SEVEN SEASONS OF SPIRITUAL TESTING
By Frank Eiklor and Cecilia Contreras
LESSON 7 (Part 2)
Every true followers of Jesus will go through the fires of testing. The Father’s goal is to conform us to the image of Christ. To accomplish this, the Lord allows at least seven different times or seasons (tests) to come our way. In Part One, we discussed Times of Delight, Times of Dryness and Times of Danger. We now study four more seasons of testing.
4. TIMES OF DECEPTION
It is not when we are at our weakest that we are most vulnerable to deception, but rather in our high moments of victory and achievement. King Saul was God’s man in his early days of humility. But then came success, praise and power that cause Saul’s great fall and Samuel’s lament: “When thou wast little in thine own sight…” (I Samuel 15:17)
Paul warned against the trap of comparing ourselves with others, either negatively or positively… “they comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (II Corinthians 10:12). Our standard of measurement and our champion must be Jesus and Him alone so that we can resist those times of deception.
5. TIMES OF “DEAFEAT”
Note the word “defeat” in quotes. I’m well aware that it is God that “giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57). Nevertheless, those who have walked intimately with the Lord know that He allows those times when it appears that His plans and purposes for our lives are defeated. It is only then that the Lord Himself becomes our most and only prized possession—not just His plans and purposes that can leave us arrogant in “our call” and proud of our humility. When defeat was all Job knew, he was left with, “though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). And that was enough to make Job the victor even in seeming “defeat”.
6. TIMES OF DESPAIR
There are times when we sink even deeper than feeling merely defeated. Our spirits can become so crushed that we sense our physical life ebbing and death a certainty—unless God intervenes. Paul experienced that in Asia when he “despaired even of life” (II Corinthians 1:8). But he caught God’s lesson even in this extremity when he said, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead” (II Corinthians 1:9). And it was going through this dark tunnel that allowed Paul to rejoice in the light he saw at the end: “who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us” (II Corinthians 1:10). Past experience gave hope for the present and a guarantee God would invade with His presence any future “times of despair.”
It was the same with the psalmist who both talked to, and answered, himself in his despairing moments: “Why are you cast down, O my soul…hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance (Psalm 42:5). It is only in our times of despair when we focus on our only hope for help…and find more of God Himself.
7. TIMES OF DEATH
Here I am not speaking of mere physical death. It is easier to die physically than to die spiritually—to self—daily. Paul said, “I die daily” (I Corinthians 15:31). Jesus spoke of a corn of wheat “dying” in order to bring forth much fruit (John 12:24). Again Paul spoke of the reality of “always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (II Corinthians 4:11).
Of all the seven seasons of testing in the life of an overcomer, this seventh will be the most present. For the more one matures in the Lord, the more—not less—he or she realizes that the monster called “self” must be submitted to the cross of Jesus in a moment by moment recognition of death. But it is then that we find a greater measure of the Lord Jesus Himself, as we are progressively conformed to His very image (Romans 8:29) and He Himself—not our old self—is formed within us.
CONCLUSION
Once we recognize there is no avoiding passing through—again and again—these seven times of testing, we won’t be defeated by anything that comes our way. The greatest apostle that ever lived was troubled, distressed, perplexed, persecuted and cast down (II Corinthians 4:8-9). Some called him dishonorable, evil and a deceiver (II Corinthians 6:8). He faced prisons, whippings, beatings, stoning and shipwreck (II Corinthians 11:23-25). Jews, Gentiles and robbers all conspired against him and false Christians hurt him most of all—while he endured pain, hunger, thirst, shivering with cold and yet having to nourish the churches (II Corinthians11:27, 28).
And we still can’t stop. For in his first letter to the church of Corinth, Paul told how he and the apostles were called fools and weak—and were despised reviled, persecuted, defamed and made the “filth of the world” (I Corinthians 4:10-13). Yet it was this same “weak Paul” who was made powerful by the indwelling Messiah and who called himself “more than a conqueror” through Christ. (Romans 8:37). God can do the same with you and m
Enough said! How dare any of us complain about our lot in life?! Let the seven times of testing come. The key is to know that “My times are in thy hand” (Psalm 31:15) and learn moment by moment to “Trust in Him at all times” (Psalm 62:8). If our only desire is more of Him, our Lord will use every reason to make us more like Him.
