Your Adversity - Why me?
Your Day of Adversity
I believe that “adversity” and trouble are G-d's remedy for a sin sick soul. Adversity trains us in righteousness. Adversity is G-d's weapon to chasten the natural man (the flesh) that is still trying to rest control of our walk with His Son.
Adversity makes us look up and moves us to cry out to heaven for guidance. A cry for His wisdom comes from the heavens – the very heights of glory -- and changes us on the inside and it changes our circumstances.
Obedience to Our Lord's strategically-ordained adversity is essential in our pilgrimage to the celestrial city. Christ ordained adversity illuminates His Path and righteousness; and it also reveals to others His light within us so we begin to shine brighter and brighter.
Without adversity we will not become the soldiers that we must be in order to win the war we are guaranteed to win if just fight on. Plain and simple – it is G-d's training ground for glory.
Without adversity we will not become men and women of faith. Without adversity we will not learn the art of perseverance. Without adversity we can offer no real value to the world we are called to serve.
To learn more of how to move through adversity under the Spirit's leadership, let us look briefly into the life of Paul and study how he handled the adversity of being shipwrecked as a prisoner of Rome. The apostle was stoned, beaten with rods, starved, and imprisoned on many different occassions and in many different places.
In the case of being shipwrecked, Paul fell into this circumstance by carrying forward a long appeal process to the highest authority of the Roman empire – Caesar.
Under the government of G-d, Paul also accomplished this activity under public scutiny. Paul responded to his calling by the edict of the Risen Christ he sought to destroy by simple obedience. After all, Our Lord told Paul that he would suffer many things for Him.
Acts 9:16 “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake."
This Dramatic Encounter was ordained by Christ and it was also to be completed by the sovereign hand of Christ. As a servant of His message, Paul was sanctioned by King Jesus to speak directly to the world power brokers, a very tough assisgnment considering the fact they have huge power and live very deep in idolatry.
What was at stake? Nothing less then the unmitigated glory of Christ's everlasting kingdom and authority.
Paul, like us, must declare that Jesus Christ is the “real” King of the earth. That He has risen from the grave, and in doing so, has defeated the power of death. Paul's life of adversity, managed by the grace of Christ, testified of His Power every day since Paul faced Him on the road to Damascus.
Paul's adversity gradually broke his stoney and hard religious heart as grace on top of grace fell deeper and deeper into the depths of his heart. It also revealed that he had actually heard the voice of Jesus of Nazareth in the Hebrew dialect, AND, for sure, revealed that he truly saw His Glory. For Paul to endure such hardship for so long revealed that the Glory of Jesus face outshined the false dieties of the Roman empire and the bitterness of a Pharisaical system in major decline.
Paul's earlier missionary journeys were full of preaching and discipling, miraculous signs and wonders, all of that manifested Christ's kingly authority. But Paul's endurance also bears the same testimony, his willingness to persevere through arduous obedience established the first century church. His work is indeed part of the foundation of the church today.
When Paul was most restricted in preaching publicly, in this imprisonment season, Paul was still very much doing the will of G-d, while public ministry was far behind in the rear view mirror, his purposeful determination to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit shined brightly. Without adversity we will not become men and women of faith. Without adversity we will not learn the art of perseverance. Without adversity we can offer no real value to the world we are called to serve.
To learn more of how to move through adversity under the Spirit's leadership, let us look briefly into the life of Paul and study how he handled the adversity of being shipwrecked as a prisoner of Rome. The apostle was stoned, beaten with rods, starved, and imprisoned on many different occassions and in many different places.
In the case of being shipwrecked, Paul fell into this difficult circumstance by carrying forward a long appeal process to the highest authority of the Roman empire – Caesar.
Under the government of the Holy Spirit, Paul accomplished this activity under negative public scutiny. Paul didn't care about his PR problems, rather he lovingly responded to his heavenly calling by heeding the edict of the Risen Christ, a Messianic leader he sought to destroy just a few years earlier. Paul was prepared for these kind of days because Our Lord told Paul that he would suffer many things for Him at the very outset of his journey with Christ.
The Lord told Ananias to tell Paul these words in Acts 9:16, “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake."
This Dramatic Encounter was ordained by Christ and it would be powerfully completed by the wise and sovereign hand of Christ. As a submitted servant of His message, Paul was sanctioned by King Jesus to speak directly to world power brokers, a very tough assisgnment when these power brokers have huge power and live deep in idolatry, and the idea of a resurrected rabbi was quite ludicrous, especially since the emperor decided upon his extermination.
What was at stake? The unmitigated glory of His everlasting kingdom and authority.
That Jesus Christ is the only anointed and therefore “real” King of the earth. He has risen from the grave, and in doing so, has defeated soundly the power of death. Paul life of adversity, managed by the grace of Christ testified of His Power every day.
Paul's adversity gradually broke his stoney and hard religious heart. Revealed that he had actually heard the voice of Jesus of Nazareth in the Hebrew dialect. AND revealed in his pain and sorrow that he truly saw His Glory and it outshined the false dieties of the Roman empire and the bitterness of a Pharisaical system in major decline.
Paul's earlier missionary journeys were full of preaching and discipling, miraculous signs and wonders, all of it manifested Christ's kingly authority. These faithful acts of obedience established churches all over the known world.
But in this current season, Paul's opportunities to preach were very limited. In this imprisonment season, Paul was still very much doing the will of G-d, while public ministry was far behind in the rear view mirror. In this season suffering in a jail cell and waiting for G-d's open door was the byproduct of His calling as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Your Day of Adversity
I believe that “adversity” and trouble are G-d's remedy for a sin sick soul. Adversity trains us in righteousness. Adversity is G-d's weapon to chasten the natural man (the flesh) that is still trying to rest control of our walk with His Son.
Adversity makes us look up and moves us to cry out to heaven for guidance. Wisdom only comes from the heavens – the very heights of glory.
Obedience to Our Lord's strategically-ordained adversity is essential in our pilgrimage to the celestrial city. Christ ordained adversity illuminates His Path and righteousness; and it also reveals to others His light within us so we begin to shine brighter and brighter.
Without adversity we will not become the soldiers that we must be in order to win the war we are guaranteed to win if just fight on. Plain and simple – it is G-d's training ground for glory.
Without adversity we will not become men and women of faith. Without adversity we will not learn the art of perseverance. Without adversity we can offer no real value to the world we are called to serve.
To learn more of how to move through adversity under the Spirit's leadership, let us look briefly into the life of Paul and study how he handled the adversity of being shipwrecked as a prisoner of Rome. The apostle was stoned, beaten with rods, starved, and imprisoned on many different occassions and in many different places.
In the case of being shipwrecked, Paul fell into this circumstance by carrying forward a long appeal process to the highest authority of the Roman empire – Caesar.
Under the government of G-d, Paul also accomplished this activity under public scutiny. Paul responded to his calling by the edict of the Risen Christ he sought to destroy by simple obedience. After all, Our Lord told Paul that he would suffer many things for Him.
Acts 9:16 “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake."
This Dramatic Encounter was ordained by Christ and it was to be completed by the sovereign hand of Christ. As a servant of His message, Paul was sanctioned by King Jesus to speak directly to the world power brokers, a very tough assisgnment when they have huge power and live deep in idolatry.
What was at stake? The unmitigated glory of His everlasting kingdom and authority.
That Jesus Christ is the only anointed and therefore “real” King of the earth. He has risen from the grave, and in doing so, has defeated soundly the power of death. Paul life of adversity, managed by the grace of Christ testified of His Power every day.
Paul's adversity gradually broke his stoney and hard religious heart. Revealed that he had actually heard the voice of Jesus of Nazareth in the Hebrew dialect. AND revealed in his pain and sorrow that he truly saw His Glory and it outshined the false dieties of the Roman empire and the bitterness of a Pharisaical system in major decline.
Paul's earlier missionary journeys were full of preaching and discipling, miraculous signs and wonders, all of it manifested Christ's kingly authority. These faithful acts of obedience established churches all over the known world.
But in this current season, Paul's opportunities to preach were very limited. In this imprisonment season, Paul was still very much doing the will of G-d, while public ministry was far behind in the rear view mirror. In this season suffering in a jail cell and waiting for G-d's open door was the byproduct of His calling as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Just plain and simple generic endurance was his heavenly commission. During this season we can sense the burden of Paul to continue to edify the church by writing letters and through prayer. I believe that Paul made the most of this season by using the most powerful weapon available to him -- intercessory prayer. Something that I personally am not embracing as ought.
From Paul's life we learn that his chains were completely in accordance with G-d's plan for his life. Paul's chains fell upon him by irtue of Paul's ardent desire to appeal to Caesar in order to gain freedom from the charge of insurrection to Roman supremacy which was falsely set forth by his old pharisee buddies.
As a Roman citizen Paul had rights, he used these rights to promote Christ's kingdom. As a Roman citizen, Paul had the privilege to take his case to his emperor.
Are we willing to take our case for truth and justice all the way to our Supreme court, Congress, or the White House?
In Paul's appeal to Caesar gambit, he put his life quite evidently in the hands of His G-d, he walked in the path set for him by Jesus, a path marked with suffering and human abandonment.
Why would a loving Heavenly Father, who loves us so passionately in Christ, put a man like Paul in a place of hardship? If you read carefully Paul's appeal process, you will be astonished at the pain he suffered just because he pressed his case to the meet directly with the emperor of Rome.
This effort would meet with several untimely and painful delays that would last for years, cause him to be in the center of political gamesmanship, and force him to be in the center of harrowing near death experiences at sea.
In order to obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and to move His kingdom message forward in the world, Paul moved into this kind of trouble without reservation, and so should we.
The Lord confirmed his word that Paul would make it alive to Rome. Even to the point of resisting the words of warning by the Holy Spirit from every church even in Ephesus, Paul made this plea to the church:
Acts 20:24 “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”
Paul settled on Christ's word over his entire life. Are we clear headed about our calling in Christ? Let me warn some of you who have had encounters with Christ beyond the normal experience, you will be tested at a higher level then your brothers and sisters in the church. You will have to remember over and over again who it was that called you.
Like Paul, who simply put his trust in the Lord who he personally wanted to see dead in Jerusalem at the time of His actual crucifixion. Paul knew G-d would meet him in time space history and keep him all the way through this incredibly scary journey to Rome, just as Jesus released His plans and desires into the hands of His heavenly Father.
Again for Paul this meant spending the winter on the open seas and on a half deserted island called Malta... a place where a church still exists today.
At the core of his being, Paul embraced his sonship in the Father's love and his position as an heir of the everlasting kingdom of heaven, and so must we, if we endure our days of adversity and hardship to promote Christ's kingdom in times of civil and religious opposition to Christ's message of salvation through His cross.
In this epic journey to Rome, Paul faced, with his fellow prisoners and their captors, amazing adversity in the harbors and seas maintained by the Roman empire. By making his case in the manner Paul chose, he selected the path that brought the most exposure to his message, and to the highest ranking authority in the world. But at the same time increased exponentially his trouble.
This kind of adversity was foretold by our Lord when He instructed his disciples to expect trouble and to prepare their hearts not to speak of the own accord, but rather to trust in the Holy Spirit to give them the words the Lord wanted his Spirit led leaders to say to the leaders of the earth realm.
Luke 21:12-15 -- The Lord's gave us His plan to spread His Word to the leaders of the political and religious structures, “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So you will make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.”
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Have you ever put this promise to the test? If you have it will change your life.
Or are you tempted to be like most modern day American believers? Have you just passed by this portion of scripture and viewed it as irrelevant to you? Reserved just for the superstars of the faith? There is no one who is in the “faith” hall of fame that felt they were the capable of handling the realities of being witnesses of His resurrection. They, like all of us, were frail humans overwhelmed with a powerful message to share.
But they had an encounter with the risen Christ and it changed them forever.
If the church today doesn't assimilate this adverse tolerant Christ-like attitude of Paul and the rest of the 1st century disciples, we will never bring the church of Jesus back to the ancient landmarks of our apostolic heritage.
It is truly a good thing that the grace required to accomplish this great work belongs to G-d, and still, all of us will be held accountable to what He has revealed.
Our sin sick culture and church will continue to languish in unbelief, carnality, and idolatry unless a few of us step into the kind of adversity that Paul willingly endured. If we don't, we will never see a real sustainable forward movement in the American church in our time. a
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How did we conveniently let all the adventure associated with the apostolic way stay stuck in the Biblical narrative or locked in the pages of church history?
Why do we so easily release our minds and hearts to assume that these kinds of adverse situations are for believers stuck in repressive Muslim regimes or in some totalitarian regimes as we have witnessed in China over the past several decades?
If we don't realize that Rome is burning already and that we christians are to be blamed. The world hates us and wants to destroy the remnant of Christ on the earth. We all are headed toward an epic encounter with Christ who is about to return from the throne of Glory. His will is that we move our world toward Him before it is too late!!
The day of movement toward Christ's will has come, my friends, it is here and we have been summoned to stand up and face the many days of adversity are ahead. This call has been purposely designed by our G-d to bring His people together and usher in His powerful end time move to gather the harvest of souls spoken of in the later half of the book of Revelation.
Rev. 14:14-16 “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud.” Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe."
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The Bible tells us in Prov. 24:10, “if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
Rejection from your church culture.
The ravages of domestic unrest.
Separation and brokenness in your family relationships for the cause of Christ.
Forsaken by past friends.
Missed opportunities for advancement in your business because of your zealous and sincere faith.
Setbacks in your pursuit of some temporal comforts just because you committed yourself diligently to obey the call of G-d on your life.
All these mark the way of Christ-ordained adversity – prepare or fail!
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I have found that no matter how hard I work at avoiding trouble it just seems to be unavoidable. That strange and very weird discord rises up to “sully” your good reputation and all we can do is smile.
But what is a good “reputation” worth anyway? Show me a leader in any era who didn't have naysayers lining his way.... and I will show you a man or woman who didn't really foster the changes that Our Lord desired.
One man's saint is another man's devil!!
More attacks then you can handle will come against your character and you will not able to defend them all.
The cutting and searing pain of being disowned by your denominational family is part and parcel of any intervention of heaven in the soul of a man or woman. These types of adversity are the forms of resistance perfectly designed by Our Father to prepare us to handle the “real” adversity associated with being a christian in the very tough days that lie ahead.
In the end, you and I are going to die some way, why don't we release that our minds and bodies have been given to us for one purpose --- to do the will of G-d!
The question I have been laboring to answere is are you and I really preparing our minds for conflict with the world system?
Are we thinking and acting like soldiers of Jesus Christ?
Are we preparing a very real yet invisible angelic army to work for us because of our faithfulness and our cries to heaven?
Are we preparing to wage war against the antichrist system?
As soldiers of the cross we must be in the mindset of releasing our lives to do the will of heaven. No matter the cost.
If we fail to prepare our hearts and minds, we will faint in the day of adversity. Most of us have small strength, but this is not our Lord's desire for us. We need much more strength to face the challenges ahead.
Until we, as American born again believers, get to the point where we put everything aside and face the Lord in complete honesty and say to the Lord, “do whatever it takes to get us free from our idols and our complacency,”
Lead us BACK to the paths that make the most impact on our needy culture. I have recorded a powerpoint presentation on this blog site that you can go through that explains our personal struggle to do what I am encouraging you to do.
So much is accomplished in our musing of our heartfelt love for God, more then we will ever know here on earth. We are here to inspire a generation to say in the collective, “I will follow you wherever and whenever.” Until this happens, we will not see any change in our culture and in the life of the body of Christ.
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On a personal note, the reason I feel such an intimate connection with hardcore heavy metal music is that the music is sincere and honest with our times. The sound picture that these spirit-led artists paint is in-line with our real situation today in our very decadent America.
These heavy high tempo rhythms seem to connect with Our Lord's passion to call sinners Himself.
Our preaching has been pretty dull and lifeless over the last few decades, so a new sound is required to instigate the necessary awakening for the rising generation. If we are honest we have to admit that most evangelical churches are dead!
In light of this reality, a heavy and hard sound of war is required to wake the youth of our times. The rising generation that dances and jumps for the cause of Christ are designed to inspire a generation to enter into battle, not sit on the sidelines. To have something to really die for, not a war over resources or so-called freedom, but a call to prepare the earth for it's King!
Won't you come and join us?
We are not allowed the luxury of raising another consumer generation in the walls of our churches, a montra is enjoined, “no more pew sitting believers allowed!”
We at LLI Fellowship resolve to teach the rising generation while we work side by side with them to build the kingdom of heaven. All this can be can be done on the inside and outside of the walls of what we call “church”, to find the lost and broken we must go to their place of pain and meet them where they are at!!
We are determined to restore the ruins of the church of America.
We are part of the slide to Gomorrah, we must note quite clearly the pathetic work we have done to recreate a gospel without cost and without adversity. We declare it dead to us!
We cry, “shame on us” for leading two generations of christians down the path of ease and in turn have inspired a spiritual malaise of christianity without cost.
The enemy has reeked havoc while we were sleeping. We must recapture the warrior mentality that was deeply woven into the fabric of 1st century faith.
We see this reality played out so evidently in the account of Paul's intense very long voyage to Rome as represented in Luke's account of the voyage in Acts 27:1 – 28:16.
Please take the time to read carefully through this account.
If you have experience at sailing it will read like a nautical nightmare. So many hard decisions had to be made by experienced sea captains that turned out bad. The account includes a massive northeaster that blew hurricane strength winds and buffeted a very large ship to the center of the Mediterranean Sea for weeks and weeks.
The tale of Paul sea struggles would rival the struggle depicted in the “Master and Commander” movie and could make a great story for a full Hollywood production. But for what motivation? A small deminuative man named Saul, who became Paul, changed the landscape of human history and human government.
We have much intricate detail that allows us entrance into the account written by the hand of Luke. It is this journey and it's ultimate purpose that have motivated me and my family to face more intently our personal battle to follow Our Lord's leading.
We are encouraged at each difficult turn that we are part of a plan to bring change, even when we feel stuck. The apostle Peter exhorted us in I Pet. 4:1, “Therefore since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.”
To summarize a very long account, our hero Paul was held in prison for two years as a political prisoner. The newly installed governor of the region, Festus, sought to please the Jews in his province by keeping Paul bound and out of public eye. The Jews used their political leverage on Festus to set Paul up for assassination. The plot to kill Paul was uncovered so Festus went to Caesarea to see Paul personally.
Festus pompous arrival was arranged and Paul was released to speak directly to Festus. In Paul's defense, he demanded to be heard by Caesar, Festus responded with these words, “You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.” Acts 25:12.
If Paul did not appeal to Caesar, he would have never had to endure a very long and dangerous 1500 mile wild sea journey to Rome.
The words Paul would say to King Agrippa and eventually to Caesar were more powerful then 1000 nuclear missiles.
More persuasive then the rhetoric of our greatest political leaders. The words that Paul spoke were Holy Spirit words and they still are making an impact on our world today.
Paul's appeal can be linked the downfall of the Roman empire in the late 400's.
Inspired the inauguration of the catholic church three centuries later.
Also inspired “The Reformation” almost 1500 years later. Has numerous flongs of men and women to take major risk in maritime travel to foreign nations to savage natives out of love to them their Lord Jesus. To spread Christ's message of love and grace to those who have never heard. Paul's words of testimony were and are important to all of us, even to those who refused to believe them.
To Paul this was just a matter of course, all in the way of following the Lord's directive to take the gospel of kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth. As a servant of that message and as His apostle, Paul went where he was told, no pretense, just a simple obedience.
Paul's missionary journeys went as G-d had arranged beforehand. Paul came out as the leader of this epic voyage to safety. He began the journey as a simple political prisoner with no clout. By the time they were to find refuge on the shore of the small island of Malta, the pilot of the ship would look to Paul for nautical advice. All of the voyagers would have died had not Paul been aboard his ship.
We learn that only when things get real bad did these hardened sailors listen and do what Paul encouraged them to do to avoid a watery death.
They were trapped in G-d's powerful grip. Whether Paul spoke of angels or encounters with Jesus of Nazareth, their desperate condition made for an occasion for these pagen unbelievers to listen. So it will be for us when circumstances dictate for a faith-filled and calm Spirit-led approach.
After every person of the ship's 276 passengers were saved at sea, making their safe landing by floating on pieces of the ship that had run aground a mile from the beaches of Malta, did they really see the glory of G-d in Paul's life and ministry.
You might be led to believe that just surviving horrible storms and cold wintery nights was enough hardship for one voyager, but when our hero of faith was finally safe on the island of Malta, a poisonous viper still makes a vain but real effort to kill our hero by means of a venomous attack on Paul's arm. Paul shook the viper from his arm and suffered no injury.
The natives were so impressed they wanted to make Paul a god after he showed no ill effect from the encounter with this known killer.
Our foe, Satan, never stops badgering us or the Paul's of our time. Even after so much torment at sea, Satan didn't end his onslaught, not until Paul was gone from planet earth, did Satan end his attacks on our hero.
Paul's G-d, and ours, continues to supply the answers to every effort of the evil one to destroy us and our witness of G-d's grace as ministers of the gospel of Christ.
We must realize that in our adversity, the Lord will make an occasion to testify of the power of G-d's grace in our witness too. He will use us to declare His power over all other powers in the world.
When we see a world at war. Or another version of the Bubonic Plague. The impending destruction of nuclear war. Anarchy in our streets. Economic devastation, in all these hard circumstances we must know that our adversity is happening within the boundaries of G-d's supreme care and control over our lives.
We are assured that in the way of obedience we will face much adversity. But we face our adversities “in G-d's sovereign care”, and with our G-d sovereign intent to mold us into His agents of change.
Ultimately the clear intent of our adversities is to ruin us, but the Lord will raise us up with Him and present us spotless before His throne. Only in that day, when all men will face most preeminently the reality of Jesus Christ presence and power face-to-face will we be vindicated.
What a day that will be.
Face the Lord today and give him your heart, no matter what happens next in our service to Him just stay glued to Him.
As you endure by faith, you never know how powerful your simple public endurance in your day of adversity will reshape human history.
Paul did not have a clue how impactful his appeal to Caesar would reshape the world he would soon leave behind.
Many Blessings,
Jonathan
In : Christian Suffering
Tags: adversity ""your adversity for christ"" overcoming faith walk service to christ unity body of christ ""preparing the body of christ""
Our call is to be true "christ" ians. Those little christ's who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Who spread God's fame by proclaiming His message of reconciliation to our world. Playing our part in the epic work of the regathering of the Body of Christ in the Last Days.
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