Monday, October 21, 2019

Suffering: How God's Kingdom Advances on Earth

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11–12, ESV)
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. (Philippians 1:12–13, ESV)
In my own life I have found that times of intense suffering for the gospel have led to a greater harvest of souls and more severe damage to the strongholds of Satan.

There are many ways the Lord may lead a Christian during his or her life, but I'm convinced that the path of every believer will sooner or later include suffering.  The Lord gives us these trials to keep us humble and dependent on Him for our daily sustenance.

Don't be afraid of suffering, for it is how God's kingdom advances on earth!  The Bible instructs us in 1 Peter 4:1 that "since Christ suffered in the body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin."

How we mature as a Christian largely depends on the attitude we have when we're faced with suffering.  Some try to avoid it or imagine it doesn't exist, but that only makes the situation worse.  Others try to endure it grimly, hoping for relief.  This is better but falls short of the full victory God wants to give each of His children.

The Lord wants us to embrace suffering as a friend.  We need a deep realization that when we're persecuted for Jesus' sake, it is an act of God's blessing to us.  This is why Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven" (Matt. 5:11-12).

I have found over the years that many of the most fruitful times of ministry for the Lord have come at the same time as great opposition and persecution.  There seems to be a direct correlation between effective work for God and intense opposition.  The apostle Paul experienced this too.  He wrote, "A great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me" (1 Cor. 16:9).

We can grow to such a place in Christ where we laugh and rejoice when people slander us, because we know we are not of this world, and our security is in heaven.  The more we are persecuted for His sake, the more reward we will receive in heaven.

When people malign you, rejoice and be glad.  When they curse you, bless in return.  When you walk through a painful experience, embrace it and you will be free!  When you learn these lessons, there is nothing left that the world can do to you.

God is my witness that through all the tortures and beatings I've received, I have never hated my persecutors.  Rather, I saw them as God's instruments of blessing and the vessels He chose to purify me and make me more like Jesus.

When a child of God suffers, you need to understand it is only because the Lord has allowed it.  He has not forgotten you!

When I hear a house church Christian has been imprisoned for Christ in China, I don't advise people to pray for his or her release unless the Lord clearly reveals we should pray this way.  Before a chicken is hatched, it is vital that it is kept in the warm protection of the shell for twenty-one days.  If you take the chick out of that environment one day too early, it will die.  Similarly, ducks need to remain confined in their shell for twenty-eight days before they are hatched.  If you take a duck out on the twenty-seventh day, it will die.

There is always a purpose to why God allows His children to go to prison.  Perhaps it's so they can witness to the other prisoners, or perhaps God wants to develop more character in their lives.  But if we use our own efforts to get people out of prison earlier than God intended, we can thwart His plans, and the believer may come out not as fully formed as God wanted them to be.

The Lord told the apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).  This led Paul to declare, "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

The kingdom of God advances through suffering.

--Brother Yun, Living Water, p.204-206