by David Falk | Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy

In many parts of the world, Christians are experiencing severe persecution. In our western society, we are largely shielded from this. However, as we approach the time of the end, we can expect this tribulation to increase. Paul encouraged all the early churches by saying, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’. Acts 14:22.

I want to encourage you to lift up your eyes in prayer to behold what God is doing in the whole world. I am inclined, like many people, to live in an isolated and incubated world where my life is mostly about the things that are happening around me. My constant wrestle in prayer is to lift up my eyes to see what God is doing. It is vitally important that we learn to ‘lift our eyes to the hills from where our help comes’. Psa 121:1. By looking to the Lord, we will gain perspective. We will see things in the broader spectrum of our lives that are not easily seen.

The generation known as the ‘baby boomers’, those who were born post World War Two between 1946 and 1962, have known the most extended period of peace that has been recorded in the history of mankind. We have to consider that it will not continue indefinitely. The experience of the Christian will not be the same as it has been for the last fifty or sixty years. In our Australian society, the normal Christian life is about going to church on Sundays. The focus is on achieving ease and comfort. Of course, we all experience real problems in our lives, such as ill health and family struggles. However, we need to put everything in perspective. Across the whole world, perhaps even at this moment, there are those who are shedding their blood for the gospel. Persecutions are happening in many countries such as China, Indonesia and South America. There are many who are enduring to death. Jesus said to the church in Smyrna, 'Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life'. Rev 2:10.

What does this tribulation mean? We know that tribulation will increase as we approach the time of the end. But Jesus also spoke of the ‘beginning of birth pangs’, saying ‘that is not yet the end’. Matt 24:6,8. In my study of church history, I note that Christians are inclined to confuse the imminent sense of the presence of God with the sense of His imminent second coming. Through each of the major wars, persecutions and tribulations in history, people were inclined to feel that Jesus would soon return. Of course, the day of the Lord was not imminent, because we are still here today! However, the imminence of His presence and the impact of His power do draw near to us in seasons of affliction. Affliction is always producing something in us. 

In Stephen’s mighty sermon, recorded in the book of Acts, he recounted the history of the children of Israel in Egypt. And He spoke of the multiplication that occurred. ‘As the time was drawing near, of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied.’ Acts 7:17. Egypt was referred to as the iron furnace. Deut 4:20. We’ll recall the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver’. Isa 60:17. In their persecution in Egypt, they grew from one family to a great nation, and the Lord’s hand was upon them. Likewise, when the early Christian church faced persecutions and difficulties, they experienced tremendous growth. In the book of Acts, we read of a time when Herod sought to persecute the church. James, the brother of John, was put to death by the sword. And Peter was arrested and thrown into prison until his miraculous release. However, the Scripture records that during this affliction the ‘word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied’. Acts 12:24. What an encouraging thought! The same applies to us today.

What is affliction for? When we read the Scriptures, perhaps no one suffered more in this life than Job. However, he was able to say, 'When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold’. Job 23:10. King David also understood when he said, ‘Before I was afflicted, I went astray’. Psa 119:67. And again, the apostle Paul said to the Christians on his first missionary journey, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’. Acts 14:22. Our western gospel has now become a gospel of ease. In many cases, preachers feel compelled to preach comfort. In the days of Jeremiah, when the children of Israel were about to go down to Babylon to captivity for seventy years, a true prophet was easily known. They prophesied the will of God for the people, rather than comfort. Finally, there is no comfort in a word that promises comfort, but does not deliver real comfort.

The word of God is coming to us so that we can be changed from one degree of glory to another. In the words of Paul, we must behold the Lord ‘with unveiled face’. 2 Cor 3:18. When the veil of our own perceptions is removed, we can behold the glory of the Lord. We can ‘lift up our eyes to the hills’ and behold things that we do not see naturally. In our individual lives today, and at the collective level, there are afflictions. Many of these are common to man, but they are still the afflictions of Christ. We are faced daily with the choice of receiving them from God, or trying to rationalize the afflictions according to our own understanding. If we are going to live in the will of God, we will need the veil removed. We will need to be able to lift up our eyes and see into the heavenly places. We need to know what the Lord is doing, and recognize the meaning of every experience that we are facing.

There is something happening today in the heavenly places. We need to understand that we live in heavenly realities. Everything that transpires on this earth, where we live, is only the consequence of activity in the heavenly places. Whatever God is doing in your life, you need to perceive it in a spiritual sense. I don’t mean in a mystical sense, but the eye does not see heavenly reality unless it is revealed to us. When Jesus was transfigured before the disciples, the first thing that appeared was a cloud. Ironically, if the cloud of His glory were to appear today, the cloud itself would not be the glory. The cloud is the covering of the glory. However, when it parts, it reveals the glory. It reveals what is hidden within the cloud. If the cloud of His presence were to appear today, you would catch sight of heavenly things. 

Heaven is not a long way off. We are only separated from heaven by a cloud. If we could break through it, we would see heavenly realities. Geographically, you can go as far as you like into the atmospheric heavens, but you will be no closer to heaven. Remember the words of the psalmist, ‘If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.’ Psa 139:8. The Lord is everywhere. He is closer than breathing, and we are also surrounded by a great ‘cloud of witnesses’. Heb 12:1.

Personally, I receive everything that happens to me as from the hand of God. I don’t attribute anything to the power of the devil or from time and chance. If I cannot receive everything from the hand of God, I have questioned God’s sovereignty. How can I decide what I will receive from God and what I won't receive from God? Why would I accredit Satan any merit, value or capacity? He only has access to my life to the degree that God avails him that access, orthat I move outside the will of God. Job called all the afflictions that Satan imposed upon him, ‘the arrows of the Almighty’. Job 6:4.

If we don’t receive everything from the hand of the Lord, we risk becoming angry. In turn, anger produces bitterness, and bitterness leads to an incapacity to change. Jesus warned that during times of difficulty ‘the love of many will become cold’. Matt 24:12. If your afflictions produce anger and bitterness in you, and these overtake you, then you will go the way of Esau. Even though he sought repentance, he could not find it. Remember, the word repentance means ‘to turn’. I always think of Esau as a man who is trying to turn. He goes halfway there, but he just can't do it. He seeks repentance with tears. Tears are often only the frustration of our incapacity to change. At times, we do weep tears of grief, like when Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus. There is a weeping and mourning that the Scripture promotes and provokes, but there is another kind that are only the tears of frustration. If we do not view affliction the right way, then anger and bitterness can take root and destroy us.

In this phase, we need to look at life differently, and know that God is doing more than before. It is imperative that we are in touch with what God is doing. We must learn how to persevere in prayer. During the time of the exile, the prophet Daniel prayed for twenty-one days before Gabriel came to him. He told Daniel that his prayer was heard the moment he began to pray, even though there was a delay before the answer. Heb 10:13,14. You don't see the evidence of your prayer until the outcome of your prayer transpires. However, when you seek God in prayer, you are engaging heavenly realities. You are seeking to know what the Lord is doing and His will for your life. The Lord will peel back the cloud and meet you. 

According to the prophet Daniel, if we will receive afflictions we will be ‘helped with a little help’. Dan 11:34. There will be just enough help to deliver you, but not too much help so you don’t need to persevere. You are rescued from the penalty, but delivered to the process of change. Peter wrote, ‘After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.’ 1 Pet. 5:10. We don’t know how long ‘a little while’ is for us when we suffer affliction. However, we can be confident that there will be deliverance in God’s time, when affliction has accomplished its purpose. Tribulation produces patience in us.

God wants you to slow down and register what He is doing. You need to wait on the Lord, praying for the Holy Spirit to come and show you the thoughts and intents of your heart. The word ‘selah’, often used by King David in the book of Psalms, means ‘The Lord is good; think on this’. When you are afflicted, don’t immediately act to find relief. Rather, wait on the Lord. Be patient. Let Him plumb the depths of your heart, searching your thoughts and your motives. Let His light shine in your heart. The miracle of the gospel is that it gives us self-knowledge, so we can know ourselves as God knows us. If you seek the Lord, you will find Him. You will find grace in the season of trial. The more you are afflicted, the more you will grow and multiply. Selah.

Author: David Falk | Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Published by Vision One at Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
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