The work we do with God alone in the secret places changes us right down into the DNA of who we are. Difficult circumstances are merely the tests of the work that God has done in us, it is the depths of that work that is being measured by our trials and our circumstances. The work of God in us enables us to take the trials and the tribulations of this world and turn into into something that edifies us. Rather than tearing us down it builds us up. It is all at once paradoxical and counter-intuitive. The devil, who can only ever tear down, becomes an unwitting and unwilling accomplice in proving the work of God in His children.
When God has done a great work in a man or a woman, they are transformed and can now, by the power of God, take the blows and grow in their inner man even as the blows rain down. This is the secret work of God in the inner places of the man or woman of God. A work done in the wilderness, away from the rest of the world, alone with God. Consider Isaiah and the secret work of God in his life. His encounter with God humbles him in ways that only that kind of encounter could.
All the flesh is stripped away and now a mere man stands before God and sees that outside of God he is nothing. He cries out “woe is me, I am undone.” And in the undoing of the man, the new man of God steps out of that encounter. He would face many challenges in his life and would eventually be killed by being sawn in two, yet the work had already been done by God in his life and he had been enabled. The trials and the testings and indeed even his martyrdom simply became evidence of the work of God in his life.
Brothers and sisters, you have been uniquely designed to grow in the desert. In a place known for death, where nothing grows, you shall bloom. You shall bloom because God has done such a work in you. In the midst of your trial or tribulation, fall back upon your inner man. For that which causes the outer man to perish, renews and restores your inner man daily as you yield to God and give Him all the glory.
A Call To The Remnant 