God and the Process

Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. (Numbers 14:9)

I had a very interesting dream. We were walking with a pastor on a grassland discussing ministry when all of a sudden he asked me to hold something for him. I looked at what he meant and was shocked. I saw a 7 or 8 foot long snake stretched out and resting. Of course I jumped up as I can’t imagine even touching a snake, let alone a living one. He was very disappointed.

As we were walking on the wide path surrounded by very long grass the same snake started rolling very fast like snakes move over the desert sands. But it was followed by an even bigger one. Then the pastor started explaining his disappointment. Those snakes were meat. I had therefore let meat go away.

Then on the grass came three other snakes, much larger than the other ones, the largest being over a foot in girth. They rolled the same way over the grass and the pastor was very excited. Then they disappeared. And the pastor started looking for them, wondering how meat could disappear like that. By that time I was feeling enthralled by the idea of snake meat and was thinking of asking him to give me to taste when he made it.

I then got to think of a message God had been impressing in my spirit for some weeks. God is more interested with the process than He is in the product. It is when the process is completed that the product is ready. But we are different. The product is more important to us than the process. In fact we hate the process. We think it a waste of time and needless suffering. No wonder we take short cuts when we can.

What we fail to realize is that God as the creator does not need any process. He can create out of nothing. He does not need the process to create at all. Therefore the end to Him does not mean much unless it is the product of a process. He therefore invests in us more for the process than the product. Success for Him therefore looks at the process and not the end of the same. A success story for God is therefore gauged by our success in the process.

What does that have to do with my dream? An enemy is a tool God uses to take me through the process. The process can not be a process without challenges. You can’t be more than a conqueror without getting involved in many wars. Like Joshua and Caleb said, the enemies actually become food at the end of the process. It is only in the process that they are enemies.

When Israel came from Egypt, the Bible says that they could have taken eleven days to get to Canaan. They could very easily have walked the whole way without needing to pass through the Red Sea as the Suez Canal had not been dug. Why did God take them the roundabout route?

The Bible says that He wanted to teach them war. They needed to be transformed from a slave mentality to self determination. Using eleven days to take them home could have shortcut the process thereby producing a half baked nation. They needed to experience God and His dealings with them long enough to understand Him and how to relate with Him.

In God’s lesson scheme, two years was enough for Israel to have grown enough to take the land. That was the reason all who had experienced His dealings and refused to take the land were condemned to death. That was the reason for the extra thirty eight years they had to stay in the desert. Another team needed to go through their process as the rebellious one was exterminated. It was sad to God that only two of the initial team had gone through the process successfully.

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. (Numbers 14: 21 – 24)

David is trained by God in the wilderness before being anointed. I believe God specifically sent the lion and bear for him to kill as that was the process that gave him preparation for facing Goliath. I say that because lions and bears stay in very different climatic zones and environments. He had to see God in action there to trust Him in the case of the giant.

But that was not enough preparation. He had to go through military training as a rebel to become an effective commander in chief. And no wonder he is the model king to this day. The process was so thorough that there were very few gaps. But even better is that his worship training process was so complete that the songs he sang continue impacting people millennia later yet he was not a priest or Levite whose existence depended on that.

The process therefore precedes the product. It is in the process that one is prepared to possess. It is the process that lays ground for the breakthrough. It is the process that lays the ground for maturity. But it is also the process that decides on the kind of judgment one receives when they make a breach on the expectation.

We see the judgment aspect in the Israelites who died in the wilderness. But we see the same with King Saul. It is very emphatic when David sins.

The process makes an enemy a friend as he is a tool that is used in the process. At the end of it this enemy will become food for me after the process ends. And no wonder Christ ordered us to love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us. They are very useful in our process. A challenge is a very useful tool in our preparation.

Let me repeat that God does not require any process to deliver. He is the creator. When He wanted light He did not start a process or build a workshop. He just said and it became. We are the ones who need the process to become all He needs us to become.

I always say that before God there is no difference between a shilling and ten million shillings because He owns all and more. There is no difference between a small wound from a scratch and advanced cancer or AIDS as He does not require anything to heal. In fact He does not require more to heal cancer than He does to heal a common cold. He is the healer. We are the ones who come with classifications according to our experience and perception.

It does not depend on the relationship I have with a giver or the willingness of the same for God to give or do something. God takes from what He owns, which is everything and everyone (Psalm 24:1). They do not have to even know or acknowledge Him for God to use them. They belong to Him whether they recognize that fact or not and will do His bidding every time.

Cyrus released the Jews though God Himself said that he did not know Him. The king in Nehemiah’s time released even resources for the rebuilding of Jerusalem though he did not worship the God whose city he was building. We realize that though Pharaoh had a hard heart God hardened him even more to accomplish His purposes for His people.

Even the devil is totally subject to God’s Lordship and no wonder God Himself says that He brought misfortune to Job yet it was the devil that was the instrument in the process. That is the reason many people have a problem understanding 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 among other passages as they are talking about the same incident. God is overarching over everything and everyone, including the devil who is focused on working contrary to God.

I have in the course of ministry seen God use extremely stingy fellows to give so much support until I start thanking God that they have been transformed. Then the season ends and they revert to the way they had been before. It was not their willingness but the release of what God needed that caused them to give.

And that is the reason I have a problem with all the preaching on the tithe. We are limiting God to a very small portion of His property and in effect teaching comfortable rebellion. (I have a post on tithing elsewhere on my blog). God owns everything we have. He even owns all of us and is at liberty not only to use what we have but even all we are.

It is the process that aligns me with my destiny. We might be in a very complicated place because we have not allowed God’s process to proceed in our life. We will then plateau in our spiritual growth and effectiveness. We may actually have stunted or no growth because we think the process is demonic and therefore either run away from it or resist or cast it out. We might then think we are spiritual giants when we have not even learnt to walk in the faith because we cancelled the process.

Let me give you my own story. When I was working for KBC (the only broadcasting media house then) God asked me to request for a transfer to a hardship area. I of course knew that He had to have some ministry for me there. But it took quite long before I could settle and even then I did not have that assurance of being in the place God meant. I was ministering in the church I was attending in many ways but I was not feeling the sense of having arrived.

Then due to my Christian commitment (I call it radicalism), I refused to be joining the station staff for parties because they would get drunk in the process and misbehave. That was a big problem because as some of you may know, in those far off places most people behave as if they left God at home when they were posted there. They therefore had to deal with me.

They created a situation where my salary was stopped for a whole six months, plus many other accusations. I believe they were looking for a way for me to be sacked. It became so difficult though even when I was not receiving any salary I did not get in debt and God took care of me.

The letter that came to tell me that my salary had been released was in the same post that interdicted the two guys who had done it. The new boss had been my very good friend as he had been at war with those same people but for other reasons. But he became worse than them when he was promoted.

In the same year a mugger knocked me dead and took everything I had (much of which I had purchased using my withheld salary) as I was coming from leave. I have talked about that experience in an earlier post.

I thought I had not heard God when He had told me to take a transfer to Marsabit. This new boss decided to then make my life really bitter.

I therefore decided that I had heard God wrong and chose to ask for a transfer. I decided that continuing staying there was attracting death, especially after the experience with the mugger. I wrote to the headquarters and requested for a transfer because it was impossible for me to be as bad as all the accusations I had been getting, some most comical (I was once accused of burning a transmitter as if I was electricity). I requested that they take me to another station to confirm the accuracy or otherwise of those accusations. And of course I prayed.

I therefore looked for transport to transfer because there was no way God would allow me to stay in such kind of hell.

But of course I knew I had not heard from God about the transfer though I did not want to encourage anything else. I therefore decided to lay a fleece that I was convinced God could not perform as I had stacked all the odds against Him.

Before I went on the leave whose end brought the mugging incident, I had felt a pull toward a very small church deep in the wilderness in a very small village. The church had about ten attendees, children included.

Being very clever, I decided to force God to allow the transfer. I therefore fasted as I laid this fleece. ‘I will go to church on Sunday. If you intend for me to stay in Marsabit, I want more than two people from the church to ask me to start something’. I had been in that church once before my long leave (because I had also been given a sick off due to the injuries) and probably another one time after it. I was therefore convinced that God could simply not do it as I was a stranger there.

I went to church and was looking at the watch all the time, waiting for my deliverance. The service ended and I heaved with relief. But as I was getting out I was stopped. Can you imagine how many approached me? Five. They wanted me to start a choir for them as they had seen me playing the guitar in the church in town.

Now what does one do after such a demonstration of God’s hand? Of course I knew with all certainty that God had something He wanted me to accomplish in Marsabit. I was therefore at peace as I knew I was where God wanted me to be.

The persecution at work became even became worse after that. But I was at peace because I knew that I was where God had placed me without any doubt. The accusations continued in intensity and work became even worse but I was focused.

I remember the station vehicle would leave me to take the rest for shopping and I would have to walk to town 12 km away and back, most of the distance being wild. Incidentally those walks opened many other ministry doors as I made many friends. One time a fox got to the road some distance from the station and walk ahead of me through the uninhabited areas then disappeared to the bush once we got close to human habitation. And it did so for quite some time.

I am sure this is one of the processes that has contributed to the kind of ministry I have in the city. I saw God in those processes and therefore can find peace where others are in a panic. God also used them to lead me to take other more radical steps of obedience to His calling when they would not make sense to the apparently most spiritual amongst us.

What are you going through? Could it be a process into a greater ministry than you are in? Could it be to a greater worship experience? Could it be to greater effectiveness and impact?

I however will not have completed the message if I do not differentiate between judgment and the process. It is the process only when my heart is right with God. It is a process when I am walking according to God’s revelation. It is a process when it is standing between me and the assignment God has for me so that I must get past it to go to the next level like the lion and bear to David. And of course it is the process because I am not the one looking for it.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Job did not initiate the process, God did. David did not pray for the lion and bear, God brought them. Obedience is the cause and initiation of the process. Anything else initiates something else. Like Peter said we should not rejoice when we are being ill-treated for our sin.

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)

This is the end of our process. But as with gold, the process is many times painful. The fire, the water, the forge; all induce pain. But without them the gold will remain the ore and not worth much. And it is much the same with our Christian lives. It is the pain of the process that purifies us to become of great worth before God. It is the difference between the common soldier and the commando. That is why David had his army and the thirty, some of whom could kill an enemy battalion alone. They were thoroughly processed.

It is the process that gets us out of whining for the least discomfort. It is the process that will stop me from binding nonexistent demons. It is the process that will teach me contentment. And it is the process that will make me a much better witness. Just look at these verses.

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (Philippians 4:12) 

From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. (Galatians 6:17)

Those marks were inflicted on Paul in the process. And no wonder he was so effective as a witness.

It is therefore wise to realize that much of the preaching nowadays tends against the process. No wonder very many ‘successful’ Christians are unable to resist the allure of sin. It is the process that hardens me against sin even as it softens my heart toward God.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10)

It is the process that gives people the assurance that we understand them. But even better is that the process makes us to understand those we minister to. The process also makes us worthy examples to imitate. And it is the process that produces and polishes the fruit of the Spirit in us.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

It is the process that makes us able to appreciate the struggles others go through. It makes us sympathize and empathize with those who are struggling. It is the forty years that made Moses a worthy intercessor of the rebellious nation.

It is the process that produces humility, meekness and character as we see with many of God’s worthy ministers. And it is the process that makes a testimony so rich and empowering. And of course it is the process that makes one able to accurately understand and apply the word of God.

This post is therefore supposed to encourage you to appreciate the process. Running from the process is actually running from your destiny. Esau lost his birthright because he ran away from his process and that is what you will do if you choose the easier options.

Do not listen to the preacher or prophet who asks for a seed to kill the process. Do not listen to those who prophesy that you do not need the process. Do not entertain those who are experts in praying against the process.

Only the process can produce maturity. Years alone make for old age. And old age is not adequate in preparing ministers. I have seen Christians who have been in the faith for so long yet are not much better than infants in the faith as far as their experience is concerned. I minister to ministers who have been in ministry for so long yet they will break down with the smallest of challenges.

The common thread on all these is the lack of the process. The sad reality is that they will find their way into church leadership. Yet even in the qualifications of spiritual leaders requires the candidate to have successfully gone through the process as we see in Timothy and Titus.

Let me close with this.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1: 2 – 4)

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41)