Tribulation, Part 3
July 26, 2019
I ran out of time last week to finish the story of 13-year-old
Rosa Frankson, who endured persecution, beatings and torture for the sake of
the Gospel. I’m getting ahead of myself
in saying so, but her life and her testimony affected the whole community of
Point Hope, Alaska.
After
three or four days of hanging between life and death, and fading in and out of
consciousness, she was awake and talking to the attending nurse.
"You need to know Jesus like I do," she said. The nurse teared
up, and not knowing what else to do or say, reached over and patted Rosa on the
head. "You're going to be OK, Rosa."
Rosa
nodded her head and said, "Oh, yes! I know I'm going to be OK.
I'm going home to Jesus!"
The
nurse ran out and called for the doctor. Her parents had just come into
the hospital and they followed the nurse and doctor into the hospital room in
time to see Rosa raising her hands toward the ceiling.
"Jesus!
Jesus! I see you."
A
smile lit up her face, her hands sagged back to the bed, and she was gone.
In
the days that followed, the nurse and the doctor both accepted Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Saviour. Rosa's parents likewise accepted the Lord.
Dad preached the funeral back in Point Hope a week later. The boys who
had beaten her wept and cried, repenting before the community, and asking Jesus
to come into their hearts.
It
was the end of the shaman's exercise of authority in Point Hope. He
shortly thereafter was diagnosed with cancer and died a few months later in a
mysterious fire that burned his sod house to the ground.
Rosa's
testimony and dogged determination to serve the Lord at the cost of her life
had both an immediate and long-term impact on Point Hope. It broke the
spell of witchcraft that had held the community in bondage for hundreds of
years, and it pointed a path to freedom for her family and many young people
who have since gone on in their walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rosa
Frankson proved to everyone through her life and her death that there was
something far more powerful than witchcraft: it was the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ, operating in her and through her.
The
very idea that we should be able to escape from such things makes the Gospel a
lie. The current doctrines of the “Great
Tribulation” are nothing more than a demonic attempt to infiltrate the body of
Christ with an overpowering spirit of The Fear of Death.
Jesus
died for us. He shed His blood for
us. But he gained the final victory over
death by rising again the third day and canceling out Adam’s death on the third
day. If that which the Lord has done in
us is not worth challenging the world’s systems, its traditions, its
psychological thought processes, as well as the religious baloney that
populates the globe, we are liars and the truth is not in us.
Consider
that which Paul writes again to the Ekklesia in Corinth:
II Corinthians 6:4-10: But in all things
approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions,
in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in
imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;
By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the
Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth,
by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on
the left, By
honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet
true;
As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we
live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet
alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet
possessing all things.
Look
at one more statement that Paul makes in his letter to the Colossians.
Colossians 1:23-24: If ye continue in the
faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; Who now rejoice in my
sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of
Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church…..
If
Jesus suffered and died for us, what makes us think that we are better than
Him? How is it that we do not get to
“enjoy” the same thlipsis — tribulation, afflictions —that Jesus
endured?
Romans 5:1-5:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the
glory of God.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And
patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us.
Romans 8:35-39:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long;
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
How
do you like that? Let’s take a look
today at what takes place in all of us when we experience tribulation” or
pressure or persecution. Let me begin
today with some humorous anecdotes.
After
years of opposition to the ministry of deliverance — never mind the opposition
I ran into from Mormon leaders in Utah — it produced a liberty and holy
boldness in me that I couldn’t put into words.
A day came when I was attending a conference with Derek Prince in
southern California. We had just
finished a time of praise and worship.
Derek Prince felt that the time of praise and worship should not have
ended and he pointed to the musicians and asked them to continue. I can’t remember exactly what they were
playing, but if memory serves me, it was something like, “I WILL ENTER
HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING.”
Derek
started to dance. For anyone who ever
met him or knew anything about him, he was a very rigid, strait-laced, former
British soldier, whose very proper upbringing and years in the British Army had
produced a conservatism you couldn’t ignore.
When he started dancing, it was rigid, knees having difficulty bending,
a kind of bouncing up and down.
I’d
never seen him dance before and couldn’t help laughing. He was doing everything he could to let it
all out and dance before the Lord. Had
to admit that I hadn’t done a lot of dancing before and decided to let it all
out! I danced with all my might. The liberty and freedom that I experienced were
indescribable.
When
we finished — and many of the folks who were there also danced vigorously — an
older lady who was sitting behind me reached over and tapped me on the
shoulder. She had not participated in
the dance other than to stay seated and tap her feet. I turned around to respond to the lady’s tap.
“I
sure wish I had your liberty,” she said.
Without
even realizing what I was saying, I responded, “Sure wish you’d been with me
when I got it.”
It
was spontaneous. When I stopped to
really think about what I’d said, there was a striking realization that the
years of overcoming personal and religious opposition, persecution and personal
failures had created in me an ability to respond to the Lord in complete
freedom.
That
didn’t mean that I didn’t still have a long ways to go in overcoming and
conquering other issues that confronted me, but there was a recognition that
the Lord had really done something in me.
The
apostle Paul continues his accent on tribulation and overcoming in his letter
to the Romans.
Romans 12:10-14: Be
kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one
another; Not slothful in
business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant
in prayer; Distributing to
the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
This
is the second time Paul has talked about patience in conjunction with
tribulation and affliction. I realize
that the whole topic of “patience” is a dirty word in some circles. There’s an old cliché about not praying for
patience. Only doctors can pray
for patients.
Riiiiggghhhttt! Nobody likes the fact that things drag on and
on and on and on, ad infinitum.
This is especially true in today’s “push-button society.” We want things NOW! We want the finish of whatever is happening
to us NOW!
But
take another look at what Paul wrote. We
quoted this when we opened today’s discussion.
………...but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience; And patience,
experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Get
it? The crushing, the pressure, the
afflictions we experience, the failures of friends and family around us, all
cooperate to work patience in us. But
with that patience comes the experiences of overcoming and conquering the
emotions and mental gyrations and accusations that the Enemy throws against us
in the midst of it all.
But
it doesn’t stop there! The overcoming of
those experiences brings hope into our beings, and that’s a hope that is
generated by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ working within us.
Consider
Luke’s description of what he saw take place with Paul and Barnabas.
Acts 14:21-22:
And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had
taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them
to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of God.
There
it is! There’s the real secret of
tribulation, affliction, stress, pressure, etc.: entrance into the
Kingdom of God.
That
phrase, “the Kingdom of God,” is not some ethereal, mystical
place, nor is it Heaven. The Kingdom of
God is that place where the rulership of the Lord Jesus Christ is who we are
and have become an integral part. The
Kingdom of God is nothing less than the domain — the people — in whom God
reigns supreme.
I
take you back to the 23rd Psalm which begins, The Lord is my
Shepherd. That is both the Lordship of Jesus Christ and
His direct shepherding of our lives. It
requires our total submission. There is
no room for our acceptance of part of His Word, and resistance to part of
it. He is both Lord and Chief Shepherd!
Skip
forward, if you will, to what happens when we are led in the Paths of
Righteousness through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Tribulation? Yup!
Absolutely!
But
look what happens. Thy
Rod and Thy Staff, they comfort me.
Have
we been learning the significance of His authority in our lives? Yes.
Because He is Lord!
Have
we been obedient followers of both His written and His rhema Word? Then He has been our Shepherd as well.
Now
look what faithfulness and the walk of faith in the midst of the pressure, the
threats, the trials and tribulation has produced!
Thou preparest a Table before me in the presence of mine
enemies!
Right! All that the Enemy has thrown against us up
to this time has backfired on him! We
are getting the riches of God’s Glory given to us while our erstwhile enemies
have to stand back and watch. And they
can’t do a thing about it!
Excuse
me for getting a bit political for a minute, but this is exactly what is
happening right now as God is giving President Trump victory after victory
after victory in the face of enormous opposition, attack and an onslaught of
persecution the likes of which no President in U.S. history has ever had to go
through. It is my honest conviction that
all of the accusations and persistent attacks are already backfiring and are going
to see the socialist leftists go down to one of the greatest defeats ever seen
in this country in the next election cycle.
Just watch!
That’s
where we quit for today. See you next
week.
In case you are
missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday
worship gatherings are available by conference call –
usually at about 10:30AM Pacific. That
conference number is (712)
770-4160, and the access code
is 308640#. We are
now making these gatherings available on video using ZOOM. If you wish to participate by video on ZOOM, our
login ID is 835-926-513. If you miss the
live voice-only call, you can dial (712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in later. The video call, of course, is not recorded –
not yet, anyway.
Blessings
on you!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
Email Contact: CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com
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