As you successfully navigate through trials, you will experience great joy!
Trials will test who is Lord over your life.
James wrote by The Holy Spirit in James chapter 1:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
When it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can have! Nobody looks forward to difficulties, but when deliverance comes, we are overjoyed, knowing that GOD intervened on our behalf.
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
For our faith to grow, it must be tested and that requires patience. Society has become extremely impatient in all areas of their life. People who are waiting in line at the grocery store are now irritated when my wife pays with cash rather than a credit card. They are generally in a hurry to go nowhere but they want to get there soon.
5 If any of you lacks Wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
When we are in the midst of a trial, the one thing we need is Wisdom and with it comes understanding.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
When a trial comes, it reveals whether you are truly walking in the Lordship of Jesus Christ or whether you are looking for other temporary solutions to the problem.
Are you fully committed to absolute triumph and victory over your trial? Both Wisdom and faith are essential parts of being able to take this journey that GOD has invited us into, this awkward journey to die to the flesh.
To go through this narrow door of counting it joy when I am facing things that I don’t like, I didn’t ask for, I didn’t sign up for… this isn’t according to what was promised. I’ve fasted, I’ve prayed, I had done all these things and still there seems to be no yielding of these circumstances. But going through the door where I can actually, genuinely celebrate with joy, the goodness of GOD and HIS faithfulness, in that moment, somehow the enemy becomes disarmed. He can no longer impact my soul. That which he used against me no longer works.
Why? I have given myself to the Lordship of Jesus.
I love the concept of the tithe. One reason I love it is because it says it is to go into the storehouse. It’s not directed by the giver. It’s a true test of Lordship.
Jesus spoke in Luke chapter 20:
22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test Me?
24 Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
25 And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.“
26 But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.
And it is written in Malachi chapter 3:
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
This is the test of Lordship: tithes and offerings. What is HIS food?
It is written by The Holy Spirit in Hebrews chapter 5:
12 For you should already be professors instructing others by now; but instead, you need to be taught from the beginning the basics of God’s prophetic oracles! You’re like children still needing milk and not yet ready to digest solid food.
13 For every spiritual infant who lives on milk is not yet pierced by the revelation of righteousness.
As you provide “food” in FATHER’S House, you will begin to receive revelation knowledge appropriate to your situation. You will successfully navigate through the trial with Wisdom and faith resulting in great joy!