Process Precedes Promise: Delay is Not Denial

"I called upon him, but he gave me no answer" (S. of Sol. 5:6).

The Lord, when He hath given great faith, hath been known to try it by long delayings. He has suffered His servants' voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained unmovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through."

Thus have true saints continued long in patient waiting without reply, not because their prayers were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall He not do as He will with His own!

No prayer is lost. Praying breath was never spent in vain. There is no such thing as prayer unanswered or unnoticed by God, and some things that we count refusals or denials are simply delays.
--H. Bonar

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It is important for us, as believers, to understand the principle of process. In simple, there can be no obtainment of the promise without there first being and endurance of the process. We so often attempt to lay hold of the promise while attempting to circumvent the process. God quickens through process. God strengthens through process. God elevates through process. God heals through process. God restores through process.

Dr. Rick Wallace

If you were to consult Joseph, he would tell you that he became the second highest ranking official in a foreign land, but he would also tell you that it was only after a 13 year process of betrayal, disappointment and delay. If you were to speak with David, he would tell you that he became king and the Messiah descended from his bloodline, but he would iterate that it only came after patience, waiting and preparation in the wilderness as a lowly shepherd boy. If you were to speak to father Abraham, he would tell you that he received a promise that he would sire a nation, but it took 25 years before the first seed of promise bore fruit. There is no attainment of the promise without there first being an endurance of the process.

Too often, we perceive delay to be denial. We tend to set time clocks on the rate of our advancement, forgetting that God is the author of time, but he is not bound by it. God moves when it is best for us.

God is faithful in performing all that He has promised, but you must be faithful in enduring the process through which the promise is executed. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Riding the Winds of Resistance

I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth (Isa. 58:14).

Those who fly through the air in airships tell us that one of the first rules they learn is to turn their ship toward the wind, and fly against it. The wind lifts the ship up to higher heights. Where did they learn that? They learned it from the birds. If a bird is flying for pleasure, it goes with the wind. But if the bird meets danger, it turns right around and faces the wind, in order that it may rise higher; and it flies away towards the very sun.

Sufferings are God's winds, His contrary winds, sometimes His strong winds. They are God's hurricanes, but, they take human life and lift it to higher levels and toward God's heavens.

You have seen in the summer time a day when the atmosphere was so oppressive that you could hardly breathe? But a cloud appeared on the western horizon and that cloud grew larger and threw out rich blessing for the world. The storm rose, lightning flashed and thunder pealed. The storm covered the world, and the atmosphere was cleansed; new life was in the air, and the world was changed.

Human life is worked out according to exactly the same principle. When the storm breaks the atmosphere is changed, clarified, filled with new life; and a part of heaven is brought down to earth.
--Selected

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Far too often, I witness believers struggling to circumvent the vicissitudes of life. I seem them praying for immediate extraction from the hardships that roll into their perceived paradises. If the believer is ever to walk in true triumph, he/she must be able to apprehend with great measure the principal of process. The believer must understand that adversity is the fertile soil in which the seed of faith is planted and cultivated.

it is when we meet resistance in this life that we are strengthened and developed. Elevation in the Christian life comes when the fierce winds of adversity blow in with a ferocity that shakes you very core. It is when there seems to be no answer, no escape and no help that the audacious and radical faith of the believer rises to the occasion. This faith is developed in the darkness of the tempest that rages uncontrollable around them.

Dr. Rick Wallace

How often has the believer cried out to God in the midst of the storm, "Lord take me out of this,' but the Lord's response is no, but I will bring you through it. God knows what's best and he understands that though comfort may feel good, it is not good for us. Comfort breeds complacency, compromise and lethargy. God looks at you and with an unparalleled love, He says, I will not bring you out, for I am more concerned with your character than I am with your comfort.

You have been looking for you promotion and your breakthrough, but you have been avoiding the very thing that brings about your rise, adversity.


It is amazing how many believers fail to grasp the principle of process. There is a process that precedes the promise. We love to claim promises, but we rarely are willing to endure the process. It is important to understand that process precedes promise. Before there can be an obtainment of the promise there must first be an endurance of the process. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Trust in Trouble!

"He knoweth the way that I take" (Job 23:10).

Believer! What a glorious assurance! This way of thine--this, it may be, a crooked, mysterious, tangled way--this way of trial and tears. "He knoweth it." The furnace seven times heated--He lighted it. There is an Almighty Guide knowing and directing our footsteps, whether it be to the bitter Marah pool, or to the joy and refreshment of Elim.

That way, dark to the Egyptians, has its pillar of cloud and fire for His own Israel. The furnace is hot; but not only can we trust the hand that kindles it, but we have the assurance that the fires are lighted not to consume, but to refine; and that when the refining process is completed (no sooner--no later) He brings His people forth as gold.

When they think Him least near, He is often nearest. "When my spirit was overwhelmed, then thou knewest my path."

Do we know of ONE brighter than the brightest radiance of the visible sun, visiting our chamber with the first waking beam of the morning; an eye of infinite tenderness and compassion following us throughout the day, knowing the way that we take?

The world, in its cold vocabulary in the hour of adversity, speaks of "Providence"--"the will of Providence"--"the strokes of Providence." PROVIDENCE! what is that?

Why dethrone a living, directing God from the sovereignty of His own earth? Why substitute an inanimate, death-like abstraction, in place of an acting, controlling, personal Jehovah?

How it would take the sting from many a goading trial, to see what Job saw (in his hour of aggravated woe, when every earthly hope lay prostrate at his feet)--no hand but the Divine. He saw that hand behind the gleaming swords of the Sabeans--he saw it behind the lightning flash--he saw it giving wings to the careening tempest--he saw it in the awful silence of his rifled home.

"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Thus seeing God in everything, his faith reached its climax when this once powerful prince of the desert, seated on his bed of ashes, could say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." --Macduff

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What in the world could have the power within it to cause Job to declare "Though He slay me yet will I trust Him?". The simple answer is faith. Most Bible students only consider that which is before their eyes to present the truth. What most fail to do is consider the path of Job prior to his encounter with destruction and devastation. God gave an unbelievable testimony of Job to Satan:

 8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you [c]considered (O)My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, (P)a blameless and upright man, [d]fearing God and turning away from evil.” (Job 1:8, NASB)

In this testimony we can take a wealth of information away. God's testimony of Job does not come through superficial observation; this is God we are discussing here. Job's reputation was not built overnight. The testimony that God gave of Job was one of character and integrity. Any believer knows that character and integrity is developed in the midst of adversity. This was not Job's first encounter with trouble. Job had been acquainted with struggle in some form. His trust in God was based on his experience. He could say though He slay me, yet shall I trust Him because God had slain Him before through the process of adversity.

The one thing that believers have to apprehend is that process precedes promise. There is no apprehension of the promise without there first being an endurance of the process. Christians spend way too much time attempting to circumvent life's struggles, not understanding that their promotion is facilitated through their problems.

Job could declare the blessings of the Lord in this moment because he recognized the process. He knew that his life of prosperity came at a price and that for him to move to the next phase of perpetual elevation, there must be an endurance of the process. This is why he could declare to his wife "Must we accept only the good and not the bad?" Christianity is not a joy ride, it is a journey, an ethereal journey that is filled with trouble. Christ told the disciples, "In this world you will have tribulations" and then reassured them by saying, "but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."

There are going to be trials and tribulations. There are going to be struggles and disappointments. There are going to be losses and disasters. There will be times when you will declare, just as David, "In return for my love, they have become my accusers." The Christian life is not about living a life void of struggle, but about having access to a power so great that you overcome them all.

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Though my marriage has fallen apart, I will trust Him. Though all my money is gone, I will trust Him. Though they are lying behind my back, I will trust Him. Though many have used His name to take from me, I will trust Him. Though it seems that he has left me, I will trust Him.

Dr. Rick Wallace

I will trust Him because He has never failed me. I will trust Him, because He has always kept me. I will trust Him because He delivers like no other. I will trust Him because there has never been a time in which His Word returned to Him void. I will trust Him because He is able.

If you have not yet visited the "Valley of the Shadow of Death", know that your moment of testing and preparation is forthcoming. If you have not yet experienced the pain of betrayal, it is searching for you in the night as rest. If you have yet to feel the heartache of abandonment, be certain it will find you one day. The question is not will the trials come, but simply: When they do, "Can God trust you with TROUBLE?" ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Changing the World One Life at a Time!

Standing on the Edge of a Breakthrough!

Many of you are standing on the edge of a breakthrough right now, but you can't see it because you have been blinded by circumstance. I want you to understand that the darkness, anguish and pain that is in your life right now is real, but it is not your final reality. God is working in the midst of the darkness, heartache, and struggle to shape His masterpiece in your life. He is perfecting you through your pain. He is building spiritual aptitude through your anguish. He is developing character as you traverse the enigmatic conundrums that seem to plague your life. He is perfecting love through your loneliness (I know this one is a hard one to accept; trust me).

Make no mistake about it my friends, there can be no attainment of the promise without there first being an endurance of the process. The thing is not to become discouraged in the process, but to engage it with hope; understanding that God is about to perform a supernatural transformation in your life.

My great-grandfather was an uneducated man, at least by our standards; however, when it came to wisdom, it literally seethed from the pours of his skin. My geat-grandparents adopted as an infant and reared me in the Christian way, so in truth and in heart, they are my parents. When I evaluate all of the wisdom that my grandfather imparted into my life, the greatest piece of advice he ever gave me was simple. As we sat on the front porch, he said, "Son, as you engage life you will find yourself in one of three places; going into a storm, in a storm, or coming out of a storm...your responsibility while in the storm is simple, come out of the storm a better man than when you went in."

Well, how do you come out of the storm better than when you went in? You do it by surrendering to the movement of God as he shapes you through the hurt. By acquiescing to His will while He refines you through the heat of the purifying flame of distress. You come out better by resisting the seed of bitterness and anger. You come out better by understanding that many have traveled this road to greatness: 12 Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange (unusual and alien to you and your position) were befalling you.
13 But insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, so that when His glory [full of radiance and splendor] is revealed, you may also rejoice with triumph [exultantly]. (1 Pet. 4:12-13, AMP). This is simply the pathway to fulfilling your God-ordained destiny.

Yes, my friend you are at a "not so comfortable" place in your life, but do not despair, the God you serve specializes in the impossible and He is working your moment out for your blessing. ¹¹ For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.~ Dr. Rick Wallace