I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus – Philippians 3:14.
The call of God is His summons upon the life of His creation. God’s call has a threefold emphasis. First, He calls all men everywhere to repentance. That is the call to salvation. Second, all Christians are called to complete dedication. Third, God calls for a specific sphere of service or ministry or a holy calling for all Christians.
To press is to thrust, bear upon, squeeze, force down upon; it’s something we will go in with everything within us because we want this thing to happen. Sometimes in our press, we have opposition trying to keep us from reaching our goals.
Anything we do and want to see the results will take a press. To press is to be consistent. Women have many roles to play if they’re married and have a family. Single women also have obligations; whether married or single, we will go through times when we’re pressured, whether it’s in our homes, employer, business, or school.
Because the pressure is so intense, sometimes we feel like God does not know what we’re going through or He does not care. To get muscles strong, we must apply pressure by exercising; to stop bleeding, we must apply pressure to get it to stop. In order to get wine, pressure must be placed on the grapes, and olives, when pressured, produces excellent olive oil.
God allows pressure to come into our lives to bring strong faith when life issues, Satan attacks, and people’s jealousy or envy can’t stop our flow to reaching our destiny. We also need spiritual strength also assists us in knowing not to fall into different doctrines. You will never know how much strength you have until you come under attacks and hinders. Pressure gives us strength when difficulties and circumstances come our way. We will not buckle down but stand in our faith, knowing this too shall pass.
God has placed destiny in each of us; He has placed gifts in us to bless others, whether naturally or spiritually. God has created you to be successful in life, but He wants your soul to prosper and not be depleted with the things of the world.
God wants His best to shine through you to reflect Him as your Father, so He allows difficulties and circumstances to come into our lives to get us back on track, seeking Him and His will. Every time the children of Israel strayed away from His purpose, He allowed the very thing they gave all their time and energy to come against them.
Sometimes we must leave our employer because God is opening a door for us to have our own business. But instead of being led by the Spirit, we continue to try to hold on to our jobs because we have placed our faith in the employer rather than God. So to get our attention, He will allow the employer to give us more responsibilities and obligations, and co-workers begin to talk about us or harass us. He will allow it to harass us until we finally realize God has something better for us, so we begin to seek Him again for what He wants and not what we want.
God has placed so many gifts within you, ask God to make you useful, and you will begin to see the hand of God in your life, taking you to places and people to give out what He has placed in you. God needs you to allow what He has placed in you to be on display.