Suffering as Part of the Rest of God.

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The burden of the Word of the Lord for our congregation this Sunday seemed to be the role of suffering in our attaining to the rest of God. There are several passages of the Bible that allude to suffering as God’s way of bringing us into His rest. We went over some of them.

(5/27/2007) I have preached a great deal about the rest of God, which is symbolized spiritually by the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. Here is the goal of redemption. All we experience along the way, from the time we first receive Christ and place our faith in the atoning blood, until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, being filled with the Fullness of God, is to bring us to the place where it is Christ and not we who is living.

I view the 20th century as being the "Pentecostal Century." During the preceding centuries, many apostolic truths were restored to the churches. But the previous century seemed to see a marked increase in emphasis on the Holy Spirit, His baptism and His gifts. The Pentecostal experience has been celebrated around the world, including in many of the historic denominations.

Now we are in the 21st century. What now?

I have been stating over the past several years that the Pentecostal-Charismatic churches have come to a fork in the road. One path is that of taking hold of the gifts of the Spirit and going forth "to save a lost and dying world" with our gifts of power. The believers who choose this path (and they well may be the majority!) have little patience with the idea of suffering being an important aspect of salvation. They are ready to march and regard every hindrance to their self-driven ways as being "of the devil."

The other path leads to Jesus and to our personal cross of suffering. As we come to the Lord, many of us do not hear "go forth and save a lost and dying world." Rather, what we hear is, "Be still and know I am God."

I am not encouraging passivity. The Christian discipleship always is dynamic, as we read our Bible, pray throughout the day and night, meet with other disciples, give, and serve in whatever area is placed before us. I am not at all encouraging passivity! The passive, casual, double-minded believer will make little progress in the Lord, and will not bring forth the fruit Christ is looking for.

But I must say that the true Christian life, for most of us, is not "going forth to save a lost and dying world." It is that of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following the Lord Jesus moment by moment. In all our ways we acknowledge the Lord and do not attempt to build the Kingdom of God by means of our own wisdom, strength, and talents.

Here we are, in the Charismatic movement Do we adopt some plan or another and try to get God to bless our ideas? Or do we wait patiently until we have heard clearly from Jesus. The latter approach to our discipleship requires trust in Christ, doesn’t it?

"What if nothing happens during our whole life, as we wait to hear from Jesus?"

"What if Christ has no plan for us as an individual and is waiting to see if we will grow impatient and take matters into our own hands?"

"What if it is our responsibility, and not God’s, to save people from Hell? Hadn’t we better get busy and 'do something’"?

Trust is required to enter the rest of God, the feast of Tabernacles, the place where "for us to live is Christ and to die is gain."

The seventh chapter of the Gospel of John tells about Jesus at the eighth day of the feast of Tabernacles. Jesus cried out (referring to the twelfth chapter of Isaiah): "Living water will pour forth from whoever believes in Me."

People can drink eternal life from the Lord Jesus. Or, when Christ has come to maturity in us, people will be able to drink eternal life from us.

This is why the Spirit and the Bride together invite whoever will to come and drink eternal life.

What has to happen to us if we are to become such a tree of life? Since the water of eternal life flows from the Throne of almighty God, and from nowhere else, we have to get off the throne of our life and permit God and Christ to reign in our personality.

Here is the rub. We won’t want not to be able to do what we want. We may talk about wanting to be a sanctuary of the Lord, or about giving Jesus our heart; but this is a very difficult thing to do because of the idols we are grasping.

What is God’s answer? Suffering. Imprisonment. The denial of our most fervent desires. Being forced to remain in a situation we detest.

For how long? Until we can say from the bottom of our soul, "The Lord alone is exalted." We will know we are in the rest of God, in the "Tabernacles experience," when the twelfth chapter of Isaiah is our testimony.

There is no way in which we can learn the depths of obedience God requires of every member of the governing priesthood, other than by suffering under God’s hand. Even the perfect Word of God learned obedience to the Father through suffering.

It is not a walk in the park to go through a season of suffering with God. It appears as though He has abandoned us. It is obvious He is angry with us. "Where is God?" we cry in our misery. I used to be a happy Christian, and now look at me!

It reminds us of Job, doesn’t it, and his comforters abound in the churches.

"How long is this going to last? If I only knew how long this is going to last?

"I will take comfort in Job. I will take comfort in Lamentations. This is a miserable time for me—and I thought I had all the answers!

"I wanted to be a great apostle—God’s man of faith and power. Now I will be content to have a little place in the corner of Glory land, or at least to sweep up behind the horses in the royal parade."

This is what is going on today. Make your choice. Will I go with the crowd of Charismatic's who are out "to save a lost and dying world," or who are talking about such an effort because it is the thing to say.

Or will I quiet my soul, understanding that Christ is requiring only that I obey Him; that I do what He says; that I trust Him to build His own Kingdom.

Oh well, there may be few who hear, few who are willing to become nothing that Christ may become everything. But if one or two are encouraged by my writing, then it has been worthwhile.

I will tell you as one who has been there: "If you wait patiently for the Lord, the time will come when He will bring you forth. Then you will know the Lord in a fuller measure. Your time of darkness will remain in your memory, but you scarcely will remember what it was like when you were so low you had to look up to see the bottom.

"If you are there now, hold steady. Your time of restoration will come."

"Then shall you know if you follow on to know the Lord. As surely as the sun rises, He shall appear to you." You are passing through the Valley of Anchor.

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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