Testing Fires
"Trying of your faith"
What is Divine Testing?
Divine testing (to be tested by God), is something that all believers will go through. There are many reasons why it is necessary. It can bring humility or prove of our faith and help our spiritual development. God’s testing can take on many forms and be as simple as obeying his directions and commands or as intense as facing a great challenge. What ever form it takes, god’s testing will bring us to truth and change.What we know about divine testing is critical to ho we go through it. We must know that sometimes when God is testing us we may not always understand his ways, we must trust God to tell us what we need to know, when we need to know it. As Romans 11:33 tells us God’s action are beyond man’s understanding. And Revelation 15:3 also tells us that we can trust what ever God does to be just and true. When we have this knowledge in our heart we can then embrace testing and have peaceful faith in God’s action even if his way is nothing like ours. God doesn’t plan to hurt us. It will be all right! Isaiah 55:8 "...my ways are far beyond anything you can imagine" (NLT).
We must not confuse the testing of God with temptation to do wrong things. This calls to mind the scripture in
James 1:13 "...no one wants to do wrong should say God is tempting me." (NLT) We need to remember that evil desire remaining uncheck with us will entices and lure us, this type of tempting will led to sin not the building of our spiritual man. Let us have a clear understanding, resisting sinful urges is right, but it is not God’s method of testing. Romans 8:12-13 tells us that through the power of the Holy Spirit we are able and must turn away from the sinful nature and it’s evils ways. While God does not use this tempting as testing, when we do resist the lure of evils desires and kill mortify the deed of the flesh, we should rejoice over having the victory. WE ARE BLESSED when resist and stand in victory. Romans 8:28 "…God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God" (NLT)God can use many methods to test us, it all revolves around what he is testing with in us. Notice in the book of 2 Kings 3:6-20, when God tested the kings and their armies, he was testing their Faith and the method he chose fit his purpose. He did it by commanding them to do what seemed like useless work, "Make this valley full of ditches" (KJV) and that they would get water which the prophet called a "light thing" for God to do. The Prophet also told them that would give them the victory over their enemy. We know God can bring water without men digging ditches, he gave Moses and the Israelites water from a rock. In this verse see God is testing them and they obeyed God, that obedient response is want matters. If you wonder why, notice by verse 24, after the water came, they went on to win the battle over their enemy. They not only won the battle, they chased the enemy nation into their own land beating them all the way. Wow! Now look at verse 10 and you can see why testing was needed. Some had given up the faith that God would bring them the victory in the upcoming battle. Through this we can see how testing can build us, in this case it restored and increased their faith, The lack of water was the stumbling block of the king of Israel’s faith, and through their obedience God provided all the water they needed (Divine Supply). With faith renewed they went on to battle and won. There many ways divine testing can come upon us here are just a few:
- God commands us to make great sacrifice. Genesis 22:1 (Abraham)
- Giving people the freedom to chose. 1kings 3:5
- Giving a very difficult thing to do. John 6:5
- Divine delays. Psalms 69:3
(In summary: The testing of God can be through circumstances you enter into or through direct instructions he gives to you.)
"Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for forty
years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and find out
whether or not you would really obey his commands."
Deuteronomy 8:2 (NLT)
"So you should realize that Just as a parent disciplines a child, the
Lord your God disciplines you to help you"
Deuteronomy 8:5 (NLT)
Why is Testing Good?
Deuteronomy 8
chapter - Lead into testing because
We have
already shed some light why testing is needed, now will look a little closer at
the question. One way of seeing the benefit of testing is to look at it’s
results:
( Truth, Growth and Experience )
We know from the scripture in that God knows everything (Psalm 147:5), including the very thoughts of our minds and intents of our hearts. But be it by choice or not, we are not always aware of what may be in our own hearts. This doesn’t mean we don’t know ourselves at all, but sometime there is more in our hearts that we need to face. In some cases what we think we know about ourselves isn’t exactly correct, we will share more on facing the truth in our hearts in the next section of this study. Testing can reveal to us what God sees in us. Testing can also be God’s way of preparing us for what is ahead of us and making sure that we can stand through the enemies attack. We must know the truth about our hearts and be prepared to remain standing on the word, if we plan to serve God completely and lead successful lives. Deuteronomy 8:1-5 tells us important things about testing:
- Truth / Prove our character – God humbles us, revealing what we really have on the inside, not what we think we have.
- Growth / Discipline – as our Father he wants to correct us and make us, preparing us for his will and to remain faithful to him even after the blessings flow; testing is one of his ways to get this done.
- Experience / Find out – what we have inside and what we don’t have in side must me established, demonstrated to God and us. When we experience the success of the word in our lives, we are better able to continue in the word, when we face the next attack. Experience is a teacher!
EXPERIENCE & GROWTH
In 2 Timothy 3:11-12 Paul shares his experience of facing attacks. He was faced with intense persecution and affliction, but note he said "I endured" and then Paul wrote, "the Lord delivered me." (KJV). When we serve God and stand on his promise we will be attack by the enemy. God wants his people to be ready and able to stay in place on his word no matter what form the enemy attacks in. Testing can be a part of God’s building us
Mathew 13:21 "…persecution because they believe the word." (NLT)
Malachi 3:3 "…he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi , and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
The Enemies Attack / Testing
Let us remember, because of our relationship to God and efforts to build the God’s kingdom , the enemy attacks us and bring great test and storms our way also. While this testing is the satan’s handy work. Divine testing will help prepare us to face the enemy and stand in authority. Again the bible reminds us in Romans 8:28 That all things work together for us when we love God. We can also expect to come out this testing all the stronger, and better prepared for what ever comes next. An examples of this testing is when bad things happening to us and around us, when we are doing all we can serve God as he wills. Ephesians 6:11,13 "…stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the devil." (NLT)
People Can
Cause or Worsen A Test
we
can put ourselves in to the wilderness of testing when God says go one and we go
our own path. Since God’s way is holy it stands to reason that man’s own way
is evil and will lead to death. (Proverb
16:25) The word of God in Proverbs
12:15 says "The
way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is
wise."
- Important – When we pass through a
test we develop a greater trust for God’s word, we move to New and
Higher Levels.
Finding Out
How Far Your Faith Will Take You (works)
In Genesis 22:1-3
Abraham stands on God word through incredible divine testing, and God proves
him. God, whose only begotten son was sacrificed on the cross, places a very
difficult test on Abraham, asking him to sacrifice Isaac’s, his son.
As stated earlier, God sometimes makes a demand of us that is
very hard to do. The test put on Abraham was not the point, but Abraham’s
reaction was. Abraham demonstrated his faith. He didn’t look for a loophole in
God’s request, to use as a way to keep his son alive. How did he demonstrate
the faith in his heart ? "Abraham
assumed that if Isaac died, God was able to raise him back to life again".
Hebrew 11:19 (NLT)
- Gave a good report of God – He didn’t turn on God and question God’s love or his promise. He believed in God’s ability to take him through.
- Kept by the Word – He held on to God’s promise to him, the storm couldn’t make him let go of his solid foundation.
Abraham past the test and the faith God saw in his heart was now demonstrated and Abraham and Isaac could see God’s work in Abraham. Abraham was ready for the next level
TRUTH
Truth in the
Heart
Proverbs 15:11 "…Death and destruction are known by the Lord, How much
more does he know the human heart!" (NLT)
Note
: Proverbs 12:19 "Truth stands the test of time…"(KJV)In
Luke 11:14-17 the people ask Jesus a question with their lips but have a different thought in their hearts, and Jesus knows it and calls them on it. This shows us that God’s deals with the heart / the humble heart, and words from the lips only do not accomplishing anything. 1 Peter 5:5-6 says it like this "God sets himself against the proud, but he show favor to the humble." Wow! Did you hear that he shows favor to the humble? Our honesty with God about the secrets in our hearts will bring on blessings.Isaiah 29:13 points out what happens when we resist God’s efforts to keep us humble:
-These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but with their hearts they are far away.
-Their worship of amounts to nothing1more than human laws learned by rote. (Rote means empty memorization)
As
John 8:32 states ". The truth will set you free" (NLT) even truth about our hearts. Facing our secrets and bearing them before God as we accept his life-changing word amounts to living in freedom. The enemy has no dark secrets to use for building strongholds in our lives. We are free from pretense. We able to go before the throne of Grace, and truly get help in a time of need. Humbling is not easy and we need God’s help to do it, which can mean some testing, but the out come will take us closer to Jesus.