Greetings,
In the journey of Israel to the Promised Land there were ten tests. There are different views as to what those tests were, but I am going to present what I believe them to be. In truth, there are really more than ten tests in our lives, but these ten things represent the types of tests we face. Each test is another measure of God’s love drawing out from within us the power of His internal and eternal kingdom so that we can manifest our true identity, testimony, and destiny in every aspect of our journey in life.
The first test of Israel was one of bondage. I believe that this test of bondage was necessary to demonstrate a need for and a hunger for freedom. It is a test that demonstrates our need for true freedom; the life and liberty that can only come from God. It is miraculous. It is the need for God, a desire for God in our circumstance. It is a revelation of the need for a supernatural deliverance and supernatural change in our lives.
The story is found in Exodus Chapter 5. Moses charged Pharaoh to release the children of Israel and he demonstrated God’s power in doing so. In reaction, Pharaoh made things more difficult for Israel in their slavery. They were being forced to labor in the making of bricks and now Pharaoh ordered that they be given no straw but required to still produce the same quota of bricks. Israel was now required to scavenge and glean for straw as well as labor for making the bricks. Instead of being freed from their bondage, their experience was one of their bondage becoming worse.
Exodus 5:20-21 Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. And they said to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
God had a purpose in this testing. This same thing happens in our lives in various measures of our journey. It is a necessary test and without it we do not have a full revelation of who God is nor a revelation of our true need for Him. Without it we cannot manifest our true identity, testimony, and purpose in Christ.
Exodus 6:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
God does not just want to free us from our enemies. He wants to deliver us from our enemies. God said that He would use the enemy’s strong hand to let them go and to drive them out. God takes what the enemy intends for evil and turns it for good in our lives. I believe that the present generation needs a revelation of this test in their lives. Without it we will be shaken in our journey and we will not be able to overcome the things that we need to overcome in life. We must get a revelation that the place where we are is not a place where we can stay. We must get a revelation that our present condition is not livable, and our only option is to depend upon God’s presence in our lives to move us forward. God loves us in our present condition, but our present condition will prevent us from becoming all we should be in Christ if we stay there. What we had in the past is not reality. Where we are in the present is not our reality for our full destiny tomorrow. What God says about our future is the only compelling force to free us from our past, dislodge us from our present, and move us forward in our destiny. It is not enough to know that God loves us, we must also know that we have not loved Him. God’s has always loved us, but our inability to love Him has prevented us from moving into all that He has for us. Our inability to love Him or to experience the freedom of His love is not acceptable in our reality. There are no answers in the natural inheritance of our lives, only the supernatural working of God’s grace in our lives can fulfill the path to our destiny. Unforgiveness has to reject our habitation. Shame has to excommunicate us from its domain. Anger has to oust us from its stronghold. God’s presence in our lives is what causes our enemies to compel us forward with a strong hand. We have to overcome a love for the world or an acceptance of the world around us in order to move forward in the formation process of Christ in our lives. The environment of our lives has formed our thinking, our acting, and our way of being in life. This is not the environment of our true identity. Our natural lives, the natural circumstances of our lives, and the natural inheritances of our lives have given us perverted identities, perverted testimonies, and perverted destinies. We need a revelation that God has more. Our future in Christ has to be more desirable to us than the accepted comfort zones of our present because of what has been handed to us from our past or even our present circumstances. God doesn’t want us to have any shame for our past or for our present, but loving how we are is not same as loving who we are and who we are to become in Christ. His grace will empower us to overcome and become, not so He will be pleased with us but because He is please with us. He wants every enemy in our lives to forcefully let us go.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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