Home » Posts tagged 'ON PROVOCATIONS'
Tag Archives: ON PROVOCATIONS
ON PROVOCATIONS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 30, 2025 – We’re not to respond to provocations like the world responds, we’re to respond like Jesus.
Again – we’re not to respond to provocations like the world responds, we’re to respond like Jesus.
Provocations are tests. When someone offends us, we’re being tested on our response. We shouldn’t respond with anger or with threats of retribution, because “vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay.” If we respond with anger or with threats of retribution, we’ll fail the test. If we fail the test, we’ll have to keep taking it until we get it right.
Our job is not to do God’s job. God has a job to do when people offend his children, and that job is vengeance, God-style. God is very good at his job (in fact, he’s perfect at it), so we don’t need to do his job for him. If we try to help, we’ll just get in the way and make things worse for ourselves.
Vengeance is not our job as children of God. What is our job is what Jesus taught us to do when people offend us – we’re to pray for them (as God gives us guidance) and bless them (as God gives us guidance). Nowhere does Jesus say that we’re to give an eye for an eye or sue the offenders in a court of law. That’s the world’s way, not our way.
How we respond to offences distinguishes us from the world. We can’t respond to offences like the world responds and then call ourselves followers of Jesus. If we respond to offences like the world responds, nothing distinguishes us from unbelievers, not in the spiritual realm, anyway, which is the only realm that matters. We can preach the Gospel until the cows come home, sing sweet sweet melodies to Jesus, and give everything we have to the poor, but if we respond to provocations like the world responds, we fail our test and drop in spiritual rank.
This is not what we want as followers of Jesus.
Provocations are not few and far between; they’re not once-in-a-lifetime or rare events: They’re daily occurrences, sometimes even hourly or minute by minute. At times, one provocation is barely finished before the next comes hard on its heels, giving you no time to regroup or catch your spiritual breath. The closer you grow to God—the closer you follow Jesus—the more and harder the tests, and the faster they come.
We will continue to be tested for the rest of our time here on Earth. We’re to respond to provocations like Jesus showed us, not like the world shows us. That means no lawsuits, no tit-for-tat, no bearing our grievance like a trophy, and no vows of revenge. Given that our every word, thought, and deed is being meticulously recorded in the spiritual realm, we must respond like Jesus responded, like he taught us to respond. For us, with our sights on Heaven, there can be no other way.
ON PROVOCATIONS
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, June 18, 2023 – Our example on how to deal with provocations (also known also as tests or temptations) is always Jesus.
Jesus knew precisely how to respond.
When provoked, he didn’t engage: He instructed. He didn’t invite a response to his instruction, he simply left it there for the recipient to chew on.
And when he wasn’t directly or personally provoked, he ignored the provocation. It wasn’t his business.
Provocations are designed to test your spiritual mettle. God permits provocations because he wants to see who really wants what he’s offering and who’s just saying they want it. He also wants to give us a chance to move up in his Kingdom by giving us a larger share of his Spirit. Many Christians say they want what God’s offering, but most of those fail when put to the test. In other words, they may claim to want what God’s offering, but when provoked show they’re not actually willing to do what’s required.
Jesus was tested on a daily basis. The most famous of these provocations took place in the desert after his 40-day/40-night fast, but Jesus faced tests every day during his ministry years. We read about those in the Gospels. Sometimes he was tested by his sworn enemies, sometimes by his own followers, and sometimes by strangers. In every instance, God permitted the test. When God said that he was “well pleased” with Jesus, he was stating his approval of Jesus’ test results.
Like Jesus, we also are tested on a daily basis. The tests may not look like Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, but they come from the same tempter and are meant to trip us up. Here are some of the standard everyday provocations employed by the devil and permitted by God:
- Temptation to be outraged by something.
- Temptation to break the Commandments.
- Temptation to express tolerance for something you know is wrong.
- Temptation to condemn your enemies rather than to pray for them.
- Temptation to “name and shame” your enemies rather than to pray for them.
- Temptation to protest.
- Temptation to focus on end-times “spiritual porn’.
- Temptation to be sustainedly curious about demons.
- Temptation to complain about your circumstances.
- Temptation to blame others for your circumstances.
- Temptation not to forgive (hardheartedness).
- Temptation to think or speak uncharitably of someone.
- Temptation to put someone or something before God.
- Sexual provocations.
- Financial provocations.
- Temptations to misuse or misallocate resources God has put into your care, including your God-given talents.
Obviously, this list of provocations could go on for pages, and I’m sure that even off the top of your head you could easily rattle off a few dozen more. My point in listing them here is to hammer home the reality that nearly every minute of every day we’re tempted to act in opposition to God. Provocations are not a one-off thing or a rare event but an ongoing process of spiritual refining. This process involves learning, testing, failing, relearning, retesting, etc., a specific spiritual principle (e.g., pray for your enemies) until we get it consistently right and it becomes our default position.
All born-again believers are immersed in the refining process from the instant of their rebirth. We can’t avoid it. In fact, if we genuinely want what God is offering us, we welcome the provocations because when we successfully pass them, we gain a bigger share of God’s Spirit and so move up higher in the Kingdom. A higher position in the Kingdom means moving closer to God. Without successfully passing our tests, we can’t move closer to God.
We should never pray to avoid being tested. The only temptation we should pray to avoid is the one Jesus explicitly told us to pray to avoid, which is the test of the tribulation. We should pray not to have to go through that, but every other test we should patiently accept, knowing it’s for our ultimate benefit.
Provocations are a test of our spiritual mettle that, when successfully passed, bring us closer to God. I don’t know about you, but I want to be as close to God as I can be. So while I’m not foolishly going to say to the devil: “Bring it on!”, I will pray for the strength and guidance to respond like Jesus did to whatever provocations God does permit.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 