Suffering

Paul, our Apostle – the Apostle to the nations (Romans 11:13) –

was given a special ministry of suffering. Ananias was sent by the Lord to bring him a message of,

… How great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake (Acts 9:16)

Do you not find this strange? Do you ever find it disturbing?

Why on earth did Paul need to hear at this early stage, of the central role suffering would play in his life? Why does God not find some other means off bringing sons to perfection rather than suffering? If we are honest then these types of questions arise.

Hebrews 12 gives a little more insight " And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or lose heart when He rebukes you. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises everyone He receives as a son.”  

It's that little word everyone that speaks to our hearts and like an amber light on the petrol gauge of a car indicates all is not well if that disciplining is not present. I sometimes see a tiered process of revelation and growth:

At first it's 

That I may know Him..." 

Oh this is so wonderful! To walk with Him: to chat and talk and see Him in all we do: But now I need power to say no to earthly things and be constantly filled to the brim with His Spirit so ..

"and the power of His Resurrection" 

Wow! Zoe life! Rivers of living water flowing out on streets as we meet folks, buses and boats, picnics and parties that power is pregnant and ready to drench all round it. But there is still one problem This old body of sin: What can be done with it? How can I be extricated (like you'd extract a tooth) from this "pigsty of the flesh"? 

The further cry goes out ..

"and the fellowship with His sufferings"

 And gradually an amazing reality dawns on you: It's no longer I who live here: I am not what people see: I am dead and my life is hid with Christ in God. I am grafted in as a genuine member of a new spirit body: The head of that body has suffered immensely in the past: That history now becomes my experience and it's just as if I was back there 2000 years ago.: Despised? Yes! Rejected? Yes indeed. people who knew you well avoiding your gaze and "hanging their faces: Often. Crucified? 

You see the gift or present of salvation had some other item in the box. Look at Phil 1:29 again  "for to you it is graciously granted, for Christ's sake, not only to be believing on Him, but to be suffering for His sake also"

The latter part of the book of Acts and Paul’s own letters are filled with the accounts of his great suffering. Writing to the Corinthian believers Paul catalogues some of his sufferings:

Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned,

thrice I suffered shipwreck,#

a night and a day I have been in the deep;

In journeyings often,

in perils of waters, in perils of robbers,

in perils by mine own countrymen,

in perils by the heathen,

in perils in the city, I

n perils in the wilderness,

in perils in the sea,

in perils among false brethren;

In weariness and painfulness,

in watchings often,

in hunger and thirst,

in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness (II Corinthians 11:24-27).

Remember Paul never went out looking for trouble. On the contrary He believed and taught that we should obey all lawful authorities, that we should determine as far as possible to live at peace with all men and as servants of the Lord not to cause trouble if at all possible. But trouble came looking for Paul in every town and in every city.city. The spirit and life within him was 100% at odds with the ruling spirits in each area and war in the spirit was the norm.

As the believer reads Paul’s letters he is taught the enormous value of suffering – as Paul had learned and experienced it. Today, much teaching related to suffering is centered on the idea of “deliverance.” 

Yet suffering is a gift of God, and actually plays an important role in the lives of the members of Christ’s Body, as we shall see. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (II Corinthians 4:17)."

In The Beginning

In the beginning God: He alone ........ existed. (1 Cor 8:6)

​

Nothing existed outside of God: Zero! Nada! Zilch! Nothing!

He dwelt in impenetrable light and He is pure Spirit and always has been:

No man has ever seen God as He is not material or physical but pure spirit. (John 4:24) 

Hard for us to grasp that as all we experience generally is on the physical level!

Then a strange thing happened: Something of God (in human speak) broke through into the nothingness outside: Never before had anything like this happened. John, at the beginning of his Gospel uses the word "only begotten" to describe this: What came out from God, was begotten, was referred to as The Word. This today is now our highest authority on earth regarding whats true and whats not true.

That Word was and is Jesus! A Word is an expression of the person: What is on their heart (Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks) Jesus is the exact expression of what is on God's heart: the effulgence of God's glory. A Word is the nearest thing to spirit we can even attempt to understand: Forget about visions and angels and apparitions! Word in the scripture is  a sort of cross-over between the spirit and the material. Jesus said "The words I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life: (John 6:63)  Think about it.

The Word was there long before the flood: before Adam & Eve: Before the down casting of the earth. Before Babylon or before Rome! Later that Word actually became flesh and told us :"God no one has ever seen. The only-begotten God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He unfolds Him"  (John 1:18.)

​

Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus is the effulgence of Gods glory: I know effulgence is a big word but simply means what flows out from: Jesus is the expression of God and without Him we would know absolutely nothing about God. On the positive side "In Him, (Christ)  are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"  (Col 2:3)  The Word began to express the Father in creation and in verbal contact with man: "God spoke .." . God communicated with words in the past: Nearly four thousand times in the Bible we find words or expressions such as: "And God said..."

​

God spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:4), about 1500 B.C.

God spoke to Samuel (1 Samuel 3:11), about 1000 B.C

God spoke to Elijah (1 Kings 21:17), about 900 B.C.

God spoke to Isaiah (2 Kings 20:1), about 700 B.C.

God spoke to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:2), about 600 B.C

God spoke to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:3), about 600 B.C.

​

When you look up in the sky you think you see the sun: But actually nobody has ever seen the sun: What they see is the Effulgence of the sun: What comes out of it: Light and heat and growth and life etc. In the same way Jesus is the exact image or emblem of God. “Who, being the Effulgence of His glory and Emblem of His assumption, besides carrying on all by His powerful declaration, making a cleansing of sins, is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heights”  (Heb 1:3) Jesus expresses the thoughts of the Father and His word is billions of times superior to pope or preacher: visions or traditions: traditions or ceremonies!

Whatever you say you believe in, if you are honest, should be tested against the plumb line of God's word.  

​

Now everything God did or created was by using The Word. Hebrews 1:2 tells us He made the worlds through  Jesus "Let there be ..." and there was: Sun, moon, stars, animals, weather, Adam & Eve... all spoken into existence out of His Word (Jesus) John equates Jesus with the word saying: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was toward God, and God was the word. This was in the beginning toward God. All came into being through it, and apart from it not even one thing came into being which has come into being."

There you have it. "Without it not even one thing came into being"

So the Word was creative and powerful. Paul puts it like this in 1 Cor 8:6

"nevertheless for us there is one God, the Father, out of Whom all is, and we for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom all is, and we through Him"

​

​

And as the Word took on flesh in Jesus the words He spoke overflowed with grace and truth and healing and comfort. In fact we are told Jesus was appointed "heir of all things" What did Jesus use to heal the leper? What did He use to raise Lazarus from the dead? What did He use to agree with the father's will in the garden of Gethsemane? Words!

​

And thank God, later, the very words He spoke to the disciples and to Paul were put down on Vellum in ink and how precious to us are those words today. Man and religion tries to deny that all these words are God-breathed in order to make space for their own traditions: Jesus agreed that traditions can make the Word of God of no effect: No matter what reigious persuasion you are you should have this attitude:" How does this belief line up with God's word?"  The problem is these words in the bible were not written in English and over the centuries much has been lost in translation. I recommend that for study purposes a good literal version of the bible is essential like Young's |Literal Translation or Concordant Literal Version.The link Scripture4All which is on most pages will bring you direct to the actual Greek words used in the originals.

These words from the mind and heart of God are so precious that we should be diligent and do our utmost to understand their meaning and context as 2 Tim 2:15 puts it "Rightly divide" the Word. They are our only true defence against the floods of lies and deception coming our way as we enter the last days of this present wicked Eon.

​