Standing in the Midst of a Move of God

When thou passest through the waters... they shall not overflow thee (Isaiah 43:2).

God does not open paths for us in advance of our coming. He does not promise help before help is needed. He does not remove obstacles out of our way before we reach them. Yet when we are on the edge of our need, God's hand is stretched out.

Many people forget this, and are forever worrying about difficulties which they foresee in the future. They expect that God is going to make the way plain and open before them, miles and miles ahead; whereas He has promised to do it only step by step as they may need. You must get to the waters and into their floods before you can claim the promise. Many people dread death, and lament that they have not "dying grace." Of course, they will not have dying grace when they are in good health, in the midst of life's duties, with death far in advance. Why should they have it then? Grace for duty is what they need then, living grace; then dying grace when they come to die.
--J. R. M.

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We were never promised the absence of trials in fact we are told that trials would come. The Apostle James said that we should count it all joy when we fall into various trials. The Apostle Peter interjected that that trials would come to test the genuineness of our faith. The Apostle Paul said that we should glory in our tribulations. Even our Lord Jesus Christ reminded us that in this life we would have tribulations, but in every count there is victory for the one that possesses faith. 

Your victory as a believer does not come in the absence of struggle and adversity, it comes through the faithful perseverance through those struggles. It is when you are at the edge of despair and defeat that God moves. It is when you have been written off by those is your periphery that God sustains. It is when many have written your obituary that God breathes life into your situation. God has never promised that there would not be attacks, He promised that they would not prosper. 

Do not become despaired by your situation, your difficulty has placed you in a position in which you must call on your faith, and it is that audacious and radical faith that will place you right in the midst of a move of God. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace 

Additional Resources by Dr. Rick Wallace

Books

1. The Invisible Father: Reversing the Curse of a Fatherless Generation

2. Renewing Your Mind: The Dynamics of Christian Transformation

3. Elevation through Revelation

4. When Your House is Not a Home

5. The Power of Healing Affirmations

Blogs

1. 100 Men of Purpose

2. Master Fitness 21

Faith Grows Amid Storms

He hath acquainted himself with my beaten path. When he hath searched me out, I shall come out shining (Job 23:10, free translation).

"Faith grows amid storms" -- just four words, but oh, how full of import to the soul who has been in the storms!

Faith is that God-given faculty which, when exercised, brings the unseen into plain view, and by which the impossible things are made possible. It deals with supernaturals. But it "grows amid storms"; that is, where there are disturbances in the spiritual atmosphere. Storms are caused by the conflicts of elements; and the storms of the spiritual world are conflicts with hostile elements. In such an atmosphere faith finds its most productive soil; in such an element it comes more quickly to full fruition.

The staunchest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest, but out in the open where the winds from every quarter beat upon it, and bend and twist it until it becomes a giant in stature this is the tree which the mechanic wants his tools made of, and the wagon-maker seeks.

So in the spiritual world, when you see a giant, remember the road you must travel to come up to his side is not along the sunny lane where wild flowers ever bloom; but a steep, rocky, narrow pathway where the blasts of hell will almost blow you off your feet; where the sharp rocks cut the flesh, where the projecting thorns scratch the brow, and the venomous beasts hiss on every side.

It is a pathway of sorrow and joy, of suffering and healing balm, of tears and smiles, of trials and victories, of conflicts and triumphs, of hardships and perils and buffetings, of persecutions and misunderstandings, of troubles and distress; through all of which we are made more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

"Amid storms." Right in the midst where it is fiercest. You may shrink back from the ordeal of a fierce storm of trial…but go in! God is there to meet you in the center of all your trials, and to whisper His secrets which will make you come forth with a shining face and an indomitable faith that all the demons of hell shall never afterwards cause to waver.
--E. A. Kilbourne

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Dr. Rick Wallace 

Faith understands the darkness and delay associated with struggle. Faith is not daunted by the billows and the tempest. Faith only considers the character of God and His unfailing promises. So often, we attempt to circumvent the struggle because we fail to apprehend the fact that it is the struggle through which God infuses our faith with His power. It is in the storm that God ignites the torch of our faith with the flame of His omnipotence.

Faith does not shy away from the intensity of the moment, it understands that pressure presents the opportunity for greater works. Faith is not shaken by the appearance of impossibility because faith knows that God specializes in the impossible. Faith answers the bell.

The Bible tells us that Abraham did not stagger at the promises of God, even when considering his own body, which was well beyond the age to produce fertile seed. Abraham believed God at a time when hope moved against hope. God is not shaken by your circumstances, your troubles have not taken Him by surprise. He only needs to you to trust Him. It is your faith that pleases Him. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace