1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.
God has a way of accomplishing His purposes through our trials. The Bible story shows that all of life seems to follow that pattern. While a baby is in the womb, the mother is usually without much pain. But when that baby is being delivered so that he can live as a separate individual apart from his mother, then the mother experiences pain. Everything in her body is disrupted and changed. A woman’s body changes completely at the moment that she brings forth a child.
Great things will be happening to us, but the process of getting into them will follow a pattern similar to that of a child being born. We want to move into the new dimension of life, but first we must be prepared for that new realm. Therefore, for a little while, we are distressed by various trials, in order that we have the faith and the working of God within us.
We have experienced this process from the beginning of this restoration walk. Whenever the Lord prophesies a ministry or gifts of the Spirit over an individual, they are immediately thrown into testing and trials under the hand and dealings of God.
Romans 12:3 tells us that God gives to everyone a measure of faith, but that amount of faith is not enough. When God gives faith to a person, He tests that faith so that it will expand, so you appropriate more faith to meet the situation.
The growth of faith depends upon your initiative. As God orders your steps, your faith is tested by circumstances in your life. Your reaction to those testing’s will lead to one of two courses: You will either abandon faith, or else that faith will become great enough to meet the situation of testing and bring you into what God has intended and willed for you.
When the two blind men came to Jesus asking for healing, He told them, “According to your faith be it done unto you” (Matthew 9:29). There are other accounts of healings in Matthew, in which Jesus said that it was faith which brought about the healing (Matthew 8:10; 9:2, 22; 15:28). All the provision is there! It is gift-wrapped, ready to be delivered from heaven. All you do is believe! No doubt you will be tested to see whether you will settle for something less, or whether you will believe and contend for everything that your faith first embraced. NEVER SETTLE FOR LESS THAN GOD’S BEST!
Determine that at no time will you settle for anything less than what God has set before you. When your faith is tested, do not compromise by accepting a partial deliverance or a lesser victory. It is time that we all walk in an absolute declaration of our faith!
The various trials come so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:7.)
Verse 5 speaks about salvation “revealed at the last time,” and verse 7 speaks of the “revelation of Jesus Christ,” because this end time is to see the culminating point of fulfillment.
We have believed this for years, but now we may find it easy to draw back and say, “Let’s postpone it for another five years. Then we do not have to worry about believing for it now.” We must believe that this is the most critical hour in the history of the world when the greatest fulfillment, the greatest manifestation, the greatest breakthrough’s comes.