SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : Eleven Counsels for thos in Trials and Afflictions

Print Thread (PDF)

PosterThread
bakary
Member



Joined: 2010/10/6
Posts: 169
GAMBIA, WEST AFRICA

 Eleven Counsels for thos in Trials and Afflictions



Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us(Romans 5v1-5)
1. It is a great progress in Christ, when a saint learns how to walk unshaken in Christ because of the spiritual comfort He receives. The world and its comfort is easily forsaken in the presence of heavenly comforts .He that can feel and literally sense the presence of God in any season , will have nothing to fear knowing and sensing Gods shadow all around Him. All this progress might not necessary mean the saint is walking by faith , for though he did not walk by what he sees in the natural , yet he have something he sought or feel in the spiritual which is the divine presence of God all around Him. What will prove that this saint is walking by faith is not only the withdrawal of physical comfort but also the spiritual comfort he feels in spirit. If he can still keep His devotion in prayers and occasional fasting, love in hatred, comfort the weak, patience with what will naturally make him impatience, in this season of withdrawal then He is walking in true faith.
2. Many times we will say “we do not have to feel God or sense Him to know He is watching over us” but how much of this is truly worked in us? If the enemy cannot tempt us to sin, he will tempt us to feel that our God is far away from us, unconcern and unsympathetic with our struggles and afflictions. The enemy knows many times our faith is superficial, so if he cannot tempt us to commit a wrong act, he will try in bringing and shaking our faith in the season when Gods seems far away. When our faith is shaking we cannot please God even if we want to because being covered by doubt we loose the strength of faithfulness, and here comes the murmuring , worries, bitterness, complaining, unforgiveness, lust and every evil work as we interact with those near or far .
3. If we cannot know God except through Faith, he will see that we are being train and exercise to know how to walk in faith. This will mean God will not allow us to feel His presence and comfort all the times. We will have a many times to walk without feeling His presence or comfort, as if it will mean walking without the comfort of God or man.
4. In this life, Hope is a vital virtue that we need to exercise in our walk of faith. Hope grows in experience, and faith grows in hope. The testimony of the deliverance we received yesterday through the hand of God in our weakness and hopelessness will build the hope to wait in patience the deliverance that will come tomorrow from the weakness of today; increasing our level of faith through the experiences of yesterday. Faith is simply hope at work.
5. Christ never promised us a life without weakness, but strength through weakness. Hope will help us endure the weakness of today and faith which is hope at work will bring in the strength of tomorrow. Without Hope we will fall in seasons of temptations or weakness. Through the experiences of Hope we recognize the present sowing in tears cannot prevent the reaping of joy in the morning of tomorrow; this helps us to endure the present inconveniences.
6. If everyday Life was to be a life of strength, divine comfort and heavenly visitations then Hope will not be needed; but where Hope is needed there we will find weakness, inconveniences, withdrawal of comfort either physical or spiritual etc. God have not left us without tools to survive even in the deepest and darkest season. For example, in strength there is the virtue of humility to keep us alive in Him, in doubt there is faith, in sin forgiveness and in weakness there is Hope, promising us strength to come.
7. In this Life we do not have to even look an inch beyond us to see doubt, discouragement, bitterness, worries etc because there is always something against us to bring in these evils in us. No one is an exception except he that uses the right spiritual tool at the right season by seeking divine aid. For example there are times we need hope couple with patience to bring in the fruit of faith. In every situation Christ have the solution and the right tool to give us because he lives in us.
8. The true test of a Christian maturity is not an open heaven of comfort, but a closed heaven and a closed earth .When neither heaven or earth; God or man gives us what we desired.
9. The level of our faith is reveal in hard times, not in days of comfort. Our Lord always wants us to know how much of His life is work in us, and only trial can bring it out. If the children of Israel from Egypt where told by the Lord to wait in the desert like Moses fourth years before he gives them the go ahead to overcome there enemies, they will neither understand him nor appreciate his goodness. Yet when he gave them the go ahead in the midst of there enemies, the conflicts revealed the level of their faith and justifies the forth years period. The Lord will justify His ways in us by what He allows us to go through.
10. Our Lord in his humanity did not have everything work as he needs it independent of the mind of the father. He prayed “Not my will but your will “. Even that which was the mind of the father did not work except at the right time and season. He couldn’t cast devils and do mighty works except at the right season. No man has ever lived this world including the most holy saint who had everything work as he desired in his natural state. We are redeemed by the blood of the lamb, not because things worked as we desired but things worked as the Father desired. As the scripture told us we are being born again not by perishable thing, but by the blood of the lamb. When the perishable things did not work as we desired should that bring an end to our faith? Our comfort lies on our redemption not from the comfort of perishable things.
11. God does not answer all our questions and doubts but he answer the prayers of the soul that seek to be feel by His presence. He is more concern by our being than our knowing, for all our knowing is to bring His being in us. We should not be discourage when we seek counsel from God and did not receive it. He may not answer us directly but will use many times a circumstance that he brings us into to answer us. We human are naturally inclined to belittle or look down to those we are use to because of familiarity. Our Lord knows about this and will not allow familiarity to come in with our relationship with His voice. This is why sometimes he uses dream, visions and dark sentences which in many cases may not be very clear and require interpretation rather than a voice within. It is not that He is finding it difficult to speak to us but because immature familiarity can easily destroy a relationship. If there is any difficult in our communication with Him it is on our part not His. We can Live a day without hearing His voice, but we cannot Live a day in the spiritual land of victory, without His life working and conquering death in us. He promised us a daily bread. The bread can comes along with a voice or just by divine strength. He is both Life and Light. The bread which is strength is Life while the Light is the voice The absence of a voice does not mean the absence of strength, so we should not get discouraged when we pray to hear a voice or counsel and do not hear it; for there is a daily bread to keep us walking even in the darkest valley of death.


_________________
JAMES F JARJOU

 2012/2/10 7:31Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy