Mining God’s Gems
MINING GOD’S GEMS - By Rose Chavez
As I was having a conversation with a precious woman of God about what I felt He wanted me to share with her regarding her current season in life, the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance a revelation He had given me on January 16, 2016.
I shared with her how she was God's precious GEM. She was at the tail end of a difficult season in her life due to being wounded by a few ministry leaders. This had caused her to retreat back into the mouth of a mountain, a supposed “safe place” out of the limelight of ministry leadership. But it ultimately became a dark place where she now felt isolated, alone and buried.
I felt led to share with her the story of The Priceless Dropped GEM. You see life has a way of causing us to get dropped. To be used, abused and bruised. Sometimes it causes us to feel like we have given all we have only to be dismissed or rejected because of a difference of opinion or for not following the status quo.
Perhaps you've been dropped because you aren't willing to settle for anything less than God's very best in how you operate, and as a result others feel threatened by that level of thinking. So you retreat into the mountain.
That very same mountain God mined you from when He first found you and called you to Himself. You settle into that dark place to hide, to lick your wounds. To not have to deal with the deep pain that was inflicted upon you. Sometimes intentionally, and other times done out of ignorance or lack of care for how others feel and the damage it may cause.
It is in this mountain that you lay there consumed with the thoughts mulling over and over and over in your mind of how you were hurt. And if you're not careful you will remain in that mountain and never come back out to the surface.
When you find yourself in this place, it’s important to seek help. That's where people like your husband (if you are married), friend, pastor, mentor, counselor or any other spiritual covering you have accountability with come in. To help mine us out of the mountain!
When we reach out for help and receive it then we are able to then reach out to others and help mine THEM out of that mountain place. God has called us to be His Gem miners. It's not glamorous, nor easy. It is a dirty, rigorous, sometimes exhausting job. We have to make sure we have the right equipment and gear in order to effectively and efficiently do the job. However it is a necessary one.
You see as pastors/leaders we ourselves have experienced the pain of being dropped. We have also seen many people hurt by being dropped. Dropped by their pastors, leaders, mentors, or by their own family and friends. Dropped by their jobs or sometimes even their spouses.
As pastors/leaders we have been called to the Mephibosheth ministry. Mostly because many of us have experienced what he went through. MEPHIBOSHETH Was five years old when both his father and grandfather died at the battle of Mount Gilboa.
2 Samuel 4:4 - “Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became disabled. His name was Mephibosheth.”
When you read the story of Mephibosheth in second Samuel, we come to understand that as a result of being dropped by his nurse, the person that was supposed to have taken care of him. he becomes lame in both of his legs. In her haste of trying to run away with him she drops him and causes a devastating life altering paralysis to his body. This changes the trajectory of his life. He goes into a place of hiding for many years, fearing for his life of what king David might and could possibly do to him, as he ascends the throne after King Saul and Jonathan are killed.
What Mephibosheth’s caregiver didn’t know was that King David would not have killed Mephibosheth. He would have taken him in as one of his own out of his love and respect for his best friend Jonathan. David would have honored his covenant of agape love with Jonathan by providing for his crippled son. He was a man after God’s own heart and didn’t see Mephibosbeth as a potential threat like any other king would have.
But as a result of the nurse’s haste in trying to rescue and run away with him. she dropped him and caused catastrophic life altering damage. We don’t hear about Mephibisheth again until 2 Samuel 9:1-13 David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” ( Read the entire chapter)
I love this story because it is a beautiful example of how our heavenly Father is with us when we are dropped by those who are supposed to be caring for us. And as a result we retreat back into that dark place of seclusion, & isolation.
But much like David with Meohibosheth, God picks us up out of our pain and retrieves us out of that dark mountain place and begins the mountain residue cleanup and restoration process.
You see we all have mountain residue on us when God mines us out of the mountain place. That mountain residue is a result of us being buried under rock, dirt, debris & sometimes even large boulders that have fallen on top of us due to the earth quaking around us.
God longs to mine us out of that dark place so that he can remove the mountain residue that is on us.
Why? Because God sees the value that is WITHIN us.
You see a TRUE GEM goes through a mining process. It's is a long and painful one at times. But the end result is a brilliant, beautiful GEM.
I have a few rare gems that I have acquired over the years. I have them gently tucked away in a special storage box.
They are precious to me not because of their monetary value, but simply because of the rare type of gems that they are and what I see when I look at them.
The ruby on the left is a Burmese ruby that my little sister Teresa brought back for me from a missions trip she took to Burma.
It is in its raw form and I love it! Mined from deep within the mountains of Myanmar Burma, it STILL has what I like to call "MOUNTAIN RESIDUE" on it. It is beautiful in its raw form, though it has yet to go through the “cleaning process”.
When I look at these precious treasures of mine I am reminded of how our loving Heavenly Father looks upon us as HIS precious GEMS of high value.
It is He that mines us out of the mountain of life. The mining business is a dirty, tedious, back breaking process...the daunting job of mining for gems. Yet God sent His Son to do just that!
Luke 19:10 - “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” To find and pull us out of our dark mountain into the marvelous light of PURPOSE & DESTINY!
We are His gems of high value… priceless! Covered by the "mountain residue" that life's challenges & distractions have covered us with.
This mountain residue represents THREE things: These THREE things are what cause us to forget our high value.
THE SUGAR - MOUNTAIN RESIDUE: These are the sweet things in life that draw our attention & affection away from God- things that are sweetly alluring –WRONG FRIENDS, LOVE OF MONEY, FAME, WRONG INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS, MATERIAL THINGS. _________ You fill in the blank.
THE SALT- MOUNTAIN RESIDUE: Then there the things that slowly develop into BIG things – Things that sting like salt in an open wound - These things make us question our high value as God’s daughters. Things like a BROKEN HEART, BROKEN SPIRIT, GOSSIP, BETRAYAL, DISAPPOINTMENT,, UNFAIR EMPLOYER, DISCRIMINATION, MISTREATMENT, REJECTION, MISTAKES, NOT FEELING TALENTED ENOUGH.
_________ You fill in the blank.
THE SAND - MOUNTAIN RESIDUE : Then come the things that try to BURY once and for all our identity & value of who we are, it’s much like hammering that last nail in the coffin! FEAR, DIVORCE, LOSS OF JOB, DEATH OF A LOVED ONE, UNFORGIVENESS, ANGER, ABANDONMENT, MOLESTATION, RAPE, ALCOHOLISM, INFERTILITY, ABORTION, PORNOGRAPHY, CANCER, DRUG ADDICTION, ADULTERY, TEEN PREGNANCY.
_________ You fill in the blank
And they cause us to believe satan’s lie that we have NO value & we begin to shrink back & settle as we become buried by all these things.
But something inside of us cries out & tells us to fight! Something in us starts to stir…
2 Timothy 1:6-7 - “ Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
This stirring causes a movement or change of position in our minds and hearts. It begins to disrupt and move the things that have buried us.
Something begins to stir in us. The Holy Spirit begins to remind us of WHO & WHOSE we are and how valuable we are to our creator. He reminds us of our place in destiny and that word in us causes us to get up out of our stuck places and begin to push through the things that have weighed us down.
Something in us begins to STIR! We no longer allow our bad decisions to get in our way, we no longer allow life’s disappointments to become an excuse to just exist.
We refuse to live mediocre lives. Unfulfilled, unsatisfied, disappointed, frustrated, angry, sad, depressed… fearful! Not sure of our True value.
After God takes us out of everything that has buried us He then gently puts us in his side pouch for safe keeping as He carries us out of the mine to that safe place only He can provide.
That safe place is His jewelers workshop where he then proceeds to place us on His work table to then put us through the PROCESS of removing the mountain residue.
Once that painful process of cleanup is done He then begins the faceting process. It is a necessary process because with every facet that He cuts, it creates the magnificent shaping of that unique gem & allows it to shine the brilliant light from within.
Those facets show the FIRE that is deep within that can only shine through a GENUINE REAL GEM!
That fire type of light is hidden deep inside every precious stone that goes through the cleaning & faceting PROCESS that makes it what it was originally meant to become...
A precious GEM of high value.
Once the faceting process is done He then places us in the right SETTING that will show off His one of a kind work!
It is in that place setting that we fulfill the very purpose by which we were created. I want to tell you today that YOU are that precious GEM of high value!
Write these GEM developing processes somewhere that will help you remember WHO you are and WHOSE you are:
• God digs me out of the mountain
• God chips away that mountain residue
• God carves the facets that will reflect His light ever so beautifully
• God will set me in the right setting to fulfill His purpose in my life
Let God take you through the process and do what He needs to do in your life, so that you can reflect His light as you walk hand in hand with Him.