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                    Your Faith is Going into the Fire!

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By David Wilkerson
February 5, 1990
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          "That the trial of your faith, being more precious than
          of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
          might be found unto the praise and honor and glory at
          the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:7).

          A very confused young pastor whose faith was shattered,
          called me this past week for prayer and Counseling. He
          was saved during the hippie revival of the late sixties
          and has been in the ministry more than 15 years. Over
          the years he became deeply impressed with the TV
          evangelists and their success in reaching the masses.
          Using similar methods, he had raised up a church of
          nearly 300.

          When certain TV evangelists came under scrutiny and
          some were found to be in sin, his faith was staggered.
          At the same time the doctrine of prosperity had begun
          to disillusion both him and his congregation; and
          further doubts were setting in.

          He then became involved with an independent group that
          believe they represent the new move of God on earth -
          prophets! Everyone was prophesying to everyone else.
          Most of the prophecies did not come to pass but certain
          significant ones did and this impressed him. How could
          it be wrong if some of the prophecies were coming to
          pass? But there was a nagging in his soul that
          increased when they introduced choreographed ballet
          dancing in the conventions and associated churches.

          He attended one of these conventions recently and had
          to walk out because it was a circus of personal
          flattery in the name of prophecy. The leaders would get
          up and prophesy great things of one another, as if led
          by an unseen spirit, saying, "You prophesy good of me
          and I'll prophesy good of you!" It was fleshly,
          self-exalting and frivolous. He left the place totally
          shattered in his faith. Another supposed move of God
          was nothing but a disappointment.

          He said, "My church would stand with me for hours
          thundering over our city in tongues: binding
          strongholds, principalities and powers. We've bound the
          enemy from the east, west, north and south but the city
          only gets worse. There is no evidence of change!

          "I have heard many voices. A month ago I heard a sweet
          voice saying to me, "My son, from this day on I've
          released all the funds you need. You will never again
          lack funds!" It never happened and the financial
          situation got worse. Now I am afraid to listen to any
          voice; I am doubting the validity of tongues and I
          don't want to hear any more phony prophecies."

          He went on, "My faith is shaking. I love the Lord, but
          I don't know what to believe anymore. I feel so out of
          place. I think, at times, it's going to have to be just
          Jesus and me because I'm so wary of falling into
          another deception."

          This pastor's trial of faith is not an isolated
          experience. Right now multitudes of God's people are
          enduring the severest trials of faith since coming to
          Christ. Their faith has been cast into the fire of
          testing! Satan has mounted a powerful assault on the
          faith of the chosen. It will only get hotter and more
          intense in the troubled days ahead. Peter warns of a
          "season of manifold temptations causing heaviness" (1
          Peter 1:6).

          Paul, writing to Timothy, said, "This command I entrust
          to you, Timothy, my son ... fight the good fight,
          keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have
          rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their
          faith" (1 Timothy 1:18-19). We must fight to keep our
          faith. We cannot give up when the fiery test comes or
          it will lead to certain shipwreck.

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                       The Children of Israel Failed
                          Their "Trial of Faith"

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          When the fire was applied and the test became intense,
          the Israelites folded, succumbing to a spirit of
          unbelief

          Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,
          They do always err in their heart; and they have not
          known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not
          enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be
          in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing
          from the living God. But exhort one another daily,
          while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened
          through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made
          partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our
          confidence steadfast unto the end, while it is said,
          Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
          hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had
          heard, did provoke: howbeit [did] not all that came out
          of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty
          years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose
          carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he
          that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
          that believed not? So we see that they could not enter
          in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:7-19).

          Their faith did not come forth "more precious than
          gold" but, rather, the fire of testing hardened them in
          unbelief. The carcasses of a whole generation fell in
          the wilderness. They ended up as blind, bitter,
          God-forsaken people who were full of unbelief. "So we
          see that they could not enter in because of unbelief"
          (Hebrews 3:19).

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                          Faith Is Not The Absence
                          of Distress and Sorrow!

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          It isn't an expression of doubt to cry or be crushed by
          a problem. Oh, what mind-games we play every time we
          face some great trial or test. We deny our feelings and
          try to erase all thoughts of distress. Some grit their
          teeth, take deep breaths and act unmoved, undisturbed;
          and they say with a smile, "My heart is at ease; I
          believe; I'm OK, all is well." All the while their
          hearts condemn them because they are in reality heavy
          hearted and distressed. Peter was speaking to
          Christians "kept by the power of God through faith."
          These rejoiced in the Lord: Yet they now for a
          season... are in heaviness through manifold
          temptations."

          To be "in heaviness of heart" means in great distress,
          sorrow, or grief. Jesus, in Gethsemene, expressed
          sorrow and heaviness of heart. "...and he began to be
          sorrowful and very heavy... then said he unto them, "
          My soul. is exceeding sorrowful (Matthew 26:37-38).

          Distress and doubt are not the same thing. Doubt is the
          belief or the fear that distress will win, that it will
          overwhelm and destroy - that the trial will bring you
          down.

          Faith is the means by which we come out of distress. It
          is the settled belief that "the season" of sorrow or
          the hour of temptation will not harm, overcome or
          destroy you. Faith rests in the promise that God will
          make a way of escape.

          Distress may fall suddenly on me in the form of
          unforeseen demonic attacks, storms that stir up the
          waves and pound my ship, causing me to have a season of
          heaviness of heart or moments of panic. But I look to
          Jesus and faith says, "I am in no danger because Jesus
          is with me in the boat!"

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                          Faith Cannot Be Divorced
                        From God's Eternal Purpose

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          Canaan was a type of representation of God's eternal
          purpose. From the beginning, God has been looking for a
          people He could "bring in" to His rest, to a fullness
          in Jesus.

          "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not
          afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth
          therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:8-9).
          What God promised is still mostly unclaimed!

          God's purpose is not to simply deliver people from
          their sins and bring them out of Egypt nor to test
          their loyalty in a wilderness - that is not even the
          half of it. God is interested in much more than getting
          you out of some present crisis after which you testify,
          "He brought me out! He delivered me! I was in a
          hopeless situation and God made a way!" No, this is not
          it! There is a greater glory. Gods eternal purpose is
          to bring to Christ a people who find Him to be all they
          will ever need. He is to be the end of faith.

          He is a loving Father and will not let you suffer more
          than you are able to bear, but will make a way of
          escape in any temptation but that is not enough! To
          simply escape trials is not the triumph of faith.

          In ten separate crises, the Israelites proved the Lord
          faithful to deliver them; yet still they were not " in
          the land." They did not know Him or understand His
          ways.

          Many of us, like the children of Israel, have been
          delivered time and again out of one trouble after
          another, finding ourselves "out" of danger but not
          "into" rest. - We have not learned Jesus and how to
          rest in Him because we fail to see Gods eternal
          purposes in these things. Our trials are not accidents,
          they are allowed by God because He is trying to produce
          something in us. He has a plan and purpose and is going
          somewhere with us.

          When we fall into trials or trouble our reaction is,
          "Oops! I must have grieved God. I did something wrong
          and now I'm paying for whatever sin or failure it was."
          Yet more important than where the trial came from is
          how we respond in the midst of it.

          The giants in the promised land were not a result of
          Israel's sin, nor were the walled cities or iron
          chariots. They were opportunities to behold the Lord's
          power and might triumphing over the enemy. Many of our
          trials are not a result of personal failure - but, like
          the giants, are opposing, powers from the devil to keep
          us out of the place of rest in Christ.

          The reason I have been so vehemently opposed to the
          modern-day gospel of prosperity is because much of it
          has been divorced from God's eternal purpose, which is
          to be conformed in holiness to the image of Christ. You
          can't get the milk and honey, the good things that are
          promised, until you are "in the land." Many want all
          the blessings without going in, without spiritual
          warfare and victory over the flesh, which requires us
          to enter into His life!

          The riches are all in Christ Jesus. In Him dwells all
          fullness of the Godhead; and when you truly enter into
          Christ, you then discover true riches. We miss the
          point entirely if we think Israel's inheritance was
          real estate. It was much, much more. The Lord Himself
          was to be their inheritance.

          He brought them into a place where they would have an
          opportunity to live wholly devoted to the Lord with no
          other source to meet every need. It was a place where
          God could reveal Himself as all sufficient. "Some must
          enter in" (Hebrews 4:6). This is still God's purpose
          for us - to bring us in, into Jesus and a place of
          total dependence on Him with no confidence placed in
          the flesh.

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                              A Caleb Company

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          In Numbers 13 and 14 we find the language and
          definitions of unbelief and true faith. The ten spies
          who had gone up into the land had returned with a
          report of what they had seen. "We came unto the land
          whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with
          milk and honey.... Nevertheless the people be strong
          that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and
          very great" (Numbers 13:27-28).

          Caleb, the voice of faith, said to the people, "Let us
          go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to
          overcome it."

          The people cried out in fear and unbelief, "We be not
          able to go up against the people; for they are stronger
          than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land
          which they had, searched unto the children of Israel.
          saying, The land, through which we have gone to search
          it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof,
          and all the people that we saw in it are men of great
          stature. And there we saw giants" (Numbers 13:31-33).

          This is the language of unbelief. "We are not able to
          cope this time! This crisis is different. It will eat
          us up! There is no hope to stand up against this enemy.
          We have experienced other victories, but this situation
          is bigger, too far above us!"

          Consequently a cry of unbelief went up from the whole
          congregation, "Let's go back, We can't make it. There
          are too many strong enemies, we can't go in!" (Numbers
          14:1-4).

          And again - faith speaks, "The land, which we passed
          through to search it, is an exceeding good land ... the
          Lord ... He. will bring us into this land, and give it
          us; a land which floweth with milk and honey" (Numbers
          14:7-8). Even though the children of this unbelieving
          generation later went in - they never fully possessed
          the land. If they had gone in to the true rest, the
          Lord would not still be speaking of an unclaimed rest.

          There still remains for us a place in Christ where we
          cease from all our works and self-effort: we stop
          trusting in men; we stop manipulating, struggling, and
          striving for things to happen. Before the Lord comes,
          He must have a people who go in, a people who will use
          faith to tear down everything that keeps them from the
          fullness of Jesus.

          This is what the testing is all about. God wants to
          know what is in your heart. Is it fear of giants and a
          desire to go back to Egypt or an abandon to the Lord
          and His care of you. Satan does not want a people who
          cease from their own works and depend totally on Jesus
          as Lord.

          Caleb understood God's purposes. He knew that the enemy
          had no power to stop God's people from going in if they
          stepped out in faith. "Only rebel not ye against the
          Lord, neither fear ye the people for they are bread for
          us: their defense is departed from them, and the Lord
          is with us: fear them not" (Numbers 14:9).

          Satan is using that giant of a trouble facing you not
          to keep you down but to keep you out! It's not an
          isolated trial; it is all hell raging against you to
          keep you from going on into the fullness of Christ, to
          a place of rest, a life of confidence and a walk of
          peace under His lordship.

          All heaven and hell behold you as you stand on the
          brink of the Jordan. How will they see you look into
          the future? Will you look with unbelief and say, "If
          going all the way with Jesus means one big battle with
          pain, heartache and so many giant problems ... I am
          going back! At least I can party and drink and get
          stoned and find a little peace." Or, will faith prevail
          and you say, "I will not rebel! I will not fear what
          man can do! My enemies have no power, for their power
          is stripped! By faith my God will devour them, for God
          is with me. I'm going in!"

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                       Going on with Jesus is a very
                          serious matter with God

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          "But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.
          And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of
          the congregation before all the children of Israel. And
          the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people
          provoke me? And how long will it be ere they believe
          me, for all the signs which I have shown among them? I
          will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit
          them, and will make of thee a greater nation and
          mightier than they" (Numbers 4:10-12).

          Moses appealed to God's longsuffering and great mercy
          as he prayed, "Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of
          this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy
          .... And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to
          thy word: but..." (Numbers 14:19-21).

          What a tragedy! To be forgiven, pardoned, and yet left
          to die in a dry, despairing wilderness, barred from
          going into the land of promise.

          You have heard of the doctrine of eternal security:
          "Once forgiven always forgiven." This is not the issue.
          The issue here isn't forgiveness but going on into the
          inheritance in Christ. Those children of God were fully
          pardoned but - because of their unbelief, their
          unwillingness to go on, to go in - they spent the rest
          of their lives forgiven, but robbed of intimacy. They
          had only a dead religion, a form of godliness with no
          power. They were a pardoned people with no place to go.

          They will never see the glory of the Captain of the
          Lord's army as He brings walls down. They will never
          enjoy the cool streams and green pastures or the
          victories "in the land." The milk and honey of fullness
          will never be theirs.

          There are literally millions of Christians in this very
          place today. God brought them to a place of decision by
          calling them to a deeper walk, a walk of complete
          faith, leaving behind the death of the wilderness. It
          is a call to obedience, devotion and dependency by
          submitting to the Lord as captain.

          They heard a "Caleb" somewhere calling them to continue
          to trust God for victory over self and the flesh. God
          is at work in their lives, but they have settled for
          forgiveness without growth. They go on living shallow
          lives of misery, cut off from the real work of the Holy
          Spirit. "They are left behind to a life of spiritual
          boredom, dryness and death!

          "Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my
          miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness
          ... surely they shall not see the land which I sware
          unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that
          provoked me see it: but my servant Caleb ... him will I
          bring into the land" (Numbers 14:21-24). God is always
          "moving on" with a people, a Caleb company. But those
          who go on are those whose faith endures the fire. They
          hold on when it looks hopeless.

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                   Morning-after Faith is not Acceptable

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          After hearing warnings about their carcasses wasting in
          the wilderness, the Israelites slept on it. "And they
          rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the
          top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here and will go
          up into the place which the Lord has promised: for we
          have sinned" (Numbers 14:39-40).

          But the test was over, the fire was dead. They had
          failed in the face of the hopeless odds. It was too
          late.

          The Lord will have a people who trust Him in the fire
          and who glorify Him when tested. It is not faith to
          obey when the trial is over - it is presumption. There
          is no such thing as faith "after the fact."

          In Luke 18:8 Jesus asked, "When the Son of man cometh,
          shall He find faith in the earth?" He will find faith
          for rights, faith for blessings, faith for prosperity -
          but what Jesus is really asking is this: Will I find a
          faith that brings a last-day people into full surrender
          to Me? How many will go on with Me into a walk that is
          submitted to the will of God? Will there be a people
          like Paul who count it all dung to win Christ? Will
          they have a faith to press on into a life of relying
          only on Me?"

          Finally, in Hebrews 11:1 we read, "Faith is the
          substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
          not seen." That substance, that evidence is the Word of
          God! Jesus is the Word. The written word holds and
          records all the evidence we will ever need. Rest in the
          substance! Rely on the evidence! No one goes in without
          knowing the Word.

          "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us
          of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to
          come short of it ... for we which have believed do
          enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:1-3).

          ---
          Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O.
          Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 USA.

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