THE TEST OF TRUST
Exodus 15:22, “So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.”

Before God can entrust greater things into your hands, either in your personal life or in the ministry, He will first teach you how you must trust Him with all your heart and then test if you will eventually trust Him with all your life. The Lord taught and tested the children of Israel in the wilderness, but unfortunately majority of them failed and so they fell in the wilderness.

Do you know that God knows your needs before you are aware of them? Yes, He does! God knows you needed a life partner even before you saw the need for it, He knew you would need children when that was like the least thing you thought about. As a woman, God gave you womb since childhood, even when you did not need the womb, because God knew you would need the womb to conceive at a time; God did not give you womb after you are married. And so it’s applicable to all our needs. God knows what we will need and He has made provision for them even when we do not see the needs.

God brought the children of Israel from Egypt to journey in the wilderness to the Promised Land, as all-Knowing-God, would He not have known that they would need water to drink in the wilderness? But God wanted to teach and test them to trust Him, so He delayed the provision of the water. If the children of Israel were to trust God, they would have cast their need before God in prayer, who just delivered them from the Red Sea and from the bondage of Egypt; but if they were to doubt and disbelieve God, they would complain. Unfortunately, they doubted God, and so they complained. “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Exodus 15:23, 24.

The reason why God delayed in any aspect of your life as a child of God is not because He is trying to denying you, He is not trying to disappoint or destroy you, but He wants to test your love for Him, because He has a special copy of what you need for you, and He wants to know if you actually deserve it. In such a delayed period, if truly you love and trust God, you will continue in prayer and patience before God, and keep working for God. You will not allow the need to drain your love for God, you will not allow the urgent needs to discourage you from working for God with all your strength, and you will not allow the need to drift you into sin against God.

From the Genesis of the Bible, wherever there is a delay for children of God, it means there is a peculiar portion on the way; what it means is that, delay usually serves as a sign for something special for the people of God, right from Abraham to Zacharias. And in the New Testament, this man called Zacharias was a just man, serving God. He married a godly woman called Elizabeth from a good home of Levi. They were both serving God. Now, who do you think is supposed to get the fastest blessing? Is it not the families that are serving God? Yes, but not always the way we expect it.

Luke 1:5-7, "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years."

Probably Elizabeth was a virgin, kept herself for her husband, no premarital sex and no abortion; maybe while her friends were messing around, she was only serving God and keeping herself. She was faithful and fervent in the Lord. Now she is married and no child. But her friends who were messing around before marriage, whom she was preaching the word of God to, they are easily having their babies in their different matrimonial homes; these friends committed several abortions and slept with so many men, yet they don’t have problem with childbearing. But why is Mrs Elizabeth Zachariah barren while her unbelieving friends are bearing many children? The truth is that all her friends can give birth to many children but none of them can give birth to John the Baptist, the greatest man born of woman.

Only Elizabeth could give birth to John the Baptist, because her womb was reserved for that special child. But God would not just give John the Baptist to any woman to give birth to, God would want to see if Sister Elizabeth really deserves it. So, God’s delay is to determine if you deserve the best.

Can God entrust you with the best? Then you will have to trust Him with every bit of your life in the time of trial. Zacharias and Elizabeth kept serving God even when they were having delay, they were not discouraged; they did not compromise and they did not allow the delay to distract them. "So it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord." Luke 1:8, 9.

We can see here that Zacharias kept serving God even when there is a serious delay. It is actually in serving God during the delay that God serves you with the best.

What is your delay? No job? No healing yet? No spouse? No child or what? As long you are a genuine child of God, God is reserving you for the best, get it clear. So, don’t be discouraged. Everything works together to good for them who love God. But you may think, “But is there any good that can come out of my worst situation? Things have gone beyond retrieve, I’m embarrassed and ashamed already, it is already sealed and no solution anymore, all I care for now is just to make heaven, after all”

Beloved, your thinking is humanly right, but biblically wrong. From the history of the world till the world will come to an end, there is no crime as worst, as evil and terrible as the killing of Jesus Christ, to kill the only sinless Man ever born and ever existed on earth; for creatures to use their created hands to slap their Creator and crucify Him on the cross in a painful death. Oh how terrible! But out of the worst historical event, God brought out the greatest historical blessing – salvation of humanity. So, if God could bring good thing out of the killing of Jesus, if God could make the greatest crime on earth to bring about the greatest blessing of justification, then the same God can work good thing out of your worst condition at the moment, if only you can trust Him and stay faithful to Him.

Question time! You might have been asking God, why? God why? You are a child of God, you love God with all your heart but things are not working as expected, why? What is going on? I spoke with a Christian brother few days ago and he said he doesn’t why God is treating him like this. Many questions you cannot answer why God allows this or that. I may not be able to answer the questions on your mind, but I want you to answer these question from your heart:

Romans 8:28, 31, 32, 35, 38, 39.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or unclothedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1, If God is for you, who can be against you? It seems you don’t understand, if God is for you, which weapon formed against you shall prosper? Which sickness formed against you shall prosper? Which conspiracy formed against you shall prosper?

2, He who did not spare His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? It means if God so loved you that He gave His Only Begotten Son to die for you on the cross, what is bigger than Jesus that God cannot freely give you?

3, Now the bigger question, who shall separate you from the love of Christ? It means what will you allow or permit to separate you from the love of Christ, to remove your name form the Book of Life? You need to ask yourself. Is it because of the present situation?

God’s delay is to determine if you deserve the best. So what do you need to do now? You need to simply do what Elizabeth and Zacharias did – keeping serving God, keep pleasing Him because your time of divine visitation is on the way, and when He comes He should meet you serving Him, like Zacharias.

And let me pray with you, “RECEIVE THE TOUCH OF GOD, RECEIVE THE STRENGTH OF GOD, RECEIVE THE HEALING OF GOD, RECEIVE THE MIRACLE YOU ARE RESERVED FOR IN JESUS NAME!

Stay blessed in Christ.

Gideon Akande (Evangelist)
RTEM: rtemoutreach.org