From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life (5 page)

I’ve heard similar stories from individuals who believe their problems are strictly the result of the attitudes of others. “People are just jealous of me,” they will say. “I’m not the one who has a problem. It’s not the way that I act; it’s not the way that I talk; it’s not the way I present myself. Everyone else has the problem!”

When we find ourselves in a pit, we first need to take a good look at ourselves. We need to consider that we are the problem and that we are the reason we are in the pit. It’s true that Joseph’s brothers had a problem, an envy problem. But Joseph had a problem, too—a pride problem. And that pride was the real reason Joseph ended up in the pit. The source of his problems was within his own heart.

We can learn a lot about the Pit Test by seeing ourselves in Joseph. Joseph was a son who had his father’s favor. In much the same way, we are sons and daughters of the King, and we also have the favor of our heavenly Father. Reflect on Psalm 5:12: “For You, O L
ORD
, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.”

Joseph’s father, out of his great love for him, had given him a gift. In much the same way, our heavenly Father gives gifts to us—and He doesn’t take them back.

But Joseph became proud of the gift his father gave him, and he showed it off every chance he got. He started to find his identity in the
gift
that identified him as the favored son, rather than in the
relationship
that made him the favored son. He ended up losing that gift as a result.

In much the same way, we can become caught up in the gifts God has given us. We can start to find our identity or sense of worth in that gift, rather than in the One who gave it. When we do, we become prideful. And we risk losing the gift.

I want to clarify something important. Joseph’s father gave him the gift, but
it was not his father who took it away from him.
Joseph lost his coat
of many colors through his own actions. He lost it because he was prideful about it and what it represented.

When God gives us gifts, He doesn’t take them back. The Bible tells us the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable—the
King James Version
says they are “without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). This means God does not take back the gifts He has given us. But we can lose them ourselves if we walk in pride. I wonder how many people have a gift from God, but they are not able to use it because they walk in pride?

What if that happens? What if we lose the gift of God through our own actions? Is there any hope for getting it back?

To answer that, I want you to think about the end of Joseph’s story. Joseph ended up becoming the governor of Egypt, the second most powerful man in the world. As a consequence of that, he also became the second richest man in the world. He probably had hundreds of coats of many colors, as many coats as his heart could desire. So God restored what he had lost a hundredfold.

And Joseph got back something much more important than a coat. He got back his relationship with his father. For years he didn’t have fellowship with his father—he wasn’t even sure if he was alive. But after Joseph had learned to walk in humility, God restored his relationship with his father—as well as everything else he had lost.

When you find yourself in a pit, you may feel that all is lost. But if you cry out to God in humility of heart, He is eager to restore you. The Bible says that if you humble yourself, you will be exalted (see 1 Pet. 5:6).

Whatever you have lost, God can replace it a hundredfold if you repent and walk in humility.

Lies of the Pit

We’ve learned that it is dangerous to walk in pride, because you can end up in a pit. But we need to understand that the pit itself can also be a dangerous place. That is because of what I call the lies of the pit.

Be assured, any time you fall into a pit you will encounter the lies of the enemy—lies of accusation, lies of hopelessness, even fabricated evidence. And if you believe his lies, you could stay in that pit indefinitely.
If you want to get out of that pit, you are going to have to learn to discern the enemy’s lies and resist them with the Truth.

The first truth we must keep in mind in order to overcome the lies of the pit is this: It is Satan who accuses us, not God. Revelation 12:10 identifies Satan as
“the accuser of our brethren”
(emphasis added). So any time you have a thought that is accusatory, know it is from Satan.

This is important to understand, because when you fall into a pit, the devil will immediately begin to accuse you. You can hear his accusations in your mind, in your thoughts. Satan introduces thoughts like,
See, you’re no good, or you wouldn’t be in this pit. What’s more, you’ll never be any good. You’ll never do anything for God. You’ll never get your marriage straightened out. You’ll never get your life straightened out.
Every time you hear a thought like that in your mind, remind yourself of the source. Because it is Satan who accuses us, not God—and we are commanded to resist him (see Jas. 4:7).

There is a difference between being accused by the enemy and being convicted by the Holy Spirit. You can recognize conviction of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit always offers hope. Conviction says, “You did this wrong; but if you repent, I’ll make it right and help you overcome it.” But condemnation says, “You always do things wrong. You’ll never do anything right. You’ll never get better. Things will never work out for you.” Condemnation is not from God.

When Joseph was in the pit, he had the opportunity to be accused by the enemy and believe his lies. Satan probably came to Joseph and said, “It is over, man. Those dreams you had are never going to come to pass. You’ve blown it too thoroughly with that pride thing, and now it’s simply too late. You’re going to die in this pit. Everything is over. There is no reason to call out to God now. And why should you trust God anyway? After all, look what God let happen to you. He doesn’t really care about you. Actually, He never did.”

That is what the enemy does. Every time we’re in a pit, Satan is right there to accuse us. And he doesn’t stop there. He accuses God as well. He says, “Look at what God did to you. Look at what God let happen to you. God is not faithful to you. If He were faithful, this never would have happened.”

Joseph had to fight against the lies of the enemy, and so must we—if we want to get out of the pit. We know God is faithful. We know His words are true. But when we are in the pit, the enemy will try to get us to focus on our circumstances, rather than on God’s faithfulness. The enemy will even manipulate those circumstances to try to make his lies look like the truth. So if we let the circumstances determine what we believe, we can be caught in the lies of the pit.

It is important to understand this, because the enemy is very deceptive. He will not only tell you a lie, he will also
fabricate evidence
to support his lies. This is how he was able to get Joseph’s father to believe the lie that Joseph was dead.

So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?” And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces” (Gen. 37:31-33).

The brothers didn’t actually tell their father that Joseph had been devoured by wild animals. Instead, they created false evidence and then
asked their father a misleading question—“Is this your son’s coat?” Jacob believed that evidence, and he jumped to the conclusion that his son was dead. Out of his own mouth Jacob said, “My son has been killed by wild animals.” But it was a lie—and he believed that lie for more than 20 years.

Think about it. For 22 years Jacob believed his son was dead. For 22 years he probably cried himself to sleep at night, with nightmares about a lion killing his son, ripping him limb from limb. The Bible says Jacob was so full of grief that he refused to be comforted, and said, “For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning” (Gen. 37:35). But it was not true that Joseph was dead. Jacob concluded that it was the truth
based on fabricated evidence
.

Notice the callousness of Joseph’s brothers. They heard their father’s wailing and they saw his grief. Yet they never went to him with the truth that would have ended his grieving. They could have taken away their father’s suffering in an instant by telling him, “Listen, it’s not true. Joseph wasn’t really torn by wild beasts. We just fabricated that bloody coat.” But they never refuted the lie that had been so cleverly planted. Do you see the hardness of their hearts? That is the hardness of sin. This is how deceptive the enemy is.

We live in a sin-hardened world, and we will be tempted by fabricated evidence just as Jacob was. And like Jacob, we will suffer unnecessary grief if we allow the lies of the pit to determine what we believe.

This is very important. If you want to get out of the pit, you must learn to discern the lies of the enemy. Because when you are in the pit, you are especially vulnerable. When you are in the pit, circumstances usually don’t look very favorable—and that is exactly when Satan will manipulate those circumstances in order to deceive you. He will hold up those circumstances before you as evidence that you should believe him rather than have faith in God. But fabricated evidence is not the truth. Joseph’s brothers held up a bloody coat as evidence, and that evidence looked pretty convincing. But it was fabricated evidence. It was not the truth.

If you want to overcome the lies of the pit, you must learn to focus on what God has said. When you are in the pit, you must remember that nothing is too hard for God, no matter what evidence the enemy might produce.

Let’s say you’re going through some challenges in your marriage—Satan will fabricate evidence to convince you that you’re married to the wrong person. Today psychologists administer personality tests to show that certain partners aren’t compatible and should not be married to each other. Yet if you took one of these tests, the evidence could easily tell you a lie. You might look at the test results and say, “Goodness gracious, I’m the opposite of my wife! I guess I’m just married to the wrong person.” (Of course you are the opposite of your wife! You wouldn’t want to marry someone like you—because if you were married to you, you’d go crazy!)

The truth is that when two people who are opposites come together, God can do a beautiful thing—because together they can look like Jesus. That is God’s plan for marriage—to smooth the rough edges so that together you look like Jesus. Yet when those rough edges start to manifest, things can get uncomfortable. And that is when Satan will be right there to lie about God’s plan for marriage. He will say, “See, this marriage is never going to work.” And then he will produce evidence to support his lie—but it is still a lie. And you will have to resist it.

Yet even worse than his fabricated evidence is Satan’s biggest lie: “You’ve messed up too badly. It’s too late for you. You’ve messed up too badly to ever fulfill God’s destiny for your life.”

Do you realize that the Bible is a book entirely about restoration? The Bible is filled with stories about people who messed up so badly that it seemed even God couldn’t do anything about it—and yet He restored every one of them. He wants you to know that nothing is impossible for Him. As long as you have breath, it is never too late to call out to God. It doesn’t matter what pit you are in. If you call out to God, He can fix it. And that call for help is the real purpose of the pit.

The Purpose of the Pit

We can gain some important insight from another Bible character who messed up and got thrown into a pit. His name was Jonah. Remember him? God had a big destiny in mind for Jonah. God gave him an assignment to save an entire city from destruction (see Jonah 1:2). But when
God commanded him to go to Nineveh, Jonah decided to go in the opposite direction (see Jonah 1:3). (Incidentally, this is always a bad strategy!)