Saturday, May 2, 2009

PEARL PRODUCTION


Like that in the Spirit, the principle of process works also in the physical realm. Pearls differ one from another not so much in where they come from but what they have been through. The greater the degree of intensity of the process upon an oyster, the more valuable the pearl it produces.

PEARLS are balls of calcium carbonate, created in the form of lustrous nacre around a nucleus which is irritating an oyster. Contrary to popular belief, pearls hardly ever result from the intrusion of a grain of sand into an oyster's shell.

Instead, a pearl forms when an irritant such as a wayward food particle becomes trapped in the mollusk. Pearls are not easily found. To obtain the richest and most beautiful pearls, a diver must dive again and again. Then after lifting the shells from the sea floor, he must force open the mouth of each shell and dig through the tough meat of the muscle, poking and searching for the tiny white pearl that was formed over a long period of time. These pearls are precious, rare, valuable, and hard to obtain.

This is how you should view the things God has done in your life. You can’t put a price on what you have learned through your life experiences as you’ve walked with Him. Like precious pearls, those life lessons are inestimable in their value because they cost you something. They weren’t the result of shallow swimming.

You had to go deep into God to obtain those spiritual treasures. That is why Jesus said, “neither cast ye your pearls before swine…” Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:6 that we shouldn’t waste our time, energy, or money or put too much thought into honoring individuals who don’t even care about what we are doing for them. Jesus uses the example of “swine” or “pigs” to describe this category of people who couldn’t care less about what you are trying to tell them. He urges us not to take something that has been forged through one’s process and present it before people who don’t honor your process.

Becoming a Lover of the Process


He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb. 12:2b

There is a defining season that exists between the receipt of the promise of God and the actual materialization of that very promise. In fact, we often quote the Genesis 8:22 by saying, “As the earth remaineth, Seedtime and harvest…..shall not cease.” The truth is, there is a greater revelation that is lodged within this scripture. There are actually three seasons that this season depicts. There is the season of SEED. The season of HARVEST. But more importantly, between the seasons of Seed and Harvest is the season of TIME. It is critical that we understand all there is about this is season of time. This intermediate season is the season that can make or break you. This is a season of preparation. A season of process.

Process is the season that initiates the moment we sow a seed or receive a promise from God. Process is the capsule of time that stands in between every seed you sow and the harvest that will be reaped because of the seed.

Most of us in life focus so strongly on the appearance or non-appearance of the manifestation of the promises of God that we seldom pay mind to the process that we experience in wait of the promise. God is more interested in the condition of the recipient of His promises than the receiving of His promises. In other words, God is more concerned with our production of character more than the concerns of our comfort.

Because we generally ignore the potency of our process, we tend to avoid our seasons of process, abort our processes or numb ourselves throughout our process. We like to take a sabbatical while the process is in affect or we inject ourselves with a spiritual Novocain so that we can allow the process to ensue while we numb ourselves to the effects of it.
We must understand that it is God’s process taking place in our lives, being completed, is what differentiates one believer from the next. A principle in the kingdom of God is that the greater and more intense the process, the more valuable the end product. What God does in our process is He enlarges us to match our opposition.

Using the Scripture above, we understand that Christ experienced a process before He obtained His promise. While He yet was fixed on the “prize” (the promise) He experienced His own process. The Bible says He “endured the cross” – His process. The opposition’s contradictions were leveled against Christ Himself, against His person as God—man, against His authority, against His preaching, and yet He endured all. He endured the cross —all those sufferings that he met with in the world; for he took up his cross betimes, and was at length nailed to it, and endured a painful, ignominious, and accursed death, in which he was numbered with the transgressors, the vilest malefactors; yet all this he endured with invincible patience and resolution. He despised the shame. All the reproaches that were cast upon him, both in his life and at his death, he despised; he was infinitely above them; he knew his own innocency and excellency, and despised the ignorance and malice of his despisers. The real question is, “What was it that supported the human soul of Christ under these unparalleled sufferings?” Or better yet, “How did He survive His process?” The hint is when the Scripture says that for the joy that was set before him. Not only did He have something in view under all his sufferings, which was pleasant to him; but He also fell in love with His process. He rejoiced in it.

Just imagine, Jesus endured 30 years of process for a three and one half years promise manifested. Most of us crave for a three and half year’s process for a 30 year manifestation of a promise. However, in most cases, the season of process outweighs the promise’s tenure.