Spurgeon once said that if he were to live his life again he would spend 30 years preparing and 3 years in ministry. That is, God’s preparation is vital. Of course he was exaggerating to make his point of how important is the process of preparation.

Today we want to get to our dream or destination as soon as possible and we don’t like to have to wait. But God seems more interested in the process of getting there rather than in getting there asap.

Spurgeon used as his example, the life of Jesus, which is a model of preparation. For 30 years there are no recorded miracles of Jesus. This relates to concentration on his preparation for future ministry. Jesus is the model of preparation for us.

1.Moulding of character is more important to God

In the first Avengers film, we are introduced to the story of Captain America, Steve Rogers. He enlists for a special programme to help the war effort. Dr Erskine is looking for the right person to inject a super serum that will give him super strength. However, Rogers is the worst recruit of those in the programme. He is the weakest and least capable physically. But Dr Erskine wants a person with character. He notices Rogers’ self-sacrificial act, when he deliberately falls onto a grenade to save the others. So Erskine gives the serum to him. He wanted someone weak that would value and use well super-strength.

So the same with God. He cannot trust us with His power if we don’t have the character to use it wisely. Without humility, grace and wisdom, we will abuse God’s power and either use it to benefit ourselves or direct people to look at us, instead of God’s glory.

2.Our Relationships are more important to God

Luke summarises Jesus’ childhood as:

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.” (Luke 2:52)

Jesus spent much time building good relationships with people and loving them. The second command is to love our neighbour as ourselves. So our ministry is not for ourselves but to build others up and transform their lives, through the power of the Gospel. Jesus was preparing to do just this and so must we. Such is God’s preparation.

3.God wants us to build a strong relationship with Him first

Jesus needed a period without fame to grow in grace and in relationship with his Father.

When Evan Roberts began the Welsh revival in 1904, he was a complete unknown. He was a miner. He had started Bible College to enter the ministry but he had finished it early to begin the revival at God’s direction.

Roberts was God’s instrument of revival at 26 years old. So what had he been doing all this time before? God had been preparing him since he was a child. In particular, in the spring of 1904 he had some special visitations from the Lord. The Holy Spirit woke him up daily at 1am every morning to commune with the Lord and he went back to sleep at 5am

In his own words during an interview with W.T.Stead (famous journalist and spiritualist):

For a long, long time I was much troubled in my soul and my heart by thinking over the failure of Christianity. Oh! it seemed such a failure—such a failure—and I prayed and prayed, but nothing seemed to give me any relief. But one night, after I had been in great distress praying about this, I went to sleep, and at one o’clock in the morning suddenly I was woken up out of my sleep, and I found myself with unspeakable joy and awe in the very presence of the Almighty God. And for the space of four hours I was privileged to speak face to face with Him as a man speaks face to face with a friend. At five o’clock it seemed to me as if I again returned to earth.”

So Roberts experienced a high degree of intimacy with his Father in heaven before he began to minister to the masses.

Conclusion

If Jesus did this for 30 years, who are we to try avoid this route of God’s preparation?

God is preparing us today for a great move of His Holy Spirit upon the earth. Are you getting ready?

For more on how to prepare, see my book, PREPARING FOR A DIVINE VISITATION