I began my morning with prayer. My aim was especially that of labor; intercessory prayer, as opposed to the prayer of devotion and rest in Christ Jesus. I hoped to begin my day working in the presence of God, pleading for His favor and His hand. I prayed for myself, my wife, my brothers and sisters in Haiti. As I got to Haiti, as usual, I asked God the Father to have mercy on Haiti, leading to repentance in Jesus’ name and the trampling of the idols of vodou in that island under the feet of King Jesus. Until that time, I asked also for God to grant a measure of peace, so much that the gospel of the Lord Jesus would not be hindered, and that we may return to Haiti safely that we may take up our labor there. I asked Christ Jesus to protect His bride and to shield her from suffering in that place amid the chaos, especially in the Capital. Then my heart burned. I asked this next:
“Lord Jesus, if your Church must suffer there, I pray that you will grant them grace to suffer well. Grant them, by the Holy Spirit, supernatural endurance, and peace during their appointed suffering, that Your name will be glorified, and Your Gospel magnified.”
By no means was this profound, but I was commanded, rebuked really, not to attempt to rob my brothers and sisters of the profit of their suffering in this life. I was reminded of the myriad scripture on the blessing of suffering for Christ, and the riches of poverty for our King. I was reminded of quotes from my older brothers of the past, like this from Charles Spurgeon;
“Israel gained by education. The Lord was not going to lead a mob of slaves into Canaan, to go and behave like slaves there. They had to be tutored. The wilderness was the Oxford and Cambridge for God’s students. There they went to the University, and he taught and trained them, and they took their degree before they entered into the promised land. There is no University for a Christian like that of sorrow and trial.”
My local church in America
Then finally I considered my local church, and all my brothers and sisters in America, and, of course, the large faceless mass that is Western Evangelicalism, which claims for itself the title of bride. At that my heart was heavy and I uttered my next prayer, yet not first without pause. It was a silence where my will and flesh were crushed under the weight of conviction and understanding of my duty in taking this task of interceding for the brethren. I was conflicted, the Holy Spirit leading me to this place of conviction and my sinful self-preserving flesh chafing against the implications of what I must ask God to do next.
“Father, make Your Church in America to suffer.”
I did not want to. I was heavy and burdened to make this request. I was in the grip of fear, because I asked for my brethren to be cast into the crucible along with myself. The burning of the refining fire melts one down to base materials, it is not a pleasant experience. It is painful, overwhelming, and, at times of weakness, may cause one to despair even of life itself, but it is necessary to go through the fire. This suffering is for the good of the Body, because our “churches” are filled with so much dross.
Truly I fear the process of this suffering, which I pray we be cast down into. Yet I still pray this because the bride of Christ so desperately needs it. Consider this carefully; Paul the apostle was well acquainted to suffering. He was cast into extraordinary tribulation because he was tasked with an extraordinary labor. Read again, his words on the well know passage of the thorn he was given in his side.
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
– 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
To boast in weakness
Can I put this bluntly at the risk of offending some of you (as if I haven’t already, or won’t by the end of this)? Read again the underlined passage. Paul is resolved to boast in His weakness. Paul is cast into suffering by his beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus, so that he will be made aware, painfully aware, just how weak he is, and taught to rely on the surpassing riches of the kindness and strength of King Jesus. I fear for a great many of the readers, and a vast majority of professing Christianity because you have no idea just how laughably weak you are, and you may have a view of the “power of Christ” more closely related to New Age thought, than biblical Christianity. Paul, in the underlined passage, is not making a humble brag as if to say;
“Look at the tremendous work I am doing. Well it’s just because God gave me the strength to be able to do it. I’m only winning all these souls because He gives me the wisdom to speak. Isn’t it great that God helped me conquer these giants in my life like these Judaizing wolves and idolatrous Gentiles? Its all because God gave me strength and will…”
No! That is arrogant foolishness. The apostle, in boasting about his weakness, is singing with the Psalter:
“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads” … “Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel…All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.”
Our first love
Brothers and sisters, so many of us have forgotten our first love. We have traded of the image of the invisible God, the Son, the only Begotten of the Father, for the image of wicked man. Do you understand the vulgarity of that? That indictment was leveled against unrepentant idolatrous Gentiles at the beginning of Romans as a demonstration of the radical corruption of men apart from Christ! What perversion that it can, by any measure, accurately describe the heart of one professing Christ Jesus as Lord!
We have become so weak in faith! We have gorged ourselves on the scraps of sweets we have been fed for generations, and have been caught wallowing in the fleeting pleasures of rebellion, all in the name of a kind of mercy the Bible doesn’t teach; a mercy that can be demanded by arrogant corrupt creatures, and demanded of the God whose breath fills their lungs and whose actual mercy keeps their heart beating while they offend Him so. We have, for generations, enjoyed the blessings and mercies of God; wealth and prosperity in our land, advances in medical care unrivaled in all of human history, freedom and ability to speak with individuals on the other side of the world, such an abundance of food and clean water that feeding ourselves and our families takes a matter of minutes not hours of labor equivalent to or exceeding a full-time job.
Understand what I am saying. These things listed are gifts and blessings from God; “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” (James 1:17) However, as is the way of the corrupting influence of sin, we have accepted the gifts, enjoyed them, and instead of using them to glorify God and spread the influence of His Kingdom abroad, we Christians have spat in the eye of God by using them to build monuments to our false gods and idols, monuments to our own selves and shelters to our comfort. Then we have the gall to ask Him to bless the work of our hands in hopes He might approve this rebellion, though we haven’t the mind to consider what God really thinks of our vain ambition.
What will happen when the sun grows hot?
We know not the power of God, nor His love, because we have forgotten the fear of God and are infatuated with the double-minded, adulterous, caresses or wicked men. We have made it a virtue to be self-sufficient and independent, relying on only ourselves. We have retreated into shelters of wax and cried “peace and prosperity in Jesus’ name” ignoring a blasting trumpet, a call to arms. So, what will happen when the sun grows hot, and the wax melts from over top our heads? Many Christians will scatter like insects under an upset stone, but true brethren will have a different response.
The brothers who were under the allure of the lie of the land; ‘Peace! Peace!’ will be brought to their knees and repent for their apathy and take up the labor. The brothers actively redeeming the time for the Kingdom of God will work more, until their hands bleed, and their backs are scorched by the sun. Together the bride of Christ will be refined, and in the end she will boast in her afflictions, because she will have been acquainted with the power of her Groom. But it will not be pleasant.
Brothers and sisters, if you read this and you have been clinging to the false priest of prosperity and comfort; if you have been paralyzed from true gospel labor for fear of suffering and persecution; if you have been content to rely upon your own strength and have become arrogant by doing this; if you have made the lame excuse that, since you worked for all you have then you’ve earned it and it is yours to enjoy; if you have made the lame excuse that your responsibilities of work and supporting your family preclude you from laboring for the Kingdom of God, then I earnestly and humbly urge you to repent. Bow your head low and beg for Christ Jesus to cleanse your heart from the wicked mindsets of fear, entitlement, arrogance, and slothfulness. Ask God to make you well acquainted with His power and grace, but do not do this lightly. Count the cost of this request, and prayerfully consider whom you really love, be it Christ Jesus and Him alone, or your house of wax which, in vanity, you built for yourself to hide in. Understand that God, in order to make you rely upon Him and really know the power and glory of His grace, will most certainly cast you into suffering and take away all you held dear in place over Him.
To the brothers and sisters faithfully laboring, I commend you and thank God for you. Continue in this fight, and do not let up. Know your enemy, and the strength of your hand which is Christ Jesus! I implore you to join me in this prayer, that Christ would send His bride into suffering, so to strengthen her, refine her, and make her even more beautiful to Him by conforming her to His image. Join me in this prayer, but please do not do so in bitterness or wrath, as though you have been offended by this Body (though you may have been) and want to see them suffer for it. That is pride. Kill that mindset. Join me in this prayer, but not in pride or arrogance, as though you can take on the suffering God has for his people, because you CAN NOT apart from the sustaining hand of God’s great grace. Join me in this prayer humbly and reverently, motivated by love for your brothers and love for you Master foremost. Pray this way only if you want to see the beauty of Christ’s bride shine brighter against the backdrop of the evil in this nation, and if you want to know intimately the power and majesty of the glory of Christ.
Finally, brethren, consider these passages of scripture, and meditate on them in their full context:
“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”
– 1 Peter 4:1-2
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
– 1 Peter 4:12-17
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
– Romans 5: 1-5
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing…Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
– James 1:2-4,12
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
– 2 Corinthians 12:9
May Christ be glorified, and may I be forgotten.