“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13
Living in this fallen world can sometimes be disconcerting, confusing and even downright strange! It seems like the world as we know it is imploding. It appears as if everything and everyone is spiraling out of control into a state of madness. 2 Timothy 3:1 reveals, “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]” (AMP). These days are well and truly upon us.
As we grapple and come to terms with multiple things both natural and spiritual going on around us, which the "god of this world" has thrust upon us (I do not believe for a moment that God is behind what is unfolding before our eyes but a fallen angel called Lucifer), many sincere Christians and the Church as a whole are asking important, pertinent & desperate soul-searching questions.
Where is Almighty God in all of this mess? How am I going to make ends meet and take care of my family? Are the globalists and elitists making a game-changing move to bring us all into global enslavement? Are we hurtling toward a New World Order? Or you might just be screaming out for some simple clarity, "Can someone please explain the purpose of life in general to me?" I can’t answer the thousands of questions that you may have or give you a concise breakdown of the prophetic events that are unfolding right before our very eyes, but I do want to spiritually impart something that would benefit you as you purposefully run your own individual race of faith.
Has it ever occurred to you that the things you are personally experiencing and are witnessing unfolding in your private life are actually by divine design? Is it at all possible that the things that you are experiencing are not happening by mere coincidence, happenstance or by the eastern philosophy of karma? There is hope and purpose for you to discover in the difficulties you are daily confronted with, the strenuous season you find yourself in and a world that is crashing and burning all around you. Remember none of this fabricated chaos catches our God by surprise.
Are you feeling hard done by what’s happening externally to you? Well, don’t be. I have very good news for you.
Everything that you are going through has been designed by God to get you to a certain point of spiritual maturity. I recently came across a scripture that released an extreme amount of life-changing liberty into my life. The Apostle Paul shares these most insightful words with us that are found in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “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" (emphasis added).
This is an extremely powerful verse that opens up a whole treasure map to understanding why things happen or are allowed to unfold in our lives. Firstly, the word temptation is a very weak rendering or translation of the Greek word “peirasmos”. Thayer’s definition of peirasmos is: an experiment, trial, a proving. Thayer goes on to state that peirasmos really means: to allow adversity, affliction, trouble - sent by God and serving to test or prove one’s character, faith (calling) and holiness. This is just absolutely mind-blowing and liberating at the same time. When you begin to realize that God has got you situated in an experiment to ultimately bring you into a place of victory, it begins to open up your understanding on how God deals with us. Seeing things with this kind of insight helps us to discover the principles of God’s deep dealings with man as an individual. Now your situation starts to make sense. You are in a divine experiment!
Secondly, the experiment or test you find yourself in is common to all men. You don’t have to feel hard done by or that God has a vendetta out against you. Everybody without fall is subject to trial, proving of character and calling, adversity, affliction and trouble. Realizing today you have not been singled out by heaven as some kind of lab-experiment is deeply comforting.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit will never put you into a spiritual experiment that you cannot handle. It’s never God’s idea to break you but to train you through tests to bring you into spiritual maturity. He is faithfully committed to finishing the "good work" that He has begun in you! (Phil 1:6)
Lastly and most importantly, the Holy Spirit will always give you a way out. There will always be a secret to discover that allows you to pass the experiment. God, without fail will always give you an opportunity to pass your test and the scrutiny of heaven. More on this a little later.
Let’s read the verse like this, “No experiment has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be experimented on beyond what you are able, but with the experimentation, He will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (emphasis added).
With such an understanding it is easier to embrace the experiment the Holy Spirit has placed you in. Nothing catches God by surprise. In fact, what you are going through has been designed by Him for an ultimate purpose in your life. So many scriptures will instantly make more sense to you, now that you realize it is God who indeed allows you to be tested and experimented on. He will even use a fallen angel to bring about his divine experiment to pass in your life. Just look at the case study of Job! Job is a very misunderstood book. Once spiritually decoded it will open up a treasure box of Kingdom principles of understanding the deep ways of God (Isaiah 55:8-9). It’s just jaw-dropping to discover this spiritual truth.
1 Peter 1:6-7 states in the KJV version, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations [experiments or tests]: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (emphasis added).
God has you in a very distinct and peculiar seasonal experiment. He desires that you begin to see something you haven’t seen. Learn something about Him and yourself that you need to learn. You might feel that God has trapped you in a most insane season but in reality, you have been placed in a divine experiment.
James 1:2-4 tells us basically to rejoice and embrace the divine experimentation, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” God’s experiments on you are designed to bring you into a place of complete perfection. It’s the only prescribed way in which God deals with redeemed man. Count it an absolute privilege to find yourself in a God experiment because you are being counted as a son or daughter of God.
Hebrews 12:7-11 explains to us the modus operandi on how God deals with us as His children. This is a great secret to understanding how God brings us into a mature "First-Born Son" status, “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; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.' If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 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? 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. 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.”
The Greek word for chastening is “paideia”. The thought behind this word is vastly different from the concept of worldly philosophy regarding child raising. Rather the word paideia signifies:
the whole training and education of children (which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals, and employs for this purpose commands and admonitions, reproof and corrective training).
whatever in adults also cultivates the soul, especially by correcting mistakes and curbing passions.
chastisement, chastening, (of the tests with which God visits men for their amendment).
A divine experiment includes child training, education and corrective measures with the view of bringing us into mature"sonship". Without yielding to voluntary child training we will exclude ourselves from God’s higher purpose He has for us. (A regal position of power and prominence in His soon coming government.) The reality of all divine experimentation and child training in this lifetime, is simple preparation for what’s to come in the thousand-year Millennial Kingdom of the King of kings.
Oswald Chambers, a man I highly esteem, had come to the same outcome when he states, “If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you—and His experiments always succeed.”
Take a deep breath as you read and try to grasp the concept hidden in the book of Hebrews 11:32-39, “And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted [experimented & tested on], were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (emphasis added).
This is not a new concept or idea. In fact, the Bible tells us from the very beginning that this is how God deals with man. God is extremely creative in designing experiments and tests to prove the faith, character, calling and genuineness of His individual sons and daughters. Adam and Eve were experimented on in the garden of Eden. God put them in absolute paradise. They were free to live how they pleased in a state of innocence. However, they were put into a divine experiment. Two Trees were found in Eden. One was to be avoided at all costs and the other eaten of freely. The test had begun. The outcome is well known. As man's federal head, they plunged us through rebellion into sin and alienation from God (Gen 2:8; 3:1-24). Everything has been divinely designed to see whether or not you pass or fail God’s experimentation.
God experimented on Abraham. This is exactly what God said to Abraham on that most trying of days, “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' 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'" (Genesis 22:1-2). Wow! That is just mind-bending. We all know the outcome of this most fascinating and intriguing story. However, Abraham still needed to pass the experiment. There is a heavenly test that has been thrust upon you today, make sure you pass it. Every passed heavenly-designed test brings you further into your purpose for existing. You might want to ask yourself right now, the most important question of all: "What is the purpose for my existence?" The answer is found in Genesis 1:26-28.
Joseph had received an insane prophetic revelation by God of who he was destined to become (Gen 37). In fact, he was so pumped that he shared his precious pearls with his family, not knowing that God was going to thrust him into a 13-year experiment that included bouts of slavery and a gruesome imprisonment (Gen 39-41). We all know how the story ends. Maybe you feel like you have been sold into slavery by the ones you love most. Perhaps you feel like you are in a spiritual prison and can’t escape, but I want to exhort you today that tomorrow you might be supernaturally set free at the appointed time.
Moses is another great example for our admonishment and learning. His story is very well known but seldom understood. We as human beings like to read about other people’s trials but don’t like to acknowledge that we might be divinely thrust into a similar experiment. Moses was supernaturally spared by the providence of God. Grew up in luxury as a prince of Egypt. He was educated in the "finest" mystery schools and groomed to be a general in the world’s most powerful army. However, Scripture teaches us that he preferred to be associated with his brethren the Jews in Hebrews 11:25,”choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (NKJV). Howbeit, he still acted out of his flesh and out of God’s divine timing by trying to deliver Israel out of the power of the Egyptian overlords. Scripture teaches that God thrust him into a forty-year (yes, that's right, you read correctly) wilderness experiment. He only had his burning bush experience once he had been completely humbled and God-trained over forty years of spiritual experimentation. Those that are called to lead in any capacity must and will endure all sorts of tests and trials that have been ordered by heavenly decree. No shortcuts here.
Unfortunately, there are some people who never learn or pass the divine experiment that has been endorsed for their lives. Sadly, many Christians are suffering defeat upon defeat because they will simple not yield to God’s process of testing. Point in case, let’s look at what Paul tells us about the "Church in the wilderness", “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples” (NKJV; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6; emphasis added).
Put bluntly, they died in the wilderness because they never passed their examination. They never found themselves approved before God. A whole generation bar two men never realized the purpose for their existence. They never stepped into their inheritance. They forfeited it all. This happened to them for a number of reasons which I can’t go into in this exposé. Scripture clearly teaches that we are to learn from them. They are given to us as examples of failure. The Israelites in the wilderness suffered great loss of privilege and an unredeemable inheritance through failing to successfully navigate through their divine experiment.
Unfortunately, many Christians are suffering the same fate today (I am not talking about Christians losing their salvation—you can’t! You can never lose the ruach and neshamah once it has been given to you (Rom 11:29), but one day Christians will suffer great loss including their souls (Mk 8:36, Ja 1:21, 1 Pe 1:19) at their appearing before the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Cor 10:9-11). The understanding of the differences between the salvation of spirit, soul and body have been absolutely corrupted and warped by leavened theology. Not understanding how Scripture deals with the tri-part salvation of man: "I am saved, I am being saved and I will be saved", has caused many a sincere Christian to have a shipwrecked faith. You cannot lose your spirit salvation once you are born again—you have eternal security. That’s the good news. However, you definitely can lose your soul salvation, your inheritance, birthright and a position in Christ’s coming government. I’m veering off subject. It doesn’t matter who you are, you will always find yourself in a God experiment that has been designed to test what’s in you.
I want to make it very clear, God will and must examine what is in your heart but He never tempts a person to sin. This is done through other external agencies and in conjunction with your own fallen nature. This is what James teaches, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation [experimentation]; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 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. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (emphasis added). James makes it very clear that each individual is enticed through his or her own desire to sin (to miss the mark of divine perfection) and fail the experiment the individual finds themselves in. This is exactly how Satan caused Eve to sin. The devil’s strategy to cause you to fail your divine experiment has not changed. He still uses the same tactics over and over again. With maturity, understanding and loads of past experience, slowly the disciple of Christ learns a little more from each divine examination. The tests from heaven are to be welcomed with open arms. They are God’s designed way for you grow up into mature "sonship".
God Himself was put to a divine experiment. In fact, multiple experiments. I firmly believe that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh or God in human form (1 Tim 3:16). He boldly states in John 14:9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (NKJV). Jesus is our ultimate blueprint. He is the only benchmark or example for man to follow. Anything short of Jesus’ example falls short of God’s ultimate plan for man. It is His life and example you want to emulate. Let’s have a look at the first time Jesus was thrust into a divine experiment. This is Luke’s account of His testing, “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted [experimented on] for forty days by the devil” (emphasis added).
What I find extremely interesting and informative is the fact that Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into an experiment. The original word for led in the original Greek is “agō”. Strong’s Concordance tells us that agō literally means: properly to lead; by implication to bring, drive, induce: - bring (forth), carry, or lead away.
Thayer tells us that agō means:
lead by laying hold of, and this way to bring to the point of destination.
to lead by accompanying to (into) a place.
to lead, guide, direct.
to lead through, conduct to: to something.
to move, impel: of forces and influences on the mind.
This opens up to us a wealth of understanding on how the Holy Spirit works with us as yielded individuals. I can’t express yielded enough! Firstly, I would like to work backwards as we discover how the Holy Spirit leads us into a divine experiment. In the case of Jesus and is very much the same with us, the Holy Spirit will never force anything onto us unless we are willing participants. He then uses His influence on the yielded mind of the individual to compel him toward a desired outcome (a divine experiment). This is something that one starts to grasp as you mature in your walk with the Holy Spirit. Are you being sensitive to the subtle suggestions and promptings of the Paraclete in your life today?
Secondly, He will lay a hold of you once you have given Him permission and will drive you into a specific destination of testing. The chosen place of the assessment is a vital component of fully understanding the divine experiment.
And thirdly, He will not only accompany you through the divine experiment but will teach you how to be 100% successful each time. It is God’s plan that you pass each experiment with flying colors. Just have a look at this amazing revelation John gives us in 1 John 2:27, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (emphasis added). The anointing is just another way of describing the inner workings of the Holy Spirit in a yielded person’s life. The Holy Spirit will teach you to navigate through your divinely appointed examination with the view to always succeeding and growing in power.
The narrative goes on to explain how the Holy Spirit thrust a yielded and willing Jesus into the wilderness (a divine experiment) to be examined and tested by Satan. This is exactly what happened to Job and it is exactly what many of us are going to have to go through in order for us to get to where God wants to be (on Thrones in governmental positions in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus).
Luke 4:13 goes on to give us a little more information on how God allows/uses Satan, fallen angels and demons to test His sons and daughters, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation experiment], he departed from Him until an opportune time” (NKJV; emphasis added). This shows us that God will allow fallen angelic forces to be part of His divine experiment on us. You also need to understand that Satan and his cohorts are limited in what they are allowed to put somebody through.
God and Satan were having a conversation at the assembly of God's sons (angels) in the north of the universe in the third heaven where God’s Throne of thrones is situated (Isa 14:13) and this is what He said, “Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?'” Basically, God and Lucifer were having a conversation, God brings up Job and boasts about how awesome he is. Wouldn’t you like to have a testimony from God like that? To cut a long story short God allows Lucifer to experiment on Job but only to a certain point. This is what God says in Job 1:12 & 2:6, “And the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.' And the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.'" You might say that is awful and downright disgusting that God would subject Job to such an arduous and burdensome experiment at the hands of a fallen angel. It begs the question to what extent God is allowing things to transpire in your life right now. What kind of experiment is being discussed in the hallways of the "Great Council" without your privy.
There is an enormously powerful principle many Christians are yet to fully comprehend. That principle is found in Isaiah 55:8-9, “'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.'” There are some things that a finite mind cannot compute let alone fathom. Our God is magnificent and perfect in all His ways because He sees and declares the end from the beginning. His purposes always stand (Isa 46:10). The words of the Psalmist are soothing and poignant all at the same time, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes” (Proverbs 3:5-7b). The disciple of Christ must get to the point in his or her relationship with the Lord where he or she gives up trying to understand some of the things they are subject to and stop trying to figure out the reason why they find themselves in a divine experiment. The mature child of God has stopped asking questions and has begun to trust and rely on the Holy Spirit's leading completely. These are the comforting words of Paul on the subject at hand, “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. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30).
This brings us to the big question: Why the reason for a Divine Experiment in the first place? This is a multifaceted answer that cannot be completely and adequately dealt with in a small article like this but I am going to give you a brief rundown of what Scripture reveals.
To Rule & Reign in His coming Messianic Kingdom. (Rev 3:21)
To Be chosen as Jesus’s Bride. (Rev 19:7)
To be adopted into First-Born-Son status with the rights of primogeniture. (Rev 21:7)
These are the three main reasons that every form of divine experimentation exits. Successful passing of all the divinely appointed tests during your life or time span of your sojourn on the earth will render you qualified and approved at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10-11) to take your place alongside Jesus as the qualified “Metachoi”, companions and partakers of His coming glory (Rev 2-3). In short, God has always purposed according to the "Law of First Mention" that a man will rule and have dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26-28). In order for man to be crowned ruler over the earth, he needs a consort queen (bride) to take the Throne of Power (Gen 2:18). And in order to rule the earth he has to become a created son brought into a place of the adopted primogeniture, the converted “First-Born-Son” status (Ex 13:2; Rom 8:23). These are very deep subjects that need to be fully comprehended before an outward exegesis can take place in a disciple’s life.
Everything that is taking place in your life today is in the form of a divinely appointed experiment. Each of us that have a relationship with God through the finished work of Jesus are being led into a series of tests by the Holy Spirit that will determine whether or not we will pass or fail our probation exam while here on earth. Yes, that’s correct! As a born-again Christian you are under probation to see if you are worthy of qualifying to be the Bride of Christ, or to be adopted into a first-born-son status with the purpose of having a position of real power in His soon coming government. All of this is called inheritance and can be won or lost based on you passing the divine experiment.
Here is the good news! There is always only one way out of each and every divine experiment. The only way to successfully pass any of God’s ordained tests is to allow the Holy Spirit to make a way for you and then to be led through the whole experiment by Him. This is not easy. This will take a lot of time and relationship building with the Holy Spirit. There are no shortcuts for those that desire to rule and reign with Jesus as His consort Queen in the thousand-year reign.
Theoretically on paper it sounds so simple but it’s not. Let’s take a brief look at our main scripture again: “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 (experiment) will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (emphasis added). God will always make it possible for you to pass the divine experiment with flying colors. He always makes sure that there is a genuine way out of the test that will cause you to grow, overcome and to mature into what He has designed you to be. There is a small complication though, each individual that wants to pass the divine experiment has to do it through the leading of the Holy Spirit. It’s the only God-prescribed way of passing a divine test. This is what Romans 8:14 teaches, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” The word used for sons in this scripture is the Greek word “uihos” which by implication means maturely trained sons. Only those who allow the Holy Spirit to lead them successfully through many divinely appointed experiments are elevated into a mature place, taking regal positions and offices of power in Jesus’ coming government.
This is the only prescribed way for a Christian to fully complete a divine experiment. This will be and remains the greatest challenge for every disciple of Christ—to be led by the Holy Spirit on a continuous basis. This is what the life of Jesus teaches. John 5:19 tells us this in Jesus' own words, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” In order for you to do that you need to learn to operate out of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
As you see your divine experiment in a positive light, I fully hope that you grasp the importance of embracing the test the Holy Spirit is leading you into. The divine experiment is to be cherished and welcomed as a friend because it is going to help you in ways that you cannot fathom. If you complete your divine experiment in the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, you will be rendered qualified and capable to take the Throne with Christ in the very near future. Read what Jesus says in Revelation 3:21 and take it very seriously, “To him who overcomes [who passes the experiment or test] I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (emphasis added). Every divine experiment that you will ever encounter, be put through and asked to endure is for this purpose and this purpose alone: It is to present you able and worthy to ascend the Throne with Him.