<TITLE>07. Par 22-26</TITLE>L-22 Anyone, a chemist, anyone else, will always test something. Great pipes... I used to work for a gas company. And they'd test those pipes by putting a plug in the end and a valve. And I don't remember now just how many hundred pounds of pressure they'd put on them pipes to see if there's a little sand hole that would blow. And if the--they could not stand the test, then it was throwed into the scrap heap.
And when you're put under a test, when you're fixing to be used for God for a testimony... Like the lady here in the wheelchair, the man, the little boy, some of you people out there, maybe you're Christians and wonder why you're put under this test. God's fixing to use your testimony, but He wants to see how you'll react, so He puts the pressure on. If you blow up, well then, He can't do nothing with you. But if you'll hold on, stand the test...

L-23 This little woman, I can imagine seeing her that last night when she knowed there's just enough in that barrel--a handful of meal and a spoonful of oil--for one little cake for she and her son, and then she was to die, and he was to die. There's no more available anywhere.
And I can imagine, all night long as she walked over and patted his little bare skinny hands, and she looked at his little ragged nightshirt. And she'd hear him in his sleep turn over and say, "Mama, I'm hungry." But there was nothing to give him. Isn't it strange, when we have done all that we know how to do... And after she had prayed, and--and seen the end come...
Like some of you cancer cases here. You see it right at the end, and you wonder why.
She'd examined herself, "Lord, is there anything that I've left undone?"

L-24 God tests. Like Job, they accused him that he was a secret sinner. And Job was righteous. There was no man on earth like him. And yet, God let the devil take everything he had. And when they accused him of being a secret sinner, he knew that he was righteous before God. He knew he had done no sin. But God lets those things happen to see what you'll do.
You see, He and Satan had a--a proposition. Satan said, "I'll make him curse You to Your face."
God said, "You can't do it."
And the test had to come. And your test comes, and my test comes. And we all go through those testings. The Bible said if we cannot stand that, it proves that we're illegitimate children: Our testimony was not right: we're not real children of God, but we become illegitimate; we're not the children of God. We just claim to be.

L-25 When they laugh at you when you receive the Holy Ghost, and you go back in the world with them, that shows you never got It. When you're testifying of your healing, knowing that God's done something for you, and your neighbors say, "You're crazy; you're no better off," and you say, "Well, maybe I'm not." It shows you wasn't worthy of your healing to begin with. You stand on your testimony. Don't you give away, you stand right there.
Job said, "I know my Redeemer liveth, and at the last days He will stand on the earth. Though the skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I'll see God." The lightnings flashed; the thunders roared. He held out to the end.

L-26 This little woman had done all she knowed to do, and yet, God kept silent.
But when real faith has caught the vision, it can keep silent and rest calmly, because it knows it's going to happen. Don't forget that. Faith will rest with perfect assurance. No matter what the storms are saying, how contrary it looks, faith rests with assurance. Faith can take its stand upon a rock, look into a grave or into the waters where a lovely little chunk of your own loving heart has been buried, and faith can look across the sea to Him that said, "I am the Resurrection and Life." Faith rests assurance.


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