I renounce haste and anxiety over obtaining things, and instead I embrace the process and the path that lead to the blessing. I surrender my faults to You; I surrender my wounds to You; I surrender the abuse I have endured to You; I surrender the betrayals to You; I surrender the disappointments people have caused me over time to You, and I now see it all as part of Your dealings with me and of Your process of forming for Yourself a man, a woman who reflects the glory of Your Son, who was also crucified and who suffered abuse, suffered betrayal, and suffered loneliness.

Thank You, Lord; thank You, Jesus. Form for Yourself a Church; form for Yourself a community that reflects the values of the Kingdom of God. We love Your Truth, and we accept it at this moment, Lord. Thank You, thank You, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, in the Name of Jesus, thank You, Lord.