Wading in the Wilderness: 30 Day Devotional in the Wilderness
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Every man who falls on the Word must be broken. In the Bible, why does God insist on placing the Word on a person's heart? In the Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy 6:6 states, "And these words... shall be upon thy heart." The KJV states, "And these words... shall be in thine heart." It is not within a person, preacher, or pastor to place divine teaching directly in the heart. All they can do is place the Word on the surface of the heart, so when God breaks the heart, the precious seed falls into the heart, producing a barn-bursting harvest, rooted in the soil of the soul. Are you broken? God cannot use you until you have been broken. If you are in your smug, self-righteous, satisfied, sanctimonious, self-contained, comfortable little box of perfume, God cannot use you, and you will never bless anyone. But when you are broken and spilled out, you will be blessed to bring the blessings of God to everyone around you. He crushes you by pulling out the lumps of imperfections and slamming you against the spinning wheel. Some of you are more lumpy than others. He then takes you and throws you into the furnace until you become cherry red, and then He takes you out of the furnace and taps you, and if you sing like a piece of clay sings when it's ready, then you are ready. But if you don't sing like a piece of clay when it's not ready, then you're not ready, and back into the furnace, you go.
It's the rubbing that brings out the shine. It's the friction that produces the brilliance. It's the dredging that extracts the gold and the silver. It is the crushed grains that make the finest flour. It is the crushed ground that produces a rich harvest. It is the crushed olives that make the new oil. It is the crushed grapes that make the finest wines. It is the crushed rose petals that make the finest perfumes. It is the crushed heart that cries out to God. It's the crushed clouds that produce the rain. It's the crushed nucleus that produces the power of the nuclear bomb. It was the crushed dirt that became a living soul, a handful of anointed dirt walking around with the fresh breath of God. It was the crushed alabaster box that poured the oil over the head of Christ that baptized Him before He endured the cross. The alabaster box that took this woman a year of wages to earn would break it and pour it over the head of the Son of God in seconds. Until the alabaster box was broken and released its contents, it was worthless.
It was the broken and crushed Peter who wept after denying his Savior. It was the crushing and the brokenness of Peter that drove him before a crowd of three thousand and preached with such a Holy-Ghost-atomic-bomb of power. With Pentecostal power, the Holy Spirit sent Peter into the streets of Jerusalem in an evangelical explosion, and that explosion birthed the New Testament church. Against the oyster, the rough sand produces the priceless pearl. Those of you who worship the flesh, glory in wickedness, and play duck-duck-goose with sin-God is going to crush you in His Gethsemane press and the University of Adversity so diamond carats of humility surface: no pressure, no diamonds; no struggle, no strength. A diamond is like a piece of coal made good under pressure. God often has to reduce you to gunpowder so that He can cultivate a character.
Sometimes God has to reduce you to the tail to make you the head. God can reduce you to nothing, because from nothing, He can get glory out of nothing that becomes something. Jesus waited until Lazarus was dead to bring him back to life, because when he was dead, God could get the glory out of something that was nothing. When God wants to do a miracle, He loves to do something out of nothing. When God is about to do something great, He starts with hardship. When God is about to do something amazing, sent to you will burn others but will refine you.
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