Peter
tells us that we have everything we need through God’s divine power; we have
God’s true nature in Jesus. We can experience life as it was meant to be
experienced with God at the center of our lives.
Having the knowledge of Jesus is more than just knowing
about Him; it has become interpersonal and intimate with an ever-increasing
desire to know Him deeper.
Each day I wake up with the desire to get into His
presence to interact with Him, even though I know Jesus is with me the moment I
wake up, there is something more personally fulfilling and satisfying to seek
after Him intentionally.
The divine nature (or power) isn’t
just signs and wonders as some have come to call it (even though that may be a part of it) real power is the surrendered life given to
Christ. The surrendered life is where the sufferings come into view, both Paul and
Peter knew about entering into the sufferings of Christ.
Suffering builds character and patience, which, in turn,
builds virtue.
“All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power
of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his
death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.”
Philippians
3:10-11 (GNT)
I remember my pastor John Wimber used to talk a lot about
entering into the sufferings of Christ and how those sufferings would build our
faith. Suffering does indeed build confidence and trust in the Lord as we face
difficulty; we lean heavily upon God’s grace to sustain us and patiently wait
for God’s answer.
I have found that I don’t always get the answer that I
prefer, but I do get the answer that I need, and it does strengthen me.
It is when
we put our complete confidence in the hands of Jesus that we find that even the
smallest sufferings have a huge purpose, God’s mission is to form us and shape
us into the image of Christ Jesus to reflect His true nature.
It is because
God wants us to be actual witnesses, to personally know what it means to be
like Him to be able to comprehend the complexities His sufferings. We can then minister to others from our experience with Christ who need healing or to reveal what God's Kingdom is like, or even just render answers to questions about God.
“So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our
outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day.
We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our
difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory
far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen
but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is
eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (TPT)
We have God’s great promises which were given to us; one
specific promise is that He would never leave or forsake us.
Even in the book
of Job, amid all of Job’s sufferings, he never spoke a word against God or the
trials he encountered but remained faithful to the character and nature of his
God.
“His wife said to him,
“Are you still holding on to your faith? Why don’t you just curse God and die!” Job answered, “You sound like one of those
fools on the street corner! How can we accept all the good things that God
gives us and not accept the problems?” So even after all that happened to Job,
he did not sin. He did not accuse God of doing anything wrong.”
Job 2:9-10 (ERV)
Even when we trust Him, we are not always
given the reasons for our suffering; we are typically given limited
information. But we trust God by faith that He will be faithful to His word and
will always bring glory to Himself through our trials.
It has to be this way
for God is not capricious or given to folly. His ways are past finding out and
are only meant for His goodness to be the result.
“Yes, God’s riches are very great! His wisdom and
knowledge have no end! No one can explain what God decides. No one can
understand his ways. As the Scriptures say, Who can know what is on the Lord’s
mind? Who is able to give him advice? Who has ever given God anything? God
owes nothing to anyone.
Yes, God made all things. And everything continues
through him and for him. To God be the glory forever! Amen.”
Romans
11:33-36 (ERV)
Peter tells us that we have received God’s promises for
the purpose of escaping the
corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature. God’s promises serve many purposes, one
of which is to entice us to trust and love Him, while other promises help shape our responses
to how we respond to this world and its ways.
This fallen world does have many problems; all of those
problems are because sin has corrupted God’s creation. It is only by
participating in the divine nature with Christ that we now have a taste of how
God’s restored creation will be.
We partake of Christ and His life, and we
are transformed, but the fullness of that restoration has not yet fully been
revealed in the earth. It is the now and the not yet scenario, the crossover of two dispensations of existence until one entirely takes over and envelops the
other.
We await with hope and anticipation that the day when Jesus returns God’s grace will fill
the whole earth and everything will be made right.
Be Blessed;
Stephen Barnett
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