God’s Purpose In the Storm - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, February 16th. Heartache and hard times are no fun, but you can find the strength to endure from understanding God's purpose in the storm. The series on building unshakable faith in uncertain times continues. God desires that you and I walk and live in an intimate relationship with Him. So here's what happens to us. He blesses us and blesses us. And so what happens is the very blessing He sends us, we allow to become a distraction from our relationship to Him.

So when we get out of His will and our priorities get out of order, what happens? He oftentimes allows storms into our life that get our attention and make us, help us to understand and make us to realize we need Him. We need fellowship with Him.

We need this intimate relationship. We need to listen. We need to be loved by Him. And sometimes it takes a storm to shake us out of our lethargy, shake us out of our disobedience, shake us out of our backslidden condition when everything has our attention but Him. If it takes a storm, He's going to send it in one fashion or the other. Now, what we'd like to do is to have Him whisper, Oh, you're getting out of my will.

He doesn't whisper. You know what He does? He just knows every single one of us perfectly. And He knows that for some people it takes a strong wind, but for some people it takes a hurricane to get their attention or an earthquake to make them realize you're out of God's will. You're heading for destruction in your life.

The stronger the storm, the deeper the valley, the more painful it is says something about how long I've been going in the wrong direction. And so, when I think about the fact that He wants to conform us to His image simply because He loves us. And if you'll think about what a compliment that is, that God loves you and me enough to want us to look like His Son, to act like His Son, to be a representative of His Son, will He send an intense, painful storm into our life to get our attention?

Yes, He will. And oftentimes that is exactly what He's doing. Now, watch this one. Sometimes it's comfort. Oftentimes we think about comfort as being for us. Sometimes, watch this very carefully, God will send a storm into our life. Get our attention. Send us and allow us to go through brokenness, heartache, pain, suffering, loss.

Watch this. Not always, but something He wants to do in us as much as His ultimate goal is something He wants to do through us. If you want to be a blessing to other people, you're going to have to be broken. You know what breaks us? The storms of life.

You want to be a available vessel for God that He can use you to work in other people's lives? Then you have to be willing to be broken. And what breaks us, here's what breaks us. Because we have a resistance to being broken and because we came into this world with a sinful nature, because we came into this world with rebellion, we want to have it our way.

That's just normal. God has to break that. He has to get us to the place in our lives as He did in the life of the apostle Paul, for example, where we are able to say, not what I want, God, not what I want, God, but what you want. And until I am willing to get to that place, I'll never be able to be a blessing to some people.

In fact, hardly anybody. And until you and I are broken, until you and I are able to experience heartache and pain and suffering, we can't say to somebody, I do know how you feel. I walk that path. It's a painful path. And here's what happens. Listen to me carefully. He not only makes you useful.

Here's what I've discovered. It's like God props your heart door open. Once He breaks you. Once He gets to the core of your being. It's like He props the door of your heart open and you become very sensitive to people around you who are hurting.

You don't have to open the door. It's just there. You sense that somebody is hurting. All of a sudden you hurt. You feel that somebody else got rejected. You feel it. You feel that somebody else is suffering loss. You feel it. You feel that somebody else is very lonely. You feel it.

And what happens is you're a walking, valuable vessel and tool in the hand of God. It isn't just that I'm going to be praying for you. But now it's what can I do for you? How can I help you? Maybe you can say I fully understand because you've been there. Or you may have to say, I know I don't understand what you feel. But I'm going to pray for you and I want God to put some of your burden on my heart.

Remember what I said? When God breaks you and He gets to the core of your being, it's like He props the door open. And for the rest of your life, you have a sensitivity to hurt, pain, suffering. And people around you, they may not sense it, but you'll sense it.

And before long, they'll pick up on something in you that they don't quite understand. How can you be so sensitive to their hurts and their needs? Because God took you through a storm that was dark enough, a valley long enough.

And pain intense enough. And loneliness, listen. Immeasurable that now the only thing that matters is that God use you to the maximum of your potential, whatever that may be. And remember this now, the deeper the valley, darker the storm, and the more intense the pain, the greater the preparation in your heart to be a blessing to other people. And the greater purpose God has in mind. Because you see, He doesn't do things casually, always has purpose.

Never too much, never too little, just right. Imagine the potential in your life when God has been allowed to break you because you surrendered to Him. Then He puts together what was there, but absent from that pride and arrogance, self-will. And now He has a spirit of humility and a spirit of love and tenderness and kindness.

Does He not say, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you? He's an awesome God. And He's a God of love and a God that desires the best for us.

Then convictions. You see, here's what happens. When storms come into our life, we discover what we believe about God. You say, well, I already know what I believe about Him. You know, a lot of people say, here's what I believe about God and everything's going right. When the bottom drops out and the storm hits, all of a sudden they have questions about God.

Here's what happens. Storms reveal our doubts. Listen, storms reveal our doubts. What teaches us not to doubt Him is being, walking through those difficulties and hardships and trials and storms of life. And then what happens? He proves Himself present, powerful, sensitive, compassionate, protective, and providing through the storm. Then what happens? When I've been through enough of those, I don't doubt Him anymore.

Why? Because you've suffered enough, heard enough, been desperate enough, helpless enough, and He's been there time after time after time after time. And what happens? You don't doubt Him. But you and I will never understand what God is willing to do for us until we get to the place that we can't do anything for ourselves. And so we want to learn all these awesome truths about God and what an awesome God He is and what He'll do for us and so forth. But we don't want to walk the path.

And the path is a stormy path. And sometimes we just like to read it in the book and say, yes, Lord, that's exactly what I want to do. And then the storm comes and we think, God, where are you? Well, if I should ask you if you believe God is living inside of you, yes. You believe He's with you every moment of the day, yes.

And oftentimes the same people who say yes, a little storm comes. I don't understand why God would do such a thing to me. Where's God in all this?

Well, He's been where He's always been. What you just reveal is you don't believe Him. You see, it's the difficulties, the hardships, the trials. It's those things that Paul mentions, for example, in second Corinthians, chapter 11, when he says he was stoned, beaten, left for dead in the streets of Lystra, jailed, imprisoned time after time, not because he'd done anything wrong. Because he had enemies, he says, in perils, day and night, sleepless, without food, shipwrecked. And what does he say? Here's what he says. He says in second Corinthians chapter twelve, and he would never have said this otherwise. He says, here's what I've learned. He said, God said to him, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in weakness. And so Paul said, most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

The apostle Paul went through enough difficulty, enough hardship and enough pain and suffering and trial that when he wrote these epistles, for example, writing out of a prison sale, falsely accused, unjust treatment. And he talked about the grace of God and how he how he had learned the grace of God. And then he comes to say, I'm persuaded that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, to those who are called according to his purpose.

Why? You see, here's what happens. It's pain and suffering and heartache that solidifies our conviction that my God is sufficient. My God is with me. My God will take care of me, even though I'm walking through this valley.

He's exactly who he said he would be. Everything I've said. And you see, people who have my responsibility, whoever they are. You can't stand and tell it to other people convincingly if you are not absolutely, listen, willing to lay down your life for your conviction of the truth of what you say.

It's one thing to say it. It's something else to know that you live and die by it. And the apostle Paul, listen, writing out of these prison sales, the awesome things, for example, that he teaches us all through these scriptures over and over and over again in epistle after epistle after epistle.

What's he doing? He's simply teaching us the things that he learned, not that he thought about. And you see, when you and I look at his life and we think, well, how possibly could a man believe all of this? Because he'd been there and God had proved sufficient. And here's a man who says, I'm suffering from this this thing that God has allowed in his life, whether it was physical, emotional, whatever it was. We don't know what it was. Here's what he said.

Here's what I've learned. The grace of God is sufficient. And he says, when I feel the weakest and the most inadequate and it's just like it's not going to work.

That's when the power of God surges through me to make me adequate for the moment. How would the apostle Paul ever know what God was willing to do through him? Listen. And in him, shipwrecked, imprisoned, beaten, left for dead in the stocks on and on and on he goes.

And what does he do? He's not complaining about God. Here's what he says. I'm fully persuaded that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, to those who call according to his purpose. You want to be a happy Christian? Then, friend, get rid of frown a little bit because storms make us frown. But when we respond right, we begin to smile. Why?

Because we thank God. You did exactly what you promised to do. You're exactly who you said you are. Lord, I probably doubted you through times, but thank you, thank you, thank you. You did exactly.

Then what happens? Our testimony isn't a moaning, groaning, well, yes, I do believe in God. No, we're happy, excited Christians who have an impact for the simple reason we are fully persuaded, not in our mind. Listen, not just in our heart, but in our total being. It's a solidified thing.

Totally convicted. That is who he says he is. Well, let me give you one other word, and that's the word change. And you recall what turned to Acts chapter nine for a moment. You recall that the apostle Paul was on his way, a Pharisee, listen, a big time leader of the Pharisees, big time persecuted of Christians, because even after he was saved, Christians doubted him. In fact, they were afraid of him. They didn't believe that he was really converted. He was so ruthless. And he said he was ruthless and an aggressive persecutor of Christians.

Sitting on top. And all of a sudden, this storm hit him one day and the storm had nothing to do with the weather. It was a storm of instantaneous blindness, struck, fell to the ground, totally blind. Hearing this voice, but not knowing what was going on. But three days, he couldn't see anything.

Now, watch this. He didn't know it was going to end in three days. This strange voice that he'd never heard before. But three days he was blind. He probably thought he would never have his sight. But in three days, God melted this man. But it took blindness, total helplessness, total hopelessness to get his attention. God tried to get his attention. Do you remember when he watched and heard Stephen crying out to Jesus Christ when he was being stoned to death, not complaining, but crying out to the Lord Jesus Christ and talking to him.

And Saul, the Bible says, was consenting to his death. Did he get the message? No. What did it take? What storm did it take?

Total blindness and helplessness. What happened? Changed his life. On his way to persecute the Christians. Listen, a few days later, he's on his way to preach the gospel and spent the rest of his life propagating the very gospel he tried to destroy. Let me ask you, you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior. You've rejected him.

Everything seems to be going real well in your life. You don't you don't have any need of God. Suppose God struck you blind instantly. I know what you would say.

Most of you. Here's what you'd say. Oh, my God. A God you never prayed to, a God you weren't interested in. And all of a sudden, you see, watch this.

Remember what we said? The intensity of a storm, the length of the valley, the depth of the valley is determined by God. Listen, based on your rebellion, your indifference to Almighty God who created you. I simply want to say to you, as an unbeliever, somewhere, sometime, God is going to send a storm into your life.

And I trust that you'll be wise enough to recognize where it came from and what the purpose is to change your life. Paul became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, changed his whole life. Then he became a preacher of the gospel, a missionary to the world of his day. And you know what Paul's doing? Paul is still speaking today.

He's still speaking today through the word of God and through every man of God, a woman of God who stands with this book in their hand and proclaims the truth of the gospel. But it took the storm of blindness, changed the direction of his life. So I would simply ask you, what kind of storm is it going to take to turn your heart from your way to God's way? If you're a believer, you're out of God's will.

Mark it down. Storms come. You know, sometimes when the storm's coming, you can smell it in the air, can't you? You smell it in the air.

It gets cool sometimes. And you can see the clouds. You know, the storm's coming. So what do you do before it gets there? You get your umbrella or your raincoat or you get out.

You go inside. But foolish people, foolish people take no preparation. They just ignore the storm clouds. They ignore the smell of the air.

They just keep on having it their way and they get caught. Before this week is over, you're going to get one of those storms. It may be a little bit of a storm. It may be just a little, just enough to get your attention.

Or it could be a whopper. The key is this. Ask yourself the question, Lord, what are you saying to me? Does it have to do with something you want to clean out of my life?

My thinking? What about my personal intimate relationship with you? Is there something you want to reshape in my life? What's going on?

Write down the list. God would use that to take a step in your life to move you into Christ-likeness and make you a blessing to somebody else. Thank you for listening to part two of God's Purpose in the Storm. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.