2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (NKJV):
8 For
we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in
Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we
despaired even of life.
9 Yes,
we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
ourselves but in God who raises the dead,
10 who
delivered us from so great a death, and does[a] deliver us; in whom we trust that He will
still deliver us, 11 you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our[b] behalf for the gift granted to us through many.
Whoever said that Christians would
not have sufferings... In The New Testament the fact of suffering and conforming
into the image of God are interwoven and go hand in hand. God allows whatever necessary sufferings into
our lives to kill our self-reliance in order to resurrect us into His
co-dependence. Each one of us who claim
to be a follower of Jesus would experience this cycle of death to resurrection.
Sufferings are the producers of
the death to oneself and resurectors of the new life for the Lord. This is a
very important fact to grasp and accept for those who claim to be true
believers and followers of Jesus. Jesus Himself promised that we would have
tribulations in this life because the world didn`t recognize Him and neither
would it recognize us since we are no greater than our Master:
18 “If
the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
19 If
you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of
the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember
the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If
they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they
will keep yours also. (John 15:18-20 NKJV).
The main indicator that we are
the followers of Jesus is if the world hates us. That is because people don`t
know the Father nor do they recognize Jesus as a result because Jesus came to
this earth to do the will of the Father. Jesus gives this warning that if the
world does recognize us, than we are not His followers.
Paul writes to the Corinthians
that they carry the deadness in the body recognizing that the world afflicts
and persecutes them. The reason why this is so important for us to comprehend
is because going through this cycle of dying to oneself in order to be
resurrected by the Lord for His will requires being rejected by this world. It
certainly is painful when the loved ones that we care about so much mock us and
cut us off for preaching the Gospel and choose to obey the Word of God. They
cut us off whenever we refuse to drink with them, or watch R rated movies, or
lie on taxes, or whatever other things that we may experience causing us grief
and sorrow as a result of being rejected by those who we care about.
That`s why it`s encouraging to see and understand this cycle in order to be more cognizant of the reasons for sorrows
that we face:
1. God allows us to be “burdened
beyond measure, above strength” in order to kill our self-reliance.
I was struck by the vivid picture
of the battle when watching a movie “Patriot” last week, and in that picture I
saw the defeat of the battle when the army attempted to win the battle with
whatever little weapons and arsenal that they had against the exceedingly
abundant opposing army. The battle was lost, and there was abundance of the
dead bodies lying on the ground motionless.
This is when the Lord spoke to me and explained the reason for the defeat that I have experienced in the court. I had a flash in my head of me standing
in front of the firing squad being shot at, and God was just standing on the
sidelines and watching me die. This is exactly what happened to me in the court
on the day when I walked out with the final decision of the shared custody over
my daughter. I felt like God abandoned me and forsook me for good. Little did I
know that God allowed me to die to myself that day, so He could resurrect me in
order for Him to use me to serve Him, and this is exactly what He spoke to me when I watched the movie.
God allows us this kind of
failure (mind you it looks like a failure in our eyes, but in God`s eyes it`s part of the vistory), so we could recognize that our rational thinking doesn`t bring us
victory; rational and common sense become our own enemy because God doesn`t use
common sense, but he uses uncommon sense in order to mock the intelligent and
wise. Being a shrewd woman, I really had to struggle with forsaking my own intelligence and surrender common sense in exchange for God`s character.
As humans we are very good at
using our own intelligence and skills to accomplish what we want, and we place
God on sidelines by doing that. He would only be a spectator when we rely upon
our skills and strength. As much as I tried, but I could not let go of control
over the legal process because my daughter`s life was at stake, and God knew
that. I literally had to pray: “I believe, Lord, but please help my disbelief”.
2. That enduring “beyond measure
and above strength” brings us to the “sentence of death in ourselves” which we
could never obtain by any other way but through severe sufferings of failures
and defeat.
I was dying to self-sufficiency
in order to be able to carry my “sentence of death in me”. I no longer live my
life for this world, but I live it with the hope to get to heaven one day. As I
write this, I realize how bizarre to the world these words may sound, yet this
is exactly what the Bible teaches us would happen to those who follow Jesus: we
would experience the dying to self-sufficiency in whatever capacity necessary
in order to be resurrected with Him to solely rely on Jesus.
The best example of this scenario
that comes to my mind would be examples of Joseph or Moses. Joseph was given a
foreshadowing dip of the kind of a glory he would receive by having his
brothers and his father bow down to him, but he had to go through the “death
sentence in his body” and be placed in the circumstances of death to
self-sufficiency in order to grasp on the fact that it would not be by his own
strength that he would be glorified, but only by relying solely on the Lord. 20
lengthy years of his life were spent in circumcision of his heart before the
Lord brought to pass all the dreams that He showed Joseph so many years prior
to his success. Joseph died to himself, and as soon as he did that, God “resurrected”
him by bringing to pass all the dreams and naming him the second man after the
Pharaoh.
Moses was raised in the Pharaoh`s
palace, but one day he was taken to the desert where he spent 40 years circumcising
his heart and learning of the Lord before God brought him back to “life” and
called to fulfill the mission of leading the Israelites out of Egypt,
that Moses was aware of for so many years prior to it passing.
Every Bible story that we take,
we can see this cycle of dying and returning back to life. The cycle is not
physical death to resurrection, but a spiritual death to resurrection.
3. This “sentence of death in
ourselves” accomplishes the main purpose of the Holy Spirit in our hearts: “that
we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.”
As we clearly see in all these
Bible stories of Moses, Abraham, Joseph, Gideon, David, Apostles (especially
Peter), we see how God allowed all the sufferings and hardships in the lives of
people in order to bring them to this realization that our strength is only in
the Lord, and we can do nothing apart from Him.
God allows failures on purpose,
so we could humble ourselves and recognize that this world and this life is not
for us but a temporary passing place; our lives are to live for the inheritance
in heaven to glorify God. This is why it`s important to realize and to prepare
ourselves that if we choose to follow Jesus, we will have suffering and lots of
them. God allows that to purge us from ourselves and to fill us with the Holy
Spirit to do His will.
4. Only by experiencing the drastic
despairing circumstances we are able to test and see this trust in the Lord and
faithful deliverance as a continuance that never seizes. God was faithful to
deliver, is faithful, and will always be faithful to deliver whatever the
circumstances are. The condition for the deliverance is our realization and
acceptance of carrying this “sentence of death in ourselves”, a.k.a. complete
surrender to the Lord for Him to do whatever He pleases with us. Not us
questioning Him “why?”, but accepting whatever we must endure in order to
glorify Him—this is the condition of deliverance that Paul so testifies to the
Corinthians of.
5. This deliverance is impacted through
the faithful prayers and intercessions of the saints in order to produce praise
and glory to the Lord.
I think it`s really said that the
churches or believers don`t communicate with other churches and sometimes feel burdened
to share their prayer requests. This month become so painful and dreadful for
me that I`ve taken some drastic measures: I contacted the churches
from all over the country and all over the world requesting to pray for
specific resolutions in my life and in my family. I will admit that I was
afraid in sending these requests because I expected to either get ignored with
my requests, or get blown off by the silence in response, or get some quick
meaningless response such as: “our thoughts and prayers are with you”.
I was so wrong, and I am so glad
that I contacted all the churches and continue to reach out to even more places
for prayer support. Not only did I receive an encouraging and supporting phone
calls right on the days when I was desperate the most, but also the emails with
reassuring scriptures and pledges that I was placed on the prayer chains was
just overwhelming for me. This is what I really call coming together as one in
the body of Christ and standing in the gap for each other regardless of the proximity
to the church location or the relevance to the particular church`s ministry,
but without asking any questions, people just lifted me up in their prayers as
one interceding for me and my family to see this major breakthrough.
I have to testify that today I
saw the main snow precipitation that we`ve experienced throughout the entire
winter season this year. As I was driving to work today, I was overwhelmed by
this tangible evidence of God`s continuing battle for my life as He promises to
secure the treasuries of the snow and hale for the days of war and battle (Job
38:22-23). All this praying support that I continue to receive throughout the
world does matter, just like Paul points us to in verse 11:
11 you
also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many
persons on our[b] behalf for the gift granted to us
through many.
We are helping together in prayer
when we stand in the gap for each other despite the distance to each other or
the church location and affiliation, so that God could be worshiped and
glorified by many. I am obligated just the way I continue to send these prayer
requests on behalf of my needs and my family, I will have to contact them to
testify of the Lord`s answer in my life, so they- “many” could praise and
glorify the Lord.
Satan really hates it when we
reach out to each other for praying support and this is why he likes to sow
these thoughts of deceit and doubt in our hearts just like I had them: that we
don`t matter and nobody would waste their time praying for me when they have
their own problems, and the church only cares for their local people. This is
so wrong, and I am really grateful to the Lord that he dissipated this myth for
me, so I don`t fall into this trap of Satan’s deceit that my prayer requests
would go unresponded.
On the flip-side, God reminds us just like Mordecai
reminded Esther to answer to these praying requests for the others, so God
could use us as the vessels of help to one another. God would always find alternative ways to bless you and me, but if we ignored God`s call for prayer or help, we are the ones who lost the blessing. By standing in the gap for the others, we allow God to bless those who we pray for and us.
I was stunned to see responses
from the praying teams with words such as: “we are honored to be entrusted to
be praying for you and your family”. We are truly honored to be given this
opportunity to minister to one another, and it`s up to us to choose whether we
accept this call, just like Mordecai reminded Esther of her appointed and
predestined place being a Queen in order to save the Jews. We too, are
entrusted this opportunity to “save” through our interceding prayers those who
entrusted our prayer requests to us.
I have to thank all of you who`ve
been praying for me and my family because I can assure you that these prayers
are what make the difference and bring victory in my daily life. Some things
are not as noticeable as others, but they keep me afloat and get me going every
day. We have to be this praying tower of security for one another, so we could
give many praises to the Lord and share this joy of God`s deliverance in each
other`s lives.
12 Dear
friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test
you, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice inasmuch as
you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when
his glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:12-13 NIV).
To me this scripture carries all
the more significance because it was written by Peter who suffered much after
he repented of much. Peter, of all the apostles always boasted of his devotion
to Jesus and how much he would do for Him until one day when he had to face his
first fiery trial of faith: he denied Jesus 3 times before Jesus was
crucified. Peter had to experience the cycle of death to resurrection by Jesus in order to glorify Him as we read he did in the book of Acts.
These fiery trials and sufferings
reveal the substance of our faith, and this is why they go hand in hand with
our choice in following Jesus. God cannot use unreliable and untried people, so
He tests our faith through variety of circumstances.
I would encourage you today not
to estrange the fiery trials and sufferings recognizing that we are partakers
in Christ`s sufferings when we pass these trials and glorify Jesus. God never allows circumstances for no reason, but
He continues to hold everything under His control. It`s only for our own good
that God allows us to live through this cycle of death to life, so we could be
purged of our sinful stains and be conformed into the image of God. Don`t make God a spectator of your life, but make Him a Commander, and you will see the difference!
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