Buh buh buh buh-duh-buh... buh buh buh buh-duh-duh (me singing Under Pressure by David Bowie/Queen for you even though you can't hear)...
Mmm num ba de Dum bum ba be Doo buh dum ba beh beh
Pressure pushing down on me Pressing down on you, no man ask for Under pressure that burns a building down Splits a family in two Puts people on streets
Recently been reflecting on the idea behind what it takes to make a sword or to refine metal. Like do I know the amount of welding and pressure needed to weld something and craft out all said object’s impurities? Do I understand the phrase "you have tried us as silver is tried?" This curiosity stems from reading the Bible passage in Psalms 66:10 where David says the words:
"For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance."
So, I guess you throw it into the furnace... that’s what you do. Then you heat said object like the metal you’re trying to make be heated up to a couple thousand degrees... then you take it out and you bang on it with a hammer. Kachow!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
*Sparks*
Boom!
Boom!
*Sparks*
Boom!
Sparks flying (no, this is not Taylor Swift Sparks Fly - romance-style because the only romance we see here is when the hammer hits the metal). The hammer hits the refined metal that’s already. Been. Heated up to a thousand degrees. But its really when it gets hit already at a thousand degrees that the object starts taking the form of what the Maker wanted to make all along. So, if you’re heated up to a thousand degrees but don’t get hit in some type of shape or form through whatever it is that you’re walking through then there is really no shaping.
Then guess what the Maker/Welder does... He throws it back into the furnace again to repeat said process because He can’t get greatness out of it if its not subject to HIS processes. Because the Maker knows the end result the Maker is trying to form, He knows the amount of beat downs needed, He knows the temperature (lemme' look this one up... because in this case... an actual Welder knows that at around 2,000 degrees the metal is more malleable than at other temperatures). And the Maker probably knows precisely how long to beat the metal before the metal loses its malleability and the heat dissipates.
Do we know how intentional the Maker has to be with each hit? How intentional the Maker has to be at each stage? If we think deeper, the Maker has to do the molding of silver or metal in steps and stages. Because too much pressure all at once could be devastating. Too much pressure all at once could be a catastrophe. Too much pressure could mean the metal gets PRESSED too much and the sword never ends up being the sword it was intended to be. Not to mention, the Welder can only flatten the object so much before they have to put it back into the fire, again, and repeat. There's a step and a stage for a transformation.
This further affirms that God seems to move in our lives in steps and stages - and that in certain seasons He is doing new or different things. Because it is in certain seasons, regarding the state of the metal, that God is then able to make it more malleable or have it take greater form of what He intended all along for it to be. Because in its first stage, the metal was unprocessed and had to be beaten down many times for it to then take the desired form. Its like taking a zygote to an embyro to a fetus as it gets closer and closer to the natural design of the baby. Its like in Ecclesiastes that depicts the depth behind the processes of life:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
So, it may be that we were hit super hard in one season of our life by adversity and that really wounded us. We may have lost a friend, a family member, a job, etc., but if that did not happen then we may not have been able to see the form of the metal that the Maker was trying to make all along. Because in the loss, in the loss of a friend, relationship, job, resources, He was working IN it. So, now we’re more patient, more understanding, more gentle, more kind, and more full of the fruits of the Spirit like in Galatians that the Apostle Paul talks about that are now being displayed in someone (that is Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control).
Because it takes REAL time and seasons for a tree to craft fruit. It took lots of WEATHERING and GROWING for that tree to withstand storms, hurricanes, whatever it is to then bear fruit. And sometimes those branches FALL off. Sometimes, those branches die out by the weathering of the earth.
Its why when we're getting beaten down by a situation, that it is time for us to mold our way through. That is "To not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2
I'm reminded by Bane, the villain from The Dark Knight Rises, as he says the words "I was born in the dark... molded by it" as if it was the surroundings of his situations that harnessed the growth that molded him.
At each level the Maker beats down, there seems to be different required amounts of pressure. Because at each level He may seemingly take someone, there is more pressure to deliver. If God takes you from a Sales Associate position to a CEO position, there is probably more disparities between the amounts of stress and pressure between both positions. One side is concerned mainly with customers and their own duties and the other is concerned with all things employees, customers, strategy, and external relationships.
I started thinking about this whole iron thing a bit further, it was a little 'iron'ic. The verse in:
Proverbs 27:17
17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
This is an added commentary to the verse above, but God will even send what the enemy meant for evil your way to sharpen you.
Why? Because nothing sharpens iron more than IRON sharpening iron. I've seen movies like Braveheart where they're all preparing for war and sharpening their swords with another object because the enemy ahead is already enough to handle that they have to prepare for the battle today.
So, lots of times when they sharpen knives they take another piece of iron and file it
away
away
away
away.
The result: sharpened iron.
Thus, NOT enough banging = the sword is TOO dull, not well shaped, not sharpened ‘nuff, etc. So, we oughtta thank God when He cuts us or hits us because now we're more agile, more sharp, more swift, more like Valyrian steel (@allthemGameofThronesfansoutthere).
It’s also why competition is so effective in the business world and elsewhere as a result of the word "so one person sharpens another..."
The Proverbs verse affirms the idea behind what drives innovation and how innovation is driven lots of times by competition. So and so sees little Joe Joe down the street running a lemonade stand and he’s putting ice in his lemonade on a 90 degree day but little Billy Bob - his competitor - down the street isn’t doing that, so he loses customers because he didn’t cater and skate to the puck of what the customers actually wanted that day. So, the next day its 90 degrees out again, and little Billy Bob says to himself "I don’t want to lose out on the customers" and he innovates and takes it two steps further and adds more lemony sweetness and a bunch of ice cubes to his lemonade and even a couple more spoonfuls of sugar to "help the medicine go down," going full Mary Poppins style, so now he can appease customers and meet their needs. Thus, competition gave way to innovation, gave way to meeting customer need, gave way to Billy Bob’s business to be boomin' and hitting a new level of business success.
But it was after what David and his people went through after being "tried as silver is tried," after going "through fire and water," after letting men "ride over their heads" (they were trampled - literally beaten down by horses), that God led them to abundance.
Psalms 66:10
"For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You have brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance."
Taking this one step further, why would God allow David and his people to undergo such strife? So much for a "loving Father," right? Valid question, you're right you're right. Why would He allow that to David? Why would He? David was dubbed the man after God's own heart, so surely why would bad things happen to someone so favored? First things first for the reader here is that you must understand that following and serving God does not free you from conflict, loss, or problems.
But, because some of the best things out there are formed by pressure, formed by trial and tribulation. This is why we can trust that we will BE BETTER for going through COVID 19 as a society. Why we'll be tighter, stronger, better, faster, more cohesive as a SOCIETY because of this disease that has pressured our country collectively as a whole. But ride out that wave with this verse in 2 Timothy 1:7 --> "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, love, and of a sound mind."
Its why friendships and relationships are....what does that phrase say? “Tested by fire.” Because pressure from the weights of the elements of the world as well as the pressure of time can make or break the friendship or relationships that we have.
It’s crazy because without mass amounts of pressure there wouldn’t be things that we tend to value in the world: diamonds, rubies, sapphires, gems. Translate this to a relationship that has been tested by fire and its like you value that relationship because of all that had tested and TRIED it. It became that much more valuable to you.
Ya know, Christ was under pressure all the way to His crucifixion. He had all the pressure to conform and be like all the other 'religious' leaders of his time and act religious and stay in his own lane and never do any miracles on Sundays because the Pharisees were probably into quoting Kanye West's song -- Closed on Sunday -- even if it didn't have anything to do with the now famous Chick Fil A. People didn't even know what He was talking about half the time and they ridiculed Him for it because the revelation of God wasn't revealed to them, yet. Thus, He had the pressure to conform... to stop what He was doing and conform. Then He had the pressure to perform miracles in certain instances in the New Testament and do flashy things to prove that He was really the Son of God, i.e. the pressure to perform.
I wonder if someone reading this has the pressure to conform. That someone may have a plan for your life and is thus projecting their plan for your life and now you're thinking you have to conform to their plan to have their approval and be in relationship, but you don't. It's like a tetrus where you're fitting a rhombus or whatever type of block that game uses where a parallelogram is supposed to go. It doesn't fit there. The square fits in better naturally in another area, fits in better with a straight blocked line or something.
Heck, we may have tremendous pressure to deliver results and perform.
But, it seems that we must not allow the pressures to perform or conform, but the idea that we should allow those types of pressures for God to use to transform. The idea in Romans 12:2 "to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind"is igniting. It's why when you're walking with God and giving Him full say over the areas of your life, and saying "God, transform those areas" that the Potter does His greatest work in because it's a raise your white-flag-situation. It's pretty rough when the pressures of life have consumed you, anyways. That's the part where He can make that situation His sand box and pull out all the dirt that got mixed in it from being near the yard because the sand box was meant to have sand in it all along, AKA the part where He renews the mind.
On a completely shifted note, lets talk about wine. Because there would've been no new wine in the situation where Jesus brewed new wine during that wedding event for His first miracle. It took a PRESSURED situation to deliver a result for probably a mass amount of people at a big communal event when they had no wine or anything. So, Hebrewed' it (I hope you got that one...). There would've been no new wine without that pressured situation where they were stuck between a rock and a hard place where they had no one to turn to but God in the flesh form who dwelled among them.
16 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:16
Fast forward past the crucifixion and now its Pentecost detailed here in Acts 2:2 and everyones speaking in random tongues and languages as the Holy Spirit has descended upon them:
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much new wine.”
When a few people started making fun of them saying they were drunk on New Wine when they were really drunk on the Holy Spirit of God. Because New Wine is perhaps stronger, it's probably more fermented or more higher potentially in BAC. Here's the thing, they would've never been "drunk" on the New Wine that is the Holy Spirit if Christ didn't die on the crushing crush and rise again, fulfilling His life's purpose, and then fulfilling His promise that He would give the Holy Spirit to believers as a Helper. But it took their Savior, Friend, Leader, Mentor, Cap'n experiencing the crushing of the cross for everyone and His ascent above spurring the physical loss of His physical existence for Him to bring upon the New Wine through the Holy Spirit. Because to speak further into the idea that God makes His best gems or His best wine under crushing pressure is this... that He died... rose again three days later... then fully gave of His Holy Spirit later.
But the thing about New Wine is that you can't put it into an old vessel leather wine skin or it'll burst like the verse in Matthew 9:16 says. You have to put New Wine in a new compartment. Because of the fermentation, in Bible times, if that substance was put in old wine skins that stuff could burst and get that substance all over your house. So, He has to crush to make the New Wine and then put it into another new wineskin that wasn't already stretched or used for old wine.
Is it coincidence that the crushing of something that creates something NEW would give way to the bursting of what was old if it was inputted back into its old container?? That what Christ was brewing all along could no longer be contained by what was once holding it. Thus, illustrating further that God can take us further from the CRUSHING of life, and pain, and devastation into abundance... because He is in all the stages of crushing, fermentation, and inputting into the new wine skin.
Here's the last part of what I've been given here: is that Christ was crucified, yes. The gem of the situation and the diamond in the rough? The resurrection occurred 3 days later and Pentecost happened nearly 40 days later where a movement began. The pressure all the way to the cross consumed the situation, hope. lost. But the abundance that was brought from that situation brought so many people freedom then and today.
Thus, God makes His best gems 💎 under pressure because it’s in the PRESSURE of the HITS or the enemy’s iron that He is making His best work in. So, when you’re being hit start thinking how you’re getting more malleable! When you’re getting hit, start thinking of God getting greatness out of you with the hits He is allowing upon your life. Start thinking of the FRUIT He is about to bear through you! Because to make New Wine, there is crushing of grapes and fermentation of wine through time.
So when but when you’re fighting and you’re under pressure, the pressure to perform, or conform, to A. "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2 and B. Some type of abundance could be on the way... as David says in Psalms 66:10 "We went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us to a place of abundance."
I feel like I need to tell you that there could be a RUBY ON THE WAY! There could be a diamond in your situation coming your way! There's a diamond despite all that fear and pressure against COVID-19.
Because its in your pressure to perform, to conform, that He may TRANSFORM what was there all along in submission.
If you've been impacted by this in any way, feel free to share with someone.
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