PROCESS VS PRODUCT

Hello friends! I am Julie or Jules/Julz to some and I’ll be sharing with you some of the stuff I have come to understand about process hoping that it will be beneficial for your walk of faith and if it does, glory to God!

One of my biggest lessons about the nature of God is that God is a God of process and this wonderful lyric from Seasons by Hillsong  ‘You could have saved us in a second, instead You sent a child’ correctly puts this into perspective. He is not subject to time but He created time as a concept for us in the universe and all of creation is subject to this concept. It takes time between conception and birth, from childhood to adulthood, from sowing to reaping and all these processes clearly display God’s invisible attributes [Psalms 19:1, Rom 1:20]. God is the Alpha, the Omega and everything in between.

From the Word of God, I can say that humanity is subject to only two general processes, life and death, that are determined by the person of Christ. 

‘I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ‘

Deuteronomy 30:19

Before Christ, we were all perishing and there was no means for us to be connected to the Source of Life for all had sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23]. 

‘Therefore, just as through one man’s sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— ‘

Romans 5:12

But when Christ came, He made it abundantly clear that His purpose of coming was that we may have eternal life, life in abundance.

‘The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.’

John 10:10

‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ‘

John 3:16

And this life is a process. It began by receiving Christ as the propitiation for our sin and as a means of reconciliation to the Father [1 John 2:2, Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19] but really, that’s just the beginning! God had a plan for us even before sin came into the world and once our mortality is eternally dealt with, we shall continue to experience the life of God without the limitation of the flesh. Isn’t this wonderful news?

However, while here on earth, God still promises that we can encounter Him and partake in His divinity. We can see this in 2 Peter 1:3-4:

‘…as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.’

2 Peter 1:3-4

I believe that process begins with promise. From the text above we can see that as we continue to know God through His Word, we encounter promises that He has given to us, His redeemed people, His children. And these promises are our means to partake of His Divine Nature. One popular example is Abraham. When he was called, God said to him, “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing…” and from hindsight, we can see that God kept each and every word He spoke to Abraham. Actually, I believe it was above and beyond what Abraham imagined God meant when He initially spoke that to Him! 

‘And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, ‘ [Hebrews 6:13-15]

However, we know it wasn’t just that simple. God didn’t just speak and it happened immediately. There was an entire process between the promise and the fulfillment thereof. There was joy, there was grief, there was pain, there was loss, much like how it happens to us to this day. Just because God has promised, doesn’t mean the process will be easy.  The children of Israel had numerous experiences between Egypt and Canaan. They were constantly faced by trials, temptations but God held them by His mercy being very keen on keeping His Word, for His Name’s sake. But the testimony remained:

‘Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken (promised) to the house of Israel. All came to pass.’

Joshua 21:45

It is said of Abraham: ‘He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”’ [Romans 4:19-22]

That was the old covenant. The new covenant is full of endless promises for the new creation son. Jesus began by promising the Holy Spirit to His church, He promised healing for our disease, comfort for our pain, light for our darkness, redemption for our souls, mercy and grace for our time of need, abundance for our every good work, and the list goes on and on. We lack nothing! And this is the process of life: knowing God and hence receiving from God everything we need for life and godliness.

We don’t stay in process because it’s cute or fun. In fact, hardship is almost promised because the Word of God always goes against what our eyes can see. God promised an old couple a son. Looking at things with our natural perception, it seemed impossible yet He did it anyway. It is the same for our own lives. It always seems impossible and if it doesn’t, that’s probably not God’s promise. But because we count Him faithful, we stay. Because we know it is impossible for God to lie, we do not give up. [Hebrews 6:13-18]. One thing that has worked for me is to keep reciting His promises when I begin to doubt. Speak the Word to yourself. Let your heart hear your mouth confess. Do not linger on these thoughts that decay. Recite His word, meditate on it day and night. Keep His promises in your heart and mouth. As hard as it might get, remember that process doesn’t last forever. One day, it shall come to pass.

Now to you, our reader, what are the promises of God for you? What promise in the word can you take hold of for your situation? Are you going to stay in the process or will you give up? God has never failed to fulfill His Word, will you believe Him? My friend stated: the end is not when frustration comes or when you want to give up or when time runs out; the end is when every promise made is fulfilled. 

Hallelujah! Glory to God!