One thing I am seeing right now is that many that have been united in the past for a purpose are being sent to different places and to different groups and all of this is for a purpose!

The thing is, we can not get offended when someone begins to drift away from us because they do not belong to us. We cry and are heart broken but God has purpose in it all if we will look for it. I learned this lesson well while pastoring with my husband.

It used to break my heart and I would take every move that someone made personally as if it were all about me. I found out, however, in my many years of ministry that God moves people on and sometimes because we love so deeply (and truly most in ministry do or they would not be there).

We are hurt when those we believe to be our friends must move on but I believe that what some perceive as division in the body right now is simply God re-aligning in this hour and re-connecting for Kingdom Purposes.

Sometimes these things are not what we would do but it is God’s purpose and for the kingdom’s sake that these things may be happening. I am not saying every case but many are.

That is what I am observing in this hour. God is requiring us to make some hard choices right now but I promise what God is about to do in this season will outshine anything that He has done in the past season.

When Jesus was about to go to the cross (His purpose) Peter couldn’t imagine in his carnal state of mind that this would be happening to Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God!! Look at this account. Just after this great revelation of Peter’s, Jesus then began to describe what it was going to take to fulfill His destiny and Peter rebuked Him because his mind did not even comprehend what it would take to fulfill Jesus’ destiny .

“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:15-26.

You see Peter was being used by the enemy to tempt Jesus to think that He did not have to go to the cross and Jesus rebuked him.

So many of us in the body of Christ are being called to go deeper and walk out their calling and for many that will be a lonely place and like Jesus they will be misunderstood and many will never understand your calling because it requires you to be with or minister to people that they do not deem worthy of God’s mercy.

They perceive your destiny as going one way and it seems to them that you have had a demotion but the fact is, God is preparing you to go to a people that no one else will ever go to.

Many years ago when I went through a great tearing away from a body of believers that I was with at the time, although I never stopped serving the Lord, I was perceived as a back slider just because I had to break off from what I had known for so many years.

Even though I loved those people dearly God had other plans for my life. I truly thought that I would surely die at that time from a broken heart. God was all the while bringing me into a place where I would be ministering to a different people that I wouldn’t of even considered before.

Sometimes what seems like it is not God and a tearing away, is God’s bigger plan that we can not see at the time.

So if you are going through something right now that is a separation, look up and lift up your head! I am hear to tell you that God is preparing you for a greater service. If you are being separated from those that you were with it is so that he can prepare you for greater service!

What seems like a demotion is only for a promotion and it may not look like what you thought but God wants to work compassion in you for a people that you may not of even looked at before. Whew!! His ways are higher than our ways and His plans for us are for good and not for evil.

Trust Him and know that He is working His plan out for a greater weight of Glory!! What the church deems success in this day is not always success in The Kingdom! Jesus made himself of no reputation and He said that if they called Him the devil how much more will they call you the same!

We just need to set our face like flint as Jesus did and minister to those that he has given you even if it is one little homeless person! Do not allow what the pharisees think stop you!

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” 2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” Romans 8:18.

 

~ by Jo Ellen Stevens
Arise Shine!

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Jo Ellen Stevens of TCIC Ministries is a Prophetic speaker, author, worshiper and intercessor. She has ministered with her husband for 23 years and was a worship leader at the Assembly of God for many years. She is an ordained minister (Restoration Ministries) and works with Restoration Ministries in their Ministry Rooms doing prophetic worship with her husband. She has taught many bible studies and have led many intercessory prayer groups.

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