Again I want to go to a reference in Psalm 105 about Joseph. Verse 18-19 says, “They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”

This gives heart-significance to the trials that I am in and have been through. They are essential components in His training me for the ministry He has called me to. It is also a great definition of our progressive sanctification.

The operative word is progressive. It has a beginning, and a progression that leads to the end God has intended. James 5:11 says, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and see the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”

I have noticed in my years of counseling that folks tend to hide their talent-gifts because of lingering fears generated from their pasts. Matthew 25:25 documents the root for us. The servant who hid his talent said, “And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground…”

The talent-gifts that the Lord gives each of us to invest for Him, are part of our spiritual DNA. They are the good works in Ephesians 2:10 which says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”