Are We Working With God’s Process?
by Jeff Olinghouse
Have you ever ordered a piece of furniture and discovered that much assembly was required? You weren’t expecting all the pieces in the box, but now you are the one responsible to assemble this complicated puzzle. So, you muster up your courage, pull out the instructions, gather your tools, and lay out all the pieces. With confidence, you dive into the project and begin assembling it one nail at a time.
About halfway through the process, you realize something is out of order. You don’t where or how, but you missed a step. The obvious haphazardly misshapen project doesn’t look anything like the picture on the box. Somewhere along the line, something became out of joint in your masterpiece. No matter how diligent you were to accomplish this home building project, things did not come together like they should. Although all the pieces seem to be in place, the structure isn’t fitting together properly. So, you put down your tools and scratch your head in bewilderment. Did you miss a step or forget a connection? What did the directions say again?
After a time of painstakingly reviewing your process, you realize you missed a tiny screw in the very first phase. Now, you have to go back to square one, take down all that you built, start over, and reassemble it correctly. You would have saved so much frustration had you read the instructions more carefully and followed the guide exactly as was written in the first place!
Similarly, God’s plans for us also have a specific process and instruction. When things aren’t working out right or are veering off center, chances are we missed a step somewhere in God’s process. We have to go back, examine the product, and figure out where we missed it in the beginning. Once we re-evaluate, disassemble, and rebuild according to God’s divine order, then we will have the finished product exactly as He requires.
Ecclesiastes 8:6 says, “For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.” As disciples of Christ, we must thoughtfully examine our hearts and adjust our pace with God’s timing and procedure. Are we working with God’s process to fulfill His plan our lives, or are we working to accomplish things in our own time? When we are working with God’s process, God is doing more on the heart level that we can see. Because He is concerned about the condition of our hearts, He will take us through “pruning” seasons that Jesus spoke of in John 15. He would rather we take more time to properly navigate the path where He wants us to go than attempt to rush ahead of Him on our own and fail in the process.
Over the course of the past few years, I’ve realized something about the Lord – He is never in a hurry! While I may prefer a quick and fast route to His promised destination, He will take as much time as needed to prepare me and my heart for His plans. In fact, last year was one of the hardest years I’ve experienced on a professional level; however, during that difficult season God was taking me through His pruning process. Yes, I wanted to get angry and complain about the unfairness of all that was happening because of the covid chaos. But in His wisdom and mercy, God was using those painful challenges to prepare me for the next season of my life and ministry. If I wanted to move forward in God’s plans, I had to yield to His process, no matter how difficult it was on my flesh!
A careful study of scripture reveals that God is a God of order and process, and certain things can’t be accomplished until we go through His required process in life. We may not like His chosen order or way of doing things, but if we want to arrive in the fullness of God’s plans, we must surrender to His processes as laid out in Scripture. Failure to yield ourselves to His order will leave us stagnant in His plan.
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Repentance
The First Step in God’s Process
The first and most important step in God’s process is repentance of sin. Yes, this is a word none of us like to hear; however, if we are going to accomplish anything in God’s plan for our lives, repentance is required. In fact, where does salvation itself start? With repentance! Repentance is the doorway to eternal life and all that Jesus has purchased for us on the Cross.
But repentance doesn’t stop the day we are born again. Rather, Scripture teaches us that we are to live a lifestyle of repentance. Why then is this particular step so necessary to God’s process? Here’s the straightforward truth of the matter—Repentance is the invitation of our hearts that gives God access to remove things that are hindering us in walking out His full plan. It is a condition of our heart that either receives or rejects the convicting power of His Spirit.
When God is prompting our hearts to repent of things that are separating us in our walk with Him, it is His mercy reaching out to us because of His great love for us. Repentance is a process, and if we are committed to God’s process, the Holy Spirit will walk us through the stages of repenting of things that have been weighing us down and keeping us from His full potential in our lives.
I believe many Christians refuse to repent simply because it is hard on our flesh. If we desire to accomplish the things God has for us, we must be willing to lay the things down that are holding us back from Him. This change in us begins with repentance of dead works in our own lives.
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Honesty
Transparency Before God
Working with God’s procedure always requires a repentant heart, and when we allow our hearts to be pliable in God’s hands, then God will know that He can trust us with the next season of His process in our lives. If something is taking longer to produce fruit or if something is just not working out the way it should, the first thing we need to examine is the condition of our hearts towards God. Have we missed it somewhere and is there something that we need to repent of that is hindering God’s grace? One thing I have discovered about God is that He loves honesty! And when we get honest with Him, He will be honest with us too.
An example of Jesus’ honesty and confrontation with sin in the Church is clearly seen in Revelation chapter 1-3. Throughout this passage, Jesus told the churches several times, “I have this against you.” He did not say these words in a condescending way, but He made it clear that if the church wanted to move forward in what God had planned for them, repentance was indeed required.
Repentance is the catalyst that releases God’s supernatural power. When we are willing to work with God’s most important process of repentance, this will put God into action in our lives. Yes, God loves us with a love like no other; however, God expects us to obey Him in repentance and remove things that are displeasing to Him.
Whenever God tugs at our hearts to lay some things aside and follow Him completely, we can have confidence in God’s great love and mercy for us. Because He sees something in us that doesn’t meet His standards of holiness, He desires to release His supernatural cleansing into our hearts. Repentance is a matter of receiving God’s grace and cooperating with the work of His Holy Spirit. We can rejoice because God is starting His process in our life and leading us further along in our journey of the new life in Christ.