Title: 13
Author: JOEG
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© 2002 Joe Griffin	                                   ▼                       02-04-30.JSH-645/

The Inscrutable Question: Spiritual Maturity: Evidence Testing: The Plan of God
c.	Evidence testing.  This is the ultimate in suffering for blessing and is so intense that when the believer passes this category of suffering his escrow blessings are doubled.  Evidence testing is administered by Lucifer himself, it comes suddenly, and without warning.  The mature believer has distinguished himself as a potential witness for the Prosecution by receiving conveyance of his escrow account.  If he is called as a witness he will be cross-examined by the beguiling defense attorney for the fallen angels, the chief adversary in the angelic conflict, the Satanas—Satan©j, and the “accuser of our brethren,” the Diabolos—Di£boloj.  It is Satan’s attempt to discredit the believer who has persevered to the point of escrow transfer.  Lucifer’s attempts before the court will employ one of two tactics: (1) challenge the believer with regard to his relationship to life or (2) challenge him with regard to his relationship with God.  The first tactic is explained by the Colonel in:
Thieme, R. B., Jr.  Christian Suffering.  142:
First, Satan argues that men, like angels, will not be able to handle suffering, especially if they consider the suffering unjust.  The only reason anyone remains faithful to God, Satan charges, is because God blesses him.  This was the argument in the book of Job.  Job, however, discredited Satan’s theory and was entered as evidence in God’s case against Satan.  Despite a period of failure, Job remained faithful to God not because God was blessing him but because of the doctrine he had learned and eventually applied.
Because of the wisdom that accompanied his maturity, Job could distinguish between suffering for blessing and divine discipline and therefore with discretion stood fast with doctrine and remained loyal to God. 
We have covered Job’s evidence testing in the past and it was almost more than any of us could bear.  We were obviously not advanced enough to even study evidence testing at the time and we are not going to go there at this point either.  If you are interested, the study of Job’s evidence testing was a part of the series, The Biblical View of Civil Disobedience, and was taught between January 3 and March 7, 1993, and included 16 lessons.
Job’s evidence test was in the area of his relationship to life through suffering.  The second category of evidence testing in which God allows Lucifer to engage is to challenge the mature believer’s relationship with God.
In this category, Lucifer seeks to discredit the believer-witness under the contention that prosperity, wealth, and power will cause him to become unfaithful to God and His Word.  Satan as the ruler of this world has the power and the freedom to offer the mature believer lucrative opportunities to acquire power, fame, and fortune.  This is in opposition to the principle of grace: if God does not promote you then you are not promoted.
Wisdom from doctrine and discernment and discretion from that wisdom enable the mature believer to evaluate opportunities from the standpoint of “rhetorical veils and hidden agendas.”  When “opportunities” arise that seem too good to be true they usually are.  When “opportunities” arise that require some compromise of grace then wisdom will alert the believer to leave it alone.
Successful evaluation for this level of evidence testing is the Word of God in the stream of consciousness and what we have in the past characterized as the multiplexing ministry of the Holy Spirit.
In a computer analogy, the believer who is filled by the Holy Spirit has available to him the power to analyze, evaluate, and scrutinize these “opportunities.”
In so doing the Holy Spirit functions as a “Central Processing Unit” or CPU:
Darcy, Laura and Louise Boston (comps.).  Webster’s New World Dictionary of Computer Terms.  (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), 63:
A CPU is where instructions are fetched, decoded, and executed, and the overall activity of the computer is controlled.
It is the human brain that takes in data that need to be processed.  Coordination of incoming data with internal inventory in order to arrive at a decision that is compatible with the plan of God requires the power of the Holy Spirit.  As the soul’s Central Processing Unit, the Holy Spirit is able to multiplex data so that the believer can arrive at a decision.  The computer term “multiplexing” is defined by Darcy and Boston as:
Multiplexing:  The process of using a single device [the Central Processing Unit: the Holy Spirit] to simultaneously handle several separate operations [recall of doctrine from categorical storage and memory center and using it to evaluate incoming data by referencing norms and standards, frame of reference, vocabulary, and conscience] by alternating its attention among them.
For the mature believer the inventory of ideas stored over years of Bible study, coordinated with experiences gained from execution under the pressures of the previous categories of testing, result in wisdom, or the exercise of good judgment. 
Wisdom is developed by learning both the plan of God and the will of God.  With wisdom the believer under the second category of evidence testing is prepared to depend exclusively on the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God to resist the temptations involved.  This requires us to take time to define (1) the plan of God and (2) the will of God.
1)	The Plan of God:
1.	Since God is perfect His plan is perfect and will reach the conclusion that He desires.  The problem is that the perfect plan was created for imperfect creatures.
2.	The problem is not God’s but ours in that imperfect man cannot contribute to a perfect plan and thus must learn to stay out of God’s way.
3.	We are enabled to execute God’s perfect plan by means of divine provisions.  We refer to these provisions as logistical grace for both our physical and spiritual lives.
4.	At salvation, the believer is imputed the perfect righteousness of God to which all blessings are targeted.  Logistical grace is a part of these blessings and is designed to provide the sustenance required for the believer to advance in the plan, execute the plan, and fulfill the plan.
5.	The power for advance, execution, and fulfillment is provided by each Member of the Trinity:
a.	The power of God the Father provides at salvation a portfolio of invisible assets to every believer through imputation.  These endow every believer with equal privileges and equal opportunities to advance in the plan, starting with the two power options.
b.	Jesus Christ created the universe including Planet Earth.  He was perfect in His effort and thus the interstellar system is so designed that, although in a state of entropy, it will maintain its space-time continuum until the end of human history.  Consequently, there is nothing that mankind can do as a matter of course, by accident, or intentionally to destroy the earth or the human race.  The earth is the Lord’s perfect provision for the playing out of the angelic conflict, the Invisible War, and the appeal trial.  The earth was originally created for the angels and restored for the human race with full knowledge of all that their occupation of it would entail.
	Thus the reasons asserted as justification for environmentalist theology reject the omniscience of our Lord implying that He was unaware of our needs and thus shortchanged the human race with regard to natural resources.  They also reject our Lord’s omnipotence by implying that he did not have the ability to create an earth capable of withstanding the machinations of human power and intellect.  But the end is decreed and human power is unable to trump divine power.
c.	The Holy Spirit provides us the power to perceive the plan of God from Scripture and the power to execute it with spiritual IQ.

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