Last week, I promised to talk about the tests when we were discussing some of the principles and protocols of the financial system of the Kingdom of God. Let’s delve in!
The Test of Management
All things are available to you and all things can be given to you. You have access to an abounding all-sufficiency in all things. However, YOU are the one who determines how much you can have. As for God, He is willing. How much you can have is determined by how well you manage what you have already been given. Since God does not waste, He will provide according to your capacity. Remember the parable of the talents; they were given talents each according to their ability. Therefore, how well you manage what you were given will determine how much more you will be given. If you are faithful with 5 talents, you will be a ruler over 10 cities. To whom much is given, much is expected.
I have a very good friend who received a lot of money in salary out of nowhere. Because I understand the principles of God, I am continually checking up so the money is not squandered. If you can’t handle 10,000 cedis, who will give you 10,000 dollars? Jesus said if you can’t handle someone’s business, who will give you a business of your own? Whenever you begin to feel that you can’t handle what God has placed in your hands, realise it’s not true. God wouldn’t have placed it in your hands in the first place if you couldn’t handle it. The average person wants a miracle and the lazy person wants magic. Meanwhile, the key to receiving more constantly from God is management. Jesus said “whoever has, more will be given and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him”.
This is a trustworthy saying; if you are able to handle a few given to you, more will be given to you. This is how you keep the door of financial favour always open in your life. If you can kill the lion and the bear to shepherd your father’s flock, the Father will give you His flock for you to shepherd. If you can prosper in the prison and in Potiphar’s house, you can prosper in the palace. It is rightfully yours but what will be given you depends on how well you managed what was given you. So you see? Even though it is in your destiny to do all these great things, you don’t start with great things first. If you manage the little things in a great way, you usher yourself into handling the great things in a great way.
The Test of Education
Study to show yourself approved. If God has called you to be a doctor, it’s not against spirituality to attend Medical School. Learning is actually part of God’s principles. There is a certain knowledge that God teaches us through others. Sir Isaac Newton says “if I have been able to see further, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants”. God is not against seeking knowledge and acquiring experience. The Holy Spirit teaches what cannot be taught so no one would have to teach you what only He can teach you. The rest is learnable. Go and learn o. Learn Business Management. Go and get your Master’s degree. Learn how to speak in public. He will give you utterance but oratory is learnt. There is balance; a spiritual person who has an apt mental capacity instead of an intellectual person with low spiritual understanding or a spiritually intelligent person with mental slothfulness.
If God has said you will be a leader of nations, study to show yourself approved. If God has said you will write books, study. You will realise the Holy Spirit will begin to show you what you study in each season. Don’t be part of those who despise education. You need tutors and governors. You need mentors. You need those you frequently listen to, and those who personally know you to train you. Apostle Joshua Selman cannot be your spiritual father when he doesn’t personally know you. There should be someone who also knows you and can train and groom you personally. It does not increase the task God gives you but it prepares you to adequately complete your full assignment in all seasons. The more you enter certain doors of your destiny, the more you wish you were taught. Learn from the mistakes of those who have gone ahead of you so you can redeem the time.
What you refuse to learn can become the cholesterol that blocks the flow of blood from the heart of God through your ventricle to the rest of the body. Even as a prophet, you can see a lot but what to share, when to share it, how to share it and where to share is practical wisdom you learn. A knife, designed to cut food into chewable bits, can become a tool to cause hurt and pain. Learning how to use the knife is important to God. Selah! Experience will teach you. Mentors will teach you. Situations will teach you. Learning will teach you. Listen to the people who are where you want to go. Be open to learning in order to maximise God’s potential in your life. Have you received a prophecy that you will be rich? As you wait, learn financial accountability. Learn budgeting. Learn financial literacy. Study to show yourself approved!
Test of Abounding
There are seasons where prosperity will fall on you and you will begin to make unusual profits off your charts. That is God testing your heart to reveal yourself to you. In your life, you have never imagined having $1m. Then, you make $120m within a very short period. Will you join those at the top calling those hustling at the bottom lazy? This is also the test of pride, which is a test one faces in every season of a person’s life. You can be overwhelmed by how rich you have become; it will shock you. A lot of Christians pass the test of abasing; living poor while maintaining a strong Christian life. It is prosperity that rather causes them to fall short. God cares more about your salvation than your prosperity, although your prosperity is captured in His salvation plan. That notwithstanding, it is better to lose your eye than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Usually, this test is for a season. Foolish enough, this is the period where some people desert God. Meanwhile, it was a taste of prosperity of far greater things to come. You cannot use God o. This is how God sieves anyone who came to seek him because of prosperity. If more money can change how to relate with people, you have failed. A lot of people are worried that Christians are poor. It’s true that the Body of Christ, generally, has been poor for a long time although it is far better than it used to be in the 19th century. The question is, if God brings the entire church into this short season of abounding, will we fail?
Prosperity has now been seen as God’s sign of approval for one’s character. Meanwhile, you can comfortably live in sin and still prosper for a season. Until we place prosperity in its rightful place in the lines and precepts of Biblical emphasis, we can fail as a church in such a season. For one, individuals are still concerned about their prosperity rather than the prosperity of the collective body. For another, we have forgotten several values that are far more important than money; honour, good character, honesty and the likes. I will still continue to be hopeful, though. Once we pass this test, we undergo the test of abasing until we break into an abounding flow of His exceeding riches.
Test of Abasing
This is also the test of patience. It will kill all the expectations you have for God so that His expectations become your expectations. It will kill all the carnal desires so that the desires of your heart becomes His heart desires for you. Immediately you receive a prophecy that you are about to get rich, this is the first test that will come your way. In your mind, the prophecy should take 12 seconds to manifest. Meanwhile, the premise of the Promises of God is His Purpose. His purposes are according to His set times, not your calculations. If a woman is pregnant, she will carry the promise for 9 months. No amount of prayers can make her carry the child for only 9 days. Selah!
For Heaven to know that you can carry God’s resources and put it to good use for the sake of His body, you will need to make sacrifices. Sacrifices that will cause you to die to self perpetually. Sometimes, after the prophecy, you will begin to experience poverty. Vitamin M will run dry. You will be sold into slavery and thrown into prison, figuratively speaking. Why? The Word of God must test you. If you don’t curse God and die, you will receive a double portion of everything you lost and more. You may be going through this season right now. If you don’t give up, you will receive your reward. It’s not about having. It’s about being. It’s easy to get to the top. It’s harder to stay there. That’s what this season is for. It’s for the best version of you to emerge; one that can sustain the resources of God. If you can prosper in prison, you can prosper in the palace.
Once you have learnt how to abound and abase, you can now say you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Of course, these aren’t all the tests. There’s your works being tested and all. We have to end here anyways because these words of truth are deep and need meditation. I will meditate on these myself. I hope you were blessed.
