The Final Harvest Blog

By Vic Zarley of TheFinalHarvest.org

Today’s blog is part 1 of an excerpt from one of my books, Extreme Christianity, which is available for free online at TheFinalHarvest.org. We hope you enjoy this and perhaps have some feedback for us.

No one is exempt from suffering in this world. The one question we must ask, though, is “What is it for?”

We can suffer for many reasons. Mental, emotional, and physical are the three types of suffering that happen in this world. And, most certainly, they are all involved when any one of these types of suffering is occurring.

Because the Word of God is for all of us here in this world, it, too, is filled with suffering. There is much we can learn about suffering from the Bible. Have you considered that suffering comes in two ways? (1.) We can suffer in defiance and (2.) we can suffer in compliance.

Let’s look at suffering in defiance. This is suffering brought on by complete rebellion against the principles laid out by God through the Bible. Suffering in defiance is deliberately going against what God says we must do and reaping the results of this which is suffering. This type of suffering can either lead to greater suffering in defiance or it can lead to repentance, or changing one’s thoughts and beginning to comply with God’s commands. Even when we do this, however, it still leads to suffering, but it now has a new name: Suffering in compliance.

Suffering in compliance leads, eventually, to joy. Unfortunately, suffering still happens when we turn our lives around and align them with God’s commands because people are fallen and this world is basically carnal. Jesus came to bring a light into the darkness. He has asked us to take Him into our hearts and shine our lights and not hide them under a bushel. If we are suffering in defiance (that is, in complete rebellion), we are contributing to the fallen world’s agenda and, more than likely, suffering the pains brought on because so many are so thoughtless and inconsiderate.

Suffering in defiance is synonymous with an attitude that many in this carnal world have major problems that they thrust onto ME. I am fine. It is they who reek of disgusting and revolting attitudes. It is they who are immature, self-centered, and obnoxious. When we see so much sin outside ourselves, it is we who are in pain. Nothing seems to work out right. People are constantly bumping into us, rubbing us the wrong way, being disrespectful and deceitful. This feeds the fire in us and makes us all the more upset with them, the world and ourselves. And, of course, many really are this way. There is no doubt about it. But whose pain is in need of healing? We cannot heal other people’s pain. We can only heal our own pain, but in doing this through prayer and communion with God, other people’s pains are often healed as well.

How is this so? When our pain is no longer perceived as coming from outside us, we begin the process of healing ourselves. We can realize that we look through a glass darkly when we view others as coming at us with torches and pitchforks to slay us. The “glass darkly,” however, is removed when we no longer see them as coming to slay us but, instead, see them as suffering and in need of Christ’s healing. Again, this does not mean our suffering ends, but it does mean our suffering changes to suffering in compliance and the suffering is no longer unbearable.

How can we find peace and healing?

We must repent, or change our mind, and go from suffering in defiance to suffering in compliance. Suffering in compliance does not do away with bad people and maddening situations. What it does do is remove our responsibility from changing the world and everyone in it, to just being responsible for our own reactions.

Why is this important? Because Jesus asked us to do this. He asked us to love our enemies, bless those who persecute us and “turn the other cheek,” when someone does evil to us. Trying to force others to change does not work.

People will come to the Lord by our example, not by force of our will. “You’d better change or else..” does not work. However, when we respond to hate with love, when we respond to being treated unfairly with a blessing and prayer, when we respond to any of the worldly traits with the fruit of God’s Spirit, we are erasing from the face of this earth much of the power of sin. We are no longer contributing to the world’s empty solutions to its countless problems. Instead, we are untangling the many-knotted strands brought on by those who are suffering in defiance. Consequently, we are paving the road to Heaven and the abundant, eternal life with Jesus (not only for them, but for ourselves as well.) This can only be done one incident at a time. Each time we respond in like manner to someone’s hate or inconsideration, we make the world’s cycle of rage, harder for everyone to escape. Each time we respond with love, we make the road to Heaven smoother.

Continued in Part 2 of Suffering in Compliance or Suffering in Defiance.

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