Beloved, have you been suffering in straitened circumstances? Do you feel like you have been gasping for your spiritual, physical, emotional, or financial breath–and are you ready to see a change in your circumstances?

If so, this word is for you today–because the Lord wants you to know that your pain is not for naught!

God has had His people in a season of purging, and this purging has had a purpose.

I know it has felt to many like the purging would last forever, and like the darkness has no end. However, such is not the case. In fact, that purging process has only been the gateway to a season of RELIEF, refreshing, and abundance that God’s Word promises to each of us.

But, the purging had to come first.

The Lord has been speaking to me powerfully about this from Isaiah chapter 30. I want to share several verses with you from this chapter, and show you their prophetic meaning as it pertains to the season you have been through–and the comfort that is to come.

First, let’s look at Isaiah 30:18-19. This passage says:

“Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.

For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you” (Isaiah 30:18-19 NKJV).

Right here at the beginning, the Lord wants you to see His goodness.

Despite all you’ve been through, God has not forgotten you. He may have waited to bless you with some certain thing, but He IS going to be gracious to you in manifestation, and not only in theory.

Dear friend, you are not forgotten or overlooked. God’s mercy is FOR YOU, and He is lifting Himself up right now to pour out His grace, help, and mercy on you. You have waited on Him a long time, but your waiting does have a reward! “Blessed are all those who wait for Him,” beloved! He has heard and is answering your prayer!

But you have had to walk through a process, and the process was painful.

The pain has looked like it had no end and no purpose, but it actually did have both an end and a purpose. Look at Isaiah 30:20-21:

“And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:20-21 NKJV).

There are some people who don’t believe God will ever put you through anything difficult, but that’s just not the case. God will never tempt you to sin, it’s true. And, He will never tempt anyone else to sin against you.

So, if a difficulty came because of sin, God didn’t cause it. We know this from the book of James:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1:13-14 NKJV).

But, God DOES certainly prune us.

And that pruning hurts. Nevertheless, it is for our good. Look what Jesus said about pruning in John 15:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2 NKJV).

The “pruning” is a stripping away of things that were innately attached to us–things that were not pleasing to God.

God the Father does the pruning of our lives and hearts Himself, and He only does it to people who are bearing fruit. Additionally, the pruning only comes for the purpose of bearing more fruit.

Therefore, if you think about it, the pruning, correction, and discipline of God are actually a compliment, for:

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (Hebrews 12:5-8 NKJV).

Yes, the chastening and discipline of God are actually a sign of His love.

But, they are not forever! There is a purpose to your pain, and that purpose is for your betterment and eventual abundance! Track with me here as we continue through Isaiah 30:

During the chastening, pruning process, He causes us to cast down idols–things that take His place in our hearts. Look at Isaiah 30:22:

“You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, and the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; you will say to them, ‘Get away!’” (Isaiah 30:22 NKJV).

This is where we have been in God’s process in this most recent season.

God has been convicting us and purifying us of all idol worship.

In this case, when I refer to ‘idol worship,’ I am not talking about bowing down to literal images of pagan demon gods. (Although if you have any such things in your house, you are opening a door to the enemy and inviting demons in, so you should definitely get rid of them. Images of demon gods have no place in the home of a believer, so get rid of them immediately.)

But in this instance, when I refer to ‘idol worship,’ I am talking about things we have lifted up in the place of God. As I talked about here, in this article about how to stop lifting up your soul to idols, anything we put in the place of God is an idol.

For example, we should be able to have fullness of joy in His presence alone, without requiring anything else to make us happy. (Other things do bring us joy in life, but we should not HAVE to have them in order to HAVE joy.)

Therefore, if we have to have:

• Money;
• A marriage or dating relationship;
• A certain set of possessions;
• Someone bowing to us and fawning over us;
• Admiration;
• Power or influence;
• Good treatment on every side; or anything else …

… in order to be happy or grateful, then those things are idols.

We should be fully able to be happy, fulfilled, and satisfied in Christ alone.

Even when we want other blessings that the Lord promises to give us, our core needs have to be met–and our souls fulfilled–by Christ alone. And if we refuse to find our satisfaction in Christ, then we have lifted up the empty “cup” of our soul (our mind, will, and emotions) to something else in order to fill it.

And that, my friend, is idolatry—because, in doing so, we are worshipping at the feet of a THING (money, dating, marriage, a luxury car, or whatever) to fill a place that should be filled only by God.

So God has been purging us and casting down idols. That has been the biggest point of this most recent season of pruning, of hardship, of stripping away, of shortage, and of straitened circumstances.

But your pain is not for naught.

Why? Because after the pruning comes the promise. And just LOOK at the size of this promise:

“Then He will give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and bread of the increase of the earth; it will be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in large pastures.

Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground will eat cured fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.

There will be on every high mountain and on every high hill rivers and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:23-26 NKJV).

Let’s look at just a few of the practical meanings of this promise.

After you have cast down your idols (which God will help you do if you haven’t already done so), just look what He will do:

1. He will WATER the seed you have sown.

This means it is possible for you to sow and sow, but for your harvest to be delayed until you have cast down every idol. However, after you begin looking to Him and Him alone, He will give the rain for your seed.

2. He will also feed you from the increase of the earth.

Your provision will be fat and plentiful. This is a season of ABUNDANCE.

3. There will be plenty of provision for all that sustains you.

This is what it means when it says, “Your cattle will feed in large pastures.”

4. You will no longer live hand-to-mouth.

There will be savings and reserves. This is what it means when the Lord said that your oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat cured fodder which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.

This means that the tools—the oxen and donkeys—were not so starving that they could not wait for the food and had to eat it immediately. No, they had plenty of food from the pasture; and so there was extra food for the owner to winnow and dry and keep for later.

Yes, after the casting down of every idol comes the season of the return of RESERVES and abundance!

5. Your soul and spirit will once again be well-watered.

As Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 NKJV). The water is a picture of God’s precious Holy Spirit Himself, and it is Holy Spirit Who flows through you and renews you.

After you cast down those idols and turn to the Lord with all your heart, He will renew your strength, vigor, anointing, and enthusiasm. That means, if you have already cast down every idol the Lord has shown you, then THIS right now is the season of your renewal and refreshing.

Yes, times of refreshing ARE coming, right now, in the presence of the Lord!

6. Things that were dark will change and be filled with light.

Also, things that were light before will be seven times brighter. This is what the Lord has promised in multiple places; for, when the thief has been caught, he must restore sevenfold! (See Proverbs 6:30-31 NKJV).

All of this will happen “in the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:26b NKJV).

And how do we know when that day occurs?

It happens when you start to pay attention to, and obey, the voice of the Lord and get rid of every unclean thing:

“Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, and the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; you will say to them, ‘Get away!’” (Isaiah 30:21-22 NKJV).

So, what has God been dealing with you about?

And, have you cooperated with His purging work in your heart?

I can tell you right now that my sin—my idol that God has been casting down in me, and which He has had me casting down with His help—was worrying and not resting in Him.

I’ve gotten better about this over the years than I used to be, but I still had a long way to go—and I didn’t even know it. And therefore, recently, worrying and failure to rest in Him is THE thing He has had me in the crucible for.

He just wasn’t going to stand it any longer, and I’m glad. I needed His help to stop worrying so much, and I didn’t even know (at first) that it was an issue for me. I just thought how I felt was normal—until He showed me otherwise.

I am grateful.

Again: what sin, or idol, has God been dealing with you about?

For example, has He been dealing with you about …

• Pride? That’s a big one that a lot of us don’t realize we have. Read my sordid story here for more about that.
• Worry? Like I said, I’ve been dealing with that one too.
• Outbursts of wrath? Those are works of the flesh, according to Galatians 5:19-21.
• Envy? Everybody likes to pretend they don’t have that one. But if you can’t be happy for someone else who gets what you want when you don’t have it yet, check your heart on this one.
• Gossip? And don’t forget, sharing your “prayer requests” about other people can be gossip too.
• Cursing or cussing? Two different things, but we’re to avoid even the appearance of evil. And remember that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21 NKJV).
• Fornication? (That’s sex outside of legal marriage. And no, what people call ‘common law marriage,’ just because they’ve been living together and having sex for a long time, is not real marriage. If you’re going to be together, get legally married; and if you’re not going to get legally married, either break up or move out and stop having sex, at minimum.)
• Robbing God by failing to tithe and offer to the Lord? He can’t bless you until you obey Him with His Own money and give Him the first of what is already His.
• Hatred? A little-known fact is that, Biblically speaking, “hatred” actually means “to love less.” Hmmm … how many people do you love just a little less than the other people you love? If anyone, then you hate that person and Holy Spirit is grieved.
• Lack of thankfulness? Perhaps you can’t find it in your heart to be grateful unless you get what you want, when you want it, or even before you want it? That’s a big sin, according to Romans 1:21.

I certainly don’t have time to list every possible sin; each of us are dealing with different things. All of us have been dealing with something. And God is doing an individual work in every heart; your journey is not like anyone else’s journey.

But God’s gold standard of holiness is the same for each of us.

His goal is to conform each of us to the image of Christ. As He says in Romans 8:29:

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29 NKJV).

God is Holiness Itself, and anything that is just like Him is holy—and anything that is NOT like Him is NOT holy. It is all of our destiny to become just like Him, and He works on each of our hearts every single moment.

God is a good Father.

That is why He has to cast down every idol before He can bless us. If He gave us all His blessings—all for which we are yearning—without first requiring us to obey Him, He would be actually affirming our sin/disobedience.

He would also actually be getting in the way of our ultimate blessing, because being with Him is our ultimate blessing—and, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord:

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God;

lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright” (Hebrews 12:14-16 NKJV).

Beloved, don’t be a person who sells his birthright for one morsel of food, or one moment of sin, or even a lifetime of sin.

Instead, be a person who seeks first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, so that all these things (everything you need, want, and desire) can be added unto you. As Jesus told us in Matthew 6:33:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33 NKJV).

And remember that you have to delight yourself in the Lord in order to receive the desire of your heart:

“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:3-4 NKJV).

God has had us in a season of casting down idols because He is going to be gracious to us.

This means He is going to be gracious to YOU.

Yes, you. You, beloved. I know that weeping may have endured for a night, but joy comes in the morning. You may have been pressed hard on the olive press of God, perhaps even to the point where you, like the apostle Paul, despaired even of life:

“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8 NKJV).

I know it has been hard. But your pain is not for naught.

Not for naught have you suffered. Not for naught have you been purged. Not for naught have you given up things your flesh wanted to keep.

There has been a purpose to it all, and that purpose is because God is bringing you into a wide place where you will be well-watered and eat the good of the land.

You’ve had to cast down some idols. You have had to slay some giants you didn’t know lived at the doors of the land. When the Red Sea parted, you thought it was going to be easy going from here … and you’ve perhaps been devastated when the battles have been even fiercer and hotter than ever before.

But all of it has been God’s method of casting down idols in your life, beloved. And all of it has happened so the Lord can give rain to your seed, bring you into a season of abundance and reserves, and make everything in your life seven times brighter.

I believe that, if you have cooperated with Him in the season of casting down idols, then the time of the promise is now.

And if you have not yet cooperated with Him to cast down every idol in your heart, it’s not too late to begin. You can begin today, beloved. The promise is worth it.

Look again at the promise of God for your life:

“Then He will give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and bread of the increase of the earth; it will be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in large pastures.  Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground will eat cured fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.

There will be on every high mountain and on every high hill rivers and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:23-26 NKJV).

Beloved, your pain is not for naught.

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And I believe with all my heart that, if you have been faithful in the purging, now is the day of your increase and relief.

God is worth it, friend. He is worth every struggle. He has already won the victory on your behalf, and He has made you more than a conqueror in Christ. He Who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it:

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 NKJV).

So, believe the word of the Lord today, friend. Your season of pruning and stripping away has a purpose. And as He brings you forth from that season, totally free of idols, you shall receive the promise.

Your pain is not for naught.

Believe it today, and receive this word, and thank the Lord for it!

Is the Lord ministeringto your heart through this word? If so, leave a comment below!