Faith Under Pressure Pt.3

A.A.A.

An Anointed Affliction

In this final part of this series, I want to deal with the meaning, outcome, and reasons for Afflictions, not just any affliction, but An Anointed Affliction. When something is anointed then it has supernatural strength! Your suffering & pressure right now is not just affliction, but it is anointed. It has supernatural power to take you to another level in God & into your destiny. It is anointed because you are not alone in the affliction.

Let the Weak say, "I am Strong!"  There is knowledge in your sufferings and afflictions.  Thank God for the journey of the affliction.  The weaker you are in the flesh, the more anointed and stronger you are in the spirit (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Because your affliction is driving you to your knees in prayer, it is causing you to fast and seek God as never before.  The flesh cannot uphold you because it is weak, but you are tapping into the strength of your spirit in order to conquer your affliction. 

 

"The Height of the heights is determined by the deeper the depths."

Affliction is a part of the pathway to Destiny!  It is when you are going through that the best of you comes forth.

 

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."                                  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

The 4 Steps of An Anointed Affliction

"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).

 

Affliction is defined as a state of pain, distress, grief, misery, misfortune, or adversity. It is also the cause of mental or bodily pain, and may manifest as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution. No matter what it is that you are going through, it is not just an affliction, but it is an Anointed Affliction.  Your problems are perfecting you. The anointing is the supernatural power of God that touches and strengthens our natural state in order for us to be overcomers in our adversities. When you add the anointing, then your affliction actually starts to work for your good.  There are four steps to An Anointed Affliction:

 

Step #1 Perfect: To bring to completion, to finish, to bring to perfection, and to make flawless or faultless. To perfect the defects or shortcomings, to improve and make fully skilled, and to make one pure. 

 

What you are experiencing now is the perfecting process of God. He is bringing you to completion. You are experiencing the birthing of who you really are. God used trouble to bring out the best in you.  He used pain to bring out the purpose in you. He is using sufferings to bring out the success that is within you!  The perfecting process does not feel good, but once finished, it sure does look good.  Your before is about to meet your after!

 

Step #2 Establish: To institute, build, or bring into being on a firm or stable basis, to install or settle in a position, or place, to show to be valid or true; prove, to be accepted or recognized, to enact, appoint, or ordain for permanence. 

 

This second step of the Anointed Affliction process makes you feel like you finally have your footing because now you realize that God is right there with you and has been there all along.  God took you through so that He could establish you, build you up, reposition you, and set you in your seated place.  God even increased your understanding during the process of what you went through, and you realized that He trusted you to handle it with grace.  God is ordaining you so that you will be able to stand.

 

Step #3 Strengthen: To make stronger, to give strength to, and to support and fortify.  In step three, you are able to gain power and strength you never thought possible when trouble first hit you.  You realize at this moment that what held you down, you are now able to take hold of and conquer.  God will supernaturally give you greater strength than the trial you are going through.  Your spirit rises up in strength to overcome the weakness of your flesh that feels like it is not going to make it, feels as if it is going to break, and feels like giving up.  The support and the anointing are shifting you from weakness to strength. You don't comprehend or obtain this level of strength until you have gone through An Anointed Affliction.

 

Step #4 Settle: To appoint, fix, or resolve definitely and conclusively, to place in a desired state or in order, to close, to quiet, calm, or bring to rest, to conclude or resolve, to make stable; place in a permanent position or on a permanent basis, in which to be secure. 

 

Finally, the battle is over and you have won!  You stood against all odds and you have proven yourself worthy to be counted as a strong child of God.  God has settled you and made you stable, secure, and most of all, placed you in the permanent position of your destiny.  No one's destiny is ever obtained without the journey of An Anointed Affliction.  It is out of afflictions that you learn God intimately, know yourself, and realize how important and precious life really is.  You can rest when you have been settled.  You can shout when you have been settled, and you can now help someone else going through An Anointed Affliction.

           

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all"   

(Psalm 34:19).

 

"Life is not Fair, but it is FAVORABLE!"

 

Faith Under Pressure Pt.2

"The Pressure Driven Life…"

There are seasons in all of our lives when we are driven by the pressures in our lives. Sometimes, the Purpose and Calling on our lives are driven by the pressure & opposition that have come upon us.  In actuality, the suffering that has come into our lives is actually perfecting us, purifying us, and revealing our true purpose within us.

 

Delivered from Suffering

2 Corinthians 1:8-11

⁸For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. ⁹Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, ¹¹you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.

 

Have you ever been burdened beyond measure, pressured beyond your own physical, mental, and spiritual strength, even so much that you have even despaired your own life, destiny, and dreams? Then my sister or brother, you are currently in a Pressure Driven Life Situation! Please don't think that the pressure is there to take you out, but it is actually there to take you to your destiny. The enemy means it for your bad, but God is going to work it for your good.

 

Remind yourself during the hard times, "My struggle and my suffering are producing my Success!"  True happiness and trust in God can see beyond where you are now.  Glory and suffering go hand-in-hand as it relates to the total picture of your life. You realize suffering is a perfecting process. You realize suffering is working for your good, and you realize that pain and suffering is not always a bad thing.  Pain in and of itself is not a bad thing. For instance, pain in the body alarms you that something is wrong.  The enemy only comes after those that have great potential and those preparing for Destiny.  If you are not under any type of attack, then you are not operating at your full potential.

 

You are going from Suffering to Success!

 

Your sufferings are going to bring forth blessings that you can't even imagine.  In the Total Picture, suffering is not just suffering because out of it, you will be established.

 

 

 

FAITH UNDER PRESSURE PT.1

 

Do you feel the pressure of life right now? Pressure is defined as the exertion of a force upon you; it is harassment; oppression, and the state of being pressed upon. Pressure is a burdensome condition that is hard to bear. Do you find life to be hard to bear right now? Then, you have probably hit a state of just being tired. I mean tired of being sick and tired! You just feel like giving up.

In Part #1 of this series, I want to deal with tiredness that comes from when your Faith is under Pressure. When your faith in God, your future, your destiny, and your dreams are being exerted upon to the extent that you feel like giving up.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death is working in us, but life in you.

 

 

Run and Not Be Weary: "Don't Forget About You"

 

"But those who wait on the Lord, Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

 

 

Beware of Being Tired!

The Question of the Day: "Are you Tired?"

 

"And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, tired as He was from His journey, sat down [to rest] by the well. It was then about the sixth hour (about noon)" (John 4:6 AMP).

 

I do not know about you, but I am tired! I say, "I am tired" about fifty times throughout the day. At one point, I was feeling convicted about saying this so much. I find that as working people on the go, we grow tired very easily. It is understandable that sometimes we just give out at the end of our busy day. When I found this scripture talking about Jesus being tired, then I began to realize exactly what it meant to be tired.

 

The word Tired means to grow weary, bored, or impatient. When you are tired, that means your strength and energy is diminished. Tiredness brings you to a place of rest. This is so ironic because the symptoms of tiredness are what cause you to rest. When someone is tired, the first thing that they do is go to sleep or just simply lie down. So really, when you say you are tired, you really mean that you need some rest.

 

Well My Friend, God is calling for you to rest. I know many of you are probably thinking that resting right now is not in line with the busyness of your life. I know it does not make sense. However, if you are not resting, then how effective are you really?

 

In this text, Jesus stopped to rest at a well in the town of Samaria. See, when you are tired and need some rest, you need to stop by your well. A well is something that you draw from in order to get a supply. Many times people go to wells in order to quench their thirst. Jesus is waiting at your well to quench the thirst that you have. I know you thought your well was dry because you are tired, but I am writing to tell you that in your place of rest, God is about to do something in your life.

 

This entire chapter records the dialogue of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. This woman was physically tired; she was tired of being talked about, misused, abused, fornicating, feeling empty, having nothing, and tired of going nowhere. Most of all, she was thirsty for something and didn't know where to find it. When you don't know where to go or what to do in your state of tiredness, Jesus will show up at your well. It is so amazing that this conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is the longest dialogue in the Bible that Jesus had with anyone. In the midst of being tired, Jesus may do something in your life that He has never done before, just as He did with the Samaritan woman.

You know the story of how she was ostracized in society as a whore and an adulteress. When people give up on you, God shows up for you. It does not matter who is against you. God is all that you need, and He is more than enough! Jesus did not judge the woman; He simply told her that she needed to change her lifestyle and that He was the only one who could do it.

 

Today, if you are tired, then give up those things that keep you from resting in Jesus. Where Your Well Runs Dry He Will Supply! When you feel tired, just tell yourself to run to your well named Jesus. "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9). Do not give up, My Friend.

 

 

You are a (W.E.L.L.)

A Witness Elevating Love and Leadership!