In this study, I want to discuss the reason why God tests your faith. As I’ve discussed in other studies, God does not put anything in your life that is contrary to His perfection, that is the work of Satan— those things which create the opportunities for testing are all around us. You do not have to travel to far in time in each day before some sort of temptation or situation comes about to test your faith.

But, although God does not create those situations that will test you, He will use the opportunity to put you through the fiery trial to test your faith and see what you have learned from previous experiences. We call ourselves “creatures of habit”, and to a large extent, that is true. How many people after failing in some area in life, for example: in business— recover, only to fail again, why? Because they will attempt to try again, using the same processes that they used the first time, and second, third, and fourth times. And then ask the question, why do I always fail?

When you fail at something, in order to try again and expect any level of success, you need to change the way you went about whatever it is that you were attempting in those times of failure. In this study we are going to take a look at how God tested the faith of Jesus’ disciples and how that faith was developed through testing, so when it came time to be on their own with just their faith to work with, they will be able to trust their faith.

Feeding Five Thousand

In Matthew chapter fourteen, the disciples went through some traumatic experiences. First we have Herod beheading John the Baptist to open up the chapter. After retrieving the body of John the Baptist and placing it in a tomb, Jesus said to His disciples in Mark 6:31, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

As human beings there are times when we need to get away and just deal with our emotions. Times when we need to rest and recharge our batteries. Jesus knew this traumatic experience was tough on His disciples, so He took them to a deserted or solitary place to get that rest and seclusion they needed. It wasn’t deserted for long, because as we read, the multitudes, seeing them depart, followed after them. When Jesus saw them, He had compassion on them and told His disciples to give them something to eat.

Now the Bible tells us that there were about five thousand in the multitude. Yet, the disciples told Jesus that they only had five loaves of bread and two fish. But, Jesus instructed the people to sit down— He then took the loaves and fish and looked up to heaven, then He broke the loaves, and gave the loaves and fish to His disciples and told them to hand them out.

Now, none of the three accounts tells us, but it is assumed that the disciples continued to break the loaves as well as the fish while handing them out to the people. As they broke, the food multiplied. When did the food stop multiplying? We know it did stop multiplying, because they ended with twelve baskets left over. It obviously didn’t stop when the people were satisfied, it only stopped when the disciples stopped breaking it apart.

How do I assume that if we are not told. Well, just like when you are having ten people coming for dinner. You don’t cook the food as they are eating it, so you know exactly how much to make, with no leftovers. You prepare the food before hand. When you prepare the food before hand, you certainly want to make sure there is enough for everyone, so most often you will have plenty of leftovers.

In this case, the disciples had to distribute enough for five thousand people, I can picture some of the disciples frantically breaking the food as others distributed it. Obviously, there was more food broken then needed since there were twelve baskets leftover. If they were breaking only for each person, they would have stopped at the last person and had no leftovers. So the miracle happened with each break of the food.

Faith Exposed

We move on to the next traumatic experience that the disciples had to deal with, all within a two day period. In Matthew 14:22, we read, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.” What is interesting here is that it says, “Jesus made His disciples get into the boat.” It is interesting because the word “made” here is derived from the Greek word, “anagkozo,” which means to constrain or compel.

If Jesus had to constrain them into the boat, that would mean there was a reason why they didn’t want to get in. Since they quickly ran into a storm on their way to Capernaum, you would believe that they knew or sensed a storm was brewing. We must not forget , these men were fisherman. They were well aware of weather patterns and conditions. I believe they knew a storm was in the potential forecast and tried to convince Jesus otherwise.

Did Jesus know a storm was inevitable? I believe, He most certainly did, but had total control of the situation from the start. Things in life that overwhelm us, certainly don’t overwhelm God. Soon after Jesus sent the disciples out to sea, He immediately went up on the mountain alone to pray, most probably for them.

Now, getting back to the feeding of the five thousand for one important point. Someone once explained to me that it is estimated that, it would have taken the disciples approximately seven hours to break the bread and fish themselves and distribute it to five thousand people. So they must have set up a chain of help to accomplish this task, because in Mark 6:35, we read that the day was far spent, in other words it was getting late when Jesus told the disciples to feed the people.

Although the Scriptures do not tell us, we must try to read into the situation to get the full scope of what was going on. After feeding the people Jesus sent them away. Now, I doubt Jesus would have sent them away in the middle of the night. It must have been still a decent hour with possibly some light left in the day. This would mean that it could not have taken anywhere near seven hours to feed the people. We also see in Mark 6:47, that when evening came the disciples were already out in the middle of the sea and already being effected by the storm that had come up.

Now, the Romans divided the time of night into four watches. The first watch of the night would be 6PM to 9PM, the second 9PM to 12PM, the third, 12PM to 3PM, and the fourth 3PM to 6AM. Mark 6:48 tells us that Jesus did not go out to the disciples until the fourth watch of the night, yet it says that when evening came He saw them struggling with the weather. So we must assume that they struggled with this storm for possibly six hours or more before Jesus went out to them, assuming that when evening came it was the first watch of the night.

Many times we are left with our trials and sufferings longer than we hope for. Yet, Jesus is there watching and praying as we go through what we are being tested with. When Jesus did walk out onto the water toward them, verse 48 ends by telling us that Jesus would have walked by them. What? If the apostles didn’t see Him and cry out to Him, He would have walked by them and they would have been left to the elements that they were dealing with even though they were His disciples. Jesus wanted them to cry out to Him.

How many times in our lives do we go through trials and sufferings, yet we do not seek the help of Jesus, who is there praying and just waiting for us to call on His authority through the Holy Spirit. I know in my past life, I rarely called on Jesus’ help to come into my boat and calm the storms of life, because I didn’t realize that that was an option. We are trained by society around us that we are on our own to fend for ourselves. This is a part of Satan’s game, to keep you hanging out to dry during trials and sufferings. He wants to keep you separated from Jesus. He wants that so you become so discouraged and even curse God for allowing those storms in your life.

Meanwhile, Jesus is just waiting for the call from you for His intervention. You might ask, why does He wait for my call, why doesn’t He just help? That’s a good question from an ignorant standpoint. I say that because it is only someone who is ignorant of the Bible and how God works in the lives of His followers that would ask a question like that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of biblically ignorant people out there because, those types of questions are probably the most common questions you will hear.

Besides ignorance, not having an intimate relationship with Jesus will create the same problem. There are many scholars who know the Bible inside and out, but do not know Jesus. They can quote scripture and tell you everything you want to know about the Bible, yet they can be so far from Jesus, with all the worldly knowledge they have, even of the Bible, they are lost spiritually.

Knowing Jesus is a choice, just like choosing between good and evil, you have a choice to choose knowing Jesus or not. We need to choose God in every situation that we deal with. God or Jesus will not force their help upon us. That is why so many people wonder where God is in their lives when trials and sufferings come about.

They blame God for there circumstances, yet they only seek God when they need Him. Like a pocket God— only take Him out when they’re in trouble. When things are fine, they put Him back in their pocket until they need Him again. This doesn’t work— God doesn’t work like that. It is disrespect toward God. It’s hypocrisy, it’s selfishness, all wrapped up into one package.

God is patient, God will give you all the chances in the world to come to Him humbly and seeking forgiveness of your sins. If you want to know how much God cares about you, read Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. No matter how much you may screw up your life, Jesus is more than willing to accept you or even accept you back if you walked away from Him already. But, you must call out to Him.

Getting back to our story, although the disciples originally cried out in fear when they saw Jesus walking on the water because they thought Jesus was a ghost, they were certainly glad to see Him.

If you look closely at this true story, you can see how Jesus used that storm to help develop the faith of His disciples. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He told the disciples to get into the boat that evening. Again, we don’t get every last detail of the events leading up to the disciples getting into the boat, but if they were concerned because of a potential storm, Jesus obviously wouldn’t lie to them and tell them there wasn’t going to be a storm. No, what He probably told them was, “don’t worry, everything will be OK.”

If the disciples misunderstood Jesus, thinking He meant that no storm was coming, that was their mistake. We know Jesus didn’t lie, because although peoples interpretation of a lie like that is a fib, or a little white lie, which they deem meaningless— God doesn’t. To God there is no level of sin. Sin is sin regardless if it is murder or a little white lie. It is a transgression against His Holy Law and not acceptable. Jesus was sinless and even a little white lie would have been considered sin.

There are many more examples in the Bible where Jesus tests His disciples. By the time we get to the book of Acts, where Jesus ascends into heaven and His disciples become His apostles, we see the fruits of this testing in their lives. Lord knows, the testing parts of our lives are not fun to go through, but they are absolutely necessary in order for us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Learning the principles are not enough, we must experience first hand the trials and sufferings of life in order to put those principles into active practice in our lives. Ignorance of biblical knowledge and no relationship with Jesus Christ go hand-in-hand and are the biggest reason, in my estimation, of why we do not experience the supernatural in our lives. As human beings we are constantly straying of the straight and narrow path of life that God has provided, all because we lose our focus or never develop a clear focus of what God wants from us.

Just like the disciples, we also have to learn the hard way, through trial and error. It’s not a perfect ride for us and it wasn’t a perfect ride for the disciples either. If we just glance at Matthew 15:32-39, we see Jesus’ disappointment in the disciples lack of ability to catch on to what He was trying to teach them.

Here again, we find a multitude of four thousand people, who had followed Jesus and His disciples for three days. Jesus again, has compassion on them and again tells His disciples to feed them. As before, we are not given all the specifics of the scenario, but figure this is only weeks, maybe days after the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus knowing what He wanted His disciples to learn about faith the last time, was testing to see if their faith had developed at all.

Disappointment must have set in to Jesus when He tells His disciples to feed the people, and the disciples follow in verse 33, “where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” Now this is just days after or possibly a week or two after the feeding of the five thousand. Human beings have a history of forgetfulness, just read about the Israelites in the Old Testament and see how forgetful they were of miracles like the dividing of the Red Sea, God’s supernatural protection against the advancing Egyptian army, the water from the rock in the desert when they needed water, the manna from heaven, the miracles and blessings go on-and-on for the Israelites, yet within no time after those miracles they were grumbling to Moses against God.

And that history of forgetfulness for mankind has continued right up to today. I still lack faith in situations that God has proven over-and-over that He is there for me and for you. If you haven’t seen any blessings in your life, you need to examine yourself, because just maybe you have distanced your relationship with Jesus, or maybe you’ve never had one. If either of these scenarios are the case you will not receive any blessings or miracles, because you are living apart from God’s will.

Living apart from God, is living according to the worldly standards which is Satan’s desire for you. 2 Corinthians 13:5, tells us to, “examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?— unless indeed you are disqualified.” We need to be keenly aware of where we are spiritually. Living according to the worlds way, you will be in spiritually bad places, yet because you are living according to the worldly way, you will feel comfortable with it. But, if you truly set your heart on examining yourself according to God’s standards, you will quickly see the error of your ways and will need to make changes.

You will need to apply what Romans 12:2 tells us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The disciples were no different than you and me, they followed these principles and became apostles of Christ and so could you!

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