What would you do if the Holy Spirit directed you to an uncomfortable Scripture for encouragement? All of us desire to hear encouragement and words of comfort, and I want to comfort you with this: God will always direct you to His holy written Word for the encouragement you need to draw closer to Him and to walk in Spirit and in truth. It may not be the Word that you or I want to hear, but His Word is always the truth.

While sitting on my front porch several days ago, I was spending some quiet time with God. In the stillness of that moment, A Scripture dropped in my spirit, and as it did, hot tears streamed down my face. It was Luke 22:31-32,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

ESV

What an encouragement, right? It did not feel like it in the moment, but what follows in verse 32 is comforting because it points back to Jesus Christ, our High Priest and Intercessor, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” No one wants to be sifted or directed to a passage of Scripture comparing a point in one’s life to a preeminent point in another’s life that is an element of suffering. I will tell you that this time personally has been one of the most difficult in my life. As an cohabitant of the secret place, I pursued God in this time to get understanding. This moment was illuminating and gut wrenching. When I further studied this Word, I realized that this not only applied to myself but to the body of Christ. I truly believe that there is a sifting taking place in those who will not despise it. Loss may come, but I am telling you, when Christ is your gain, it matters not.

When studying this passage, understand that in the first verse, the use of the word “you” is plural. Satan had asked to sift all of the disciples. Peter was not the chosen one to be sifted, but he would scatter like the majority for a time, becoming like the chaff caught by the wind while spiritually weighed down by fear. However, the greatness was not found in Peter, but in a Savior that interceded for him and ministered over Peter to strengthen the brothers when he returned from the aftermath of the sifting. Hallelujah that we belong to a God who makes intercession for us so that He may be glorified in the earth!

According to the Complete Word Study Dictionary, the Greek word for sifting means “to shake as a grain in a sieve. Figuratively, to agitate and prove by trial and afflictions.” Sifting is a process to remove those parts that are a hindrance. Sifting involves threshing and winnowing, beating and tossing to ultimately rid the wheat of the chaff. As I sat on my porch thinking on the sifting, I realized that we have two choices in the sifting: we can be found in Him and fall as wheat in the winnowing or we can be blown by the wind and identify as chaff. Many times we try and escape the agitation in the sifting. There has to be an easier way, but sifting is necessary because without the sifting, the harvest cannot come to fruition.

There are many in the church being sifted right now. It is a collective “you”. There are things going on that are bringing agitation, trial and affliction. It feels like a beating and a tossing taking place. Things are being stripped off and chaff is blowing away so that the pure in Christ remains. There is a proving taking place in the trial, and the proof is our intimacy with Christ while resting upon the foundation of the Word of God. Will we remain in the winnowing? Even if you buckle under the pressure, return to Him. This is all about Him. The shaking going on around us and within us as the body is a sifting. We have no need to fear in the process because Jesus makes intercession for us. A sifted church is a shifted church.