Suffering Prepares Us To Stand
March 11, 2024 4:57 PM
Rich Fyke
Eternal Life Ministries
This message was written on March 1, 2024.
I also have this on YouTube as well, with the same title: Suffering Prepares Us To Stand
April/May/June 2024
"Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life" (I Timothy 6:19).
Suffering Prepares Us To Stand
Though many would rather not acknowledge it, The Body of Christ needs to become acquainted with suffering, for we could very well be getting ready to witness the greatest time of suffering that this world has ever known. Years ago, The Lord showed me that His people (primarily the people here in America) were not prepared to suffer. They were not prepared to undergo the trial of their faith, which is more precious than of gold (1 Peter 1: 7). I confess that none of us really are, but we need to prepare ourselves, so that when that day comes, we are not overtaken by it.
Few want to hear of suffering. It is easily ignored and cast away, never to be spoken of again. It’s much easier to talk of happiness and good times.
The simple Truth is — whether one chooses to accept it or not — the people of God are going to be confronted with suffering in the days ahead and we need to be prepared for what is coming.
God’s people will be tested in ways they never thought they would ever be tested before. The time is coming that a great time of suffering is coming to this world. The Nation of America is not exempt. We will see unprecedented tidal waves of rushing, mighty torrents of judgment. The hour is coming, saith The Lord, that I will separate the wheat from the chaff. The Hammer of God’s Word will strike at the hearts and minds of every Christian. The final time of shaking is getting ready to occur and few will be ready.
Will you be able to stand when the Hand of The Lord comes crashing down on this world? Will you will be ready to stand when God’s end time army becomes mobilized to stand in this world that is quaking and shaking? A great day of trouble is coming — Yea, a great day of trial — is coming — the likes of which has never been before.
Soon the overflowing scourge will devour this world. It is coming to bring to light that which is founded upon The Rock, and that which is not. How much longer will God have to contend with a gainsaying people? How much longer will His mercy endure?
Praise God His mercy endures forever!
Scripture tells us, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Psalms 119: 67). This is what suffering does. It brings us closer to God.
Suffering turns someone that doesn’t know God into someone that does.
Suffering turns someone that thinks they know God into someone that really knows God.
Suffering turns someone that really knows God into someone that knows Him even closer.
Suffering is what refines and purifies the saints of God.
Suffering prepares us for more and even greater suffering.
All of this is assuming that one allows the suffering to do a work in their lives and brings them closer to God, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12: 11).
In speaking of the end time, the Prophet Daniel tells us, “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried;……………………” (Daniel 12: 10). The people of God will be purified in the time of testing.
It is God’s Will that His people go through times of suffering. Many would disagree with me, but The Word of God is clear, “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator,”
(I Peter 4:19).
Christ molds us into His image by breaking us. Jesus said, “…………….whosoever shall fall on this stone (Himself) shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Matthew 21:44). Translated? It is better for us to fall at His feet and allow Him to break us, mold us, conform us, change us, renew us, shape us, than to run from Him now — only to later stand before Him in the judgment, where He would be forced to say, “……………..I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23) — where He would be forced to grind us to powder. For anyone that comes to Him, they are going to be broken — better to be broken now than in the life to come!
He shapes and molds us into what He desires for us to be. We are told in Scripture to not despise the chastening of The Lord, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12: 6). In the midst of suffering we come to a full knowledge of the ways and things of God — prospering spiritually in The Lord.
Now, as we begin to prepare to “…………………be able to withstand in the evil day………………..” (Ephesians 6:13), we are going to be required to go through the fire; and, hopefully, come out shining as gold, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:7).
We must be prepared to stand in the days ahead. Whether it be trial, suffering, heartache or pain, we must be truly grounded and settled in our walk with The Lord. We must, “….stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8). We must be willing, ready, and prepared at all times to say, like Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him….” (Job 13:15).
We are going to need a rock-solid foundation on which we are standing. No other foundation will be left standing than that of our Lord, Jesus Christ. “He is like a man which built an house and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock” (Luke 6:48).
And there is a great shaking soon to occur in the Body of Christ. This shaking is going to shake out anything that can be shaken out. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now hath he promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Hebrews 12:25-27).
In short, we do not want to be “…those things that are shaken, as of things that are made.” If it is shakable, it will be shaken out! That’s why it is vastly important that we are firmly planted on the Solid-Rock Foundation, Jesus Christ.
You see, when the storm comes, the foundation won’t shake. But, if it is built without a firm foundation, it immediately falls. “But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:49).
It is vitally important that we make sure that we are of “….those things which cannot be shaken (so that we) may remain.” We are encouraged by the promises found in The Word of God, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians. 15:58).
It should be noted that in the parable where Jesus is referring to the house being built without a foundation upon the earth, that it is the stream, or the flood, beating vehemently upon it which causes it to fall. We can be assured that the floods will come. We’ve already seen MANY, and the floods which are coming are bigger than anything that will have ever been seen in the history of mankind before. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).
When the approaching streams and floods come and beat vehemently upon our houses — which will — in turn — allow everything that can be shaken to be shaken out of The Body of Christ — when they come — we must be prepared to be strong! We must continue to trust in The Lord no matter what comes our way — no matter what we endure or go through — we must continue to trust in The Lord. As Jesus said, we must endure to the end.
Our faith will be severely tested and we will be brought through the fire. We should “….think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (I Peter 4:12-13).
When we suffer, we cry out to God. We call upon His strength that otherwise we wouldn’t have. It is in the fire that we gain strength. The joy that we attain — which can only come from going through the fire — becomes our strength.
Paul talked about this when he talked of his “…………………thorn in the flesh…………………” (2 Corinthians 12: 7).
God knew Paul’s tendency to be a prideful man. He knew his past zeal as a Pharisee of the Pharisees and, because of this, knew that Paul would have the tendency to get puffed up over the things in which God had entrusted him. You find this in vs. 7, “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” In the next verse, we see that Paul diligently sought the Lord three times for Him to take away this “messenger of Satan”. With all that he had already done, and even suffered for the furtherance of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord denied him his request.
Instead, however, He gave him something far better — His Sufficient Grace! Paul explains, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (vs. 9). You see, the only way that God can strengthen us spiritually, is by weakening us in the flesh. Paul zealously realized this and said in the remainder of vs. 9, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” That is the ultimate key of importance to all Godly suffering and sorrow — that when we suffer in the flesh — we become strong in the Spirit. The Power of Christ Rests Upon Us!
Paul further clarifies this in vs. 10 by saying, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” Paul had learned that in his times of distress and trouble, though it was exceedingly difficult to deal with, that he was stronger in the Spirit than in any other times. He learned that the only way that he could achieve this strength in the Spirit was by going through the fiery trial of affliction. He had “…………….learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need’. And, because of all of this, he had learned the all-sufficiency of Christ, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians. 4:11-13).
Paul was broken — many, many times — yet he endured it all with joy. Because he had the ability to look beyond the temporal and look towards the eternal, he could consolingly say, “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” (Romans 8:18).
And that is the consolation that all of us have — that one of these days we will receive the crown of life and spend all eternity with Our Lord Jesus Christ. Assuredly, Heaven will be worth it all!
God bless you all in Jesus’ Name.
Amen and Amen and Amen.
Photos courtesy Depositphotos
