Jn.14:1-3, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
1 Pet.1:6, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
The Psalms speak of God setting our feet in a large place. I believe that word is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. When it says in John 14 that Jesus has made “a place for us” I don’t believe that’s about heaven at all; instead I believe he’s talking about making a place for us “In Christ.” If you’re a believer your feet spiritually have already been set in the large room called “the fullness of Christ;” and Christian growth is simply our continual discovery, and entering into experientially, that large place that we’ve already been set in “in Christ.” Every advance in discovering and entering into a fresh realm of the fullness of Christ requires a fresh measure of faith, and I believe that the trials that God allows us to go through are Godw way of letting us see where we are at in faith, so that we can cultivate a more mature level of faith that can steward better a largeervexperience of that large room that we already in, in Christ. When a good teacher gives a test to one of their children it is not to expose their failure to humiliate them, but it is simply so that they can evaluate, and the student can see how far they’ve come in understanding what they’ve been taught. I believe our Heavenly Father is the same way. With a heart to see us enjoy all that we are in Christ, he gives us tests, or at least allows us to be tested, so that we can evaluate where we are in faith; again, not to condemn us, but so that we can see what we need to repent of and what we need to grow in and embrace in the maturing of our faith, so that he can bring us in to a larger experience. Therefore, what I’ve noticed that whatever I’m walking out in my experience in Christ, before I can move into a larger experience, there’s usually a narrowing of my path. What I mean is He will use a test or trial to restrict me as if creating a narrow path in which I can grow, so that I can move along that narrowed path towards the larger experience that he has now prepared for me in Christ. The testing always represents to me that I’m being narrowed into a path that forces me to be prepared for an enlargement. The testing means increase is on the way if I will learn what he’s trying to teach me in the testing, so that my faith will be prepared for bigger things. In light of that fact, I can understand what Peter says when he says that we are to rejoice in the various trials that we go through, because they are necessary for the approving of our faith, so that we can move from one place of glory that we’ve experienced, to the next place of glory, forever being transformed continually into his image.