279 ~ THRESHED BUT NOT CRUSHED - SEASONS OF HARVEST ~ PART 2

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. We are celebrating all that God

has done and has promised to do over the next few weeks.

Every word that God has spoken will come to pass.

Everything that you have sown into will begin to reap its

fruit. The harvest is here and it's

plentiful. Can we lean into the Lord of the

harvest and hear what He has to say to us?

Yes, Church, we're so happy that we get to do this new series on

the harvest, right? And last week we saw how, you

know, the seed which is sown becomes grain.

They look distinctly different. They have different purposes.

The seed is full of life. When it is sown is when it gives

rise to. Grain.

And this week we're going to be looking at the process of

threshing. And I believe a lot of us are in

that season spiritually where God is threshing us for a

certain reason. It might feel like you know, it

might feel a little rough. It may feel a little unjust

even. But God is at.

Work. I just want to encourage you

about that. And the title of my sermon is

threshed but not crushed, because many times the the act

of threshing actually feels quite violent.

I have just a few stalks of wheat here to illustrate the

point. So when wheat is born as the

seed of the wheat seed, when sown becomes the grain.

But this is the entire grain. The wholesome part of the grain

is hidden deep within and farmers have a very specific

way. Of.

Threshing wheat. If it's Paddy, they have a

different way of threshing it. If it's barley, it's different.

They have a different way, but all of it requires mechanical

pressure. No threshing mechanism works

without pressure. So either it's beaten on the

ground, or they use a threshing sledge, they hammer it, or they

use animals to tread it, But whatever it is, friction is

necessary. Force is necessary in order to

get the useful part of the grain out and the rest is just thrown

away. And what is thrown away is

usually just burnt up or the shaft is just let you know,

allowed into the wind and it's carried away.

And what is remaining is what is useful.

And like last week, Pastor Geshom was teaching us on how

there is this requirement on our lives that we would sow the

grain that we have tasted. And he also mentioned how we

need to stay the course because what is sown has to be watered,

has to be tended to, and then ultimately you reap with

Thanksgiving. Many times we sow certain things

and we expect a certain kind of harvest.

But if you didn't sow it right to begin with, what you reap is

what you actually sowed. You don't get a mango tree if

you sowed apples, apple seeds, right?

So there is this direct correlation between the seed you

sow and the grain that you reap. And this week we're going to be

focusing on Isaiah chapter 28, where there's this beautiful

Isaiah 28 · chapter mention

scripture on how. God gives wisdom to the farmer.

On how to actually, you know, sow his seed and how he has to

thresh it. So Isaiah chapter 28 verses 23

Isaiah 28:23–29

to 29, listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I

say. When a farmer plows for

planting, does he plow continually?

Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

When he has levelled the surface?

Does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?

Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and

spelt in its field? His God instructs him and

teaches him the right way. Caraway is not threshed with a

sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin.

Caraway is beaten out with a rod and cumin with a stick.

Grain must be ground to make bread, so.

One does not go on threshing it forever.

The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one

does not use horses to grind grain.

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty.

Whose plan is wonderful? Whose wisdom is magnificent.

It's amazing because God gives the farmer such intricate wisdom

as to how to deal with each of his seals and the grain that is

produced from each of the seeds is different, has different

needs. So the threshing mechanism is

also different. I want you to quickly watch this

video, this YouTube short on what threshing actually looks

like for you to better understand this process.

It's just a quick video if you can just watch it.

So as you noticed, there was a mechanical force.

There was a moment when the farmer was actually.

Hitting. The grain in order to free up

the grain in itself in its nutritious form, leaving behind

on the floor that which was not useful, whatever flew away was

the shaft which actually protected it.

But the grain is what is left behind.

So sometimes, you know, you've it the, the whole process of

threshing requires a stick, requires a rod, requires

sometimes a threshing mechanism which rolls over the grain.

I was watching a couple of these agricultural videos from North

India where this these two oxen are, you know, treading out the

grain as as a threshing mechanism.

And the farmer is seated behind on this small little ledge that

has wheels. And so not only are the oxen

threshing the grain. The ledge that he's sitting on

and being pulled on is also doing an additional threshing

work. But the beautiful thing in this

passage is that threshing is not a forever process.

Even the season of sewing is not a forever thing.

These are seasonal. They happen for a time.

And thresh threshing is such a pivotal part of this process.

If it is not there, you don't get the product that you're

looking for. So you can be assured of this.

Threshing is not forever. Maybe you feel like you're in a

season of of you know, just the harvest is about to come.

You feel like the things you have sown in past seasons are

going to come full circuit. But you feel like this is

unusual pleasure. You feel like God is doing

something. He's shaking things that felt

normal to you. You feel like there's this

rumbling beneath the surface and you feel like God, I'm feeling

unsettled. I thought this was a season of

plenty. I thought this was a season of

reaping. But I want to encourage you and

and bless you today with this word that the threshing means

that the harvest is in full swing.

It means that you're closer than ever to your miracle.

You're closer than ever to your reaping.

Right. And so you might ask me what is

the need for threshing? Why do I need this threshing,

right? Why does, why do I have to go

through this hard times? Haven't I already been through

enough? And I, I completely agree with

you. Yes, you're probably probably

been through a lot, but the threshing is highly essential

for every believer in Christ. We need the threshing season

before the harvest is complete so that things that need to be

removed are removed and things that need to stay, stay.

When you look at this these verses in Isaiah 2028, if God

gave so much wisdom to a farmer as to thresh different seeds

different ways, God is very mindful of how he threshes each

of us in the seasons. Of our life.

The way he threshes me will not be the way he threshes you,

because he knows what my threshold is.

He knows exactly how much I can handle it.

He knows how much you can handle.

So if he used, if the farmer has to use a sledge for something

and an oxen for something else, God knows how to thresh you and

me. We are being held by a very

mindful God. He knows what we are doing and

in order to see us mature and grow, He needs to do certain

things in US to release us to our fullest potential.

There are two reasons why threshing is very important for

every every believer in Christ who is headed into the harvest.

If this is a harvest, a season when you're going to reap

bountifully for all that you have sown over the years, there

are two things that have to happen and that's why threshing

is done. The first thing it's removing.

Threshing is a removing what? What are we removing?

You're probably thinking, I've given up so much already to

follow Jesus. What more should I should be

removed? Well, there isn't the need to

remove baggage and attachment of the previous season before you

enter the new season. The new season will require you

to have fresh set of skills, fresh insight, fresh

experiences. But many times the baggage and

the attachments of the past season can be a deterrent.

It can hold you back. When the farmer hits that wheat,

hits that Paddy, when he threshes it, what happens is the

outer husk, what protected it in seed form.

The husk was very essential in the previous season.

When the seed grows, you'll find that the seed is very

susceptible to all kinds of infections.

So God has created this beautiful hardened outer

covering called the husk or the shaft, which protects it in seed

stage. But when the seed goes grows

into grain, the husk becomes immaterial.

It served its purpose in the last season many times for all

of us. There are certain things that we

developed as a protective mechanism in a previous season.

We had a certain way of being maybe harsh and and maybe we

were a bit very, you know, prideful and egoistic because we

needed to protect ourselves. There were people who harmed us.

There were people who hurt us. There were people who tried to

tear us down. And so maybe there were certain

protective mechanisms you put in, you built in.

But God is saying in the next season, I will be your shield,

like like Deshum taught us a couple of weeks back, but he is

our shield. Many of us have been trying to

put up our Shields and protect ourselves.

But he's saying I am your shield.

I am your great reward. And so there needs to be a

removing. There needs to be a removing of

certain things. There has to be a change of

things from the old season to the new season.

I remember when we just got our puppy five years back, she was

just a few months old. And when we had to discipline

one of our children, if we, you know, took our took that, you

know, the plastics, we have a plastic spoon to correct our

kids when we take it out, the dog would get so alert and

whichever child we were going to discipline, she would come and

stand in front of them like a guard dog.

And she would prevent us from going near the child.

She was so protective of them. And that was for the 1st 1 1/2

years of being at home with us. In the last three years, she

couldn't be bothered. Like if we were correcting or,

or talking loudly to one of the kids in, in correction, she

would just lazily be lying in a corner and, and literally

smiling at the kid getting it. And I realized that there's each

season has a different kind of protection that is afforded to

us. In some seasons, you need to

protect yourself. You feel even even though in

that season God was your protector, but God is saying in

this new season, what nourished you in the previous, what helped

you in the previous season will not do it.

You need something fresh. And so the threshing process

actually removes those attachments, those dependencies,

and creates room for fresh dependency.

Maybe in the previous season you depended on this one

relationship or you depended on this one discipline you had

inculcated and that you rely on for your very sustenance.

But God is saying in this new season you're going to depend on

me for everything. Maybe in the old season you had

a certain dependency on on exercise or on a particular or

meditation technique or whatever it looked like to preserve your

mental health, your peace, your stability.

But God is saying in this season, I'm going to remove that

so that the fresh thing that I want to do in you comes through.

What are the old baggages? What is the old attachments that

need to be removed? What do you feel God is

unsettling you on so that you look to Him for this new season?

Threshing, when it happens, will dislocate from your life.

Pride, anger, heat, unforgiveness, things that tend

to cling, that tend to stay. We have found we've had to the

seasons when you think you're done and dusted with something

or someone, but then these old remnant feelings creep up and

you have to deal with that old anger.

You have to deal with that old unforgiveness.

You have to keep addressing the fact that there are some areas

in your life you're still bitter about and you allow God to

thresh it out of you. God take it away because I don't

want it. Paul instructs us to live

without a hint of impurity and sometimes this threshing season

is so important because it removes the hint of impurity

before it becomes a full-fledged stronghold.

So don't resist the threshing, the removing of these things is

very important. I was reading the other day in

in Ecclesiastes. It says a little folly outweighs

honour, a little folly. So you may live an honourable

life, but a little foolishness in you could disrupt that, could

degrade that. And it's so important for God in

the threshing season to say to actually shake off that folly,

to shake off that that foolishness.

So would you bring it to him and say, Lord, whatever in me needs

to be removed in the season, remove it.

Let me address it. Let me call it like it is.

Remove it from me. That's the first reason we need

to go through threshing. The second reason we need to go

through threshing as believers, it's 100% required is because

it's preparing. So while we remove this, the

husk mechanically from the wheat, there's a second thing

where we have to prepare. And that happens because

whatever is unnecessary has been removed.

And the grain which is useful to make flour remains, you know,

the flour that we use for for our Atta flour, the the oats

that is made into. Our oat grain oatmeal.

All of that happens because of threshing.

If threshing has not happened, the grain is not prepared.

And I want to ask you, have you sometimes felt that during the

threshing season you feel a bit exposed, you feel a bit

unsteady, unsure. It's because God is preparing

you for your destiny purpose, for the destiny purpose of your

life. Certain relationships have to be

moved out for your destiny purpose to be revealed and for

you to step into it. Certain habits have to go,

certain attitudes, mindsets have to go.

So that removal happens. It leaves you feeling

unfamiliar. You're an unfamiliar territory.

God, my old anger is gone. That protected me.

Lord, my ego seems to be completely dead.

What's going on? How will I survive?

But the new season needs you to be ready for your destiny

purpose. The very reason you were created

for is what is going to be revealed in the season.

The wheat seed that was sown was not the end of it.

It was just the starting. The grain is where destiny lies.

Because it's going to be crushed into flower, it's going to be

crushed into different things and its uses are multivarius.

So it is so essential to understand that when God allows

a threshing season in our life, it is because he's preparing us

for our destiny purpose. It usually will feel a very like

a very exposed season where you are doubting yourself, you feel

like your character is changing. You feel like certain things

that you thrived or knowing about yourself are now changing.

But it's beautiful because God is shifting it so that your

identity is rooted in Him. And your God-given purpose, the

reason for which you were created, will start to unfold in

the season, so the preparation is very important.

When the burdens are dropped, when the attachments are

dropped, when he removes the things that are not of him,

which maybe served you well in a previous season but don't serve

you now. When He starts allowing you to

rest in the new, he's preparing you for what's coming.

And it's so important for you to remember this, that it is

important that you undergo the threshing so that in the Kingdom

you become a thresher. You undergo the threshing so

that you become a thresher. What does that look like?

What does that look like? A thresher is basically someone

who takes their position in the Kingdom of God and knows who

they are and knows what their purpose is.

The larger purpose. Now the individual purposes of

our life are very tailor made to who we are.

The the you know our backgrounds, the skills and

talents we have, how God has wired us uniquely.

But the larger purpose is this. We are called to be threshers in

the Kingdom. And this is twofold.

How do you and I become threshers in the Kingdom Once we

have received our threshing, threshing season itself?

The first thing is you need to thresh the enemy.

You need to thresh the enemy and take back all that he stole.

I'm going to read from Micah chapter 4 verse 13.

Micah 4:13

It says rise and thresh daughter Zion.

For I will give you horns of iron, I will give you hooves of

bronze, and you will break to pieces.

Many nations you will. Devote their I'll gotten gains

to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

So you know when I was thinking about this threshing, I thought

he's not talking about a threshing hammer.

He's in the original word actually means trample tread

under foot. And I got this boot of mine

which I hardly get a chance to wear in Chennai.

But this heel reminds me of what threshing something under foot

looks like. If you get smashed by this heel,

you will be hurt. Your toes will feel hurt and

many times we look at the enemy at face to face value.

We are talking to our enemy, we're engaging with Him, we're

flirting with him. We are intimidated by Him when

he belongs under our heel. He's meant to be trampled on.

When you look at Luke chapter 10 verses 18 to 19, Jesus says he

Luke 10:18–19

replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions

and to overcome. All.

The power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you.

This is the authority we have in Jesus name.

He is under our feet, the enemy is under our feet.

And yet too many of us are giving him way too much

credence. Too many of us are so

intimidated by him that we think, you know what?

Let him stay in the corner. He's.

Not troubling me anyway. Doesn't matter.

The problem with the enemy is you give him a corner, he takes

over the room, you think that you've dealt with one area and

you're you're very complacent. He will bring in seven more and

make the place worse than it began.

And it's important that we don't give him so much credence that

he occupies a space near our ears, but that he remains under

our feet. In the book of Genesis we see

how when Adam and Eve were cursed, the serpent was said

that you will be on your belly, and the man's was said that you

will trample on him. And the beautiful thing is that

Jesus came once and for all. He was the heel that trampled

the serpent. He was the heel that did the job

for us. And so today, as you and I are

in Christ, He is under our feet too.

But too many believers are living in this place of

completely being intimidated, and they are crouching in the

corner while the enemy reigns supreme.

And I want to bring you back to this place of saying, if you

have undergone the threshing, you know that you are a

thresher. And it says rise and thresh.

No more crouching in the corner, afraid by what the enemy could

do to you. Maybe he touched your family.

Maybe there was an open door. But it's time to rise up, shut

the door and thresh him under your feet.

He belongs under your feet. Maybe you've been intimidated by

the things your family went through.

Maybe you've seen finances just get completely annihilated.

Maybe you saw generations cut off in their prime.

Maybe you think, Oh my gosh, he might do that again.

To me, I want to just remind you that the enemy is a defeated

foe. He's still a serpent.

He still bites, but his venom has been removed because Jesus

removed the sting of death and sin.

So when you believe in Jesus, you stand not in your authority

and power. You stand in the authority that

Jesus has given you. And he said all power you will

overcome all the power of the enemy, not just one or two.

Bits of his. Power, but all of it.

It's all. Under a feet.

So being a thresher means you understand your spiritual

authority, you understand the dominion that has been restored

to you. And so you can boldly stand and

say, you know what, Yes, it looks like my health has been

overrun by the enemy. But today, Lord, I rise and I

thresh. I take claim over that which the

enemy has taken away. Maybe he's taken away your

peace. Today you are standing in the

gap. You are standing with this thing

of saying my I wear the boots of the gospel of peace.

I trample the enemy under my feet.

You are believing that the authority given to you actually

works. Many of us are acting like as of

the authority was just some sort of badge like thing.

You know, sometimes they give you a badge and tell you to

handle the security outside your school.

When in reality the police guys have the real authority with

their uniforms, with their sticks.

And we just feel like we're some sort of, you know, chota

authority. But the truth is in Jesus, in

Jesus we fed the full armour of God.

The enemy knows who we are and whose we are, and he doesn't get

to mess around with us. Knowing your authority is very

important, and when you know this authority, you know when

you have been threshed yourself, when all the attachments have

been removed, when you're prepared for your destiny

purpose. You are standing there, no

longer looking at him, eye and eye.

But you have pulled him under your feet, and you walk into

that territory that belongs to you.

Joy is your portion. Peace is your right love,

experiencing the love of the Father, no longer feeling

unloved, and often is your inheritance in Christ Jesus.

Knowing this authority, knowing this authority changes

everything. It changes the game completely

and so important that when we look at people, we don't look at

them as their personalities are. The personality could be

triggering you, but there could be a principality working behind

them. And we don't trample people.

We fight against not flesh and blood, but against

principalities and powers. So you bring that principality

under your feet. You say no more.

I will not live in intimidation to you.

I live under the fear of God. I live because of His

righteousness that covers me. And so you belong under my feet.

Too many of us are engaging in conversation with the enemy.

Jesus didn't engage in conversation with the enemy when

he drove out demons, they would scream coming out, you are the

Son of God and he would silence them because he did not need the

validation of an of the enemy. He wanted his people who had

free will to say I believe that you are the Son of God.

He didn't. The demons knew who he was, but

he didn't need their attestation today.

Stop engaging with the enemy. Stop flirting with the enemy and

and making deals with him. I won't give all of myself to

this addiction, just a part. I'll try out this.

Don't give him room. He belongs under your feet.

How long are you going to give room for those thoughts that

overtake your mind and put you in a spiral?

Those depressive thoughts incited by the Father of lies

belong under your feet. Take control of your mind.

Put the enemy in his place. His place is under your feet.

The second thing that you do as a thresher is that you will need

to thresh mountains and open the ways for others.

You know, many times if you have a particular direction you want

to go in your life, you will find that there are huge

obstacles that come out of nowhere, right?

These huge mountains. And many times we get this

confused, we confuse the mountain with the enemy.

The mountain is natural obstacles, obstacles of the

broken world we live in, obstacles that are brought in by

people, by situations. And if you look at what Jesus

talks about these mountains, he doesn't address the mountain as

a demon. He addresses the mountain for

what it is. It's a huge looming thing ahead

of you which prevents you from seeing your God ordained

destiny. And he actually tells you to

speak to the mountain and pull it down, right?

Isaiah 41 verse 15 says, see, I will make you into a threshing

Isaiah 41:15

sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth.

You will thresh the mountains and crush them and reduce the

hills to chaff. You will thresh the mountains

and crush them and so many times.

As a thresher, while we need to keep the enemy threshed under

our foot, we need to thresh the mountains that loom large ahead

of us. It could be this huge mountain

of debt. It could be this huge mountain

of unbelief. It could be this.

Huge mountain of infertility. It could be this huge mountain

of relationship failures again and again, set back after set

back and you're thinking God, there is no way forward.

But God is calling us to look at the mountain and to thresh it

into nothing. What does that look like?

I want to read from Zechariah chapter 4 verses 6 to 9.

Zechariah 4:6–9

I want to encourage you from this that the mountain ahead of

you cannot be threshed by you alone.

You can have the best financial advisors, you could have the

best doctors, you could have all of the AI at your fingertips

giving you all the inputs you need.

But without this one ingredient, the mountain will still stay a

mountain. So he said to me, Zechariah

Zechariah 4:6–9

chapter 4, verses 6 to 9. This is the word of the Lord to

Zerubabel. Not by might nor by power, but

by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty, What are you, mighty

mountain before Zerubabel, you will become level ground.

Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of God bless

it, God bless it. Then the word of the Lord came

to me. The hands of Zerubabel have laid

the foundation of this temple. His hands will also complete it.

Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to what's

going on here. Zerubabbel and A and a remnant

after the exile are returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.

Now you have to understand, the Temple was completely burnt

down. Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the

Temple. The walls of the city had been

pulled down by conquerors and the temple.

Which was built by Solomon, and such grandeur had been brought

down to nothing. It was ash and there was no

remnant glory of what was. And here these men have

returned, thousand or two, couple of them, couple thousands

have returned. They're looking there.

They've heard about the temple. They have not seen it because

it's about 60-70 years in and the task seemed so huge.

How do you rebuild a temple when all you all you see is ash?

It's an ash heap. You're standing there thinking

or how will I do this? Zerubbabel was of the royal line

of David. Zerubabel didn't know he was an

ancestor of the coming Messiah. He just knew he had been brought

here. He was royalty.

He had this huge task ahead of him to rebuild this temple.

And the task seemed huge. And there was God talking to him

through the prophet Zechariah, saying this will not be possible

by your might, by your power, not because you have

connections, not because you have royal blood, but because of

my spirit, because of my spirit. And I want to tell you this

today, if you have a mountain before you stop looking for

those human sources because these mountains need the Spirit

of God to move. If you have been resisting the

move of the Holy Spirit, you have been coming up with your

plans, your financial analysis, you have all these friends who

are giving you counsel. Great.

But the main ingredient is the power of the Holy Spirit.

He is the one who will change the situation, because when you

harness the power of God, it is God who brings the flattening of

those mountains. So whatever the mountain looks

like to you, you speak to it in the power of the Holy Spirit and

you see, I bring you down because this is what Jesus said

in Mark 11/23. He says truly I tell you, if

anyone says to this mountain go throw yourself into the sea and

does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say

will happen, it will be done for them.

It will be done for them. What is it that God has done in

your? Life.

That is magnificent, but that is where you saw God pull down a

mountain. Ahead of you, you take that

miracle and then when you start declaring and bringing the Holy

Spirit into, not only does the way get cleared for you, it

clears it for many behind you. Too many of us, we talk about

this a lot in our church. Too many of us are living

individualistic lives. We live it for myself, my

spouse, my children. It all has to be tailor made to

fit for us. But God is calling us.

We are part of a Kingdom. We are part of a huge family

where we are doing things that bless others.

What is it that? You have seen in your life where

God came through and pulled down a mountain.

Not just did He make a way for you, but He's made a way for

others. How do you bring that?

Make that applicable to someone else?

You start to believe that the Holy Spirit who did it for you

will do it for them. Would you?

Stand in the gap with others. If you've had your breakthrough,

it's time you start asking for someone else.

God, what Can I pray for them? You did it for me, and now I

want to see you do it for them. You saw restoration in your

life. Can you stand in the gap for

someone else's restoration? You saw healing in your life.

Will you stand in the gap for someone else's healing?

Because we we stand before a God before whom mountains are

nothing, before whom a crooked path is nothing.

With the Word, He straightens things out.

With the Word, He annihilates the mountain.

So I want to ask you, what have you been doing in the presence

of that mountain? Or maybe a mountain disappeared,

but now you're finding that you don't really have a purpose.

What if in threshing that mountain with the Spirit of

God's help, you made a way, just not for yourself, but for many

others behind you, and you start to direct them and say, Hey, you

know what? I get what mountain you're

facing. I faced it to this is what God

did for me. I want to encourage you to pull

that mountain down to the treasure in you needs to be

called to the forefront to say this mountain is nothing to my

God. Many times we're speaking to the

mountain, all kinds of things We are.

We're looking at it and thinking, Oh my gosh.

How am I going to get through this?

Will I make it? To the other end, it's time that

you start speaking to that mountain words of faith that the

Spirit of God puts in you when you pray in the Spirit, when you

start declaring spirit filled words from His word.

Something shifts in the spiritual realm.

The things that you beat, the things that you defeat, the

mountains that you defy and stand against and thresh down

will become testimonies for many others.

And their mountains in turn get threshed.

So even as we close, we go back to Isaiah chapter 28, verse 29.

Isaiah 28:29

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, whose plan is

wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.

You know, and I felt like we needed to come back to this.

Knowing that we are being threshed in a threshing season

by an Almighty God should put you at ease because many times

the fear comes in of God. This feels unnatural.

Maybe it's not from you. Maybe you kind of dropped me.

I'm no longer on your roster. No, I'm no longer on your To Do

List and I'm just kind of. Being, you know, thrown around,

but I want to just remind you that we have an almighty God.

Your circumstances, your challenges, your situation, the

highs and lows are all being held by this almighty God.

And the two things that you should see from that verse is

his plan is wonderful. Maybe as you're ending the 8th

month, Can you believe it's the 8th month and maybe?

This year is. Not going like you planned.

Maybe the plan that you had was great, but they fell flat.

I want to encourage you that his plans for you is wonderful.

What does that look like in Job 59?

It says he does wonders past fathom.

He's going to do things in your life.

His plans for you are so wonderful.

It's going to move people's jaws to drop.

He's going to do such amazing things.

Why are you settling for good plans when his plans are

wonderful? It's OK if your plans didn't

make it, if it's OK if your plans didn't outlast you.

It's OK if they had like a termination point.

God has eternal plans for you. He has plans to prosper you.

His plans are way more extensive.

They're beyond time. Maybe you thought the way I

planned it. My ducks are in a row.

These are the ways I I have anticipated things happening but

suddenly, suddenly got through a curveball in the middle of that.

I want to encourage you. His ways are beyond our

understanding. His thoughts are higher than us.

So instead of trying to understand his his ways if we

could just understand that his plan is wonderful.

God, whatever you've got in mind for me is way better than I've

ever imagined. The second thing we see there is

that his wisdom is magnificent. Our wisdom is so finite.

Our wisdom is so finite when we. Do life on earth, even the

wisest among us, have boundaries or limits on their wisdom, But

God's wisdom is all-encompassing when he's doing something in

your life, he's he's tailor making it so that it just

doesn't bless you. It blesses many others.

And so if his wisdom is so incredible, you can trust him

that when your plans fall through, when your ways of

thinking and doing are not meeting your expectation, that

his wisdom is so far outreached, it goes way beyond what you can

imagine. It changes everything because

when you read the Word, it says his ways are higher, his

thoughts are higher. It says that his the foolishness

of God is wiser than man's wisdom, while the weakness of

God is stronger than man's strength.

In one Corinthians we read that. So if he seems slow and

responding to you, it's not a problem of inability or in

potency. It's divine wisdom at play.

If he seems like he doesn't know what he's doing, it's wisdom at

it's purest form. At work, you can't understand

it. If he seems if the whole system

seems chaotic and upside down, his wisdom holds even the most

chaotic. Moments in it's right place.

Isn't that such an assurance? And the importance of

remembering who God is, is because in this micro season of

threshing, it won't be that long.

I have to assure you of that. God knows exactly for what

duration you need to be threshed.

But in this micro season, if you remember that God is almighty,

he knows what he's doing. When you remember that what

feels harsh and jarring, you know this whole method of just

whacking the wheat, what feels harsh and jarring is actually a

blessing in disguise. It's not wasted.

It is not futile. It is not cruel.

It's not like some sort of cosmic joke being played on you.

It's very intentional because God is not arbitrary.

God is not random. God is very precise.

God is so. Caring to the last detail so as

I close. I want to leave this with you.

Threshing will not break you but it will release you.

Just watch this quick video to help me help you understand what

that looks like. If you noticed the cows were

working, grain was being threshed and the other side

where a bunch of women who are taking the released grain and

storing it as bales, they were working with the grain that was

exposed that was released because of the threshing.

And it's so important if you worry about the threshing or

what if I don't make it? You will.

It will not break you because the the farmer in our lives is

God himself. He is so precise.

He's so precise. He knows exactly how much

pressure to use. He knows exactly what situations

use. They won't break you.

They will release you. They will release you into the

fullness of your calling. Nothing untoward, nothing

ungodly will hold you back. It will release you with

freshness into the new thing. There's a new season coming.

He's releasing you with freshness into the new season.

The second thing is threshing will not destroy you, but it'll

direct you. It will direct you.

And I just want you to watch this quick video to understand

what that looks like. Did you notice they put the the

grain through the machine just a few seconds, they thresh it, the

shaft blows and the grain is immediately tossed on another

bundle. Many times it will feel like

threshing is actually completely annihilating your personality.

You feel like your character is changing.

You feel like, Oh my gosh, I don't recognize myself anymore.

But what God is doing is he's literally removing the things

that thus far had given you identity, and he's moving.

You in a fresh direction of where he's heading.

You for your destiny purpose. Just that simple act of the

farmer's threshing and directing it to a different pile shows us

that this is how God looks at us.

He says I'm done, you're good to go, you're ready for the new

season. He puts you on the path that you

need to be on. Many of you worry.

What if I choose the wrong path? You don't have to worry.

You're in the hands of the great I am.

He knows exactly what to do, where to put you, where to

settle your feet on. Would you let him direct you?

It's just the kind of right pressure.

If we who are unschooled go and try this threshing with that

machine, we'll destroy the grain, but the farmer knows

exactly the right kind of pleasure in order to free it up,

to point it in the right direction.

The open doors may be many. You may be so confused about

which direction to take, but God will direct you.

The threshing will not destroy you, it will direct you.

And finally, the threshing will not crush you, but it will

concentrate you. What does that look like when

when stuff's happening, when the threshing process is happening,

it's like chaos. You will feel 100 voices in your

head. You could feel the pressure all

around you. You feel exhausted.

You don't feel like you have direction.

Focus is missing. But when you watch this quick

video, you'll understand what it actually does.

Did you see what happened at the end?

He beats it. The wheat falls to the ground,

and the farmer takes the wheat in his hand and shows you

concentrated grain. No distractions, nothing that

holds you back, nothing that's burdening you, nothing that

you're carrying unwanted into the new season.

The grain is ready. And God is calling you to a

place where the distractions are completely cut off.

Because distractions can be cruel when you're trying to

understand God's will, when you're trying to get His

blueprint for the next season. The distractions, the thousand

voices, the enemity that you feel from the enemy pressing in

the oppression can be so distracting.

But God is bringing into this threshing season so that you

will fully focus on God in His ways.

You won't be all over the place, but you'll be so concentrated.

You'll know what you were created for and that's why the

the pressure sometimes will feel so big.

But I want to encourage you that it will not crush you.

It will only concentrate you. Rest but not crushed if you are

in the season. Congratulations, you're in the

harvest. Nothing to feel bad about.

You're in the hands of your Creator.

You're in the hands of the One who knows everything.

Omnipotent, strong at all times, can do anything.

He's almighty. His plans His plans are to.

Prosper you. His plans are wonderful.

His wisdom is magnificent. And remember that you are not

being threshed for just yourself.

You are threshed to be a thresher who puts the enemy

under his under your feet, and you take back territory.

When you thresh, you thresh the mountains that loom large ahead

of you, so that not only do you wake, make a way for yourself,

but the many who will come behind you.

So can I just pray for you? Can I just pray for you that you

will walk through the season of threshing with strength, with

grace, that you will trust God completely?

Father, we just come before you, believing that we are in the

harvest, believing that Lord, all that you have said, that you

have promised will come to pass. But God, we pray that we will

endure the threshing, that we will not give up prematurely,

that we'll yield ourselves. God, we'll yield ourselves to

your hands. That Lord, as you expertly

thresh us, that Lord, we will stay, We will relish your

nearness, and we'll allow you to do what you have to do.

Remove the things that bind us down, that hold us from previous

seasons. God, all the things that have

held us back, release us from it.

And Father, we pray that you will bring us into the season

with fresh destiny, purpose with fresh.

Ideas of what you have in store for us.

I pray for anyone who is right now struggling by being

intimidated by the enemy we come against that in the name of

Jesus. I pray they will rise up in the

authority that comes from being seated with you in the heavenly

realms. I thank you that they.

Should they will understand, Lord, just how great is the one

who is within them than he that is in the world?

Father, I pray for those whose mountains are huge ahead of

them. Father, I pray in the name of

Jesus they would thresh those into nothing.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit of God, you will

breathe the word afresh to them, so that as they declare that

Rhema word, it will pull down every mountain.

I pray that God, you will work within us.

Thank you Lord, that we are not crushed, we are not destroyed.

Thank you Lord, for we are not completely annihilated, but God,

we are being released into a fresh season.

I pray that God, as things feel unfamiliar, that we won't slip

into old patterns, that we won't look to all things or or the

people that we look to in previous seasons, but our eyes

will be on you, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we invite you in.

We invite you in. Work in our hearts, God, work in

US. Release us into all that you

have for us. In Jesus mighty name I pray,

Amen. Amen.

Even as you get into this week, we are believing that you will

rejoice in anticipation for the harvest that is coming.

It's a harvest. Of souls.

God is bringing many new souls into his Kingdom.

He's bringing a harvest of the things you sowed in

faithfulness, in quietness all these years.

He's bringing it full circle. Just want to encourage you that

if you know Jesus, you have found life and we want to

encourage you that as you go into this week that you will

experience Jesus in all his fullness, all his goodness, all

his glory. God bless you.

Have an amazing week. Thanks for listening to this

message. We hope you were blessed to hear

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