I sense in my spirit this is a very NOW WORD for some in the body of Christ. As of recent many of you have been going through and experiencing the REFINING FIRE of GOD. Some of you are going through such CRUSHING and DIFFICULT trials you may even wonder how you will make it through. In the MIDST of FIERY trials, I want to encourage you with this word from the LORD – HE is SHAPING you for His PURPOSES!

As I was thinking on these things, the Lord reminded me of the POTTER and the CLAY. This Word is also for those who are discouraged in their own lives and walks due to reoccurring failure in some specific area. I sensed the Lord say, “Do not focus on how ugly or marred the clay may seem. As long as it stays soft and pliable, I can reshape that kind of clay and continue using it for My will and My purposes.”

What an encouraging word for the hearts of God’s people! How often we have been downcast due to some sudden failure!

How many times have we hung our heads down low due to the feelings of defeat and discouragement? How often has our lives felt like marred clay unusable for anything?

But the Lord is encouraging His sons and daughters in this hour that they are NOT useless and unprofitable to the Lord. As long as the clay of our hearts and lives remains soft and pliable the Spirit of God will continue to shape and mold us into all that He desires for us to be. EVEN when we have FAILED! It is the hardened clay that is of no use to the Potter.

Many of us have been crying out to God to make drastic measures of progress in our walk with the Lord. We have been asking the Lord to help us to overcome in specific areas of our lives. Then the FIRE comes and we still are not sure why the Lord allows these things to happen in our lives. BUT, in order to TEMPER and TRAIN us the LORD will allow us to face certain FIERY trials, situations, and circumstances to both REFINE and SHAPE our character. It is not how we go about our daily lives that reveals what we are made of. But it is under the PRESSURES of life that squeezes OUT what is truly IN us! The FIRE REVEALS and brings to the SURFACE what is really IN us! When God exposes what is in us it is in order to show what still needs to be transformed and changed in our lives.

Take heart my dear brothers and sisters! You are being SHAPED for God’s PURPOSES! The FIRE is doing a PURIFYING work in you! You are being MADE to be LIKE Him!

KEEP trusting Him! He is the POTTER and YOU are His CLAY. HE is the ONE who controls just how HOT the fire will get! And He DOES NOT make MISTAKES! The end result will be BEAUTIFUL! You are being TEMPERED and TRAINED! You are in God’s SHAPING PROCESS!

“The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the LORD gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand,” Jeremiah 18:1-6.

“He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the LORD,” Malachi 3:3.

~ Kevin Stevens

Kevin Stevens is a Pastor, Evangelist, Revivalist, and Author out of Western N.Y. It is Kevin’s heart and passion to write prophetically under the unction of the Spirit of God. Kevin’s books “A Word for the Weary” and “Moving Mountains” are available now on Amazon.