Today I want to share from Rick Renner's "Sparkling Gems From the Greek Volume 2" . This message may help you if you are entertaining doubts about something that God has called you to do!
Why God Tests You
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and
he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it
was said, That in Issac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able
to raise him up from the dead… — Hebrews 11:17-19
I know from firsthand experience that when God asks you to
sacrifice something precious, it can be very difficult to come into compliance
with what He is asking you to do. The flesh rebels every step of the way, and
the mind tries to argue, as if it knows better than the Lord. Therefore, when
your will collides with God’s divine plan for your life, you must make a
conscious decision to exercise obedience and follow His leading, no
matter what.
There are critical moments when you must make the choice to
do what God asks, whether or not you understand it. When you fully abandon your
natural inclinations and defer to God’s will, you will be elevated to
brand-new levels of success and victory that you have never before attained.
Let me share an example of this kind of deference and
obedience from my own life. When God first asked my family to move to the USSR,
I knew He had something truly wonderful in store for us. However, my flesh
didn’t relish the idea one bit. Night after night, I lay in my bed and listened
as my mind told me that this move was the stupidest notion I’d ever considered
in my life and that if I really carried through with this absurd idea, I would
lose everything. I was having an ongoing inner dialogue with God about the
matter. I remember asking Him, Are You REALLY asking me to sacrifice
everything that we’ve worked so hard to achieve?
At the time God called us to move overseas, our ministry in
the United States was finally taking off after years of struggle and hard work.
However, just as we were experiencing the first trappings of success, God asked
us to lay aside our dream because He wanted to do something new through us.
This was a pivotal moment in our lives! We didn’t understand the full scope of
His divine plan, so we had to choose to defer to His voice and trust that He
was leading us on the right path.
Have you experienced a similar moment in your own life? If
not, I guarantee you that a time will come when you will be called on to step out
and follow God’s leading, even though you don’t fully understand His design.
However, it is important to remember that when God asks you to sacrifice
something precious in your life, He always has your best interest at heart, and
He is trying to use that experience to reveal something to you about your life
so that you can go forth and do the will of God with confidence.
A clear example of this biblical truth is clearly seen in
the Old Testament story of Abraham. After waiting approximately 25 years for God’s
promise of a covenant child to come true, Abraham and Sarah finally became the
proud parents of their son Isaac. When Isaac was born Abraham was 100
years old, and Sarah was 90 years old.
Everyone knew this baby was a miracle! How many
90-year-old women do you know that have given birth to a baby? It was so
fantastic that even Sarah said, “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that
hear will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would have said unto Abraham, that
Sarah should have given children suck? For I have born him a son in his old
age” (Genesis 21:7).
Try to imagine for a moment the sight of a 90-year-old woman
breastfeeding a baby. You can understand why Sarah said everyone who saw it
would laugh — it was absurd to the natural mind! Yet everyone who saw
this mother and child together was filled with joy because it was such a
demonstration of God’s faithfulness to keep His Word. In fact, this blessing
brought so many people joy that Abraham and Sarah named the baby Isaac,
meaning laughter.
Abraham had personally given up a lot to accommodate the
promise of God in his life. He knew that Isaac was the seed through whom God
was going to bless the nations of the earth, as God had promised in Genesis
12:2,3 and Genesis 15:4,5. All of Abraham’s hopes and dreams rested in Isaac.
However, after Abraham had spent years watching his son grow
into a God-fearing young man, the Bible says that God came to him and commanded
him to offer up Isaac as a burnt sacrifice! Genesis 22:1 and 2 records: “And it
came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him,
Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine
only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and
offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will
tell thee of.”
In Hebrews 11:17, the writer of Hebrews offers another
account of these events, saying, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
offered up Isaac…” This verse tells us that God “tried” Abraham that day on
Mount Moriah when He commanded him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on
the altar.
This word “tried” is from the Greek word peiradzo,
which describes an intense examination that is done to prove the fitness
of an object. For example, peiradzo was used to describe the fiery
process of testing and removing impurities from metal in the ancient world.
These tests ensured that the metal would be strong and durable, and that any
object crafted from metal would hold up under pressure. In addition, peiradzo also
described the process of testing coins to determine if they were authentic or
counterfeit. In early New Testament times, counterfeits often looked so similar
to the genuine article that only a test would reveal whether a coin was real or
fake. Therefore, people regularly tested their money to see if it had worth.
The word peiradzo most often described the process
of testing an object to reveal its true quality, and this is precisely how the
word is used in Hebrews 11:17, where the verse says Abraham was “tried” by the
Lord. The fact is, the Lord already knew that Abraham’s faith was sound and
real. But when Abraham drew his knife to slay his son, Abraham himself learned
something important about his own faith and level of consecration. He
discovered that he was willing to do whatever the Lord asked him to do. There
was nothing counterfeit or lacking about Abraham’s obedience to God; his
commitment was real and authentic.
You see, God never tests you to learn new information about
you. He doesn’t need to “test” to find out something new because He already
knows it all. Rather, He is trying to show you something about you —
to make you more self-assured and confident as you go forward to do His will.
Every test you are going through is being done for your own self-discovery —
lessons learned if you go through those tests correctly to give you
confidence as you proceed to do the will of God for your life.
When God called my family to relocate to the former USSR
back in 1991, my willingness to say yes to God revealed something to me about
myself that I needed to see and know. It showed me that my commitment to
God was real. This experience was a peiradzo — a test designed
to reveal the imperfect areas of my life that required attention and to prove
to me that I was the type of person God could depend on. He already knew this
about me, but I personally needed to know it deep down in my spirit.
I am so glad my family said, “Yes!” when God beckoned us to
leave the United States and move to the former Soviet Union. Even though it
initially felt like we were sacrificing everything to do it, the truth is, we
didn’t lose anything. What God has given us in our new home overseas is
far greater than any home, possession, or dream that we thought we
were relinquishing. From the very outset, God had a wonderful plan for the
Renner family.
When God asks us to lay something on the altar of sacrifice,
we can know there is something bigger and better He wants to put into our
hands. But as long as we’re clutching what we have right now, we’re not free to
receive the great things He wants to give us next.
Realize that whatever you’re doing today may simply be the
training ground for your future. Don’t allow yourself to get so cemented in
what you’re doing that you can’t move forward to the next step God has in store
for you. And if it ever seems like God is asking you to make a huge sacrifice,
just remember: This is just His way of freeing you so He can give you something
better and greater and make you more productive for the Kingdom of God. You
can trust Him! And as you keep your heart free and your emotions
untangled, you’ll be able to move forward whenever His Spirit beckons you to
take the next step in His good plan for your life!
Not only will this lesson help you if God is calling you to something unusual, but it will also help you to be more understanding when He calls others to things that you don't understand! God has the very best plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), but He ALWAYS leaves the decision up to us! Let's be prepared to simply be obedient! THAT is what He desires! AMEN! Here is Hillsong UNITED with "Here's To The One":
Shalom in Him!
