Some thoughts from Pastor David Wilkerson
God has always wanted a people who would walk totally reliant on him before the eyes of the world. That’s why he took the insignificant little nation of Israel and isolated them in a wilderness. He was placing them in a school of testing, to produce a people who would trust in him no matter what their circumstance. He wanted Israel to testify, “I can go through any test, any difficulty, even those beyond my abilities. How? I know my God is with me in every trial. He will always bring me through.”
Consider Moses’ statement to Israel: “[God] suffered thee to hunger” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The Lord was telling them, “I orchestrated your trial. It wasn’t the devil. I possessed all the bread and meat you needed the whole time. And I was ready to drop it out of the sky at any minute. It was all stored up, waiting for you to receive it. But I withheld it for a while. And I did this for a season. I was waiting for you to come to the end of all your self-reliance. I wanted to bring you to a point of crisis, where only I could deliver you. I allowed you to experience your ‘wit’s end,’ a place of human helplessness. And it required a miracle of deliverance from me.”
Today, the Lord is still looking for a people who’ll rely totally on him. He wants a church that will testify both in words and actions that God is all-powerful on their behalf. He wants an unsaved world to see that he works mightily for those who love him.
Job declared, “He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Here is an incredible statement, especially considering the context in which Job spoke it.
Job suffered one of the worst trials any human could undergo. He lost all of his children in a tragic accident, and then he lost his wealth and possessions. Finally, he lost his physical health. And all these things happened in such a short time, they were utterly overwhelming.
Yet, God had put Job on this path. And the Lord alone knew where it eventually would lead. It was a plan so divinely orchestrated that God even allowed Satan to do the afflicting of Job. That’s why Job couldn’t see God in any of it: “I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: but he knoweth the way that I take” (Job 23:8–10).
Job was saying, “I know that God knows everything I’m enduring. And he knows the way through it all. My Lord is trying me right now. And I’m confident he’ll bring me through with a stronger faith. I’ll come out purged and cleansed, with a faith more precious than gold.”
