Rms. 8: 15 - 18 (amp) For (the Spirit which) you have now received (is) not a spirit of slavery to put you once more into bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption (the Spirit producing Sonship) in (the bliss of] which we cry, Abba [Father)! Father! (16) The Spirit Himself (thus) testifies together with our own spirit, (assuring us) that we are children of God. (17) And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him); only we must share his sufferings if we are to share His Glory. (18) (But what of that?) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are not worthy being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us!
This subject is going to be on those dreaded words that are continually, and I know are intentionally avoided in the church, suffering for Christ's sake. But as you can clearly read, I don't think you can understand it differently, if we are going to share His Glory, we have to be prepared to share His suffering. Notice I said be prepared for I don’t know what lot in life God has called you to, could be suffering, could be blessing. He makes the call. Phil. 4: 7 & 1 Cor. 7: 17. God will always give at least two sides to everything in His Kingdom. Giving us the grace to choose makes Him God. Some are called to suffering. This is clear. Some seem to have more than their share of suffering while others never seem to suffer. God has a very good reason for this. As all will be separated.
Because as we each have a different path to the cross and all paths lead to the cross, we can't all be on the same narrow path at the same time. There is only enough room for you and Jesus on the path. You can't bring your spouse, children, or Pastor. One thing we can be sure of, the path is very narrow but it is well lit by Jesus. Each of The Apostles had a different path, Jesus didn't want them to rely on anyone but Him. And it is the same for us today. Phil. 3: 10 & 11 (amp) says ~ For my determined purpose is (that I may know Him] that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and clearly), and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection (which it exerts over believers), and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even) to His death, (in the hope) (11) that if possible I may attain to the (spiritual and moral) resurrection (that lifts me) out from among the dead (even while in the body). 2 Cor.4: 10 & 11 (amp) says ~ Always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that the (resurrection) life of Jesus also may be shown forth by and in our bodies. (11) For we who live are constantly (experiencing) being handed over to death for Jesus's sake, that the (resurrection) life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh, which is liable to death.
As I said, this subject is rarely, if ever taught or even talked about. I know being willing to suffer for Jesus's sake is a vital aspect of our walk with Him because His Word says it is. Paul understood this principle completely, you only have to read all of his letters to the churches. Not once did he ever indicate in any way, that suffering for the sake of The Kingdom was unnecessary. It is avoided and in fact even taught contradictory to The Word especially in the cults that teach prosperity and health for all.
As it's not intention to bruise or offend, sometimes it can't be helped when a whelp needs weaning off of the milk. At the right time, that's all that will do for this person. Weening is very traumatic for the ones who want to stay on the bottle. I declare this subject of Suffering for Chist's Sake to be the T-Bone and Prime Rib of God's Word. You will have to have a full set of Spiritual teeth to cut it. I also equate this subject to what I refer to as the Abrahamic principle. When Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac, can you imagine the amount of suffering he was asked to endure? Do you think you could be obedient if God spoke to you and asked you to lay your only begotten son on the altar? He wasn’t sure what or how our Lord would handle this command, all that was on his mind was The Promise. Gen.17: 1 - 6 (amp) ~ When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, and complete). (2) And I will make My covenant (solemn pledge) between Me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. (3) Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, (4) as for Me, behold, My covenant (solemn pledge) is for you, and you shall be the father of many nations. We all know how the rest of this went, but remember when Abraham left for Mt. Moriah with Isaac, he told his servants, that he and the young man will go yonder and worship, and will come again to you. Because of Abraham’s faith and trust in God's promise, he was able to return back with Isaac.
The point here is Abraham didn’t have to physically sacrifice his son, but he actually did spiritually. God always had faith in Abraham, it was for Abraham to realize this fact. If we as disciples are to be totally sold out to Jesus, we are going to be asked by God to trust Him when all reason says otherwise. We will be asked to believe no matter what our natural senses tell us, Faith will overide all. We are headed into perilous times people, and our Father didn’t provide Faith for us as a pastime or just some religious word.
I submit we have to conduct ourselves in the same manner with our God. If you truly desire to be Christ's disciple, we're going to have to be willing to lay whatever it is that we are venerating above our Father on the altar. This is a spiritual sacrifice. God no longer requires our physical sacrifices. In fact nothing in God's Kingdom pertains to the physical since Jesus has come, all is spiritual. Matt. 9: 13 and Hos. 6: 6. For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings. Psalm 51:17 says ~ My sacrifice (the sacrifice acceptable) to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart (broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent), such, O God, You will not despise. Heb. 13: 15 & 16 (amp) says ~ Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of our lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name. (16) Do not forget or neglect to do kindness and good, to be generous and distribute and contribute to the needy (of the church as embodiment and proof of fellowship), for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
One of the things I learned when I was wrestling with God over this, trying to lean on all the past church teaching, that there is no way my Father would want this precious body of mine to go through any discomfort or be uncomfortable in any way. I mean aren’t we supposed to never be ill, never suffer lack, never be in grief, and if any of this was or did happen, "Well, Brother, you must be doing something wrong", or "Have you tried fasting Brother" or "You must have some unconfessed sin". I have to say this again, I am not poking fun at or criticizing these loving well meaning brothers and sisters, as I have said before, they have been misled. Please understand brethren, we don't live in The Garden of Eden.
Paul understood this principle perfectly in Col.1: 24 (amp) ~ (Even) now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf. And in my own person I am still making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed (on our part) of Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the church. How can this be more plain? This verse clearly says that there is some suffering yet to have to be experienced, by the Body of Christ. There is only one Body that can finish this job brothers and sisters. 2 Cor. 4: 7 - 11 (kjv) ~ But we have this treasure (the Gospel) in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (8) We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; (10) Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (11) For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
All of Christ's Body has to be willing to partake of the Bread of Adversity and drink the Water of Affliction. Isaiah 30: 19 - 23 (amp) ~ O people who dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. (20) And though the Lord gives you the Bread of Adversity and the Water of Affliction yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more, but your eyes will constantly behold your Teacher. (21) And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it", when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. (22) Then you will defile your carved images overlaid with silver and your molten images plated with gold; you will cast them away as a filthy blood-stained cloth, and you will say to them, Be gone! (23) Then will He give you rain for the seed with which you sow the soil, and bread grain from the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in large pastures.
Our Father starts off in Isaiah 30: 1 & 2 with declaring, Woe to His rebellious children, who have, as usual, decided to have their own will instead of His. They have decided that they had need of nothing else, as they were physically prosperous, they decided, that is all that mattered. Sounds kind of like the church today. Verse 9 & 10; ~ For this is a rebellious people, faithless and lying sons, children who will not hear the law and instruction of the Lord; (10) who (virtually) say to the seers (by their conduct), See not! and to the prophets, Prophesy not to us what is right! Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceitful illusions. 2 Tim.4: 1 - 5 (amp) I charge (you) in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His Kingdom: (2) Herald and preach The Word! Keep your sense of urgency (stand by, be at hand and ready), whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. (Whether it is convienient or inconvienient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as a preacher of The Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.) And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexaustable in patience and teaching. (3) For the time is coming when (people) will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching (for something pleasing and gratifying), they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, and will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man made fictions.
In other words, you who know the Truth of God's Word, it is your Christ like duty, no matter what anyone thinks or says to do your best to correct where correcting is needed, and to admonish likewise. But you can believe this brethren, you will be able to show some people the clear, plain not taken out of context, irrefuteable, can't be understood any other way Truth, and they will not only reject it, but they will argue for the sake of arguing.
Our Father will be removing the Truth of His Word from the church in the near future. He will be doing this because the church has butchered and changed His meaning to where His Word is no longer His Word, it's mans word. Amos 8:11 & 12 (amp) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but (a famine) for hearing the words of The Lord. (12) And (the people) shall wander from sea to sea and from the the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of The Lord (inquiring for and requiring it as one requires food), but shall not find it. I do believe this is the position the church is in today. Our heavenly Father is just that, an all loving, all knowing what is best for our eternal good Father, that has no problem making us submit by tribulating our flesh.
Heb.12: 5 - 11 (amp) says ~ And have you (completely) forgotten the devine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him. (6) For The Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, everyone whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.
We have to understand something very important, so important our life in eternity rides on our grasping it. Our Father takes no thought for these fleshly bodies we temporarily use as we perform our duty in this alien landscape. Sure He desires us to take care of ourselves and not abuse ourselves, so we can be of service to Him, but in this alien landscape these bodies are going to be subjected to growing old, sickness accidental harm, I mean time marches on. We started to die the moment we were conceived. Jesus took no thought for His fleshly comforts Rms.15: 3 ~ Rms.13: 14 ~ Phil.3: 3 and I can list about 11 more. Paul took no thought for his comforts, where do we think we fit into the scheme of things? Paul said in 1 Cor. 9: 27 ~ But (like a boxer) I buffet my body (handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships) and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit. Some of the elect in these last days will be asked to drink the cup of Jesus, Matt. 20: 23. But that is a whole other teaching.
Now we come to the big question. Why does God require us to be willing to suffer for His sake? Well I suppose He could just be a sadist or it might just be a eeny meeny miny moe kind of thing. Why do some brothers or sisters seem to receive more blessing than they deserve, while sister woe over there has to tough it out unmarried, with 3 small children and constant tribulation. Going back to Rms. 9: 9 - 18 ~ (11) And the children were yet unborn and so far done nothing good or evil. Even so, in order to further carry out God's purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls them, (12) it was said to Rebecca, that the elder (son) should serve the younger (son). (13) As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (held in relative disregard in comparison with my feeling for Jacob). (14) What shall we conclude then? Is there injustice upon God's part? Certainly not! (15) For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion. (16) So then God's gift is not a question of human will and human effort but of God's mercy. (17) For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose for displaying My power in (dealing) with you, so that My Name may be proclaimed the whole world over.
Verse 18 is the key, So then He has mercy on whomever He wills (chooses) and He hardens (makes stubborn and unyielding the heart of) whomever He wills. There it is, we have no choice in this matter. Our Lord does this so that all men will be separated and classified as a Sheep or a Goat Matt.25: 32 - 46 and Ezek. 34: 17 - 22, and be judged accordingly. If brother and sister money bags over here looks over at sister poorhouse and fails to lift this sister up to the highest possible level that they are able, by denying themselves, woe unto them. In the very same lesson if sister poorhouse sits over there and gets bitter and the curse of all curses, gets envious, jealous and covets, woe unto her. Neither infraction is greater, they're both equal in God's eyes. Greed is equal to envy or an act of covet. Sin is Sin. As I said before our Lord will always give us a contrast or something to oppose another circumstance. It's not the circumstance, but how you react to the circumstance. The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is a perfect example to show this contrast. This is lesson to the Phaisees and to us today. Lk.16: 19 - 31 (kjv) (19) There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: (20) And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, (21) And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (22) And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; (23) And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (24) And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (25) But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (26) And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. (27) Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: (28) For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (29) Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. (30) And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. (31) And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. This parable can be likened to a brother and sister in church that owns much property and fares well everyday, and sits and looks at sister woe on Sunday and never acknowledges her lack. This isn't an accident Jesus gave this parable right after the parable of The Unjust Steward.
I will close this as I opened it, with His Word. 1 Pet.5: 8 - 10 (amp) ~ Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours the devil, roams around like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger), seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith (against his onset— rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined), knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world. (10) And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace (Who) has called you to his (own) eternal glory in Jesus Christ, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen and settle you.
One way or the other brothers and sister you are going to have to endure some form of suffering on this alien world, no way around it. And another thing that's for sure, you may have all the comforts of the flesh here for this blink of a lifetime, but remember Lazarus and the rich man. Lk.16: 20 - 31 When Paul had "the thorn in the flesh", this obedient servant Paul, the man who by this time in 2 Cor.12: 9, has walked further spreading the Gospel than any of us will ride to church in a entire lifetime, is begging God to remove his infirmity. Now to prove our Father doesn't concern Himself with these bodies we walk around in, what does He tell Paul, the man who wrote two-thirds of The New Covenant? Verse 9 in the Amplified translation says ~ My grace (My favor and loving - kindness and mercy) is enough for you (sufficient for any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully); for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in (your) weaknesses. Now listen to what Paul said, Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (The Messiah) may rest (yes may pitch a tent over and dwell] upon me! Verse 10 So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, and persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak (in human strength), then am I (truly) strong, (able, powerful in divine strength.
There it is brothers and sisters! There is the answer I think we all are looking for. That key that taps into Christ's Power. The main thing you have to understand, you are going to suffer somewhere, it is up to us just how long it will be.
I BID YOU HEART PEACE AND ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN CHRIST JESUS!
