5 Tests on The Way to Greatness
There is greatness deposited in every Child of God; God only makes masterpieces and He puts in the best of creativity and care to achieve this.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.“
Psalms 139:14 NKJV
A fearfully and wonderfully made person is made for greatness. You are made for greatness. Halleluyah!
There are tests on the way to greatness. God tests us. By test here we mean a life situation or circumstance set up to assess or evaluate someone’s values, character or obedience to God.
From the scriptures, we find that God tests man but He does not tempt man. We see this in Jeremiah 17:10 and James 1:13 ….
“I, the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
Jeremiah 17:10 NKJV
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.“
James 1:13 NKJV
In the context of this study, a temptation relates to trials designed to lead someone to wrongdoing or to make someone fall from grace.
If temptations don’t come from God, then who do they come from? Luke 4:2 identifies the devil as a tempter….
“Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.”
Luke 4:1-2 NKJV
In Luke 22:40, Jesus asked His disciples to pray so that they do not enter into temptation…..
“When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Luke 22:40 NKJV
So prayer is one way to avoid being tempted. Being led by the Spirit is surely another. But what if we are unable to avoid temptations, what if we ignorantly walk headlong into them? 1 Corinthians 10:13, tells us God still makes a way of escape for us.
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
I Corinthians 10:13 NKJV
Halleluyah! We are not to be overcome by temptations.
So God tests, but the devil tempts. And the devil’s temptations are never intended for good.
Why does God test man?
God tests the heart and mind to determine the thoughts and intents of man, to assess the extent of mind renewal, as well as to ascertain man’s level of maturity by the Word (Exodus 20:20; Psalms 7:9; I Thessalonians 2:4; Jeremiah 11:20; Deuteronomy 8:2).
From the foregoing, God is unlikely to be testing the minds and hearts of unbelievers, but of supposedly mature believers whose minds have been exposed to a renewal process by the Word.
God doesn’t test as man does, His tests are not traps, they are not incriminating but rather they aim to make someone better (Psalms 78:56; Psalms 78:18; Mark 12:13-15).
His tests serve a refining purpose (Ecclesiastes 3:18; Proverbs 17:3, Zechariah 13:9; Psalms 66:10; James 1:3-4).
“I will bring the one –third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
Zechariah 13:9 NKJV
Below we see 5 kinds of tests that can come from God to man…
1. Test of Obedience to God and to His Word
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 8:2 NKJV
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.”
Exodus 16:4 NKJV
“so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord , to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.”
Judges 2:22 NKJV
2. Test of Integrity
“I know also, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things; and now with joy I have seen Your people, who are present here to offer willingly to You.
I Chronicles 29:17 NKJV
3. Test of love for God
“you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.”
Deuteronomy 13:3-4 NKJV
In John 21, after His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter what he loved more; Him or his lucrative fishing job? An always enthusiastic and passionate Peter was convinced he loved Jesus more.
After the death of Jesus, Peter abandoned the work of ministry Jesus entrusted him with and went back to his fishing job. Fishing for men wasn’t something Peter understood, he couldn’t appreciate its ramifications at the time. Fishing was a comfort zone for Peter. Thank God that eventually Peter trusted and followed the Lord. He left his comfort zone. He showed he loved God more.
I know of a young lady, one committed to God and diligent in her job. She had a promising career but something else was also pulling her; She had a deep and unusual desire to serve God in a different dimension. This lady committed her time, energy and talents to doing this.
However with each day it was becoming more and more difficult to focus on her job. She realized she actually spent more time serving God with her talent than doing anything else. Her work hours seemed to be taking from her ministry time. She became uncomfortable and unsettled. It wasn’t long before she realized that God had a different plan and purpose for her outside her career.
With this realization, she made a decision to give full attention to this Godly pull. She gave herself one year to tidy up work-related things before exiting the system. About 2 months to her proposed exit date, before she had an opportunity to communicate her decision to top management, a trusted and reliable senior colleague informed her of a director level opening/position/opportunity at work. She is being considered for the role. Wow!! Temptations don’t come any closer than this. This was good news, but not entirely. It seemed more like a test.
As exciting as the job opening seemed, it was a total distraction. About a week later she summoned up enough courage to communicate to the senior colleague who trusted her with the information her decision to follow a different path and so will not be following up on her nomination. She let it pass. It was a difficult conversation, but the decision wasn’t difficult to make. She chose God.
There will always be something to give up on your way to greatness. God will test for it. Moses chose Jehovah and His ways against the pleasures of Egypt..
“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.“
Hebrews 11:24-27 NKJV
4. Tests of character
I. Test of humility
Humility is so important in attaining greatness. God will both teach on as well as test for humility.
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”
Deuteronomy 8:2 NKJV
II. Test for temperance
“The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
Psalms 11:5 NKJV
So essentially, tests of Christian character will mean tests for manifestation of the fruit of the spirit as we find in Galatians 5:22…
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.“
Galatians 5:22-24 NKJV
Have you ever caught yourself reacting to a situation in an ungodly manner, like losing your temper, talking too much, attempting to keep malice or walk in unforgiveness? Happens. We know we are on the path to growth and maturity the more we resist these urges or show true repentance.
One day I raised my voice on one of my staff in an open office. Awww! This was the first time this was happening with this staff. This was a reliable staff who was surprisingly putting up a funny attitude.
As I walked away from the general office to my office, the Holy Spirit engaged my spirit in a discussion. You can only imagine how that went. I had to walk back to the general office and apologise to this staff in the presence of everyone. That was the last time that kind of incident occurred. Even though my other staff said they respect my sense of humility in apologising to a subordinate openly (bless their souls), who wants to go back apologising in an open general office again? Not me! 🙂
Christians who comfortably harbour hatred, anger, unforgiveness, malice over days, weeks, months are not listening to the Holy Spirit (selah).
We must commit to growing up in the Lord. Some hard decisions or steps can stand as deterrents and overtime we find that we’re gaining more control. Crucifying the flesh is not a day’s job.
5. Test of faith
Jesus tested Philip’s faith in the area of provision..
“Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.”
John 6:5-6 NKJV
You may read more on this from ….”When Fragments Surpasses The Whole“.
Jesus tested the disciples’ faith in taking authority over a raging storm..
“But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”
Matthew 8:26 NKJV
Jesus tested Peter’s faith to do the seemingly impossible…. to walk on water…
“And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:31 NKJV
Hebrews chapter 11 is full of listing of faith champions, people who passed their faith test.
If you believe God has called you to greatness in any area of life, watch out for these tests. Your progress depends on them.
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