Yield To The Process

The Voice New Testament
Matthew 3:12--He carries a winnowing fork in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor; He will gather up the good wheat in His barn, and He will burn the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out.

     A threshing floor was a large paved area usually located near the top of a hill to take advantage of the wind.  People would would bring their sheaves of grain and spread them all across this threshing floor.  Pairs of donkeys or oxen would then be walked round and round, often dragging a wooden threshing board behind them.  This would tear the ears of grain from the stalks and loosen the grain from the husks.  Then the farmer would come along with a wooden fork-like tool called a winnowing fork and through the mixture into the air.  The chaff would be blown away by the wind leaving the heavier and more precious grain to fall at the farmer's feet.

     In Matthew's gospel that I have quoted above, John the Baptist gives his listeners a very good description of the process that a our Heavenly Father his children through.  He takes us from our familiar environment (the safety of the field we were raised in) and places us on a hard, stony surface.  Then, he brings in donkeys to stomp on us.  Some of these donkeys drag boards behind them.  
    
     This is not our punishment.  It's a natural cleansing process.  So much of what a grain of wheat is attached to is of no value to the farmer.  Therefore, the stomping of donkeys and the proverbial 2 x 4 is necessary to separate the grain from the "stuff."

     God is not mean when he puts us through this process.  Even though we whine and moan and groan, the things that this process separates from us, is not good to us either.  We just don't know it, yet.

     Then, our Father takes His winnowing fork and throws us up in the air.  Have you ever been there?  Seems like you're falling and don't know you're going to land?  It very well could be that the Father is trying to expose you to the wind of His Spirit to gently blow more of the "unnecessary" away from you.

     It is only AFTER the process is complete, that we can look at what's left and say, "God knew what He was doing all the time."  Yield to the process.  The Apostle Paul said in Romans--ALL things work together for our good as we love the Lord.