Power & Victory For the Rest of Your Life // Your Road to Spiritual Victory, Part 4

Suffering isn’t a subject most of us like to talk about, or even think about, but suffering is a reality in life. And right in the middle of that not-so-pleasant reality, I have some good news for you today. Your God wants you to have victory, right in the middle of your suffering.

VICTORY IN SUFFERING

People pay a lot of money for wilderness eco tours these days, and yet as Christians, God seems to take us on wilderness tours free of charge on a regular basis. Why does He do that? I mean, can’t our lives just go along on a nice, even keel for ever and ever amen?

Funny thing, but when Jesus was baptised, as He come out of the water, the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and a voice spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”.

Did that happen at your baptism? No, me neither. Let’s take a look. Mark chapter 1, verses 9 to 13:

Just as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’. And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan.

A booming voice from heaven – “This is my beloved Son in You I am well pleased” … and yet, the very next thing that God did with His precious Son was to drive Him out (literally the word means ‘throw Him out’) into the wilderness to starve and to be tempted by the devil for forty days and forty nights. God didn’t even spare His own Son, but when He was finished, Jesus came out of the wilderness we are told ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’.

It’s just how God does things, get used to it. Suffering is part of God’s plan for our lives. None of us enjoys suffering. I don’t and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. But suffering is a normal part of life. And God tells us that when we suffer, we should consider it nothing but … pure joy!! Come on! Is that bizarre or what!? Have a listen to this. James chapter 1, verse 2:

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but pure joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, and lacking in nothing.

God’s plan is that in that wilderness of suffering, He will test and strengthen our faith. That’s one of the main reasons for suffering. So far, my record for bad days in my life, is that I’ve managed to survive each and every one of them just fine. In fact, that’s a one hundred percent survival rate, and there have been some real shockers in that lot, I have to tell you.

As I look back on them, I can see how the Lord carried me through, how He cared and provided for me, how He grew me and moulded me and how He’s used every one of those bad days for good in my life. Isn’t it amazing how the fire of trials and suffering refine us purer and purer each time?

When an athlete trains to compete at an elite level in their sport, they go through a lot of pain. They run until it hurts, they pump iron until it hurts. And what that pain, what that suffering does for them, is, well … it does two things really. It makes them strong, and it gives them endurance, both of those are important. Strength and endurance – you need both of them to compete well in a sport, and you need both of them to get through the tough patches in life. Strength and endurance.

Do you know what the biggest temptation is for you and me when we’re suffering? I think it’s the temptation to start behaving badly. I’ll just go out and get drunk, or I’ll sleep around, or I’ll be nasty to other people that are causing me the pain. Somehow we have this distorted ledger in our heads that goes something like this:

Well, God’s certainly not blessing me at the moment, so why not behave badly? Why not do what I want? Blow God!! What do I have to lose?!

Of course, in the cold, hard light of day, that’s a stupid line of reasoning, because we know that behaving badly, eventually, is just going to make other things worse. So just in case you were wondering, here’s God’s plan for what to do when you’re suffering. Galatians chapter 6, verses 9 and 10:

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

God is a God of seasons. Look at how regularly they roll around – spring, summer, autumn, winter; year after year. Seed time and harvest, season after season. There are seasons of blessing in our lives, there are seasons of trials in our lives, there are seasons of temptation in our lives, and there are seasons of suffering in our lives.

And through it all, here’s the thing, if we don’t grow weary of doing what is right, we will reap the harvest that’s waiting for us. When? Well, at harvest time, of course! So don’t panic. Don’t worry, just cry out to God, pour out your heart to Him.

A few years ago, I was sitting in a small group Bible study with a bunch of earnest, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians. We were looking at that verse in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 that goes something like this:

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Great. So we discuss it, we prodded it and poked it, and we’re about to move on. The Bible study leader summarises with: “Well, that’s is really good, but we still worry, don’t we?” Berni – I can’t help myself at this point – Berni shouts out, “NO!” And they all stare at me.

Come on – do we take God at His Word or not? Here in this passage, He’s telling us, if instead of worrying, we pray and give thanks, His incomprehensible peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good deal to me! All we need to do, is to take God at His Word in those difficult times, and keep on keeping on, and we will discover in our very own experience just how faithful God is.

POWER TO YOU

Spiritual victory is an awesome thing. So many things come against us in this world – people, circumstances, our own selfish desires, the devil and his legion of demons, it’s almost as though we’ve been set up to fail, don’t you think? You look at all the stuff you have to get through in this life and there is just no way that you can live your life the way God wants you to live it.

Way too many people who call themselves Christians are living in that sort of a defeat but Jesus came to give us victory and victory we shall have if only we can get over our desire to be self-sufficient, if only we can get over this natural instinct we have somewhere deep inside us to set out on our own to become better people, to become better Christians if you will. How did we get that idea into us in the first place pray tell?

Well here’s how it generally unfolds in our lives. One of the very first things we try to teach our children is to become self-sufficient. I mean when they’re born they’re completely dependent on us for everything, by the time they leave home we want them to be able to cope with the big wide world out there on their own, we want them to be self-sufficient and that’s good but there’s a downside. The danger is that we take that thinking and that teaching, each one of us, into our relationship with God.

Jesus once said this to His disciples, John chapter 15 verses 4 and 5, He said:

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing.

Allow me if you will to paraphrase that so that we can get it into our thick skulls once and for all. In effect Jesus is saying this, look guys I don’t care how clever you are apart from me you can do nothing. I am the vine, you’re the branches and the only way that you can bear fruit is to be in me.

When I became a Christian that’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I was Mr Self Sufficient, in fact that’s still my natural instinct to try to crash through things on my own so it’s still a lesson I’m learning over and over again. When it comes to overcoming my sin, when it comes to blessing others, here’s what I’ve discovered. Apart from Jesus I can do nothing and nothing means NOTHING.

It’s exactly what God’s Word says by the way, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 56 and 57:

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The only place you get victory is in Jesus. No, you can’t do it alone, the only place you can get victory just in case you missed it is in Jesus. I know what you’re thinking, ‘Berni that’s a great theory but exactly how does that work? Where do I go to actually lay hold of that victory? How can I experience this victory you’ve been yabbering on about in my life? How can I stop being a spiritual loser? How can I start winning the battles each day?

Well the most amazing thing about being a Christian is having the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you. Just stop and think about that for a minute – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three persons, one God, so when the Spirit dwells in you that’s God, that’s the God who created the universe, the Jesus who died and rose again for you, the same Holy Spirit who filled those disciples with power at Pentecost, that’s that God dwelling in you.

A lot of people shy away from the Holy Spirit, He’s a bit harder to get a handle on. The Father, yeah we get that, the Son, we get that too but the Holy Spirit, well it’s not so easy.

Listen up those disciples even though they spent three and a half years with Jesus, were a disorganised uneducated rabble. Even when Jesus ascended into heaven they still lacked that power, that ability, that focus to do what Jesus had called them to do – to be His witnesses even unto the ends of the earth.

Then something happened, have a listen, Acts chapter 2 verses 2 to 4.

Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like a rush of violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.

They were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. He brings such incredible power into our lives, the power to do things we never imagined, the power to be all that God made us to be, the power to overcome sin, the power to live our lives in victory come what may.

The Bible actually commands us, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 to:

Go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And yet some Christians shy from Him, like that makes sense somehow. The very same day that the disciples were filled with the Spirit listen to what Peter, the uneducated fisherman achieved, Acts chapter 2 verses 14 and 41.

Peter standing up with the eleven raised his voice and addressed them and those who welcomed his message were baptised and that day about three thousand persons were added.

He hadn’t been to the elite theological colleges of Jerusalem, no he was a fisherman from Galilee of all places. When Jesus needs him most during their many trials leading up to His crucifixion this Peter, who had promised to stand by Jesus denies Him three times just as Jesus had foretold.

Now let’s wind the clock forward to this day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit falls on the disciples, Peter gets up and speaks about Jesus to this huge crowd filled with the very same people who, just weeks before, had shouted, ‘Crucify Him’. He tells them about Jesus, about their sin. There was every chance that he too could have been arrested and crucified, instead we’re told that on that very day about three thousand people accepted Jesus.

Now that’s what you call power, the very same power that’s available for you today.

THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

So let me get back to that question I just asked you, how are you going to spend the rest of your life? Defeated or victorious? It is such a terrible tragedy that so many of God’s people are living their lives out as losers when everything that needs to be done for them to have victory has in fact already been done.

Let me be blunt and direct with you here, I know that’s going to be a surprise to you given I’m such a shy and retiring type but let me whack you right between the eyes with the God honest truth. This is true for every man and woman and child who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, every man and woman and child who has put their complete trust in Jesus.

God means you to live out the rest of your life in victory through Jesus Christ, full stop, end of story. And He had a plan for that to happen before you were even born. Now granted life is a funny thing, it goes in fits and starts, sometimes there are long boring patches of the same old same old, you know business as usual interspersed with the odd high and the odd low.

All of a sudden something exciting happens maybe a marriage or a birth or a holiday or a promotion and then bang, car accident, relationship problems, the death of a loved one. That’s how life seems to play itself out. Sometimes without rhyme nor reason, more like a lottery than a life but that’s not actually the way it is. God knew before you were born, He already had a plan for your life, He already knew how your life would pan out, what He gifted you to do.

This is what He said to the Prophet Jeremiah about the life He’d planned for him, Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you a Prophet to the nations.

And the same is true for you, your life isn’t a lottery, it’s a part of Gods plan and that right there is a great reason to bounce out of bed every morning with a sense of anticipation ‘I wonder what God has planned for me today’, don’t you think? Sure some days are going to be scary days, some days you’re going to have this feeling that God’s abandoned you, you’re pedalling so hard up hill, into the wind, into the driving rain, pedal, pedal, harder, harder.

Then one day you look up and God is nowhere to be seen and not only is He nowhere to be seen but the storm clouds have thickened and, well you’ve got the picture, you know exactly what I’m talking about because you’ve been there. When the whole world is lined up against you here’s the rub, Isaiah chapter 41 verses 9 and 10. God says to you, He is saying to you today:

You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Do not fear for I am with you, do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

In other words God is still God, God still loves you, there’s no need to panic, there’s no need to be afraid, He’s right there with you closer than the deepest secret of your heart. God will strengthen you, God will help you, God will uphold you with His victorious right hand. Why?

Not because I say so but because He does. Isaiah chapter 41 verses 9 and 10, that’s His promise and when that little truth is tucked away in your heart you can relax. He has it all under control, so much so that right in the middle of one of those life storms He’s going to call you to step out of the pitching boat that you’re in, the pitching boat that seems to be keeping you alive, He’s going to call you out to walk on the water with Him.

Some people, entrepreneurs in particular are natural risk takers, others quite simply are not. Wherever you lie on that risk taking continuum I have something serious to share with you today. If you’ve set your heart on following Jesus you can leave behind any notion you’ll be able to stay in your comfort zone.

The twelve disciples were out in a storm in a small boat on the Sea of Galilee and even though some of them were experienced fishermen who knew these waters the storm became so ferocious that even they were afraid of drowning. Jesus comes walking across the water. They’re even more fearful because they think they’ve seen a ghost. Matthew chapter 14 verses 28 and 29.

Peter answered him, ‘Lord if it’s you command me to come out onto the water with you’ and Jesus said, ‘come’. So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water and came towards Jesus.

Now Peter, if you know anything about him, was obviously a risk taker, he doesn’t wait for Jesus to call him out there but he asks Jesus to invite him to step out of the boat. And when Jesus does just that crazy Pete steps out of said boat and walks on the water right in the middle of a howling storm. Now you’d think that Jesus could have calmed the storm first right? But no, He called Peter out of the boat in the middle of that raging storm. But that’s Jesus, that’s the way He does things, go figure.

You and I want to wait until the storms of life abate until we step out of the boat and follow Jesus but victory, real victory is stepping out and following Him in the middle of the storm. Again Matthew chapter 14 verses 30 to 33.

But when Peter noticed the strong wind…

So he’s out there, he’s on the water right? He notices the strong wind.

He became frightened and began to sink and he cried out, ‘Lord save me’. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him saying to him ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt?’ When they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped him saying ‘truly you are the Son of God. (Matthew 14:30 to 33)

When Jesus says to you ‘follow me’ it isn’t an invitation to an easy life, far from it. Jesus promised His disciples quite the opposite. Hmm, I’ve been out on a few of those stormy oceans like that in my time, stepping out of the boat to answer Jesus call, it seems alright at first but when you’re out there on the water the storm gets your attention like nothing else and what happened to Peter has happened to me on more than one occasion.

The moment you take your eyes off Jesus and you focus on the storm, the problem, you start to sink. Note to self: keep your eyes on Jesus, would you?

One day, the day will come when you and I breathe our last breath on this earth. One way or another, either because our body has just given up on us or because Jesus returned, that can be a scary thought too, particularly the older you get and the more you feel your body aging but here’s another exciting bit of news.

No matter how it ends for you and me if we believe in Jesus, if we’ve been living our lives for Him, walking out on the stormy water even when the storm is raging, we’ve been living for Him the best way we know how then He has a promise that removes even the fear of death. John chapter 14 verses 1 to 3.

Don’t let your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me for in my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it weren’t so would I have told you that I would go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and will take you to myself so that where I am there you may also be.

He has been preparing a place in His Father’s house for you so you can spend the rest of eternity with Him. Whatever happens to be going on in your life right now just let that one sink in for a moment, eternity with Jesus in His Father’s house. Whatever this life throws at you, however howling and raging the storm is between now and your last breathe eternity with Jesus in His Father’s house, that’s His promise – His rock solid promise.

That puts a whole new spin on things doesn’t it? God has a simple plan for you, to live your life in spiritual victory, that’s why Jesus came, that’s why Jesus died, that’s why Jesus rose again.

Sin couldn’t hold Him down and His victory is your victory now and forever.