From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life (13 page)

Yet there is a difference between patience and perseverance. Perseverance is similar to patience, in that perseverance also involves waiting. But perseverance involves more than just waiting with contentment. Perseverance involves
fighting the battle
while you’re waiting with contentment. Perseverance demands that you fight the good fight of faith while you wait.

Perseverance takes longer than patience. You are not going to get perseverance in a week. The only way you get perseverance is by going through a long, difficult trial. You can have patience for 30 minutes in line at the bank. You can have patience for a week or for a month. But if a trial goes on for a long time, it takes more than patience to endure. It takes perseverance.

When the trial you are going through seems to go on forever, when months turn into years and still you must stand in faith—that is the test of perseverance. When the enemy attacks you with thoughts of doubt and hopelessness, that is the test of perseverance. And you must fight the good fight of faith during this test.

Joseph’s first trial lasted 13 long years. For 13 years it looked as though God had forgotten him. For 13 years he had to battle his negative thoughts and keep his focus on God. For 13 years he had to keep on believing that what God had said was true. He had to have patience while the trial went on year after year. But he had to do more than just wait with contentment. He had to wait with an earnest faith in God. That is perseverance.

Joseph was not the only Bible character who had to persevere. David was anointed king of Israel, but it was 13 years before he assumed the throne as king. Paul was anointed as an apostle, but it was 13 years before his first missionary journey. (Once, when I had just preached on this subject, a woman came up to me after the service to tell me she, too, had waited 13 years—to have a child. She said, “I couldn’t believe my ears when you said, ‘13 years’!”)

If 13 years sounds like a long time, remember that Abraham had to wait 25 years for the son God had promised. And Moses had to wait 40 years in the wilderness before he stepped into his destiny.

Joseph could have become bitter toward his brothers; he could have become bitter toward the Egyptians; and he could have become bitter toward God. But instead Joseph kept his heart right, he kept his focus on God, and he persevered. And that perseverance resulted in character.

Perseverance Produces Character

You see, while tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces character. And character can only be developed through perseverance.

Just as I could find nothing in the Bible other than tribulation that produces perseverance, I could find nothing other than perseverance that produces character.

Now I would love to get perseverance, and get it right now. And it is much the same way with character. It would be great if I could simply go to someone who has character, have him or her lay hands on me and then instantly receive character. But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get character by having someone pray for you or lay hands on you. Character must be
developed
on the inside of you. Character is only
developed through perseverance. And perseverance only comes by enduring tribulation.

Isn’t this an encouraging message? Perhaps not to our flesh.

But it is an important message, because character is absolutely essential in supporting the destiny God has in mind for you. And in order to develop that character, you’re going to have to go through difficulties.

God will not allow you to step into your destiny until you have character—a certain level of character. Because when you do step into your destiny, the warfare against you is going to increase. You will need strong character to endure that warfare, to persevere and to walk that destiny out to the end. Without character, you will never succeed in the destiny God has planned for you.

We all like the idea of instant rewards. But one of the worst things someone else could do for us would be to promote us before we have the character that is needed to handle that responsibility, or to deliver us out of a trial before God has achieved His goals in our character through it. Of course, none of us likes to go through a trial. But if we want to step into our destiny, we will have to go through that trial and allow God to develop His character in us.

Sometimes when we see someone going through a hard time, we want to rush right in and deliver him or her out of it. This is especially true of well-meaning Christians. Don’t get me wrong—quite often we are simply responding in the love and compassion of God. But there are times when God is trying to use a situation to teach His children something important, something they need to know for their destiny. It could have to do with managing their finances, or possibly even their relationships. And if a good, well-meaning Christian comes along and delivers them out of that difficulty, they will never learn the lesson God wants them to learn. Then they eventually end up right back in that same crisis situation again. And they have to keep retaking that test until they pass it!

Even Jesus had to learn by going through trials. Hebrews 5:8 says this about Jesus: “Though He was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”

People often wonder about the meaning of that Scripture passage. After all, we know Jesus is the Son of God. And since Jesus is God, He is omniscient. That means He knows everything. But this verse says that Jesus, the Son of God, “learned obedience” (Heb. 5:8). How could Jesus, who knows everything,
learn
anything? And how could Jesus, who never sinned, learn
obedience?

We must remember that although Jesus is the Son of God, He came to earth as a man. As a man He suffered, just like we do. As a man, He was tempted in every way that we are. And as a man, He learned obedience through the things He suffered.

The Bible tells us, “He Himself has suffered, being tempted” (Heb. 2:18). It also says He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

You see, as the Son of God in heaven, Jesus didn’t have to learn obedience. He was the Son of God, and He was perfect. There was no fleshly body to tempt Him to sin. But as a man, He had to go through trials. As a man, He was tempted to sin, and He had to overcome those temptations.

I’m not saying that Jesus wasn’t perfect when He was on this earth. He was. He was fully God while He walked this earth. But it is important to remember that He was also fully man. As a man, He had to suffer. And
as He suffered, He learned obedience.

Obedience is a character issue, and character can only be learned. It cannot be imparted. We are not born with character. Character is learned and developed as we are subjected to adversity. And this verse shows us that even Jesus Christ Himself developed character as a man and learned through the things He suffered.

The deeper we go into the destiny God has planned for us, the deeper the character that will be required. And the only way that deep character is produced is through deep trials. A person who has shallow character has only been through shallow trials. A person who has deep character has been through deep trials.

Now, please don’t become fearful and start wondering what awful trial God has up His sleeve. God is not going to send you a trial—it’s just going to happen! Remember, Jesus said, “In the world you
will
have tribulation” (John 16:33, emphasis added). So as long as you are on Earth, trouble will happen. That’s just a part of life on this planet. So make the most of your tribulation: Allow whatever trial you are going through right now to produce godly character in you.

One way that deep trials work in our lives is by causing deep character flaws to emerge. We can see that happening in Joseph’s situation. Why do you suppose Joseph had to go through such a long and difficult trial? I believe God wanted to work in a deep part of Joseph’s character.

Joseph was not only a man with God’s blessing and favor upon his life, He also had tremendous God-given leadership ability. If you look at Joseph’s life, you can see that he rose to a position of authority in every situation, whether as a slave, as a prisoner or as the ruler of all Egypt. Obviously Joseph had a special ability to make whatever he was involved with a success. While it was the favor of God that made Joseph the ruler of Egypt, it was the natural ability God had given him that equipped him to handle that job! God had given Joseph a special gift. And when you have a special gift, it is easy to lean on that gift rather than on God.

While Joseph was in the prison, he used God’s gift to interpret the dreams for the butler and the baker. Then he asked the butler to remember him when he returned to Pharaoh’s court (see Gen. 40:8-15). But the butler forgot Joseph, and it took two more years before Joseph was delivered out of that prison (see Gen. 40:23; 41:1).

Why did it take two more years? Let’s read the story.

And Joseph said to [the butler], “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon” (Gen. 40:12-15).

Do you know why the butler forgot Joseph? I believe God made the butler forget—because Joseph was trying to manipulate his circumstances. God moved through Joseph, giving him the interpretation of the dreams for the butler and the baker. But then Joseph jumped in with his own concerns and added, “Hey, put in a good word for me when you get out of here.” I believe that when Joseph did that, God said, “Oops! Two more years! Because if I reward you now, you’ll think the way to get ahead is to drop hints. If I deliver you now, you’ll think that man promoted you and got you out of prison. So I’ll let you wait two more years. Then you’ll know I am the One who promoted you and delivered you.”

It was “at the end of two full years” that Pharaoh had a dream (Gen. 41:1). And it was through interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams that Joseph was finally delivered from the prison to the palace. Now, we know God gave Pharaoh those dreams to show him what was about to happen. So why didn’t God give Pharaoh the dreams two years earlier? Why would God allow Joseph to endure two more years in that dungeon?

I believe there was a deep character flaw in Joseph, and God wanted that character flaw to emerge. That character flaw in Joseph was a tendency to trust in his own abilities. God had planned for Joseph to become the ruler of all Egypt and the instrument of God’s provision during the famine. But in order for Joseph to rule as God’s chosen vessel, he had to learn to lean totally on God—not on his own wisdom or ability.
Self-confidence, self-reliance and self-sufficiency all had to be dealt with before Joseph could step into his destiny. In the midst of that deep trial, Joseph learned that his own abilities would not be enough to get the job done.

That is the same lesson that we often have to learn. And it is only in the midst of deep trials that we start to see things from God’s perspective. We come to a deeper understanding of who we really are and of who God is. We learn to respond correctly when troubles come. That is the way perseverance produces character in our lives.

Have you ever done the right thing, but suffered the wrong consequences? Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do? Have you ever been lied about or had rumors spread about you? I didn’t really need to ask those questions, because I’m sure everyone could answer, “Yes!”

Everyone experiences hardship and injustice. But the hard times and the unjust situations we experience are not the deciding factors in our lives. The most important issue in our lives is
the way we respond
to those trials when they come. When we respond to those trials in the right way, character is being developed in our lives.
And character is simply doing the right thing in the wrong situation.