Currently, I’m listening to “Another in the fire with me” By Hillsong.
Someone asked a question in my church some weeks back after I finished a teaching on how Christ endured suffering and the cross for the glory ahead.
This is the question;
“Christ knew there was a Glory ahead of Him so He could endure. Today as Christians, how do we know there is Glory ahead of our suffering? E.g how does a Christian student suffering in school know that after school, his suffering will stop?
Christ had an assurance so he could endure. What’s the assurance so we too can endure?”
To be honest, I couldn’t answer the question completely immediately because it caught me off guard but after a short while, the Spirit of God began to minister the answer to me and that’s what I’m sharing on the Blog today.
Amen?
Amen.
Let’s talk about Jesus.
The son of God came to earth as man and went through all kinds of sufferings, pains and eventually death to redeem the fallen man.
Before He came, several scriptures had prophesied his coming, death, resurrection and the glory He would eventually be given. So, I believe Christ wasn’t in the dark as to what would happen to Him. We see in several scriptures that He even told His disciples that he would die and resurrect.
Now this is it, No one had died and resurrected prior to then so there wasn’t a precedence for Christ to relate to.
All He relied on, was what God had said. God said He’d suffer and die but after 3 days, He’d resurrect and be seated at the right hand of God
and the World would be saved.
Had it happened before? No. But God said it, so Christ trusted and went for it.
Christ’s assurance for the Glory ahead was God’s Word.
He knew the Father and trusted that if the Father said it, so it was. Even when his human flesh became afraid of the torture, He took His mind back to the father’s plan and forged ahead.
In our lives today as Christians, our greatest assurance is the Word of God. When you go through unpleasant times, your confidence for a better future should be hinged on God’s Word.
In this Kingdom, seeing is not believing. We believe even when we do not see. The only recipe our faith needs to he cooked up is God’s Word. “The just shall live by faith” is recorded in four different Bible passages, signifying the importance of Faith to God. The Bible even says without it, it is impossible to see God.
Christianity itself is a faith. I mean how do you explain believing that someone came, died and resurrected for your sake when you have not seen the person? That’s exactly what faith is. Believing without seeing. And remember Jesus said to Thomas, You believe because you see but blessed are those who believe without seeing. Christianity is impossible without faith.
for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises]—
2 CORINTHIANS 5:7 AMP
How to live by Faith.
This is what it means to trust God: We will be sure about the things that we hope for. We will be sure in our minds about things that we cannot even see.
Hebrews 11:1 EASY
You must take note that faith is only valid when you’re holding on to the Word of God. (So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 KJV)
Dimensions of God’s Word;
The revealed Word of God to you
The Word of God from scriptures
The revealed Word of God to you is the Word that God Himself gives to you in your time of prayer or fellowship. It could also be through visions, prophecy or dreams. This is a special word of promise revealed by God which is unique to you alone.
The Word of God from scriptures are the blessings and promises from the Bible. You can claim them as a saint and a heir of salvation.
To live by faith is to live as though your physical eyes don’t see. Your eyes are taken away from everything that surrounds you, be it good or bad.
You have a family or friend who promised to help you secure a job and you’re grateful to God for him but your confidence is not hinged on that. You seek God and hold on to His word as though you have no one.
Your life is full of challenges and problems that should pull you down but you hold on to the promises of Yahweh and live in your authority in Christ as though those problems do not exist.
You barely have enough to eat but you confess God’s word that “My God shall supply all my needs”. You do this from a place of deep conviction in God’s Word.
Your life seems perfect and everything is in place but that’s not what gives you rest of mind. Your peace rather, is in the fact that Jesus holds your future.
This is how to live by faith. Finding out God’s plans for you in His Word and holding on to it like your life depends on it, because it does.
Dear Christian, your confidence in God’s Word should be unwavering. It’s the surest and most reliable. Every other thing you rely on can and will fail.
When you’re faced with a challenge, go back to the Word or your journal for God’s promises and find out what provision was made got that issue.
God’s integrity is on His Word. He’s a respecter of nothing but His Word. Trust in the Intergerity of God’s Word and let it be the basis of your confidence.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23 NKJV
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. HEBREWS 11:1 AMP
