This post is the sixth in a series from my time at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, FL last month. I will post several others in this same category. I invite you to browse all of the notes that I took.

Exponential – God’s Sifting

Orlando, FL
Topic: God’s Sifting
Text: Luke 22:33-34
Date: April 24, 2012

Preparing for God’s Sifting (3 Lessons)

1. Learn to self–correct.

  • When the Holy Spirit corrects you in private, repent in private.
  • If you do not repent in private, you will one day be corrected in public.
  • One of the devil’s crafty tactics is not bringing about consequences, but withholding them. He withholds his opportunity to pounce so that it is eventually much worse (Ecc 8:11). He knows you will keep sinning. He’s setting you up. Don’t let it happen!
  • God put mentors in th Bible for us in the form of the biblical characters. Every problem you will ever face, someone in the Bible experienced it before you (Heb 11:4).

2. Learn to suffer.

  • “Suffering will change you, but not necessarily for the better. You have to choose that.” (1 Peter 4:19)

3. Learn to lead yourself to Christ.

  • When you get tired, sick and discouraged, you must learn to lead yourself back to the cross where you started.
  • If you made all of your life decisions when you’re sick, tired, and mad, what kind of life do you think you’d have? A bad one.

Notes & Quotes

  • “One of the truest tests of a servant is how we respond when we’re treated like one.”
  • For some of you, God called you to ministry, but not senior pastoring.
  • Some of us are confusing the work of God in transforming us and the work of Satan in troubling us.
  • God most often takes us by the hand and leads us through the challenging times, rather than picking us up and allowing us to miss them. Even so, He never lets go of our hand!
  • The best vegetables grow from sifted soil. The same is true in your life.
  • God grows the best stuff in sifted soil.
  • You don’t train for the start of the race. You train for the moment that you most want to quit so that you will decide to push forward to the finish. The same is true in ministry. You have trained through books, messages, and conferences so that you will continue on when you are most discouraged and closest to quitting.