Hello 👋 😁 & Welcome!
In II Corinthians 6:4, The Apostle Paul refers to those with Afflictions as Ministers of God. Therefore, I have titled this “The Ministry of Suffering,” as there are certain individuals in the world that God calls to a unique Ministry. The Ministry of Suffering, is just as divinely appointed to the Pastor. When one is a chosen vessel, he or she doesn’t have any right to question God about his methods as we reflect on the joy and contentment of being in the Center of God’s Will.
Philippians 1:29
“For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe oh him, but also to suffer for his sake. “
John 16:33
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Affliction and suffering are like a hammer and a chisel in the hands of Jesus Christ, the Master Carpenter from Nazareth of Galilee. Affliction and suffering are tools He uses for cutting and hauling out and polishing beautifully pillars for His temple. Affliction and suffering are God’s servants that open the fountains of our head, filling our eyes with the mist of tears, through which the sun of Righteousness can shine and reveal to the soul the splendor and beauty of the rainbow of His Glory.
The sorrows, sufferings, cares, perplexities and heartbreaks of life are the colours of the rainbow in just another form. Contained in the showers of tears 💦 we weep in times of suffering is the spiritual substance we need to fertilize the fallow ground of our hearts so that we can receive the Seeds of His divine Truth and blossom into a fruitful garden.
God washes our eyes 👀 with tears of suffering to make us truthful to ourselves by washing away the ignorance, grandiose illusions and delusions that we harbour concerning ourselves. God leads us through dark, stormy nights of suffering so that He may fill our skies with His glorious starry Lights of Truth.
When we truly accept affliction and suffering as God’s servants and messengers, they form our souls in strong, gold robes of character and virtue. Our golden robes of character and virtue is seamed together with the fiery needles of affliction and suffering. The searing pricks of the needle leaves a glorious witness in the character and virtue of those who humble themselves under the Mighty Hand of God Who is the Head over all the universe and over all every thing!
God’s Purpose in every heartache and pain is for us to gain more knowledge of His Nature. Therefore, affliction and suffering are God’s educators and teachers. No human being under the sound of my voice can travel life’s road free from pain and suffering. The process of increasing in perception, discernment, observation and in the comprehension and experiences of mankind, including understanding our individual selves, produces pain and suffering.
Colossians 3:2
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth.”
The cruel sufferings and sorrows of life, then, teaches us to guard against placing our affections and hopes on temporal things instead of setting them on eternal things. The Apostle Paul cried out to know Jesus Christ in the fellowship of His Sufferings.
Philippians 3:10
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformable unto death.”
The sincere heart will experience pricks, hurts, and the stiff, rigid rejection of those who hate the Light of Truth. Therefore, as believers, we should not despise the briers and thorns we encounter on our road upward to greater heights in God because the small pricks and gouges we endure for Christ’s sake cannot compare to the large ones He received from His crown of thorns and the soldier’s spear, as He took our place on a splintery Cross.
Affliction has a cold 🥶 bitter nature that chills the spirit and the soul. Yet, just as God uses His Cold Breath 🌬 in the natural realm to ripen certain fruits, so does He use the cold, bitter, frosty particles of suffering and affliction to ripen and sweeten the spiritual fruits of our spirits and souls.
•God allows Suffering in Order to Increase our spiritual substance.
•God allows Suffering in Order to Correct us.
•God allows Suffering in Order to cause us to Build and to Plant.
•God’s Scales ⚖️ have a Destructive Side.
•God’s Scales of Affliction Roots out, Pulls Down, Destroys, and Throws Down.
•God’s Scales ⚖️ have a Constructive Side.
•God’s Scales of Affliction prepares our Hearts for Planting, and it prepares our Hearts for Building.
•God allows Suffering in Order to leave Examples for Future Generations.
We are to Submit to God. We are to Resist the Devil. We are to Draw Nigh to God. We are to Cleanse our Hands. We are to Purify our Hearts. We are to Expect Afflictions and not run from them.
We Must acknowledge and be in full agreement that Afflictions are Necessary. Experiencing Afflictions helps us to Console Others. Experiencing Afflictions helps us Gain Glory. Experiencing Afflictions helps to Work Liberality in Our Hearts.
God Ministers Consolation in Four ways. God Ministers Consolation by Looking upon Our Affliction. God Ministers Consolation by Hearing Us. God Maintains the cause of the Affliction. God Reveals His Word. Afflictions pass away. Others, Partake of the Same Afflictions.
“God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as His chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for Strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the Stronger we grow Spiritually, even while our natural bodies waste away.”
Let us Pray🧎🏻♀️
“Lord, renew in me Your joy and strength. Give me back the joy of my Salvation. By faith I receive Your love and mercy. No matter what I feel like I know you will never leave me nor forsake me. By faith I encourage myself in You, Lord. I sing Praises and Songs to You. I Worship and adore You, Lord not because of how I feel but because of who You are and my love for You. I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from your Love not death, not life, not angels, not demons, not powers, not the present or the future, not heights, not depths and not any living creature. Let Your love, joy and peace rule inside my life. In Jesus name, I decree and declare it is done. Amen!”
In His Grip,
Pastor Wendy Schenkel
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