We are presently looking at suffering for blessing from prosperity testing. Last time we concluded with the principle that the only way the believer can pass prosperity testing is with spiritual self-esteem because while there is stimulation, there is no true happiness from prosperity apart from spiritual self-esteem.

The cosmic system can offer success, sex, fame, wealth, promotion, social and professional prosperity, but when these are acquired without capacity the result is unhappiness and self induced misery.

Passing the prosperity test consolidates the believer's scale of values, making them consistent with the protocol plan of God, resulting in the stabilization of the right priorities of life, and giving capacity to enjoy prosperity.

Passing this test means that the mature believer receives God's greatest prosperity that is the conveyance of the greater blessings of time and eternity that are contained in their escrow package.

If you are unhappy in the midst of prosperity, it means that you have failed one of these tests. When you have the same happiness in adversity as well as prosperity, it means you have passed the test. Phil 4:11;

If you fail any of these tests, you go backwards. If you pass any of these tests, you go forward and your spiritual growth is accelerated.

The last category of testing that comprises suffering for blessing is evidence testing. Evidence testing is Satan's cross-examination of every witness presented by God in the historical trial of the fallen angels.

During the period of human history on the earth, man's thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions are entered as evidence, exhibits, precedents, and arguments in Satan's appeal trial.

Every believer who attains maturity becomes a testimony, witness or exhibit for the case of the prosecution against Satan. Evidence testing is Satan's cross- examination of those witnesses that are presented by God.

No believer qualifies to be a witness in this category of suffering for blessing until he has attained spiritual maturity and is completely functional and stabilized in the Protocol plan of God.

The protocol plan of God must be distinguished from the predesigned plan of God because protocol is strict adherence to the due order and precedence that are the basis for establishing the right priorities in life that establish a true scale of values that is based on the Word of God. This means that the Protocol Plan of God is the directive will of God.

The protocol plan defines the right thing that is done in the right way for the right reason at the right time. This must be contrasted with the predesigned plan that encompasses the believer's positive and negative volition to the protocol plan.

As we have seen, the three stages of spiritual adulthood (spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity) are the prerequisites for facing and passing the three categories of suffering for blessing, providential preventative suffering, momentum testing, and evidence testing.

Passing evidence testing is the highest category of suffering for blessing and results in the doubling of the believer's escrow blessings.

Every believer who attains spiritual maturity is a witness for the prosecution, either in the formal trial of Old Testament history, in the rebuttal phase of the First Advent and Church Age, or in the closing argument and summary phase of the Second Advent and the Millennium.

To qualify as a witness for the Prosecution and be a witness for God, the believer must execute the following standard operating procedures of the PPOG.

As we have seen, spiritual self-esteem plus providential preventative suffering establishes spiritual autonomy, spiritual autonomy plus momentum testing establishes spiritual maturity and spiritual maturity plus evidence testing results in the glorification of God to the maximum in the historical trial of Satan and all fallen angels.

Evidence testing is Satan's attempt, through the pressure of suffering in his cross-examination to discredit those believers who have attained spiritual maturity.

From the examples given in scripture, it appears that Satan always administers evidence testing, but under specific restrictions that are imposed by God before the evidence testing begins. For example, Satan was progressively limited in what he could do to Job and he was not permitted to kill Job.

Evidence testing tests the believer's the relationship to the plan of God Test as illustrated by our Lord Jesus Christ in Matt 4:1-11; or the believer's relationship to life test as illustrated by Job.

Either category of evidence testing is only administered to the mature believer because only the mature believer has the capacity to be a witness for the prosecution in this category of testing.

There is also no evidence in scripture that the spiritual maturity believer is given more than one evidence test. The one that is given is determined by the sovereignty of God.

The pattern of the relationship with God test is found in the three unique temptations to our Lord Jesus Christ in his unglorified humanity. Remember his Deity could not be tempted.

The three parts are relationship with the Holy Spirit, Matt 4:1-4; relationship with the Word of God, Matt 4:5-7; and relationship with the plan of God, Matt 4:8-10;

In order to pass his evidence testing instead of performing miracles from his Deity our Lord used the recall and application of Bible doctrine.

The recall and application of Bible doctrine is the greatest power the world has ever known; it is far, far greater than God performing a miracle.

When God performs a miracle, it requires only His sovereignty. But when a believer uses their free volition to make correct application of Bible doctrine and advances in the plan of God, that is the greatest power and the highest function that any member of the human race can attain.

Because the first part of relationship with God test involves one's relationship with the Holy Spirit this category of evidence testing belongs only to the Christocentric dispensations that comprise the rebuttal phase of the angelic conflict trial.

There is no relationship with the Holy Spirit on the part of all believers except in the Church Age, the precedence of which was established by our Lord during His First Advent and incarnation in the hypostatic union. Therefore, this category of evidence testing applies only to our Lord in his unglorified humanity and to the royal family of God in the Church Age.

Since Job was an OT believer he was given the relationship to life test. After he had received his escrow blessings, they were all suddenly taken away in the first part of Job's relationship to life test.

The three parts of the relationship with God test are loss of prosperity, Job 1; loss of health, social life, and attractiveness, Job 2:1-10; and the loss of friends and being maligned by them, Job 2:11; - the end of Job.

Job passed the first two parts, failed the third, recovered, and received his blessings back doubled after he passed evidence testing. Job 42:10;

While evidence testing comes suddenly, without any notice or warning, and seems to always occur at a time when least expected since the believer has reached a peak in the spiritual life, it is completely and totally undeserved suffering.

While being very severe it never puts on the believer more suffering than can be handled with the appropriate application of Bible doctrine. Only the negative believer functioning under the punitive law of volitional responsibility piles on himself more than he can bear.

Scriptures that describe evidence testing are in Job 1:6-12; Job 2:1-7; and Zech 3:1-2;

In Zech 3:1-2; Joshua, the high priest, had attained spiritual maturity and was entered as a witness for the prosecution and cross-examined by Satan. "Then He showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord (Jesus Christ), and Satan, standing at his right hand to accuse him.

v2 And the Lord (Jesus Christ) said to Satan, `The Lord (God the Father) rebuke you.'"

God has provided solutions for suffering but there are two non-solutions that stand out in the post-Canon period of the Church Age.