John Bevere - Is God Trying to Make Your Spirit Strong?

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All right, so we’re in lesson six, and I love the title of this lesson: «Developing a Strong Spirit.» Remember, I said one of the purposes of the Wilderness is to develop a strong spirit. I’m going to open with a scripture that you’ll love, and you’ll have a better understanding of it at the end of the lesson. This scripture is Philippians chapter one. Paul says, «For to you, it has been granted, on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake.» Okay, wait a minute—whoa! This is like an oxymoron here. To you, it has been granted; you’re thinking, «Oh, what great blessing has he got for me?» And then he goes to suffer. It’s like saying, «Okay, this is what it’s like: Saying to you, Jessica, it is granted, on your birthday, to get a root canal.» Okay? That’s what this sounds like to me. All right? But at the end of the session, you will understand why it has been granted and why it’s so exciting.

So here’s the deal: we’ve all gone through adversity, hardships—the Wilderness, right? Did we feel like this was granted? No! But you’re going to understand why it is a granting afterward. I want to begin with Luke 1:80. John the Baptist—it says this: «So the child, John the Baptist, grew and became strong in spirit.» Now, I highlighted that phrase «strong in spirit» and was in the deserts. Notice, not one desert; there are always deserts or wildernesses in our life. As believers, that is how we go from glory to glory, and faith to faith, and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel. Can you just picture this? John is in the deserts, developing a strong spirit. If you look at Jesus, the same thing occurs. The child Jesus became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

It’s one thing to have a strong soul; it’s a completely different thing to have a strong spirit. Can I say this? Moses, when he was 40 years old, knew he was called to deliver Israel. Right? He had a strong soul because if anybody could deliver that nation, it’s a prince of the most powerful nation in the world. And you know what the Bible says about him in Acts chapter 7? He was powerful in speech and eloquent. He was trained to be a leader in Egypt, right? So he thinks, «I’ve got this.» He’s got a strong soul, but after 40 years in the wilderness, God comes to him in the bush and says, «Hey, I want you to go speak to Pharaoh.» He goes, «I can’t even talk!» Okay, so now you see he doesn’t have that strength of soul, though he’ll catch up, believe me. But what Moses doesn’t realize is that God has developed a strong spirit in him over 40 years. He didn’t have that strong spirit when he was 40; he could not have achieved what had to be accomplished when he was 80 after a 40-year Wilderness trek. Is that not cool?

All right, so often you will not realize how strong your spirit has become because why? You’ve gone through this desert; you’ve gone through these trials, and you just feel like— but in reality, and I’ve seen this in my own personal life, God has developed such faith and such strength of character in your life. If you look at Jesus, remember we looked at it earlier: God announces to everybody, «This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.» Right? So exciting! Let’s get on Instagram Live, let’s do Facebook Live, let’s do a story on Instagram, let’s tell everybody, «Meet me in Jerusalem!» But God leads him to the Wilderness.

Now, you know what Luke 4:1 says? It says, «Jesus, being filled with the Spirit, was led by the Spirit of God into the Wilderness.» But you know what? While he’s in the Wilderness, he’s tested and tempted for 40 days. We only get the last three tests, right? This is going on for 40 days. But you want to see what Luke 4:14 says? Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. After the 40 days, then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of him went throughout all the surrounding region. That was much better than an Insta story; that was much better than Facebook Live, okay? And he taught in their synagogues. So you can see when you go through Wilderness training, God is the one that promotes you.

So what happened with Jesus? He goes in filled, and he returns in power. You can see authority and power produced by coming through the Wilderness successfully—write that down: Authority and power are produced in your life by coming through the Wilderness successfully. If you look at James chapter 1, verse 12, I love this scripture, and I think a lot of people really miss the scripture because they always put it off to the Judgment seat when they leave this world. But James says, «God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterwards, they will receive the crown of life.» So what does the crown speak of? Authority. What comes with authority? Power.

So Jesus goes into the Wilderness filled; he returns in power; he’s got the authority and the power. Now we’re beginning to understand, «To you, it has been granted,» when you look at the result of it. Are you seeing what I’m saying? If you look at God’s promise to us, this will encourage everybody who’s listening: God keeps His promise! Everybody say, «God keeps His promise!» That’s a big amen to that! Listen to me—God keeps His promise. What specific promise is Paul talking about? He will not allow—notice the word «allow»? God is not the author of your tests or your attacks; he is not the author. He cannot be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt with evil. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm. Do you know what that means? I want you to listen to me: whatever it is you’re going through right now, you have the power to get through it and get through it successfully; otherwise, God wouldn’t have allowed it. He didn’t author it; he stood back and permitted it.

So you’re never going to face a test that you don’t have the power to overcome. That’s good news! However, God doesn’t want to leave you at the level of strength that you’re at. This is the thing we must understand: He wants us to grow. We are now going to look at how He increases our strength in the desert. If you look at what James says: «Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity.» Now, we’re all Americans; we understand what opportunity is. I wouldn’t use that word when it comes to troubles and Wilderness and deserts, but yet James does. What is the opportunity? He tells us, «For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.»

So the opportunity is you get to grow your endurance. So let me say this, and I want you to listen to me carefully: the trials that God allows in our life—the wildernesses, the deserts, the trials—whatever they may be, they have a purpose to them. What is that purpose? To increase our capacity! Right? Do you understand what I’m talking about? So God will permit a trial today that will simulate the level of pressure you’re going to face tomorrow. So basically, what I’m saying here is—I’m going to put this up on the board because I want you to write this down: God uses your present Wilderness challenges to strengthen you for greater conquests in your future.

Okay, so it’s kind of like weight lifting. All right? If you look at weight lifting, when I was 35 years old, I almost fainted on a platform in Atlanta, Georgia. We lived two houses down from a WWF wrestler—the guy was like six foot four, weighed 240 pounds, and had four percent body fat. I remember playing pickup basketball with him. I would drive into him, and I would literally bounce the other way. I mean, he was unbelievably huge, cut, and built, right? He was constantly saying, «John, I’ll take you to the gym!» It’s like, «I don’t have time; I’m busy in the ministry.» So when I almost fainted, I went down to his house and said, «You stand in his door like this.» You just have to understand how massive this guy was. And I said, «Kip, you said you would take me to the gym; I think I need to go.» He looked at me with this sadistic smile and said, «I’ll take you to the gym.»

So he takes me to this sweat box of a gym with all these monster guys, and I learned in that gym that day that muscle doesn’t grow just by going one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen—can I stop now? You put a lot of weight on the bar, so you can only lift it about three or four times and that’s when all the fun begins because that’s when your blood vessels come out, your face goes five shades of red, and all the monsters around your bench are yelling «Push!» And something on the inside of you pushes it up.

When I started weight lifting, the maximum I could bench was 95 pounds. Then it went up to 105, 115, 125, 135, 145. I was so proud I could go to the gym and put a plate on each side. It went up to about 225 or 250; it got up to 205—it took two years for me to get up to 205. And I got stuck there for years. So I went to a conference in California; all the preachers, all of them were weight lifters. We went to the gym; they said, «You can do 225.» They asked me my history, and I said, «I can’t do it.» They said, «You can do it; we’re going to help you.» Sure enough, I got 225 up that day; they knew what I could handle.

Are you following what I’m saying? So then what happened was I went to a church in Detroit a year later, and I got up 245 one time. In this church, the pastor could bench press 545 pounds and had a personal trainer. This personal trainer had produced national champions. So we go to his gym on Monday morning because the pastor’s session was on Monday morning, and I stayed over a day just to spend time with them. The trainer asked me about my history of lifting, and I told him, «I got 245 up once.» He said, «You got 245 up? Yeah.» I said, «But once.» Once! Do you understand? Once! And he said, «Well, today you’re going to push up at least 265.» And sure enough, I did that day because of his instruction.

So he gave my employee and me some exercises to do for the next year. The next year, we went to that same church, and I went to his gym the next day. He said, «John,» and I preached all day on the Holy Spirit. He said, «I had a dream last night: you’re going to push up 315 pounds.» I said, «You are completely crazy!» He said, «Bever, didn’t you preach on the Holy Spirit yesterday?» I said, «Yeah.» He said, «I had a dream last night. Shut up and get down; you’re doing this.» And you know—oh my gosh! And sure enough, after warm-ups, I pushed up 315 pounds that day! I was 44 years old; I started this when I was 35. I was so excited; I felt like I could fly home without an airplane!

Now, here’s what I want to point out: when I pushed up that 315, I was pushing up 225 ten times. Okay? What would happen the first day I went into the gym when I could only push up 95 pounds? What would happen if Kip had put 225 on the bar? It would have come down at the speed of gravity and crushed my chest! I would have been dead! So what would have once killed me is now just routine.

Can you picture the Judgment seat? This is when we’re going to get rewarded for how we serve Jesus. You know the Bible says there are going to be a lot of tears at that Judgment seat? I believe He’s going to cry more than any of us because this is what’s going to happen: He’s going to say, «Look what I had for you to do to build my kingdom, but you couldn’t accomplish it because you kept resisting your endurance training; you didn’t handle your Wilderness seasons correctly.»

So let’s paint a picture here. Let’s say we’re at 145, and God says, «I need you at 175 because I’ve got something I need you to do for my kingdom that takes 175 of opposition.» So God allows—He doesn’t author; He allows—a 155. Maybe somebody gossips about you; what do you do? You gossip back. God says, «Back to 145.» Something happens—there’s a financial situation—you think, «It’s okay; I’ve got a credit card!» God goes back. Instead of believing God, you use the credit card. God says, «Back to 145.» You’re starting to see what’s happening here.

Now the time comes when He needs you at 175 because it’s time for that assignment in the kingdom, but you’re still at 145. And what has He promised us? He’ll never allow a trial to come against us that we don’t have the power to overcome. So you know what that means? He, as a good Father, will not permit us, even though this is going to produce so much fruit in the Kingdom. He’s got to find somebody else that can step in and do that who can handle the 175 of opposition.

So I believe at the Judgment seat, Jesus is going to be weeping at points when He says, «Can I show you what I had?» But you resisted your endurance training by complaining, by murmuring, by cutting corners. And I wasn’t able to get you to do that because you didn’t handle your time of training, your time of preparation—the time when I was going to develop strength in you, develop a strong spirit in you—you didn’t handle it correctly. That’s a very sobering thought!

But we need to realize this: so that we’re going through adversity, we’re in that dry time, and we’ve been crying out, «God, where are you?» for three months, and that manifest presence isn’t there. We keep doing what those who feared the Lord did: we meditate on His name; we treasure His word more than our necessary food. James concludes by saying this: «So let it— which is your endurance.» Remember, you have an opportunity. What’s the opportunity? To build your endurance! So let your endurance grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, and you will need nothing. This is not you saying you’re mature; perfect means mature, complete, and you don’t need anything; this is God’s saying about you. So this is why it’s so important to handle our Wilderness season correctly.

Now, do you understand more what Paul meant when he said, «For you, it is granted?» It’s like somebody looking at someone and saying, «I’m going to give you a free gym membership!» And you know, when I’m in the gym, I’ve never seen guys go, «Oh my God, why can’t I just have a normal life?» I watch those guys; they’re so excited to go into that gym and attempt that 225. That’s the way we’re supposed to be when it comes to adversity in our life. If we handle it that way, we understand what Paul means when he says, «For you, it is granted.» It’s not an oxymoron anymore; it’s actually a real benefit of serving our King. See you in the next lesson!