Out of Darkness

It was ordinary men of faith accomplishing great things for God by staking everything on hearing His voice, that first captivated my attention as a young man in high school. Like most Christians, staying faithful to the discernment of God’s will in my life has been challenging over the years. As my world fell into disarray, I wasn’t sure I was able to hear God’s voice or direction any more. This past summer has revealed to me how God’s mercy does carry us through the desert, bring healing, and that He truly uses every experience training us in how to recognize His guidance through the darkest of valleys.

During my journey towards God’s healing, someone challenged me to consider whether I was a carrot, an egg or coffee beans. As the story goes, to remedy the discontented attitude of her daughter, a mother placed a carrot, an egg and coffee beans into three separate boiling pots. After 20 minutes she removed the items, presented them to her daughter and asked, ‘When facing adversity are you like the carrot that was put in strong but became soft and mushy when boiled, the egg that began fragile with only a thin protective shell but became hard on the inside, or the coffee beans that used the adversity for good and by their very presence and fearlessness changed the water?’ As I reflected on how the three items changed their state as a result of the boiling water, I identified with all three items at various points of my journey of healing. In an epiphany moment I marveled at how all of my challenges and dark moments were necessary so God could prepare me for my next, and deeper, level of service to Him.         Isaiah 66:9 says, “Will I bring a child to birth, and not let him be born?” says the Lord. “Will I, Who gives birth, stop it?” says your God.” I’m not suggesting God creates chaos, however I am absolutely a testimony and witness to His resurrection power for each situation we allow God to carry us through. Along this journey I have latched onto an ever deepening level of how to recognize and follow the trajectory of God’s direction. In the midst of adversity I can be grateful for God’s guiding hand. God recently spoke to me with Psalm 119:143. As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.

With great clarity God has shown me how He used these hardships to prepare me for a new phase of ministry I otherwise would not have been ready. I look forward to sharing the undeniable blessings and miracles in which God is revealing His will for my life and ministry through Innovative Truth. I am overwhelmed and humbled by His deepening call to service for me. I can now see none of this would be possible if not for being thrown into the boiling waters of my life. It has taken some time, but I have arrived at a peaceful place and am able to say ‘Thank You for all the pain.’ It’s such a joyful position to have become the coffee beans not only accepting the adversity as necessary but grateful He used it to make me stronger and ready to release the fragrance and flavor He desires for my life. It is more than just choosing not to be bitter and hardened by adversity, it is about pressing closer and crying into His shoulder in our darkest hours.

I challenge you in your own life, when faced with adversity to lean in, trust His timing, and with repentance only He can grant, He will not just restore the faith you had, but replace it with a deeper and stronger experience of knowing Him, and the trajectory of glorifying Him as He lifts us out of the darkness.

​Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you. 1 Peter 5:6

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