Put On Your Seatbelt: Four Stages From Dry Place to High Place

Sermon outline

God takes every believer from a dry place to a high place through the same four stages, and if you understand the process you will sit tight through the turbulence and not fight what God has designed.

1. God is the master architect behind the process

   In Psalm 105 it is God who called down the famine and God who sent Joseph ahead as a slave, in shackles and irons, until the word of the Lord proved him true. God knows what to do, when and how, and does not need our help or our opinion. The word of the Lord will come to test whether what you say about yourself is true.

   Illustration: Some people take off in an aeroplane and fly five kilometres north, east, south and west, only to land where they started. He wants the church to set its course and keep its eyes on Jesus.

   “Lord, help me shut up and sit tight.”

   • Psalm 105:16-22

2. The recipe for good godly character

   Romans 5 says we rejoice in sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. Nothing else produces these but trials, tribulations and persecutions. Anointing without character does not last, and he would sooner have someone steady at forty percent every week than brilliant one Sunday and absent the next. The Greek word hupomone in James means to remain steady under pressure.

   Illustration: He turns Romans 5 into a cake recipe: five kilograms of sufferings, two of perseverance and two of hope, and out comes a nicely baked cake called good godly character. Samson was anointed and yet still a fool.

   “You can be anointed and still be a fool.”

   • Isaiah 50:7
   • Hebrews 12:2
   • Romans 5:1-5
   • Judges 13-16
   • James 1:3-4

3. Why God chose Paul: staying power

   On the Damascus road God called a persecutor his chosen instrument and said he would show him how much he must suffer. God did not choose Paul for his learning, which Paul himself later counted as loss. He chose a man who could take a blow, get up the next day and keep going. God looks past what you can do to whether you can stay, and he cannot put babies in the front line.

   Illustration: He says he never wanted to be a pastor. He was minding his own business and earning well when God apprehended him. He believes God chose him because his years as a policeman taught him to take a punch and keep standing when people hated him.

   “God is not concerned about what you can do. God is concerned about sustaining power, whether you can stay.”

   • Acts 9:1-18
   • Acts 22:3
   • Acts 9:15-16
   • Philippians 3:8-10
   • 1 Corinthians 2:4

4. Submit to the process

   He makes three statements. You cannot enter your personal destiny with God unless you allow yourself to be changed into his likeness. The process becomes the foundation of your personal transformation. And the cycle of transformation is the same for every one of us, with four stages. The greater the task God has called you to, the greater the testing, so when the fire comes do not run from it or blame the people around you.

   Illustration: When the fire starts to burn, do not call the fire brigade. He also says that if he only served dessert the church would be unwell, so they must eat some bran muffins first.

   “The quicker you burn, the quicker he can use you.”

   • Proverbs 4:23

5. Stage one: a declaration of God's intent

   God will always tell you what he is going to do with you or for you. Joseph, the youngest, was given two dreams in which his brothers and his parents bowed to him, and a coat of many colours as a sign of favour. A prophecy over your life is the same kind of declaration, and everyone gets excited at this stage.

   “There will always be on your life a declaration of God's intention and purpose.”

   • Genesis 37:3
   • Genesis 37:5-11

6. Stage two: a season of distress

   Joseph's circumstances were meant to produce internal change. He was thrown in the pit, sold for twenty shekels, falsely accused in Potiphar's house, put in prison and forgotten by the cupbearer, and God was with him the whole time. You ask God to grow your church or your business, and God says he needs to grow you first. When you are forgotten, do not moan or engineer your own way out. Promotion comes from God.

   Illustration: Some people buy a ladder, and every time God puts them in the pit they climb out. It will not work. You stay there until God gets you out, because the Ishmaelites are already on their way to buy you.

   “Wait for your Ishmaelite. Your Ishmaelite will come and God will send him.”

   • Genesis 37:23-28
   • John 8:7
   • Psalm 75:6-7
   • Genesis 39:1-20
   • Genesis 40:1-23

7. Stage three: a season of development

   By Genesis 50 Joseph could have killed his brothers, but he told them that what they meant for evil God meant for good. He had developed a compassionate, forgiving heart. Pressure shows whether you have developed, and blaming the devil for foolish choices made under stress is not the answer.

   “You need to develop on the inside.”

   • Genesis 50:20

8. Stage four: a demonstration of God's power

   Pharaoh made Joseph second ruler of the land, so that every knee bowed and his word was law. Everything God declared at the beginning he now demonstrates in your life. If you understand your season you will not go wild when you are asked to sit down for a while, because you are still developing.

   Illustration: If he asks Romeo to preach one month and tells him to sit down the next, Romeo should not protest about how the power of God moved the last time.

   “There was a process to the demonstration of the power.”

   • Genesis 41:39-44

9. Nuggets for the journey

   He closes with a list. God has to bring your character and integrity up to the level of your destiny. Wounds and hurts are necessary for transformation, because they teach you grace for wounded people. Suffering is death by instalments. The Holy Spirit is teaching you to trust the Lord and bringing you to where he can trust you. Every forerunner pays a price. And every time God speaks he gives a test on that word, which you retake until you pass.

   Illustration: People run from church to church and from wife to wife. If you cannot get it right with one wife you will not get it right with the next, so go for counselling, pray much and sort it out.

   “He cannot use you if he cannot trust you.”