The Proving of Your Faith
Part 3 of The Lord Is in the Whirlwind and the Storm: Part 1 — As Seen in the Nations · Part 2 — As Seen in the Church · Part 3 — As Seen in Believers
The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.
Nahum 1:3That the proof of your faith being more precious than gold that perisheth, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:7We tend to think that if the Lord is present, everything will be clear, shining, everything will be full of sunshine. We don't imagine that the Lord would be in a whirlwind or tornado. What a thing for the Lord to be in. So destructive, so powerful. In a single moment of time, it can blow away whole places.
"That He could be in it — that's very hard for us to believe."
That He might come up behind the storm is what we could accept. That He might even go before it we could accept. But that He could be in it — that's very hard for us to believe.
Think It Not Strange
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you.
1 Peter 4:12Beloved, think it not strange. We should thank God we're not all the time in trial. But we should expect times when the Lord comes like a tornado. We should expect times when the Lord comes as a storm. Because it is in those times that the Lord proves whether what we believe up here is really in our heart.
You know, we can all say we believe the word of God, which I believe we do. But it's only when the trial comes that we hardly know where we are or what we're doing. And then the Holy Spirit takes some scripture and immediately that becomes yours. You know, you've known that scripture all your life, some of you from Sunday school upwards. And it's wonderful. It's God's word. You believe it, but it's not yours. But in that moment when the storm hits you, you discover the Lord has His way in it. And you don't know where to turn. You are in distress, you're afflicted. But then into your heart the Holy Spirit breathes a word, you know. And in that moment, that word becomes yours.
Acts vs. Ways: Many Christians know the acts of the Lord — the dramatic miracles that encourage faith. Few understand the ways of the Lord — the deeper dimension of how He works through trials to produce spiritual character that is eternally real.
When the Word Becomes Yours
I remember years ago, when I was convalescing in Lady Daisy Ogle's home, her beautiful home in Kent overlooking the Ashwood Forest. I saw this magnificent room and furniture. And then I saw this little plain wooden plaque on the wall. And it said, "My peace I give to you." And I thought, well, that's pretty trite. I thought to myself — I didn't say it to her — I think she could have found a deeper word to put on the wall.
A bit later we were talking, and I said, "Why have you put that little plain piece of wood up there on the wall?" "Oh," she said, "I was in terrible distress years ago. Something had come into my life. It blew everything to pieces. And I just didn't know where the Lord was. I didn't know where I was. And then in the midst of this distress that went on for quite a few days, suddenly one day the Holy Spirit breathed into my heart, 'Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.'"
And she said, "In a single flash, I understood: the peace He left with me is the peace of sin forgiven, which He never knew. That's why He didn't call it My peace. He never sinned. 'Peace I leave with you' — it's your birthright because He has died in your place. But when He said, 'My peace I give to you,' it was the peace He had in Gethsemane when He said, 'Not as I will, but as You will.' It was the peace He had on the cross when He said, 'Father, into Your hand I commend My spirit.'"
You know, it transformed her. And I felt so dreadful. I thought, oh, I'm so thankful I never said anything. You see, it was trite to me because I had never seen. It was just the kind of thing I saw in Christian homes. But for her, it wasn't just a little scriptural saying plonked on the wall. It meant something. Actually, it was Amy Carmichael who herself had painted the words on the wood, for she was great friends of Lady Daisy Ogle.
So you see what happens when it becomes yours. This fiery trial — don't think it's strange. The Lord is proving something. He is proving what there really is of Himself in you. How much is just up here and how much is here? It's the way the Lord brings us to a place where He means something to us, where He can produce in us spiritual character, of which there is a famine.
The Acts of the Lord and the Ways of the Lord
We can run around being excited about miracles, and I have seen so many of all kinds. They are the acts of the Lord. But the ways of the Lord — that's something in a different dimension. You can see the acts of the Lord and you can marvel and be excited about them. They're dramatic, they're sensational, they sort of encourage your faith. But the ways of the Lord — that is something altogether different. Many, many Christians know the acts of the Lord. Few understand the ways of the Lord.
"Many, many Christians know the acts of the Lord. Few understand the ways of the Lord."
More Precious Than Gold
The proving of your faith. The Lord never puts you into a storm if He knows there is not living faith there. In other words, if your faith is so weak, He will not put you into the storm. He will wait till at least you've grown a little more.
It is very, very interesting, this thing, the proving of your faith. The Lord is not sort of putting you into a storm so that you're blown to pieces. He puts you into a storm to blow away what is not of Himself. Second-hand Christianity, third-hand Christianity, fourth-hand Christianity — it's deadly. The Lord is only interested in original Christianity.
In other words, He is only interested in what has been produced in your life by His Spirit. Everything else, the storm will blow away. Whirlwind and storm. The wonderful thing is that if there is somewhere in your life that is the work of the Spirit of God, that kind of faith will survive. The Lord has proved it. He's actually proved it in the storm. You've lost everything else, but not what is truly of Himself. Now the Lord's got you where you ought to have been from the beginning. He's now got you on a basis of reality. He is now the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
"He puts you into a storm to blow away what is not of Himself."
The Purpose of the Storm: God does not send the whirlwind to destroy you — He sends it to blow away what is not of Himself. Second-hand Christianity, self-manufactured faith, academic belief: all of it goes. What remains is what He produced in you by His Spirit, and that is more precious than gold.
The end of the storm is that you have something more valuable, more pure than gold. Very simple. It's come through the storm.
This is an excerpt from Part 3 of The Lord Is in the Whirlwind and the Storm. The full message covers Peter's denial and restoration, the two storms on the Sea of Galilee, and the critical difference between having the Lord stop your storm and learning to walk through it with Him.
Read the full message: Part 3 — As Seen in Believers →Lady Daisy Ogle
A British noblewoman in whose beautiful home in Kent, overlooking Ashwood Forest, Lance Lambert convalesced. She was a close friend of Amy Carmichael, who had personally painted the scripture plaque — "My peace I give to you" — that hung in her drawing room. The plaque held a deep personal history: during a period of severe distress, the Holy Spirit had made those very words a living reality to her, revealing the distinction between the peace Christ left for us and the peace He Himself carried through Gethsemane and the cross.
Amy Carmichael (1867–1951)
Irish Christian missionary to India who founded the Dohnavur Fellowship and spent 55 years on the mission field without furlough, rescuing children from temple prostitution. A prolific writer of devotional books and poetry, she was a close friend of Lady Daisy Ogle and had personally hand-painted the scripture plaque at the heart of this teaching's most memorable story. Her life exemplified the very theme Lance Lambert explores here: spiritual character forged not through ease, but through suffering and surrender.
What is the difference between the "trial" and the "proving" of faith?
A "trial" suggests testing whether something exists — is faith present or not? But "proving" assumes the faith is already there and demonstrates its reality. When God sends storms, He is not checking whether you have faith; He already knows you do. He is proving and refining that faith, burning away what is second-hand or self-manufactured Christianity and leaving only what is genuinely of His Spirit. The end result is faith more precious than gold.
What is the difference between the acts of the Lord and the ways of the Lord?
The acts of the Lord are dramatic miracles — sensational answers to prayer that encourage faith and are wonderful to experience. The ways of the Lord are something in a different dimension: understanding how God works through trials, darkness, and apparent confusion to produce deep spiritual character. Many Christians know the acts of the Lord. Very few come to understand His ways — and His ways are only learned in the whirlwind and the storm.
Why does God allow storms if He loves His people?
God does not send storms to destroy you — He sends them to blow away what is not of Himself. Everything self-manufactured, merely academic, or second-hand in our Christianity must go. The storm is not punishment; it is purification. When it is over, you have something that could not have been obtained any other way: a knowledge of the Lord that is absolutely real, absolutely direct, and eternally yours.
How does God's word become personally real to us?
You can know a scripture all your life, believe it, and yet it is not truly yours. But when the storm hits you and you don't know where to turn, the Holy Spirit breathes that word into your heart — and in that moment it becomes yours. Not just truth in the book, but yours: it has become flesh and blood. As Lance Lambert observed, this never happens through sunshine. It always comes through the whirlwind and the storm.
About the Author
Lance Lambert was one of the most distinguished Bible scholars and speakers in Israel in our day. He had an itinerant teaching ministry worldwide.
Born in 1931, Lance grew up in Richmond, Surrey and came to know the Lord at twelve years of age. In the early 1950s he served in the Royal Air Force in Egypt and later fellowshipped at Halford House Christian Fellowship in Richmond, England.
Later in life, Lance discovered his Jewish ancestry — his father and many members of his family had died in the Holocaust. This led him to become an Israeli citizen in 1980, making his home next to the Old City of Jerusalem.
Lance became noted for his eschatological views, which placed him in the tradition of Watchman Nee and T. Austin-Sparks. From his base in Israel he produced the widely appreciated quarterly Middle East Update and wrote numerous books.