 Spiritual tests, just like any other test, has to be taken again if you don't pass it. For all the journeys that you've taken, for all of the progress that you've made, you will be finally tested in one area before the Lord will promote you. Many of you have listened to this series and have noted where you are spiritually. Some of you have passed the test of blessings or the test of jealousy or the test of discouragement. But the most difficult test to pass is the simplest. It is simply the test of faith. Someone right now watching this is on the verge of that promotion, is on the verge of that next level of influence, but you have to pass the test of faith. And in order to pass the test of faith, you have to take a step of faith. That's what I'm talking about on this edition of Spirit Church here on EncounterTV. But first, Stephen Maktezuma is here with me as usual. He's going to lead you in some anointed worship and then we're going to get right into this lesson here is Stephen Maktezuma. So before I talk to you about the test of faith, let me recap the different tests that I've talked to you about throughout this series. Number one, there is the test of service. God wants to see if you will serve before he can trust you to lead. Then there is the test of hiddenness. Before God promotes you, he will hide you. Before God exposes you, he will keep you in the secret place. This is the place where your motives are tested. If you can serve God in the season of hiddenness, you can serve Him in the season of influence. Third, there is the test of discouragement. Do you continue despite heartache and sacrifice and hardship that comes your way? Number four, the test of faithfulness. Not just are you consistent, but are you consistent with excellence? Number five is the test of blessings. What do you do with that which God has given you as a blessing? Can you give back to God what He's placed in your hand? And number six, the test of jealousy. Do you celebrate the success of other ministries like yours or other believers who receive blessings that you're praying for? Or do you become bitter? Do you become entitled? Do you compete instead of compliment? Number six is the test of jealousy. And now I want to talk to you about the test of faith. Let's go now to Genesis chapter 41, verse one says, two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. In his dream, he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. Then he saw seven more cows come up behind them from the Nile. But these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy fat cows. At this point in the dream, Pharaoh woke up. But he fell asleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw seven heads of grain plump and beautiful growing on a single stock. Then seven more heads of grain appeared. But these were shriveled and withered by the east wind. And these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well formed heads. Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was a dream. The next morning, Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant. Verse nine. And remember, last week we talked about the test of jealousy. The cup bearer was supposed to remember Joseph. And the cup bearer received that for which Joseph was believing. And Joseph did not allow himself to become bitter in that moment. Instead, he still held on to the dream that God had given him. Because verse nine says, finally, the king's chief cup bearer spoke up. Today I have been reminded of my failure, he told Pharaoh. Some time ago you were angry with the chief baker and me. And you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. One night the chief baker and I each had a dream. And each dream had its own meaning. There was a young Hebrew man with us in prison, who was a slave of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he told us what each of our dreams meant. So every test that Joseph had passed had led him now to this moment, where he was being mentioned to the most powerful man in all of Egypt, to Pharaoh himself. Now, all of the tests that we take in our journey, though they may not be chronological, as I have mentioned them throughout this series, will try us in our character, in our spiritual strength and in our motives. But Joseph had passed all of these tests and he held on to the dream that God had placed in his heart. And now it was time for him to take a step of faith, all of the testing that you go through, all of the trials that you face, all of the circumstances that bring with them hardships lead you to a moment where faith must be our choice. And when faith is chosen over fear and doubt and apathy and comfort, then God pours out his blessing and there is promotion that comes. Now, this is what's so powerful. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream. In verse number 25, the scripture says, Joseph responded, both of Pharaoh's dreams mean the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. The seven healthy cows and the seven healthy heads of grain both represent seven years of prosperity. The seven thin scrawny cows that came up later and the seven thin heads of grain that were withered or withered by the East wind represent seven years of famine. This will happen just as I have described it. For God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. Verse 29 says, the next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward, there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt, famine will destroy the land. The famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased. Continuing out of verse 32, as we're having two similar dreams, it means that these events have been decreed by God and he will soon make them happen. Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. Have them gather all the food produced in the good years that are just ahead and bring it to Pharaoh's storehouses. Store it away and guard it so there will be food in the cities. That way, there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come to the land of Egypt. Otherwise, this famine will destroy the land. Well, we know many of us do the story that Pharaoh then appoints Joseph as that intelligent man that Joseph described as a necessity to what needed to be done. Joseph had interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh. He predicted the future by the power of God and then he was positioned in power, second in command only to Pharaoh. The dream came true. The brothers would later come and bow, not even realizing it was their brother, asking for mercy, asking for food. But this is such a powerful truth here that many people overlook. We know the story. Joseph goes on to rule. They store the food. There's prosperity. God's people are blessed through Joseph. But what I really want to focus in on here is the fact that Joseph stood before Pharaoh and took that step of faith in interpreting that dream. If he had got that dream wrong, it's quite possible that he would have been killed. Yet he stood before Pharaoh in faith and took that step. Let me tell you something. The thing about taking a step of faith is nothing in the natural will tell you that it's a good idea. Nothing about your circumstances or present reality seem to align with what God often will ask you to do. But if where you are doesn't require faith, then you're not in the will of God. And if you feel stuck and frustrated and tired of exhausting yourself through your own effort, then maybe it's time for a step of faith. Maybe it's time to do something that will fail if God does not intervene. Maybe it's time to do something that when accomplished cannot be explained outside of the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to do things that, so to speak, put God on the spot. Now I'm not saying that God is reluctant in working with us according to his will. I'm simply saying that we have to throw ourselves in full trust on what he has promised and we know he has declared to come to pass. Is it time maybe that you step out in faith? Stop asking God, have you called me. Stop asking God, have you given me that gift. Stop analyzing and overthinking and trying to understand every little thing before you step out. Instead, pass this test of faith and step out and do something for God. I mean my goodness, perhaps you've passed all of these other tests that I've described and as someone who is called by God, you must at some point step out in faith. There are things that I've done in the ministry that would have failed if it were not for the grace of God and he knew I stepped out in faith on him. I'll tell you just a couple examples. Many of you know in test number five when I talked about the test of blessings, I gave you a little bit of an inside story about how I gave away camber equipment and believe God for greater. But not a lot of people realize that there's more to that story than I told. You see, it started with a $250 camera and it was a camera that probably you wouldn't even use today. In fact, what you have on your phone now is better than the camera that I started with and I made videos, ministry videos with that that I would be too embarrassed to show any of you today and I probably wouldn't even show anybody here at our ministry. They were, my hosting wasn't that good. My teaching was, it was, let's just say it wasn't ready for YouTube and the camera quality itself just wasn't there. We didn't even have an actual TV set. I filmed them in my bedroom. But we were faithful to use what God had given us. I stepped out in faith and used that camera, not fearing, well maybe I'm not called to do this, well maybe God hasn't called me to the healing ministry, maybe God hasn't called me to preach the healing power of God and pray for the sick and minister the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe God has called someone else. No, what I did is I boldly stepped out on what I believe to be the will of God. And then with that $250 camera, we were given a $2,500 camera. So we multiplied by ten, the amount that it took to get the next camera. Somebody gave that to me. Now that was my youth pastor that gave me that first camera. And what I did with that is the Lord had me sew that first camera into another ministry. And I said, Lord, I can't let this go. I'm making, I'm making videos with this, good videos with this. And so I didn't wrestle with the Lord. I was trying to see if it was the Lord. And finally, I said, I'm going to step out in faith and I'm going to sew that camera. And I still remember I went to lunch with the evangelist and I put the bag on the table. I said, God told me to give that to you. Now I want you to remember this part. I gave it to him in this black leather bag. And I remember it was a Sony VX2100. And back at that time it was a really good camera. And so I put it inside of this black bag and I gave it to him. And that camera really was quality for the time. So fast forward now we get a donation from a gentleman who comes up to me and says, tells me, confesses to me, says, I didn't even like you. In other words, he's still at that point didn't even really know how he felt about me. But he felt the Lord tell him to give me $14,000 in cash. With that $14,000 in cash, we bought camera equipment that brought us to the next level where we were able to get onto local television. So we're now on television. We're producing programs that's not national yet. But the Lord puts it in my heart and he says, this isn't all I have for you. It's time to go to the next level. I want you to reach the nations because you know a big part of the healing ministry that we have, the evangelistic healing ministry, is television. Because we want to show people the miracles. We want to show them the power of God. We want to show them what God can do. And I think it's about time that our nation sees the power of God. And so at that time I said, okay Lord, but we're on cable. How do we get to the next level? The Lord told me, give away all the camera equipment you have. I said, Lord, if I give this all the way we have nothing to produce with anymore. We're done. The Lord obviously pressed more. He doesn't change his mind on things like that. So I said, okay Lord, I gave away each camera to individuals, different ministries. This is the second time I did this now and this time with many more cameras. There's about three cameras I think and there were sound boards we gave away, there were microphones we gave away, lighting packs we gave away, video mixers you name it we gave it away. And so it was around this time that we're now believing God for a studio which is next level is a whole different thing. So I said, Lord, I jumped. Now please make sure there's some ground I can land on because I had given it up not having what was next. Now here's how the Lord works. This is what's so funny is the next camera we were looking at getting was called the Canon XF305 and this was high definition it's actually what we're using now. We have Canon XF305 some in here I think we have some back there but these are the cameras that we use. Right now many of you know we're believing for the next television studio which will reach even further than we are now. But still the Lord told me to give those to give the cameras away before and I said, okay we're believing for these Canon XF305s. The Lord blesses us to where a gentleman comes in and not only did we raise the about the first half or the first third of the it was about sixty to a hundred thousand that we needed. I don't remember exactly what went into the studio versus what went into construction and all that. It was about sixty to a hundred thousand dollars that we needed. The first third comes in through fundraising. The second two thirds came in by faith because one gentleman calls in and he says he asked me this he says how big is your faith? This is what he asked me right after I gave away all my camera equipment. I said my faith is big. He said then tell me what I'm about to tell you right now. I said you're about to tell me that you're going to give us the rest of the money that's needed for this camera equipment. And he confirmed he says I'm about to give you the rest of the money. So he gives us the rest of the finances we bought Canon XF305s and that evangelist that I originally gave the camera to comes in and gives us another one to add to the ones that we have and he gave it to me inside of the black bag that I had originally give him my camera in. This is how the Lord works. He'll ask you to take a step of faith and not only will he give you more than what you expected, not only will he give you more on the other side of your obedience, he'll also return to you all the little things that you left behind. There's nothing you can give up for the gospel that God won't ultimately return to you. So here's my challenge now to you. Time to take a step of faith. It's time to stop playing it safe. It's time to stop weighing and wondering and analyzing and assessing. This is the time of faith. Now, now is the time to take action. Now is the time to move forward. Now is the time to step into everything that God has ordained to give to you. If we have not faith, it may as well be that God never promised a thing because only by faith can we receive the promises of God. Only by faith can we lay claim to everything that God wants to give to us. So I want you now to think, what is that next step for you? Maybe you feel like you hit a wall. Time to take a step of faith. Nothing will shake you out of a frustrating obstruction like faith. Faith has the power to move you from that which binds you. But you got to take a step of faith. You got to start doing something. And so I want to challenge you now. What is God asking you to do for your ministry, for your business, for your family, for your life? What is he asking you to do? Don't delay any longer. Do it today. That which God has asked you to do. Don't delay because delay is disobedience. Instead pass this test, choose faith, and see a breakthrough like never before. I want to pray with you now that God would give you the courage to take that step of faith. We're ending the series now on the call of God. I'll talk about the call of God in the future. You know me for teaching on the Holy Spirit and prayer and healing. But I also need to touch on these issues. And the call of God is something that will never leave you. Only you can leave the call of God. The call of God will never leave you. So let's pray right now that God will give you the courage. Come on, stretch your hands toward mine and faith. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for that one receiving this prayer. And I ask, Lord, that you would strengthen them. Encourage them. Annoint them, Father. Lord, we don't even have the strength to seek you. We don't even have the strength on our own to obey you. So Holy Spirit, give us the strength to obey. You're the spirit of faith. So stir our hearts and let our faith go soaring. Let our faith go soaring to expect and believe for that which is out of our reach. And I pray, Lord, you do it for the glory of your own name's sake. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray. There's someone watching me right now. You feel God's call to start. I think it's a Bible study. And you've been wrestling with it back and forth. It's time to start that Bible study. It's time to start that church. God is going to use you. Come on, let's seal this. In Jesus' name, touch each one I pray for your glory's sake. In Jesus' name, we pray. I want you to say, because you agree to say it, amen. Well, that is it for the lesson. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you and we are praying for you. I always say that because you know I always mean it. Now, if you like information on how you can join Spirit Church, I affectionately refer to you as the spirit family, then go ahead and use the information at the bottom of the screen. Now, here's what you get when you become a member of the spirit family. You get a fresh, brand-new revelation every single Sunday sent to your inbox and you can reply to that email for prayer support. It's 100% free. You don't have to pay anything to be a part of it, but we do ask that those of you who consider Spirit Church to be your church, to obviously support it financially through your ties and offering. And even if Spirit Church is not your church, consider becoming a partner with David Hernandez Ministries to help us continue to keep this content free. You notice on this channel, we don't run ads on some of the older videos we do, but those are the older ones. We don't, we change the model. We don't run ads. We don't, we don't charge for the videos. This is to keep the content free. Support it today. Help us keep discipling believers all around the world. So, be sure to join the spirit family. I want to also now read your comments and this is from the last week's video, seven trials of the called and the test was jealousy. So, I'm going to read your comments now. From that video, the first commenter writes, I felt the Holy Spirit moving while you were sharing this, Brother David. It made me reevaluate myself. It reminded me about how important it is to remain humble and to be able to celebrate and praise God for the success of others, giving glory to our Lord alone. Thank you and God bless you. Well, many people do sense the anointing of the Holy Spirit while watching this content. I'm telling you that's one of the things that makes this ministry unique is that people can fill the presence and power of the Holy Spirit just through the content alone. Imagine what you would sense at an event which we encourage people to come to the events and you can see about those on our website or our app. Terry writes, as I pour my vulnerability before God in repentance, all I want is to pass this test. I want to experience the beauty of a pure heart as I walk through this test and pass it. So shall it be. Well, the Lord hears the brokenhearted and he especially draws close and gives grace to those who humble themselves. It's a powerful prayer you prayed. Josh writes, I love Jesus. What a blessing this ministry is. Well, you're a blessing too. We love you. Thank you for watching. Tabby Charles writes, Well, thank you so much for this message, brother David. I've been speaking to some people just last week about how much I'm discerning the spirit of jealousy and competition in the body of Christ. May the Lord help us to be able to pass this test. God bless you so much. May God help us indeed, especially in my generation. I'm telling you, there's a lot of ambition and ego that we need to make sure that's crucified. And finally, Claudie Andreson writes, I was watching Prayer for Healing by David Digger Hernandez. And while I was praying, I felt like my hands were on fire. I believe that the Lord has healed me. I'm really thankful for this. May the Lord bless Encounter TV for many years because it helped me with my healing even here in Belgium. I was just in Belgium. I was there for a little bit. We were there for not too long, but we stopped there. And you know, I'm so excited to see these lives impacted all around the world. And really, this is why we do what we do. Look, all of us are given just a small sliver of opportunity, really. Our lives are nothing but vapors. They go by like that. I want to make sure that I make the maximum impact possible with my life that I possibly... I want to stand before God and tell him, Lord, I did everything I possibly could do to glorify the name of Jesus, to spread the gospel, and to see souls saved. I want to tell him I gave my all to the kingdom. And I know you want to tell him the same thing because I want to see lives like this transform. But we only have this small opportunity. We only have one life to live. We only have so much time to give. And with that time we are given, we must use it to glorify Jesus and win the lost. Now, I want to talk to you about something. Don't turn this video off. I want you to hear my heart on this. This is really my heart I'm sharing. I want to win more souls. I want to reach more people. I want to impact more lives. This generation needs a refocusing. There's a lot of preaching on encouragement and self-help. All that good stuff. There's nothing wrong in and of itself in that, okay? But we need to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we are focusing, there needs to be a refocusing, a reemphasis on the person of the Holy Spirit. And if you believe that, then I want you to stand with me. If you are all for the spreading of the gospel, I need you to stand with me. Several months ago, we began a ministry campaign where we sought to raise the support of one thousand new thirty dollar a month supporters. These are not people, not a thousand people giving thirty dollars. I'm talking about a thousand people signing up and saying I'm going to become a thirty dollar a month supporter. And we needed a thousand of them in order to get to the next phase of ministry. That's what we needed. Here's where we are now. I can just see it. We're so close. Look at how close we are. And I'm going to thank you for those of you who are partnered with me. Listen, don't stop partnering. Don't stop your giving. Don't say, well, I've given for a couple months I'm done now. Because then we have to take that number off and we fall a little bit more behind. We need you to stay with us. Those of you who are partners, thank you and stick with me. Those of you who are not, what are you waiting for? Let's do this. Let me tell you what we're going to do with that support. We're going to get a new ministry center. You're wondering what do you need a new ministry center for? I'm telling you, we need it to reach more souls. It's just that simple. We want to build the new ministry center where we can do more programs. Here we're a little bit limited on the times we can use it because of traffic in the area and things like that. We're limited on how many people we can bring in here. We're limited on office space with how many people can work here at a time. Our staff is growing. Our team is growing. Our ministry is expanding. Now is the time. We need you. The next facility is going to house all our workers in one place. One studio. We're going to have multiple sets that we want to build so that we can produce more programs more often and in higher quality. We're going to reach more people through internet television and it's just going to be awesome. I even want to begin doing live broadcast from the studio and I want to accommodate a studio audience so you and I can have church service in the studio every single week. I know you'll enjoy that and love that. The second leg of this expansion is we want to do more events more often in more places. I want to come to places like South Africa and Indonesia and India and Australia. I want to go back to England. I want to go to Holland. I want to go all of the places that are inviting us to go but we need support to do that. So here's what I need from you. Become a $30 a month supporter today. Sign up now. Don't wait. There's nothing to wait for. We need you now. Help us do this. Look you're going to see a day where stadiums are being filled in. I've been saying this for years now. You're going to see a day where stadiums are going to be full. I believe that in the United States we can see stadiums packed again. I've been saying this I mean years my team knows it. I've been saying it since I was probably 11 12 years old 28 now and I still see it. God showed me the vision and I know what I see is from the Lord and you get to say I was there at the very beginning. Look this ministry is just getting started. We're going to expand bigger than ever before and we're going to win more people than ever before. And to Jesus belongs all the glory but you can be a part of it. So step out in faith. This could be the faith step that God is calling you to take. You want someone to support your work your ministry what you're doing your business. Why don't you support someone else's and what you do for someone else God will make happen for you. I feel that's a word for somebody but you got to step out in faith. Don't say Lord bless me and I'll give. Step out in faith and say Lord I'll give and I'll trust that you'll bless me. So partner with me today when you sign up I'm going to send you a copy of either Carriers of the Glory or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare. One of those gifts will be yours. I'll sign it send it to you as my thank you. If you're watching this on YouTube wait until the very end of the video there's going to be a red button that appears you can click that button it'll take you right to where you can support. Now if you're watching this on the app wait for the video to end the video will disappear and a button will appear. It'll say partner with David. Watching this anywhere else use the information at the bottom of the screen. Partner today do it right after this video is done don't wait on it and in just a couple weeks I'm going to be making a very special announcement regarding a new book that I have written and I know you're going to love it I'll give you one hint. It's the most detailed teaching I've ever done on the person of the Holy Spirit. Well that's it for this edition of Spirit Church until next time remember nothing is impossible with God. Thank you for watching Encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe. Also help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.