What in the world does it mean to TEST YOUR FAITH?
I know... it's an exam. "See if you can get these questions right, says the Lord. Question 1: what day of the week did Jesus Christ, My Son, Myself, etc actually rise on? Great! You got it, now let's move on to more deep stuff. Question 2: How did I create animals? Each one individually or did I just command the earth to bring them forth generally? Ah, ah, ah, careful now are you really sure of that?"
I never knew what it meant to test my faith until it was tested... literally to my wits ends. It has nothing to do with doctrine. Doctrines are easy to adopt and easy to shed. You can literally convince yourself of any neat set of rules that tries to put God and heaven into tidy boxes that you can store in the mental shelves of your mind. It's what cynics and psychologists, some perhaps well meaning and some not, will call the science of belief. When the science of belief is used by wicked men, it results in things like racism and extremism, think concentration camps and Daesh massacres.
But real faith is about who you trust in and what you trust Him for. (Oh and here's how to make it real indeed!)
When you believe Him for provision, you seem poor.
When you believe Him for joy, you seem depressed.
When you believe Him to do anything... you get nothing.
That's what it means to have your faith tested. We should replace that word "test" with something that we absolutely cannot confuse with school quizzes. Maybe "grilled" or "barbecued". When your faith is "tested" it's grilled, put in the fire! It's severe, it hurts, as those brazenly hot bars sear your soul. Oh that's another thing. Your faith is grilled, but it's you who feels the bern!
I'm not sure what the result is but here's a Scriptural guess. Silver, pure, refined. No dross, no impurities. Just real faith, untainted by churchy platitudes and feel-good theology. Have you reached the point where your faith has been tested? When the only thing that remains of your 'faith' is that inexplicable, heart/gut feeling where all you see and know is Jesus, crucified, risen?
Because that's who our faith is in and when all of those shackling and confusing so-called articles of faith and counsels of the wise are burned away in the fires of that heavenly grill, guess what's left... the cross. Nothing else is so powerfuly rooted in Truth and Existence. God... the Word made flesh, crucified, submission to death by the author of life only to defeat death in the grave and give life everlasting to all.
So if you're life is being being burned by the fires of testing, all I can say, because I myself am there at the moment, there's nothing worth knowing but Jesus, crucified for you, risen for you. There's nothing worth knowing - and you already know it - but the Cross.
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But real faith is about who you trust in and what you trust Him for. (Oh and here's how to make it real indeed!)
When your faith is tested, it literally means that you experience the exact opposite of what you expect God to do for you.
When you believe Him for health, you seem sick.When you believe Him for provision, you seem poor.
When you believe Him for joy, you seem depressed.
When you believe Him to do anything... you get nothing.
That's what it means to have your faith tested. We should replace that word "test" with something that we absolutely cannot confuse with school quizzes. Maybe "grilled" or "barbecued". When your faith is "tested" it's grilled, put in the fire! It's severe, it hurts, as those brazenly hot bars sear your soul. Oh that's another thing. Your faith is grilled, but it's you who feels the bern!
I'm not sure what the result is but here's a Scriptural guess. Silver, pure, refined. No dross, no impurities. Just real faith, untainted by churchy platitudes and feel-good theology. Have you reached the point where your faith has been tested? When the only thing that remains of your 'faith' is that inexplicable, heart/gut feeling where all you see and know is Jesus, crucified, risen?
Because that's who our faith is in and when all of those shackling and confusing so-called articles of faith and counsels of the wise are burned away in the fires of that heavenly grill, guess what's left... the cross. Nothing else is so powerfuly rooted in Truth and Existence. God... the Word made flesh, crucified, submission to death by the author of life only to defeat death in the grave and give life everlasting to all.
So if you're life is being being burned by the fires of testing, all I can say, because I myself am there at the moment, there's nothing worth knowing but Jesus, crucified for you, risen for you. There's nothing worth knowing - and you already know it - but the Cross.
David Roiel
The Green Leaf Blog-Discover your inheritance!
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