LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Need for Pressure
A phrase read in a book has aroused some reflections: "Only pressure makes precious stones". Indeed, it is said that, when a quartz is subjected to temperatures higher than 1470º, it is transformed into a cristobalite; that it is such a noble stone, that nothing can affect it, neither cold nor heat, nor acid, however strong it may be. The more temperature it resists, the more noble it is, and the more perfect it is.
This makes us think of the formation of the Christian's character. How many pressures there are on him, pressures of all kinds, family, school, work, spiritual! Sometimes it seems that he is going to burst, that it is not possible to go on. Sometimes he sinks into a depression, or an explosion of anger, and wants to end it all. Watchman Nee maintains that nothing spiritual can be produced except through pressure. Pressure is what produces spiritual fruit.
You are probably going through great hardship, a month, two months, a year ago. You are overwhelmed, you can't stand it anymore, everything is against you, it seems that everything is oppressing you from all sides. He fights with his family; at work he is annoyed; he doesn't fit in anywhere. He is annoyed with himself, he has no peace with anyone.
What is that? That's God working the stone. These are the high temperatures, the 1000 or 2000 degrees. There are people who can't stand the pressures -or they stand them to a certain degree- and then they say, "No more, Lord, this is as far as I go, I'm not going to go on any more! I'm going to go about my business and forget everything that has to do with God!".
Doing so will probably put an end to the pressures. But if you are one who has been called, if God has drawn a design for your life, you will not be able to escape for long; because in that environment where there is no apparent pressure, another type of pressure will begin to appear, different but also suffocating, and again you will have to escape, escape for the Lord and for the brethren, returning to the place from which you had fled.
There are pressures here and pressures there, there are pressures everywhere, there is no escape. There is no escape. Why? Because God wants to form you, to transform you into the likeness of his Son, and he is determined to make of you a precious stone.
And what is the characteristic of a precious stone? 1st, it has no light of its own, but reflects the light it receives, and 2nd, it receives a white light and expresses that light in a beam of colors, and those colors are the beauty of Christ. But all this cannot be done without pressure. All the colors of the rainbow are there, but more refulgent. It is the iridescence of the Wisdom of God, which is Christ Jesus.