Part
19 of 25
The
Necessity of Suffering
“Glory”
is a word that seems so amorphous and indescribable. In practical terms and
for our purpose it actually means the inherent expression of a life. We
can see the matter of glory as the inherent expression of a life by
the metaphor of the seeded flower’s life in its full expression as a
blossom. The flower’s life, derived from the life in its seed, is ultimately
fully expressed in the flower’s full blossoming. Each flower contains seed
needed for life to beget life, which is reproduced after “its own
kind.” The blossom of the flower is the glory or expression of the life
that is in the original flower seed. God the Father in Christ, as the original
seed, is the original eternal spirit-life who begets eternal spirit-life in
the believer – all believers share His one life.
For
the flower’s seed to germinate, it must first suffer death to its outer
shell. The life is then released out of that death, to grow to maturity. This
is similar to the allegorical description of the life-process Jesus spoke of
concerning the release and multiplication of His life. “Verily, verily, I
(Jesus) say unto you, Except a corn (seed) of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John
12:24 ). Here Jesus is saying, by His death His life would become
germinated, multiplying itself. The Father’s life-plan would bring “many
sons to glory” (Heb 2:10) out of Jesus suffering and death. All the
believers are the multiplication and enlargement of God’s family that comes
by sharing the one life of the “seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16,
1Peter 1:23). We now possess the Christ-seed within our spirit and we
thereby have the potential of being the “glorious expression” of the
Lord’s life. We contain His life in our spirit, so that His expression may
flow through our souls as He wills. Only His life released brings forth the
genuine fruit of God.
I have described
“glory” in terms of the flower in order to explain the necessity of
suffering in the believer’s life. The flower’s seed has a “shell” that
must be broken to release the life within. Our shell, which is our independent
soul-self, must be broken, in order to release the life of Christ from within
our spirit. Thus we see that there is a great connection between suffering and
glory (expression).
Suffering deals with our
being deceived. With no suffering, there can be no knowledge by realization of
who we are NOT. We are Not the gods of our own life. We are wayward
souls, separated from God often living waywardly independent from God even
after our salvation. Suffering exposes this truth to us. We are NOT adequate
within ourselves to live the Christian life overcomingly, as evidenced by our lack
of rest and peace.
We may think we can do
what we need to do, but we are not really in control of anything. We learn
this only by suffering the failure of self-rule and self-effort. To me, the
greatest suffering is not necessarily physical, but rather the loss of
control. God desires that we give up control to trust Him and His leading,
moment by moment. Suffering situations and circumstances that are beyond our
control brings us to the realization of that need and His desire.
Satan
has inspired the illusion of control in all of us since the day he
tempted Eve, saying if you eat of the forbidden tree of knowledge “you
shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5). This illusion must be broken before we will
turn our hearts to trust Christ in us as our life. Without suffering failure,
we cannot come to the knowledge of who we really are – we are the dependent
children of God, the Almighty Father who loves us and cares for us. He is
fully sufficient to father us, and guide and protect us in love.
The Lord suffered for us,
but we also will endure suffering. The cup of suffering (Mark
10:39) is crucial to our being able to realize the truth of our state, as it
was for Paul when the Lord denied his three pleadings to remove the thorn Paul
suffered in his flesh. The Lord told Paul “my grace is sufficient.”
Christ Himself is the very grace of God and His life in us is sufficient for
all that we will endure.
The cup we drink from in
life is always at the hands of our loving Father. Jesus willingly took the cup
of suffering at the hands of His Father, so that His glorious life might be
multiplied to us and expressed in us. “…Jesus unto Peter… the
cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” John 18:11
Taking the cup revealed
Jesus’ true state of utter yieldedness and dependence upon the Father. Paul
admonished the Philippians Christians to have the same attitude or mindset of
Jesus, who suffered obedience unto death of the cross (Philip 2:5-8). The
Father now administers the cup of suffering to us, that we might let go of
self-dependence in order to trust Christ in us as our life and innermost
guide. Only then may we go from a “Christ in you THE HOPE
of glory” to His actually being glorified or expressed in and
through our lives?
This suffering we endure
is the Father’s best for us. The
Father uses all things for our good (Rom 8:28-29). The evil doings of
Joseph’s brothers was ordained of God and meant for the good. “But as
for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good...”
(Gen 50:20)
Paul sat in the
Roman Caesar’s prison, yet he said he was the “prisoner of the
Lord” (Ephes. 4:1a). We see from
this that Paul considered his suffering to be actually at the hands of the
Lord. Trusting God His Father, Paul learned to be “content in whatever
state” the Lord placed Him (Philip 4:11).
Our
suffering is often at the hand of other people. People who are ignorant of the
truth of the indwelling Christ will often persecute the Christians who desire
and seek to walk with Him single mindedly. Frankly, these most often are other
Christians who do not know Him intimately. The cruelest sufferings I’ve
endured in this life have been at the hands of my “brothers and sisters in
Christ”. Paul says we may be may denigrated, defamed, and vilified as we
seek to walk with Him. “And
labour, working with our own hands: being reviled (vilified), we bless;
being persecuted, we suffer it:
13Being
defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth (refuse) of the
world, and are the offscouring (scum) of all things unto this day.” (1 Cor.
4:12-13).
You will be misunderstood if you follow Christ within you. Jesus was
misunderstood by the men who reviled and killed Him because He claimed, as we
do, to be one with the Father as His offspring bearing His very life.
Peter
says it’s not at all strange for a Christian to suffer. It’s the smelting
or purifying furnace for God’s glory to be revealed in us. “Beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery (smelting) trial which
is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13But
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. 14If
ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of
glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of,
but on your part he is glorified.”(1 Pet
4:12-14)
The
suffering God prescribes for us, are for our good, since suffering does for us
what we cannot do for ourselves. We cannot make our self trust God – so it
is He that is at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil
2:13). “But the God of all grace, who hath called us
unto his eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after that ye have suffered
a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” (1
Peter 5:10)
Jesus
came “in the name
of”
or authority of the literal Person of the Father. Paul, suffered for
Christ’s “name’s
sake,”
that he might also bear the authority Christ. “But
the Lord said unto him (Ananias), Go thy way: for he (Saul/Paul) is a chosen
vessel unto me, to bear my name (my person) before the Gentiles,
and kings, and the children of Israel: 16For
I will shew him how great things he (Paul) must suffer for my
name’s sake (name = person, for the sake of the expression of
Christ’s life)” (Acts 9:15-16).
“The
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” will
flow out of us in the person (authority) of Christ – but first we must be
broken in soul for the release the flow of His Spirit.
Many want to speak with God’s authority but this only comes as we
submit to or suffer His Lordship from within – then our speaking will be His
speaking.
