More To Be Desired Than Gold + “Faith: More Precious Than Gold”
Faith: More Precious Than Gold.
Over the last week or so, the process of gold being refined has come to mind, so on Monday a.m., in the sanctuary, I watched a video of the process. God touched me so deeply through what I learned.
This morning, on the way to MATC, Ell and I watched the video again, and he said, “It’s crazy how many steps it goes though.” That little sentence really struck me, and it sums up so much. The process of refining gold is not a once and done process.
It is a multi-layered, multi-step, multi-means process. I have always thought it was “JUST” heat, but there’s so much more. So many steps in the PROCESS OF REFINING:
In a nutshell, the steps go like this:
1* Gold comes from mines (90% pure) and from pawn shops (37% pure)
2* Gold is washed in chemicals to reach a concentration of 99.9%. The 1st chemical takes away base metals, and the 2nd takes away silver. “SO YOU’RE JUST LEFT WITH GOLD”
3* Broken jewelry is melted into scrap bars.
4* As the gold is melted, temperatures in the crucible reach 1,400 degrees.
5* The molten gold is molded into a bar, dipped in water and impurities are scraped off.
6* Next, 12 of these bars are melted together and washed with chlorine. The gold is now at 90% gold concentrate.
7* To reach further purity, the gold is turned into gold “cornflakes”.
8* It is then washed with a chemical called Aqua Regina
(FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE ON THIS STEP: “Can gold be destroyed?’ The only way gold can truly be destroyed is through nuclear reactions. However, there does exist a way to DISSOLVE gold using “Aqua Regina,” which is a mix of hydrochloric and nitric acids. Even so, this DOES NOT MEAN THE GOLD IS DESTROYED after exposure. AFTER DISSOLVING, IT EXISTS AS GOLD PARTICLES IN A MORE WIDELY DISPERSED FORM.” (WOW)
9* It is now TURNED INTO LIQUID and DRIED INTO SAND. (WOW again). GOLD “SAND” IS THE PUREST FORM YOU CAN GET. (Not beautiful OR shiny at this stage.)
10* “Gold sand” is again melted in the crucible and turned into grains. (The grains are formed by pouring the liquid, molten gold into water—or a chemical?). This grain is the final product of the refinery.
11* Now, the grain is MELTED AGAIN and cast. Some is “minted” — pressed into strips and cut into shapes (coins, etc.)
12* Gold that is not minted is “cast.” The grain is put in molds and melted twice to form molded/cast gold bars. **99.9% PURE **
All these steps have really been on my ❤️heart; thinking of the painstaking effort and great patience the Refiner displays as He works His purification/sanctification process in our lives.
1* First, we are “dug out of the mines” and “bought back” from the pawn shops. “All who seek the LORD! Consider the rock from which you were cut, and the quarry from which you were mined.” (IS 51:1 - NLT). “…the church of God, which He PURCHASED with His own blood.” (ACTS 20:28)
2* We are washed in the waters of baptism. Our past is washed away!! “And such were some of you, BUT YOU ARE WASHED, but you are sanctified, you are justified in the Name of the LORD Jesus, and by the spirit of our God.” “SO YOU’RE JUST LEFT WITH THE gold ,” as Mr. Baird explained.
3* Broken pieces began to be dealt with. Being cleansed and purchased, does not mean being instantly whole. We are often purchased and washed as broken pieces—with broken hearts, broken mindsets, broken families, broken storylines with ongoing complexities and consequences. The effects of the fallen world have imprinted themselves deeply on our lives, and from the point of being cleansed, we will have to daily submit and surrender pieces and places to the Refiner. “He HEALS the broken in ❤️heart and binds up their wounds.” (PS 147:3). The minds(mindsets) we have lived with for so long must be transformed. “…be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” In surrendering our broken pieces to God, He begins a deep healing and purifying process of heart and mind. In many cases (if not all), it is an on-going, life-long process.
4**- 6** We go through the cyclical process of refining. Heat and water. Over and over, God uses the circumstances of our lives to melt and purify and test our motives and character and integrity. He intensifies the heat of trials to skim off yet another layer of impurities. This ongoing process is on repeat for as long as God feels it is necessary. Every life and every process is different.
7** Along the way of sanctification, he breaks us again to small pieces. Broken down, just as it ways of the clay in Jeremiah 18: he broke down what He had made, and made it again…
8** And, as if that weren’t enough, if we have stuck with His process to this point (because, let’s face it, many don’t), He then dissolves us. He liquifies to the point we wouldn’t even recognize ourselves as “gold.” This is gold in an unfamiliar form and only the purest of gold will undergo this process. Clear, yellow, liquid…this is not a state of gold that many know about or see. Only those in the refinery see gold in liquid form. But, as previously shared, like gold, true children of God cannot be destroyed. They may be liquified, but it is not to destruction. Like gold, liquified lives “will live as gold particles in a more widely dispersed form!” The lives that reach this liquification stage will be available to God for broader dispersion.
9** After liquification, the gold is turned back to a solid form. But it is not a beautiful form. The gold at this stage literally looks like regular, ordinary sand. No one would look at it with a naked eye and assume it was gold. Nobody would look at it and see value, yet what is visible does not determine value, for this is gold in its most valuable, purest form. Not recognizable, but unimaginably valuable. “It is the purest form you can get.” “I must decrease.” The smaller the gold, the higher the value.
10** The gold goes through a stage where the size of the grains of gold are increased. They are melted and turned to what looks to me like gold “pebbles”. This is the final stage before the gold is melted into a 99.9% pure bar that everyone will recognize. God is always a God of PROCESS. He doesn’t just do one step and we’ve “arrived”. He works “here a little” and “there a little”, as Isaiah wrote. He doesn’t take us straight from liquid to a solid bar, and He doesn’t take us straight from sand, as broken down to the smallest possible pieces, straight to a solid bar. He progressively gets us to that pure point where can be a “vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared junto every good work.” He works slowly, methodically, purposefully and intentionally. He works painstakingly with the material of our lives, with great patience and long-suffering on display. His work is always in stages and steps, for He is a God of order. He is a God of process.
11** The pure gold is now USED in one of two ways: it is either minted into coins/pressed into strips and useful shapes, OR it is melted twice into gold bars. The purest gold is now in valuable, usable, recognizable form. The liquified stages that only very few in the refinery saw, is now a distant memory of the past. The “sand stage” is now behind them, and God has worked with material of a life until it is proven and refined. Some, at this point, are put into circulation, like coins….small pieces, passed out for public consumption. And some are, like bars, reserved in a safe place for the Master’s FUTURE use.
Whatever the means, the Refiner’s desire is to purify and better the lives He buys back. He wants to SANCTIFY THAT WHICH HE’S REDEEMED. And He’s in it for the long haul. Working in stages. Working in stops and starts as we are able to endure the next step in the refining process.
And the process will look different for every life. Sanctification will happen as we surrender to His means and His methods. And, often I’ve discovered that I don’t understand why He’s doing what He’s doing, or what He’s doing. Job, too, in the heat of an afflicted, refining season said, “Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: BUT HE KNOWETH THE WAY THAT I TAKE: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”. (JOB 23: 8-10) Job says, I have no idea what is going on, but I KNOW God is at work, and I KNOW God is refining, and I KNOW that when He’s done doing whatever He’s doing, I’m coming out of this better and brighter. I shall come forth as gold! Melted, but not destroyed. Liquified again and again, but for refining, not destruction. I declare that He knows what He’s doing and I declare that I’ll come through it! GOOD THOUGHTS, JOB!! ❤️
Stick with the Refiner’s process…. when you feel the heat, or you’re in an unrecognizable form, remember the words of Peter: “That the trial of your faith, BEING MUCH MORE PRECIOUS THAN OF GOLD THAT PERISHETH, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (I Peter 1:7)
YOU WILL COME FORTH AS GOLD!
Thank you for joining me for this journey!
Go grab your Bible and your journal!
I look forward to the power of this habit in your life.