Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry.

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We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life.

Without bless you, it's a joy to come into your homes and if you're ever in our area, please stop by. Be a part of one of our services. I promise you, we'll make you feel right at home.

I like to start with something funny and I heard about this pastor. He found a small box hidden in his wife's closet. He opened it up, there were six eggs and a thousand one-dollar bills.

He asked his wife about it. She explained how every time he preached a bad sermon, she put an egg in the box. After 35 years of ministering, he felt pretty good about himself. Only six bad sermons.

He asked what the thousand dollars was. She said, every time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them for a dollar. Say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.

Today I will be taught the word of God. I will boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive. I will never be the same in Jesus name. God bless you.

I want to talk to you today about prepared in the process. When Victorian I found out we were pregnant with our first son Jonathan, we were so excited. We called our parents and told our friends over the next few weeks.

We started getting the babies room together, move in furniture around. All we could think about was this baby was on the way. Six months later, Victoria's feet started swelling. Her back started hurting. She couldn't sleep well at night. Some morning she was nauseated.

Suppose we went back to the doctor and said doctor something's wrong with Victoria. She's gaining all this weight. Her feet are swelling. She's uncomfortable. Will you give us something to make it go away? He said, no I'm sorry, it's all a part of the process. If you're going to give birth, you have to go through a season of being uncomfortable.

You may not like gaining the weight, but it's necessary. It's making room for what's coming. Your feet may swell, your back may hurt. It's uncomfortable, but it's not unusual. Without the process, you wouldn't be prepared. It's the same principle in life. We all have dreams God placed in our heart, goals we want to accomplish. We know we're pregnant, but too often we get discouraged by the process.

It's taken longer than we thought. We had some bad breaks. We went through a loss. Somebody did us wrong. We think this couldn't be right. I'm uncomfortable. But like a pregnancy, it's a part of the process. Everything you go through, every struggle, every disappointment, every delay. If you'll keep the right attitude, that's depositing something in you. It's making you stronger. It's developing your character.

It's growing you up. Here's the key. You're anointed before you're appointed. There's going to be a preparation period between the time God puts the dream in your heart and the time that it comes to pass. Just because you're anointed doesn't mean the appointing is going to come. It's up to us to pass these tests, to be willing to go through the pregnancy. The uncomfortable seasons. The lonely ones.

The lonely times. When we don't understand it. We're doing the right thing, but we're not making progress. This is when many people give up on their dreams. They were pregnant. They were anointed. But because they wouldn't go through the preparation process, they never gave birth. They never saw the appointing come. In the Scripture, David was anointed to be the next king of Israel at the age of 17. The prophet Samuel traveled to his house.

He chose David out of all the other brothers, poured the oil on his head. David was excited. It was a destiny moment. But what's interesting is after David was anointed. After he was given this incredible promise, where did David go to the palace, to get his royal robe, to meet his new staff, he went back to the shepherd fields. He was anointed but not appointed.

He found out he was pregnant, so to speak, but he had to go through the preparation process. He had to pass the test of doing a menial task, taking care of his father's sheep, feeding them day in and day out, shoveling their waste, smell badly. It was lonely. It seemed unfair. His brothers, who weren't anointed by Samuel, they were in the military. They had prestigious positions.

Everyone looked up to them. David could have thought, I'm not going back to the shepherd's fields, I'm the next king. But David understood this principle. He had to show God he would be faithful when it wasn't exciting. He had to pass the test of being good to King Saul, even though Saul was jealous and trying to kill David.

David could have said, God, this isn't right. Look at him. You've got to get rid of Saul. I'm uncomfortable. Instead, David kept doing the right thing year after year. He was anointed at 17, but he didn't take the throne until he was 30. It took 13 years for his anointing to catch up to his appointing.

But without those 13 years of keeping a good attitude, doing the right thing, overlooking insults, he wouldn't have been prepared for where God was taking him. God knows what's in your future. He knows what it's going to take to keep you there.

You may not understand why it's taken so long. Why it hasn't turned out the way you thought. Why you're in a lonely season, a discouraged season, a stagnant season. But everything you've been through was to strengthen you, to develop you, to prepare you. God wouldn't have allowed it if it wasn't part of the process. Without it, you couldn't give birth to what's in you.

If you do like David, not try to figure it all out. Not live bitter, negative, instead, keep passing the test. Keep doing the right thing, giving, serving, loving, then your time is coming. Your baby is on the way. What God promised he will bring to pass.

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