There are a number of tests that we must pass in the school of God. I want us to open our Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 8:1-5. The Bible says:

 

“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ⁵ You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.”

 

Distinguishing Between Tests and Temptations

 

Now, it is important we digress a bit here to discuss the difference between test and temptations because these are two terms in the Bible that people are yet to quite understand. What distinguishes tests and temptations Scripturally is the source or the origin. When it comes to God, God does not tempt a man, what He simply does is that He tests. Temptations the Bible says comes in a number of ways.

 

Number one:  when people are carried away by their own lust. For example, you look at a man’s wife so much to the point that you would do just anything to have her to be your own wife (in the case of David and Uriah’s wife) or you look at another man’s property to the extent that you would do just anything (including stealing or killing) so that you can acquire same. In these two scenarios, it is your own desires or lust that is bringing about the temptation. James 1:12-15 says:

 

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. ¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. ¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

 

Number two: temptation actually comes from the devil and not from God. Luke 4:1-2 says: “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² being tempted for forty days by the devil.” So, the devil is the master tempter. Someone may say: why will God allow Satan to tempt me in the first place? Well, it is because all things work together for your good. Sometimes God will allow the devil to do the tempting and when you come out clean and unscathed, He uses the same temptation for your promotion. For Jesus, God allowed it. For Job, God allowed it as well. But in those temptations, God will not leave you alone. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

 

Number Three: temptation comes as a result of prayerlessness. If you are not a man or woman given to prayers, you would easily fall into temptations. In Luke 22:31-32, 40 and 46, The Bible says: “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” Don’t say because Jesus is praying for me, the Holy Spirit is praying for me, you now outsource your prayer life completely to them. That is not how it should be. If you will not enter into temptation, you must be given to prayer.

 

Listen to Podcast: How To pass Our Examination In The School Of God Pt. 2

 

So, we have seen from those Scriptural backgrounds that God does not tempt us, God only test us. The next question we would ask is this: why does God tests us?

 

WHY DOES GOD TESTS US?

 

The test of God is not to bring out the worst in us but the best in us. When God tests a man, it is to see if such a man would be faithful. In Luke 16:11-12, Jesus said: “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” The test of God is the test of faithfulness. God will test you before He commits anything worthwhile into your hands. Jesus’ temptation was His own test before starting His own earthly ministry on a full scale. Abraham’s test was that he needed to leave his father’s land, his familiar zone. This was where he had lived in his entire life. But God was about to birth a whole nation through him and He needed to know if Abraham would be faithful. David’s test was in the fact that when he was keeping his father’s few sheep at the back of the desert, he was faithful. So, through that, God could entrust him with a whole nation of Israel.

 

God would test us to see if we will follow His instructions. Exodus 16:4 says: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.”

 

God would test us to see if we would let go of the things that we deemed precious to us. Genesis 22:1-2 says: Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

 

You see, God would not commit anything serious into your hands if He knows that you will not be faithful and the truth is: many people are constantly failing God in this regard. You have been praying to God: give me power, give me a vast business empire, give me this and that. But God knows your heart that the moment He releases this to you, that would be the end of your commitment to Him. So, He will test you: with money, with fame, with riches and sometimes, with adversity, to see your heart.

 

THE TEST OF OBEDIENCE

“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers.” Every commandment of God to us is to the end that we may live and increase on every side. The commandments of God are not frivolous, they are not ordinary, they are commandments that are carefully given. God doesn’t just speak because He wants to speak, each time God speaks, it is with intent and purpose. So, you don’t take the commandments of God as a mere gesticulation or as an opinion, you take the commandments of God seriously because your whole life depends on it.

 

See what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 19:7-11 about the word of God:

 

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
¹¹ Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.

 

So, the first examination you must pass in the school of God is in obeying His commandments. And the Bible makes it clear to us that the commandments of God to us not burdensome. God is giving you those commandments so that He can put burdens on you. 1 John 5:1-3 tells us: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” So, the first examination to pass is obedience, complete obedience for that matter. And when it comes to obeying God, you obey Him completely.

 

You must also realize that in the school of God, 99.99% obedience is still disobedience. God said to king Saul through Samuel (1 Samuel 15), “go and destroy the Amalekites for I remembered how he ambushed Israel on his way out of Egypt.” Saul went as the LORD had commanded but when he got to the place, he did contrary against the words of the Lord and hat became his greatest undoing. What many of us do is to randomly pick what we want to obey and discard what is not suiting our way, and this is why we have remained on the same spot for so long because in the school of God, it takes complete obedience to move to the next stage. You cannot make progress based on partial disobedience.

 

THE TEST OF HEART

Verse 2 says: “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Another thing you must realize is that in the school of God, your heart will be tested. The test of heart is the test of motive. God is more motive conscious than intention/action conscious. More than you just doing, God wants to know why you are doing. For example, God wants to know why you are going into ministry. Is it for fame or is it for the love of God and the people? If you suffer in the cause of the ministry, will you continue to do it or will you simply stop? These are matters that has to do with motives. So, for God to be able to get to the roots of your motive, He will test your heart. See 1 Thessalonians 2:4-6. The Bible says:

 

“But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. ⁵ For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. ⁶ Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.”

 

THE TEST OF CHARACTER

Verse 3 says: “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord...”

 

Now, God said in this place that He was humbling the children of Israel by those experiences. It isn’t the devil, it is God. It is not all the time that you attribute what you are going through to Satan, sometime it could be God Himself working on you and this is why you need to understand the dealings of God or the way God relates with you. God said He was teaching them so that they may know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord...” These people had lived in Egypt all their lives, they were not used to depending on God or taking His words seriously. They were used to the cucumbers of Egypt and all the goodies they had access to. But now, God has taken over their destinies, and He needed to teach them how to relate with Him and depend on Him. So, He was taking them through that process.

 

Don’t forget, there was a shorter route (Exodus 13:17) that would only take them forty days before they get into the promised land. But God didn’t take them through that particular route, because of the reasons best known to Him which I believe was for the good of the children of Israel. God wanted to teach them how to depend on Him. And the Bible says that those generation that murmured while they were going through these experiences, they all perished in the wilderness. They did not make it down. But the generation who got it, who understood what God was doing with them, their children that grew up in the experience, they were the ones that made it (Numbers 20:2-13).

 

So, when God is testing you, it is not the time to murmur or complain. Each time you complain or murmur, what it means is that you would repeat the class, and it is until you get it that you can proceed to the next level.

 

In Psalm 105:17-22, see what the Bible says concerning Joseph.

He sent a man before them—
Joseph—who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They hurt his feet with fetters,
He was laid in irons.
¹⁹ Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of the Lord tested him.
²⁰ The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the people let him go free.
²¹ He made him lord of his house,
And ruler of all his possessions,
²² To bind his princes at his pleasure,
And teach his elders wisdom.

 

In all of these experiences, Joseph did not complain or abuse God. He was simply going through all the phases of his life in good faith until he got to the throne. If Joseph had complained or murmur, he would only see the throne from afar off but would not attain it. Verse 19 says: the word of the LORD tested him.

 

THE TEST OF CHASTENING

The next test you must pass in the school of God is the test of chastening. Verse 5 says: “You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.” The truth of the matter is this: God chastises us. Let me show us two Scriptures to buttress this. Proverbs 3:11-12 says:

 

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor detest His correction;
¹² For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

 

Hebrews 12:5-11

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

 

WHY DOES GOD CHASTISES US?

- Because He loves us (Proverbs 3:12)

 

- Because we are His delights: we give Him pleasure, joy all the time and therefore He cannot afford to lose us for one day. So, God would rather chastise you and rebuke you for the wrongs you are doing so that those things wouldn’t be the reason why you will lose His presence or the pleasure and delights that you give to Him. Revelation 4:11 (KJV) says: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

 

- God chastises us because we are sons/daughters (Hebrews 12:7).

 

- God chastises us for our profit (Hebrews 12:10).

 

- God chastises us that we might bear peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).

 

THE TEST OF ABUNBDANCE

There are times that God will also test you with abundance to see if your heart would depart from Him or be lifted against Him. In Ecclesiastes 7:14, the Bible says: “in the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him.” So, when God tests a man with abundance, in terms of prosperity, wealth and the likes, He wants to see if you would turn against Him or your wealth and prosperity would be used for His glory. And that was exactly what he revealed to us in Deuteronomy 8:7-18 and I want us to consider it, especially from verse 11. It says:

 

“Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ¹² lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ¹⁴ when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

 

Now, why was God warning them ahead? It is because people have the tendency to forget God the moment they are comfortable. The moment people hit it, they forget God completely and remove Him from the whole equation. And that is why the Scripture says

 

THE TEST OF FAITH

The test of faith is the test of absolute dependence on God. There are two things that God is looking out for during this test of faith: number one, God would want to see whether you are truly depending on Him or whether you have an alternative to Him. Number two, God would want to see whether you will pull out of the training process that He is taking you through or whether you will endure it and come out at the end of the day like fine gold. You see, a lot of believers don’t always pass this test and that is why they have been repeating class. James 1:2-3 says:

 

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

 

The test of your faith is meant to produce something and it is patience. You see, patience is produced when your faith is put to test. There is no way you can know in the flesh that you have patience if your faith is not tested. The reason why your test of faith is so important is because if you are going to relate with God, you need patience. Hebrews 10:35-39 (KJV) shows us this. It says:

 

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward ³⁶ For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. ³⁷ For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. ³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. ³⁹ But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

 

Can you see that? It says you have done the will of God you still need patience to receive the promise. You see, Abraham walked in the will of God for his life, he left his father’s country, he was promised Isaac, but Isaac did not come until 25 years later after he first heard the voice of God to leave his father’s country. At some point, in Abraham’s impatience, he stumbled on Ishmael, by his own calculation. But God said to him Ishmael shall not inherit the promise, but in Isaac shall the promise be fulfilled. You see, your impatience would not make God change His mind concerning His will and what He has set to do in your life. Your impatience would only elongate the journey. Your impatience can make your forty-day journey turn into forty years. So, you need to watch it. This is what the test of faith is. I want us to sing this Don Moen song as we begin to close now.

 

How Do I Know When I am Being Tested by God?

The reason why many believers fail their tests with God is because they don’t know when they are being tested. In a conventional school setting for example, no examination is conducted without the prior knowledge of the students. Except on some few occasions where lecturers would conduct impromptu tests just to see how the students have been able to grasped the subject, real examinations that would promote the students to their next levels are not conducted without the prior knowledge of the students. As a matter of fact, the moments you get yourself enrolled in a school system, you should anticipate your examination dates and timetable. And so, people start preparing for the numerous exams, they start to read, attend tutorials, start mastering the grey areas of their subjects and all the preparations that are needed.

 

But God most times don’t announce that He is about to test us. His test can come to us at any time He deem fit. So, how do you know when you are being tested by God? There are certain moments in your life that you must always watch out for and thread carefully when those moments are upon you.

 

Moment number one: When you are in what I call a threshold of decision making in life. There are several options before you, there are several choices before you, there are several routes before you. And God is patiently looking at you to see which way you would go, what would be your choice and the option you would opt out for, whether it would glorify Him or it would reduce Him. So, in those moments, you need to watch it. They are your test moments. Let us see Matthew 7:13-14 to buttress this. It says: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

 

See it this way: the wide gate promises you everything good and beautiful in life except God. It promises you riches, it promises you wealth, it promises you the high places of the earth, it promises you fame, it promises you anything beautiful that you could ever imagine, it promises you husband or wife, but it does not promise you God. The Bible says many are found therein. Now, the narrow gate on the other hand promises you God and these things as well, but it does not present these things to you first, it presents God first to see whether you would accept Him or not. Matthew 6:33 says: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. But the Bible says there are few people who find it. Why? Because it is not attractive, because they could not see the things they are looking for.

 

So, the THRESHOLD moments of your life are times to be vigilant. They are times that God come to test you. You see, God gave us the ability to choose so that He can see if our choices would glorify Him. In fact, God giving us the ability to make choices is a test in itself because our choices must always be to His glory.

 

Moment number two: When you are finding it hard to let go that thing that is precious to you for the sake of God. God is saying to you: give out that money, give out that house or give out that car, and you are telling God, why now? You know I love these things you are asking me to let go. Or God is saying: let go of that man, or let go of that woman or let go of that habit; and you are saying, God, I can’t let go of them. Such moments for you are your test moments.

 

“Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” ²⁰ And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” ²¹ Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” ²² But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Mark 10:17-22

 

How Do We Pass Our Examination in the School of God?

 

- Be Obedient to Instructions

Every examination papers usually starts with this caveat: “Please read the following instructions carefully.” If you like, skip that phase and go into answering the questions. You are on your own. Now, one thing about those instructions is that they must be obeyed. If the instruction says: answer three questions out of five, question one is compulsory. If you like, answer everything, you are on your own. If you like, answer three and skip the compulsory question of number one, you are still on your own. At the end of the day, when you see your scores, it would present to you the consequence of your disobedience. The same thing is applicable in the school of God. If you want to come out in flying colors, you need to obey all his instructions, and not just some of them.

 

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. ¹⁴ Do all things without complaining and disputing, ¹⁵ that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world… Philippians 2:12-16

 

- Let your motive be right always

- Be of good character

- Endure Chastening

- Don’t let down your Faith

- Be patient

 

I believe you have been blessed!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!