Passing the Tests of Life: Lessons to Get Unstuck and Prepared for Where you Want to Go

By George Davis

If your life has suddenly gotten more difficult, you may be up for promotion with God.Have you ever asked yourself, “Why is this happening to me?” Often when trouble comes, we wonder what we have done wrong. But in reality, it may be God’s preparation for the next blessing He has for you.In Passing the Tests of Life George Davis helps you gain a better perspective on WHY things happen the way they do and gives you the keys to overcoming and moving on to your next level of promotion and increase. Learn to identify:
·         When you’re being tested·         Who is testing you·         Why you are being tested·         How to pass each test every time!  You were born to have a great life. As you overcome and learn from each obstacle in your path, you will discover the fulfilling life that you were always destined to have!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charisma House
• Release date: Jun 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781616387235

George Davis

George “Many Waters”Davis is a Vietnam Veteran diagnosed bi-polar while in his 20’s. He is a retired tugboat captain and lives in the country with his wife of 41 years. He started the “Red Clay Band” in which he plays the guitar and harmonica. George created T. A. C. C.“The Awakening Christian Circle”, a weekly men’s group. So much has happened in George's life since completing the book that he seriously feels he needs to write another book about the reality of the struggle.

Book preview

Chapter One

The SELF TEST

The Self Test gives believers an opportunity to look into the mirror of love and determine how they rate in comparison to Jesus, who is love personified. Love is not selfish or self-focused. Our Christian walk must be marked by a greater concern for others than ourselves. Every day we spend mired in self-centeredness is another day we miss out on the benefits of our spiritual inheritance.

IT’S FRUSTRATING FOR me as a pastor to pray for the people in my congregation to experience all the benefits of our spiritual inheritance and then not see those blessings manifest in their lives oftentimes. I know the reason they are not walking in the fullness of what God has for them is because they’re not mature enough to handle His blessings yet.

I have to remind myself that God is a good father and knows what is best for His children. I am a father, and I love my children with all my heart. But if I had decided to buy them brand-new cars the year my daughter turned ten, my older son turned eight, and my younger son turned four, I would have put them in danger.

I’m sure they would have enjoyed having their own cars, but they weren’t mature enough to handle them. They likely would have been hurt or even killed had they tried to use the gifts they had been given.

When you were born again, God released many things to you. You may have felt greater peace, joy, and contentment. Perhaps He healed you of an addiction or freed you from crippling fear. But for all the blessings you received at salvation, there were other things that are part of your inheritance as a child of God that were not released to you. Our Father will be able to give those gifts to you only as you mature spiritually and demonstrate that you are ready to handle them.

We read in 1 Corinthians 13:11, When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside (AMP). When babies come out of the womb, they are concerned only with themselves. They don’t care if their parents had only two and a half hours of sleep that night. When they’re ready to eat, they want to eat—and they will cry until someone feeds them.

Babies don’t care if there’s an important game on TV. If they’re wet, they want to be changed—and they don’t want to wait for a commercial. From the moment babies are born, they are self-centered, and children will remain that way until you, as their parent, teach them to be considerate of others. One of the major signs that a child is growing up is when he stops acting out of only self-interest and starts acting in love.

First Corinthians 13 tells us, Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! (vv. 4–8, NLT).

As we mature spiritually, we grow in love; and as we grow in love, we grow in spiritual maturity—which is why love is the key to passing The Self Test.

The Self Test gives believers an opportunity to look into the mirror of love and determine how they rate in comparison to Jesus, who is love personified. Love is not selfish or self-focused. Our Christian walk must be marked by a greater concern for others than ourselves. Every day we spend mired in self-centeredness is another day we miss out on the benefits of our spiritual inheritance.

The Bible says that our access to our inheritance changes as we mature: Now what I mean is that as long as the inheritor (heir) is a child and under age, he does not differ from a slave, although he is the master of all the estate (Gal. 4:1, AMP). In other words, if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s seed and an heir according to the promise God made to Abraham. But heirs don’t receive all the benefits of their inheritance until they grow up enough to show they have the maturity to handle them.

When my son, Kaden, was three years old and getting ready for the K-3 program at our church’s school, he had to go through the process of getting potty trained. Every time he would successfully go to the restroom, he would come out dancing and shouting, I’m going to K-3!

In the weeks leading up to the first day of school, Kaden would tell everybody, I’m going to school! I’m going to school! I’m going to school! He woke up on the first day of school extremely excited: I’m going to school! It was the same the second day. But I don’t think he factored in his mind that this would continue every day of the