Prepare for surgery.....

A surgeon is a good person right? Say you have a tumor on your body. He’ll take you to the operating room, put you on anesthesia, take a scalpel and cut out the tumor. He'll then sew you up and put u on a journey to recovery with some antibiotics, pain killers and whatever else He believes will ensure you are completely healed and there's no chance of the tumor ever coming back again. The whole ordeal is painful (especially when the anesthesia wears out) and it takes time to heal, but the intention of the doctor is not to harm you but to make you well. A scar remains for where the tumor was removed, but you are healed! Sometimes for not so major surgeries, say like a tooth extraction, the doctor only numbs the particular infected area, and removes what needs to be removed.

The same goes with God. There are areas in our lives where tumors are growing; tumors in our lives, in our character that may kill us and stop us from reaching our destiny. You can’t take painkillers to completely deal with a toothache or painful tumor, they’ll give temporal relief but you’ll have to step in the doctors’ office, and the thing has to go. As with the doctor, God takes us in His OR, takes his scalpel and removes these areas. They hurt, but like with the doctor, his intention is not to hurt us but to heal us. He cuts to heal. Just like we go to the doctors and sign consent forms for the operation to be done, it's up to us to allow God to work on us.

Like I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, God is always in the business of upgrading us.

God’s anesthesia is different though. He doesn’t put you to sleep or numb the specific area in order to chuck the tumor. He allows situations or places you in settings where He takes you through the process of dealing with it, kinda like in a fire. Pastor John Hagee in his sermon dubbed ‘The secret of Christian Joy’ says “God uses no one until He puts you in the blast furnace!” or in my words ‘He uses no one until He’s taken you through the OR’

Like I mentioned in a previous blog, I used to be a lone ranger due to hurtful things that had been done to me. As God was healing me and teaching me that He works with relationships; He brought to my attention that I’d been harboring unforgiveness and had been keeping grudges. It was a painful process, learning about forgiveness - about letting go. As I was learning, people kept rubbing me the wrong way - more than before I’d allowed God to work on me. I’d shut them out and give them the silence treatment, but since God was working on me, I’d end up painfully swallowing my pride and making peace with the person. There are other areas in my life that God has been dealing with and I can’t say it’s been easy, but I need to in order to grow in God. Like Dave Roberson says in His book “A walk of the spirit – A walk of power’ “It is Impossible to rise upward in God without cutting off the things that are holding you down”

It is important to work with God in allowing Him to work on us. If you intend to grow in God, then you’ve got to allow him to cut and remove anything that will hinder your growth.
The more you resist, the more the pain, and the longer the growth process takes.

Pastor J.L. Spann Jr. in his sermon ‘A test for a selective service’ says “Before joining an army, you have to go through a series of tests so as to determine whether you’re fit for service. The same way, in order to take part in God’s service, there’ll be tests to test our character and faith in God.”  The series of tests involve God cutting out all areas that hinder growth and grafting in us His attributes that will cause us to heal and remain spiritually healthy.

I’ll leave you with this…….

Pastor Eric Kibuga from the Joshua Generation Trust once taught us on Jacob (Genesis 32) and how he wrestled with an angel for a blessing, and how the angel put his finger on the hollow part of Jacobs' hip and dislocated it. From that day on Jacob, (whose name was then changed to Israel) walked with a limp. Pastor Eric then asked “Are you ready to allow God to place His finger and dislocate an area of your life? What area in your life is God demanding change? Is it your paradigm, your relationships, your character? Etc.”

ARE YOU READY FOR SURGERY?????????