The Lord Uses Battle as Instruction
The last few years have not been easy. They have been marked by fire. It wasn't accidental fire but refining fire—a furnace hotter than expected, seasons of pruning and sifting, deep dealings, repeated repentance, and even confronting bloodline issues and generational patterns. The Lord put His finger on places I did not know still needed cleansing.
My spiritual and natural health was tested. My inner life was stretched. There were battles that exposed weakness, pride, self-reliance, and subtle misalignments. And when there is spiritual warfare, it is never simply "the devil's fault." The Lord uses battle as instruction. He uses pressure to realign. He uses fire to transform us into the likeness of Jesus.
If you have been in that furnace—if you know the exhaustion of a season that feels like it will never lift—then this word is for you.
Those who have read my writings know that much of the last two years have been written from that refining place—wrestling, processing, repenting, pressing into deeper alignment. The journey toward the place of abiding is not theoretical. It is costly. It builds our story. It shapes our testimony. But fire is not forever.
Recently I received a word: the season is now. What was implied is that the old season has ended.
When I read Psalm 118 again, something shifted. I realized that the "now" season was not something I had to manufacture. It was already established in Christ. And that changed everything.
The Day the Stone Was Set
"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone... This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:22–24 ESV)
Psalm 118 is about a heavenly proclamation that reverberates through the expanse of the heavens. Jesus applied this directly to Himself (Matthew 21:42). What appeared to be rejection became enthronement. The cross was not interruption; it was coronation. The Stone the builders dismissed became the Stone that defined alignment for all time.
"This is the day" was not about a calendar sunrise. It was about a redemptive shift—the decisive moment when the rejected Stone was set as the Chief Cornerstone. From that point forward, history was reordered around Christ. We are not waiting for that day. We are living in it. We are living in the now reality of Jesus' redemptive work!
A Season of Fire Has an End
Refinement is not rejection. Victory often follows refinement. There are seasons when everything narrows. Vision is tested. Motives are exposed. Fruitful branches are cut back. What once felt expansive becomes focused. The fire intensifies, not to destroy calling but to purify it. But refinement is not rejection. (Photo via Unsplash)
"Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV)
"For a little while" means after a little while, not forever. And again Peter anchors us: "And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (1 Peter 5:10 NIV).
Notice the pattern: A little while, then restoration, then strengthening, and then establishment.
Fire has a duration. Pruning has an objective. Testing has a completion point. The Refiner watches the gold carefully, and when the impurities have surfaced and been removed, He brings it out stronger than before.
The season of stripping was preparation for deeper alignment and greater intimacy. It was not subtraction for loss; it was subtraction for clarity. It wasn't distance from God but nearness. It wasn't weakness but strengthening.
Hidden Formation, Visible Establishment
There comes a moment—and it is God initiated—when hidden formation gives way to visible establishment, when surviving shifts to advancing, when watching turns into building, when private obedience becomes public weight, and something else shifts.
When the Sound Changes
The enemy roars during the fire. Fear roars. Accusation roars. Intimidation roars. The adversary seeks to sound louder than the promise. But after "a little while," the sound changes. The enemy's roar is transformed into the roar of the Lion of Judah:
• What once intimidated now testifies.
• What once accused now affirms.
• What once pressed now positions.
The roar that once tried to silence you becomes the announcement of your establishment.
"After you have suffered a little while, [He] will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Peter 5:10 NIV, brackets mine)
That is not survival. That is enthronement alignment. And when He establishes, the Lion roars, not in threat but in authority. The fire had its season. Now comes establishment.
The Cornerstone Resets Alignment
In ancient construction, the cornerstone determined every other measurement. Once set, all lines were drawn from it. "Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 2:20 NKJV).
When Christ declared, "It is finished" (John 19:30), the striving cycle ended. The sacrifice was complete. Authority was secured. The powers of darkness were disarmed (Colossians 2:15). He sat down, because the work was done.
We are not fighting for victory. We are living from a victory already secured. This is the shift from looking toward breakthrough to building from finished work. (Photo via Unsplash)
Surpassing Restoration: The Pattern of Ezekiel 36
"I will multiply people on you... the cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt... I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 36:10–11 ESV)
This is covenantal reversal language. Look at what God initiates: increase is intentional. He Himself will bring the people. Vacancy ends. Systems are restored. Leadership is restored. Structure returns. Waste places are redeemed—not bypassed but rebuilt. Settlement replaces exile. Stability replaces wandering. And then the line that redefines expectation: "I... will do more good to you than ever before" (Ezekiel 36:11 ESV). This is not restoration to baseline. It is advancement beyond origin.
Ezekiel 36 follows cleansing and heart renewal earlier in the chapter. Internal transformation precedes external multiplication. Refinement first. Rebuilding next. Increase follows alignment. This rebuilding is not about comfort or personal prosperity. It is about demonstration.
"... so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 3:10 ESV)
A restored, aligned, inhabited people become a display of God's wisdom to unseen realms. And the scope of what He intends to do through that people exceeds anything we could design—beyond request, beyond imagination, and beyond prior capacity. It's not distant power; it's resurrection power already operative in the aligned Believer and the aligned Church. And all of it for generational glory, not personal platform. It's more good than the beginning. It's multiplication with purpose. It's restoration that reveals His nature.
"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV)
From Looking to Living
There was a long season of looking to the Lord: looking to Him for help, looking to Him for clarity, and looking to Him for mercy and breakthrough. When you are in the fire, you look up. When you are being pruned, you lean in. When the Lord is dealing with deep places in your heart, you listen more carefully than you speak. That season is humbling. It strips independence and restores dependence. It brings you back to first love. And we never outgrow it. We never graduate from abiding. The Christian life will always involve looking to Jesus.
But something shifts in how we think. When the veil was torn (Matthew 27:51), access changed. When the Spirit came to dwell within us (Romans 8:11), proximity changed. When Christ sat down, His work was finished and authority was settled. That reality demands a paradigm shift—not away from prayer but away from insecurity.
The shift is not from dependence to independence. It is from surviving to standing, from striving to prove something to resting in what has already been secured, from approaching God as though the outcome is uncertain to living as those who know the decisive battle has already been won. (Photo via Unsplash)
"In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37 ESV)
"More than conquerors" does not mean there is no resistance. It means the outcome has already been determined. We do not fight hoping to win. We stand because He already has.
The real pivot is internal. We stop thinking like we are trying to get somewhere spiritually. We begin living from what Christ has already established.
The "to" season refined us. It taught us dependence and deepened intimacy. But the "from" season builds through us. It releases confidence, stability, and quiet authority. We still look to Him, but now we live from Him.
Forget the Former Things
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18–19 NIV)
Isaiah is not calling us to erase the past. He is calling us to shift perception.
There are wilderness seasons that include fire, exile, pruning, and deep alignment. But there comes a moment when the former process can no longer define the present posture. "Forget the former things" means do not let the survival season shape your identity in the establishment season.
Maybe you have been carrying the posture of a season that has already ended. Maybe the fire finished its work but you are still bracing for heat. This is where perception must shift.
The new thing is not novelty; it is Christ revealed and established. The "springing forth" is the manifestation of the Chief Cornerstone. What Psalm 118 declared, Isaiah foresaw. The Stone is set. The alignment is secured. Now it springs up.
"I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:19 NIV)
Through Christ, a new and living way to the Father has been opened. The veil was torn. The path is laid. The wilderness refined us. The desert humbled us. But the river establishes us.
The roadway in the wilderness is not self-effort; it is the finished work of Christ. And what was dry becomes inhabited. What was desolate becomes productive. This echoes Ezekiel 36. It anticipates the river of life flowing from the throne (Revelation 22:1). It reflects the Spirit now dwelling within us.
The Stone is set. The roadway is open. The river is flowing. This is divine order emerging.
Things Set in Order
When the Cornerstone is honored, order follows. Confusion gives way to clarity. Wandering gives way to settlement. Delay gives way to establishment. The exile mindset ends. The refining fire has completed its assignment. The Stone is set. "This is the day that the Lord has made" (Psalm 118:24). The victory is finished. The waste places are rebuilt. The manifold wisdom of God is being revealed.
We are not moving toward triumph. We are living from it. The battle has been won. The time is now.
What This Means for You
If the fire has been relentless and you have wondered whether it would ever end, know that it has an expiration. The Refiner does not leave gold in the furnace past its appointed time. If you sense the sound changing around you (less accusation, more clarity; less resistance, more alignment), trust it. The shift is real. Stop bracing for the last season and begin building in this one. The Cornerstone has been laid. Every line of your life can be measured from Him. Start there.
Whatever you do, don't miss another ELIJAH LIST email! Subscribe at this link: elijahlist.com/subscribe.
Will Meier
Awakening Destiny Global
Email:Â info@awakeningdestiny.global
Website:Â www.awakeningdestiny.global
Will and Donna Meier are dynamic leaders at Awakening Destiny Global, passionately dedicated to awakening Believers and nations to their God-given destinies. Their mission is to restore and catalyze a global movement of spiritual revival and transformation. Will, a Kingdom entrepreneur, speaker, and leadership coach, combines decades of experience in a Fortune 50 aerospace company with his spiritual leadership. He is the author of 'Leaders for Life—Creating Champions through the NOW Leadership Process,' focusing on integrating Kingdom principles into marketplace leadership. Donna is actively involved in their community and was recently elected to the local board of education, where she advocates for children and aims to drive positive change. Their shared commitment to spiritual and community leadership makes them an influential apostolic and prophetic team across both spiritual and secular spheres. Will and Donna have two sons, live in Connecticut, and enjoy outdoor adventures and travel.
To receive more words like this in YOUR inbox, subscribe FREE to the Elijah List at this link: elijahlist.com/subscribe.
Thank you for making the always-free "ElijahStreams" possible. To partner with us, click here.
Your donations truly help us keep these emails free for you. Donate at:
Find us on:
* Facebook click here
* XAPiT click here
