Initiation Before Invitation

I love new opportunities. But I often forget that before I can step into the new, I must become new.  

By that, I mean I must first go through a time of testing or refining with God. Until that happens, I won’t be ready for the upgrade in responsibility that awaits. If I try to bypass that process, then I stay as I am and miss the very path that would lead me to what’s next. 

I’m not alone. We tend to love invitations but resist initiation. Getting invited to do something important on a larger platform can be exhilarating. But it is our initiation in the hidden moments that is the necessary prelude for kingdom initiatives or upgrades in responsibility.  

Initiation precedes invitation. Consider how David’s boyhood times in the field prepared him for a future high-stakes battle with a giant:  

But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!” (1 Samuel 17:34-36 NLT) 

If you're currently being tested or stretched, don't misinterpret it as a sign that you’re doing something wrong. See it, instead, as God’s refining fire to prepare you for a new chapter and coming invitation that only the new you could handle. 

I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” (Zechariah 13:9 NLT)

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