There are stages to belief.
We perceive a thing in our spirit and hope it to be true.
Then we look into the matter some more; we talk about it and pray about it.
Then God speaks to us in some way about it and if we’re in tune with him, our belief deepens.
That’s revelation. A personal God who is involved in our lives is going to speak and when he does, we’ll meet him in that place through our faith.
But then comes that hard in-between time. God hasn’t answered your prayer and everything that comes your way until he does feels like a test. Maybe that’s the contradiction Cooke was referring to – God says he’s going to do something, but sends a test instead. And if you don’t know what God is doing, it is the most awful thing.
Joseph gets a dream that he’d rule over his brothers. He shares it. Then his brothers try to kill him and he’s sold into slavery and later goes to jail. It’s a season of testing. At each stage he has the opportunity to ask God “Why?” Why the betrayal? Why a pit? Why slavery? Why a jail? But each of these circumstances is a test, a seeming contradiction to what God promised in his dream. Will he believe the word of God or will he look at circumstances?
You’re nothing in the kingdom unless you’ve been betrayed. It’s absolutely essential that you’ve been wounded in the ministry. We need to be “wounded in the house of our friends.” We need to experience the fellowship of his sufferings.
Why? Because our faith is deepened as the rug is pulled out from under us and all we have left is God. When all other sources of provision have disappeared and God alone remains in our corner, we’re forced to trust him more. Our relationship with him grows.
We feel fellowship with him most keenly when we’re being tested, when we’re suffering.
Are you in a season of testing? The test is there for a reason. God knows it’s rough from the inside out. Jesus started his ministry being tested and ended his life that way. I like the promise he gave us, “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.” (
1 Cor. 10:13)
Our season of testing intensified many years ago when our fellowship scattered to the winds.
What you share here matches our experience, and explains it somewhat, especially the “being wounded in the house of my friends,” which is, as I recall, a line taken from ancient prophet Amos.
Amos situation required that he take on the role of a farmer so that he could faithfully fulfill God’s call on him to be a prophet, instead of being an “official” prophet.
“When all other sources of provision have disappeared and God alone remains in our corner, we’re forced to trust him more.”
This is so our cry, and prayer. But man, the things that moth and rust can destroy can be a distraction. Thanks man.
Read Oswald this morning… and he said, “God doesn’t deliver us FROM tribulations, but IN tribulations… if there is no strain, there is no strength.”
And God only knows He’s testing me…
Yeah, it hurts to feel betrayed and if you let it, bitterness will take you out. But once you’ve jumped over that hurdle, it just becomes one less thing that can get in your way because you know it doesn’t have to defeat you.
Hebrews 12:26b He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake[h] not only the earth, but also heaven.”[i] 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may[j] serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
ugh. i didn’t want to hear this one. it’s good though.
makes me also think of Nouwen’s “Wounded Healer.”
“Because our faith is deepened as the rug is pulled out from under us and all we have left is God. When all other sources of provision have disappeared and God alone remains in our corner, we’re forced to trust him more. Our relationship with him grows…’No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.’” (1 Cor. 10:13)
Since crashing into the Almighty years ago at Georgia Southern, I’ve prayed to encourage with a sincere and full heart. Your post reminds that we cannot describe what we have not tasted nor offer what we have never experienced.
Like David, our ordinary days transform us towards Himself and away from our short-sighted “self”. Like David, there is often a long way to go from tending sheep to “tending people-sheep”, but the skills we learn in the dailies, prepare us for the servant-leadership role attributed to God’s kids.
I want to be all in, a woman after God’s heart & not cranky about the life he’s given. Seth & folks-thank you for continuing the race; for not giving up in the fight. You train those of us who are coming behind you. We are your cloud of witnesses-your fellow sojourners-this good and crazy chaotic day. Thank you. Your words point to a God who is tough to see-and they bring life.
Wow wee.
I lost a friend Saturday,today I wrecked my jeep,and I just got screwed honoring my word on a job I did!!! nice message