Welcome to ROBERT B. FORT & FORT MINISTRIES

 Welcome!  rbfort.com is the official website for Robert B. Fort and Fort  Ministries.  Fort Ministries is a Christian organization dedicated to  strengthening the hands and encouraging the hearts of those in  ministry.  Calling upon Robert's 56 years of pulpit ministry [52 years  together as a marital team], including 15 years of nationwide  evangelistic ministry and 41 years as pastors & church planters,  Robert and Esther Fort uplift and encourage leaders and congregations  worldwide with their solid Word-based preaching, exceptional giftings in  musical ministry & wealth of practical experience. 

I’ve  been preaching a series on Faith & Faithfulness and we’ve been  looking at the life of Joseph.  As I share a few of these concepts, I  pray they will be a blessing.  Even more important...the Holy Spirit  has clearly shown me that Satan is increasingly using disappointment and  emotional wounding to try to “take people out” [an expression I use  to describe why people give up, quit, leave, get bitter and angry (at  God or other people), throw in the towel, etc., on their ministry or the  place of ministry to which God has called them].

Ego is always an “issue” on the part of those being attacked  but the bottom line for spiritual survival and emotional recovery is  recognizing that what Satan intends for evil, God uses for good.  In the  short-term it is NEVER obvious what God is doing or why He allows these  things to come our way; but, just like Joseph of old, we must allow God to do what He’s doing in us  (when we can’t see or understand, when we’re in slavery and prison for  13 years, and all of our earlier hopes and dreams seem to be smashed  and/or impossible).  Only then does God get to write the chapters He plans to write (like taking us from prison to palace, in a moment of God’s own choosing,  and restoring the dreams the enemy tried to steal from us).  For Moses  it was 40 years on the backside of the desert, for David it was 20 years  being chased by King Saul.  We don’t know how long Job’s trial lasted  or how long ours will last but, if we will trust God (believe He is able  to turn our test into a testimony and our mess into a message), He will  turn the enemy’s efforts to destroy us into the making of us and transform our trial into His triumph!

Psalms 105:17-18 clearly states that GOD sent Joseph to Egypt  (not his jealous, hateful brothers).  Now I, in the natural, can think  of a lot easier way to get someone somewhere than as a slave and later a  prisoner; however, if you read verse 18 in the Amplified Bible it says,  “his [Joseph’s] soul entered into the iron” (speaking of  his mind, will, emotions) [i.e. until he was as strong on the inside as  the chain that bound him on the outside].  God used the years of slavery  & prison to prepare Joseph to rule and reign.

We  tend to forget that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness,  helplessness and infirmity; so we often react in anger and frustration,  rather than allowing God to do His transforming work within us.  The  Apostle Paul said, “When I am weak, then I am strong;” but we don’t like being weak, helpless, our lives seemingly  controlled by those who do not love us (like Joseph’s brothers or King  Saul) so we try to be strong in our flesh instead of allowing God to  cripple our flesh (like He did with Jacob when he wrestled with God) so  we can be transformed and become truly powerful in the Spirit.

Psalms 105:19 says, “Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him.”   The enemy uses the things we don’t understand to try to “take us out.”   And the word of the Lord (God’s promises, the dream and vision God gave  us when He called us into ministry) becomes our trial.  Think about it:  none of it could possibly have made sense to Joseph, Moses, David or  Job while they were still in the dark about what God was doing; however,  their time of testing was not the last chapter God was writing in their life.   Their willingness to trust God through slavery, prison, the desert,  living in caves, loss of reputation, position and financial resources  was what made them men of spiritual iron, preparing them for the great  future God had for them; none of which would have happened if they had let the enemy “take them out” before the new chapters were written in their life.

In  56 years of ministry I’ve learned many lessons (through pain, tears and  struggle) but I’m still standing…PTL!  In the process I’ve made many  mistakes (in responding to the things God has allowed in my life) but  God has been extremely merciful to me.  One thing I have learned…and I  share this with you in love:  “It’s never God who is on trial, it’s always me.”  I have ranted at the heavens, decrying the injustice of it all; but, looking back, I see God used every bit of it as spiritual surgery to transform me, to humble me, to teach me His ways, to strengthen me in faith, to make me more like Christ.

God is allowing this type of trial and testing in many people right now.  Some will trust Him and grow; unfortunately, some will be “taken out” by the enemy because they won’t trust God regarding things in their life they can’t comprehend.  God is preparing His people to stand in these last days…so we cannot be shaken!  The enemy’s attacks are growing ever stronger (and often it is spiritually immature and/or prideful believers  that Satan uses to wound other believers…remember: those who sold  Joseph were his “brothers,” King Saul was David’s Father-in-law &  those who repeatedly accused Job were his “friends”); and yet, as Daniel  foretold (Daniel 11:32), “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”  That was the cry of Paul’s heart, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Phil. 3:10). Let that desire become your heart’s cry too.

You are very dear to God!  He knows when you are being tried by fire and Christ Jesus intercedes for you “that your faith fail not” (Luke 22:32).  Don’t get “taken out!” Stop  saying, “Why me?” and start saying “Why not me?  God is forging  spiritual iron in me, preparing me for my future and His plans for me.” Be encouraged!  God is on the throne!  His ways are higher than our ways [Rom. 11:33-34, “…how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who has known the mind of the Lord?”], and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.  He is still in control regardless of what present circumstances may seem to indicate; and He is always working all things together for our good [like vegetables, good for us; not what tastes good, like cake, or what feels good to us at the moment] because we love Him and we are, “the called according to His purpose.”