This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis (ts@godspeak.org)

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                     God's Preparation

The Lord is bringing His glory into our midst. He is starting to fill 
His church with His presence and His glory. And the Lord is preparing 
each of us to be vessels of honor to hold and carry His glory because 
we are the church (along with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, of 
course).

His preparation looks different on different ones of us.  For some of
us, He is teaching us to stand in faith.  He does that by temporarily
removing His hand of protection from some area of our lives.  Perhaps
we begin to struggle in the area of finances. Or perhaps some important 
relationships begin to fail, or we may face issues in the area of our 
health.  Or we may be falsely accused or unfairly treated.  And we call 
out to God to help us, but that help does not immediately come.  Instead 
worry or fear or anxiety try to beset us. And God permits this. 

He sometimes leaves us in a difficult situation for a season so that we 
can learn to trust Him despite the circumstances.  That is because God 
wants to teach us to have the type of faith that Jesus talked about -- 
the faith that can do the miracles of God.  God wants to release His 
miracles and mighty works back into the church so that He can prove His 
goodness and His power and win the lost.  He wants to heal the sick 
through the men and women who are called by His Name.  He wants to 
perform signs and wonders and miraculous provisions in areas of lack --
and He wants to do that through you!  The Lord has to build our faith 
in order to get us to the place where we can do this with Him.  His goal 
is not to torment us.  His goal is to cause trust and faith to grow and 
develop in our lives, so that we can do the same works that Jesus did. 
He wants to show us what He is doing and then have us do it with Him.  
And in order to build the faith for that in us, God sometimes has to
put us in "faith-producing situations," in things that look like trials
or difficulties or disasters.  So if His deliverance for you does not
come quickly, do not dismay.  Instead realize that He is preparing you
to perform great and mighty miracles in His Name.

Others of us find that God is stepping on our toes -- things that used 
to be permissible are no longer permissible.  It seems like the Lord is 
getting stricter with us.  He is reigning us in, restricting activities 
that He did not seem to mind in the past, calling us to a higher level 
of holiness and accountability.  The Lord is quick to let us know when 
we do something that displeases Him and to discipline us in His love.  
That is because He is about to pour out His glory, and He wants to get 
us to a standard of holiness that He did not require before.  He did not 
need that standard in our lives earlier since it was not yet time to 
start pouring out His glory in His people.  Those of us who resist His 
correction or "reigning in" may find themselves in some Ananias and 
Sapphira situations, as He holds us to higher standards of accountability.
He does not pour out great measures of His glory into sinful and disobedient 
vessels.  As He pours more of His glory into us, He will hold us to 
higher standards of accountability.

Some of us find that His preparation is in our thoughts and emotions.
God seems to be tearing open old wounds. Issues that we thought we had
dealt with begin to rise up again.  That is because they were not fully 
healed or resolved the last time we dealt with them. God cannot allow 
that to fester in us if we are to be vessels dedicated to carrying His 
glory, so He allows old issues to resurface in our lives and He permits 
us to struggle with them once again.  He is not doing this to torment us 
or to defeat us.  He is allowing this because He wants these issues
to be cleaned out of us and emptied out of our lives, so that they do 
not hold us back from carrying a greater measure of His glory.

For others, it is similar but different.  Old issues that defeat us are
rising up once again to torment us.  Or perhaps new issues are coming up 
to the surface for the first time.  Most of us would, of course, prefer 
to press these down and pretend that they were not really our problems.  
But no matter how hard we try to press them down, hide them, or refuse 
to recognize or address them, they keep springing up and being thrown in 
our faces.  That is because God is confronting us with them and insisting 
we allow Him to work on these issues in our lives. This is often a painful 
or uncomfortable experience.  We may begin to feel that God must be 
disgusted or displeased with us as we struggle because we struggle with 
these issues.  But He is not displeased -- He is the one who is forcing us 
into this struggle.  That is because He wants to clean them out of our 
lives, to break their hold and their power over us. He will not allow 
them to remain in our lives because they get in the way of His glory 
flowing through us.

The preparation for some of us is being sent back to the "School of 
Humility."  That is because the measure of humility that God requires 
of us increases as His glory on us increases.  And He desires to pour
out large measures of His presence and glory into us, that He might
be able to glorify His Name and accomplish His purposes through us.
But our own flesh and pride can get in the way of this, because they
try to take credit for the glory, pretending it was given to us because
of our own merit instead of to accomplish God's purposes.  Our "old
nature" tries to steal God's glory and make it our own, so that "self"
gets honor instead of God.  God wants to work greater measures of His 
humility into us by killing that nature and that self-promotion, so 
that there can be more room for His glory and His presence in our lives.

God is preparing you because He has very good plans for you.  He is about 
to pour out His presence and pour out His glory on His people in a way 
that has not been seen since the very early days of the church.  So 
no matter what preparation He is putting you through, do not fret. This
preparation is only for a season.  Rejoice in the preparation that God 
is taking you through, because it is for a very wonderful end.  It may
seem difficult now, but that will pass.  When you are filled with His 
presence and as you radiate His glory, you will be so glad that He took 
the time to prepare you for this.