Nov 16th, 2007: MANIFESTING CHRIST, HOW TO PREPARE FOR SUFFERING.

PART #22

THE STAFF AND SWORD MINISTRY

November 16, 2007

Af"IFESTING HOW TO PREPARE FOR SUFFERING

by Nancy-TONI Youngbrandt As we look at Jesus' Word to us about preparation, Chuck-JOHNEL and I constantly seek Jesus' guidance, wisdom and revelation to know how to best help God's people prepare for what is coming. There are many levels of preparation in the physical and Chuck-JOHNEL has been working to share about nuclear fallout and related issues on that front. For me, while I make physical preparations within my ability to take care of for us personally, when it comes to preparing God's people, the Holy Spirit leading is to help others prepare inwardly — spiritually and emotionally. This comes in part from my belief that all we do physically should come from and be a reflection of our relationship with Jesus: He is the Rock upon which we are to build. Apart from Him and His ability to keep us and our things, all preparations could be lost, destroyed or stolen, but if all is His to begin with, then He is well able and willing to keep what is His. So, from there, I see the need for all of us to look at what keeps us from truly walking a closer walk with Jesus — the kind of walk that will get us through the times ahead and even leave us stronger in our faith than we when we began.

So, for this article, the leading is to look at a topic that isn't very popular but necessary — suffering. Just the very word can make your soul cringe and squirm within. As Fenelon once wrote:

"We know that we must suffer, and that we deserve it. Nevertheless, we are always surprised at affliction, as if we thought we neither merited nor had need of it. r►

However, with what we believe is shortly coming down on this nation, there is no question that suffering will be a part of our future and our unwillingness to even entertain the idea of suffering is likely a big part of why many of God's people are unwilling to prepare: for to prepare is to acknowledge hard times which cause hardships, and therefore suffering, are coming. I have found that our inward reactions and determinations about the idea of

suffering do have a direct bearing on how we prepare and to what extent.

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As a point of clarification before going any further, for this discussion I am speaking of suffering in a very broad sense. Suffering can come from rejection and persecution in the work place to being cold and hungry; from going through a hurricane or earthquake and its aftermath; to downright imprisonment, torture, war and occupation. Suffering can come in many forms and shapes, and each person's idea of suffering will vary from the next -- that's for sure. Instead, what we are looking at here will be your reaction to the word and idea of suffering -- no matter what that may be. So, let's get on with it and delve right in.

FEAR OF SUFFERING Let's face it — none us like the idea of suffering and our reactions will certainly be varied but overall FEAR is likely the main, average base reaction in all of us. Out this fear will stem likely one of three responses in the believer. These are: 1. Fear that leads a believer to not want to face even the idea of suffering. These will then want to deny "God would do such a thing" or that they will have to go through any such hardships, relying on the rapture or some other such belief system for escape.

2. Fear that leads a believer to prepare but maybe not in a healthy way spiritually. In this case, out of fear, preparations are made in the hope and expectation that those things stored will save the individual. These preparations are made strictly out of fear with an overreliance on the worldly, physical things and not enough on Jesus and God the Father. This may have the appearance of being Godly, as it is often done in His Name, and will likely have some benefit, but if our trust and faith isn't in God first, then how much will be enough to store? How can you possibly store enough food and water for 7-plus years of war and occupation, not to mention every thing else happening before, during and after? No, our preparations alone will not save us; however, Jesus can work through those preparations to provide and meet our needs so we need to trust in Him first in all we do.

3. Fear that is healthy spiritually is where you realize how much you need Jesus to come through the times ahead and so seek Him, surrendering all fear and anxiety to Him and abiding in His Love until the peace of God fills you and you can go forth with preparing as He leads and provides in Christ and His Love.

Obviously this third way is the ideal one we should be walking in. Unfortunately, the first reaction is all too common in the Church as a whole today. Prosperity is certainly preferred over suffering and yet what does Scripture way about suffering? Well, here are some examples I found.

Philippians 1:29 — "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;"

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November 1.5, 2007

FEAR OF SUFFERING continued 2 Timothy 2:11-12 — "... For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: " Hebrews 11:24-26 — "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with r the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures ofsin for aseason; Esteeming the rep r oach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt:..."

1 Peter 4:19 — "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. "

SOME MORE THOUGHTS ON SUFFERING As some more food for thought I would like to

share some of what Deitrich Bonhoeffer

wrote in his book, The Co st of Discipleship .

"Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of this suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord's sufferings and rejection and crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross."

"To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us ...

If in the end we know only Him, if we have ceased to notice the pain of our own cross, we are indeed looking only to Him." "To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ."

"Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship."

"If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow Him. But if we lose our lives in His service and carry our cross, we shall find our li ves again in the fellowship of the cross with Christ."

And lastly, I like this simple statement:

"Suffering means being cut off from God. Therefore those who live in communion with Him cannot really suffer."

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SOME MORE THOUGHTS ON SUFFERING continued Here you see how closely Bonhoeffer links suffering with the Cross and that's because the suffering each individual feels tends to reflect the degree to which that soul has or has not died to its self. A dead body feels no pain and has no reactions or reflexes - it's dead. This is why Jesus' instructions to are to: deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him: the more a soul has died to its self-life and been filled with Christ and is focused on Him, the more it is dead to the things of this world and the `hardships' that lie therein.

FEAR THAT BRINGS OUT SELF-RELIANCE The key that keeps coming up in Bonhoeffer's book and other such writings, is that of the cross. The opposite of taking up one's cross, which should be done in conjunction with denial of self, is to actually walk away from the cross and proceed out of the self in pursuit of avoiding any kind of suffering. This is when the individual is running solely on their own power, their knowledge, their own intellect and their own resources with God not really being in the picture. Likewise, if they are too self-reliant they run the risk of giving up in defeat if they realize they cannot possibly do everything needed nor can they afford all they believe they need to do and have. Here there is an over-reliance on one's own physical preparations which is basically an over-reliance on self and its ability to keep us safe.

Denying the self, taking up our cross and following Jesus is the answer once again.

FEAR THAT LEADS TO ABANDONMENT TO GOD Here, as we look at the third type of fear-response, we are talking about the ultimate removal of fear from the picture to be replaced with the Love and Peace of heart that comes from being in Jesus Christ. Here the love of God through Christ Jesus casts out all fear as r we sur ender and abandon our whole beings to God out of love for Him. This is as it says in! John 4:16-19:

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. because fear lath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because He first loved us. " "...

What got me thinking and writing about suffering is an excerpt I was reviewing from Fenelon's book entitled, Talking with God. This is what he wrote:

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FEAR THAT LEADS TO ABANDONMENT TO GOD continued "Only true and pure love delights to endure, for nothing else is perfectly abandoned. Resignation induces us to bear pain, but there is something in it that is afflicted in suffering and resists. The resignation that measures out its abandonment to God with selfish reflection is willing to suffer, but is constantly examining to make sure whether it suffers acceptably. In fact, the resigned soul is composed as it were of two persons: one keeping the other in subjection, and watching, lest it should revolt.

In love that is unselfish and abandoned, the soul is fed in silence on the cross and in its union with the crucified Savior, without any reflections on the severity of its sufferings. There exists but a single, simple will, which permits God to see it just as it is, without trying to behold itself. It says nothing, does nothing.

What, then does it do? It suffers. And is that all? Yes, all. It has nothing else to do but suffer. Love can be heard easily enough without speech or thought. It does all that it is required to do, which is to have no will when it is stripped of consolation. The purest of all loves is a will so filling with the will of God that there remains nothing else. ...It is enough to be humbled and abandoned in the midst of suffering. This is not courage; it is something both more and less: less in the eyes of the ordinary class of Christians; more in the eyes of pure faith. It is a humiliation that raises the soul into all the greatness of God. It is a weakness that strips us of every resource in order to bestow upon us His omnipotence. "When I am weak," says St. Paul, "then I am strong. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." (2Cor 12:10)" "...The cross is no longer a cross when there is no self to suffer under it ..."

There were a couple of items here which quickened to me and caught my attention. The first being that resignation to suffering is ultimately done with self hanging on and so unselfish abandonment in and to the Love of Christ is really the only way.

The definition of the word `resign' is to `give up, as a claim, position, etc.' or to `be submissive.' These, in part, are what we to do with Jesus — give up our self-life and be submitted to Christ — but what Fenelon is speaking of is a subtle and spiritually discerned difference: one where self hangs on and actually measures (usually unconsciously) the amount of suffering it believes it should be allowed to experience and when it feels it has suffered enough, let's you know with loud complaint and defiance with a "enough already! " response.

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FEAR THAT LEADS TO ABANDONMENT TO GOD continued I have found in my own experience that in certain areas of my self-life, Jesus keeps gently and persistently causing experiences in my life that require to give ever more to Him: a little more here, a little more there. He seems to periodically and consistently call me to stretch that faith muscle a little more, and then even more after that. And that's all good — I know that by the Spirit of God — for each trial or experience is for my good and helps me to die to self and be more yielded to Christ than before. The moment, then, that we need to be on the alert is when our self is active in our suffering and when we start turning inward and we begin to think we have given enough or that we have suffered enough because then the question is: who is deciding what is enough? Ahhh... the self is deciding, that's who.

Instead, what we need to be is so yielded, surrendered, abandoned to Jesus and operating from and in His Love to where we have no thought for ourselves but "deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him" out of love for Him pure and simple. As Fenelon wrote: "In

love that is unselfish and abandoned, the soul is fed in silence on the cross and in it union with the crucified Savior, without any reflections on the severity of its sufferings."

Both Chuck-JGHNEL and I have found this to be true in our walk in Christ. Over the years, from time to time, someone will ask what hardships or sufferings we have endured or make reference to them as if it were a great thing to have come through, and yet we do not feel that way. For me, when it came to doing anything in this ministry, I usually felt a

bit of fear or anxiety because I felt unqualified, shy and totally out of my element. However, I lastly prayed that if Jesus wanted me to a thing, I would do it for Him as long as I knew within myself that what I was doing was really what He called me to do and not out of my self. I prayed in my heart to give my all to Him and to what He asked me to do of love for Jesus --- that's it. I know that Chuck-JOHNEL made a similar determination in his heart as well. Consequently, while we did have some tough trials or situations to go through over the years, we don't see them as any great suffering. To someone else, they may think so but neither Chuck-JGHNEL nor I see that we have really suffered — certainly nothing compared to what Jesus suffered — and we don't even reflect on it except if to give glory to God for bringing us through those times and for the encouragement of others that God is there for them too.

THE GOOD OF SUFFERING In the end, suffering can be looked at as a tool of the Devil or it can be looked upon as a tool of God for our betterment as to give our all to Him. Perhaps Fenelon said it best in his book, Let Go :

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MANIFESTING CHRIST - HOW TO PREPARE FOR SUFFERING November 18, 2007

THE GOOD OF SUFFERING continued ( Quote from Fenelon) "You will learn most in times of deprivation, deep meditation and silence of the soul before God. It is here you will learn to renounce your own selfish spirit and to love humility, obscurity, weakness and submission. These things, so despised by the world, are the accomplished teachers of all truth. Human knowledge can only stand in the way." "...Now when God is attacking the problem of self in us, He always touches the tenderest spot, that which is fullest of life. And many of the crosses which God distributes are designed to lay right on the most sensitive areas of our selflife. Even though this is a most humiliating experience to go through, it is best for you to allow yourselfto be humbled. Quietness and peace during humiliation

are the manifestations of Jesus in the souI."

When facing the idea of suffering, it is important to remember that God is not punishing us or trying to beat us into shape in a cruel way. Rather, God uses whatever means necessary for our good and unfo rt unately, it is in times of hardship and trial that we become most aware of our need for God and His Son. Even the Judgment that is coming on America is ultimately for our good as a nation, just as disciplining a spoiled child is for its good as well.

FACING YOUR FEARS In closing, I guess this article is all about facing your fears — specifically any fear you might have about suffering --- and taking them to Jesus in prayer. Anytime you find yourself not wanting to face something —even just the idea of something — then that's just the time to face it in prayer before Jesus. In all things we are called to simply be as Jesus when He surrendered to the cross before by praying, "If possible, let this cup pass from me; but if not, then not my will, but Thy will be done." Sometimes all that Jesus asks is that we be willing to do whatever He asks, to endure whatever He sends our way. By removing the fear, we then place our hearts solely in God's care and the enemy of our souls has no oppo rt unity or opening through which they can trouble us.

To be an overcomer in Christ first begins in the heart. Has Jesus overcome all that lies within? Is He truly not just your Savior but also your Lord? If all that is within you has been overcome by Christ then you will truly be an overcomer in this world as well. So I encourage every one to begin abiding in Christ and His love in prayer today and abandon your self to Him in love for Him, counting His Love as greater than any suffering you may •,. endure.

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