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                           You Are Being Tested

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By David Wilkerson
December 17, 1990
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          Rest assured, if you are trying to walk righteously
          before the Lord, you are being tested! If fact, the
          deeper your walk with Christ, the more intense your
          testing will be. Scripture makes this clear:

          "The people that do know their God shall be strong, and
          do exploits... Now when they should fall, they shall be
          [helped] with a little help..." And some of them of
          understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge,
          and to make them white, even to the time of the end:
          because it is yet for a time appointed" (Daniel
          11:32-35)

          A great time of testing is coming upon "those of
          understanding"! Just who are these people who will be
          tested? They are the righteous - those who do exploits
          for the Lord, who walk with God and have the wisdom of
          Christ!

          Right now, you may be asking, "Why am I being tested?
          Why is all this happening to me?"

          Remember your school days? When a test in school was
          given, it revealed how much you had actually learned of
          what you had been taught. Yet Paul spoke of a different
          school - one where we are "learning Christ" and are
          "being taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus"
          (Ephesians 4:20-21). If you belong to Jesus, you are in
          His school! You may have thought you'd graduated, but
          you won't until you're in glory!

          When I was in school, I hated "pop quizzes,"
          unannounced tests. Yet the Lord has told us to be ready
          to be tested at any time - and that these tests will
          continue until Jesus returns. All who love the Lord are
          going to go through fiery trials and be purged of all
          that is not Christ-like, in preparation for the
          soon-coming wedding of the Lamb!

          David often spoke of being tested and tried: "I know
          also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and has
          pleasure in uprightness" (1 Chronicles 29:17) "Thou has
          proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night;
          thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am
          purposed that my mouth shall not transgress" (Psalm
          17:3)

          Saints, I couldn't begin to count all the ways that
          Lord tests His children - but there are three tests
          common to all of us, and I want to focus on them:

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             1. We Are Tested By Afflictions and Sufferings -
           Both Our Own and Those Of Other Righteous Believers.

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          One of the most difficult things for Christians to deal
          with is the suffering of the righteous.

          Up to the time of Christ, the Jews associated
          prosperity and good health with godliness. They
          believed if you were wealthy, blessed or in good
          health, God was with you. This was why Jesus' disciples
          had a hard time understanding His statement, "It is
          easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
          than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"
          (Matthew 19:24) The disciples asked, "Who then can be
          saved?"

          There is a mistaken doctrine even today that says those
          in covenant with God will never suffer! Just call out,
          this doctrine says, and your covenant-partner-God will
          come running and immediately solve everything. But
          beloved, this is not the gospel!

          The heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11 all walked in
          covenant with God - and they suffered stonings, torture
          and violent deaths (verses 37-38). Others suffered
          "trial(s) of cruel mockings and scourgings [whippings]"
          (verse 36). Paul, who walked closely with God, was
          shipwrecked, stoned, whipped, left for dead. He was
          robbed, jailed, persecuted and suffered the loss of all
          things. Why? These were all testings, purgings, the
          proving of his faith!

          Peter said, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning
          the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
          strange thing happened to unto you: But rejoice,
          inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings;
          that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may also be
          glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:12-13)

          "Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
          through manifold temptations: that the trial of you
          faith, being much more precious than of gold that
          perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
          unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
          Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6-7)

          On of the most dangerous things a parent can do is to
          offer sympathy and comfort to a child who's under
          discipline before that child learns the lesson. This
          can destroy the child! If the rod is spared and the
          lesson is never learned, rebellion sets in.

          Jesus is our parent, and while you're being disciplined
          you can call on Him as much as you want. But He will
          not move until you have learned what He wants to teach
          you. He will not lift the rod until you yield!

          Yet the whole time you're being tested and disciplined,
          you are under God's protection. Scripture says those
          who are tested by many trials and temptations are "kept
          by the power of God through faith" ( 1 Peter 1:5) You
          can call out to God thinking you're in danger but He
          knows you're not. He's only waiting for you to learn
          the lesson!

          When Jesus allows suffering and trials in our lives,
          He's after one thing. It is the same thing he was after
          when He asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son
          Isaac.

          God allowed Abraham to lead Isaac up the mountain and
          raise the knife above him. It was only then that the
          Lord said, "No!" What was the Lord after? Simply this:
          "Abraham, do I mean more to you than the object of your
          deepest earthly affections? Abraham was willing to lay
          down all that was near and dear to him - his only son,
          the very object of God's promise to him - and to put
          his future in God's hands. He gave all to the Lord!

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               God Uses Our Sufferings to Expose Our Hearts!

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          Right now you may be suffering under poverty or
          unemployment. Others may be sorely tested by illness.
          Yet whatever the case, God may be using those trials
          and sufferings to expose a murmuring or complaining
          spirit in us.

          God hates murmuring and complaining. In fact, He
          allowed Israel to suffer all kinds of hardships of
          forty years because the people had become habitual
          murmurers. And their hardships could be traced to their
          tongues! The Lord warns us today, "Neither murmur ye,
          as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of
          the destroyer" (1 Corinthians 10:10-11)

          Murmuring begins in our thoughts - thoughts of
          discontent, and being mistreated by the Lord, of being
          misunderstood by God's people. It usually starts with
          disrespect for the ministry, those who are called of
          God and anointed of the Holy Spirit.

          Murmurers are never satisfied. If you do what they
          think you should do, they come up with a dozen more
          demands. The list never ends because their spirit is
          out of control - it's not under the governing power of
          the Holy Spirit! The Bible says of them, "These are
          murmurs, complainers, walking after their own lusts"
          (Jude 16)

          The Israelites complained because they had no water -
          So God gave them water from a rock. They complained
          when they had no bread - so God gave them bread from
          the ground. Then they complained because they had no
          meat - and God gave them meat from out of the sky.

          The Lord gave them all these things - and the Bible
          says the people loathed it! They complained once they
          got it! And there are Christians today who, if God
          answered their prayer, would complain about what they
          got!

          We can be tested as well by the suffering of righteous,
          holy servants of God. This testing is probably the most
          difficult to understand.

          I know a young missionary couple who have given their
          lives to minister among Hong Kong's slum dwellers. Now
          the precious wife is in America, confined to a bed,
          suffering from a rare, chronic, debilitating disease.
          All who know this couple are asking, "How could this
          be?"

          We read in the Scriptures that "many are the
          afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth
          him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19). Yet we see many
          devoted Christians dying before our eyes. Some suffer
          agonizing pain.

          Still, I am convinced we don't understand the kind of
          marvelous deliverance the Lord has in mind for us! His
          ways are far above ours.

          Some years ago a couple I knew lost their six-year-old
          son to a brain tumor. They had prayed and prayed for
          his healing. The Lord told me to tell them, "Your son
          has been perfectly healed. He has a brand new body! The
          Lord loved him and took him from you, but He's going to
          present him to you again one day! Ask the Lord to give
          you strength until then. Jesus is taking care of him
          now - and your child has been ultimately healed!" They
          didn't understand until ten years later!

          I've been around suffering Christians in hospitals who
          had more faith and hope than all the Christians around
          them who were praying for healing. And the suffering
          one usually ended up praying for the others!

          When you have that kind of hope in you, you're not
          living for this world - you're living for eternity!
          Those who suffered and died in faith have received
          their ultimate healing! It meant Christ for them! Peter
          said they are "partakers of Christ's sufferings; that,
          when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also
          with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:13). Their faith
          demonstrated here will bring great glory to God in
          glory!

          God wants to plant something in our hearts through all
          our testing and trials. He wants us to be able to say,
          "Lord Jesus, You're my protector, and I believe You
          rule over the events of my life. And if anything
          happens to me, it's because You let the wall down, and
          You have a purpose in doing it.

          "If I am walking in righteousness and have Your joy in
          my heart, then my living and dying will bring glory to
          You. You may have some prepared glory, some eternal
          purpose my finite mind doesn't understand. Either way,
          I'll say, 'Jesus, live or die, I am Yours!'"

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              2. We Are Tested by Delayed Answers to Prayer.

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          Most of us pray as David did: "In the day that I call
          answer me speedily" (Psalm 102:2) "I am in trouble:
          hear me speedily" (Psalm 69:17). The Hebrew word for
          "speedily" means, "Right now, hurry up - in the very
          hour I call on You, do it!" David was saying, "Lord, I
          put my trust in You - but please, hurry up!"

          Beloved, God is in no hurry. He doesn't jump at our
          commands. In fact, at times you may wonder if He will
          ever answer! You may cry out, weep, fast, hope - but
          days go by, weeks, months, even years, and you receive
          not the slightest evidence that God hears!

          First you question yourself: Something must be blocking
          my prayers, some hidden sin. Maybe I asked amiss. Or
          perhaps my faith is too weak..." You become perplexed,
          and over time your attitudes become something like
          this: "Lord, what do I have to do to get this prayer
          answered? You promised in Your Word, and I prayed in
          faith. How many tears must I shed?

          Why does God delay answers to sincere prayers? It
          certainly isn't because He lacks power. He could merely
          wink an eye or think a thought and the work would be
          finished! And He is most willing - even more than we
          are - for us to receive from Him!

          The answer is found in this verse: "And he spake a
          parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to
          pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).

          The Greek word for "faint" means "relax, become weak or
          weary in faith, give up the struggle, no longer wait
          for completion." Galatians 6:9 says, "Let us not be
          weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap,
          if we faint not."

          The Lord is seeking a praying people who will not relax
          or weary of coming to Him. These people will wait and
          not give up until the work is completed - and they will
          be found waiting when He brings the answer!

          I thought I had unshakable faith, that I fully trusted
          the Lord. Then some of my very important prayers were
          not answered for a very long time - and some are still
          not answered! I told the Lord, "If You will just answer
          my prayers, it will build up my faith. I can go to the
          sanctuary and boast of your faithfulness, like David
          did. Think how others will be greatly encouraged!

          But the Lord was saying to me, "I don't build your
          faith on answers. I build your faith on My delays!"

          Anybody can believe when the answers to prayer are
          flooding in! But who's going to believe after a year or
          two years? As time goes on we abandon our prayers and
          the belief that He will answer, and we move on to
          something else. We say to God, "I'll be faithful to
          You. But don't expect me to have faith to wait for
          answers to prayers anymore."

          Dear saint, God is wanting to make sure you're not
          going to relax in your prayer vigil! He wants your
          heart set on persevering, no matter how long his answer
          takes! Jesus gave us a parable to prove that He waits
          on us to dig in and determine not to give up. It is the
          parable of the distressed widow who kept coming to the
          judge and requesting justice (see Luke 18:2-8).

          The judge finally granted her request only because he
          did not want to be worn down by her constant pleading.
          "Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
          her, lest by her continual coming she weary me" (verse
          5). Jesus added to this parable, "And shall not God
          avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him,
          though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will
          avenge them speedily" (verses 7-6).

          You say, "But doesn't Jesus seem to be speaking a
          paradox in this passage? First He says God 'bears long
          with us' - then He says He 'will avenge us speedily.'"

          Most of us misinterpret the passage completely. You
          see, Jesus isn't speaking of delaying a long time - not
          at all! He says God wants to speedily answer us - but
          God is enduring something. He is "bearing something"
          something that calls for patience on His part! He's
          saying, "I'll put up with this thing I see in your
          heart - I'll bear with you - until you're willing to
          lay hold as you should for the answer!"

          As I look back at some of the things I've prayed for a
          long time, I see the Lord saying, "I'm holding up the
          request to you, like a mirror. And through this, I'm
          going to show you what's deep in your heart."

          I've seen doubt... fear... unbelief... things that have
          made me throw myself at Jesus' feet and cry, "Oh Lord -
          I'm not interested in the answers anymore, but only in
          getting this spirit out of me! I don't want to doubt
          You - to pray and weep for an answer yet still have
          seeds of unbelief in my heart!"

          It's true - the hardest part of faith is the last
          half-hour. When it looks as if God won't answer, we
          give up, put all behind us and go on to something else.
          And as we do this, we think we are surrendering to
          God's providence, depending on His sovereign will. We
          say, "Lord, do what You think is best," or, "Well God,
          You must not wanted it after all."

          No! That is not what God intended! When you are praying
          for what obviously is the will of God - salvation of
          family, for instance - you have every right to hold on
          and never give up until Jesus answers! You have every
          reason not to listen to the devil - and to ask God to
          plant the faith of Jesus Christ in you, and not to
          relax until you see completion!

          But instead, you fainted - you failed the test! If you
          hadn't fainted, you'd still be holding on more
          determined than ever to see the answer through!

          You see, the Lord sees our fainting hearts all along.
          The Bible offers a picture of this humbling experience
          in 2 Kings 6-7:

          Samaria was under siege by Benhadad and his great
          Syrian army. The city was starving because there was no
          food anywhere worth eating. A donkey's head sold for 80
          pieces of silver, a pint of dove's dung for five!

          But the prophet Elisha had prophesied to the king of
          Samaria that God was going to deliver the people
          supernaturally. He said to hold on - to wait, pray,
          repent and trust God not matter how bad things got.

          As the king walked atop the city walls, he might have
          thought, "How long must this go on? We can't hold out
          much longer. If God doesn't answer soon, we'll go out
          there with the white flag and surrender."

          Then a woman saw the king and cried out, "Yesterday my
          neighbor and I boiled and ate my baby! We agreed that
          today we would eat her baby, but now she has hidden her
          child! King, it's unfair - make her give up her baby
          too!"

          That did it! The king ripped open his sackcloth, and in
          a rage he bellowed, "Elisha, off comes your head! You
          had us believing that God would answer your prayer. You
          told us a miracle would happen - but now it's too
          late!"

          When the king found Elisha praying among the elders, he
          screamed, "Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?"
          (2 Kings 6:33). In other words, "It's too late - the
          deadline has come and gone, and God didn't keep His
          word! Prayer isn't going to help. It's time to take
          matters into our own hands!"

          While the king was fainting - quitting on his faith -
          the answer was almost at the gate. Elisha told him,
          "Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour
          be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a
          shekel in the gate of Samaria" (2 Kings 7:1).

          It's too bad the king hadn't waited another 24 hours
          before blowing up. What he didn't know was that God was
          already fast at work creating a miracle!

          In the Syrian camp, a miraculous buzzing filled the air
          - the sound of a huge army of chariots rumbling toward
          them. Panic swept over the Syrians, and they dropped
          everything and ran for their lives.

          So the Samaritans brought in wagon-loads of the
          Syrian's food. Vegetables, fine flour and barrels of
          barley poured through the city gates. Watching this,
          the king must have been red-faced as he recalled
          stating, "God didn't keep His word!"

          Beloved, this has happened to me at least a dozen
          times! I've given up and said, "Oh well, this must not
          have been God's will. It's an impossible situation."
          And sometimes the answer came within an hour of my
          words!

          That may be exactly what's happening to you! You've
          given up and you're not pressing in anymore. But is God
          is already at work - and His answer is just about to
          arrive!

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                3. We Are Tested by Our Falls and Failings.

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          I do not mean that Christians who fall back into old
          sins and turn back to the world are being tested. No,
          those believers are being shipwrecked!

          But Peter warned, "Beware lest ye also, being led away
          with the error of the wicked, fall from your own
          steadfastness" (2 Peter 3:17). Peter is warning
          believers who are growing in holiness and are set on
          following the Lord.

          Some of you may have taken a fall in spite of all the
          progress you've made with the Lord. If I asked you what
          caused your fall, you might answer, "Brother Dave, it
          was a fit of anger! I was provoked by my own family,
          and I blew up. I can't understand it - I thought I was
          becoming a little sweeter, a little more like Jesus.
          But somebody just pushed the wrong button, and I lost
          it!"

          If there is a root of anger in you, God will make your
          home a testing ground. You will be provoked time after
          time until all your hidden anger is exposed and plucked
          out by the Holy Spirit! You may say, I'm only human.
          How much an I supposed to take?" It does not matter
          that you were provoked, or even that you were in the
          right. The provoking simply proved you need
          deliverance!

          Scripture says: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and
          anger, and clamor [fighting], and evil speaking, be put
          away from you, with all malice [grudges]" (Ephesians
          4:31). God's going to keep testing until you say, "I've
          got a spirit in me that's got to go!" You will see no
          growth in Christ, no peace at home or on the job, until
          you can say, "You're right, Lord - take it out!"

          If you're being tested in this area - or any other, for
          that matter - you may be thinking, "I feel so unworthy.
          How much ground have I lost? Does the Lord still love
          me?"

          Dear saint, if you have truly repented, you haven't
          lost any ground whatsoever. God puts his loving arms
          around you and says, "I allowed that to happen so you
          would see what's in your heart. But you're making
          progress. You've said you want to walk with Me, and I'm
          teaching you. I know what's inside of you, and I'll
          allow you to be provoked until you get rid of it all"

          Are you being tested? If so, just pray: "Lord, You've
          put your finger on some areas in me. Pluck them out of
          my heart. Encourage me Lord, that I'm not going
          backward - I'm going forward with You!"

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

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