The Blessing Hidden in God’s Dealings

Many believers begin their walk with God full of excitement. They receive a promise, a prophecy, a divine instruction, or a clear sense of calling.

Their hearts are filled with expectation because they believe that if God has spoken, the path ahead should be smooth and straightforward. Yet, for many Christians, the reality is often very different.

Instead of immediate breakthroughs, they encounter delays. Instead of promotion, they face opposition. Instead of comfort, they experience trials. Instead of certainty, they wrestle with questions.

At some point in the journey, many sincere believers begin to ask themselves difficult questions. “Did God really speak to me?” “Did I hear correctly?” “Was it God’s voice or merely my own desire?”

These questions are not signs of unbelief. They are often part of the process through which God forms His servants and prepares them for His purposes.

One of the clearest examples of this truth is found in the life of Joseph.

Psalm 105:16-20 provides a remarkable perspective on Joseph’s story:

“Moreover, He called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of bread. He sent a man before them—Joseph—who was sold as a slave. 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.”

Notice something profound. The Bible says God sent Joseph. Yet the journey of the man God sent was full of suffering. His brothers betrayed him. He was thrown into a pit. He was sold into slavery. He was falsely accused. He was imprisoned. He was forgotten. Everything about his circumstances appeared to contradict the promise God had given him.

God had shown Joseph dreams of greatness, but his reality seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Many believers can identify with this experience. God gives a promise, and trouble appears. God gives an assignment, and opposition follows. God directs a person into a relationship, a ministry, a career path, or a new season, and suddenly life becomes more difficult than before.

Joseph’s experience teaches us an important lesson: God’s promises do not exempt us from God’s process. In fact, the greater the assignment, the deeper the preparation often required.

Psalm 105 reveals another remarkable truth. God Himself orchestrated the famine that eventually elevated Joseph to national prominence.

The Scripture says God “called for a famine in the land.” Yet God did not tell Joseph about the famine beforehand. Joseph was going through years of pain without knowing that God was arranging circumstances that would eventually reveal the purpose of all his suffering.

This is often how God works. When He is preparing the circumstances that will announce you, He may not tell you. When He is arranging the circumstances that will reveal His purpose, He may keep you unaware of the details.

You simply walk by faith. This is why many believers eventually arrive at a season of doubt. The journey becomes long. The delay becomes painful. The promise appears distant. And questions arise.

Even genuine servants of God experience such moments. Every true sent man will, at some point, face circumstances that challenge his confidence in his calling.

Throughout Scripture, many of God’s servants wrestled with doubt, fear, and discouragement. Moses tried to avoid his assignment. Jeremiah complained about the burden of his calling. Elijah asked God to take his life. Jonah ran away from his commission.

In previous generations, many people fled from divine callings because they understood the weight of God’s dealings. Today, many celebrate the announcement of a calling but underestimate the preparation required to fulfil it.

God is not merely interested in giving a man a platform. He is interested in building a vessel. This is the lesson of Jeremiah 18, where God instructed the prophet to observe the potter and the clay.

The potter was not merely creating an object; he was carefully shaping it to his purpose. Whenever flaws appeared in the clay, the potter worked on it again until it became a vessel suitable for use.

In the same way, God is shaping His people. He sees the future He has prepared for them. He sees the influence, responsibility, opportunities, and assignments that await them.

But before they arrive there, He must prepare them. There is a great future ahead of many believers, but God often exposes them to training, correction, discipline, and what I call “dealings.”

These dealings are not pleasant. They can involve disappointments. They can involve rejection. They can involve misunderstandings. They can involve seasons of waiting. They can involve losses and setbacks. Yet they serve a divine purpose.

The dealings of God are His way of removing weaknesses that could destroy us when success arrives.

Many people desire God’s promotion without God’s preparation. They want authority without brokenness. They want influence without character. They want power without maturity.

But God understands that unprepared success can become a greater danger than temporary suffering. The Scriptures remind us that “man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).

Trials are part of life in a fallen world. However, for believers, God uses even these trials for redemptive purposes. Romans 8:28 assures us that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

This does not mean all things are good. It means God can use all things for good. The believer must therefore learn to judge God faithful. This is one of the greatest lessons of spiritual maturity.

When circumstances are confusing, judge God faithful. When promises seem delayed, judge God faithful. When prayers appear unanswered, judge God faithful. When the future looks uncertain, judge God faithfuL.

Psalm 119 repeatedly reveals the heart of a servant who trusts God’s dealings. In Psalm 119:17, the psalmist cries, “Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.” Again, in Psalm 119:124, he says, “Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy, and teach me Your statutes.”

Notice that he welcomes God’s dealings because he understands that God’s intentions are merciful. God’s dealings are not expressions of hatred. They are expressions of love.

Psalm 103:10 declares that God “has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.” God’s dealings are never designed to destroy His children. They are designed to transform them.

A loving father disciplines a child because he desires the child’s future success. Likewise, our Heavenly Father works patiently to shape us into people who can carry His purposes.

The danger is that many believers resist God’s dealings. They want God to change circumstances while refusing to allow Him to change them. Yet true spiritual growth occurs when we surrender ourselves to God’s refining process.

The question is not whether God will deal with us. The question is whether we will cooperate with His dealings. You can either deal with God willingly, or God will deal with you until His purpose is accomplished.

The wise believer submits to the process. He allows God to expose pride. He allows God to correct impatience. He allows God to remove selfish ambition. He allows God to strengthen his faith. He allows God to build character. This is because there are seasons of divine approval ahead.

There are assignments, opportunities, and responsibilities that God intends to entrust to His people. But He desires vessels that can accurately represent Him.

May it never be that when the season of divine promotion arrives, the glory intended for God is lost because the vessel was unprepared.

Joseph eventually understood this truth. The prison was not a punishment. It was preparation. The pit was not the end. It was part of the process. The delays were not abandonment. They were divine training.

And when God’s appointed time arrived, everything changed. In a single day, Joseph moved from prison to the palace. The years of suffering suddenly made sense. The God who sent him had never abandoned him.

The God who tested him had never forgotten him. The God who dealt with him was preparing him. The same remains true today.

If you are walking through a difficult season, do not conclude that God has abandoned you. If the promise seems delayed, do not abandon your faith. If the journey has become painful, do not assume you missed God.

The dealings of God are often the hidden pathway to the fulfilment of His promises.

Trust Him. Submit to His process. Judge Him faithful. For the God who begins a good work in His people is also faithful to complete it. And when His work is finished, you will discover that every dealing, every delay, every disappointment, and every trial was preparing you for something far greater than you could have imagined.

.Reverend Ukporhe is the Lead Pastor at Remnant Christian Network, Lagos. Raised in Sokoto, northern Nigeria, he was trained in peculiar firebrand evangelism and was ordained as a pastor in 2001. He has experienced countless and diverse workings of the faithfulness of God over two decades and has developed a passion to see God’s will for Nigeria become a reality. He can be reached at +2348060255604.