If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer (2 Corinthians 1:6).

"God must love you a lot! He doesn't allow someone to go through the kinds of adversity you have experienced unless He has a special calling on your life." Those were the words said to me by two different mentors at two different times in my life over a three-year period. Later I would learn another related truth from a respected man of God who lives in another country that God uses throughout the globe. "The depth and width of your faith experiences are directly proportional to your calling." What were these men of God saying?

They were describing a process of preparation that God takes each of His leaders through who He plans to use in significant ways. A "faith experience" is an event or "spiritual marker" in your life that you can say, "That is where I saw God personally move in my life." It is an unmistakable event that God showed Himself personally to you. It is the burning bush for Moses. The crossing of the Red Sea or the Jordan River for the nation of Israel. Jacob's encounter with the angel. It is the feeding of the 5,000 for the disciples. It is the time when you saw God face-to-face in your life.

If God has plans of using you in the lives of many others, you can expect that He is going to allow certain faith experiences to come into your life in order to build a foundation that will be solid. That foundation is what you will be able to look back on to keep you faithful to Him in the times of testing. Each of us must have personal faith experiences in which we experience God personally so that we can move in faith to whatever He may call us to. Do you need a personal faith experience right now in your life? Pray that God will reveal Himself to you. He delights in doing that.