From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life Read Free

gently, “I am so happy about what you are doing right now. I realize most people would not be willing to do what you are doing, and I’m so glad to see that you are allowing God to work in this area of your life. But I want to ask you something. Why did you tell that woman that you were an associate evangelist? You’re not anymore, and you know that. You know what you are—you’re a prayer partner.”
    Feeling defensive, I said, “Well, I
used
to be an associate evangelist, and I just thought it would bless her to know that.” Bless
her!
My words seemed hollow and contrived, even to me.
    I really wasn’t quite sure why I had told her that, so I asked Terry a question. “When you’re on the phone with someone, don’t you ever tell them that you’re James Robison’s son-in-law?”
    “No.”
    “Don’t you think it would bless someone who calls in, to know that they got to pray with James’s son-in-law?”
    Terry drew a deep breath. “Well,” he replied, “if they are blessed by
that
, then they are being blessed for the wrong reason.”
    I will never forget the words that followed.
    “Robert, I love you, man. But you are going to have to get to the place where you have your identity in Christ, and not in what you do or in who you are.”
    The words that Terry spoke that day pierced my heart. Yet God took those words and began to use them in my life. In fact, He continues to use them to this day.
    You see, although I didn’t know it at the time, I was in the very early stages of a journey toward my destiny in God. God had given me a glimpse of how He wanted to use me and of the destiny He had in mind for me. But now I was in the middle of an important test—and I would have to pass that test before I could move into the next phase along the path to destiny.
    I’m so glad God doesn’t “flunk” any of us on our tests. If He did, He surely could have written F on the pages of my life many times! No, each time we fail, He graciously writes “Redo”—and allows us to keep retaking the test until we pass it. Why? Because it is only when we pass the test that we will be able to step into the destiny He has planned for us.
    At that point I had yet to learn that great destiny carries with it great responsibilities—responsibilities that require strong character. It’s easy to get excited about God’s plans, without having any idea about the strengths we will need in order to fulfill them. But He knows. He knows everything about us. He knows the dreams He hasfor us and what it will take to get the job done. And He wants us to be fully equipped.
    Seasons of Testing
    We may love God—and we may even have big dreams in our hearts that He Himself has placed there. All of that is wonderful. But without the character of God on the inside of us, we won’t get very far. First Corinthians 10:13 says God will never allow us “to be tempted beyond what [we] are able.” (In other words, He won’t allow us to get into a situation that we don’t have the strength to handle!) That’s why He allows us to go through tests on the way from the dream to the destiny—tests that prepare us to succeed when we get there.
    I wasn’t the first young man to find myself seemingly sidetracked from a God-given dream. Thousands of years ago, a young man named Joseph also received a dream from God. And it wasn’t long before he also found himself in the middle of an unexpected test—a test that probably didn’t seem to line up at all with the dream God had given him.
    That test was only the beginning of a long season of testing for Joseph. In fact, he went on to experience 10 distinct tests on the way to his destiny. But after passing those tests, he stepped into the glorious fulfillment of God’s dream. Walking out the fullness of that dream was not only a great blessing to Joseph, but also to hundreds of thousands of others who came after him.
    I believe every one of us will encounter these same 10 tests on the way from