As I was out walking today, I kept hearing the phrase: THAT WHICH IS SHAKING YOU IS ALSO SHAPING YOU.

The opposition and obstacles we would rather avoid are often God’s way of opening up our future assignments. The friction we feel is actually freeing us from things we need to leave behind. The tension is transforming us us for the forthcoming transition.

The Father sees where He needs you to be, and who He needs you to be, in a month, 6 months, a year from now, and He begins to work in advance to prepare you so that you’re ready when the door opens or the opportunity presents itself.

We resist the enemy but we submit and surrender to the shaping of the Savior. He has so much more for us, but sometimes we need to mature before we’re positioned to receive it. Often He SHAKES us to SHAPE us, He MOULDS us before He MOVES us, He PRESSES us to PREPARE us.

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Jeremiah 18:1-6

“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.”

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Ephesians 2:10

“For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

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James 1:4

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

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Hebrews 12:8,11

“If you are not disciplined - and everyone undergoes discipline - then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

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Galatians 4:1-7

“What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba , Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”