So Much Gain In Suffering!

“So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto the crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself; and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” Job 2:7-10

My sights today are set on those words in verse 10:

“What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Have you been through some challenges lately? Have I?

Of course, we have. But what, pray, should our attitude be when we go through trials and temptations?

Our attitude should be the same as the one that the righteous men and women of old had. And Job was one of those righteous men of old. The Bible says about Job:

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” (Job 1:1)

You couldn’t get a more righteous man than that, could you? But God allowed this righteous man to go through the most difficult situations that any man can experience in the natural. Job suffered!

But it is in suffering especially that God can accept or “receive” us, as it says in Hebrews 12:6:

“For whom loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

The olden saints who knew God also knew His ways. To know God is also to know and acknowledge His ways; and the truest sign that we know God is when we can be at peace when we are passing through difficult situations in our lives. There are times in my life, unfortunately, when I have been rudely forced to face up to the fact that I did not know God. A situation will arise, and I will find myself hitting all the panic buttons available, just because I was looking at the situation with my natural eyes. And soon enough God will show me how blind I am because in virtually every one of those stormy seasons where I was panicking and generally behaving like an unbeliever, He was working out things for my good!

Indeed, the Bible says,

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

The flesh would rather not suffer. That’s a fact. For most of us, we would rather be saved and never have a single problem in our lives. We want a smooth ride in life. We would rather not face or experience a single problem, sickness, challenge or difficulty all our lives. How thankful we would feel! But we all can acknowledge that that is the way of the flesh. As long as things are going well in the natural, we are happy and rejoicing.

But even the blindest believer can at least acknowledge also that God’s ways are hardly our ways! If that is the case, therefore, rejoicing and dancing on our part does not necessarily mean that God is happy and rejoicing. God rejoices only in the Spirit. As far as God is concerned, therefore, the important fact is not whether we should suffer or not. The important thing with God is that He is working His good will in and through us. And God’s good will could hardly be the ‘good’ that we know of in the natural.

There is something else we should learn about God in this regard. It is that God is perfect. That means that there is nothing in God that we can criticize or fault. The Bible says there is no “shadow” of turning with Him! (Jam. 1:17)

What does that mean?

This should mean that whatever God allows into our lives, we should not question or feel bad about. As long as our hearts are for God, we should trust Him that all will turn out well for us.

What does the Bible say about Job?

“So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning…” (Job 42:12)

Imagine that! No one would want to go through the hell that Job went through. And yet the Bible says that his suffering turned out his latter end better than his beginning.

Job’s wife did not see this coming. She was blind in the Spirit. So she told Job, “Curse God and die!”

When we, too, are not seeing in the Spirit, we moan and complain and want situations to change for good in the natural. But the spiritual person can allow something to go absolutely bad without protesting for out of it, he knows, more life will come!

His Grace Is Sufficient

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor. 12:9

Today – and, indeed, throughout this week – I cannot hide my joy at the revelation of the cross that the Lord has brought into my heart. Throughout the last week, I had been ministering to several of our churches in Dodoma Region, and I ministered so well that the Lord decided to reward me. Yes, the Lord rewarded me; but you would be surprised at the way the Lord rewards us. I am sure my flesh would have loved it had the Lord rewarded me with a red Porsche (yeah, I particularly love the color red on a car); but the Lord did not do that. On the contrary, God is Spirit, and He had only one way to go about rewarding me: the spiritual way.

So how did the Lord go about it?

The Lord rewarded me with the revelation of the cross! The revelation of the cross is God’s reward to those He loves for in Hebrews 12:6 the Bible tells us:

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

(Perhaps today’s loving parents may need to take a leaf from the Lord about how to raise their children. I am so glad our parents brought us up the Biblical way!)

Anyways, back to our subject: me. The Lord has been showing me new (and old) areas in my life that need to die. Moreover, the Lord has been chastising me about how strong and wise I have become lately in the flesh, and He has been telling me anew how weak and foolish I need to become in order to carry His grace, His strength, His wisdom, His life.

There are many new (and old) areas in my life that the Lord has been showing me that I am still a strong, tough guy. These are areas where I am still holding onto my things, my rights and my life. It is in my rights especially that I have found I am still stuck way deep in the flesh. I am quick to claim my rights!

But the Lord has been quick to show me this weakness – and to give me the strength to begin to release them. Much of the time, of course, our rights and our life are things that are hidden deep within us, and we cannot see them. But when God shines His probing light into our hearts, we see them clearly. But even more importantly, we see exactly what we need to do about them.

Just when my heart begins to become cold and hard towards a person or a situation, the Lord points me to the cross; and I repent.

Sometimes the things that make us to stumble are so trivial that we feel ashamed to even admit them. And sometimes they are so deep we fear to admit them. But whatever the case, we need to bring them up to the Lord and tell Him, “Lord, this is my weakness. I have sinned here, and I need your forgiveness and the strength to go beyond this weakness.”

The Apostle Paul rejoiced at the revelation of the cross in his heart. He rejoiced at how weak and foolish he was required to become. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 he says:

“12… Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 13 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

What does Paul mean by “strong”? What strength is he talking about?

It is the grace of God. When we allow ourselves to become weak and foolish in this world for the sake of the gospel, then the grace of God is shed abundantly in our lives. And in that manner alone can we be of any value to the Kingdom of God. Of what use or value are we if we are not carrying God’s grace? Allow me to use the word “useless”. You and I are useless in the Kingdom of God if we do not carry the grace of God in us. And that grace comes to us when we have crucified the flesh.

God’s grace enables us to forgive those who wrong us; it enables us to love our enemies, and to pray for them;  it enables us to ask for forgiveness when we wrong others. God’s grace fills us with the love of God through which we become of inexpressible value to our fellow men.

Moreover, the grace of God keeps us. It makes us to constantly be filled with joy, faith and hope.

I cannot possibly list a tiny portion of the benefits of the grace of God in our lives for when we talk of the grace of God we are talking about the life of God.

Suffice it to say that this grace was the Apostle Paul, and the Early Church chased after with all their strength.

[His grace suffices]

Pleasing God: Paul’s Body

One day my daughter came complaining to me, and she said, “Dad, someone has been using my bathing scrubber, and you know how sensitive my skin is.”

Unfortunately for her, I had just bee reading 2 Corinthians 11, and the anointing from those words was still buzzing all around and about and in me. So I said to her, “Oh, I am sorry. But you know our house is like a half way house, with many people coming and going, and you and I have no way of knowing who might have been using your scrubber. I think the only person you can report that problem to is God. Oh”, I finished her off, “you can also talk to the Apostle Paul about your sensitive skin.”

She smiled ruefully, because she knew exactly what I was about. I had warned my children long ago that we had to expect to live like pilgrims in our own house.

The words of the Apostle Paul.

“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” (Gal. 6:17)

Notice the words, “my body”. This scripture is talking about Paul’s physical body. Here Paul says that he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. What were those marks?

I have had the misfortune of hearing American preachers who claim that they cannot fly economy because their bodies cannot cope with the stress of traveling bundled up! They claim they need more leg room and more ‘prayer room’ (and more refined cuisine, of course), and for this reason they can only travel first class. Or in private jets.

It is clear that such a person has never been called by God to preach the gospel. Otherwise how would they have preached in the days of the Early Church when the only thing to ride was a donkey. And if one wanted to fly (which so many modern preachers are dying for) they would have had to attach wings to that same donkey! And if for some miraculous reason that worked and one now needed to fly first class, they probably would have had to sit on the donkey’s head. First class.

Today’s preachers care more about their bodies than the gospel they claim they are called to preach.

I can assure you, right away, that God has never needed such people. God cannot use such people. Why? Because it is clear exactly what kind of person God uses.

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him” (Is. 53:10)

Who is that whom the Lord is pleased to bruise? It is the Servant He loves using most. That scripture is talking of our Lord Jesus, the Person it pleased God to use.The Bible makes clear that the person that God uses He bruises. God will definitely allow some form of physical suffering or discomfort upon the person He wants to use. Some more than others, of course. But God will not allow us to serve Him on our (body’s) terms.

And hence it was so with the Apostle Paul also. Paul’s body partook of the sufferings of Christ. If you got unlucky (or lucky, can’t decide which) enough to look at Paul’s body, it was an undesirable mess. How do you think a body that has gone through the ordeals that Paul went through looked like?

“Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.” (2 Cor. 11:24)

I don’t know how I arrived there (for I thought I knew the Bible well), but somehow, for a long time, I always thought this scripture said “one time” instead of “five times”. But here, it says clearly that Paul received forty stripes save one five times. In practical terms it means the Jews got hold of Paul, stripped him down to his waist, made him kneel down in public, and flogged him 39 times with a whip. And they did this not once, but five times!

Unless I am much mistaken, by the end of the “five times”, Paul’s skin must have looked like the hide of a wild animal. Were all the world’s perfumers to come and attend to Paul’s skin, it would not have responded to their massagings and panderings.

And yet, this was not the end of Paul’s physical suffering.

“Thrice was I beaten with rods…” (v.25)

Now it was no longer whips, but rods. You can imagine the nerve and tissue damage that such beatings caused on Paul’s body. And I am pretty sure God was not miraculously ‘renewing’ Paul’s body, as He did Naaman’s (2 Ki. 5:14). God gave Paul only the necessary respite. On the contrary, this body was getting more knobby, twisted, mis-shapen, and bent.

“once was I stoned…”

They stoned Paul so severely that they left him for dead. Not until the disciples came and prayed over him, and the breath of the Holy Spirit passed over him, and he arose.

You might not know it, but this was the deadliest of them all. When stoning, they aim at the head. Apart from dying an agonizing death, the head becomes completely deformed. It was only by the grace of God that Paul would come out of such an ordeal alive. And God allowed this particular form of suffering only once; otherwise He might have lost His precious vessel.

After this ordeal, therefore, Paul’s head never looked the same. It was deformed in many different ways. The stoning robbed him of his peculiar facial features and it was no longer decipherable whether he had once been handsome or not. In his body, Paul was getting further and further from being human! But in the Spirit, God gave him the grace to soldier on. Paul – the suffering Paul – was God’s special vessel. This was the vessel that God was pleased to use!

And still the physical suffering would not end. Paul goes on:

“26 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, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

God relentlessly and mercilessly smashed and shattered Paul’s body – and will. At the end of it all, Paul’s body was extremely scarred and deformed. His body was not a sight that anyone would desire to see. He himself states:

“… for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.” (1 Cor. 4:9)

Paul’s body was a spectacle. For this reason, false apostles and false brethren made fun of Paul’s body:

“For his letters, they say, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.” (2 Cor. 10:10)

You wonder, What kind of man was the Apostle Paul? Who would accept such a life? The even more incredible fact was that Paul rejoiced in his sufferings (2 Cor. 12:10).

But – what a lesson for us! The Bible here teaches us that we cannot worry about our bodies and expect to please or do the will of God. It is impossible. It is written of our Lord Jesus Christ,

“5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepred me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”

Notice the word “pleasure” there. It gives the Lord the greatest pleasure when we give our bodies to suffer for the gospel’s sake. Our bodies suffering on account of Christ is what pleases God most.

What a different outlook on life for us!

Unfortunately, this is a lesson that is alien to the general body of Christ today, thanks to all the teachings that have come to the church lately through your favorite apostles and prophets from down south. The teachers of the modern-era church teach only healing and the general prosperity of the body.

May God give us grace. May He give us grace to stop worrying about our bodies. Indeed, may we move on beyond there and give our bodies to suffer for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[Our love for our bodies is God’s biggest headache]

God’s Hidden Purpose – Part 2

1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye may understand my knowledge in  the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord… Eph. 3:1-11

Who is the apostle, and who is the prophet?

May I start by saying that a true apostle or prophet is rarer than the rarest jewel. If you can find one such person, you will have found the greatest treasure you could possibly find under the sun.

But the Bible paints a frightening picture of the life that this best of the best of God’s array of vessels lives. First, the Chief Apostle, our Lord Jesus Christ, said of Himself:

“The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay down his head.” (Mat. 8:20)

This was in response to a scribe who came running to Him and who asked to be allowed to follow Jesus wherever He would go. Jesus was warning him: “Stay back! Desist! Unless you are willing to lose your life, you cannot follow me.”

They ended up crucifying Jesus Christ.

I once saw a video of some people slaughtering a man for being a Christian. They bound his hands and feet and slaughtered him the way you would slaughter a goat. Hardly something to go running to.

Likewise, the Apostle Paul says of the early apostles:

“For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.” (1 Cor. 4:9)

Notice the range of losses that the apostle has to endure. He is a man “appointed to death… a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.”

In other words, he is not a worldly celebrity.

Paul continues,

“10 We are fools for Christ’s sake… we are weak… we are despised. 11 Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; 12 And labour, working with our hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 13 Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and we are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” (1 Cor. 10-13)

“Even to this present hour”.

Meaning, “Even as I write.” At the time of writing this letter to the Corinthians, Paul was undergoing these things. What a sobering thought.

“Unto this day.”

There is hardly any rest in the flesh for the apostle. Every day his body is pummeled. God uses everything in his power to bring down this man: hunger, thirst, nakedness, beatings. God goes further and attacks this man’s reputation. He casts it down. He has him defamed, and the apostle does not hire a lawyer. Instead he entreats. When he is beaten, he says, “Sorry.” Losing is the only right he has. He knows he is appointed to death.

In Colossians 1:24, Paul writes:

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church”.

Notice the all-important words, “in my flesh”. The word “flesh” here goes much deeper than just the flesh and bones. It talks of self. Paul gave up who he was. Paul’s life was given. He counted himself a dead man. His life was given as a sacrifice. It was given so the Church could be edified.

But more than that is the fact that Paul rejoiced in his sufferings for the Church’s sake. For most of us, the slightest inconvenience on account of the gospel can only be borne under duress! But the true servant of God goes to the slaughter rejoicing, for he knows what his death will bear in the Spirit.

The Church cannot be entrusted to just anyone. Jesus said,

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven…” (Mat. 7:21)

In the same way, not everyone who calls themselves an apostle or prophet is truly one, and God will not entrust them His church. An apostle or prophet should measure themselves by how much they are willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel. God will entrust the Church to men whom He has shaped to love the church as Christ does. The apostles and prophets of God are men who carry the selfless, sacrificial heart of Jesus.

Christ is the supreme example of the kind of dying that his followers are called to, chief of them being the apostles and prophets. We read of His example in Philippians 2:5-9

“5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Jesus started out as God, but He sank lower and lower in esteem till he became nothing.

This is hardly the kind of life anyone would desire. But this is what is needed to bring forth the best out of God’s utmost servants, the apostles and prophets.

[“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” – Rom. 8:18]

A Gospel And A Life – Part 2

1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

When the Apostle Paul set out to write 2 Corinthians chapters 11 to 13, he set out to accomplish the greatest mission of all: to prove how the gospel of Jesus Christ worked in his life. This is the greatest accomplishment that any man can accomplish this side of heaven: proving the gospel of Jesus at work in him. Let us not forget the gospel that Paul preached.

“But we preach Christ crucified…” (1 Cor. 1:23)

Simple and clear. Paul did not preach any other gospel. Paul did not try to bring up any ‘smart’ doctrines or anything to show how clever or intelligent he was. Nor did he try to show how ‘powerful’ he was. Paul wanted to show the power of Christ.

Any other gospel other than the gospel of the cross will produce false ministers of the gospel – the kind of fellows that we talked of in Part 1 – who in turn will turn out unproven Christians under their watch. Paul therefore set out to prove that the gospel of Jesus Christ was at work in his life. He gave the example of his own life as proof that the true gospel of Jesus Christ was working in him.

So how did the gospel work in Paul?

The gospel worked through Paul through weakness!! Hallelujah to that! The gospel worked through Paul allowing himself to become weak. The gospel brought in Paul a broken man. Paul would gladly boast of nothing of himself except his weaknesses.

“… of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.” (2 Cor. 12:5)

The “infirmities” Paul talks about are his sufferings for the sake of the gospel. The sufferings for the sake of the gospel are the mark of a true servant of Jesus Christ.

This is according to God’s will, for Jesus says in Revelation3:19:

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten”.

Paul rejoiced in the rebuke and chastening of the Lord! It was his only joy. That’s so different from us.

Paul lays out his sufferings in 2 Cor. 12:23-33.

“… in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft… 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness… 32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:  33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.”

An apostle let down through a window in a basket!

Paul was hounded and pounded. And here Paul lays down the challenge: “If anyone wants to boast in the Lord, let him boast as I have boasted – in his sufferings for the gospel!” This was proof that Paul was a minister of Jesus Christ.

That seems incredible enough, but what is even more important was the reason for Paul’s sufferings. In Colossians 1:24 Paul talks about the reason he endured his sufferings:

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church”.

This life – laid down on the altar of sacrifice – produced the kind of person that God could use, one that could do the whole will of God. Such an one would love Christ’s church as Christ Himself loved it. Such was the man, Paul. He loved Christ church as Christ Himself loved her and gave himself for her.

In 2 Cor. 12:9, Paul writes:

“… Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

What “power” is Paul talking of here. Is it the power to lord it over God’s people?

No, on the contrary, it is the power to give of his life for God’s people sacrificially. The power to do all he could so that others could be built up in the Spirit. The power to lay down one’s life.

With such a man God was well pleased. Need we wonder, then, why Paul was given the mandate to preach the gospel throughout the known world and to single-handedly write half the entire New Testament?

[Recently sighted…]

“The Sons Of God” – Part 2

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Rom. 8:18-19

Although Adam might have been able to fly, yet, under the New Covenant, we could hardly find time to talk about Adam and his flying skills. On the contrary, we are to look at the heart. Something bad happened with Adam’s heart. And thereafter, grief, sorrow, fear and death reigned over the earth. Whether Adam was able to fly thereafter or not is no more of importance to us.

I truly thank God for the revelation that He has given to the church concerning the heart. Where would we be without this revelation? No doubt we would be preaching the charismatic gospel of material prosperity, et al.

But the Bible says:

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).

I have heard many preachers try to make this scripture to be about the human intellect. But they could hardly be more off-track. This scripture is not talking about the brain. Indeed, no scripture addresses the human intellect. All scripture addresses the heart. All it is saying here is that as a man is in his heart, so is he. As a man is in his heart, so is everything about him.

Elsewhere, the Psalmist wrote:

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Ps. 139:14)

The Psalmist was in the Spirit when he wrote those words. He was not in the flesh. The Psalmist here therefore is talking about the heart. God could hardly be bothered with our bodies the way we are.

In the Bible, we find men and women who had the heart of God. Men like David. And Abigail, among countless others. I have it in my heart to write about these two especially and, God willing, I shall do so within the next few days.

God has given us a heart that is fearfully and wonderfully made. A heart where God can dwell. Through Jesus Christ, our hearts have become the dwelling place of God.

Is that not so wonderful! But for us to arrive at the place where God dwells in our hearts, we have to pay the price. And, pray, what is the price?

The price is to circumcise our hearts. Those are the “sufferings” the Apostle Paul talks of in our key scripture above. Notice,

“we preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23)!

The true gospel of Jesus Christ preaches the singularity of the sufferings and death of Christ through crucifixion. It may not be a “pop” gospel, but it is the true gospel. Any other gospel, any other Jesus, is not genuine and the preaching of such simply draws men and women further from eternal life (2 Cor. 11:4).

In Matthew 16:24, Jesus Himself said,

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

The denial of self and the taking up of our cross is not easy. But there is no different path. The cross makes for a beautiful heart. A beautiful heart, on the other hand, makes the difference in this world – and in the next.

I find myself singularly wanting in any endeavor to do justice to this important subject. What I have written here is my small contribution for now. I pray it might make a difference in the lives of any who read it.

[Man is an incredibly wonderful creation. God intended it to be so. Judge Frank Caprio]

Of Apostles And Prophets – Part 1

1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit (Eph. 3:1-5)

There are certain ‘Christian’ cults that look down on the ministry of the Apostle Paul. They will say, “Talk to me about anything, but not Paul!” For reasons known to them, they just ‘do not like’ his doctrine, and they read his letters just in order to get something to criticize.

Well, I cannot help but feel sorry for them. They are not going to get anywhere with God with that kind of attitude. No one is really going anywhere in the Spirit without at least trying to understand Paul’s doctrine. You cannot make light of someone who wrote more than half the New Testament and hope to understand the littlest thing about the God the Bible is all about.

You cannot make light of someone who made the sacrifices that the Apostle Paul made for the sake of the gospel. He even forsook taking a wife and experiencing the unthinkable pleasures of holding a woman to his bosom. (The Roman Catholic church has tried that and it failed miserably. There are some things you cannot do without understanding what Paul understood).

But the real fact about the Apostle Paul is that it was he who came to reveal, more than anyone else, the end of the writings of the Old Testament and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the life of Paul, as in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, the writings of the Old Testament and the words of Jesus Christ came to be fulfilled. Paul followed hard on the footsteps of his Master.

Jesus told Simon Peter,

“These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.” (Jn. 16:25)

But it was the Apostle Paul to whom the heart of the Father would be revealed to the fullest. The Apostle Peter himself acknowledged this fact.

“15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (2 Pet. 3:15-16)

In verse 16 the Apostle Peter reveals that many would rise up to oppose Paul’s doctrine of the cross.

In the following two posts, I intend to show, through one example each from both the Old Testament and the words of Jesus, how the central message of scripture – to take up our cross and follow Christ – came to be fulfilled in the life of the Apostle Paul.

[Taking a walk in the bush is my favorite pastime. Here, with my friend Dude]

More Than Conquerers!

[This post is an adaptation of a similar post that I wrote a while back. I found it in my drafts this morning and I felt in my spirit that I should re-post it]

 

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 2 Cor. 4:8-10

One time, not too long ago, I was in a jam – financially, spiritually and virtually in every area of my life. Spiritually, I was hanging on by a thread, literally. I couldn’t pray and I couldn’t read my Bible. I would spend all of my devotion time looking into space. The worst time was when it came to ministering in church. I preached while looking at the clock, willing the time to pass quickly.

As my condition worsened, I soon found myself blaming myself for each one of the problems I was facing. As far as I knew I hadn’t done any express sin that warranted this downward spiral in my life. But I couldn’t put my finger on the exact reason nothing seemed to be working in my life. Since I could not find no one to blame for my predicament, I blamed myself.

It was then that the Lord, out of mercy for me, came to my rescue in the most unexpected manner.

Early one morning, a brother 600 miles away called me at 6 o’clock in the morning. For the last three hours, I had been lying on my back worrying about all the problems I was going through. At the exact moment that the brother called me, I was just beginning to doze off in fatigue. You can therefore imagine that I was none too happy as I answered his call.

The brother had never called me that early in the morning, so I thought he had something important to tell me. But, as it turned out, he had absolutely nothing of any importance to tell me. After greeting me (which was the only thing he had called to do), he told me that he was rushing off to his job. He works as a casual construction laborer. Work was hard to find lately, he intimated to me, and life had become extremely hard.

“But”, he concluded brightly, “we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed!” Then he hung up.

It took me a split second to realize that the words this brother had waved me off with were direct scripture. Suddenly, I knew I had just spoken with God; or, rather, God had just spoken to me.

I shot out of bed like a bullet and hit all the lights in the house as I began making a frantic search for my Bible, which since the last Sunday service I had thrown into no-man’s land. When I finally located it, I almost tore out the pages as I feverishly scrambled to find the scripture. Deep in my heart, I knew it was exactly as I had heard it on the phone, but I just had to make double sure!

When I finally found the scripture, I sighed with relief – and unbounded joy! The scripture lay there before me, exactly as the brother had spoken it. I was literally trembling as I read the words.

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed” (2 Cor. 4:8).

I knew, without a doubt, that the Lord was speaking to me. I read the phrase over and over again:

“… troubled on every side”.

“… on every side”.

The joy that Lazarus felt after resurrecting from the dead wouldn’t have lighted a candle to the exhilaration I felt as those words rolled over and over in my heart. On that particular morning, the biggest cloud ever lifted from my shoulders. I felt indescribably free and relieved! I realized the devil had been trying to show me that it was my fault that I was undergoing all these negative situations in my life. But the Lord came to my rescue by showing me through His Word that what I was going through was the perfectly normal Christian life! Trouble on every side!

“… troubled on every side”.

That talks of the many enemies that we have in the spirit world.

As I read on further, I realized this suffering was for a purpose.

“9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”

It is for a purpose that we undergo these low times in our lives. God wants to deal with our flesh, to the end that the spiritual life of Christ might be manifested in us.

But, as you might imagine, the flesh is totally against this state of affairs occurring in our lives. Much of the time, it is like we want to have a ‘hedge fund’ in our spiritual lives. It is like we want to have the rights to lots and lots of breathing space. Somehow, it has been psyched into our minds that the Christian life ought to be a trouble-free life and that, at the very worst, God allows us to encounter only a few teeny weeny problems which we can easily brush aside while sucking on our chocolate bars.

But the Bible doesn’t say that. On the contrary, it says that we shall be “troubled on every side”!

Jesus Himself said,

“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (Jn. 16:33)

That is the greatest promise that we can hinge our hope on. He has overcome the world; and He lives in us. What a combination! No wonder the Apostle Paul, after listing many of the enemies that we shall encounter, concludes:

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom. 8:37).

Yes, in the face of much spiritual opposition, we are more than conquerers. What an incredible realization!

[Memories…]

Choosing The Cross

7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job 2:7-10

Sometimes we look at the Word of God and we think, “That’s easy. I can do that.”

But it is impossible to see, much less do, the will or plan of God. It is only when we have been granted grace by God Himself that we can do His will.

So we can see that Job was granted the grace to see and do God’s will. He told his wife:

“What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Job, full of the grace of God, realized that ‘evil’ is a part and parcel of the life that a spiritual person must pass through.

The Spirit-less man only wants the good things of this life. That is why the charismatic gospel is so popular. It is popular because people do not like the spiritual life, with all the suffering it entails. But the charismatic gospel has destroyed people’s spiritual lives. Under this gospel, people go to church to be blessed, to receive financial, material and physical blessings.

It is true that when our Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, He gave all those blessings. But one day, He turned to the very people He had been giving these things and we read in John 6:53:

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”

Jesus was speaking about sharing in His sufferings and death! He was telling the Jews, “You must partake of my sufferings and death to become true children of God as I am.”

And this was what Job saw in the Spirit. And this formed the basis of His faith. That is why Job’s book is called The Book of Job, and not the Book of Job and his Wife. Job’s wife did not see what Job saw in the Spirit.

It is a grace to see

“Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)

This is something that the flesh cannot comprehend. That is why we must beware in our spirits when all we want is the good life; and we cannot see God’s hand when suffering is allowed into our lives.

It is a grace from God to share in the sufferings of Christ. This is what forms the basis of  our spiritual lives.

The good life is only a shell of the real spiritual life that we ought to live.

[For Sandra]

Christ Crucified – A Heavenly Visitation

10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 1 Pet. 1:10-12
One day, my wife and I were recalling a certain man of God, well known the world over through his ministry who, a few years back, had graced our annual CTMI (www.ctmi.org) conference in Mauritius.
My wife asked me, “Did you ever hear of that man again?”
I answered, “No.”
“You mean he never came back again?” she persisted.
“I think so”, I said.
The significance of what we had just spoken sank deep into us and we both fell silent. It dawned on us that this man had been unable to grasp the import of the gospel of the cross. It dawned on us even further how difficult and, in some cases, how downright impossible it is for the great men of God in this world to see in the Spirit “Jesus Christ, and him crucified”.
Scripture tells us that the prophets of old “enquired and searched diligently… of the grace that should come to”… us!
The prophets of old were great men in the Spirit. They saw and heard in the Spirit that “which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:4).
Moreover, these men performed great and powerful miracles in the Name of the Lord. These were truly powerful men in the Spirit. Also, they underwent some of the most severe sufferings in order to bring God’s vision to fruition in our lives. And yet these men and women were denied the right to understand or experience the grace that is ours today. What a powerful realization!
But that is not all. God’s Word tells us something even more awe-inspiring about the grace that is ours today:
“…which things the angels desire to look into”.
Angels are heavenly spiritual beings. They are unparalleled in power and might and wisdom. But here the Bible declares that they long to “look into” the grace that we are experiencing today.
What does scripture mean by “angels desire to look into”?
It means that God’s holy angels desire to understand, or experience the grace that can be found in the crucified life. This understanding makes us to realize that the crucified life the highest manner of life that can be lived on earth and in heaven. That is why Jesus is so exalted, because He was able to live the crucified life.
The revelation of a crucified life is the privilege that God has reserved for all who will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an indescribable privilege to be able to understand “Jesus Christ, and him crucified” Herein, in the crucified life, lies the measureless grace of God in its entirety, and God’s glory also (1 Pet. 1:11).
That is why the Apostle Paul declares that when he went to the Corinthians, he “determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)
Why should he? Paul had seen in the Spirit the glory of this privilege, and he was not about to play games with it.
But this is also a glory that has bypassed the great men and women of God in this world. For only the humble in heart can experience the crucified life and the grace and the glory to be found therein.
The Apostle Peter therefore shows those of us who have seen this glory of the crucified life and who have allowed themselves to be under the hand of God the great responsibility that we have:
“13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Pet. 1:13-17).