No Power Without Suffering

Php 3:10 That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death;

Every Christian wants to walk in the power of His resurrection, but few want the sufferings and death that came before the resurrection.

Dump your easy and prosperity oriented Christianity if you really want to see the power of the Holy Spirit bringing you into resurrection living. Follow Jesus in the rejection, the mocking, the beating, the humiliation, crucifixion and death to see the power of His resurrected life in you.

Dying to self is excruciating at times. The flesh is demanding and weak. We start out in ministry and quit the first time we lose a debate or someone laughs at us calling us hurtful names. Maybe we even took a beating for our faith or were threatened with being fired. Our family was angry at our being a Jesus freak so we backed down to keep peace.

There are many brethren around the world that are naked, hungry, without shelter, bruised, burned, jailed, raped, enslaved and many have died for their faith. They would look at us in pity for they have experienced the power, grace and love of God beyond our comprehension. They see miracles we talk about but do not see in our ivory towers and Sunday palaces. They would shake their heads listening to our excuses for quitting after our petty micro-persecutions.

1st Century Christianity is alive and well, but we are short on 1st Century Christians that seek not ease or applause of men only desiring the approval of Christ.

We say we want revival, but we want a soft and weak one that will win people to Christ without it costing us anything or pull us out of our comfort zone. We want conversions to get these nasty bothersome sinners to act right. Change them, but leave us as we are.

We want more members to pay the bills or to make us the biggest church in the state or nation. Then again, maybe we do not because that might mean we will have to deal with people that do not look or act like us and may have severe needs that will cost us time and money to relieve.

May God purge us of our apathy and sins we excuse, ignore or are just ignorant of so that we can be fit vessels for His use. May He melt our iceberg hearts so that when we look at someone we wonder if they are one heartbeat from Glory or from Hell.

May we engage the religious as well as the irreligious because there are many children of Hell inside church walls. Indeed, there may be more of them than the children of God which explains church splits, church hopping and sectarianism.

We are on the brink of destruction in this country and others because the Church has been everything but the Church Christ established. We have gone far off mission. Our people would be charged with dereliction of duty and being AWOL or deserters if we were in an earthly army.

The war we are in is far more important than any carnal conflict. We are in a battle for eternity and souls are at stake. We can no longer be complicit or complacent. Today is a good day to die to self and enter the journey to walk in the power of His resurrection. That is how you will know Him. He arose from the dead and so must we! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Maranatha!