Affliction and the Child of God
In the last decade, I have met a great number of believers who are
experiencing incredible suffering: physical, spiritual and emotional. These
have been times of testing and refining in the Body of Christ.
Looking at my own trials, I have learned much about the ways and purposes of
God through suffering. Therefore, I would like to share some of these insights
so that you, the reader, may receive a measure of comfort in your affliction.
Many times God will not spare his children from pain and tribulation. Some
of our distresses come from His hand and they have an eternal purpose in His
plan.
According to Romans 8:29, God intends to conform us into the image of His
Son. Suffering plays a big role in accomplishing this divine plan.
1 Pet 4:12-13 Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto
you:
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings;
that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Peter tells us that fiery trials are a normal Christian experience; there is
nothing strange about it! It’s the fire of God that comes to try and purify us
until the Image of His Son is molded in us and His glory can be seen. “…Christ
in you the Hope of glory…” (Colossian1: 27).
The “glory” is non other than the nature of God. When Moses asked the Lord
to show him His glory, God answered him, “I will make all my
goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name (character) of
the Lord before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
(Exodus 33:18, parenthesis mine). The Lord is good, gracious and merciful;
to be in His Image therefore is to have the very nature and character of God
reproduced in our life. Someone said it this way: “our theology must become a
biography”.
God is going to have a body of people through which He will manifest Himself
to the world. Afflictions, when permitted to do the work they are meant to do,
will bring forth a people who shine with the beauty of Jesus.
SUFFERING PURIFIES US
Malachi prophesied that there would be a time when the Lord would come
suddenly to His Temple like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap purging and
purifying His people like silver and gold.
Mal 3:3 “…And he shall SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver…”
We – His people - are His temple – individually and corporately, (know
ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you?” – I Corinthians 3:16). We are the place of His habitation and He
desires to fill it with His glory.
The prophet says that the Lord will SIT like the refiner of gold. In the
natural, the person in charge of the refining must keep the purifying process
under constant scrutiny. The heat must be just right: not too hot or not hot
enough. Also the scum that comes on the top must be skimmed. This requires
concentration, attention and time. Therefore he sits. He is
not in a hurry; He will take all the time that is necessary until the precious
metal is so clear that He can see His own reflection in it.
God is in control over our trials and tribulations. He is a loving Father,
too wise to make mistakes and too kind to be cruel. He will not allow us to be
tested beyond what we are able to bear (I Corinthians 10:13), but He will try
us to the limit of our tolerance so that in our brokenness we may experience His
comfort and in our weakness, His strength. Thus we learn how to extend His
consolation to others who are suffering.
Psalm 85:5 “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee…”
Heb. 11:34 “…out of weakness were made strong…”
2 Corint.12:9 “…my strength is made perfect in weakness…”
SUFFERING TESTS OUR FAITH
Luke 18:8 “… Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith
on the earth?
Sometime God allows Satan to sift us like he did Peter. He removes from us
all sources of confidence and security. He withdraws from us. He turns a deaf
ear to our cries (or so it seems). Promises we have been waiting for remain
unfulfilled. The sense of His presence is removed. He hides from us and He is
silent. He is developing our faith!
I once read somewhere that faith is not real faith until it is the only thing
we have left.
Jesus didn’t spare Peter from severe testing; but He told him, “…I have
prayed for thee that thy faith fail not…”
In Hebrew 11:35-39 there is a list of people whose faith failed not.
“…others were tortured…others had trials of cruel mocking and scourging,
yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sown
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword…and these all, having obtained
a good report through FAITH received not the promise…”
This is the kind of faith that can trust in God and gives peace even when
facing death. It is the faith of martyrs. It’s the faith that doesn’t get
offended at God and continues to trust Him even when deliverance does not come
in the way we expected. It’s the faith of Job that, when tried by suffering
declared, “ though He slays me, yet will I trust Him”. Because of
this faith, still in his suffering, Job had a revelation of God more glorious
than that of a miracle. It is the triumphant faith of I John 5:4 “…this is
the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”
SUFFERING WORKS HUMILITY
1 Pet 5:5-7 … for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.
Phil 2:5-11 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Pride will destroy our fruitfulness in the kingdom. God cannot use us
because He will not share His glory with another. Therefore His loving hand of
discipline will allow suffering to expose the prideful motives of our heart.
Humility comes as we repent and allow His fire to break us and mold us. As we
yield to the “breakings”, the Holy Spirit will bring us to spiritual
fruitfulness. The release of the life of Jesus within us can only come
through brokenness, which crushes all desires of self-life.
A person who is never been broken is full of himself, of his plans, his
ambitions, and his aspirations. This is the kind of vessel the world has molded
us into. After sin came in, humanity was no longer in the image of God (we fell
short of it). God, our Father, who is the heavenly potter, has to smash the
vessel of clay, shaped in immorality, idolatry, fear, independence,
self-sufficiency, etc. in order to form a vessel of honor that He can fill with
Himself. (Jeremiah 18:4-6).
The Bible says that after the painful humbling process, in due time, God will
exalt us. A careful study of the Scriptures revelas that His exaltation comes
in the form of a greater release of His authority, which is proportionate to the
degree of our humiliation: Jesus was exalted to the highest place (a name above
all names) because He descended to the lowest one.
One day, the mother of two disciples desired of the lord that her two sons
may sit in His kingdom one on His right hand and one on His left. Jesus
answered, ““…ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I
shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
Jesus was referring to the Cross where He drank the cup of suffering and
experienced the fire of God’s wrath over sin.
We all want to move in God’s power and authority, to occupy a place of
prominence and of great significance, but are we willing to pay the price
embrace the cross and walk down the path of humility paved with pain?
SUFFERING TRIES GOD’S WORD TO US
Ps 18:30 “ the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all
those that trust in him.”
Prov. 30:5 “ Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that
put their trust in Him”
Ps 19:7 “…the testimony of the LORD is sure…”
“Often our feet find themselves in the path of tribulation especially after
we receive the promise that something special is about to happen” (Anonymous).
This is to teach us to walk by faith in His promises and not by
sight.
Jesus once told His disciples to get in the boat, cross the lake and meet Him
on the other side. His followers heard His Word, yet as soon as a storm came
over the waters, they were filled with fear, doubt and hopelessness.
When the storm of life rages around us, when the circumstances tell us that
there is no way that God’s promises could ever be fulfilled, when the waiting
for them has been so long and when there are no warm feelings about God’s
presence, it is so easy to sink into despair. Yet, if we hold on to that
promise, resisting the temptation to give up and look elsewhere for answers, we
will discover that the Word alone is enough to hold us and to
take us to the other side.
SUFFERING DEVELOPS THE LOVE OF GOD (AGAPE)
God is love (I John 4:8). To be made into the image of God is to love like
God does. The name of this type of love is Agape. Agape is the same as God.
It is inherent to his nature. It is not what God does, but what He is. He
cannot help but Love. It’s like the sun shining in the sky: where the sun is
there is the sunshine.
Agape is unconditional, unselfish; it gives itself without discrimination
like the sun shines on the flower and on the dung.
To give oneself without discrimination spells suffering: God loved us by
giving Himself and that caused Him much pain. Suffering therefore is the
essential element of Agape, which – unlike natural affection – must be learned
through many trials and tribulations, until we can suffer at the hand of others
without resentment. Jesus displayed this on the cross when He said, “Father
forgive them” while pain, shame, mocking and rejection was being inflicted upon
Him. Therefore, because Jesus forgave those who were crucifying Him, God was
released to deal in mercy toward the wrongdoer so that the sinner could be
reconciled to Himself. (If Jesus had not forgiven, God would have had to bring
judgment.)
Suffering in itself then has no value; it is our reaction to the suffering that
makes the difference. God will allow our exposure to trials to continue until
we learn to respond to them as He does.
HOW TO TRIUMPH IN SUFFERING
Let us not waste our sorrows. Let us keep in mind that “ we are His
workmanship” that’s why we are being sifted. Trusting in His love, let us
accept all perplexing circumstances from His hand. By surrendering to His
perfect will, let us cooperate with His fine-tuning work until His purpose is
accomplished in us.
The following suggestions will bring victory in our trials:
- Learn to see Jesus in your furnace. You are never alone. It is the
same God and the same love. Just because we are going through hard times,
His love hasn’t changed. He is merely detaching you from your
circumstances, by drawing you to Himself in order to attach you to His power
and His anointing.
- Remain firm in the Word He has given you, even when there is no evidence
of Him being around. Remember: facts are not truth…His Word is truth. So,
do not believe your circumstances or your feelings, but cling to the truth
of His Word.
- Confess who you are in Christ (His child, the apple of His eyes, an heir
and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus, the redeemed of the Lord, more than conqueror in Christ Jesus, His
workmanship, etc.)
- Thank Him for what He is doing in you and for the glory
that shall be revealed. Thank Him for all the people that have caused you
harm, for those that have been or are unkind to you. They are His
instruments to prepare you for this eternal splendor. “He has created
the smith that blows the coals in the fire” and He “has created the
waster to destroy” (Isaiah 54:160>
- Look at your pain as means to enter into the heart of God, to feel what
he feels. A backslider, a rebellious son or daughter will make us partakers
of God’s feelings toward the lost
- Pray for others throughout the world that are facing the same trials as
you are. Thus you will defeat Satan who wants to take from us our most
powerful weapon: prayer!
- Ask: what do you want me to learn? “Which wrong attitude or motive you
want to reveal in me? Pray like David did: ”Search me o God, and know my
heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in
me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
- Bless your situation and don’t curse. Don’t lean on your understanding
of what is good or what is not: stop eating the fruit of the knowledge of
good and evil. Remember the passage in Romans 8:28-29. “All”
things work together for good…the positive situations and the negative
ones. We need two poles, one positive and one negative, in order to have a
flow of electric power. And so it is in the spirit: we need the positive
as well as the negative experiences for the life of God to flow through us.
- When in depth of despair, hopelessness, despondency, call upon the
mercy of God. When the prophet Jeremiah found himself in
such state, he remembered the only thing that renews the hope we lost: “…it
is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, because His compassions
fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.”
(Lamentation 3:21-23)
- Pray for your enemies. (Matthew 5:44).
- Praise…praise…praise. Delight in His Word. Draw nearer to Him in
spiritual intimacy. Our joy is our communion with Jesus during our
suffering. There we find strength because the JOY of the Lord is our
strength.
- Expect an enlargement. Trials and tribulations, when they have
accomplished their work, will produce a greater revelation of you to
yourself, a greater revelation of God, and a greater ministry to others.
- Finally, dear child of God, remember that the will of God will never
lead you where His Grace cannot keep you. HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT.
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