Recently, during a “hotseat” coaching session, a man told Pedro that his financial life felt like he was floating in the ocean, with a life vest on, and his head was barely above water.
He said it felt like God would fly over in a helicopter, drop a little provision, and then fly away. Never offering a ladder to pull him up and rescue him, but just giving him enough to keep him alive out there until the next drop.
When he was sharing this story, he was doing so to share his frustration with being stuck, but also to give evidence of God's faithfulness in providing for him.
He was holding out in faith believing for a comeback story testimony…white-knuckling his way through it.
His story opened up a very valuable conversation that helped him and a lot of other people who were on the call witnessing the conversation.
We think it may help you too…
The way he was thinking about God’s provision is not uncommon, most believers have this same mindset. It comes from us doing exactly what the church has taught us to do.
We’ve built a whole culture around “the faith walk” and God’s last-minute rescue …you know those times when someone sends money out of nowhere, or pays for your groceries.
We testify about the time we had no idea how rent was getting paid, and yet somehow at the last second, God came through.
God does that. He sends miraculous provision to us when we need it and we should testify and celebrate those moments…because God is faithful and he will take care of us.
Those moments are 1000% praise-worthy moments. Not minimizing those experiences at all. They allow us to see the nature of God as a faithful provider and loving Father.
The problem though is that somewhere along the way, we took those provision stories and miracle moments, and we put them on a pedestal.
We started thinking it’s how we're supposed to live in the Kingdom, all the time. Some people even pray and ask God to give them testimonies like this.
The question becomes why do we think we need those experiences before God can bless us?
It could be because church culture has taught us to glamorize the comeback testimonies ...the ones that demonstrate the goodness and faithfulness of God, and show his ability to redeem any situation and turn it around for good (Romans 8:28).
But…
What if rock bottom isn’t God’s first option for us? What if it’s not what he wants for us at all?
Consider this... usually we hit the bottom because of some bad decisions, maybe we ignore the red flags and warnings from our loved ones…until it’s too late.
God is so good at redeeming the messes we make, that we begin to look at the redemption and decide it must have been His idea all along.
The truth is, God didn't cause it, and rock bottom was never His idea for us.
He will use it if it happens, and he will redeem us and the broken situations in our life by "828-ing" everything. That’s the beautiful thing about the Kingdom…it’s redemptive in nature.
The real miracle, however, is not in the turn around or the comeback…
The real miracle is in living a life that doesn’t require a rock bottom experience before you can step into the fullness of what the Kingdom has to offer.
Look at the life of Jesus. He’s our example, the role model and prototype of what we want to become…
What was Jesus' testimony? Did he fail? Did he have to go to rock bottom? Did he have to make a bunch of mistakes first?
No. He didn’t make any mistakes, he never sinned. He didn’t need miracles to survive, he performed miracles.
How different would our lives look, if we made that our goal instead of rock bottom comeback stories?
So, what is actually going on in the kind of moments this man in the hotseat with Pedro described?
More often than not, it’s a test.
If you've been around for a while, then you've probably heard Pedro say, God does not trust what He does not test.
Before God can trust us with true riches (his people) we have to be found faithful in the smaller things…like money. He often uses money to test us because money is a powerful revealer of our heart, mindsets, limiting beliefs, and fears.
Look at the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, for example. That parable was not about only money, like many think. Jesus was testing the man’s heart.
It was never about selling the stuff and giving it all away, the test was to determine whether he was willing to do it. It was to expose who and what had the man's heart...money or the Lord?
When we start to think like this, it changes the question entirely.
The question is no longer why am I not getting the miracle rescue I need from God. Instead, it becomes, which test am I not passing?
"Sometimes the only way to end a crisis in your life is to stop failing tests, and start passing them. That’s how you start coming out of these difficult situations." - Pedro Adao
In that Kingdom Seekers hotseat session, Pedro walked the man he was coaching through this process. Then, he gave him some homework, to take his situation into prayer with the Holy Spirit and ask:
“Lord, can you please show me what tests I’m currently not passing? What am I struggling with right now? Where is my thinking off, and how can I fix it?”
If you have some areas you’ve felt stuck in, like you’re circling the same situation over and over and you can’t seem to get out no matter how much you pray, fast, make declarations, give offerings…
Or if you think you have to hit rock bottom before God can bless you…
Then I’d encourage you to take a minute right now, while this is fresh.
Ask the Holy Spirit if there are any tests you’re not passing, ask him to show you what they are and how you can change your outcome…
Remember, God is not giving you tests that you can’t pass; he is your Lord, your God, and your Father. He wants you to pass, so the odds are stacked in your favor.
God is a good God and he wants to entrust bigger things to you. On the other side of this is an amazing life waiting for you in the kingdom.
If you’d like to be a part of powerful mentoring sessions like the one we talked about today, join us inside of the Kingdom Seekers mentoring community. There’s a whole group of men and women just like you who are daily seeking God’s wisdom and pursuing Kingdom life.