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The War for the Soul of the Church
Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
One of the most precious promises found in scripture is Paul’s statement to the Corinthian believers that God will comfort us in all our times of affliction (2 Corinthians 1:4). It is not that He necessarily pats us on the back and speaks soothingly that everything will turn out all right. Rather, the word translated as comfort (Greek, PARAKALEO) indicates that He will call us near to himself.
In other words, God’s strategy is to cause our times of pain to become places of increased intimacy with Him. When we hear and respond to the drawing power of the Holy Spirit, we then find that the Lord has come into greater clarity. Amazingly, we begin to understand Him in ways we never would have if we had not gone into the time of trial.
For example, Job was a righteous man who knew the Lord with some degree of intimacy. But his life was severely shaken by a series of traumatic events. One adjustment we receive from reading the Book of Job is the idea that life will always be wonderful and cheerful for those who love God. Sometimes the godly will experience painful trials for which they have no understanding. But in the midst of Job’s great troubles, the young man Elihu spoke to him some God–given words of life. Through Elihu’s faithful ministry, the Lord arose bringing greater clarity of himself to Job than he had ever experienced before. It was then that he realized that he had not known God very well at all.
We all experience trials, and they are all painful. The term that Paul used in the above passage is THLIPSIS. It means affliction, tribulation, trouble, etc., and it can include any kind of painful experience – e.g., job loss, relational tension, persecution, economic stress, war, etc.
Stephen used this term when speaking of the great trouble of famine that came in the time of Joseph (Acts 7:11). Clearly, the Earth has experienced many periods of trouble in many and varied geographical locations throughout history. Many Bible scholars believe that such a period of great tribulation (Greek, MEGAS THLIPSIS) will mark the end of Church history.
But if the main point that God wants to emphasize concerning affliction is that during such times, He draws near, calling us to himself, then the trouble itself cannot be our main focus. Our emphasis must be the same as God’s – His comfort. And here is an interesting thought to consider – if the Lord’s main point concerning affliction is that He calls us to himself, should we not be emphasizing the great comfort at the end of history more than the great tribulation? In any case, it is specifically in times of great discomfort that the Lord arises among the nations sending forth to all who will listen, the call to come and draw close to Him.
One problem that we all seem to have in difficult times is the tendency to look for people to blame. Usually, someone can be found rather quickly. If they had not done or said what they did, then this predicament never would have happened to us. But God sent the trial in order to reveal himself to us in ways we never would have experienced if we had not gone through it. Sadly, many miss His emphasis and instead of discovering more of the beauty of Christ, find and emphasize the flaws of those around them.
As a result, painful church splits and divisions often mar simultaneously precious times of increasing glory among God’s people. So what is His strategy at such times? I believe His tactic is to empower men and women to embrace the cross as a present lifestyle.
In fact, the very insight such believers learn in their trials will be the message that God will enable them to bring to others who are in difficulty. Some to whom they are sent will receive them and embrace the cross; others will demand justice. “I’m in this terrible position because of what those people did to me.” But the cross is not about justice for the one dying; it is about mercy for the ones killing him. Those who understand this simple truth will be empowered to show the way forward. Apart from embracing the cross, the Church will consistently fail to comprehend God’s glory.
Today, many confuse God’s power with His glory. But they are not the same thing. While His glory is always full of His power, the reverse is not necessarily true. Since His glory is irrevocably tied to His character (Exodus 33:18-19; 34:6-7), then those who minister to others with powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit but without a commensurate measure of humility will bring confusion instead of clarity to the issues at hand. In those times, those believers who are more impressed with power than with humility will run the risk of being led astray.
But to those who are in times of difficulty, God’s promise is clear. From our present experience, He will empower us to go to others who are in any kind of trouble and comfort them with the very same comfort that He ministered to us.
He comforts us in our every affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction by means of the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
(2 Corinthians 1:4 WEYMOUTH)
In other words, what God just brought us through has now made us relevant to anybody, anywhere, in any kind of affliction.
We must see this truth, because one of Satan’s lies is to persuade us that we are not relevant to the needs of hurting people around us. “What can I possibly say to them? I’m not in the same economic class. I’m not as educated as they are. I’m single and they are married, etc.” But the Lord says that we can comfort anybody in any affliction with the comfort He ministered to us. In other words, while what we say may not be the totality of what people need to hear, God is the one who makes us relevant to them and to their particular situation.
If the Lord is important to the world and its needs, then so also are those whom He fashions and sends into it. To be clear, He is the only one who can form a man of God, a woman of God. While others in the Church can be of great help and also a part of the process that He uses to fashion us as they teach, counsel, and train us, etc., yet it is only the Lord himself who is revealed in scripture as the great Potter. In the end, He is the one who fashions and sends forth those who will accurately represent Him.
Here is the great need of the nations – an apostolic people. The Lord’s original intent for His Church was that we would have no agenda but Him, that we would promote only Him and His kingdom. But the problem is, there is so much more of Him and of His ways that we must learn. Indeed, Paul informs us that God’s judgments are unsearchable and His ways are past finding out (Romans 11:33). In other words, we will never figure them out on our own.
But we are not on our own. And if we will humble ourselves, cry out to Him in our difficult times, and embrace the cross by responding to His summons to come near (rather than simply reacting to those who have been instrumental in bringing us pain), He will unveil to us what is beyond our ability to learn simply through human effort. And then He will send us to others. And we will go bearing not only His presence and His word, but also an insight into His ways graciously revealed to us in our own personal Heaven–designed crucible.
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