“God, where are you?”
“Lord, why is this happening to me?”
“Devil, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!”
Do any of these lines sound familiar to you?
Have you ever gone through seasons where you felt so attacked, so forsaken and alone that you weren’t sure you would make it through in one piece?
You were doing everything you knew to do. In fact, you had been on a spiritual high for months, spending time with the Lord and having encounters upon encounters in fellowship with Him. Maybe you had just ended a 21-day fast. You were walking in obedience, carefully carrying out all God’s instructions.
He told you how delighted He was in you. You knew He was singing and rejoicing over you.
Now, all of a sudden, it seems like you’re groping in the dark, searching for your God.
Like the man, Job, you say “I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed.”
Everything seems to be happening all at once. Everything that can possibly go wrong seems to be going wrong. Your prayers are going unanswered. Doors are being slammed in your face. Your loved ones are nowhere to be found.
It’s a painful, lonely season and you don’t understand it.
I would give examples of some of the tough, painful situations we face in this journey of life, but for the fact that our experiences often differ as vastly as the ocean.
One thing however remains certain. When you’re walking through a painful season, you will know it – you will feel it.
As a teenager, I often said prayers that sounded something like “Lord, use me for your glory. Search my heart and purify it. Refine me and make me into a vessel you can use.”
I said those words from the depth of my heart and often with hot tears rolling down my cheeks. I wanted so desperately to be a vessel unto honour. With every fibre of my being, I would sing the popular song:
Lord prepare me, a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving
I’ll be a living sanctuary for you
Boy did I have no idea what I was asking the Lord to do in me! I wasn’t prepared for it at that time.
I’m certain He was smiling down at me, knowing I had no clue what I was asking for, but touched by the sincerity of my heart. He must have been saying, “I will indeed purify you when the time is right.”
Purify me. Refine me. Mould me. Change me. Transform me. Give me a clean heart. Make me into a vessel of honour.
Do these words sound familiar to you? Have you ever cried out to God for these? (You certainly have if you’ve been on this challenge!)
If you have, I congratulate you!
You have officially asked the Lord to process you in His refining fire.
In the same way that gold and silver are refined by fire, the Lord purifies your heart by the tests and trials of life.
proverbs 17:3 (tpt)
There is no purification without process, and often times, that process is fiery in nature. We know this because time and time again, Scripture refers to the process through which God corrects, changes, purifies and moulds us as fiery trials.
Let’s take a further look at the scripture I quoted earlier on concerning Job.
I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed. But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.
job 23:8-10 (nlt)
Did you see that?
Often times (except we’re walking in sin or error), the tough seasons of our lives are the seasons God uses to test us and purify us, that we may emerge as gold of the finest kind.
It is no coincidence that the trials through which God does His work in us are compared to the gold refining process. In Biblical times, gold was often refined in the fire. I personally find the refining process of gold to be very instructive – indeed it is, for that’s the only reason our refining process as believers could be compared to it.
“When gold is mined, it is barely discernible as the metal we have come to love. It is in fact what experts called an ore. An ore can have a high or a low amount of gold content depending on where it was extracted. Goldsmiths use cyanide to extract the gold from the ores, forming something called a ‘dore’.
Onward to the next stage. The dore has to go through a trial by fire at a refinery. In an exciting process called refining, it is re-liquified in a furnace and then heaped with generous amounts of soda ash and borax. This effectively separates the gold from impurities and other metal traces. There is actually a range of interesting scientific and technological ways gold can be refined. Whatever the method, what remains is the purest gold on the planet and it is cast into a beautiful bar that glitters like the sun.
So that’s where your necklace comes from, right? Nope! Pure gold is too soft to be used to create a necklace.” (Source: My Gold Guide)
Like gold, before God purifies us, all we are is “potential.” We are raw, crude and of little valuable use to His kingdom.
When we ask to be used or changed by Him, or when He marks us to be used for His glorious purposes, we receive an invitation to be tried – often in the fiery tests of life.
It is in this painful process (and this usually not one-off. The process continues in some way all through our life-time), God begins to show us our hearts. He uses tragedy, disappointments and frustrations to reveal and separate the impurities from our core.
In the gold refining process, the dross (impurities) rise to the surface, leaving a clear, transparent substance that is pure gold. Oh how this reminds me of the gold of heaven! John, in the Book of Revelation narrates that the gold in heaven is as clear as glass. In God’s refining fire, the impurities of our heart are brought to the fore, not so we can be shamed, but so they can be taken away.
Gold of the finest, purest kind is clear and transparent. When we go through God’s pruning and refining process, we become “transparent.” There’s no longer anything to hide. He takes away our impurities and we become a reflection of nothing else but His image.
When gold is refined, despite still being a metal, it becomes so soft that it can be moulded with bare hands. This one is so good! God refines us so skillfully, that we become so tender in His loving hands. We become malleable without losing our essence or strength. In fact, our malleability becomes the very symbol of our strength with the Father. We realise that it’s easy for us to accept God’s instructions and corrections. We are moved by the wind of the Spirit and carried on the wings of His grace. We have no mission of ours except for the one He assigns us. He gives us hearts that are pure, tried and true! He equips us for His glorious purposes.
Dear one, the Bible says in 1 Peter 1:7 that “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (NLT)
Oh what a confident hope we have in Jesus – that our tests and trials are not in vain; that we are even far more precious than mere gold; that we can look forward to glory and honour when we have passed our tests!
What comfort to know that even when we pass through the fire, we are not alone. The Fourth Man is right there with us and the flames will not be kindled upon us. We will be refined, but we will not be burned!
Two songs, “Another In The Fire” by Hillsong United and “Refiner” by Maverick City are strong on my heart right now. They are so powerful and will help you stay anchored through your process. Watch/listen to them and be blessed!