Our Kingdom passage and permission insists that we need to taste the same bitter pill of being sold out by those we trust, the disagreeable poison of being forsaken by those most dear to us, if we are to be anything in the Kingdom. We need to experience the intense antagonism of the Judas kiss in the Garden. And the wormwood of the repeat denials before the rooster crows. Our souls need to know the straits of the anvil of anguish and distress of betrayal, by those whom we should definitely be able to trust, before we can walk in the fullness of Him who likewise suffered before us.

     Joseph's brothers, who literally and emotionally sold him out, his own family, later stated, "Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the ANGUISH OF HIS SOUL when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this DISTRESS has come upon us.”" [Genesis 42:21]. And it was for THIS moment, this occasion, that God groomed and pruned Joseph, to see how he would respond. We are all tested in our afflictions. Our afflictions test and shape the condition of our heart. And ABOVE ALL ELSE, we are called to guard our hearts, for out of it spring the issues of life. [Proverbs 4:23].

     Thank You, LORD, for the defiance of humanity to stand by his brother when he needs him most. For it is to YOU, then, that we turn, when man forsakes us. Hallelujah. Man's betrayal and duplicity are like the open sides of the funnel that ultimately usher one towards the narrow end of business, which, if we have any hopes or plans of emerging from, we have no choice but to enter.

     Such is the wine press process, that although the naked soul may burn under the harsh acid of betrayal, in due time, betrayal serves us well, for the narrow pipe, towards which the gravity of the funnel of our experience compels us, being that final part of the funnel that completely and wholly embraces us, is none other than the perfect arms of Yeshua Messiah, who not only draws near to us in our time of need, but who completely surrounds us too. It is in the narrow, dark tunnel of distress that He not only draws near to us, and wholly encompasses us, but it is where He shapes us under His Potter's hand.

     Though in that constrained causeway, our eyes cannot much see, and the claustrophobia of dark may be upon us, and the walls have closed tightly about us, and though at this time it feels like we walk through the shadow of death, for to our souls it most certainly feels like death, it is at this point, in our experience, where He personally sees us OUT of the "crisis of betrayal" INTO the "fullness of intimacy and completion".

For it is most definitely so that:

- ALL things work to the good of those who believe - Romans 8:8

- That though our afflictions may be many, He delivers us from them ALL - Psalm 34:19

- He alone is the I AM who never leaves us nor forsakes us - Deuteronomy 31:6

Thank You, my gracious LORD!!

- To God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be all the glory. Forever and ever. Amen and amen.

- Blessings, Wayne Biehn