Testing Character for Enduring Submission
A test measures our level of quit. The test of character is what it takes to stop you.
To repeat: “A test is an examination of the inner man that measures the strength of a man’s endurance for submission. Submission is endurance, and endurance is submission.”
The test of character measures the strength of the soul to stop unwanted behaviors and maintain habits of righteousness. It tests a man’s current limits, breaking down its essential structures, imparting grace where flesh formerly dominated, so the end result is spiritual maturity, the strength of will, and expanded, enhanced grace flows to the inner man.
Some tests involve the world, flesh, and devil because that is where we live. We live godly in this present world and face its pressures. We experience the tests as trials, temptations, and troubles.
God is not “using the devil,” as we learn in Job and throughout Scripture. God has no partnership in temptation or the pressures of this present cosmic order of spiritual darkness. God’s tests design an outcome for overcomers consistent with the provisions of redemptive restoration.
We learn obedience. We learn through submitted endurance. We reach the fullness of obedience through a series of tests that indicate we remain in obedience. Testing is the pathway to perfection: in this way, He became, reached, and fulfilled His ultimate.” (See Hebrews 5:7-8.)
Who Designs the Test?
The leader designs the test. The test is part of the strategy of preparation. The Divine process to bring a person to ultimate destiny produces testing and marks testing in a formalized, measurable improvement indicator.
Testing answers the question: “how much progress have we made toward the ultimate goal?” Since only the leader who designs the strategic process knows the ultimate goal, he remains the only person who can develop the tests.
Read both Luke 4 and Hebrews 5. Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tested of the devil. Jesus learned the fullness of obedience by submitting to a process of pathos, enduring that process, marked with checkpoints indicating He was heading toward His ultimate.
Recognize how Jesus learned obedience. Jesus did not learn obedience because He had a problem with disobedience. Jesus learned obedience because obedience is a process as prophetic.
A Better Man (An Adaption)
What do you say when a test painful?
Until it is, should I say anything at all?
What do I say when I know its gainful,
Fighting back the quit to stand up tall?
[Verse 2]
Still, I think about the years since I first met You
And the way it might have been without You here;
Those years were the times I matured and grew
But I’ve just gotta make this clarity sound clear.
[Chorus]
I know I’m leavin’ here a better man
For trustin’ you this way
Things I couldn’t do before now I know I can
And I’m leavin’ this test a better man
[Verse 3]
I always needed to strength to trust You
and I never had the heart to tell You no,
Just like Job, I had to learn that I could trust You
Knowing You know more than I could ever know.
[Chorus]
I’m leavin’ here a better man
For trustin’ you this way
Things I couldn’t do before now I know I can
And I’m leavin’ this test a better man
Yes, I’m leavin’ this test a better man
For trustin’ you this way
Things I couldn’t do before now I know I can
And I’m leavin’ this test a better man
(Ooo ooo ooo)
Yes, I’m leavin’ this test a better man.
(Original lyrics by Clint Black and Hayden Nicholas)
