Understanding God's Process | How to Develop in Your Calling | Christine Caine

oh we want to get out there and Market ourselves and be disc discovered God doesn't need to discover you he created you he already knows who you are you don't need to be discovered by God because you've been created by God but a lot of us are out there marketing ourselves trying to be discovered and God's saying I don't need you to be discovered I need you to be formed and I need you to be transformed into my image so you could do what I put you on the earth to do and we've got too

many of us running out there trying to be discovered rather than allowing God to of us there are over uh 400 million pictures uploaded on Instagram on on Facebook actually every day over 200 million on Instagram and yet not that long ago I'm certainly alive long enough to know that was not even possible but we live in this snap and upload generation it's just the way that it is I mean I'm I love it anyone that follow follows me you know I I'll absolutely love it and so everywhere I am I put it up there

and off it happens now there are some great Pros with that like the fact that I could be talking about what's happening at the conference and Australia sees that but there are also some Cons with that because a generation has been raised up in a snap and upload generation they can often think that that's how everything is it's instant and it's quick I mean if I if I want to a booking at a restaurant nowadays you know I'm not I'm not going to go and call anyone I'm just going to go on Open Table I'm

not going to line up to buy tickets to anything I'm just going to book online I mean we just do everything online and we want it instant I mean you know if we want to talk to each other we text and do you know how many friendships have broken up over bubbles on a text message it's like you are texting someone and then you see the bubbles and so you know they're ready to answer you back and then it just goes silent and I've watched people manifest and I've watched people freak out and it's worse

if the friend next to them gets a text from the person that just didn't text you back after you got Bubbles and people are like freaking out well I remember when I was growing up we thought it was Radical when this camera was invented does anybody remember that Church anybody I mean we thought let me just see how to work this one it goes off on I mean literally we would go in and we thought this was fantastic you go look this is which is the best looking section are you the best looking section any

single people in this section and I mean we just could not believe that you could do this and that this thing you just had to wait for about 6 minutes we thought that was Radical my daughters are like Mom I could have uploaded 400 pictures by now and had 7,000 likes and a whole lot of comments and and you're still just waiting I know I'm too scared to pull it cuz I don't know how to work this one but it's like we're still waiting but what I thought was really quick my kids think there is

no way there is no way Mom we're going back to that they're a bit trendy now they've had a bit of a you know they come back like vinyl records but it's just really for show and so everyone is uploading through their Facebook they're uploading through their Instagram and we're just still waiting still waiting for this image to be forged well because I'm even older than a Polaroid camera I want you to know I grew up in the dark ages when we had a thing called called oh yeah now some of you don't know what

this is this is an ancient Relic it's been dug up from an excavation site in Australia and this this is called 35mm film and back in my day you had to take one of these and you had to put it in this thing separate thing that was not also a phone or a clock or an entertainment device it was just a camera that's all was you couldn't talk in the camera and say Hey Siri while I'm taking a picture how do I feel about the weather today in Austin you couldn't do that because you just

put this in and then you put this roll of film in you took your pictures then you took the roll of film out you put it back in its little pouch and you went down to Walgreens and you put it in an envelope and then you began a time of intercession and fasting and praying because you were going to send this into you don't know where for at least 2 weeks and then you were going to pray that when it came back maybe all 24 pictures were not of your shoe maybe you took something I

I know many of you don't even know what that is cuz we just take a picture of ourselves and then we edit it and we crop it and we filter it and we send it up there into and there it is for the whole world we can't even fathom that this would then go into an envelope and then it would come back and it would go into this thing in a laboratory that is called the dark room and they would take this role and they would put it through nine chemical processes through a series of

trays where they were waiting for the image to be forged on the negative now as it went through those chemical processes the big thing that you had to remember was you could never open the dark room door because if you open the dark room door and the light came in it would expose the film and it would destroy it so you had to wait till the image was forged through the processes then you could open the door and then you could bring the image out on this negative and the light wouldn't destroy it because the

image was already forged why do we do a photography lesson on Saturday night just before we start church because what happens and the challenge for Our Generation it doesn't matter what our ages most of us we have been lulled into thinking that our purpose our destiny our pursuit of Christ out the Fulfillment of the call of God on each one of our lives for whatever that may be we think it's like a snap and upload like an Instagram that we're going to get a glimpse of it and next week or next minute it's going to

happen but God does not develop our lives like an Instagram upload or a Facebook upload it's more like a roll of film God Saves us and then we go through a series of processes where the image of God is forged on the inside of us and God assures that that image is forged on the inside of us before he then propels us into a world to do what he has called us to do and some of us are so frustrated and some of us have walked away from the purpose of God because we didn't want

to go through the process and we opened the door because we can I I don't want to stay in the process in this church I don't want to keep serving in this ministry it's a bit too hard in this marriage it's a little bit too hard to stay committed in this job and we open that dark room door and we step out and we are exposed and the light that is on us is greater than the light that is in us so it kills us and destroys us and then we wonder why we don't fulfill

our purpose in our destiny and everything we are doing on the planet today has come out of being submitted in that place and allowing the character of God to be forged on the inside of us through a series of processes to do what God's calling us to do today now what you see on Instagram and Facebook 821 and Propel and Christine teaching around the world and you can be lulled into thinking it was a snap and upload but God does not do snap and uploads God develops us there's always a process I'm going to show

you that from scripture tonight God develops us through a process you know we want to be discovered in our generation oh we want to get out there and Market ourselves and be disc discover God doesn't need to discover you he created you he already knows who you are you don't need to be discovered by God because you've been created by God but a lot of us are out there marketing ourselves trying to be discovered and God's saying I don't need you to be discovered I need you to be formed and I need you to be

transformed into my image so you could do what I put you on the earth to do and we've got too many of us running out there trying to be discovered rather than Allowing God to develop us God develops us to take us into our purpose and Destiny and we're going to see in the life of a Young Man the process of development that God takes us to so with that we're going to go to 1st Samuel 16 scripture says the Lord said to Samuel how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him

from being King over Israel fill your horn with oil and go I will send you to Jesse the bethlehemite for I have provided for myself a king among his sons and Samuel said how can I go if Saul hears it he will kill me and the Lord said take a heer with you and say I have come to sacrifice to the Lord and invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show you what you shall do and you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came

to Bethlehem the Elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said do you come peaceably and he said peaceably I have come to sacrifice to the Lord consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice and he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice now when they came he looked on elab and thought sure the Lord's anointed is before him but the Lord said to Samuel do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him for the Lord sees not as man

sees man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart then Jesse called abinadab and made him pass before Samuel and he said neither has the Lord chosen this one then Jesse made shama pass by and he said neither has the Lord chosen this one and Jesse made Seven of his his sons passed before Samuel and Samuel said to Jesse the Lord has not chosen these then Samuel said to Jesse are all your sons here and he said there Remains the youngest but behold he is keeping the sheep and Samuel said to

Jesse send and get him for we will not sit down till he comes here Ash awward that would be interesting and he sent and brought him in now he was Ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is he then Samuel took the Horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward and Samuel rose up and went to Rama I'm just going to read one more verse there it says now the

spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a harmful Spirit from the Lord tormented him so verse 13 the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forth verse 14 the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul what do you do when the spirit of the Lord and the anointing comes on you and leaves the person that's over you but God waits for 20 years and 20 chapters before he appoints you for what he had anointed you to do in second Samuel chapter 5 the scripture says now all the tribes of Israel came

to David at heon and said behold we are bone and flesh in times past when Saul was King over us it was you who let out and brought in Israel and the Lord said to you you shall be Shepherd Of My People Israel and you shall be Prince over Israel so all the Elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord and they anointed David King over Israel I want you to hear this David was 30 years old when he began to Reign

and he reigned 40 years at Hebron he reigned over Judah so that was half of the Kingdom for seven years so he was 37 years old when it says and at Jerusalem he reigned over Israel and Judah for 33 years so he actually was anointed to be king of Israel at around 17 years old but he wasn't appointed to 2 Kings chapter 5 20 chapters of the Bible 20 years later when he was 37 that was when he was appointed to be king over both the Southern and the northern kingdom the whole Kingdom of Israel

in our generation we would have told this story really really differently but I need you to know that whether it's 2019 and we've got instant technology and connection and internet and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and Tinder and every other thing that you could want the God still builds our purpose and our destiny and our marriages and our families and our lives and our relationships through a process where we being conformed and transformed into His Image the word for that would be called sanctification there is a process that happens so we become more

like him which is the goal of our Christianity it's not just about what we do for him but it's who are we becoming in the process and we're here to become more and more like Jesus but it doesn't happen overnight in a generation that wants everything instantly we live for likes we live for Applause we live to be invited God saying no no no if you're going to make it and you're going to fulfill the purpose I have for you you're going to have to have a very count countercultural approach to your purpose and your

destiny if you're going to fulfill it and so we see here that right from the time that Samuel came the Lord said I'm done with Saul some of you God's done with certain things in your life he says how long are you going to mourn it you're on that same hamster wheel and you're mourning over something that God is finished with and you're staying committed to something that God saying you know what that's done how long are you going to mourn I have chosen for myself a new king God had moved on and said we're

moving on so it is fascinating to me that Samuel turns up and eventually David is Anointed I am so glad that David didn't take a hashtag I take a selfie and go hash future king of Israel upload because he still had 20 years to go so we think I've got that prophetic word or I've got that sense of calling from God while I was in my quiet time or the Lord spoke to me through someone else and there is I you know I'm going to be I know I'm going going to be the next worship

leader you would just take the microphone and take us into the holy of holies I mean you wouldn't go to creative worship rehearsals what do you mean Mah sign up for the creative team as a backing vocalist I am the next American Christian Jesus worship Idol why would I go through a process don't you know how great my gift is and what we don't understand is the difference between gift and anointing a gift will fill a room a gift will entertain people but you wonder why people come to church bound and in Chains and in

shackles and can't break free because Isaiah says it is the anointing that breaks the Yoke not the gift and so we got a lot of gifted people that have got no power no anointing cuz there has been no development developing happens in the dark room developing happens oil comes when there's crushing of grapes or olives when the crushing happens that's where the oil comes the most anointed people are the ones that have been crushed they've been crushed so Samuel comes in and what we have to understand even in 2019 cuz this is the era of

you just choose what you want to do I don't want to serve anyone else I'm not going to sign up what do you mean I'm going to sign up and serve in the parking lot what do you mean I'm going to sign up and serve with the kids or do the youth or come and help what do you mean it's not my gift it's not my personality profile it's not my anagram number it's not where I fit on the dis profile it's not my love language and so we profile ourselves out of the will of

God we profile ourselves because we just listen to secular psychology and we'll go you know something that may he's meant to be a God we turn into a god rather than understanding that God chooses we've got a generation that just thinks you can choose to do whatever you want to do I'm like really where's that in the Bible if I'm following Jesus he chooses I don't get to choose you know when they dig up some time machine of Our Generation they're going to dig it up from the ground and they're going to say man those

people in 2019 they had really weird sayings like the most saying of 2019 is you do Yoo I'm like I've got advice for you Church don't do Yoo don't do you boo we're a world doing themselves Boo and how's that working for us how's that working for us God chooses we see this throughout the text David didn't choose he wasn't sitting there playing a harp to the Sheep going oh man I want to be king of Israel oh man that's what I'm going to do I'm going to be that I'm going to do that and

we come to church and we tell God what we're going to do and that church didn't recognize the gift on my life so I'm going to go down to church down the street where they will and then we wonder why we spend all our time on Earth not being processed through to fulfill the thing that God has for us because we think we're just going to choose whatever we want to do but the Bible says that God chose and I tell you why there's so much anxiety and stress when it comes to employment and purpose

and calling because a whole lot of us are trying to do something that God actually never put us on the earth to do we would take a whole lot of anxiety out of our Lives if we stopped trying to keep up with the Joneses and we started just getting into our lane and doing what God has called us to do you would actually have a lot more peace if you stopped scrolling through everybody else's life and just lived your own life you would actually have a lot more many of you you wouldn't need that extra

glass of wine at night cuz you would just sleep sleep if you just turned your Instagram off you would just sleep if you stopped looking at Twitter you would instantly be able to come off some of that medication because you're stressing yourself out through trying to live up to something that was not your calling it was somebody else's and we have everyone's calling right here in our faces let me just say if you're not inspired by someone else's life but you feel like you've got to compete or compare or you feel minimized or it shrinks

you unfollow it's the greatest gift you could do unfollow and don't follow people that are not imitating Christ Paul says imitate me as I imitate who Christ if you want to become like Christ it helps to follow people that are becoming like Christ and so what we need to do is understand that God chooses and you know what happened was God had already chosen David but but Saul didn't know so he says we're going to have a a festivities party a sacrifice festivity party and who was invited Jesse his sons all of them except for

David David was not even invited to his own party what do you do when you're not invited to your own party this party was going to be for the future king of Israel that was going to be David but he wasn't invited but you know what he was in Oblivion because this was before social media so he was not sitting on the mountain with the Sheep scrolling through hash sacrifice festivities so many of us have so much stress cuz we're scrolling through a hashtag thinking I'm not invited to that party I've decided ignorance is bliss

ignorance is bliss David was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing he was killing a bear killing a lion he was looking after the Sheep he was worshiping he was learning all of the skills privately how do we know that because we see them down the track publicly oh I know that he was faithful in private because when Goliath turned up he was able to destroy him I know that he was faithful with his worship music privately because when Saul needed to be soothed they called David to play the harp he must have

been doing something right in the mountains What You Do privately for the Lord will always be given an opportunity to be manifest publicly some of us we think nobody sees me I'm on the side of the mountain if I'm not front and center if I'm just down serving at the kids or if I'm just serving in one of the Outreach Ministries or if I'm working in the parking lot how will they see me and God's like I got you you don't have to worry everybody else was invited to this party but God had chosen David

and if God has assigned you God will find you you don't need to Market yourself if God has assigned you we at a generation trying to Market themselves honey if you are marked by God you don't have to be marketed by man the mark of God will set you apart and if God has a find you God will find you I've seen it throughout my whole life serving out in the back of nowhere in a youth center I didn't even know my pting in my name and seven years later he's like I want to put

you over the State youth movement for our for our denomination he'd never heard me speak I didn't even know I could speak at that time to 20,000 kids in an arena and people like whoa where did she come from what an overnight success I'm thinking it was a flipping long night it was a really long night and a lot of us we bypass because we're so busy are we curating this right is this image right am I around the right people am I using and leveraging people in the right our whole society is sick the

way it's doing that and we've transferred that into the kingdom and God's saying it's okay if I anointed you be faithful be faithful in that Mar marriage be faithful with those children in that season that they're in be faithful in your relationships be faithful to keep yourself morally pure be faithful to serve in church life where I've put you it's okay God knows where to find you God had not overlooked David just because everybody else had just because everybody else had what we discover from this text is the first impressions are not always right we

live in a world obsessed with First Impressions but the Bible says that Samuel came in and he looked at elab and thought cuz that's what we do oh ours is the generation I'll tell you what the fight is for in our generation it's the fight for our eyes that's why scripture repeatedly says fix your eyes on Jesus because we're obsessed with fixing our eyes on everything else and so we look and of course there's no such thing as fake news at all I know but the thing is that how many things have been wrong just

even in the last few weeks on social media oh we saw that image and we thought I looked at that and I thought so much of that so much damage being done because we look and think but first impressions don't always count because he looked and he saw the wrong thing so the prophet was in the right house but he saw the wrong thing Jesse didn't even know he had a king in his house what do you do when the prophet overlooks you and the father of the house overlooks you see what a lot of

us do is we think well I'm going to leave and so interesting to me that in this one household both the prophet and the father got it wrong but you have to trust that God never gets it wrong God never gets it wrong that if God has placed you there God has assigned you and he will come and he will find you but here we go Samuel looked because he was looking for the wrong thing that's what most of us us do we see things and we think because we're looking for the wrong things Samuel

was looking for the next Saul cuz he saw elab and thought elab had the same stature as a Saul he had the same makeup if you go on and further read 1st Samuel 17 you'll see a lot of his personality was like Saul's as well so what you have is Samuel looked at him and thought ah there's the next king but God never said I'm going to appoint the next king God said I'm going I have chosen for myself a new king see we live in a generation that wants the next and we're missing the

new the next is the same old thing normally in a younger package it's not the new wine skin it's not the new thing the prophet says behold I do a new thing do you not perceive it what's happening in this nation and around the church World God's doing a new thing but most people are missing it because they're looking for the next of the same old thing in a younger a body and God says Oh no you're not you're missing this I'm doing a new thing What's Happening Here in Celebration Church it's not just the

same old thing behold I do a new thing it's a new thing for a new generation in a new age and God's moving forward and a lot of people miss the new because they're looking for the next some of you are missing the anointed one because you're looking for the gifted one and God says oh no no no the answer someone's come to to church tonight whether it's in your business or in your sphere of influence perhaps in your ministry whatever sphere you're in and the person that God has for you is right there but

you've missed them because you're looking for the next whatever that might be Hollywood has the next who's the next Young artist who's the next and God's like I don't do the next I only do one of everyone I don't need the next of somebody else I need the new thing and the thing that you've been praying for it's right there under your nose but you've missed the person because you're looking for a certain gift and you're missing the anointing that God has and then he says God doesn't look like man at the outside God looks

at the heart listen this is a hard one for us to grasp because everything is about our curating our external image I mean we have so many filters on our phone as if that's not enough we download apps with more filters and we just stand there and go hang on a minute I need to just take a selfie of my most authentic spontaneous self hang on a minute it's got to be authentic and spontaneous is the lighting right have you got the angle right uh let me look at that I no no don't upload that

that that's our era and it's just another form of religious piety man is my external am I am I just turning up to church and everyone thinks I've got it together and God says man I don't need social media to see beyond the external I've never looked at the external you've been playing that game with me for years Church you turn up have your church face on and then you go and live like hell the rest of the week um you might be fooling your parents and your friends and your co-workers you never fooled God

just in case you were wondering it's God and he says oh I'm not fooled God does not get up every morning and look through your Instagram profile to see how you are he's not like oh can you check their Facebook status because I'm not sure how they're doing today now the world does that so we want to put our best self out there or our worst self whichever gets you the most attention normally but that's another sermon so I'm going to move over to this side of the room and so what we do is we

think God's checking and he goes no no I'm looking at your heart that's why Proverbs says guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flow what all of the issues of life everything everything in your life stems back to the condition of your heart how's your heart tonight is it is it toxic is it full of bitterness anger unforgiveness shame guilt condemnation lust greed Envy G because the external manifestations of your behaviors are stemming and mine are stemming from the condition of our heart that's why Proverbs says guard it Garrison it if you

put as much time into your heart as you do on your Instagram profile if you curated the condition of your spiritual heart with the same meticulous attention that we curate to our public profile I'm telling you we would change the world because the spirit of the Lord would flow through us and we'd stop trying to act like Christians we'd just be Christians we just be Christians for the sake of time let me move on we see from the text that there is no overnight success when when God began to develop David he was the nobody

that nobody noticed you might might feel today in this room like you're the nobody that nobody notices that was me I'm the kid that was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted I'm the kid that was sexually abused for 12 years I'm the The Immigrant kid that grew up in the poorest zip code in my state when I walked into a church service like this exactly 30 years and 3 weeks ago on a night just like tonight the last Sunday night in January 1989 I was a mess I was the nobody that nobody would have

noticed you could be in this room tonight sitting in the back row couldn't keep it together for 10 seconds I was so messed up that's normally what happens if you've been abused for 12 years and Abandoned and rejected like David I was the nobody that nobody noticed but I was the kid sitting in the back still full of potential there was a global anti-trafficking organization in me there was a global women's encouragement development movement on the inside of me there was Global TV and books but you wouldn't have noticed cuz I was such a Miss

but God did but there's no snap and upload it's like I'm going to take you through a process and Chris the degree to which you're willing to go through those processes and allow my image to be forged on the inside of you is the degree to which I'm going to be able to use you cuz Chris there's going to be a lot of spotlights on you and so the image of me better be bright on the inside of you or that light will destroy you and if you want to get you don't want to get

to a place that your character cannot keep you you want to get to a place where the image of God on the inside of you is it'll keep you it'll keep you in your marriage it'll keep you parenting your kids it'll keep you Faithful in your relationships it'll keep you morally pure when you're not married it'll keep you being faithful to Jesus because his character is on the inside of you some of you are struggling so much with Fidelity to Christ because you haven't allowed his character to be forged on the inside of you you've

gotten out there and you can't make it for two straight days God's saying hey let me do the process in you we're in process of becoming not discovering our world is all about Discovery and evolving that's not Christianity it's a process of becoming like Christ becoming like Christ and there are no overnight successes you have to know that there are no overnight successes you know unless you are prepared to go through a process your marriage isn't going to be all that it can be parenting isn't going to be all that it can be your destiny

your job look at any sphere of life but we have grown up and we're going to continue to it's not going away so it's important that we talk about this stuff many of us think in the Christian kingdom of God that it operates according to the way that the world operates but we're not sitting citizens of this Earth We're residents here but we're citizens of Heaven if we've been born again so we operate according to a whole different system God says I don't do it like the world I don't need to snap and upload I

don't need to discover you I created you now allow my image to be forged on the inside of you so many of you have been grappling with low self-esteem grappling with anxiety grappling with depression grappling with a whole lot of stress going God how's it all going to happen how's my purpose happen and you're scrolling through everyone else's life you're going look at what they're doing and look at what they're doing and I feel like a loser and then addictions start and patterns of distractive behavior start because you fixed your eyes on the wrong thing

God says I'm not looking at the outside I'm looking at your heart all I've ever wanted is for you to give me your heart and if you give me your heart I will work with your heart and I'll Propel you to your destiny thank you for watching and I hope you enjoyed this video make sure you hit the sub subscribe button and tap the Bell icon so you're notified every time a new video is posted I hope you'll share your thoughts in the comments and if you feel led please share this video with a friend

who needs to see it thanks so much for watching