In this session of Crushing by TD Jakes, chapter 9; A Vat Full of Wait, we are thrown into a situation of reality.
If we could not relate to much of the first chapters, it is amazing how we can possibly recall many times in our life where we have been in a vat of wait. Pastor Jakes uses the details of the fermentation process to describe the time in between the harvest, crushing and the final product of a fine glass of wine. It is during this transitional period when miracles truly happen.
Despite our inability to see it at the time, we should thank God that He often makes us wait. Our world seems to be all about instant gratification. But winemaking, both literally and spiritually, takes time. We may think we’re ready for what we want or what we’ve asked God to give us, but we may not be ready to handle it yet even if He plans to give it to us.
Instead, we need to grow stronger, wiser, and sharper. During those seasons that follow our hardest moments, we have to learn patience. We can trust that as we rebuild, rediscover, and reorient ourselves to life after this latest blow, God is working on us. Hi is working on our character, our heart, and our mind. he is strengthening our determination and softening our stubbornness. He is instilling in us wisdom, discernment, and compassion. God has not brought us through the wilderness in order to leave us overwhelmed and underdeveloped. We can trust that no matter how long we have been waiting, God will always be on time to deliver what we need next.
When have you endured a season where God clearly made you wait for something you wanted or prayed for?
How did you handle it? Did it change your perspective on waiting? Why or why not?
What are you waiting on God for right now? how long have you been waiting?
Waiting can be especially challenging when we allow our fears to eclipse our faith. Like survivors of an earthquake, we often experience the aftershock of our crushing crisis as consequences continue to shift the ground beneath us. We may feel anxious and edgy, wondering when the next wave will send us reeling. Try as we may to experience God’s presence and to follow His voice, we struggle to feel connected to Him on a daily basis. In the midst of such ongoing misery, we continually confront our concerns about why God would allow us to go through such a dark valley of despair.
During these seasons of waiting and wondering, we have to be honest about all we are feeling and try to find constructive ways to express our anger, anxiety, and angst about our experience in the vat. At the very least, we can share our feelings without being destructive in how we reveal them. Be kind to yourself, jus as a kind, loving parent would soothe and comfort a child. Allow the weather of your emotions to storm, but allow that storm to pass, knowing that the bedrock of your faith will always remain.
When you were caught off guard by a crushing moment, how did unforeseen aftershocks or consequences impact you? How did the first assault trigger the ones that followed?
How did you maintain your faith when confronted by an unexpected disappointment, shocking loss, or unimaginable setback?
If you were interviewed and asked for a description of how you handle life’s most painful moments?
What would be shared if others were interviewed about how you handled those moments? (Family, close friends, coworkers, new acquaintances, church family, Jesus)
Often we feel the way we do in the midst of our crushing times because we’ve lost something we deem valuable, perhaps even irreplaceable. But to God, our Master Vintner, we are what is valuable and irreplaceable! Basically, we cling to what we do and what we achieve, while God is entirely focused on our character, our being. With this contrast in mind, it just might be the very things we lose, may in fact, be the obstacles to the true growth that God is cultivating in our souls.
Shifting to God’s perspective, we are the fruit, not the product, of our labors or what we’ve accumulated or accomplished. Knowing that we are still growing, developing, ripening, and then fermenting, God continues to do whatever is necessary to produce His best wine from us, His fruit. We don’t have to worry about what’s ahead or what might occur if our worst fears are realized. God is with us, He always has been and He always will see us through, no matter how intensely we may suffer.
Do you agree with the concept that what we lose in life’s crushing moments clears the way for us to mature in our faith? Why or why not?
How have you experienced God developing your character and growing your faith most recently?
During a season of waiting, the fermentation from our crushing begins taking place within us. While it might feel like nothing is really changing, we can trust that nothing will ever be the same as we become stronger, wiser, and more dependent on God as the source of our identity and power. From our fermentation, we become mature enough to handle more than we could before. We trust that God is in control so we don’t have to worry about the ultimate outcome, no matter how painful the immediate moment may seem.
In winemaking, the fermentation stage is simply a waiting period for grape juice to transform into alcohol. The fruit has been crushed so the essence . of the grapes, their juice, is simply collected and stored. The invisible process of juice fermenting into wine takes place gradually, without dramatic trauma experienced when the grapes were pressed.
It is in these fermentation periods when we may feel the most despondent because we can’t see positive growth emerging from our pain. This is the time between when Jesus died and when He arose from the grave. The second day. Even the great event of salvation had some time of delay. It was not day 1, Jesus died on the cross and day 2, he rose from the grave. No, there was defined and designed time of waiting.
If we reflect on the emotions and situation the friends and family of Jesus experienced on the second day, can we relate to how they may have changed mentally and spiritually?
Pastor Jakes reminds us that there are multiple individuals that had to endure fermentation. Joseph had to wait in a pit to be sold. He later had to wait in jail to be released. David was hidden in the pastures attending sheep before his season of reigning as king. Moses had a season of being a herdsman on a hillside in hiding before leading the Israelites out of Egypt. We have all had seasons of wait, and we have all been impacted by the events.
What signs of positive growth have others told you they have seen in you following times of loss, disappointment, or pain? How did you feel when they told you?
What indications of fermentation can you spot in your life right now? Where do you see signs that you are growing stronger because of the crushing you’ve endured?
Our fermentation period may feel just as painful as our crushing, even though the actual cause of our pain has subsided. But this period is actually just a time of transition. Our life is changing and will not always be in this in-between time that we may feel we’re in. In many ways the hard work is over. Now, the Vintner only requires you to be patient. We have been crushed again and again. Our juice has been extracted. We can now trust that God’s divine hand is upon us as we ferment into full potency and flavor.
This week, reflect on the many seasons of your life where you have been crushed and transformed into who you are today. Acknowledge that many around you may be in different seasons. Some or plump, happy and joyful, just on the edge of harvest. Others may be right in the midst of being pulverized. While yet others may be in the vat, being transformed from juice to wine.
Rejoice in the character that you have developed over the years and spur others on with encouragement as you see them change, as the remnants of the old are left behind for greater things to come.
We take next week off for our great Christmas breakfast but will return in two weeks to venture through chapter 10.
Jakes, T. D. Crushing: God Turns Pressure into Power. FaithWords, 2019.