Christine Caine - Developed, Not Discovered - Part 1
Hey everyone. I am so excited to be with you today and I am pumped about our subject matter. We're gonna talk about what it is to be developed and not discovered. We got a generation that is waiting to be discovered. Whether it's on the voice or whether it's on idol or it's just, you know, maybe somewhere on social media, someone's gonna discover me. But I think I'm gonna prove to you today from scripture that God doesn't actually discover us, he doesn't need to discover us because he already knows who we are. And so, it's not that he's going ooh, I didn't know you existed. He made us so that's never gonna be a problem with God, but he does develop us into his image.
Now, a while ago, I came home from work and my eldest, my first-born, Catherine Bobbie, had left this on our kitchen table and it was a informal contract. And she had written I and then put a line that I've had to fill in my name, Christine Caine. I, Christine Caine, solemnly promise, that I will never, ever post another image of my daughter, Catherine, on any social media without prior permission, and it was that day that she crossed over from being a little girl that I could do whatever I wanted with her life to, now I have to ask for permission and then she has to actually get the image and then put all the relevant filters on it so that before I can post it anywhere.
But you know, what happens in the world that we live in? What can be fun and what can be a good way to share information and I share it all, any of you that follow me, you know that. I like, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Twitter. And I love it, I put more stories up than anybody else because I think it's a whole lot of fun. As long as you control it and it doesn't control you. As long as it doesn't set your value or self of esteem or sense of identity. We know our world is obsessed with it because you have on Facebook, by the time I'm doing this TV show, this is gonna be outdated by tomorrow, but already, there's over 300 million Facebook photo image uploads every day, every day, and there's more than 250 million Instagram pictures and the most trending hashtag, always, is the hashtag selfie. We are very obsessed with ourselves.
I know you find that hard to believe but then just stop and think, and you can look straight ahead of you, it's not talking to the woman next to you, not you, right at this moment, but how many selfies we put out there. Selfies have got millions of uploads. And of course we can, I have to laugh because, it's like, yes, yes, yes, I'm gonna go out and take a picture of my most authentic, genuine, spontaneous self so I'm gonna make sure I'm in the best lighting and that I actually have the best angle and then I scroll through the best filter and then I cut and crop and then and then. I put my most spontaneous self up there for everybody else to see and if it doesn't get enough likes in the first three minutes, I've gotta take it down because obviously, I've failed at my spontaneous selfie.
And so, we have a world where, whatever I'm doing, right now, when I'm talking to you, all over the world, if I wanted to take a picture of this stunning woman on the front row, and upload it within three seconds, my friends in Australia could be seeing that. What a crazy world that we live in. Often times when I want to communicate information about A21 and I instantly wanna say we've got this lead in Thailand, I can upload it immediately and people, thousands of people all over the world are praying. It's awesome. But you have to understand it is awesome, period, and my daughters know nothing else. See, I remember a time when there was no way you could do that so to me, it is still miraculous, whereas my daughters get frustrated if it takes four seconds instead of three seconds to upload and to get all around the world. They don't know any other life. Neither does the whole generation. And neither will a whole generation.
Now, that's okay when it comes to social media, but there is a problem when that's how we think that God actually outworks our destiny and if you don't know there's another way, you'll never know there's another way and you'll get frustrated at God because your destiny or his promises seem to take so long to come to pass because you're used to the instant snap and upload and so God may speak a word to your heart, you may be having a quiet time and the Lord speaks to you something through the word about your future and you're getting all fired up and all excited, we think because I saw a glimpse of it today, it'll be reality tomorrow. But you know, when I was growing up, I remember that we used to, when these things were invented, which they're really trendy now. I have to laugh because this last Christmas, my 15-year-old that has all the digital technology, she now wanted a Polaroid camera and a record player. A vinyl record player. And I'm like, you are kidding me that you know, we've gone full circle, and so I thought all those vinyl records that I threw away.
Do you remember, some of you, maybe you're as old as me but there was a period of time when all vinyl records were demonic and they were the sound and the bass and you had to burn them all and man, what a waste of such a good record collection 'cause I had some beauties, but anyway, it was like yes, Jesus, I'm bowing down all my idols and oh, what I would give. Anyway so, when this was invented, we thought this was the most radical technology in the world. I mean, you could press a button, I'm gonna take you right there on the other side of the camera. I'm gonna take a picture of you on TV. My husband promises that this works and, sorry, there you go. I'm gonna take you and I'll push the button, I've done everything they've told me to do. She's got the selfie sort of, okay. And it comes up and we're thinking this is awesome.
Now again, while I'm playing games with all of this, it's still blank at this point. Still blank, it's still blank. We just have to wait. Now, you know, when I use that word wait, one would think that I'm cussing to some of the younger generation 'cause this is, is that in the dictionary? What does that mean? Because that is totally contrary to our generation with, I'm just again, let's go, here we go. And there's that photo. It's already there? I could upload and send it to the world. So just in case anyone's looking, there's that awesome girl right on the other side of the camera. And I'm still waiting, still waiting. Because this is what a generation has grown up with and this is what we're still waiting. Well, prior to even this advanced technology, I grew up back in the day with the dinosaurs when we had this archaic relic called a film camera.
Now I know you may have to go to the museum and look up what this is, but you would actually have to take out a little roll of film, that's what this is, for those of you that have never seen it because all you've ever had is the phone. You would take film and you would actually have to go to all of the effort of pulling this and putting it in the back of a camera, then you would shoot a roll of film, then when it all finished, it would all go back into this little cylinder just like you see here and then you would have to put this in an envelope and then you would take it to Walgreen's or to rite aid and then you would pray and you would fast and you would intercede in the Holy Spirit because you would be waving this thing goodbye and you're not gonna see it for two weeks and you do not know if you've shot a whole film of your foot, you do not know if you've actually got any image. You've got no idea. It's between the Holy Ghost and the roll and off it goes. And it goes.
And then what would happen is somebody in some magical place would get all of these rolls of film. Then they would take this roll of film and they would go into a large closet that they would call a dark room. They would then put this roll of film through nine chemical processes on a tray, in order to develop the film. And then when you turned up, you would just believe God, there would be some pictures. In case some of you have never seen this, I went to an ancient archeological site in my garage and I picked wedding photos because this was pre-digital. And so this is me in a wedding dress, but we would go and this is what would happen. This whole process is you would have actual pictures and actual, and you would look at 'em and you would go wow and you would put them in real life albums, not like on an album on your phone. But you would put them in a real-life album and you would look at them and I have got boxes and boxes of these and my daughters, after they finish laughing at us, they're like oh, mum, all this space. This is so bad for the environment. They wouldn't even know how you store this kind of thing.
Now why did I tell you all of that? Because what happens is you and I are living in a snap and upload generation. You and I live in a world where you see it, you snap it, you upload it, it's kind of done. I grew up in a generation where you put film through an entire process that lasted a couple of weeks before you got your pictures back now, the point was you would never wanna open the dark room and let the light in while the film was going through those nine chemical processes because if the light came in prematurely, it would expose the film or it would destroy all of the photographs. You would never get photographs. You had to wait until the image was forged here in the photo in the dark room. When this image was formed, then you could open up the dark room and you could take all of these outside because the light that came on the photos would no longer destroy them because the image was already forged around them.
God gives us a glimpse of what it is that he has for us, then he takes us into the dark room of anonymity and obscurity and he begins to forge his image on the inside of us. When that image is forged strong enough, then God takes us out and exposes us to the world. But if we allow the spotlight of the world to come on us before the image of Christ is forged in us then the light that is on us will destroy us because the character that is in us cannot sustain us and we have a generation that we want to raise up to be the men and women of God that God has called them to be, but in order to fulfill the promise of God, in order to fulfill the purpose of God, in order to fulfill the destiny of God, we have got to stop being impatient and stop thinking of our destiny like a snap and upload on social media or a Snapchat or an Instagram chat. And we need to begin to view it like a development process when you develop a roll of film.
God cares too much about us to launch us into the light prematurely where the light will destroy our lives. Character formation is the essence of Christianity. Spiritual formation is what this whole deal is about. Sanctification is what I'm talking about if we're using those kind of words. We need to daily be becoming more and more like Christ. Part of the purpose of being a Christian is that you and I would be conformed and transformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That does not happen overnight. That's not like a Snapchat or an Instagram story. That takes time, that takes situations. That takes circumstances and I'm telling you, so much of the frustration that we see within a generation is because people are trying to liken their destiny to a snap and upload instead of a long process.
And I'm gonna prove to you today from scripture that the important thing that God does is he develops us over time. He doesn't discover us in time. God actually plucks us out of eternity, positions us in time, he's intentional about where he has placed us, where he has positioned us, the times, the seasons, the countries, the places that we are in. He doesn't need to discover us. He hasn't forgotten where he's put us. It's not American idol where he's like woo, there's the new voice, I had no idea. That is not what God is doing. He's going, I put you in there. Now I'm forging my character in you so that I can do, through you, what I want to do in the world. And we've gotta be careful that when it comes to our destiny, that we do not try to fast track a process that is just going to take time. Because we are bombarded with images from the media, because we live in a social media world, we can so often miss it because we think God has forsaken us because he doesn't upload our destiny overnight and take us to where we think we wanna go.
Can I just tell you this much after all this time of serving Jesus over 31 years? I have found most places that I thought I wanted to be, I really didn't. Thank God that he didn't give me most of my prayers. I would have limited God. I could never have dreamt that I would be doing what I'm doing today. The Bible says no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has for you. When I started in ministry, I couldn't have dreamt of A21. I didn't know human trafficking existing. I did not even know to pray that one day I would lead a global anti-trafficking organization. I hear so many young people, Christine, I just wanna be you. I just wanna build what you, and I'm thinking wow, whatever it is that God's got for you, it doesn't even exist yet. So if I were you, I'd be trying to lay ahold of God and find out what it is that God's already planned because if I am your limit, I feel sorry for you. I hope I inspire you, but we don't need another A21.
We've got an A21, so we need to find what God has for you and so a lot of us, we limit what God can do because we just wanna do what someone else is doing, so when I started, I didn't know A21 would exist. I didn't know that was in my future. I started serving Jesus at 21. I started A21 at 41. That's 20 years! I didn't know that propel women was in my future. I started serving Jesus at 21, propel women started at 48. That was 27 years later. I can't wait to see what he's got for me when I'm 58 because it doesn't exist yet and I'm not gonna limit him and I'm just gonna just try to limit him by what I can think about. My Bible says that my eye has not seen. My ear has not heard, nor has it entered into my heart the things that God has for me so sometimes we go man, this is my biggest dream. I feel sorry for you because God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond anything that we could ever ask, hope or think, don't limit him according to your instant snap and upload perspective of what God can do. He develops us over time and the degree to which we allow him to develop us and do work in us, is the degree to which he will do work through us.
The deeper I have allowed God to go in my life, the broader sphere of influence I have found in my life. But any building that is built, the taller the building, the deeper the foundation. So you really get to choose. You can have an instant snap and upload, but there's no tall building and there's no great foundation, and so I want a life that's gonna outlive me. I want to do things for God that are gonna way, way outlast my time on this earth. But in order to do that, I have to stay committed to the process of God doing a work in me and forging his image in me before he is able to do a great work through me. Our text for this whole series is gonna come from the book of Samuel. We're gonna look at who we now know as king David and we're gonna watch the process of the development of king David's life and we're gonna be inspired and you're gonna see from scripture that when God has a great plan, purpose and destiny for your life, he doesn't just overnight catapult you to that destiny.
There's plenty of suddenlys in the Bible but I do want to tell you that every suddenly takes about 20 years and so if you are willing to wait 20 years, you will get a suddenly. People go to me, wow, Christine. You're doing that, man that's, what an overnight success. It was a 25-year-long night. Yes, it was a very long night. But the fact is if we're gonna leave a legacy and we're gonna do something that greatly is impactful for the Kingdom of God, then we must, must understand that it's going to take time because what we need is, we need anointed people on the earth. We need anointed accountants. We need anointed doctors, anointed lawyers. We need anointed factory workers. We need anointed teachers. We need anointed librarians. We need anointed ministers. We have a lot of gifted people. We have a lot of talented people but there's a real difference between a gift and a talent and an anointing. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah chapter 10, verse 27 that it is the anointing that breaks the yoke and the chain. An anointing comes from crushing.
You know, I'm Greek, so I love to eat lots of olives and I also love to, I was gonna say drink olive oil, but you know, put olive oil on my salad. Well, here is the point. There is only one way you get olive oil and that is by crushing the olives. If the olives don't go through the crushing, there is no oil. If you are not willing to go through the process and the time that it takes to crush our selfish ambition, to crush our flesh, to crush our ungodly motives out of us, to crush our ungodly characteristics out of us, we don't go through the process of the crushing, then there is no oil that producing anointing. When people say Chris, you're anointed to lead A21 or you're anointed to leader propel or you're anointed to write books, where does that anointing come from? It comes from the dark room of anonymity and obscurity and crushing, of doing some things I don't wanna do, of being in some situations that I haven't wanted to be in.
Of learning to zip my mouth which is a miracle greater than the resurrection of Jesus, of learning to zip my mouth when I would much rather defend myself and vindicate myself and say a whole lot of things. It's by staying in circumstances serving for years longer than I ever wanted to. Making a decision to remain loyal when other people around me were not loyal. So all of that, it crucifies your flesh, it kills you and it crushes you, but with that comes an anointing and a lot of us, sometimes we wonder, why can a church or a situation exist where someone comes inbound and then they leave bound and after all that singing and all that sermonizing you would think they should be free because this is what happens.
Just because someone is gifted and can sing, be a worship leader, someone is gifted and can speak and give a talk or teach from the Bible, gifted and anointed are two different things. A gifting can fill a room. A gifting entertains people. A gifting wows people. We love their gift, we love their gift. But the Bible doesn't say, the gift breaks the yoke and chain. It says the anointing breaks the yoke and chain and so, we don't need more gifted ministers. We need a whole lot more anointed people that are willing to go through the crushing so that there is an oil so that when people come in and people come into your workplace, people come into your home, people come over for dinner. But when you're at the supermarket and you're talking to the girl at the checkout that the anointing will break the yokes and the chains and the bondages that are keeping them bound. We need anointed people for the Kingdom of God in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.