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  GOD IS MAKING AN INVESTMENT IN YOU!
  by David Wilkerson
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Summary: David Wilkerson emphasizes that God uses our afflictions as an
investment to prepare us for His kingdom work.

Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Trials and Afflictions"
Scripture References: Psalm 34:19, James 1:2

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DESCRIPTION
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David Wilkerson emphasizes that God is making a significant investment
in each believer through their afflictions and trials, much like a
parent invests in a child's education or a military offers training to
soldiers. He explains that these challenges are not meant for our
detriment but are divine lessons designed to prepare us for service in
God's kingdom. Just as students progress through different levels of
education, Christians experience varying degrees of trials that shape
their spiritual maturity. Ultimately, God desires to raise veterans of
faith who can testify to His faithfulness through their experiences.
Each trial is a step towards becoming a stronger witness for the next
generation.

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CONTENT
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When a parent sends a child to college, it requires a great investment.
Obviously that parent hopes his child will apply herself to the rigors
of her training. Why? Does he hope she will graduate, come home, hang
her diploma on the wall, then sit around the house watching television?
No! That parent hopes his child will make his investment pay off by
starting a good career.

Likewise, when the U.S. military offers a free education to an enlisted
soldier, those years of education are considered an investment. The
soldier is told, "After you're educated, your nation and government want
a certain amount of your time." That trained soldier is expected to
serve in the armed forces for a number of years in order to justify the
investment.

So it is with the Lord and our afflictions. Everything you go through as
a Christian is a training exercise behind which God has a divine
purpose. He did not save you so that you could cruise into paradise on a
luxury liner; He saved you to prepare you to be of use in His kingdom.
The moment you were born again, He enrolled you in His school of
suffering. And every affliction, every trial, is another lesson in the
curriculum.

Some Christians are in kindergarten. Their afflictions are not difficult
to understand and their tests are much easier to endure. Others are in
grade school, and they quickly learn that their tests have become a
little tougher to face and harder to understand. Others are in college,
and their afflictions are much more severe and more difficult to figure
out. Still others are in postgraduate school, with years of hard
afflictions behind them and many difficult tests looming before them.
Their afflictions are the toughest of their lives, and they realize they
need Holy Ghost strength to deal with them all.

My point is, God wants veterans of spiritual warfare -- people who have
been through many afflictions -- to prove His faithfulness to the next
generation. And every affliction we endure is an investment He is making
in us as His veterans.

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him
out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/david-wilkerson/god-is-making-an-investment-in-you/
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