One song that i can honestly relate too is the song "Greater is Coming" by Jekalyn Carr. In the beginning of the song she speaks about the process a olive goes through and compares that process too , the trials and tribulations that will bring us to our greater season. And throughtout the song the lyrics remain,"IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE SHAKING I WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN READY FOR THE MAKING,IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE BEATING I WOULD HAVE NEVER KNEW HOW ANNOINTED I WOULD BE, IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE PRESSING I WOULDNT BE ABLE TO WALK INTO MY DESTINY." Before I go into my very own shaking, beating, and pressing, I am going to explain the process little better. To get the olive off the tree, you shake the tree. We go through the shaking of what we depend on , or have hope for is shook. Next the olive goes through a beating as its shook, we go through the beating after our spirit is shook, we try to ignore things, take different dangerous routes, sometimes sin and have a temptation for something as a cover up. Finally its the pressing of the olive into oil, but for us its the crushing of self will, when we surrender, because we realize its not our battle to fight. For me my shaking,beating,and pressing all revolve around my sisters sickness and death.
MY SHAKING
My shaking all started when my family unexpectedly found out about my sister having a what doctors said "un-treatable" brain tumor. {but all things can be done through Christ} It shook my spirit to doubt GOD, and to have hatred for something I had no control over. It made me think the devil won before the fight even started. It made me loose hope for my sister, and made me want to say a goodbye before i had too. The doctors wrote off my sister for 6 months of living, and that didnt help at all. I lost a lot of faith in a lot of things when this happened. My sister lived more than 6 months after being diagnosed, a pretty happy, normal life. My joy started coming back, and i felt like a healing was on its way. But around 8 months after her being diagnosed there was more hospital stays, and a even worst shake in my spirit. A little bit over the 9 months after being diagnosed my sister passed away due to the tumor. NOW that really was my breaking point, it didnt only shake my spirit, i felt like my spirit was lost.
MY BEATING
All throughout this horrible time, from beginning to end, i hid every emotion and covered it up. I put a smile on my face and managed to crack a joke a lot. Im sure people knew I had pain but didnt really know how bad it hurt. I covered the pain with things i never ever thought about doing until i needed something to get my head off of. I stopped caring about my lively hood, not knowing i was letting the devil think he was winning. I started doing and having a temptation for ungodly things, and thoughts, all to cover the fear i had of loosing my sister, and then loosing my sister. Somehow managed to hide it from the world, but was secretly BEATING my relationship with god up, my body up, and my mindset up.
PRESSING
One day I was having a deep conversation with a family member about how Im not myself anymore, and how lost i felt my spirit had got. She told me the good thing about GOD is that he forgives, after that little talk I honestly quit everything. I gave up that battle, changed my mindset, changed my ways, prayed for forgivness, and thanked GOD for bringing me through a storm i thought that would never end!
Sometimes GOD has to test us to see how our testimony will come out, I didnt understand it at the time but now I do. After going through all of that my greater has come, and i hope that it stays for a while. Pretty much its a reminder to all that is reading this is your going to go through the whole shaking and beating but until to press to GOD, you will let the devil win. I thank GOD for my shaking , beating , and pressing because now I continue to change.
