The Fellowship of His Sufferings 1

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivered him out of them all” – (Ps 34:19). At this point in time, it is imperative that the issue of Christian suffering should be critically looked at. It is dearly evident in God’s word that He cannot perfectly consider anyone to manifest as a Son until he has passed through the process of suffering and has understood its mystery and its implications. Such a son having been molded by God’s mighty hand could be designated, a good soldier of Christ, capable of enduring affliction.

God’s intention is to raise a people strong and mature, tempered by suffering, and victorious in affliction to manage his kingdom. Men who have mastered how to keep Satan under Christ’s feet, roots of God’s strength, sent out of Zion to forcefully rule in the midst of their enemies (Ps 110:1-2).

The teaching of suffering has conspicuously and intentionally been made absent in the Church of Christ today. All in the bid to hold men into our cathedrals, we fail to see them being lost and confused, our eyes being blinded to the fact that unless we suffer with him, we cannot reign with him.

The issue of Christian suffering is not what we can bargain, it is a must unless we are not ready to attain to what God has designed us to be in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus himself understood the role of suffering in helping him to achieve his earthly and eternal purpose. His rebuke of Peter in Matt 16:23 was an indication to his ardent commitment to suffer for the sake of gaining eternal redemption for us, who are now heirs of salvation. His agony at Gethsemane depicts suffering and agony of soul, all in his pursuit of the divine purpose. No one should therefore expect the fulfillment of a divine purpose unless he or she is ready to go through the prerequisite training.

To endure affliction is a mark of Fellowship “ For even here into were we called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps” – 1Pet 2:2.

It is apparent that the highest level of knowing Christ is to fellowship in his suffering and resurrection and as such it should be the greatest desire of every true child of God. Paul in Phil 3:8-10 considered every other things loss, just to know Christ and his suffering. This level of understanding is obviously higher than the “bless me” mentality the church parades today. Unlike Paul who said we are poor, yet making many rich, or we have nothing, yet possessing all things, the present day apostles will rather say we are rich, yet making many poor, what a contrast to the original faith handed over to us. Without doubt the Laodecian age has come upon the church, men making merchandise of the gospel.

Forms of Suffering There is no doubt that the devil tries to afflict God’s children, but it must be noted that no affliction will come to a true child of God unless permitted by God for a purpose. In other words, the devil himself is under God’s employment to fulfill His eternal purpose, as was revealed in the life of Job.

The devil sought for permission to afflict Job and was granted; yet the duration, intensity and forms of affliction were absolutely under God’s control. The devil was permitted to touch Job’s property and children but not Job’s life. Even the different stages in the affliction were perfectly under God’s control. To the New Creature, all things work together for good. It is apparent therefore that every affliction and suffering has a good end. This is the faith and the hope that takes the afflicted to the desired divine ending.

Since God is in perfect control of every suffering that comes to his children, the bible therefore tells of about four forms of afflictions that may come our way.

(a) Bread of affliction “ Thou shall eat no leavened bread with it, seven days shall thou eat unleavened bread there with, even the bread of affliction, for thou camest forth out of the Land of Egypt in haste, that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life – Deut 16:13. Suffering remind us of where we are coming from. A man’s exaltation into great wealth must have taken him through the wilderness of great poverty, all in the bid for him to lean what poverty feels like and to develop genuine concern for the poor.

(b) Waters of Affliction “ And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teacher be removed into a corner any more, but their eyes shall see thy teachers”( Isa 30: 20). The water of affliction signifies difficulty and uneasy situations and wilderness experiences that could surround God’s children. The whole goal of this is to get a man’s dependence hooked on the leadership and guidiance of God through the spirit of truth. Only God knows the way through the wilderness. Our son-ship cannot be certified until our guidance-ship is satisfied. For as many as are led by the spirit, they are the sons of God. When next situations around you are confusing, it is a divine bait to help you depend on the Holy Spirit for direction.

(c) Cords of Affliction “ And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction, Then he sheweth them their works, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. (Job 36:8-9). God specialises in chastening and disciplining his children when they walk outside of his purpose for them. Since most time our David does not quickly realize the gravity of our hard-heartedness until the first born of Bathsheba become afflicted with sickness, God therefore in the bid to wake up his beloved to consciousness has to use affliction. Uzziah needed to die for Isaiah to see the Lord – (Is 6:1-3)

(d) Furnace of Affliction “ Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” – Is 48:10. God frequently uses affliction to make his choice of men for a very special purpose. It requires a furnace to bring out the best in Gold, as it requires a stiff test to bring out the last 300 armies of Gideon. Silver or money is of no use in God’s hand to refine a chosen people for himself, it requires a furnace of affliction to do it, and this will blow up the mind of people who think God should raise them as financiers for the Gospel, thinking that the money will make them fit for God’s purpose. It takes affliction and your response to it to make a man fit for God‘s special purpose. Three days in the belly of a whale was adequate enough to change a Tarshish–minded Jonah to a Nineveh-minded, God’s will fulfilling prophet. This is the seal of apostleship. The seal of apostleship is not in how much money we have, neither is it in how well travelled we are, but it’s in how much sufferings we have endured for the Truth’s sake.

“But in all things approving ourselves as the minister’s of God, in much patience, in affliction, in necessity, in distresses…”(2 Cor 6:4).

To be continued......