Hi Sunshines,
Thank you all for being here! How are you all? I pray you are all well. If you are not well, just know you are loved, seen, and heard.
Me on the other hand? I will admit that I have hit rock bottom, however this is not a bad thing. God has been pruning and stripping me of everything that I centered my identity around: my relationship, friendships, jobs, and roles that I play. He’s taken me through a season of consecration (consecration means to be set apart, holy, purified) where He didn’t allow me to listen, read, watch certain movies, music, books, go to certain places, and has even told me to stop bringing certain things into my home and what to discard from my home. In the midst of this all, I didn't understand why He wanted me to do it but obedience! I did everything and severed the things that He’s told me to end. In the end I was left stripped with nothing. I felt truly naked, exposed, vulnerable, and ashamed. This was a true testament of what it means to be humbled by God. He had to get me down to this nakedness to truly see what I thought my identity was and what it actually is not. He has crumbled every faulty foundation to rebuild me with a firm one. I’m not going to lie, it crushed me, it hurt me—yet it is refining me to produce fresh oil and to prepare me for the season that God is leading me into. What is fresh oil? The Holy Spirit’s renewing, sanctifying, and saving operations.
The refining process is a process that all Believers go through to spiritually grow and mature, where God removes all impurities and strengthens character. This process is inevitable and will break down old identities to usher you into the new identity— who God says you are in His image. Through this intense crushing and refining process the heat got hot but God has walked with me every step of the way. He’s reassured me, given me instructions, held me as I cried to Him, and gave me understanding and peace that surpasses my own understanding. He allowed me to see what and who I was attaching my identity to and it wasn’t Him.
The refining process that God takes us through has a few steps— each step contains a different level of heat. God is in full control of how hot the heat becomes. With the intensity of heat, you may become greatly uncomfortable, feels as if it the intensity is unbearable, like you’re suffering, and you may find yourself wanting to avoid or speed up the process. But the best thing to do is stay in it and go through it because God wants you to grow through it to mature and build character within you. It is not to punish you, however He needs pure vessels to pour His anointing into to be used for His great purposes.
“See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction”. - Isaiah 48:10 (NIV)
The refining process is compared to the process of refining metals and the Bible uses it as a metaphor to indicate how God refines people. Why must we go through this process that seems painful?
It strips us of all impurities that we have or are unaware that we have. These are things that keep us separated from God (i.e., anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, sin, etc).
It makes us more Christ-like by developing our character. This means we exemplify the Fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that the Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
It allows God to use us in the way He needs to.
It’s a time to grow and mature us in our faith. God calls us to go from infancy to adulthood in our faith journey. Just as an infant goes from drinking milk to eating solids, we must mature in our walk with God the same.
It helps us obtain and retain God’s promises. If we are immature or still engaging in certain behaviors and cycles, God will still give us the promises however they may be delayed if we are unable to be good stewards of them or not fully prepared to receive them. Or we could forfeit our inheritances based on not living according to the way God calls us to live.
What does the refining process look like?
Broken Crushed Ore — Our Brokenness
This is the step where God will begin exposing the broken, crushed ore within us— these are the things about ourselves that need to be pruned out and changed. I like to call this step the removal of scales from your eyes. He unveils the things that we may fail to see or avoid seeing within ourselves. Once we see these things, we can’t unsee them or ignore them much longer. Truth is, we are in need of brokenness and God’s refining fire. The first step to healing is awareness of the things that have broken us.
The Crucible
A crucible is a fire-proof melting pot that has the ability to withstand extreme heat. The Refiner (God Himself), places the broken, crushed ore (which would be us in our brokenness) into this crucible and places the crucible into the furnace. We are placed into this heated furnace so God can purify our hearts. Proverbs 17:3 (NIV) says, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart”.
The Dross
The Refiner will sit and watch as we break down and melt in the furnace until He begins to see the layers of impurities, which is called dross, rising to the surface. This is the step where God will begin to break you down and strip you of the things that are impure within you and your life. This could be idols (remember idols are anything that you exalt above God and can be anything or anyone), poor habits, poor thinking patterns, attitudes, friendships, relationships, jobs, and finances. It’s normal if different emotions, triggers, and memories come up. These things could manifest as anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, trauma, and sinful desires that are not pleasing to God. When we surrender to God in healing our brokenness, we become less rigid and more pliable for Him to do His healing work on us so that He molds us into mighty weapons to be used in His Kingdom. Proverbs 25:4 (NIV) says, “Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel”. You are the vessel!
The Heat — The Suffering
This is the step where God increases the heat. The heat begins to separate the dross (impurities) from us. God will begin to skim off these impurities one by one. With the skimming of the impurities, He will need to return us back into the furnace while increasing the heat of it to bring more impurities to the surface. God knows that certain impurities need a higher intensity of heat to fully extract the impurities from us. This is the step where we feel like we can’t take the discomfort, it may feel unbearable, and we may want to run from it or do everything we can to avoid it. But we must trust that God knows exactly what He’s doing, will not take us through anything that we cannot bear, and that He will not forsake us and leave us in the furnace to be destroyed. Psalm 12:6 (NIV) says, “And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times”.
The Purification
God will continue to remove every layer of dross (impurities) one by one with skill and patience. This will require us to learn patience and also long-suffering. It will require us to be fully surrendered to God and His process. If we wrestle with Him or fall into disobedience, it can prolong this process. He will continue to remove the dross until it is completely removed. Isaiah 1:25 (NIV) says, “I will turn my hand against you. I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities”.
The Reflection
During this final step the Refiner will measure His progress by the appearance of us. Once the dross is removed the Refiner should see a clear reflection of Himself in us, which lets Him know that the refining process is complete. God will refine us to conform us to the image of God (Romans 8:28). God uses our pain found in our impurities to purify our hearts and brings our character forth as gold. What an honor it is to have a Father who loves and sees us as precious and valuable as gold.
“He knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
-Job 23:10 (NIV)A song for the process to get you through:
Journal Prompts:
What impurities has God removed from me and my life?
How has the removal of these impurities shaped the man or woman I am today?
How was my refining process? (If you went through one)
What is the most valuable lesson I learned coming out the refining process?
In what ways has God used me since coming out of the refining process?
If God is trying to take you through the refining process, are you wrestling with Him, avoiding it, or trying to speed up the process?
I pray that these words have planted a seed of enlightenment and love within your hearts and thank you for allowing me to share what God is teaching me. I pray that the things that I learn can help you come to know who God is. Leave a comment on what your refining process has looked like, if you’ve been through one. If you are currently going through one, lets lift our brothers and sisters up in words of encouragement because this process can be painful. But remember, pain can be one of our greatest teachers. <3
Reading this and it made me reflect on my own consecration and refinement journey. The grace we've been given to even ride the waves of these processes is unfathomable. Thank you Jesus for loving us. Great read Tanisha! 🤍