Paths to power

Thank God for every bit of persecution in your life for in the spirit realm you are accumulating the power of His presence, the approval and favour of God over your life.

“Rejoice for your reward in heaven is great, for so the prophets were persecuted in like fashion” -Matthew 5

This was the revelation which empowered the apostles to rejoice whilst facing deep persecutions, the prospect of more of the Spirit of God spilling into their lives.

Tough Christianity

We need to prepare to be hated for His name sake. Because we love Him, the world will hate us.

Take up the cross,
We need to willingly take up the cross, despising its shame. Because we love Jesus more than anything. True discipleship values the person of Jesus greater wealth than any worldly possession including the approval of men. We can have the approval of men or the approval of God but not both.

Does not our heart burn with love for Christ whilst we contemplate His suffering on the cross?

Hebrews 12:

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Be prepared to be an outsider, when you are persecuted, identify closer to those who are despised in society.

Hebrews 11

12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

Persecution and the power of God are closely related, so is the cross and resurrection power.

Matthew 10:38

The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

The cup He drank refers to the one which He asked the Father three times, "let this cup pass from me". Where for Him it was the total combined load of the sins of all humanity throughout history in the vessel of His body to absorb the wrath of His Father. For the apostles, it was the scorn and hatred of men. Paul said, we are "the most hated of all men, the garbage of all the earth" (1 Cor 4:13). They could not bear the sins of the world being human and not God and man like Christ. But they could take up the hatred that people directed to God. "Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church" (Col 1:24). It is as though the shepherd's job, the apostles' job is to absorb the hatred of Christ  from the world and the devil on behalf of the church, something like what Christ did for his disciples. When He was on earth, the devil and the whole religious mafia went after Him and His chicks were safe under his wings. I suspect in the spirit realm, it is a similar matter.

What is the baptism? Water baptism? haha of course not. It is the baptism of the Spirit in which Christ was filled at the river Jordan. And He went through another baptism in being glorified, He received "the Spirit without measure" (John 3:34), Acts 2:33 Peter says Jesus was resurrected, glorified, ascended and given a further portion of the Holy Spirit, being one with God as He said He would be in John 17. He then sheds this baptism upon those who ask Him. "How much more will the Father not give the Spirit to those who ask"? (Luke 11:13).

So we see the cup of rejection of and by men and the measure of the Spirit of God upon a person,  is linked together inextricably in Jesus statement above. The reason why the Son of God could be glorified, is because "He learnt obedience through suffering". Having completed His obedeince to God as a true Son, He was entrusted with all power, omnipotent power, as God is powerful. No longer limited by space time and human weaknesses and frailties.

Honouring God

If you are greatly persecuted for your faith, the power of God is likely very near and waiting to manifest in your life. Rejoice and praise God like Paul and Silas in prison. Have a good attitude of worship, don’t become bitter. Stay sweet and pure. Honor God and praise Him. The power of God might just be waiting to spill all over your life.

The psalm of the apostle 

There needs to arise in the body of Christ a generation of leaders who can take persecution and be be supernaturally bold and courageous and say to their enemies "let them come near to me" and not shy away from suffering like so many believers do these days. God doesn't need more armchair warriors or desk pastors. He desires true bold lion-like apostles to rise up. Who rise up in bold faith to serve the people of God. Who will put their faces like flint unto the work and the mission to which they are called and not turn back. Who will sing in the pitch black darkness of seeming hopelessness and say boldly, "God will help me". During the darkest hours of the soul to be courageous and bold.

Isaiah 50:4-7

4 The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.

5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.

6 I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.

7 But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.

9 Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on his God.

11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
and by the torches that you have kindled!

7 But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

Encouragement for the persecuted and suffering

There is a purifying effect of persecution. It separates the men from the boys. The serious seeker from the casual observer who is casually interested in religion. It is also the dividing line between disciple and prophet, disciple and apostle. All of the sudden we are forced to count the cost- for Jesus sake, give up this, endure this for X amount of time, are you willing? Weighing up Christ and the Gospel on one hand and turning back to egypt on the other hand. Which do you love more? False motives of selfish  ambition cannot stand the fires of prolonged trial. Looking to the power of God and the supernatural experience of the Spirit through it all to provide that supernatural hope, that supernatural experience of the power of God to endure it all. To be sure God honors this type of suffering more than any other.

1 Peter 4:

Suffering as a Christian

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And

If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while
doing good.

Revelation 6:9-11
Fifth Seal: The Cry of the Martyrs

9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

God gives a supernatural comfort and rest to the ones whom He calls dear.

Psalms 116:15

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants.

Lets pray that God fill us with supernatural endurance, with a supernatural will and flint like decision to follow Him all our days. Let Him seal the decision in our hearts with solidness, with boldness, with fearlessness. Let Him empower our faith and devotion to its fullest measure, even in the face of all suffering to press through, for He is able to deliver the righteous from judgement, from testing from trouble and from persecution.

1 Tim 4:1 (NIV)
The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Pet 2:9 (NLT)

So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.