The Word
Vol.
9 No. 5
Upper Room Discourse
John 15:2
Suffering For Blessing
In
The Doctrine of
Suffering for Blessing
A. Introduction: Suffering acts as a guardian or parent in life,
1.
Suffering plays an important role in the life of the adult. What your parents
did for you in childhood, suffering does for you as adults. God has given you
suffering as a form of parenting for the rest of your life. The disciplines and
restraints of childhood imposed by your parents are now replaced by the
disciplines and restraints of suffering, replacing the role of parents in your
life.
2.
Suffering is a warning that you are doing it wrong, or when underserved it is a
means of greater blessing. Parents don't always spank; they also give us
things. They both discipline and give blessing. So also, God has provided for
the believer the parenting of suffering after we leave home.
3.
Therefore, suffering is a guardian, a referee that always makes good calls.
Suffering is not a blind umpire! Suffering is an authority designed to
challenge the believer to grow in grace by the proper utilization of his
portfolio of invisible assets in the fulfillment of the Plan of God.
4.
While suffering is a restrainer in life, as in punitive preventative suffering
(i.e. divine discipline), it also plays a major role in accelerating the
positive believer’s momentum to spiritual adulthood, as in providential
preventative suffering,
5.
Suffering for blessing is another guarantee from God that the believer can and
does fulfill the Plan of God by advancing to spiritual maturity.
6.
Suffering for blessing becomes a major system for Divine good blessing and for
the glorification of God,
7.
As a guardian in our life, suffering is designed by God for our good because it
does two things.
a)
It restrains us from sin, human good, and evil, just as our parents restrained
us.
b)
It challenges us to advance in the Plan of God, just as our parents challenged
us to grow up.
8. No suffering for blessing is
beyond what we are able to handle or endure through the utilization of God’s
Word and the Filling of the Holy Spirit,
B. Suffering is used as a measurement of life.
1.
Suffering never leaves the Christian as it found him. As a result of suffering,
we are either the better or the worse for it. When you suffer, you will never
be the same again.
2. No one stands still under pressure. You
either move forward or regress.
3.
If, during suffering, the believer reacts through arrogance, bitterness,
vindictiveness, self‑pity, or implacability, he becomes a loser and
starts to go backward. He is set back in his spiritual life and in his life in
general. In other words, you cannot afford to react to suffering. Respond,
don't react! This requires Bible doctrine ready for application in your soul.
4.
If, during suffering, the believer responds through the application of
metabolized doctrine and Occupation with the Person of Christ, he eventually
advances to the point of becoming a winner. We forget what is behind (our
failures) and convert our sufferings into blessings through rebound, the three
stages of the faith‑rest drill, hope 2 and hope 3, and spiritual self‑esteem.
Then we will be the better for it and will advance to maturity. We'll be
oriented to reality. The greatest converter of suffering into blessing is
Spiritual Self-Esteem.
C. Suffering for Blessing Rationale.
1.
For the believer who is living inside God’s Power System (
2.
When you are out of fellowship with God, outside
3.
Punitive suffering is resolved by the confession of your sins, (the rebound
technique), and remaining inside
a) When your suffering is more than you can
bear, the origin is your own volition, never the sovereignty of God.
b)
God never gives us more suffering than we can handle. So what God does not remove he intends for us
to bear, to endure, to handle, and to solve with doctrine.
4.
There are two doctrinal applications from Punitive Suffering. These are the two
major motivations for blessing in either avoiding or recovering from sin under
the principle that all suffering is designed for blessing.
a)
The resistance of future temptations.
b)
The application of
5.
All suffering for blessing is designed by God for the believer's advance to
spiritual maturity and the glorification of God. Suffering for blessing is
always designed to advance you by putting muscle on your spiritual life,
6. There is no suffering too great for the Plan of God
to resolve. Therefore, all problems of suffering are resolved in the mechanics
of the Plan of God with its 10 Problem Solving Devices (PSDs)
and its solutions accumulated from Bible doctrine, 2 Cor 12:9-10.
7.
God’s provisions in your Portfolio of Invisible Assets and the 10 PSDs are far greater than any suffering, pressure, or
disaster in life.
D. There are five categories of suffering in the spiritual life.
1.
Punitive suffering, designed for the reversionistic
believer that has two categories.
a)
The law of volitional responsibility.
b)
Divine discipline.
2.
Suffering for blessing, designed for spiritual adulthood falls into three
categories to match the three stages of spiritual adulthood.
a)
Providential Preventative Suffering for the believer
in Spiritual Self-Esteem.
b)
Momentum Testing, for the believer in Spiritual
Autonomy.
c)
Evidence Testing, for the believer in Spiritual Maturity.
E. Definition of the three stages of Spiritual Adulthood and
accompanying Suffering for Blessing.
1.
Spiritual Self-Esteem (SSE) and Providential Preventative Suffering (
a) SSE is the assertion of Bible doctrine resident in your
soul; it is living by one's own thinking from that Bible doctrine and making
application of metabolized doctrine under all circumstances including suffering
for blessing,
b) SSE is characterized by and is the inevitable
result of personal love for God.
c) The believer's self-confidence is not derived from
self but from the confidence that he has a unique relationship with the God of
all creation.
d) The Christian who gains SSE has crossed the
dividing line between spiritual childhood and spiritual adulthood, between
spiritual dependence and spiritual independence, between punitive suffering and
suffering for blessing.
e) SSE is the giant step in the believer's life as the
first stage of spiritual adulthood,
2. Spiritual
Autonomy (SA) and Momentum Testing (MT).
a) SA is a continuation of mental
contentment or +H (Sharing the Happiness of God) as a major Problem Solving
Device achieved at SSE. In SA there is a stronger and increased contentment,
capacity for life, and capacity for happiness as a result of combining SSE with
b)
This contentment is based on Impersonal Love for all because others'
imperfections and mistakes will not be a source of unhappiness to you,
c)
SA is having doctrinal and grace orientation with the absence of arrogance in
your soul, resulting in mental toughness and self‑confidence. It is
having orientation to reality, authority, and freedom, while at the same time
rejecting those things that destroy the spiritual life such as fear, worry, and
anxiety.
d)
In SA you have a tremendous amount of divine viewpoint that is used in pressure
situations as well as normal situations. Therefore, it is characterized by
mental stability due to maximum utilization of Bible Doctrine in the soul.
e) Spiritual autonomy is also
characterized by having a personal sense of destiny. It understands God's plan,
will, and purpose in the concept of the invisible impact of the Church Age.
f)
Momentum Testing
begins when the believer reaches SA.
3. Spiritual Maturity (SM) and
Evidence Testing (ET).
a) SM is the maximum expression of
the grace of God utilized by the spiritual mature believer inside the Plan of
God.
b) SM is characterized by
cognitive independence, which is maximum perception, metabolization,
and accurate application of Bible doctrine to life.
c) He is independent of any form
of advice, counseling, or human encouragement, but not independent of
expository Bible teaching from his right Pastor-Teacher.
d) The SM believer is classified
as an invisible hero because of his impact on human history. He brings maximum
glory to God as an invisible hero living the supergrace
life,
e) The SM believer can meet and
face every problem in life with a maximum amount of inner happiness. There is
no tragedy, disaster, difficulty, or heartache that can overcome the tremendous
entrenchment of cognitive self‑ confidence and its +H.
f) Evidence Testing begins when
the believer reaches SM, the book of Job.
4. Summary:
a)
SSE is characterized by epistemological rehabilitation (renewing of your mind,
b)
SA is characterized by cognitive self-confidence, which is the result of
additional metabolized Bible doctrine plus passing Providential Preventative
Suffering.
c)
SM is characterized by cognitive independence, which results from additional metabolization of doctrine plus passing Momentum Testing
(people, system, thought, and disaster testing).
If you would
like more information on this subject,
you may listen
to lessons 10-009 through 10-012.
A PERSONAL NOTE
FOR YOU
If
you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell
you that Jesus loves you. He loves you
so much that He gave His life for you. God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only
Son for you by sending Him to the Cross.
At the Cross Jesus died in your place.
Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of
my sins. He was judged for our sins and
paid the price for our sins. Therefore
our sins will never be held against us.
Right where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest
decision in your life. To accept the free gift of eternal life by truly
believing that Jesus Christ died for
you. So wherever you are, pause to reflect on what Christ has done for you
and say to the Father:
"Father, I believe that Your Son,
Jesus Christ, died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."
If you have done that, I welcome you to the Eternal
Family of God!