We praise God for spiritual revelation, understanding, knowledge and wisdom without which we cannot search the deep things of God! (1 Cor. 2:10, 12-14)
The Lord is speaking to us about suffering and that every Christian is called to suffer if he is to share in the glory (Rom. 8:17; Phil. 3:10; Phil. 1:29; Rom. 5:3). God is also helping us understand what suffering is not and what it really is and showed us on Sunday that:
Suffering is not:
- Fatalism - tolerating all physical or emotional pain as God's will
- Introspection - focusing on self, self-pity
- Always physical or emotional pain
- Misery - sorrow
The definition for suffering we've been given is:
To suffer is to bear the consequences of living for God for the sake of others and for the glory of God!
The Lord showed us that:
Suffering is:
- Bearing purposefully - actively and purposefully bearing the consequences of living for God as a conqueror and not as a victim!
- God-consciousness and not self-centredness
- Uncomfortable but not always painful
- Joy and not misery
Looking at 1 Peter 2:20-24 we saw that:
- Jesus suffered purposefully by bearing our sins so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness and be healed (vs 24)
- Jesus was God-conscious when He suffered as He entrusted Himself to the Father
- Jesus' death on the cross was certainly not comfortable
- Jesus' suffering was in the context of joyful obedience for the sake of others and for the glory of the Father (Hebrews 12:2)
We praise God for the truth He is revealing to us that sets us free, that revives us, that encourages us and that empowers us to live for others and for His glory! Hallelujah.
Yesterday, Richard, Frances and David returned from a 3 day leaders' conference at Kingdom Faith in Horsham, England. The conference was excellent and we have returned encouraged and filled as we met with the Lord and received from Him through His presence, His Word and His love. We are very excited about how the Spirit of God is saying the same things to His Church all over the world and that what the Holy Spirit was saying to His people at the conference is very much what we are hearing Him say to Kingdom Life. Much of the emphasis was on being dependent on the Holy Spirit, learning to follow Him and submitting to Him in obedience. God was also challenging us as leaders to understand that there are no short cuts in the anointing and that every believer needs to grow in his own personal relationship with the Lord if he wants to grow in the anointing of the Spirit. We praise God for unity in the Spirit!
As we grow in our relationship with Kingdom Faith, we are also seeking to work together more and more in building God's Kingdom. For this purpose we are looking into having two students from Kingdom Faith Training College visit KLF for a month (mid-June to mid-July) to bless and be blessed as they come to serve and receive opportunities to be trained as we work together. Furthermore we are excited to possibly have Jonathon Dyke and a couple others on his apostolic team come and visit us again before the Summer.
This Sunday we will be having a New Life Celebration in the Baptist church in Eschersheim when will be baptising two young believers! Hallelujah!
God is absolutely amazing! He is orchestrating relationships and connections across the globe in the most awesome ways. He loves to demonstrate His sovereignty and ability to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could possibly think or imagine. Thank you Lord!
Quote of the week:
"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." Romans 8:16,17
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