Faith or Suffering?

Faith without suffering…think about it!

The only people who can have faith without suffering are little children. Once we reach an age where we lose our innocence, we have grown out of that child-like mode.  Suffering is built into our spiritual growth whether we like it or not. 

Since we don’t even know our own minds, how can we know what God will do to strengthen our faith or the faith of those around us through suffering?

Look what Jesus went through for our example!

At one point God the Father had to take from His Son Jesus, the divine intervention of the spirit in order for Jesus to really be in the flesh, to feel the concerns of the flesh, and to start His time of sacrifice. We don’t know when that was for sure, but if you read in Matthew chapter 26:37, that is when it is described that Jesus had begun to get sorrowful and very heavy. Jesus knew he would be crucified soon. In 26:38 Jesus said,”My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.”

In verse 26:29 it says, And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

What picture does this paint?

It was now time for Jesus to be betrayed. As Judas and the soldiers came to take him, the disciples got real scared. Moments later they all fled and after they had led Jesus off, Peter followed from afar it says. Think of the fear that had beset the disciples?

Now, with the onset of the abuse of the soldiers, Jesus had perseverance, however, holy intervention would soon fade and a full out beating would ensue.

Now please think about the following things.

In the beginning of Jesus ministry, he had been led up into the wilderness as it is described, and was tempted for forty days. I have asked myself time after time, what exactly does the description mean, “Wilderness?”

Strong’s Hebrew/Greek defines it as a desolate place. However, (He) Jesus was to be tempted in every way that we are.

Can you be tempted that way in the desert?

I tell you, just as Satan took Jesus up to an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, how could you see all the kingdoms of the world from one high mountain? Was man’s domain that limited?

I don’t think so. Satan had the ability, (and still does) to create illusions, or if you want to say bring everything into a panoramic view, which would be like an illusion.

So, if Jesus was in the wilderness, in a desolate place, the devil had the ability to make visions as real as it can get, to tempt Jesus according to God’s plan. Every temptation known to man would have had to be put in front of Him, or so it would seem.

What has been your temptations whoever is reading this?

Now, back to the Garden where Jesus was praying. It is described in Luke 22:43 that an Angel appeared unto Jesus strengthening Him. This had to be the start of the Father taking away His divine intervention, because in the next verse, verse 22:44 it says, being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Many have interpreted this to mean Jesus actually sweat blood, I don’t subscribe to that because Jesus would have been awfully bloody after that. I feel this is a description of how worried he was about what he already knew he would have to go through for the sins of the world. So he could have had very big droplets of sweat. Put yourself in his shoes right then.

This was the first humanizing feeling of abandonment of His Father, the onset of all of the accumulative thoughts about that hour that had raged through his mind, were now a reality. Remember, this is our Lord, the one who was not afraid of anything, the one who could read peoples minds, and not even in their presence. But, he had a measure of power yet, because he said to the guards that were going to take him away that if he wanted to, he could call down a legion of Angels to fight for him.

So, Jesus had to have lost some spiritual ability to avoid worry.

I wanted to provoke your thoughts because, Jesus was God’s son, and HE suffered greatly.

God didn’t have to put his own son through that, he could have made it easy for Jesus and kept the whips from harming his flesh, kept the nails from causing him pain, faked his pain on the cross and his death too. BUT, he didn’t. So for our example, Jesus suffered greatly showing us that if we are like him, we shall suffer greatly too. But most of our suffering is brought on by our own worldliness and sin.

When God causes us to suffer, it is character building, it is faith building, and it creates stamina in our walk of faith. If we resist the learning part of the trials, they just repeat themselves in a different way because we didn’t learn from them.

Now, imagine if we start getting in the way of God? What if we start eliminating other people’s trails and difficulties because of our compassion? Or what if we eliminate other peoples suffering because God gave us the gift of mercy?

Are we using it in the right way, what is mercy all about?

The Oxford dictionary describes it as pity or forgiveness shown toward an enemy or offender in one’s power.

It describes it as something to be grateful for.

But then, as an adjective it says, motivated by pity: a mercy killing. This last definition describes a complete reversal of suffering.

We kill people with kindness; we ease their burdens, often financially, or materially. We ultimately cause them less suffering by some degree. Is that God’s will, if He, through the Holy Spirit, has allowed a situation to occur in someone’s life that causes suffering, hoping they will learn great faith and dependence on Him?

So before us loving Christians start usurping God’s authority, you better be willing to get down on your hands and knees and vehemently pray for God to show you if you are doing His will, when you disrupt someone’s pain and growth cycle.

Don’t act out of a human nature especially if you’re a female, because your nurturing spirit kicks in automatically and God doesn’t have anything to do with it. You need to pray, you need to wait on the Lord, look for two or more leading's in the direction you are supposed to go in, before you jump on the mercy wagon, and grieve the Holy Spirit of God!

Back to the subject of pain. We can either be in pain because of trials, or we can be in faith, because of victory. Every trial that besets us, is conquerable because of the power of Christ that rests upon us in our weakness. Jesus told us, "my strength is made perfect in your weakness, therefore shall we not glory in our infirmities, that the power of God may rest upon us?" I suspect so!

Oswald Chambers puts it this way in his daily devotional...

November 15, 2011

WHAT IS THAT TO THEE?

Lord, what shall this man do? . . What is that to thee?

Follow thou Me.

John 21:21,22

http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=joh+21:21,2&sr=1

One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not

interfere in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being

an amateur providence, that is,interfering with God's order for others. You see a certain

person suffering, and you say - He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not. You 

put your band straight in front of God's permissive will to prevent it, and God says - 

"What is that to thee?" If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but 

get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is 

because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no 

right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give 

advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit;

your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all 

the time for the blessing of another soul.

Most of us live on the borders of consciousness - consciously serving, consciously

devoted  to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life 

of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness

of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and 

poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached, where all consciousness of 

ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint is never consciously

a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My hope for you is that you have had a prayer of salvation,

and if you haven't and you want to ask Christ into your heart and life,

then I offer these words for you to repeat,

but only if your heart is sincere,

because God knows it if you're not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear God, I now know I have needed you and have

rejected your calling, so today, right now, 

I ask Jesus Christ to come into my heart and my life, 

and forgive me from all past sin and Lord cleanse me 

from my unrighteousness. I believe that Jesus was 

crucified for my sin, died, and was buried and rose from the

dead according to the scriptures. I want you forever more

to be my guide and I want to follow you as a believer. 

I ask for your strength to change my heart and 

my earthly ways so that I can become a better 

child in your kingdom. Show me how to depend 

on you in all things. And show me how to do 

your will in my life. I thank you and pray this 

prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Fighting Fire With Fire

Have Faith (a poem)

God Hearing Our Prayers

May 26th, 2011 - 22 revisions