"The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction"
-Charles H. Spurgeon We endure different types of challenges that illustrates how, as followers of Christ, we need times of preparation that stretches us and strengthens our faith. Just like going to the gym to gain physical strength, the Lord will take us to His "gym" in the wilderness to help us gain spiritual muscle. It's in the wilderness where our spirit becomes strong because it's a place (not only of dryness and crying out "God where are you?!", but it's a place of trials and temptations. The good news is that even though the wilderness is difficult and very challenging at times, we must remember who is pulling for us to lift the weight during our spiritual strength training.
If God is for us, who can ever be against us? (Romans 8:31). God isn't just pulling for us, but He also makes a firm promise, " You can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand." (1 Corinthians 10:13 NCV)
No matter what test or trial we are facing in life, God promises us that we will never be in a position to be tempted that we don't have the strength to get through successfully. I love the way JB talks about this next part. He expresses how amazing it is when we think about what we are going through. As we face trials, we should never forget who we are. As a beloved child of God, Jesus says, " Behold I give you authority.. over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). And so we realize that no matter what the enemy throws at us, we can overcome it. If not, God wouldn't permit it.
This can be a difficult thing to process especially when we think about our loved ones who weren't saved from their "trial", healed from their sickness, or saved from passing away especially if they were young. I had difficulty processing the passing of my sister. I still have difficulty with this reality but I've been able to reach a point of realization that we (growing believers) each have a purpose in this life even when we aren't given a timeline to reach our golden years. The faith testing can be for the person directly affected, those in connection to that person, or even for both.
In the thought process of the flesh/world, it's tempting to question God's promise in Luke 10 for me in regards to what happened to my sister. If God promises that nothing by any means should hurt me, and if we aren't able to overcome, God wouldn't permit it, then why did He allow my sister to pass? I was heartbroken, broken, hurt. I didn't know how I was going to get through this reality that just occurred in my life. It didn't seem I could overcome. I entered a moment of darkness, anger, hate, and doubt. How is it possible I was going to overcome this?
Flipping the thought process to the spirit/kingdom, the temptation to question God's promise becomes irrelevant. God gives us, over all the power of the enemy, that nothing shall by any means hurt us. Thinking in the mindset of a believer, God protects us from the things that can hurt us spiritually. God permits certain testing and trials in our lives because we can overcome. In order for us to overcome, we are given the strength training in our lives to grow. Now, I'm not saying God will throw us every bad and depressing situation our way, but we will constantly be tested in this life in order for us to build the strength in our faith, grow in our salvation, to genuinely figure out where we stand spiritually.
Now, this becomes difficult and where problems can lie. Many do not grow in their ability to handle greater challenges. There's a tendency to avoid the challenge and begin to whine and complain. Yet Paul illustrates a totally different attitude. He writes: " For to you it has been grated on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." (Philippians 1:29)
Does it make you a bit confused when you read that suffering has been "granted" to us? Saying something has been "granted" to you seems more of a positive situation coming rather an a negative. How can "granted" and "suffering" be in the same sentence? This I wondered for awhile when my sister passed away. I thought to myself how and why would I be granted such a suffering? Did I do something wrong in life? Was God not really there? The reason why "granted" and "suffering" don't make sense to most of our perspectives and understanding is because the life we desire in a modern country like the United States is one of comfort and relative ease. So being granted "suffering" messes with our minds and are ability to see the Joy in the situation, the true blessing in the suffering.
Most of us when encountering adversity will rapidly say things like, "I can't believe this is happening to me", "Why is this happening to me", "Why do I have to go through this", and many other things. I'm sure there are times we all have either thought or expressed this type of attitude when facing adversity, and it is unfortunate that many times, we do not understand the purpose of trials and suffering (like the wilderness journey).
When I look back on how my responses were similar to the ones previously stated, I am convicted and embarrassed of the fact that I did not know better during the difficult times faced when my sister was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. I had anger, lack of faith and understanding of trials, the knowledge of the purpose of trials. Living in a modern country with comfort and relative ease, the experience of trials is not seen the way it should be. We take for granted that we do have comfort and ease in our lives in compared to those in other countries and yet our faith is much lower than those who are suffering tremendously in other counties. While others see the blessing amidst the trial, we just see suffering in the trial.
This is a hard understanding to grasp especially if the understanding and concept of God and His ways still sits in grey area territory. Dependence on forgiveness, knowledge of Him, attending service to cross it off the weekly list. When there is true relationship with God and a constant urge to be close to Him, the suffering will be more understandable. We will see the importance out of the tragedy rather than the unfortunate events that occur. We will see what true relationship and kingdom character we need to have in order to get to our final destination in heaven.
God knows what we need, and what strength we need in order to build up to have greater effectiveness for His kingdom's efforts. So, this is why Paul informs us of God's promise that some strategic suffering to increase our faith muscles is "going to be granted". I can say for sure my faith muscle has increased. I didn't understand why it seemed God wasn't hearing our prayers or hers, why my sister had to get cancer, why it seemed a miracle couldn't be given to her. But that is all the mindset of our flesh. How the world views death and challenges. In tuning into the kingdom mindset, so much clarity was given to me. Without my sister passing away, I don't know if my spiritual life and the faith and knowledge I have now on God would be the same.
My sister was ready spiritually. She was ready for whatever situation she was going to face. She was a great example of the kingdom character that we must all get to. I'm not saying my sister was perfect, none of us are; however, we must have the mindset to want to reach perfection in God. the spiritual muscle that God worked in me was clarity. Instead of seeing death occur over my sister, I now see life. Yes, she was taken from us too soon in this world, but in the kingdom sense, she had truly obtained everything necessary for the kingdom. In what I and many have seen, she reached the perfection of God's intention for us kingdom believers. In my flesh, I was angry at God and at one point didn't think He existed. But, by the grace of God and my heart still having a piece of not wanting to walk away from the Lord, I found peace, comfort, and understanding.
During the time of Christ, many who followed Him died young. Jesus himself lived to about 33 years old when He was crucified. My point in saying this, isn't about how we all should die young. My point is that leaving this world early is a tragedy (in the worldly sense); however, when the person who left or even ourselves depart from the world early, we will be at peace and thanksgiving when we know they are kingdom children and we ourselves are walking hand in hand with God daily. For we have been given the promise to see each other again in the presence of our Father.
As mentioned earlier by John, part of our wilderness strength training includes growing in our ability to recognize and resist temptation. Jesus experienced this early in His ministry when God permitted the devil to tempt Him: "The Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil" (Luke 4:1-2 NKJV). Now John, stated that he carefully chose the word "permitted" because God is never the author of temptation: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone" (James 1:13 NKJV).
So what really occurs when we are tempted? We know that Satan has intentions to cause us to fall into sin and, as a result, move us away from our joyful obedience and relationship with God. So, if Satan wants that as a result of his temptation, what is God seeking by allowing us to be tempted? The apostle Peter provides this insight: "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (1 Peter 4:1 NKJV). What Peter is saying is that this testing through temptation, this conquering of sin and other issues in our wilderness journey, is to help us build up our spiritual muscle and become increasingly mature. In this verse, the key words are "arm yourselves."
Can you imagine a military unit going into battle without being armed? That would be a disaster. That is the same kind of disaster a Christ follower faces when they are not armed to suffer, when they are not armed for trials. Commercial airline pilots are a good example of those who are armed for a possible test. Every six months, the airline sends them for recurrent training. These pilots have to go into a simulator and respond effectively to every imaginable worst-case scenario. What is intended is the strengthening of each pilot's ability to know how to handle an emergency situation. Typically in an airline crisis, the passengers (who are definitely not armed) are reacting, while the pilot is acting. Why? Because the pilot has been armed.
That is what the wilderness does for an obedient Christian. It confronts us with adversity that serves to arm us for future conquests. We need to realize that adversity, the wilderness journey, is going to happen to us. Jesus said in this world we're going to face troubles and tribulation, but He will help us overcome them. And in this process, we will be strengthened.
Our mindset towards our wilderness journey should be to see it as a great opportunity to build spiritual muscle, to get stronger for what the Lord wants to give us next. The apostle James says: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity.. (James 1:2). Now, if you've read this far in this entry and you classify yourself as a kingdom/Christ follower and yet you still have doubts or you do not have the willingness to accept the reason and process of building spiritual muscle; then, I would truly suggest you take time to dig deeper into God's Word, open your heart and mind to receive the knowledge and wisdom, and to see if you are truly wanting to be part of God's kingdom or if you're still resting on His forgiveness and knowledge that because you've accepted Christ in your life, THAT'S IT. Because, accepting Christ into your life as your Lord and savior is the first step. Asking for forgiveness is the second, but there are many more steps to take to obtain true citizenship in the Kingdom.
Resting in God's forgiveness isn't enough. Just like we work hard in our jobs for a promotion, we too need to do that in the kingdom. If we do not accept the guidelines, responsibilities, and efforts we need to follow in our jobs, or work hard and elevate ourselves in our jobs, how will get a promotion? In the same way in the Kingdom, what makes you think not doing the same as a Christian will give you a promotion to get to go to heaven?
So going back to considering troubles of any kind an opportunity, all of us should understand opportunity especially with knowledge of all of these entrepreneurs. An opportunity in business, for example, is a chance to grow, succeed, to prosper. It's a chance to expand our horizons. And that's exactly the way troubles are to be viewed, because James goes on to say, "For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let is grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing" (James 1:3-4). And that, dear readers, closed the confusion, anger, and hate I had towards God about my sister. My sister reflected this throughout her Cancer journey. She reflected this verse in the moments when most of us would turn our backs on God. Her endurance was fully developed that she was perfect and complete, needing nothing.
The wants of her still being here was not of spiritual reason but of physical. Of course, I don't want her to be gone yet. I long for her daily, I long for her presence all the time and the ability to converse with her still and do things together until we are old. But that is not the situation I am in. Turning the mindset around from sad to amazed, I was blessed to directly see what a true child of Christ is. Her faith did not waver, she did not fall into temptation of turning away from God, she continued to strengthen and encourage those around her despite her adversity. Her spiritual muscles have been fully strengthened that she obtained the true blessing of perfection and completeness. There was nothing more she needed to do here on earth to fulfill the requirements of citizenship for the kingdom.
So here it is: In any trial we face, God allows these hardships for a purpose, and that purpose is to produce capacity, God will permit, and again John B. emphasizes the word "permit", a hardship today that's going to simulate the levels of pressure He know we're going to face tomorrow. That's why a trial always feels greater than our current level of preparedness or responsibility. So the bottom line is that GOD IS USING OUR PRESENT CHALLENGES TO STRENGTHEN US FOR GREATER CONQUESTS IN OUR FUTURE.
This is why the trials we go through, often in many situations are over long periods of time. Through that we are in the midst of spiritual strength trainings that helps prepare us for even greater tests in the future. When we are stronger in the Lord, we have the ability to do more in building the kingdom. The sad thing is that there will be people who stand before the judgement seat and with tears in His eyes, Jesus will say to them, " I had so much more for you to do, but you didn't have the capacity to handle the challenges that came with it." This is particularly tragic because, as we know, God will never give us more than He knows we can handle. It's His promise to us!
Using the analogy of weight lifting, If you're able to lift a 135-pound spiritual challenge, and God has a plan or position that requires the capacity to lift 185 pounds of opposition, persecution, temptation, and trials, He won't permit it for you're just not strong enough. Instead, God will allow the training process to commence. He will permit (He won't author) perhaps a 155 pound trial that will further test, but not overwhelm you. For example, maybe someone gossips about you or speaks ill of you and instead of doing the same back to that person, you in obedience to God's Word, choose to say nothing and bless instead. That's great, you lifted the 155 pound test. Now, it's on to the next level. If you continue to obey His Word through the adversities, your training continues until you arrive at the 185 pound level for example. You are now prepared for this higher plan or new position in the kingdom, which is God's plan for your life.
However, if our responses to adversity and or wrong doing is not in obedience to God's Word, God will place us back into the same level and continue our "weight lifting" challenge until we succeed and are able to go onto the next level. Another example God may permit at the same level is financial trouble --another 155 pound test to come against you. But instead of seeking God's provision, we immediately say, " No problem! Our credit card's not maxed out!" And God takes off the extra weight and says, "Back to 145."
The time will eventually come when God needs us for that particular kingdom task or position that carries 185 pounds of opposition. If wilderness tests, the weight training, are continually failed, He can't invite us in because we don't have the spiritual muscle to lift the adversity in that situation or position. This is when He must find someone other than you to handle the task or take the position.
This is why the wilderness is so important: it builds our strength. In the wilderness, John the Baptist became strong in spirit. In the wilderness, Jesus became strong in spirit. Their spiritual muscles were developed, not in the easy times, but in the times when trials came, when their faith was tested. Here is the good news from James.. when you come through a trial, and you do it God's way, you will be wonderfully ready strong for what God has next for you:
For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let is grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing (James 1:3-4)
When James says, " So let is grow", then it is our capacity and our endurance. James also tells us what we can look forward to if we embrace the wilderness: "God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:12). The word "crown" conveys authority, and with authority comes power. Just as Jesus went into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil, through His obedience and perseverance came out with greater authority and power (see Luke 4:1, 14), we too can emerge from wilderness seasons with greater authority and power.
I don't know about you, but I want to be sure I have the spiritual muscle to handle what the Lord has prepared for me.
Here's survival tip #9 for your journey from John B. "Don't Create an Ishmael"
When we find ourselves in the wilderness and think we've camped there way too long, the temptation will come to "just do something" to bring on the dream. JB calls this the birthing of an Ishmael, which happens when we try to do through our own efforts what God promised us He'd do. Ishmaels are often born of a legitimate need but are birthed by flesh.
Of course, this idea originates with the story of Abraham and Sarah, to whom God had promised a son. They had waited for eleven years and, my goodness, Abraham was 86 and Sarah was way too old to have a baby. So they went to Plan B-- Sarah suggested that Abraham take Hagar and get the promised child through her. This was a very bad idea. In every Ishmael approach-- even if it looks kind of good-- is also a bad idea. Always remember, what you birth by strength of your flesh, you will have to sustain by the strength of your flesh!
In some of John's wilderness stays, He's tried a Plan B. He knew God had promised him that someday he'd have a global preaching ministry. But it wasn't happening-- he was "stuck" in local church ministry. So he tried a few times to force his hand and escape the wilderness. His efforts came at a price and nothing panned out. Once he broke, God eventually made His move and it all turned around. John urges us-- save yourself the heartache and don't create an Ishmael. Let God bring forth what He promised to you.
So my dear readers, I encourage you to continue to have faith, dwell in God, and dig deeper into The Word and your spiritual journey. We will be victorious in everything as long as we include God every step of the way. Do not be discourage during the seasons of trials for the Lord will be there to help us overcome.
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