Suffering

Suffering perfects our faith by removing the things we thought we could count on. It is intended to refocus our attention on the eternal. The most important principle in this life is faith, that is to trust God. Trust Him completely about everything. Suffering serves another purpose as well however. It is also intended to make profound changes in those around us. Sometimes we suffer not so much for ourselves, or any wrong we have done, but for the sake of others who are learning to submit to God and serve Him in love. And though we seem to die, we do not. The resurrection is soon to take place when the sons of God will be revealed in this physical earth carrying out the commission to fill the earth with the presence of God. The suffering of the people of God in this time is going to be of vital importance because it will bring about the will of God in the earth, not just for our sake, but for the sake of ALL the righteous who have found Christ.

Eze 14:21-23 For so says the Lord Jehovah: How much more when I send My four evil judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the destroying beast, and the plague, to cut off man and beast from it. (22) Yet, behold, there shall be left a remnant in it that shall be brought out, sons and daughters. Behold, they shall come out to you, and you shall see their way and their doings. And you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I brought on Jerusalem, for all that I have brought on it. (23) And they shall comfort you when you see their way and their doings. And you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord Jehovah.


God is not destroying us, He is perfecting us for a greater purpose than we have been able to see up to this point. Perhaps this is the meaning of the four riders and the resulting 144,000 in the book of Revelation. God begins judgment with those in His own house, who will survive the baptism of fire, being made better, more like God. The rest of the world will not survive it however because they will curse God for their suffering. The suffering then is the reward at the end for them. But our reward will be eternal life in the resurrection. We will bless Him because we understand that we were found to be worthy of God's purification process and we will find that the sacrifices of others for our sake was truly God's presence in our lives during those times. We are worthy to receive the baptism of fire because of Christ who cleanses us of the guilt of our sin. Having been made innocent in the courts of Heaven now we go on to perfection. This life is NOT our focus, it is NOT our end, which is why we must give ALL to the cause of Christ. God will be our provision.