Lesson for July 12, 2020
Suffering and Testing in the Christian Life
Lesson 6
Suffering and Testing
Spiritual Maturity
Having passed the tests of spiritual autonomy, a believer enters the status of spiritual maturity and is prepared for the maximum testing, which is evidence testing. In eternity past, God provided everything necessary for a believer’s advance to spiritual maturity. Reaching spiritual maturity is a process of spiritual advance through the consistent study and application of Bible doctrine. It not necessary for a believer to try to figure out the exact moment that they reach this stage of spiritual adulthood. When a believer does reach spiritual maturity, the learning and applying continues. No one ever outgrows, spiritually speaking, the need to learn and apply more Bible doctrine.
Spiritual maturity is characterized by continuing to be spiritually independent, which was begun in spiritual autonomy. Having passed the various tests of people, system, thought and disaster as a believer advances to spiritual maturity they become equipped to handle every problem in life with Bible doctrine and happiness in their souls. At this stage of spiritual adulthood, a believer should be able to handle any tragedy or heartache life brings their way.
Sharing the happiness of God should be utilized as a problem-solving device at this stage of spiritual growth along with the other nine Problem-Solving Devices. Sharing God’s happiness can occur only when a believer has consistently stored Bible doctrine in their soul, creating a doctrinal frame of reference and a spiritual vocabulary. Personal love for God, which precedes sharing His happiness motivates a believer to continue to advance in their spiritual life. We must know Bible doctrine (the only place that reveals the essence, attributes and character of God) in order to love God!
Spiritual maturity means a believer has developed mental stability, which is the God-given ability to put doctrine before experience. Mental stability also includes courage toward others, plus the ability to make the correct and accurate application of Bible doctrine, especially during a time of testing or suffering. Testing often comes without any warning and a spiritually mature believer will be ready for it since they have stabilized their mind through the study and application of Bible doctrine.
A spiritually mature believer is content with what God has provided them, meaning they are sharing the happiness of God. (Philippians 4:11-13; Hebrews 13:5; I Timothy 6:6-8) A spiritually mature believer is grace oriented to life which smooths the “rough edges of life” into grace thinking, grace motivation, grace decisions, and grace actions. Each stage of spiritual adulthood advances and perfects grace orientation.
A spiritually mature believer has become spiritually self-sustaining in that they do not need another believer (even their pastor) to constantly “check” their spiritual health. This means a believer uses the privacy of their priesthood to develop and maintain a strong relationship with God. In spiritual maturity, a believer lives their own life as unto the Lord rather than as unto people. Therefore, they are able to take control their life by allowing God the Holy Spirit to empower and guide their life. Since God really has all the control when a spiritually mature believers yield control to the Holy Spirit, they live in a state of inner happiness a maximum amount of the time.
A spiritual mature believer takes responsibility for his own decisions (good or bad). He also takes responsibility for others if they are under his authority but does so without seeking to control, interfere in or manipulate them. A spiritually mature believer concentrates on their relationship with God as their first priority, rather than their relationships with people as their first priority. This concentration produces a mental attitude of confidence in God. (Philippians 3:15-16)
A spiritually mature believer has a personal sense of destiny based on their confidence in God and His Word. No matter what happens in life, he/she relate all the good and the bad to the fact that God has a purpose for their lives. They understand God’s purpose, apply that knowledge to situations, maintain their happiness and pass testing when it comes their way. Therefore, spiritually mature believers recognize that they have fulfilled their purpose and destiny in life by executing the Protocol Plan of God. They are equipped to face any testing, handle and solve any problem. A spiritually mature believer has become aware that in fulfilling the plan of God for his/her life, they are fulfilling their own divine destiny. Destiny must always be related to God rather than to people, circumstances, or any standard of human success.
Consistent divine production is a characteristic of a spiritually mature believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit, which means effectiveness in Christian service resulting in gold, silver, and precious stones (eternal rewards) at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Divine production can be either invisible (prayer for others) or visible (sharing the Gospel with others). Spiritual maturity removes all of the frustrations normally associated with life, like not succeeding as you or others think you should. You have a destiny far greater than that of any person who’s ever been successful or great in this life (by human standards)!
Spiritual maturity is spiritually freeing. In the Protocol Plan of God, a new type of freedom exists, which has never existed before in any other dispensation – spiritual freedom provided by living in God’s power system – a system of grace. Spiritual freedom can exist with or without human freedom. A spiritually mature believer can be imprisoned and still have spiritual freedom because spiritual freedom does not depend on outward circumstances. Spiritual freedom is the divine provision of God’s grace to fulfill the Protocol Plan of God through residence, function, and momentum inside God’s power system which occurs in a believer’s soul. (Galatians 5:1)
Evidence Testing
Evidence testing in spiritual maturity is the greatest privilege a believer can have on earth. This category of suffering for blessing glorifies God to the maximum when the test is passed. Only through the filling and power of God the Holy Spirit and with maximum Bible doctrine in the soul can a believer pass this test. Reaching the status of spiritual maturity should be the goal of every believer in Jesus Christ. God is searching for those believers who will fulfill His protocol plan so that He can present them as witnesses for the Prosecution in the appeal trial of Satan in the Angelic Conflict. (Job 1:1, 6-12; II Chronicles 16:9)
Evidence testing is Satan’s “cross-examination” of every witness presented by God in the Angelic Conflict during Satan’s appeal trial. It is Satan’s goal to discredit spiritually mature believers as credible witnesses for God in an attempt to prove that God was unfair when He sentenced Satan and the fallen angels to the Lake of Fire. (Matthew 25:41) He does this only with God’s permission by means of undeserved suffering. In human history only a limited number of spiritually mature believers are qualified to be witnesses during the appeal trial of Satan.
During this trial, which coincides with the Church Age, the thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions of the spiritually mature believers who are chosen by God as witnesses, are entered as evidence, exhibits, precedents, and arguments in Satan’s appeal trial. Every believer who attains spiritual maturity is a potential witness for the Prosecution against Satan. No believer qualifies as a potential witness until he has attained spiritual maturity by fulfilling the Protocol Plan of God. Passing evidence testing as the highest category of undeserved suffering for blessing results in the doubling of your escrow blessings according to Job 42:12-16.
Spiritually mature believers of every dispensation are chosen by God to be credible witnesses in the various trials of Satan and the fallen angels. To qualify as a witness for the Prosecution (God), a believer must reach spiritual maturity by first reaching spiritual self-esteem and passing providential preventative suffering. Second a believer must reach spiritual autonomy and pass momentum testing. Third a believer must reach spiritual maturity and pass evidence testing. Passing evidence testing is the ultimate in the glorification of God.
Evidence testing is therefore Satan’s attempt, through his “cross-examination of suffering,” to discredit those believers who attain spiritual maturity. It appears that Satan always administers evidence testing, but under restrictions imposed by God before the evidence testing begins. For example, Satan was not permitted to kill Job. (Job 1:6-12)
There are two categories of evidence testing: 1) the relationship to the plan of God test which is illustrated by Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:1-11 and 2) the relationship to life test is illustrated by Job in the book of Job. Either category of evidence testing is administered only to spiritually mature believers, for only they are qualified to be witnesses for the Prosecution. Apparently, the spiritual maturity believer does not take both tests, and which one he receives is a matter of the sovereignty of God. The pattern of the relationship with God test is found in the three temptations of Jesus Christ to His humanity. The three parts are: 1) relationship with the Holy Spirit in Matthew 4:1-4, 2) relationship with the Word of God in Matthew 4:5-7 and 3) relationship with the plan of God in Matthew 4:8-10.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about Christ’s evidence testing was that instead of performing miracles under His own power, our Lord used the greatest power ever known in the history of the human race. He used Bible doctrine in all three parts of His evidence testing. Bible doctrine is the greatest power the world has ever known; it is far, far greater than asking God performing a miracle. When God performs a miracle, it requires only His sovereignty. But when a believer uses Bible doctrine and makes correct application and advances in the plan of God through the use of that Bible doctrine, that is the greatest power and the highest function that any member of the human race can attain.
Job took the relationship to life test. After receiving his greater blessings from God, it was all taken away in the first part of Job’s evidence test. The three parts of his test were loss of prosperity in Job 1, loss of health, social life, and attractiveness in Job 2:1-10 and loss of friends and being maligned by them in Job 2:11 – 42:17. Job passed the first two parts, failed the third, recovered, and received his blessings back doubled in all three categories after he passed evidence testing.
While evidence testing comes quickly, without any notice or warning, and always occurs at a time when least expected, since the believer has reached spiritual maturity, it is completely and totally undeserved suffering. It is severe testing, but God never puts on believers more suffering than they can handle. (I Corinthians 10:13; II Peter 2:9)
Summary
No amount of suffering in the Christian life is too great for believers to handle, if they are living inside God’s power system, the Divine Dynasphere. The Protocol Plan of God is a perfect plan designed specifically for each individual believer. God’s plan includes both divine discipline and suffering for blessing, but it is never God’s desire for harm to come to one of His children but does occasionally have to use suffering and adversity to keep a believer on track, spiritually. Unlike believers, who are easily distracted by their own desires and the influence of Satan’s world system, God is not distracted by anything.
Understanding and making proper application of the doctrine of suffering keeps a believer in tune with the desires of God. (Psalm 37:4-5; Proverbs 3:5-6) God does not randomly send suffering in the form of a test in order to watch a believer suffer. There is always a divine purpose for suffering as we have seen. Sometimes deserved suffering is self-induced and sometimes it is divine discipline. For spiritually advancing believers undeserved suffering is for spiritual growth or as part of the resolution of the Angelic Conflict.
If a believer is able to recognize why the suffering is occurring from the knowledge of the Bible doctrine in his soul, he will be able to categorize it and apply the correct problem-solving device. Application of the proper problem-solving device will result in any corrective action needed if the suffering is self-induced misery or divine discipline. If the suffering is undeserved, then a believer will know that God will not allow him to be tested above and beyond what he is able to handle based on the doctrine in his soul. (I Corinthians 10:13)
By saturating your soul with accurate Bible doctrine, you can handle any adversity (or prosperity) that comes your way regardless of the source (people, thought, system or disaster testing). Developing a personal sense of destiny and sharing the happiness of God will sustain any believer in time of suffering and testing. A personal sense of destiny solves the panic problem for the child of God. Regardless of what life brings our way, if we have a personal sense of destiny, we know that God is at work behind the scenes working things to our benefit. (I Corinthians 2:9; Romans 8:28)
A personal sense of destiny gives believers capacity for life by producing spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem means that you have discovered who you are in Christ. God never gives us more blessing than we have the capacity to receive. (James 4:1-8, Isaiah 30:18) God also never gives us more testing than we are able to endure. (I Corinthians 10:12-13; Romans 14:10-13) Capacity for life replaces the temporary pleasures of the world with the eternal happiness of God. (Galatians 6:6-10) Capacity is increased by spending a maximum amount of time in fellowship with God, consistent intake and application of Bible doctrine and using Divine Viewpoint Thinking.
Sharing the happiness of God is having permanent contentment as your constant companion. This happiness is permanent because it does not depend on the circumstances in your life. It is actually God’s own perfect happiness that He shares with the advancing believer as a grace gift. Sharing God’s happiness is obtained only by consistently learning, believing and applying the Word of God over a period of time. The more time you log under the power and the control of God the Holy Spirit and thinking divine viewpoint, the happier you are going to be. It is impossible to share in something that you know nothing about. Being happy is one of the many spiritual blessings that comes with increased capacity. Increased capacity to receive God’s blessing of happiness comes only one way – study and application of Bible doctrine. (Jeremiah 15:16; John 13:17)