John Lawton

One morning recently the Lord Jesus spoke a word to me in English as I was lying in my bed, just barely beginning to wake up. What He said was, “The ‘trial of your faith’ is whether you will do everything in faith.” His reference was clearly to I Peter 1:7, which says, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be tried with fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Before discussing this further, let me give you a little bit of context. That morning I was facing a decision that had to be made that day. The board of supervisors of our county were convening that evening to address a proposed new ordinance for the volunteer fire department, and were opening the meeting to public comment on the matter. I was in a quandary as to whether I should speak on this topic that evening. I had some fairly strong opinions on the matter, and was tending to sense in my spirit that I was supposed to share them with the board.

The quandary came about because I am not a political person. The politics of this world do not hold my affection or attention. Sure, I follow the presidential election and things like that, so that I know what is going on around me. But, what I am really engaged in is the Kingdom of God, not the kingdoms of this world. So, in my conscience, it seemed absurd and a waste of time to address the board of supervisors. My conscience seemed to cry out, “You are missing it. God would not want you to get politically involved.”

So, as I was waking up that morning (I am slow to wake up in the mornings), in the fog of my sleepiness, and in the fog of indecision, my conscience was wrestling with what to do. That is when the Lord Jesus spoke to me. As usually happens, His speaking drove away all of the fog, and everything became clear.

Faith is to not do anything of ourselves, but rather to commune with God, find out what is doing, and go in the flow of His working. It is to get into the flow of God’s works, in the Holy Spirit. The situation that was before me was a trial of my faith -- whether I would walk through it in faith or not. In I Peter 1:7, the trial is likened to fire, and faith is likened to gold. Faith is very precious and very valuable, just like gold is to the natural man. As we grow up in faith, we will find ourselves more and more doing everything in the flow of God’s works, in the flow of God’s life, in the flow of God’s being.

And the trials are there to purify our faith. The truth is, we do some things in faith, and some things in our own natural energy, our own natural mind, our own natural ingenuity. And the trials are there to test us, whether we will respond to this situation in faith, or in our own natural resources. This is not really in a negative thing. It is positive.

When gold is found in the natural, it often has other things mixed with it. But when heat is applied, the gold melts, and the other stuff separates from the gold and can be skimmed off. This is how God uses trials and tests in our life. They are not there so someone can say, “see there, you messed up.” Rather, they are to show up areas in our heart, and types of situations, where we do not respond in faith. Then, God skims these off by speaking His Word of truth to us in the Holy Spirit in the many different ways He has to speak to us. This whole process causes our faith to grow. It causes our walking by faith to grow, and become stronger, and purer.

That morning, when the Lord spoke that to me in English, the Spirit followed up by opening my understanding to comprehend this picture from I Peter 1:7 that I am attempting to share here. With this understanding, I rose up, got in the shower, and said to myself something to the effect of, “Yes, this is all very simple. All I have to do is commune with my King, find out what He wants me to do, and just do it. The burden is on Him, not me. I am just His body to live out His life, and the flow of His works.”

In that light I prayed, asking if I should speak that night. Then the Spirit gave me more light. He made it very clear in that time of communion that yes, He wanted me to speak, and further, that He had some good purpose in it. As I prayed in tongues in communion with Him, I could see in spirit a good purpose coming forth from it. It seemed to involve the people in the community, and good interactions and relationships being formed. I was not at all sure whether I would be successful in convincing the board of anything, but I was sure that good things in terms of relationships and interactions with people would result from it. In the Spirit, I could see that it would be very good.

And that is precisely what happened. I shared my heart that night. Several people got up before me, and shared some very good and important things (in my estimation, anyway). There was very little response to what was said. After I shared, to my great surprise, the room burst into cheers from the crowd of firefighter volunteers that were there. I had talked of their hearts, and their loving service to the community, and I begged the board to take time to listen to them, and to hear their hearts.

Afterwards, a couple of the volunteers said that they wanted to take me out to supper. That was just their way of saying how much they appreciated it. Another day, the volunteer chief pulled over in his response vehicle to talk with me. He let me know how much he appreciated what I said. And that was just the beginning of developing some relationships and heart ties. Later, I had to deal with a tough situation that had come up, and needed to talk with the chief about it. It was much easier to do this, since a heart-tie had already been made. It was very easy to discuss the situation with him, even though it had the potential to be difficult. I was also able to speak a simple word of encouragement that the Holy Spirit gave me as we talked. I do not yet know what all the fruit will be in terms of relationships, but I do know that I spoke that night in faith, and that God is using it and will use it to make some heart ties, so that the love of God can go forward in this community.

I also now know better what the trial of our faith is. It is the fire of circumstances that come into our life, to teach us to respond to everything in faith, and to purify us from any tendency to respond from our own natural, naked selves. I say “naked” because that is what happens when we just respond in our natural selves. We are supposed to be clothed with the Holy Spirit, clothed with Christ, so that God’s glory is made known -- so that God is seen. Jesus talks about the “shame of your nakedness” (Rev. 4:18). When our flesh is seen, that is a shame. When Christ is seen in and through us, that is glory. When God is made known through us in a circumstance, that is glory. Glory and shame are opposites.

So, through the process of God’s working within us in the various trials, Jesus is teaching us to keep ourselves covered in the Holy Spirit -- “Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” (Rev. 16:15). This watching is to pray, and commune with God, and see what God is doing. This is why Jesus told His disciples in the garden, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” This entering into temptation is not just being tempted. They were being tempted. Jesus was being tempted. But “entering into temptation” is rather to let the temptation overwhelm us, so that we give into it. By watching and praying, by being careful to stay in the flow and thoughts of the Holy Spirit, we overcome all temptations, and come out victorious and stronger in all trials. Through this process we grow in faith, and our faith becomes richer and purer.