Chapter 9      The Patience Test

            Definition:  The Patience Test happens when a leader’s expectations in God are

                        not fulfilled “on schedule.”  Patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit

                        (Galatians 5:22).  This word comes from a Latin word which means “to suffer.” 

                        In the Patience Test, God challenges a leader to wait patiently, or to endure some

                        tribulation without complaint.  To grow in patience, a leader must bear pain or

                        trouble without losing self-control or becoming a disturbance to others.  In

                        portraying this quality, a leader calmly tolerates delay while refusing to be

                        provoked by it.

PURPOSE: The issue is the relinquishment of a sense of entitlement or rights.  Ultimately a leader understands that God is control, consequently no control games or pity parties!

EXAMPLE: Noah (Genesis 5-7)

PRINCIPLE: Calm assurance based on confidence in God and patience with people will pay-off.

Chapter 10      The Frustration Test

Definition:  A leader undergoes the Frustration Test when he feels that his/her life or ministry goals cannot be achieved.  People or circumstances may prevent him/her from gratifying his/her conscious or unconscious desires and goals.  A leader especially experiences this feeling when he finds no logical or rational reason why his efforts are being baffled, foiled, or confused.

PURPOSE: Frustration at work and with workers when carefully analyzed, usually finds its root in a more personal part of our life (home, God, friends).  We need to address our priority issues and then we will have more energy and objectivity at the workplace.

EXAMPLE: Paul (II Corinthians 11)

PRINCIPLE: When our spiritual life and personal life are in order, frustration at work is minimized.

Chapter 11      The Discouragement Test

            Definition:  A leader is going through the Discouragement Test when he allows

                        circumstances or people to dishearten him and deprive him of courage in the

Lord.  A discouraged leader is deterred from an undertaking which he/she believed was right.  During such times, a leader may lose his/her confidence or hope in God, His provision, His promises, or His calling.

PURPOSE: Discouraging times push a person toward their faith in God, knowing He can get them through this difficult time. Discouragement will find a different perspective if we learn how to spend time in the knowledge of God’s presence.

EXAMPLE: Elijah (I Kings 19)

PRINCIPLE: Discouragement is a liar attempting to make you believe you have been singled out for failure and nothing can be done about it.  Resist this paralyzing distortion of the truth.

Chapter 12      The Warfare Test

            Definition:  The Warfare Test happens when a leader encounters violent spiritual

                        opposition to his/her progress in the Spirit, or in his extending of God’s kingdom. 

                        Though it happens in the realm of the spirit, it can find natural expression in

                        conflicts with people, lack of response to one’s ministry, or struggles of various

                        sorts (including the feeling of unbearable temptation to sin). 

                        Some people think that anointed leaders cannot be tempted like other people can. 

                        Recent leadership failures have proven that untrue!  And the Bible says that even

                        Jesus “was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). 

                        The calling of God does not remove human susceptibility to temptation.  Leaders

                        must make a conscious effort to obey the Scripture, “walk in the Spirit and ye

                        shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

PURPOSE:  Leaders must understand the reality of spiritual warfare.  The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12-13:

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

                        EXAMPLE: Timothy (I and II Timothy)

PRINCIPLE:  The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual to the tearing down of strongholds.”  Some things in your path when spiritually discerned are only removed by prayer.