3. Can He trust you through separation?
When Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem for Nazareth after
the Passover, they realized that 12-year-old Jesus had been left
behind. Distraught, Mary returned to the temple to retrieve Him.
“Why did you seek Me?” responded Jesus, who had been
amazing the teachers with his wisdom. “Did you not know that I must be
about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).
At that point, Mary had to be willing to go home alone,
separated from the precious Son she had birthed and raised. Like Mary,
you may not always be able to maintain a relationship with the person
or thing you are attached to. After all, this is not about you; this is
for God’s glory!
God needs to know that when He gives you something
special, you will give it back to Him and remain separated from it—even
though you care about it. Can God trust you to say, “I love you, Lord,”
even through separation from that special person or thing?
4. Can He trust you to wait for the right timing?
If Mary had one trouble, it was with timing. At the
wedding in Cana, she came to Jesus and told Him the host had run out of
wine. He answered, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?
My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4).
Timing is so important! If you are going to be successful
in dance, you must be able to respond to rhythm and timing. It’s the
same in the Spirit.
People who don’t understand God’s timing can become
spiritually spastic, trying to make the right things happen at the
wrong time. They don’t get His rhythm—and everyone can tell they are
out of step. They birth things prematurely, threatening the very lives
of their God-given dreams.
There is a time for everything. Can God trust you to resist pressure that would rush you into His plan for your life?
5. Can He trust you with rejection?
Once, when Jesus was teaching a crowd, Mary came to see
him. But when Jesus’ disciples told Him she was waiting outside, He
responded, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” Pointing to His
disciples, He added, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever
does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and
mother” (Matt. 12:48-50).
Jesus’ own mother—the woman who went through pain,
endured scandal, and nurtured and protected Him all His life—had to
face rejection. You, too, will be rejected.
You won’t always get the answer you want from God. People
won’t always respond to you or your ministry the way you’d like. Can
you be trusted to remain faithful?
What do you do when you’ve danced all over the church and
you’re still not healed? What do you do when you get “slain in the
Spirit” and the debt is still there? What do you do when you pray the
seven-step prayer and the crisis doesn’t go away? Can God say “no” and
trust that you will still dance, still pray, still praise Him?
6. Can He trust you through death?
At Golgotha, Mary watched her Son hang from a wretched,
rugged cross—watched everything that she had labored for, fought for
and built her life around—die. And yet she never turned her head. She
never walked away, even though her whole world was falling apart.
Can God trust you through trauma and death—the death of a dream, of something you built your whole life around?
What do you do when things don’t turn out as you thought they would? What do you when being in God’s will breaks your heart?
Mary stood at the base of the cross and said, like Job,
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). She could not
have understood what was happening.
She did not know that through her Son’s death, God was
reconciling the world to Himself. She had no idea that in three days,
He would be resurrected to new life. She just stood there watching,
trusting a God she didn’t understand.
When God’s purpose brings pain in your life, can you be trusted to stand and say, “God, You can still count on me”?
7. Can He trust you through disappointment?
After Jesus’ death Mary walked away from Golgotha, but
she did not walk away from God. The Scriptures say that she was still
part of the church. She was at all the services. She was still
worshiping and praising God, raising her hands, saying, “God, You’re
good! I magnify You. I worship You. I adore You.”
Mary kept going. She was in the upper room on the day of
Pentecost when “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a
rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2).
The Bible says that everyone in the room was filled with
the Holy Spirit. But Mary had a unique distinction: This was not a new
experience for her! When the Holy Spirit filled her, she knew who it
was because He had filled her once before.
Have you experienced the piercings that Mary did? Are you
someone who has survived hell and high water and still says, “I love
you, God. Your will be done”? Are you able to praise Him not only
through the good times but also when everything is going wrong? When
you don’t understand?
God wants to bless you with favor and victory. He wants
to birth great things in and through you. He wants you to know His
resurrection power.
But the Scripture is clear: If you want to know Jesus and
“the power of His resurrection,” you must be willing to enter into “the
fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10). God is still looking for
women like Mary—women He can trust with trouble. Can He trust you?
Bishop T.D. Jakes is founder and pastor of the
Potter’s House Church in Dallas, Texas. He is also the author of
several books, including Daddy Loves His Girls and Woman, Thou Art Loosed!
Bill Wiese 
Paul McGuire 
