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How are women like grapes? We have a tough exterior and yet we are soft inside.
We are good for your heart.
We like hanging out in bunches.
We are sweet and juicy!We can stand pressure.
But.......when you put on too much pressure, we will explode.
I believe that all Christians will go through tests in their lives. Most of us will
Face tests within our family, with our finances, with patience, and with our health at times. When these test come, we are given the opportunity to look at the situation
And either get in fear and lack of faith, or trust God and believe Him when we cannot see any good thing coming. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.” Hebrews 11:1
Many of you have gone through trying times lately. You may have looked up at heaven and said, “What is going on?“. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, and create problems for ourselves. Sometimes in life we have crises and we don’t know where to turn. The truth is that whether our problems are
Self-made, or brought on by unpredictable circumstances, God is there to rescue us.
God has a plan to form and fashion us into something of excellence. Our lives are often like grapes being made into fine wine. Picked-The grape is plucked from the only thing it has ever known..the vine.
Have you ever felt plucked away from everything that is safe and familiar? Crushed-The grapes are crushed and broken. How many of you have felt like that?
What does God’s word promise us in 2 Corin.4: 8-9 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned,
Struck down, but not destroyed.” So what God is saying that no matter what comes against you, even if it comes from all sides, it will not crush you. You will stay in despair, you will not be abandoned and you will not be destroyed. Can you believe
That? When problems come against us you don’t tell God how big your problem is,
YOU TELL YOUR PROBLEM HOW BIG YOUR GOD IS. Speak to those mountains to be removed. When you have submitted to God, you have the power to
Resist the Devil and anything he throws at you....if you are submitted to God -
Satan will flee. Fermented-After a grape is crushed, it sits there while all the parts of the grape that are not needed in the wine, float to the top. When we come through a period of trials and tribulations, God desires to remove the impurities in our lives. He allows us to go through tests..without a test, there would be no testimony. He is purifying us. He is forming us for His greater purpose. The final phase of the wine making process is when Finings are added.
Finings-(Ingredients that clarify the wine in it final process)
I equate this to when the Holy Spirit is doing a final work in us during a situation.
I know after I was healed of cancer, there came a moment when all of a sudden
My spirit and mind felt clarified. There had been around me while I was sick, and a lot of confusion And weakness, and then the fog lifts and the confusion leaves. You understand the Full purpose of the trial you just endured, knowing that without God, you would have never made it through. Finally the wine is ready to be consumed. It is admired as a good thing, even though the poor grapes went through all that trouble to make the wine. Can you see yourself Now, coming out from under your trial and Being made into something of excellence and worth? ,That is how God sees you...not for who you are, but for who you can be in Him. Most of us are going through some kind of trial, battle or situation that requires God’s help. Sometimes it is one of the hardest things for us to do, to admit we need help. God is good and His mercies endure forever.
Psalm 34:8
O Taste and See that the Lord is Good, blessed is the man who trusts in Him.
No matter what we go through in life, ultimately the end result will be measured
According to your trust and faith in God. We will be picked, crushed and sifted
Many times in our lives. If we turn the control of our lives over to God,
We will come out as something beautiful in the end.
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