Surviving the Storm

...because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world. This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith. (1 John 5:4)

At every turn in the road one can find something that will rob him of his victory and peace of mind, if he permits it. Satan is a long way from having retired from the business of deluding and ruining God’s children if he can. At every milestone it is well to look carefully to the thermometer of one’s experience, to see whether the temperature is well up.

Sometimes a person can, if he will, actually snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat, if he will resolutely put his faith up at just the right moment.

Faith can change any situation. No matter how dark it is, no matter what the trouble may be, a quick lifting of the heart to God in a moment of real, actual faith in Him, will alter the situation in a moment.

God is still on His throne, and He can turn defeat into victory in a second of time, if we really trust Him.

“God is mighty! He is able to deliver;

Faith can victor be in every trying hour;

Fear and care and sin and sorrow be defeated

By our faith in God’s almighty, conquering power.

“Have faith in God, the sun will shine,

Though dark the clouds may be today;

His heart has planned your path and mine,

Have faith in God, have faith alway.”

“When one has faith, one does not retire; one stops the enemy where he finds him.”
—Marshal Foch

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So often, believers seek to turn down the heat in the furnace when the heat brings with it a moment of refining and the opportunity for victory. When the vicissitudes of life stroll into your paradise there should not be anxiety and despair, there should be a sense of resolve to execute a faith that literally uses the storm to elevate your altitude.

So many believers never soar because they misunderstand the storm. They see defeat in the storm; they see delay and disruption in the storm; they see heartache and struggle in the storm; so they acquiesce to its power and fold under the pressure. They spend more time attempting to alleviate the pressure that they miss the opportunity to be strengthened in it. They focus on circumvention more than empowerment and elevation.

Dr. Rick Wallace 

Believers must learn to infuse faith into their messy moments. There is a reason that James told us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials. Those fiery trials bear great opportunity for our faith to move God in our situation. There is nothing like telling God, “I trust You” by executing our faith in the midst of our mess.

God desires to use your struggles as the facilitator of your elevation process, but you must be willing to engage the struggle instead of despising it. The flame is meant to refine not destroy. It only destroys what is not pure. The fire never takes away anything that should be left behind. So, allow God to have his way while you are in the midst of the storm and you will definitely exit this storm a better believer than when you entered it. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

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

Engaging the Darkness

Night of Pure Faith

"Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him" (Gen. 15:12).

The sun at last went down, and the swift, eastern night cast its heavy veil over the scene. Worn out with the mental conflict, the watchings, and the exertions of the day, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and in that sleep is soul was oppressed with a dense and dreadful darkness, such as almost stifled him, and lay like a nightmare upon his heart. Do you understand something of the horror of that darkness? When some terrible sorrow which seems so hard to reconcile with perfect love, crushes down upon the soul, wringing from it all its peaceful rest in the pitifulness of God, and launching it on a sea unlit by a ray of hope; when unkindness, and cruelty maltreat the trusting heart, till it begins to doubt whether there be a God overhead who can see and still permit--these know something of the "horror of great darkness." It is thus that human life is made up; rightness and gloom; shadow and sun; long tracks of cloud, succeeded by brilliant glints of light, and amid all Divine justice is working out its own schemes, affecting others equally with the individual soul which seems the subject of special discipline. O ye who are filled with the horror of great darkness because of God's dealings with mankind, learn to trust that infallible wisdom, which is co-assessor with immutable justice; and know that He who passed through the horror of the darkness of Calvary, with the cry of forsakenness, is ready to bear you company through the valley of the shadow of death till you see the sun shining upon its further side. Let us, by our Forerunner, send forward our anchor, Hope, within the veil that parts us from the unseen; where it will grapple in ground and will not yield, but hold until the day dawns, and we follow it into the haven guaranteed to us by God's immutable counsel. --F. B. Meyer

The disciples thought that that angry sea separated them from Jesus. Nay, some of them thought worse than that; they thought that the trouble that had come upon them was a sign that Jesus had forgotten all about them, and did not care for them. Oh, dear friend, that is when troubles have a sting, when the devil whispers, "God has forgotten you; God has forsaken you"; when your unbelieving heart cries as Gideon cried, "If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?" The evil has come upon you to bring the Lord nearer to you. The evil has not come upon you to separate you from Jesus, but to make you cling to Him more faithfully, more tenaciously, more simply.  --F. S. Webster, M.A.

Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness. Oh, for faith that brings the triumph When defeat seems strangely near! Oh, for faith that brings the triumph Into victory's ringing cheer-- Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear. --Herbert Booth

How often are we compelled to circumvent the darkness? How frequently do we look for  the path by which the brightness of the sun illuminates every step. Far too often, the Christian believer assumes that there is no profitability in the darkness. There is an assumption made that the darkness has come to rob us of what is precious with the Lord. As with all that God allows into our lives, the darkness has great purpose in the development of faith and trust in the Lord. You see, the darkness requires faith, its demands it. The darkness empties self, and demands that we believe if we are to overcome. The darkness shakes us free of independence and sets ablaze a hope that can only be satisfied by a supernaturally radical God. This darkness sets ablaze the hearts yearning to be in the midst of a special movement by God.

The Bible assures us that God dwells in the Darkness. When the darkness settles over your life and it seems that you are facing it alone, remember that God is there and is waiting on you to call out to Him in the midst of the storm as Peter did. He is compassionately stretching out His hand to pull you through. The darkness in not an indicator that God has forgotten, it is often God’s way of drawing us near. There is nothing like the darkness to incline us to prayer and supplication. There is no greater force than the darkness to intensify our yearnings to experience God’s presence and power. The darkness has of way focusing our vision and recentering our hope.

Oh, when the darkness settles overhead and the ability to see what lies before us is withdrawn, how passionate is our cry to the father to sense His protection. When “the valley of the shadow of death” is our residence, how inexorable are our cries to God to move on our behalf. When the vicissitudes of life roll in and life makes no sense, how implacable are our strivings to have God make sense of our mess. No, the darkness does not mean separation, but represents the opportunity for intimate fellowship with our creator.

The enemy has promulgated a lie that says darkness equals God’s absence; however, the infallible Word of God assures me that my God dwells in the darkness. He is still powerful in the darkness, He still hears in the darkness. He still answers prayer in the darkness. He still works miracles in the darkness. He still executes the impossible in the darkness, and at the right moment He will transform your dark moment into a phosphorescent light that shines bright for all to see. You will get the victory and He will get the glory.

I encourage you to engage the darkness that befalls you with a confidence that believes God is standing with you. He has promised to go with you, to fight for you, to protect you, to elevate you, to heal you, to restore you. Spend your time in darkness seeking the only one that is capable of of bringing light and while the darkness still lingers, know that something special is being wrought out in the darkness. God is moving in the darkness setting the stage for your coronation. Breakthroughs are built in the empty corners of darkness. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace