Many of you have been feeling like you are in a pressure cooker, a crucible. The Lord would say to you, “My child, you are going to come out of this as pure gold, for this is a season of refining. This is a season where I am asking people, ‘Would you choose the difficult jobs in life for My kingdom? Would you be willing to go to the high places rather than to walk in low places where you just get by and you just take care of yourself and a few others?'”
“Ask Me for nations; ask Me for large things. Don’t be content with living a small life. I want you to live a large life, for I have plans for you. I have destinies for you.”
“I want you to be willing to step up to a higher level. It’s time to go higher, not lower. I will let you choose what you want to do, but you will not fulfill the highest on your own. You might do My good will or My acceptable will, but you will not come to the perfect will that I have set for your life,” says the Lord.
The Lord says, “If you have run with the horsemen and you are weary, then what will you do with the flooding of the Jordan? In the crucible time, in this time, My eyes are running to and fro. My eyes are searching to see those who I can use, those who I can trust, those who I can call upon to change situations that are difficult. I’m going to pour out an anointing upon the Jeremiahs of this generation, but it’s going to take strength. It’s going to take courage. It’s going to take more than you have.
“It’s a time to pull into Me,” says the Lord. “It’s a time to crawl into My presence if you have to. It’s a time to be intentional about being a person of presence, a person who spends time with Me, a person of intimacy because if you do not crawl into that place in the cleft of the rock and let Me cover you with My hand, many of you will not be able to do what you could do.
“Don’t whine and don’t pity yourself when the crucible time comes,” the Lord says, “for I promise you only the wheat, the hay, and the chaff will burn off you. It will not be those things that are lasting. As the fires of opposition come, know this: if you were not going the right way, there would be no fires of opposition. Take it as a challenge. Rise up and say, ‘No. The greater one lives in me. This will not take me under. I’m going over. I’m going to be a champion in life. I am called to be victorious. I am called to triumph.'”
The Lord would say to you, “Come up to Me. Come up to a higher place. Don’t live in the low place, the weeds, the places of opposition where Satan wants you to be. Come up to Me in the throne room. Come up to Me in the heavenly places. Come and sit beside Me, My son and daughter. If you will do that, you will begin to look down from that high place onto this opposition that is only temporary. It is not an eternal thing. You are an eternal being. You are not meant just to go under the things of the world. You are called to be an overcomer.”
The Lord says, “I am releasing a comforting anointing right now to you. Even as you listen to this, there is a power of comfort. I am the God of all comfort. I am the good Shepherd. I am the God who loves you. I am the God who leads you beside still waters and green pastures. I will cause you to come to a place where you say, ‘Surely my cup is overflowing. Surely You are good. Surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days in my life.’ You will dwell in My house one day.”
But the Lord would say, “I want to say ‘Good and faithful servant.’ I want to say, ‘Yes, you did everything I called you to do.’ Do not lose heart in the crucible times, for you will come out of this as pure gold.” {eoa}
Cindy Jacobs is an author, speaker, and teacher with a heart for discipling nations in the areas of prayer and prophetic gifts. She and Mike—her husband of 43 years—co-founded Generals International in 1985.
This article originally appeared at generals.org.
Joyce Meyer 
Stephen Strang 
Charisma Media Staff 
