This week I was reading the story of Joseph in Genesis. He was given dreams by God that his brothers mocked and did not like. His brothers eventually sold him into slavery after they considered killing him. While in slavery his masters wife took a liking to him and when he would not have sex with her she lied and said he tried to force himself upon her. He was thrown into prison for something he did not even do. Later he was released and he found favor with the Pharaoh because God gave him the interpretation of the Pharaohs dreams. He was put in charge of all the food storage and selling of the food during a massive famine. His family had to come to buy food from him and they were all reconciled.

I have read the same story many times, but this time something caught my attention that has never caught it before.

Genesis 45:5-8 Now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to save life and preserve our family. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five more years in which there will be no plowing and harvesting. ⁷ God sent me [to Egypt] ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great escape. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Joseph said that God had sent him there. I have always read the story and knew it was part of God’s plan, but to read that even Joseph said it made me stop and think how many times have I missed what God was doing in my life because I was to busy grumbling and complaining about the situation I found myself in. If I were sold into slavery by my family I am not sure I would look at it as part of God’s plan. Or if I was put into prison under false accusations I would probably throw a fit and think God had left me or let me down.

After reading the story this time through I was left wondering how many times hardships are really God’s positioning of our lives. How many times the hardships serve a greater purpose to get us where we need to be-maybe physically, but also maybe spiritually and/or mentally. I think that is why it is so important to always ask God what we are walking through as far as is it warfare, a learning moment, a consequence of our own actions and choice, a wilderness season, or a mixture of all the above. Once we know what kind of season we are walking in we can better know how to respond.

This is a teaching I did a while ago that I think would be helpful to add with this post.

Test, Trial, Warfare, or Consequences of Actions

When we are going through a tough situation, we may have no idea what caused it or how to fight it.

The first thing we must always do is ask God if it is a:

Test/Trial, Warfare, Discipline issue or Consequences of our own Actions/Choices

We must know what we are dealing with in order to know how to respond and get through the situation. We can be going through more than one thing at once and that is also good to know and recognize.

We have to know where the situation is coming from and the root cause because the way we handle it will be very different based on what is causing it.

Sometimes we get caught on the hamster wheel of going around and around and around because we don’t understand where the problem is originating from and we don’t understand the root cause, or we have even misdiagnosed the situation out of our own understanding.

We must ask God to show us through His Word, through others, dreams/visions, His voice or however He chooses to speak. There are many ways that He speaks to us and I encourage you to be open to His voice and what He is saying. He is always speaking; we are the ones that must tune into His voice. He created us with fellowship in mind and that has not changed.

We have to push aside distractions, thoughts, and outside noise in order to really sit with Him and listen to Him. He usually speaks quietly and is waiting for us to actively seek His voice.

Action Plan

Once we know what we are dealing with we can come up with a plan to work through the issue.

Keep in mind we can be going through more than one thing at once and that is also good to know and recognize because you may need to use several different strategies.

Test/Trial

If is a test or trial we can ask God things like: What should I be learning during this time? What do You want to change in me?

Pay attention to patterns. Does the same thing happen over and over? If so, we can ask God what we are missing. Also, we need to make sure we are walking in total submission to God during these times. Submission is one of the major key points.

We must ask ourselves are we totally submitted to Him or are we living in rebellion and cannot understand why we are not blessed? We must make sure that we are not we keeping one foot in the world and then in the next moment angry that God has not given us the breakthrough that we need.

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test you [that is, to test the quality of your faith], as though something strange or unusual were happening to you.

James 1:2-4 2 Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. 3 Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.

In all circumstances we must seek first the kingdom of God and our motives must be pure. We must ask ourselves are we really seeking Him from a place of pure motives or to get things from God.

At times we get so beat up by the enemy, or the test/trial, because we do not understand our authority, in Jesus, or the lesson we are learning, and we become so fixated on the breakthrough that we lose our focus on God.

We cry out to God in desperation to make the torment stop but we must make sure we are seeking Him out of love and adoration and not just as someone who can make the pain stop.

We can create idols out of seeking healing and the ministries we think will bring it or doctors. Anything that takes the place of God in our hearts becomes an idol.

We can go from ministry to ministry or doctor to doctor for healing, but during the seeking lose sight of the one and only Healer, Deliverer, Savior, King, and Lord.

I am not saying that ministries or doctors are bad, God can use any avenue He chooses to heal. He is God, but I am saying we can create an idol out of these things and lose sight of God.

Look at the Israelites in the wilderness. They extended their journey by years. God was with them every single day, doing miracles every day and yet they lost sight of Him many times.

We can do the exact same thing. I know I did in my own life.

During my wilderness journey I often became angry, bitter, and rebellious. Life did not look like I thought it should and the battle was too hard. God would lay things on my heart to do, and I would tell Him as soon as I was healed, I would do those things. My time was increased because of my rebellion and attitude.

Sometimes we can think everything that we perceive as bad is from the enemy but not everything is from the devil. We could be fighting the enemy as if we are in spiritual warfare but that’s not even the issue. We may be screaming at the enemy, binding and rebuking him when we are actually in a test.

Some things are a test from God, consequences for our own choices and actions, lack of discipline, and sometimes a result of living in a fallen world.

There are times God will put us in a situation to see if we are going to walk out our faith, if we are going to stand firm, and if are we going keep our hearts close to Him. He wants to know if we are going to look to Him or if we are going to start leaning on our own understanding and lose our faith.

Sometimes we are in a test and God is wanting us to learn something and we are not learning what it is He is trying to show us, so we stay on the hamster wheel going around and around.

We may even be fighting against the enemy, in spiritual warfare, and the whole time God is saying “No wait I want you to learn this, I want you to lean into me, I want you to draw closer to me, I want you to deepen your faith in me, and I want you to look to me.”

Deuteronomy 8:2 And you shall remember [always] all the ways which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not.

Malachi 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi [the priests], and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord [grain] offerings in righteousness.

James 1:2-4 Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. 3 Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.

We have to place our trust completely in Him and know that He has our best interest in mind. He is a good Father, and He loves us.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].

If it is a test and we cannot figure out what God is trying to show us we must dig deeper. Those are the times that we have to go back to the simple things, go back to the basics. We have to get in the Word, pray, and fast. We have to seek God and really ask, “what in me do You need to change, what is there in me that needs removed?” Spend time seeking Him and His will for your life. Cry out to Him. Run to Him and not away. Be quick to listen to what He is saying and be on guard against bitterness and anger.

James 1: 19-20 Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving]; for the [resentful, deep-seated] anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God [that standard of behavior which He requires from us].

Maybe He is ready to take us to a new level in Him or a new level of ministry or a new level in our walk, or a new level in our marriage, but there are some things He has to remove first.

Sometimes there is purification that needs to be done and He can use a test, trial or time in the wilderness to make us what He wants us to be and cause us to look and act more like Him. Maybe He is giving us a chance to make Him the focus of our lives again. Maybe we lost our focus and He, by His grace and mercy, is giving us the chance to refocus.

1 Peter 1: 6-7 In this you rejoice greatly, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, which is much more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested and purified by fire, may be found to result in [your] praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Zechariah 13:9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

James 1: 2-4 Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.

There are many times we walk through the wilderness, and we get stuck there and we do not even know why. Part of the reason we get stuck is because we do not know why we are there in the first place.

A huge part of it is just taking a look at our lives and saying why do we keep creating these patterns, where are these patterns coming from, why are we stuck here, why do these things keep happening, why are we going around and around, and why are we not seeing breakthrough?

If you have lived in a pattern where you cannot see breakthrough in certain areas, you need to take a closer look at what is causing the situations. What is the root cause? Are you missing something that you are supposed to be learning or is there warfare from the enemy involved and that is why you are not getting breakthrough?

Warfare

We could also be in spiritual warfare, but we think we are going through a test, so we completely ignore the enemy.

We are pressing into God, reading the Bible and praying. Which none of these are bad things to be doing. They are all awesome and we should be doing them anyway even if we are not in a specific battle. They are all part of warfare, and our Christian walk, that we should not leave out, but we may be overlooking a key part to winning total victory in the situation.

However, if we are facing warfare, we must also be using our weapons of warfare to fight the enemy.

If the enemy is the one fighting us and attacking us there are many things, we can do to stop the attacks. One, deliverance if needed. Two, learn and walk in the identity given to us by God, and walk in the authority given to us by Jesus. Pick up our weapons of warfare and send the enemy packing.

Deliverance: When the enemy has legal rights to torment us. The legal rights must be removed, and the enemy cast out.

Identity: Do we really understand who we are in God? Do we really understand who He says we are? If this is an area of struggle, I highly suggest doing a topic search. You can even use Google and type in: scriptures that say who I am in God, or who God says I am.

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be [successful] against us?

Authority: Jesus has given us authority over the enemy. We in no way have to put up with his attacks. We can go on the offensive and take our territory back.

Luke 10:19 Listen carefully: I have given you authority [that you now possess] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and [the ability to exercise authority] over all the power of the enemy (Satan); and nothing will [in any way] harm you.

Mark 16: 17-18 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

Weapons of Warfare: praise, prayer, speaking scripture, faith, testimony, the blood of Jesus, binding, rebuking, fasting, submission to God, verbally speaking to the enemy and taking back what he has stolen from you, and deliverance if needed.

Consequences of our Actions: even after repentance sometimes we have to walk through the consequences of our
actions/decisions.

Repentance does not always remove the consequences of our poor choices: Children of Israel were in covenant with God, but their choices often put them in bondage for years.

Some examples are lust, adultery, drugs, lying, anger, murder, abortion, and critical attitude. We can repent for these things and be totally forgiven, but at times we still must live with the consequences of the actions.

When we are going through the consequences of our actions it is a good idea to allow it to be a teaching moment and learn from it. We should also remain in deep prayer. God can use anything, and He does. He often takes what the enemy meant to destroy us with and turn it around for His glory. Nothing is impossible with God and there is always hope no matter the situation. When we mess up and fall, we must be quick to get back up and run to the Father. We must ask Him to put the pieces of our lives back together during the times we have tried to do it on our own and in our own way.

His way is the only way.

I want to encourage you to take everything to the Father. No matter if you are going through a test, trial, warfare, or consequences there is no one who can fix the situation but God. Yes, we have to do our part. He always does His, but sometimes He is setting back waiting for us to do ours.

Many times, He is waiting for us to come to Him, surrender to Him and then He begins to move. Other times He is waiting for us to fully walk in our identity and authority. He has given us everything we need, but we must pick up and use the things He has given.

You are never alone. He will never leave you nor forsake you. All you have to do is whisper His name and He is right there. If you have wondered from Him, come home. If you have been angry with Him, tell Him. Run to Him and pour your heart out. He is waiting for you.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed (intimidated), for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Blessings,

Nichole Henson

Fullness of Joy Ministry