No one grows a cake right out of the ground. Jell-O doesn’t flow from the faucet, cold and firm, ready to consume with a spoon. We can’t milk ice cream from a cow.
We have to do some cooking to make a culinary creation.
The same applies to God’s warriors. The mighty men of the Bible had to bake awhile before becoming the great men we read of today. Moses was mixed and kneaded in Pharaoh’s house for a few decades, then he was set aside to rise in the desert for forty additional years. Only then was he ready to be served up as a leader in God’s army.
David could have never ruled a country as a shepherd boy. His skills were transformed as Saul sliced and diced the young man, cooking him in the cave in Adullam, as David fled the king. David could only be transformed into the greatest of Israel’s kings after he stewed in Saul’s juices for a while.
Modern warriors need the same. We must cook them into a masterpiece of perfection. It’s called Bible study, prayer meetings, and Sunday evening services out the kazoo. We let them be youth ministers, summer camp directors, and associate pastors. We give them the hard jobs, and when they feel they might fail, we add another jolt of yeast to encourage them to wait for the Lord to open doors for them.
We don’t put them in positions of power too quickly. They won’t have firmed up on the inside, and when the world slices them, they’ll still be raw at the center.
Paul spent 10 years between his conversion and his first missionary journey. Jesus simmered in God’s pot for 30. Then there’s Noah. It took the man 500 years before God was ready to use him to build the ark and save humanity from the flood.
Deuteronomy 18:18 tells us:
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”
There are times we need to be satisfied with being “on hold” for a while as the ingredients God has mixed into us interact to create the new us. God is kneading us to be great warriors for him. We need to be patient, even when he turns up the heat. That’s when we are closest to being completed in him.
In the heat of battle is when we become a great warrior for Christ.
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Code: FGO.D.11.16a.vp.esv