Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of trials as outlined in 2 Corinthians 4, explaining that while the devil aims to use trials to lead us to despair and offense against God, God's purpose is to deepen our experience of His presence and glory. He highlights two key blessings that arise from responding correctly to trials: an increase in the manifest presence of God in our lives now, and a greater measure of glory in the age to come. Bickle encourages believers to embrace the dying of Jesus in their trials, which leads to a greater manifestation of the life of Jesus through them. He stresses the importance of understanding the continuity of our responses in this life and their impact on our eternal assignments. Ultimately, he calls for a heart that is anchored in faith and trust in God's purposes amidst life's pressures.

We ask you for the release of your spirit. We ask you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to come and touch us even now. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, tonight we're going to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We're going to look at how trials are used by the Lord to release the greater presence of God in our life. That's the purpose of the Lord. Now the devil has a completely opposite purpose for trials. God's purpose is for the end result to be that we would experience the presence of God in a greater way. The devil's result is that we would get offended at God. That's his goal. And he's working hard to bring confusion to your mind so you misinterpret what's happening, that you have a short-term paradigm or view instead of a long-term, and that you have a false idea of God in the midst of it so that you end up disillusioned and offended at God. That's what the Lord, that's what the devil's goal is. God's goal is that you would grow in love, you would experience the presence of God in a greater way. And it would impact your destiny in this age as well as in the age to come. Paragraph 8, let's give a little overview of the passage. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 5, and 6, three chapters, Paul is developing one major theme in this section of scripture covering three chapters. You want to be familiar with these three chapters. The theme is how to experience the manifest presence of God in a greater way in your life from the biblical point of view. Paul gives us insights on how to respond to God in trials by understanding God's purpose for allowing trials. Now if we understand God's purpose for allowing trials and we respond in the right way because we have right understanding, then there's two great blessings that are the result. And Paul lays out these two great blessings and we are meant to anchor our hearts in confidence that these two great blessings are real. Now these blessings are related to two foundational truths, to understanding pressure in the right way. If we don't understand these truths or these two great blessings which represent two truths, we will end up having a wrong view of pressure and then we will end up having a wrong response. If we have a wrong view of what's happening, we end up with a wrong response. Then we end up disillusioned or offended instead of growing in love and growing in revelation and a greater experience of the presence of God. Paragraph B, the first truth. Very simple but it's very important that we lay hold of it. It's a great truth. It's a great blessing. It's that if we respond right to trials, we respond to God right because we understand what's happening in the trial. It releases the manifest presence of God in our life and ministry in this age in a greater way. That's blessing number one. There's an increase of the manifest presence of God in our life in this age and that's through our ministry as well. 2 Corinthians 4. We'll look at this verse in a few moments. Here's the point just to summarize it. I'm giving you the overview first that the life of Jesus would be manifest through us. The life of Jesus is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's the point of the trial that we would understand the trial therefore respond to it right or respond to God right in it and we end up with a greater manifestation of the life of Jesus which means the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. Paragraph C gives us the second blessing. This is not a small doctrine from the New Testament point of view. It's a very prominent doctrine from the teaching of the apostles but you rarely hear it mentioned today in the western church. But it's critical in terms of understanding trials from a biblical point of view. It's this. Not only does the presence of God increase in our life and ministry now but the glory of God increases in our experience in a greater way in the age to come in our assignment in the age to come. Did you know that you have a assignment in this age your ministry assignment but you also have a ministry assignment just as real and just as certain as the one you have now you have one for the age to come. The age to come you will have a physical material body. Your resurrected body will be as physical as your body is right now. You will be on a physical earth, this earth. It will be as material as the earth is here. We don't go away to heaven but at the second coming the heaven comes to the earth and the supernatural realm of the new Jerusalem and the natural realm of the earth they come together and you will have a real assignment on this real earth with a physical material body you will eat food you will drink you will learn you will have relationships you will meet new people you will teach people just like you do now but with the element of the supernatural dimension of a in a far greater way because you'll have a resurrected body and there'll be an open heaven. A lot of people have a very wrong idea about heaven. They think of going away to heaven to be on a white cloud and play a harp and hopefully they won't be bored. Beloved you're going to live on the earth with the physical material body on the earth a resurrected body. You will be teaching you will be training people you will be learning you will be having new friendships you won't have a a computer chip when you're in the resurrection where you have omniscience you know everything you'll be learning every day like you do now you'll have new experiences. Some people think when they get their resurrected bodies somehow they'll know everything. Absolutely not. I go where'd you get that idea? I've asked people I don't know you know resurrected body I figure you just know everything or something. No you'll learn and grow just like you do now. You'll grow spiritually and you'll help others grow spiritually. Well I'm going to talk about that more next week because next week is Easter Sunday and that's a perfect time to talk about the resurrection. So I'm going to talk about Jesus's resurrected body and how it relates to ours and so what the Bible says about the resurrected body and I think that you're going to be excited because I am very excited about my next assignment on the earth past this age because it's as real and physical and material as this one is but all the properties of the supernatural at a whole at a far greater level than I have right now. Well here's the point paragraph c if we respond to trials in a right way we respond again we respond to God in a right way in the trials something happens inside of our spirit which results in a greater experience of the glory of God in the age to come. It's actually greater now we all get into the eternal city as a free gift we all receive salvation as a free gift but our place in the city and our function in the city which is coming down to the earth so I'm talking about in the age to come on the earth as well it is related to your heart responses in this age. It's not related to how big your ministry is in this age it was related to how big your heart is in this age and this is something that Peter, James and John and Paul all the apostles taught this they emphasized it but we rarely hear it mentioned today. It's a critical part of interpreting trials in a right way so that we can respond in a right way. Paragraph d well now let's let's read the uh again the overview 2nd Corinthians 4 17 but the affliction that we endure now is working for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory there is a weight of glory that you will have related to your response in affliction in this age so we have a greater experience of God's presence in this age we have a greater experience of his glory in the age to come both of those are truths or promises or blessings that Paul sets before us if we lose sight of those then we get preoccupied and consumed with how hard the trial is we stumble in self-pity we give up in despair and the devil wins and we lose paragraph d now foundational to understanding God's purpose for pressure in this life foundational to understanding God's purpose for pressure why God lets pressure happen now God sends some pressure and he allows other pressures we'll look at that in a few minutes he doesn't send all the pressure the devil's involved and we rebuke the devil and resist him but we'll look at that again I'm getting ahead of myself but God has a purpose for pressure and foundational to understanding that purpose is we must have revelation of eternity but not just revelation that there is an eternal age it's more we need to have revelation of the continuity of our responses now to the measure of glory we experience then there is a direct relationship to our responses now and the measure of glory we have then it's not how big our ministry is it's how big our hearts are that's what matters and if we can really lay hold of that from a biblical point of view that will be an anchor in our soul we will look at problems very differently than we do without that revelation now one of the most practical ways to gain revelation of eternity of course it's from the word though the Lord is giving dreams and visions to people as well as he has through the generations you know I've got a uh it's always been a hobby of mine for 30 plus years where I've bought every book I've ever seen in a bookstore anywhere in the earth anytime I go to a city if I go to a Christian bookstore I do and I look for one thing in particular well I'm always uh ready to buy a good book but uh I look for books where people have had experiences of eternity and I have a whole I mean I have a whole library of books of visions and I just love to read them I've read them over the years and I just get excited many of them have similar things in the vision some of those visions probably aren't all accurate but many of them are true so we can study it through that way I find it as a tremendous inspiration but more than just visions of people that through history and reading books and I'm sure the internet's full of that kind of material but make sure you get stuff based on the word of God and Jesus because there's a lot of that other false stuff out there but also the way that we can gain revelation of eternity is through studying the millennial kingdom the thousand year reign because the thousand year reign of Jesus that begins at the second coming the subject is really heaven on earth I did a 12 part series on the millennial kingdom where I looked at I mean just scratched the surface but it was 12 one hour teachings on heaven on earth in the millennial kingdom you will be surprised if you're new at this subject how much is in the Bible on this subject and you can get that if you want just go to the website you get it for free the notes they're all there and study it out see what the Bible says and much more besides just my little material but what I mean is if you want to study the revelation of eternity and the continuity of our responses we make responses and they are connected to the measure of glory we have in the age to come you want to get anchored in that it will change your life I want to recommend study the subject of eternity or just the age to come or the millennial kingdom there it's all one grand subject now paragraph d first Corinthians 15 verse 41 every believer in the age to come will have a different measure of glory there will be possibly two or three billion believers in the new Jerusalem that's coming down to the earth I mean I don't know the number but it's several billion did you know that every single one of us will have a different unique measure of glory there will not be any two people in the exact same experience just like the angelic realms some angels have a significantly greater sphere of glory than other angels it will be true with the saints we will all be equally loved by God we will all be equally significant to God but we will have varying prominence in terms of God's our place of function and authority and the sphere of glory that God gives to us those will vary greatly our significance will be equal we're all equally significant our prominence will be very very different in the age to come and our experience even of God in our spiritual capacities again I'm getting ahead of myself that's for next week but look at this first Corinthians 15 41 for one star differs from another star in glory so also is the resurrection the resurrection differs one believer from another in glory just like all the stars in the heavens do okay let's get into this passage a little bit again we'll just kind of look at a little bit and leave most of the notes with you to read on your own paragraph e now we're looking now at second Corinthians four because this is the where Paul begins but remember it's second Corinthians four five and six don't forget it's a three chapter section you got to read all three chapters together to get the flow and the subject is how to experience more of the Holy Spirit's presence in your life in this age and the age to come paragraph e Paul declared that the power of God dwells inside of us now it's called the treasure that lives within us let's read the passage chapter four verse seven to nine verse seven we have this treasure that's the Holy Spirit living in us we have this treasure in our earthen vessel the earthen vessel is our physical body one translation or many translations actually use the word in this clay pot so are the earthen or clay vessel has a treasure in it that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us then Paul goes on and he talks about four different categories of pressure which are all a paradox these four paradoxes of pressure he said we're hard pressed but we're not crushed that's a paradox we'll look at it in a minute we're perplexed but we're not despairing in other words we don't always get what's happening but we have confidence in the foundational truths the larger truths and we don't always get what's happening in the in the small picture but we don't give in to despair he said we're persecuted but we're not forsaken by God men will forsake us men will resist us but God doesn't forsake us when men do we're struck down and struck down are those few life-altering crises that happen just a few in a lifetime some people more some people less that people think when they have a a significant life-altering crisis that their purpose in God is now destroyed it's over and Paul says it's not over your purpose is not finished you're not disqualified you're not uh set aside that tragedy does not change your purpose in God your purpose is not destroyed paragraph f then Paul takes those four pressures that he lists of being hard pressed perplexed persecuted and struck down and then in verse 10 to 12 he says look what this what is the result if we respond to God in a right way because we understand what God is doing in the pressures though God is not responsible for all the pressures by any means again God allows pressures that he himself does not send sometimes he sends them Paul said in verse 10 we're caring about in our body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus that's the anointing of the Holy Spirit would be manifest in our body or in our personhood when the new testament uses the word body sometimes it means our body verse our spirit but many times when it talks about offering our body to God it's talking about all that goes to making you you it's your whole personhood and that's what it means here so in verse 10 Paul says we carry about in the body the dying of Jesus we embrace the dying of Jesus we'll look at that a minute in other words we're responding right to God in the presser and the pressure we're trusting God we're yielding to God in love and humility and confidence instead of drawing back in self-pity and despair and giving up and giving in and just giving up on God that's what the dying of Jesus is talking about here that we embrace death to our own and we trust God in the interim to break in and to answer for us now when we do that the life of Jesus or the anointing of the Spirit you can say the anointing of the Holy Spirit is manifest in us in a greater way verse 11 we're delivered to death for Jesus's sake he repeats himself but the anointing of the Spirit is manifest in our mortal flesh again he's talking about our whole personhood so verse 12 he sums it up he says death is working in us and life in you and what he means by this Paul says we he was talking about him and his apostolic team we are embracing these difficulties in a way where we're I mean we're responding to God by dying to our own interest our own agendas we're laying hold of God we're trusting God so death is working in us but the result is we have the anointing of the Spirit to minister to you Paul says because in our private lives we're saying yes in our secrecy secret place of our life we're saying yes to God in places of difficulty instead of giving up and giving in we're saying yes to him we're opening our heart we're moving in deep he's touching our spirit verse 12 therefore we have life to minister to you we have something to change your life with we have an anointing in our life it's called the life of Jesus so the promise in verse 10 to 12 is that the life of Jesus will increase in your experience it will touch your heart in a greater way and it will flow through you to other people now when we think of the anointing of the Holy Spirit flowing through you or the life of Jesus again those are synonymous concepts because the way that Jesus flows through us is through the anointing of the Holy Spirit sometimes we can think of only dramatic miracles like if it's the anointing of the Spirit the dead are being raised and apart from you know the paralytics walking the blind eyes opening the dead raised to have that you know everything else is the little stuff now most of you don't believe that but you would believe the little stuff is really important and that's right but the life of Jesus is not just the great big miracles if you talk to a believer or an unbeliever and you encourage them and they change just a little bit in their heart they receive the words you said that's the life of Jesus being manifest through you at the outreach last weekend as we're witnessing to people maybe the guy doesn't get saved but he goes away pondering and wrestlings with the truth of Jesus in a new way and he gets saved down the road beloved that's the life of Jesus ministering through one of our family members to an unbeliever it's real I mean it's not the devil inspiring that person nor is it the work of the flesh it's not your flesh it's not your enthusiasm it's the anointing of the Spirit you may be talking to a a friend of yours you encourage them a little bit that's the anointing of the Spirit that encouragement that light that goes on in their understanding even a little bit that's not the devil nor the flesh that's the anointing of the Spirit working in you and as we say yes to God under difficulty again instead of drawing back giving up giving in self-indulgence and and you know it just really is self-pity is indulgence the whole earth has got a problem with it we're born with the sin nature we're born with an acclimation to it poor me the whole earth has a poor me story every human being does just so you don't feel too bad Elijah had that problem King David had that problem I mean a lot of the main leaders of history struggle with it because it's a human problem not just your problem but if we indulge in self-pity and we exaggerate what's happening and believe the devil's lies we draw back from God and we lose out and in our walk with God and we end up not having the same level of the anointing of Jesus to minister to other people and what Paul says if you will respond to God right the Lord will touch you in his timing in his way but he will meet you you must respond to him right way in right ways in in difficulties you cannot draw back you cannot give in you can't believe the lies of the devil you must open your heart and press into God with a heart of confidence I will follow your leadership I love you Jesus I will obey you I will eat your word I will devour your word I'm not giving up I'm not yielding to the despair that's going around in the nations that's what we're talking about now paragraph g the treasure is the anointing of the Holy Spirit in our life paragraph h the earthen vessel or the clay jars I mean some bible's translations use the word clay jars clay or earthen it's the same idea that's our fallen humanity now the goal is for the life of Jesus to increase in our experience now I mean if we're going to have the treasure in us the Holy Spirit the goal is to experience it more right well the big challenge is the earthen vessel because in our fallenness in our fallen frames our minds are weak our hearts are weak a tendency to darkness and sin so we have wrong ideas in our mind and we have wrong desires in our heart and those wrong ideas and those wrong desires those are what keeping us from experiencing the treasure that's in us in a greater way so the treasure in the earthen vessel is quite a paradox because we want to experience the treasure or the life of Jesus it's the same thing more for our own heart and as well as the minister to others but the earthen vessel our wrong ideas and our wrong desires keep getting in the way and the Lord says don't worry I've got a plan I've got a plan to address those issues in your mind and in your heart part of the of the answer is the revelation of the word the anointing of the spirit but part of it is that we eat the word we read the word we yield to the spirit in context to pressures at uh escalating in our life when pressures are around us and we're reading the word and answering yes to Jesus and saying yes to the Holy Spirit we grow fast pressures are actually catalytic they accelerate our growth process if we actually throw our heart into God instead of retreat from God in the pressure paragraph I if the challenge is the earthen vessel the response God wants for all of us with earthen vessels our fallen humanity he wants us to embrace the dying of Jesus he wants us to die to our fleshly values our fleshly mindset our fleshly self-interest he wants us to embrace the will of God and to believe God and his leadership in our life again self-pity is self-indulgence we can't indulge in self-pity in our walk with God it shuts down our spirit with God and we can't receive from the spirit in near the same way we're offended we're disillusioned we're cynical and some people think that's all about being wise and experienced no it's cynical and it shuts our spirit down Jesus says deny yourself take up your cross now to us the cross is a religious symbol for 2,000 years it's been in you know the middle of religion the cross but in when Jesus was saying it the cross was not a religious symbol it was an instrument of death it was the mode for state executions in the Roman Empire if Jesus was saying the same point today he would say take up your electric chair I mean the cross to us 2,000 years later we go wow and it moves our heart because we think of Jesus we don't think of us on the cross we think of him on the cross but Jesus was saying I want you to take up your electric chair obviously not that exact translation take up the instrument of death meaning when you have desires and mindsets that rise up that say no I'm tired of the way you're leading my life God I'm tired of what you're not doing Jesus said die to that embrace death to those kind of mindsets open your spirit and give yourself to God in a new way and trust his leadership and die to your own reasoning die to your own interest die to your own timetable die to having it your way and thrust yourself in an abandonment under Jesus's leadership that's what he means here lose your life give up on your agenda throw yourself into God's agenda with no qualifications and you will find the anointing you will find life and we get a thousand small trials in life to give us a chance to do that over and over and over because when trials happen we respond to God it's an acceleration time for our growth in God top of page two the great dilemma there's a great dilemma of having this treasure this anointing inside of us the anointing of the spirit the dilemma is related to the earth and vessel here's the dilemma we want more of the treasure we want more of the power more of the blessing we want more of the manifest presence but here's the problem when God's blood in history when God's blessing increases in a person's life more times than not it awakens pride in them and the very blessing that increased awakens pride and the pride minimizes and hinders the blessing I mean it's a it's a vicious cycle God says if I give you more money and power and insight you will be tempted to pride at a whole nother level and that very pride will then cut off the blessing now Paul experienced that in a very personal way look at 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 7 this is a very remarkable passage Paul is receiving many revelations he's having heavenly visitations he said lest I should be exalted above measure this is 2nd Corinthians 12 7 by the abundance of the revelations he's seeing heaven he's going up to the third heavens the throne of God he's writing the Bible I mean how many of you know that's heady stuff when you're writing the Bible that's intense he said because of this a thorn in the flesh was given to me a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted now twice he says lest I be exalted or you could put the word lest I become proud now here's a man writing the Bible flowing in the anointing of the spirit second to nobody in the earth in that hour and he said I understand that I have a tendency to get puffed up to become proud when the blessing increases so what God did is he allowed God didn't send the devil but he allowed a messenger from the devil to touch me and what happens is that when trouble touches us it creates a far more energetic far more earnest dialogue and connection with God so when the trial comes it's like oh God we're talking we're so focused we're so earnest and the Lord says this is the connection and the dialogue I want you won't have this kind of earnestness when I bless you but when the trouble comes your earnestness increases and with your connection to me in a more earnest way your humility grows and when your humility grows your blessing increases so there's two things going on the guy gets blessed pride gets awakened at a new level he's I mean he's got plenty of pride he came by it honestly he was born with it we all were pride's awakened pride hinders the blessing God allows pressure to come pressure creates an earnest interaction with God humility increases and then the blessing increases that's the dynamic that's going on now I think this is the most remarkable passage about Paul that he could see pride there isn't one man in a thousand there's not one leader in a thousand male or female that could see their heart with that kind of clarity in my 30 plus years of ministry I've rarely ever met a person that actually was fearful of pride when they got greater than the blessing of God theoretically there they are but in actuality this is a very rare operation of the spirit of this man's heart now my definition of pride I don't mean when God blesses somebody with unusual finance or unusual power unusual influence or unusual insight I don't mean they go walking around strutting and boasting overtly I'm the man of God for the hour here I am you know that's not what they're doing the pride is not overt here's what the pride is in just a real abbreviated abbreviated summary of it they become preoccupied with their blessing they spend all their time and energy managing their blessing therefore they don't have time to be focused on the Lord like they used to and they're not troubled by that that's pride their blessing increases they're totally engaged in it their communication with the Lord is decreasing because they have so much blessing to manage and it doesn't trouble them they say oh I'm going to be okay the blessing of God is on me and the Lord would say the fact that you would go forward in your blessing with less communication with a diminished relationship and that does not trouble you that is the pride that I'm talking about that's very very common all over the earth and the Lord says I love you so much I want to give you so much more the treasures in you I want to increase it but if it increases and your pride outgrows it I mean increases more then I'm going to allow trouble to get you into an earnest dialogue to create humility so that the blessing actually helps you instead of hurts you at the end because the Lord's not just interested in you having a bigger ministry now and he wants some of you to have a much bigger ministry now and some of you he doesn't want you to have a big ministry but he wants all of us to have a big heart but the Lord also cares about our ministry our next assignment in the age to come we don't think of that but he does you're going to be in ministry for billions and billions of years not just a few decades in this age your ministry calling is billions of years plus but we get focused on our ministry calling that goes a few decades and many people are willing to sacrifice their bigger calling just to get more now so they can have a bigger crowd and more influence and more honor and the Lord says I love you way too much to let you do that because you don't really get how real your next assignment is I appreciate my ministry assignment here at IHOP but I guarantee you this is not my main assignment this is my internship for real it is my internship I am willing to do this hard with my eyes on God for my heart to grow and my understanding to increase I am in my internship because in a few minutes every one of us will be standing before the Lord and that could be you know decades down the road that's to me a few minutes but every single one of us will be before the Lord in a minute and I care about what he has to say to me not only about my life now but my next assignment I really really care about that conversation and I am not willing to throw out my walk with God or diminish it so I can do so I can get IHOP bigger I am not going to grow IHOP bigger and where my heart grows smaller and I lose out with God I'm just not going to do it this is an internship this is a summer internship program that goes on some decades Billy Graham's internship was in stadiums but I assure you that's not his big ministry I assure you his stadium ministry is his summer internship he has a calling far beyond that coming right around the corner let's look at Roman numeral three let's look at it four sources of pressure in our life now I'm not going to go through this so they got a depth I kind of throw this out every few months so that we get this one source of problem is the father's one source of pressure is the father's chastening or his discipline the new King James uses the word chastening other translations use the word discipline the second is the devil's attack the third is our own sin and fourth is what Paul called creation groaning and what I mean by that there's a dynamic connection between people and the land and when people sin the land has convulsions the hurricanes the volcanoes the earthquakes in the natural created order are related to man's sin not just the people that are alive that moment there is a divine I mean there is a dynamic connectivity between the convulsions of nature and the sin of the people on the planet that's a big subject for another day but my point is this when we talk about pressures coming right now it's important that we distinguish that if the father sends a pressure we submit to it if the devil sends a pressure we rebuke it and resist it and we can talk about the distinction another time but some camps they're just whatever God wants so when they thinks everything is from God so when the devil gives them a gift of a rattlesnake and sends it to their house they invite the rattlesnake in and say thank you God God says no don't thank me rebuke it resist it take authority over it don't thank me for the rattlesnake it's for you to say no to it I'm actually building your faith in your spirit I'm building up your heart by you exercising the muscle against the work of the devil in your life but that's one group they exaggerate it in a wrong way and they think everything's from God so they're thanking God for the devil's attack it seems humble but it's unbelief and it's confusion and it's a disaster it's not good humble intent but still it's confusion and it's deception but there's other extremes they think God never sends any trouble ever everything is the devil so when God is disciplining them they're taking authority in the name of Jesus I bind you and the father says Jesus is my son and you can't bind me in his name you submit to me you don't bind me you submit to me so I just wanted to give you just a short kind of overview there are different sources of problems and we respond in different ways let's go to Roman number four because Paul's not talking in 2 Corinthians 4 about problems from God or problems from the devil or problems that we create ourselves by our own sin he's saying I'm not I'm not even identifying the source of the problem I'm telling you when a pressure comes regardless what the source is if you respond to God in a right way by understanding what's going on your heart increases and the presence of God increases in your life now and the presence and the glory of God increases in your ministry and in your life in the age to come and again the problem is from God we submit it's from the devil we rebuke if it's our own sin we repent Roman number four 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 8 9 let's look at the four paradoxical pressures they're pressures that have a paradox that are common to every single believer he gives four categories he says we're hard-pressed on every side but we're not crushed we're perplexed but not in despair we're persecuted but not forsaken we're struck down but we're not destroyed paragraph a the first paradox we're hard-pressed but we're not crushed now hard-pressed means pressed hard hard-pressed means pressure and the this comes Paul said this comes from every side there's financial ways that we can be hard-pressed there's family relational ways there's physical ways there's many different ways I I mean you could figure that out but these are problems that are common to all of us that create pressure but Paul said here's what happens the devil comes and lies to you and tells you it's too much to bear and you're crushed which means you give up you're overwhelmed you say in your spirit it's not worth it that's a total lie it's not worth it a verse I need to add here is 1 Corinthians 10 uh 13 Paul said there is no temptation no trial that God that is so great that God won't give you the power to have victory in I should have that passage there 1 Corinthians 10 13 there is no trial or temptation that you cannot have victory in if you will talk to God in the midst of it God says I won't let you be tested beyond what you can bear but the devil comes and says this is too much this is more than you can bear God says it's not more the devil says it is more God says it's worth it because I love you you are my child Jesus says you are my bride my partner forever you have an eternal destiny it's worth it the devil comes and says it's not worth it give up give in that's called crushed it's not worth it a lot of people when the when they have these when they're hard-pressed regards whether it's financial social relational physical sickness whatever they get hard-pressed and we're all tempted to feel crushed but God says don't go there die to that resist that don't indulge in that emotion deny it take up your cross say no to it obey my word I love you I have a destiny for you my power lives in you my eye is on you don't believe the lie of the devil say no I am not crushed say Romans 8 I am more than conquerors I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loved me Romans chapter 8 verse 32 to 35 I am more than a conqueror that's our confession that Paul gets to in just a few moments I'm sorry I mean in the book of Romans number three under a the most common temptation in life is the temptation to quit to say it's not worth it it's a total delusion God loves you his powers in you you have a destiny his eyes are towards you he promised nothing would be too great if you would talk to him if you would interface with him but we say it's not worth it I've quit I've been over 30 years I've heard I mean fiery saints they come to me just I mean many many examples it's not worth it I quit I go well what are your options you're quitting to do what well I haven't thought it all the way through I'm just quitting I can't take it and then what do you think there's a ceasefire in the spirit there's like a vacation zone in the demonic kingdom that you go to and a no fire zone you give up and quit it's not like the devil has a ceasefire he just devours you you just don't fight back I mean there's no such thing it's a lie deny yourself that self-pity again we all have it I'm not picking on anybody because we all have a good dose of that top of page three but we need to take it to the cross we need to deny it second paradox paragraph b we are perplexed but we are not in despair we're not hopeless now when we're we're perplexed it means we're confused as to what's happening that's what perplexed means I don't get what's going on now God has given us two main foundational truths related to pressure he said if you respond right you'll have a greater anointing of the spirit in your life now and if you respond right you'll have greater glory in your life in the age to come those are two main truths we go we appreciate that God but we want more detailed information we want to know when the deliverance from the pressure is coming and how if you would give us that little extra detail we would be fine we are perplexed we have a why God in our spirit it doesn't make sense if the devil comes and he whispers in our ear and he says God's not paying attention to you God is contradicting his love and we're confused by it and the devil wants to offend us towards God in it number two the people can't connect their struggle with anything good that's supposed to happen in their life they can't connect their struggle they go yeah those two foundational truths a greater anointing in this age and a greater glory in the age to come oh that's pie in the sky I got real problems and then they indulge again in their pity and in their despair and they feed it we have to seriously bear the cross and say no to that now here's what we would like we would like to have security by virtue of knowing the information about our deliverance and the breakthrough when and how and maybe you say I don't care get one of them just tell me when you don't have to tell me how or tell me how but you don't have to tell me when just give me a little more information and the Lord says no I mean that every occasionally he does but more times than not he says I want you to have security by virtue of your intimacy with me I want you to have security not by what you know about the details but who you know is holding your heart I want you to connect with me and fall into my embrace into my care I want you to get security by connecting with me not by having the details of your deliverance oh Lord I love that but just this one time give me the details now the greatest perplexity that people have often is just boredom waiting for a breakthrough just waiting for a breakthrough with boredom they go why what's the purpose what am I about where am I going and that perplexity the enemy comes and tries to get us offended so we accuse God when we're perplexed and then we become despairing which is hopeless when we get hopeless we give up our pursuit of the Lord that's what the devil wants paragraph c the third paradox we are persecuted but we're not forsaken now instead of being appreciated by people I mean here you are serving people whether it's in the church world or in the community it's your family or your relationships in general or you're taking a stand for truth now why are you standing for truth you're standing for truth because well it's right to stand for truth but you're trying to be helpful to bring the truth to people they don't like this they resist you and the people of influence in whatever sphere of life whether it's the soccer league or whether it's you know it doesn't matter what the sphere is the marketplace the ministry world the people in a sphere of influence they will resist you and they will rally others to resist you and we have this the devil comes and says look you're being resisted by the people of influence you've lost favor with them therefore you've lost favor with God too if God had favor on you the people of influence would like you that's not true it's a false equation many times God favors God's favors on you where the people of influence don't have favor towards you so what happens is the devil lies to us and when we lose favor with man the devil tells us we're forsaken by God we've lost favor from God God's not interested God's not going to intervene God has forgotten us God is silent he doesn't care because when the other people gave up on you so did God it was a sign from heaven and and Paul said that's a lie from hell you're not forsaken by God because the people in a specific fear sphere do not give you favor anymore let's go to uh paragraph d we're struck down but not destroyed now being struck down this is the most severe matter of fact these four categories build in intensity you can work that on your own it starts with just being hard pressed then it ends up perplexed i mean it builds then people are resisting you and they're organized they're getting together and passing the word to stand against you in various spheres at various seasons but being struck down is the most severe of the four categories these are the major setbacks that only happen a few times in a lifetime again there are some people more a few more and some people less but most people have a few of these in a 70-year lifetime their life altering setbacks maybe it's the death of a loved one maybe it's a divorce maybe it's a season where you're abused for months or years maybe it's a prison sentence maybe it's a prolonged sickness or a terminal sickness it might be a serious accident it might be a financial calamity a natural disaster i mean an entire nation haiti is is in a season of being struck down it's a life altering experience in their nation the devil comes and says with this new development you are too shattered your purpose is now destroyed it's over your life purpose is destroyed it's gone when this happened it's over maybe it's a great a sin in your life and a great shame that comes it's over you're disqualified ministry is going to be too hard your calling is going to be too hard in this condition in your physical condition there's no way you could have a purpose in god and god says don't you dare believe that for i am with you my purpose is with you there is no calamity that happens at any season of your life no matter what category that destroys the purpose of god in your life paragraph e paul goes on after he lists all of these things in verse 13 it's all in the same passage 2nd corinthians 4 4th verse 13 he says that how are we going to respond we have to respond in faith because to accept the dying of jesus means we have to say no to wrong responses to pressure we have to have godly responses to pressure that means we have to deny our flesh to respond right everything in our flesh wants to yield to being crushed despairing forsaken forgotten we just want to go there and just give up and give in and get it over with it just like veg out for the next 40 years i mean it's a disastrous plan no one ever thinks it all the way through it's a horrible plan to have fleshly responses to the crisis instead of godly ones we have to deny ourselves to press into this and he calls it here in first in 2nd corinthians 4 13 the spirit of faith he goes we have the spirit of faith according to what is written he goes he's quoting the old testament he goes it's written in the bible what we're supposed to do in crisis and here's what it says it's written i believe therefore i spoke so paul says we believe therefore we speak here's what paul's saying he goes what do you do in the crisis when the negative thing is striking down at your heart we have to do what the old testament what the bible said paul's quoting the old testament because that's the only scripture in that time they didn't have a new testament just then they were still writing it he says here's what the bible says the bible says we must speak out the truth we can't silently agree with lies we have to verbalize our confession we have to believe and we must speak it back to god we must speak it to the devil we must speak it to our soul we must speak it to our uh believers that we're in fellowship with uh fellowship with we believe therefore we declare we speak it we confess it we hold the line on these four things paul says therefore since i believe because paul was under great persecution he goes i'm gonna speak it if that's what the bible says that's what we're gonna do and in all four of those pressures we must speak the truth and we must not silently agree with lies we must deny ourself we must embrace it's called the the cross or paul called it the dying of jesus we enter into his teaching and his model of the way he lived top of page four i'll just make a point or two here and you could read it the rest on your own well the first great blessing we looked at on page one was an increase of the presence of god in our life in this age an increase of the manifest presence the second great truth or blessing that is related to understanding trials is an increase of the glory in our life in the age to come here's what paul says in verse 14 we just read verse 13 a that was about faith now we're on verse 14 paul said knowing he that raised up jesus will raise us up paul said we know we're going to have a resurrected body on a resurrected earth we're going to be involved in ministry we're going to be serving the lord we know it we know that we have another assignment coming that's bigger than the assignment we have now we know it now many believers don't know this this is a new concept to them therefore they're not able to relate to their pressures they can't interpret the pressures they only have half the information they know if they respond to god right they'll have a greater anointing in their life now but they don't know about the greater glory in the age to come that's a foreign concept to them beloved we need the whole bible the whole witness of scripture if we're going to respond to god in trials in a right way the western world knows almost nothing about the revelation of eternity and our continuity of our life choices now with what happens then but as great pressure mounts up as we get closer to the coming of the lord we must have the revelation of eternity or we're going to be hopelessly confused trying to make sense of pressure that mounts up in the nations paul says verse 16 we don't lose heart though our outer man is perishing he goes i get it he goes i'm being persecuted i'm getting beat up i'm thrown in prison it's going bad on the outside however my inward man my heart's getting bigger my body's getting bruised i mean he was really getting beat but my heart's getting bigger and then verse 17 he links the big heart the renewed spirit that's a bigger heart he links that to his role in the age to come he says for our light affliction it's only a moment i mean maybe it's a few decades it's working for us paul said my affliction is working for me it's doing something for me now the affliction itself does not help you that's the affliction does not help you it's what you do in your dialogue with god that changes you when the affliction comes but the affliction more times than not causes us to have a more earnest dialogue with the lord and our heart increases were renewed in a new figure in a new way now i don't want to wait for trials to do that i want to do it without trials but i know that when things are there's a pressure i seem to be more focused in my dialogue with the lord it doesn't have to be that way but it usually ends up that way and paul said it's working for us and exceeding eternal weight of glory paragraph c we're going to end with this this is jesus how he how he processed the difficult the pressures of people writing him off and rejecting him how he processed having a very small assignment for for 30 years now we know for three years his is he had a public ministry but for 30 years he didn't he's very quiet and isaiah this is a most remarkable passage that we'll end with here in isaiah 49 verse 4 and 5 by the spirit of god isaiah can see what's happening in jesus's soul i mean isaiah 700 years before jesus but he could see by the spirit by the holy spirit how the messiah would would would process the pressures and here's what jesus here's what isaiah records what he sees happening in the heart of jesus i said this is jesus speaking i have labored in vain i have spent my strength for nothing i have spent my strength in vain yet surely my just reward is with the lord and i shall be glorious in the eyes of the lord now what's going on here what's happening jesus is not complaining what jesus is doing is that he is acknowledging that the men around him they looked at his life and they said you haven't done anything notable in your entire life you're 30 years old you ought to be married by now that carpenter shop ought to be have five outlets you ought to be an elder in the little town of nazareth i mean it's a little town you know just a little bit bigger than hooterville i mean it was a little nothing town you ought to at least be an elder in the community or something you have nothing to show you spend way too much time in your bible studies in your prayer time you had nothing to show nothing and jesus said i understand that from your point of view i've labored in vain in your point of view for 30 years i've spent my strength for nothing i get that you think that he says but my just reward put the word instead of just my full reward what i fully am going to receive from the lord it's in the lord's hands and when i stand before the lord he will reward in fullness the wisdom of how i lived for 30 years that nobody even paid attention to me but god's eyes were on me the whole 30 years verse 5 jesus's confession is not i did nothing everything was in vain he was he was acknowledging the men around him jesus's confession is what i did for 30 years was glorious in the eyes of man i wasn't known by anybody i didn't make a big splash nobody knew anything i did but god watched my heart i was attentive to god's heart and it was glorious to god now we go to phase two of jesus's life the last three and a half years yes he has a big miracle ministry but at the end of it the nation rejected him at the end of it his 12 main leaders denied him and when it's all said and done the masses that he talked to masses six weeks after his death and resurrection only 120 people made it to the upper room can you imagine ministering to thousands in power and when the big prayer event happened only 120 out of hundreds of thousands only 120 showed up you know i've talked to guys that they have prayer events conferences or just events you know they're expecting 5 000 or 10 000 or 500 or 1000 they've only 120 show up they're really disappointed well if you got 500 that's better than jesus accomplished in his ministry 120 the only ones that showed up i mean you ain't time it's really painful he appeared first corinthians 15 says to 500 he appeared to 500 380 didn't go to the prayer room after the resurrected god appeared to them they were too busy jesus was not that effective in his ministry he couldn't get their attention he couldn't get anybody to follow through so he had virtually no movement a seed a seed of a seed wrote no books had no office made no impact that was lasting that men could tell in that day but he said oh just like my first 30 years my last three and a half years what i have done is glorious in god's eyes god esteems the smallness of what we do and even though man writes you off as irrelevant and no impact and you're doing nothing but wasting your life i can imagine when jesus was 30 get with it jesus you're letting life go by you better quit doing so much of that mountaintop bible thing and get with it you're not getting any younger paragraph d look at just this last verse i forgot this one i gotta slip this in matthew 3 when jesus was being baptized at the beginning of his ministry the father said i'm well pleased this was before he preached one sermon this was before jesus healed one person before he had any impact on anybody before he ever made a splash in the water on his public impact god looked at him and says son what you have done in your heart before me is so glorious to me i am so pleased even before you do public ministry because of the interaction we've had in our heart and beloved this is what paul said he said if we could connect with god's heart if we can give ourselves to god this way and we can see his eyes are on us you may never have a big ministry you may have a big one you may not you know what it will not matter one way or the other where we're going my next assignment has nothing to do with how big our conferences are now it only has to do with how big my heart is in god right now amen let's stand so the manifest presence we want it more more lord lord says okay you got an earthen vessel so if you want more glory i've got to hold that earth the vessel and check a little bit troubled follows the anointing i assure you of that new levels new devils new powers new realms of power new levels of attack come against us let's just wait before the lord for a moment now again when i say stand the ihop rule is you never have to say you never have to stand when a leader says stand if you want to sit you always can't you're not rebellious you're not just so i just say stand typically but you do what you want to do that's in all of our meetings everywhere we made that rule 10 years ago so you can sit if you want let's just wait on the lord i just ask you to close your eyes just a moment lord we want a revelation of eternity lord we want a revelation of the increase of the anointing in our life now we want to respond to you in pressure in a godly way talk to him for a minute everyone in this room