SUFFERING AND WHY WE NEED IT (EXCERPT FROM NEW MINI-BOOK)

 INTRODUCTION

This post is a bit of a rapid-fire rollout of word of encouragement. I pray that you will catch in your spirit what is for you and that God would ignite you to walk it out. That is what it's all about. The Bible is not just a bunch of stories with bigger-than-life characters so that we can "ooh!" and "aah! It's about us learning from those people, the Chief of whom is Jesus, and living this abundant life.

Hey, I get it! Life can really put a hurting on you sometimes! However, we can face anything if our heart-focus is on Him and not on the circumstances themselves. What if we were really able to “see” ourselves “seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus?” (Eph. 2:4-6) We would not be defeated, because we would have God’s perspective on everything.

It's impossible to be "defeated" when your eyes are trained on Him and your heart is steadfastly following His lead. Yet, we are human and we get off track at times. The answer to those time is to get right back on track. This faith-walk is a life-long marathon and not a short sprint. So don't feel condemned under any circumstances when you fall down.

Holy Spirit was giving this encouragement so fast, I may not have gotten it all down as I was not recording at the time. So here goes. Catch your NOW word:

1.    Now is the hour to shine, not later, but now! Yes, even while suffering. Especially, while suffering. 

2.    You are the closest some people will get to Jesus before they get to Jesus. Others are watching your response to challenges.

3.    Take a heavenly perspective in all things.

4.    When we are tempted to respond in the flesh, stop, ask Holy Spirit to help you respond as Jesus would. Sounds cliché, but it really works!

5.    If you do not do #4, you will displease the Lord and possibly bring a reproach to His name because we say we are His.

6.    When we respond in the flesh we have stepped out of "faith;' but to respond in the Spirit is to respond in faith. Spirit-Faith; Flesh-Sight. "The just shall life by faith."

7.    Treat each moment as precious.

8.    Take every opportunity to shine His light as you never know how much longer anyone has. Have you capitalized on showing forth his love and sharing the Gospel? Don't forget, we want to have no regrets when we stand before God.

9.    This is a biggie: Offense blinds us to what God is doing and the victories we are gaining through Him.

10. Without the cup of suffering there can be no glory. 

11. The cup of suffering represents the opportunity to glorify God and to share in the glory Jesus gained after His suffering. To share in the glory we must share in the suffering. For each of us that looks differently. That is why He tells us that we each individually have to pick up our cross and follow Him. Follow Him where? To the Cross of Calvary where our flesh is crucified and we die to self. Then, and only then, can we experience the resurrection in glory, spiritually for now until it happens physically as well at His coming.  We get a foretaste and deposit now with a touch of glory of the coming glory. We cannot even begin imagine what that would be like.

12. To put it another way: To share in His glory we must share in His suffering -- willingly. Since Jesus never complained in His hour of suffering, we should not either. Paul and Silas had a praise and worship service in prison not knowing what they would face. Can we do that in our suffering? Jesus asked the Father to forgive His murderers? Can we do that when we experience a little persecution? 

13. John 8:19  - In calling out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees right in the temple, Jesus was challenging the lions in the lions' own den. He told them they did not know the Father because they did not even know Him. In other words, He told them they were not men of God. What? In the temple? He could have been arrested right then and there. But the Bible tells us His time had not yet come. No one can lay a hand on you or I unless God has already ordained it, and by then, He has already prepared you for it. In John 8:14, Jesus tells the Pharisees that He knows where He came from and where He was going to. Friend, He also knew that the only way to get back to where He came from was through suffering on the Cross and completing the purpose for His coming in the first place. There was no other way. 

14. John 8:20 - Jesus was speaking in a way that could endangered His life then and there but He did it anyway. Jesus knew the Father had total control of his times and seasons. He was in good hands and so are we.

 CONCLUSION

Oh, friends, aren't you glad that the second Adam did not do what the first Adam did in disobeying the will of God for HIs life? Jesus knew that glory would be His again but only through the gateway of suffering. He came in human form to complete a task. Had He not completed that task, what do you think the chances were of being received back up into heaven. I believe, none. That would mean He would have done what the first Adam did and missed the mark completely. If He had sinned against God in going against His will, we would become like every other sinful man and not God. The ramifications of such an event is too much to measure so I will not attempt it. Suffice it to say, no, He had to drink that cup of suffering in dying on the Cross, finishing the task so that He could indeed say, "It is finished." Than and only then, could He be received up again. Of course, this is conjecture because it did not happen that way. 

Praise God that we never experience suffering alone as Jesus had to. We get to have Him with us by the Companionship of the Holy Spirit even to the end of the age. (Matt. 18:20).

As Paul said, our present affliction pales in comparison to our future glory!

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.