There has been an exponential change in the lives of Christians. The days everything came easy, every endeavor was blessed, and there was a rhythm of goodness seems to have ended. What gives? What happened? Why has the road that once lead to a city of gold and delights in deep cool waters, now lead to grueling hikes through dead marshes and thorn filled thistles? Can anyone explain the radical shift from "see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it," (Malachi 3:10) to "Whoever would be my disciple must deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me?" (Matthew 16:24). The Answer to this shaking that is happening to the saints is twofold.
Firstly, the Lord says all that can be shaken will be, "This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain." (Hebrews 12:27). That means finances, the peaceful rhyme of the American Dream, pleasures, your position, families, friendships, and more. The "constrainer" has been removed from the Church and that means the bubble of supernatural, financial, and physical protection has been lifted. We are now under judgment, "For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?," (1 Peter 4:17) and "Those whom I love, I reprove (rebuke) and discipline, so be zealous and repent." (Revelation 3:19). But why are we being judged? Because the Church has served more than one god. The Church is guilty of trying to "serve God and Mammon," when Jesus cleary said, "you cannot serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24). This dual allegiance, is not just in Church setting, it is in the Christian community and Christian lives; they want to serve the Kingdom of Heaven and the American Dream, but the two are in compatible. The Kingdom of Heaven goes like this, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it," (Matthew 13:45-46), and
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19-20). We are called to be sojourners, and exile pilgrims in this world, "Beloved, I exhort you as aliens (foreigners) and sojourners (exiles), to abstain from fleshly desires, which war against your soul," (1 Peter 2:11). Our goal should be to endure on earth to witness to the lost and disciple, and long to go home to Heaven. The Apostle Paul put it best, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again." (Phillippians 1:21-26).
The second issue stems from this distorted and lukewarm form of following Jesus. Those who have mixed the Gospel with the Gospend; follow Jesus and the Consumerism and wordly life end up like children who drink milk, but never mature: "Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14). As a result, these kinds of people get thrusted from their thrones into thorns, because they believed they never had to wear a crown of thorns before wearing a crown of triumph; they thought Jesus alone was the one who had to bear the cross, they had no idead that they had to carry their own cross, "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:27). The problem is that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have been told a "prosperity gospel" that affords not room for suffering, illness, betrayal, loss, abuse, persecution, and even death. This other gospel of propseity (see Galatians 1:8, 2 Corinthians 11:4) creates weak athletes in the faith who are not trained to carry their cross and as result they become overwhelmed because their soul, spirit, and body has not be refined in the fire, "This third (group) I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'" (Zachariah 13:9).
The apostle Paul faced these kinds of beleivers, He said of them, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth." (1 Corinthians 3:1-6). The problem that Paul sees, is that these baby beleivers will not be able to withstand interruptions in their breast feeding, how much more so if the breast of God is removed and He lays meat (suffering) before them?! For we suffer when we chew our meat, our teeth must work and our mouth, and inner organs must adjust (mature), but if we stayed on milk it would be easy, drinking causes little suffering, but then your teeth and other organs will not mature, and if the milk dries up, what then will you do? How will you chew?
There hasn't been a shift to suffering, it has always been promised to us disicples and followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves," (Matthew 10:16), "You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved," (Matthew 10:22), "Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers," (Matthew 24:9), and, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." (John 15:18-19). In Revelation it reads, "They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." (Revelation 12:11). The first two lines tend to get applause, who would not want to be comforted by knowing that Christ's blood conquers, and that the testimonies of beleivers have power, but what about that last line of "they didn't love their lives so much as to shirk from death?" They were ready to be maytred at any moment.
The Church has grown soft. In the early four hundred years, Christians underwent sufferings that to this day we shiver hearing about do to the severity. Men, women, and children were fed to ravenous lions, dogs, and beasts. In Nero's courts Christians were set on fire and made into torches, Nero himself had Christians skinned alive and he wore their skins. Christians were crucified, sawed in half, gorged by bulls, put in prision until they withered from lack of food and water, drowned, beaten by many blows, and I recently learned that Romans did a practice called The Dead Body, where they would take prisoner, tie a already rotting and maggot filled corpse to the living prisioner; and the bugs would eat the corpse and eventually start eating the living person who smelt like the corpose until they were dead. The Apostle Paul actually points to this imagery in Romans, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). Paul was giving the early Church a graphic depiction of what sin does to a person, it is equilvant of a corpse being tied to you and the sins like maggots making food of your body, soul, and eternity. All of these things the early church suffered, and yet none of their accounts have lines like, "It is so hard being in prision, I want to be back in palace, pampered," or "Why am I being tortured, I use to bet treasures and everywhere I trekked I was blessed." No, the early church expected and even yearned to suffer for Jesus Christ, "The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus." (Acts 5:41).
There has been no shift, it has always intended for saints to suffer. We suffer in this life, and are saved in next, while those who are safe in this life will suffer forever in hellfire. Until the church gets this, there will always be pitiful displays, murmuring, complaining, and cries of unfairness. The Church risks becoming the Israelites in the Wilderness, "Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn't it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn't it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest." (Hebrews 3:16-19). You
will never find rest (Matthew 11:28) if you persist in believing that life as a Christian is going to be easy. Our Lord and Savior said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14). The Narrow gate that is small and path that is narrow is hard to find because so many shirk from suffering to stay on it.
Jesus Christ who is Yahweh (God) gave us fair warning about the kind of life we should expect as a follower and disciple. The question is are you going to finally mature and recognize the milk has run dry and start eating meat and carrying your cross? Or will you remain like a child who cries and throws tantrums the littlest discomfort and inconviance? Make no mistake, if you avoid the cross, you avoid Christ and risk become like the many, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" (Matthew 7:22-23). To know Jesus is to carry the cross (Matthew 16:24 and Luke 14:27), bear His marks in our bodies (Galatians 6:17), wear a crown of thorns, be beaten, persecuted, mocked, betrayed (Matthew 10:35-36), hated (Matt 10:22), spit on, and suffer as He did. The Apostle Peter affirms this reasoning, "So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin," (1 Peter 4:1, NLT) and "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps." (1 Peter 2:21), and "But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed." (1 Peter 4:13). To become like the Master, we must live the life He did and suffer like He did (1 John 2:6) until He returns and then we "Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2). To know Jesus is to know suffering, for in suffering we press into our Savior, letting each "strip heal us," (1 Peter 2:24, Jeff Paraphrase). Our suffering is to connect us to our Savior and to be that testimony: "They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony.." (Revelation 12:11). Testimonies come from being tested, and so we cannot overcome our enemy until we embrace the test, carry our cross, and turn that test through Christ's help into a testimony to tell the nations what God has done.
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