As one western leader said to me, “Without one Billy Graham or Benny Hinn, only brothers and sisters in the Lord, the church in China is doubling every 1o years. If God can do this in China, the largest communist country in the world, He can do it anywhere.” To that I say, AMEN!

The idea that there are no mass evangelism efforts, yet millions are coming to the Lord every year boggled my Western mind. How are they doing it? I don’t know that I got the full picture, but what I did learn was actually very simple and very provoking. The Chinese embrace a few simple truths that make a lot of difference. These ideas probably won’t seem revolutionary or new to you, they weren’t new to me. The power of them is that the believers actually walk them out. It made me realize that there is much I believe, but I don’t actually live. I’m asking God to help me to live out the corresponding actions to my faith.

1) Every person is a full time minister. The Chinese church has incredible  leaders and the people hold each leader in high esteem. However, in China because of the restrictions on public assemblies, a leader of a network of a million believers can only meet with 50 -100 believers at any one time. Because of this, no one assumes that the work of the ministry is to left to the leader only. Each believer fully embraces his or her own calling to minister the gospel, lay hands on the sick, cast out demons and do the works of ministry. When you have 150,000,000 believers fully committed to sharing their faith, praying for the sick and doing the works of the ministry, the expansion of the gospel is viral. Col 1:5-6 explains that the nature of the gospel is to bear fruit wherever it is proclaimed. This is what’s happening in China. As the church has embraced her mission to declare the gospel of Jesus, the gospel has born incredible fruit and souls are being saved.

2) A simple gospel is a powerful gospel. The Chinese believe that the longer it takes for a new believer to share their faith the less likely they will be to ever share their faith. They encourage all new believers to immediately begin to share the gospel with others. The results have been incredible. Scores of new believers have been won to Jesus by saints who are brand new in the Lord. For me, I realized that I was dealing with unbelief that the simple gospel was still powerful enough to convict and convert the sinner. I had to repent of my unbelief. Romans 1:16 is still true today, “The gospel IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION…” I think we have complicated it in the West. We have so many tools to use, I wonder if we have based our belief in the effectiveness of the gospel upon the effectiveness of the tools we use to share it. Without huge light shows, sound systems, videos, worship teams, dramas, television shows, radio broadcasts, etc… the simple gospel of Jesus Christ has exploded in China. Perhaps we need a renewed faith in the POWER of a simple Gospel.

3) Sharing your faith is an incredible privilege. Often times ministers have to cajole believers in the West to share their faith; even threaten them with the shame of “blood on their hands” if they don’t reach the lost for Jesus.  In China, believers don’t have to be persuaded to embrace the mission of the gospel. They are so grateful for the love and salvation that Jesus has brought them that they feel privileged to share their faith. They are compelled by the love of Christ that has delivered them from the bondage of communist atheism. It’s simple gratitude that compels them and therefore sharing the gospel is an incredible honor. Though sharing their faith could result in their own imprisonment, they don’t count their lives as dear to themselves and gladly tell others of the joy, freedom and forgiveness they’ve found in Jesus. I was convicted when I realized my own dullness and lack of gratitude for my own salvation.

4) You cannot sacrifice too much for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyday in China or any closed country for that matter,  believers face an array of challenges that believers in free countries never experience. Every worship meeting, church gathering, time of study or prayer is a risk to their freedom, and in some cases, their lives. Even so, with joyful hearts, they willingly risk their freedom to love and serve Jesus. They don’t feel like it is a sacrifice at all. They have no sense of entitlement. They are happy to give their lives fully to Jesus regardless of the risk or cost.  They are a living example of how Jesus called us, His disciples, to live.

Mark 8:35 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses His life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Somehow I actually missed the phrase “and the gospel’s.” We kinda get the idea that we are to give our lives for Jesus…but losing our lives for the sake of the gospel? In the West it almost sounds reckless to call people to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel. Yet losing your life for Christ and the Gospel was Jesus’ main call to discipleship. It is normative Christianity and is commonplace in China and other closed nations.  Somehow we’ve lost this abandonment in our safe, sanitized version of Christianity. Yet, for the Chinese, the call to give it all is a liberating adventure. They know what Paul meant when He said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

My heart has been freshly pricked with the vision of sharing the gospel with the lost on a regular basis as a normal part of my life. Not leaving the preaching of the gospel to only what happens when I minister publicly, but sharing one on one with people that the Lord brings across my path. My heart has been renewed in the simple truths that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and Jesus wants the lost just as much as He wants me. He longs for them with deep affections. I want to offer Him whatever I can to see to it that they come to know Him.  I pray that the church in America would once again burn with a passion to share the simple gospel and win for the Lamb the reward of His sufferings.

Over the years I have reflected on this dream and wondered how and when would this happen. There have been moments when I thought, this is it, servanthood & love, the church is finally loving and serving others without regard to herself. However, I don’t think servanthood and love has taken root the way that it will in the days ahead. To be honest, I think we still have a ways to go. I’m praying for myself that I would be one that lives this way, loving & serving, without regard for “what I get out of it.” Still, I am expectant that these truths will become commonplace in the church.

During my trip to China I believe I got to see, maybe for the first time, what the Lord was talking about regarding servanthood and love. The Lord used the example of the Chinese believers to instruct me as to what it looks like when believers selflessly serve out of a heart motivated by love for Jesus.

While I was there, I had the opportunity to spend several days with some leaders of the Chinese house church. These leaders have been imprisoned, beaten, and suffered greatly for their faith in Jesus. They have also been instrumental in perhaps the largest revival the earth has ever seen – to this day, 30,000 people are coming to Christ daily in China! Several of these leaders oversee churches whose members number in the millions. Yes that’s millions, with an ‘M’. Needless to say I was humbled and honored to be able to fellowship, pray with and minster with them. They are absolutely precious men and women of God.

The outstanding and striking characteristic of each of them was that they are incredibly humble. None carry themselves in a way that makes you think they are anything more than an average person. They have none of the trappings that accompany successful ministry in the West. No titles, entourages, custom suits, or “rock-star” personalities. Just brothers and sisters who love Jesus dearly.

What’s more all of these leaders serve in menial ways just as any other believer. In the West, most leaders of large ministries don’t do any ‘meaningless’ work. It might be considered below them to even carry their own bag. With the Chinese it was completely different. They had no problem clearing a table, taking out garbage or sweeping a floor. In fact it became evident to me, that they considered it an honor to serve in this way. These leaders were so servant-hearted that I was personally embarrassed at times.

After a week of being over-served by them things came to a crescendo. I was getting ready to depart China for Central Asia. I was taken to the airport by a key leader of several million believers. I got out of the van and grabbed my 50lb, American vacation-ary, suitcase. Before I could actually pick it up, this leader wrestled it out of my hand and insisted upon carrying it for me. Earlier that week a wheel had broken so the suitcase no longer rolled. He would have to lug it around this huge metropolitan airport. I protested and tried to take it back. He would not have it. In that moment it was as if something broke inside of me as I realized that this man, who leads millions of believers, has suffered incredibly for Jesus, considered it an honor to carry my bag. It was too much to take and my eyes began to fill with tears. Humiliated, I yielded, walking behind him like a dignitary behind his servant.

Later as I replayed that scene in my mind, the Lord began to teach me the secret these wonderful believers understand: In the Kingdom, privilege and honor is in serving, not in being served. It seems so simple but it is completely the opposite of how the world thinks and, to be honest, how many in the church think.

Consider these two options…sitting down to eat a four course meal or serving the one who sits at the table to eat. Which has the greater honor? Jesus used this example(Luke 22:26-27) to explain that though the world esteems the one being served, heaven esteems the one serving. From heaven’s vantage point serving is the privilege, not being served.

Take a moment and consider Jesus’ claim, He came to serve not to be served. The mentality that you work your way up the ladder until others clamor to serve you is exactly the OPPOSITE of the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom you work your way down so you can serve as many as possible. The privilege in the Kingdom of God is on serving, not on being served.

The Chinese exemplified this truth and it rocked my paradigm. What in the world was a leader of millions of people doing carrying my bag? He was taking the position of privilege – servanthood.

What could possibly motivate someone to go lower, when he clearly has the ‘right’ to go higher? Love. Jesus became our servant, in His death, burial & resurrection, and still today He serves us by interceding for us and enabling us with grace.  Why? for Love. He loves us, and therefore, to win us, He serves us. Isaiah calls him “the servant of rulers (Isa 49:7).” Jesus said of Himself that he was among us “as one who serves (Luke 22:27).” Love is the chief motivator to service. Love for Jesus is what compels the heart to esteem another above yourself. When we see Him as the Servant of all, our hearts are moved to serve as He does.

The King is the Servant, our Leader has become the Slave. How much more shall we take the lowest place? But beloved, this is where our paradigm must shift…in the Kingdom the lowest place is the highest place. Privilege in the kingdom is in servanthood, not being served.

I believe the Lord is going to transform us into a church of servanthood and love. He is going to conform us to His image.  And when we look like Him in humility, servanthood and love we will operate like Him in compassion and power. Oh to be one who truly loves and serves like Jesus. This is our portion, this is who we are called to be; a people who embrace with wild abandonment the privilege of servanthood from a heart motivated by love. This is our privilege, our honor.

“But the one who is greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant” Luke 22:26

In the first week I threw my back out. I was literally down for 3 weeks. I followed that up with a serious sinus infection and topped that off with a stomach virus. Those 5 weeks were the sickest I’ve been in years.

Laying on my couch I asked the Lord, “Why did you make men so feeble? I know we are wonderfully made, but one little tweak and I can’t walk. A little bug can completely incapacitate us. Couldn’t you have made our frame a little more sturdy?”

The tender answer came, “I made you weak on purpose. As weak as you are, still many people believe themselves to be a god. If I made you any stronger, all would believe themselves to be god.”

Wow…

The next 6 weeks were an exercise in personal weakness. I couldn’t read the Bible without daydreaming. I’d pray, but my thoughts were scattered. I tried to study but every passage seemed like a dead end. I was dull and bland. I confessed to our staff that the only thing I could report about my sabbatical was how incredibly weak I am.

In March things begin to shift. I felt the nearness of the Lord again. My heart was moving. The dullness began to lift. The light of revelation began to shine and the Lord began to teach me about the connection between weakness and meekness.

Here’s a summary of those thoughts…I hope it blesses you.

Agreeing with and accepting the truth of your weakness as a human is the key to true meekness. The one who is meek knows that He is infirmed ane in need and therefore acts in humility. The one who is arrogant imagines himself to be strong and therefore acts with haughtiness.

If we’re honest, we don’t like weakness. It’s not pretty, desirable or esteemed. Yet everyone of us is clothed in it, subject to outside forces – ultimately frail.

Since we are so feeble, if something good is produced through us, it is evident that it is not from us. All that we “produce” of value is obviously a result of God’s enablement because of our deep deficiencies.

The implications of weakness are vast: Weak people are not surprised by their own failures. Weak people are not shocked by their shortcomings. Weak people have no problem esteeming others above themselves. Weak people have no problem blessing and serving others. Weak people don’t believe  they are entitled to anything. Weak people start off low…never imagining themselves higher than another. Weakness is the foundation of meekness.

The crux of the matter, though, is our acceptance of weakness. Many people internally agree that they are weak, maybe even voice it, but spend their entire lives trying to prove their own strength. Though they agree that they are weak, they go to great lengths attempting to prove that they are not. Much emotional energy is spent and wasted by humanity trying to mask the truth of their weakness.

When Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart…” He was in effect saying, “Agree with me that you are weak, that you need my help, and you will, in turn, be meek like me.”

God’s meekness is the exact opposite of human meekness. He stoops, He bows, He lowers Himself. The One who is exceedingly high brings himself down. The One who has been exalted for all eternity became encased in flesh, subject to the finite. The One who is uncreated, eternal, everlasting humbled himself to drink down physical death. All of God’s acts of humility consist of Him lowering himself. For Him to interact with any of His creation, His first action must be to stoop.

We on the other hand are low, debased, sin-riddled, cut off and destroyed without God – infinitely inferior to our creator. While His humility starts with the truth of His exaltation, our humility begins with the truth of our neediness. Our growth in meekness continues as we are able to accept that fact.

How painful it is to accept our weakness, but how liberating it is to quit pretending we are strong. With the acceptance of weakness comes the grace to step into true meekness. In the freedom of meekness all pretension falls, performance fades and all our good is to the praise of the glory of His grace.  We no longer strive to prove our strength. Instead we rest in the prospects of divine enablement.

You and I are weak, beloved. The sooner we accept it the sooner we will experience God’s strength made perfect through us. Paul, the mature apostle, told the Corinthians, “I delight in weaknesses…For when I am weak, then I am strong.” If we can delight in our weakness then God can be strong through us. If we delight in our weaknesses we are on our way to growing in Christ. Accepting weakness may be the strongest thing one can do. In our weakness His strength is made perfect. When you recognize your own weakness, drink it down to the dregs, and lean on the Lord for strength to stand.

It’s difficult to explain what can happen to you when you never pause, reflect, detach and regroup. You get going on auto-pilot and though you don’t want to be cold, you find that your heart doesn’t move the way it used to. You say all the right things and are even able to move a crowd, but your eyes lack tears and your heart lacks fire. It took a few months, but I found my tears again and the internal flame is burning more brightly than it has in some time. Thank you Jesus.

I’ve gained a lot of perspective and the Lord has refreshed some strands of my DNA that have laid dormant. I was greatly impacted by the time I spent with some Chinese believers & leaders. The brand of Christianity they live is rare in the West. I am very grateful that I feel the refreshing wind of the Lord on my heart again – that is something no believer should ever live without.

These last 4 months have not been earth shattering, most seasons in Christ aren’t, but it has been invigorating and, I feel, very important. There’s no way for me to explain everything the Lord did in me, nor should I. To be honest I am not so sure of everything He did myself. I will, though, take the next few blogs and share with you some of the key thoughts the Lord highlighted to me. Here’s the topics:

Weakness & Meekness

Servanthood & Love

The Simplicity of the Gospel

The House of Prayer & the Call to the Nations

I hope the Lord encourages you as He has me these last few months. I am glad to be back.

In November I felt the Lord impressing me that 2012 is to be a year of Nazirite consecration. Basically that means from the heart of love and desire we push off  lesser pleasures and give ourselves in greater abandonment to God.  I preached a series on this in Decemeber… you can listen to it here.

My family and I have talked and prayed about what this is going to look like for us, i.e. what changes we need to make to be more focused on the Lord and more fully given to Him. For us it means less media, more prayer, fasting and Bible.

An additional step I am going to take is to be silent for a few months. I don’t mean I am not going to talk…I mean I am not going to preach. It dawned on me a few months ago that I have preached nearly weekly for over 20 years without a break. In that time frame, as far as I can remember, there has not been a stretch of over 3 weeks where I have not preached a sermon. Most weeks I have preached 2 – 3 messages. That’s a lot of talking. Some has been productive and some…not so much. Thankfully, God is gracious and knows how to use all of it for His glory.

After talking and praying with my wife and our leadership team at IHOP-Atlanta I have decided to take a  season to quit preaching so that I may seek the Lord. It can be a negative trap to find yourself seeking the Lord and studying primarily to preach what you receive. It’s a treadmill, with lots of running, but very little personal progress.

If the Lord doesn’t give me something to say, I am empty. I want to seek the Lord for depth and not just new sermon series. There is a place of encounter I am longing for in God. My heart continues to beckon to me that there is more available. I feel it’s my season to turn aside and see what the Lord will say to me and where He will take me, if I wait on Him.

My leadership team has been gracious enough to extend to me this opportunity to focus and seek the Lord. We have very capable preachers and teachers who have agreed to cover my normal preaching regimen.

So, from Jan-April I am going to refrain from platform preaching ministry (One exception is a 2-week trip I am making to the far east in March). I am also going to refrain from using social media during this season. I want a laser sharp focus on the Lord and at times I am distracted by social media.

I appreciate all my twitter and facebook friends and ask that you would extend to me the grace to get before the Lord for a season of focus. I love twitter as an outlet to encourage people and share thoughts about the Lord. It’s an honor that anyone listens. I think of it as a ministry opportunity and so I’ll be back, Lord willing, sometime around May.

In the meantime, I ask for your prayers. Pray that the Lord will encounter me in a fresh way with the spirit of wisdom of revelation. I am longing for a depth of encounter with God and I believe the Lord wants to meet me. I also feel that this season of quiet is essential for my next seasons of ministry. Pray that the Lord will break me and make me into His desire and design for me.

Thanks for your encouragement, understanding and prayers. I feel this is a God appointed moment, so I am going to GO FOR IT.

The other day I felt the Lord impress me about the issue of spiritual fathering in a way I have not considered before. My thoughts on this issue have developed quite a bit over the last 15 years. I have often prayed for the Lord to raise up spiritual fathers who would minister to and lead the next generation of believers. I primarily saw the responsibility lying with the spiritual fathers to turn to the spiritual sons and daughters engaging them in a relationship of encouragement, accountability, and discipleship. I never considered the responsibility the sons and daughters may have.

It seems obvious to me now that the spiritual father only carries half of the responsibility. The other half lies with the sons & daughters.  Rereading Malachi 4:6 makes it clear…”He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children AND THE HEARTS OF THE CHILDREN TO THE HEARTS OF THEIR FATHERS. There must be a turning of the hearts of the sons and daughters for the spiritual fathering relationship to exist.

We definitely have a spiritual fathering problem, however half of the reason is because we have a “spiritual following” problem. Sons and daughters don’t know how to relate to spiritual fathers. This lack of “spiritual following” inhibits the ability of fathers to impart truth and minister to sons & daughters.

Many times people have been wounded by fathers and thus maintain an aloof attitude toward leadership. Because of past challenges they make would-be spiritual fathers “earn” the right to be considered a father in their life. Ordinarily, unless the spiritual father spends many hours with them, hanging out, giving them lots of one on one attention, etc, they do not respect the leader as a father. This attitude hampers the relationship and impact spiritual fathers can have in their lives.

The Apostle Paul was undoubtedly the spiritual father of the church at Corinth. Though Paul only lived in Corinth 18 months, he could rightly identify himself as their spiritual father, having planted the church, cared for them and ministered to their specific needs. It’s doubtful though, that Paul had a daily intimate relationship with every believer in the church. He had a deep love for the people and an obvious sense of responsibility for their spiritual health. However, if Paul had been required to meet the needs of every believer in a personal, relational way in order to be considered their spiritual father, he would never have met the requirement. Clearly a spiritual father cannot be required to spend lots of one on one time with every person in a congregation to be considered a spiritual father.

For spiritual fathers to be accepted by sons and daughters, they can’t be required to earn the title through hours of personal time and attention. No spiritual father is able to do that. Simply because a leader is not able to spend personal time with every believer in his care, he is not disqualified from being a spiritual father.

At this point, some may have the attitude that they don’t want a spiritual father unless he is intimately involved in their life. Don’t allow yourself to have this attitude. You will benefit greatly by being thankful for the leadership that God has placed in your life and seeing the positive role a spiritual father plays for a community, even if you don’t have a deep personal relationship with Him.

Most people are actually interested in what I call “Spiritual Parents.” These are people who ‘adopt’ them into their family and help guide their life daily. Though this can be a special relationship the Lord orchestrates, there is not a biblical model for this on a large scale.

Consider it, Jesus had hundreds of followers, 120 who made it to the upper room, 12 disciples and 3 who were “inner circle.” Of the 12, He lost one. Jesus, the best spiritual father ever, only had the capacity, as a man, to invest deeply in 12 in His earthly ministry.

The apostle Paul only identified Titus and Timothy as his “True Sons.” I don’t deny that the Lord, at times, places a spiritual orphan in an individual family, but it’s the exception and not the norm. More often than not the Lord adds us to a broader spiritual family, a local community of believers, and there are spiritual fathers who give leadership and governance to the overall community. It’s still a spiritual family and there are still spiritual fathers, it’s just not the “one on one” model that many desire.

The spiritual father over a community has a God-given responsibility and genuine affection for the entire congregation. It is important that the community of believers receive him as a father, regardless of whether or not he spends personal time with every individual. If he is God’s choice for the community, conducts himself in righteousness, demonstrates real care, love, service and gives himself for the benefit of others, receive him as a spiritual father.  You may or may not get to know him very well personally. However, if you will receive his ministry in your life with an open heart, God will use it in a powerful way to declare His own nature. The role of the spiritual father is really to model and impart to the community the heart of the Eternal Father toward them.

I propose that if we become better spiritual followers more leaders will step into their calling as spiritual fathers and we will in turn benefit. If you find yourself embittered toward past father figures because they weren’t involved with you as deeply as you desired, could it be that you had an improper expectation of their involvement in your life? Could it be that you were supposed to receive the encouragement, instruction, and care the leader did offer as a blessing, rather than being disappointed and embittered toward him because he didn’t offer you enough one on one attention?

Let’s allow the Lord to speak to our hearts in this area and let’s be grateful for the impact spiritual fathers have had in our lives. Let’s forgive and release fathers we had an improper expectation toward. If we will honor and bless the fathers the Lord has given us, we will find ourselves experiencing the Eternal Father’s blessing in our lives.

I want to be gripped by the fire of God.

I’m provoked by stories of men who were wholly possessed by God. Roberts, Brainerd, Whitefield, Finney, Edwards, Seymour, Lake. Just the mention of their names stirs my heart and creates a longing for more of God in my life.

I’m equally provoked by my own dullness. I find my life too tidy, too presentable, too tame.  I want a heart that’s inflamed, consumed with passion, moving with fervor and zeal. How about you? Do you want to burn?

It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t look presentable at times. The public presentation isn’t the issue. A burning building isn’t necessarily pretty, but it emits a lot of light and heat. That’s what we are called to be, burning and shining ones.

This is not something we can muster up in our own strength by human zeal, but it is something we can pursue. I sense God urging His people to move out of passivity and into pursuit. He loves the chase. “Seek me with all your heart…You will find me.” “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” He wants us to seek Him til He seeks us, pursue Him til He pursues us, chase the Fire, til the Fire chases us. Oh! that He would catch me and consume me.

Discontentment can be a great motivator. As long a we are content with unction-less intercession and powerless preaching, we will not burn. If we are content with less, less we will have. But if we allow discontentment to direct us and not depress us…It will drive us into desire that won’t be denied.

It is a tragedy to live with less than what He has promised. He promised greater glory than Moses had. He promised the fullness of God filling our inner man. He, who is risen from the dead, promised that we could know the very power of His resurrection. Living with less cannot be an option when so much is available.

What I’m talking about doesn’t come easy. God never gives what is precious cheaply. But the reward far outweighs the cost. To live without regret requires that we live in pursuit of His fullness. Anything less will find us sorrowful at the great review.

Holy possession is what I desire – to be wholly possessed with His fire. Nothing more is needed, nothing less is acceptable. Oh, Father, I want to burn.

I pray that the One who baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit, would send His fire, holy fire, upon our hearts that we might be set ablaze for Him.

“Oh God of burning, cleansing flame: Send Your fire. Your blood-bought gift today we claim: Send the Fire today. Look down and see this waiting host and send the promised Holy Ghost, we need another Pentecost, Send the Fire today.

God of Elijah, hear our cry: Send Your Fire. Make us fit to live or die: Send the Fire today. Burn up every trace of sin and bring the light and glory in, the revolution now begin, Send the fire today.

Oh, see us on your altar lay, We give our lives to you today, So crown the offering now we pray: Send the Fire today.”- from God of Burning Cleansing Flame by William Booth

“Who will stand in the face of death with darkness drawing near?

Who will raise a battle cry for all of hell to hear?

Who is standing at the wall to plead before the king?

Who is not afraid to die contending for this thing?

Do you dare to die for one your heart was made to love

And if you lose all that you are Is all that he is enough?

We will stand to plead before the righteous judge of all.

And when He sounds the holy call you’ll find my body near the wall.”

We must comprehend that we have a chosen path, by God, a walk that the Lord has laid before each of us that is intricately designed by heaven to bring us into maturity in love.

Each of us have different paths, ‘our own way’ that we have to walk. We all have differing gifts and callings.  It is essential that we embrace our way and our gifts and don’t covet another’s gifts, callings or path.  The path before us is our path and is essential for our own growth as well as the growth of the rest of the body. If I don’t embrace my path, not only do I not grow, the rest of the body suffers because I reject God’s plan to bring me to maturity.

While our paths differ, there are common ingredients that appear in differing measures in each of our paths.  For instance, we all must walk through a narrow gate on a difficult path in order for our path to lead us to life in the end.

Mat 7:14  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Jesus said the path to follow Him must include denying yourself and taking up your cross in order to follow Him.

Mat 16:24-25  Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  25  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

He also said that in order to follow Him you would have to endure tribulation.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

THE KEY IS KNOWING
Romans 5 Gives us key ingredients that we all must go through in this life on our way to fulfillment in love.

These ingredients are Tribulation, Perseverance/Endurance, Character, Hope

The key to Glorying in Tribulations is knowing that trials & tribulations are all part of God’s plan to bring us to fulfillment in love.

TRIBULATION PRODUCES ENDURANCE
Tribulation makes you strong and resilient in heart.  By going through challenging trials and circumstances a root system of strength is produced in your heart.  Endurance is a critical component to the church at the end of the age.

Mat 24:13 Those who endure to the end shall be saved.

Jas 1:3-4  knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience(endurance).  4  But let patience(endurance) have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Heb 10:36  For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

PERSEVERANCE PRODUCES GODLY CHARACTER
Persevering under trials brings a conformity to Christ in our hearts.  When we persevere our character is proven.  This word for Character is Tested Character, Proven Character.  In other words its the picture of proven faith as Peter describes:

1Pe 1:6-7  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,  7  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

GODLY CHARACTER PRODUCES HOPE
Proven character that has been refined through trials truly Hopes in God.  Godly character gives birth to hope, real hope is centered on God with patient expectation in His will getting done His way, knowing that the end is always good. Where is your hope today?  Where is your trust.  If your trust is not in God you will be disappointed.  Whatever systems you hope in that are not God will fail… Though every human system fails, God will not fail, your hope in Him is secure.

HOPE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT BECAUSE OF LOVE
Hope that has been refined through the fire of testing never disappoints, because it’s rooted in the revelation of God’s love for us.  Hope in mercy/love never disappoints because when we understand God’s kind intentions and love for us, we know we will ultimately never be disappointed. Grieved momentarily, but not ultimately disappointed.

THE END OF IT ALL IS FULFILLMENT IN LOVE
When tribulations come it should be a tip off that you are being conformed to the image of Christ and the end is fulfillment in love.

There is beauty in partnership with Jesus that we have not comprehended.  For what does it truly mean that I am to be conformed to the image of Christ, even conformed to the image of His death, that the Life of God may be manifest in me? Oh the inheritance and portion we have in the Lord is more than we can truly comprehend!

The truths of these verses all build on one another…

We have been proclaimed innocent by a gracious God who greatly desires intimacy with people. We have been granted the reconciliation and now we experience peace with God. As a result we have access into Grace by Faith. It’s by Grace we stand,
by Grace we rejoice to live any sort of life that will Glorify God the most, and by Grace we can ultimately become a people who Rejoice in Tribulations. It is a people who are aware of these truths that are empowered to live this style of life.

TRIBULATION AND GLORY
The word that is translated Tribulation shows up 45 times in the New Testament.  It is most often translated tribulation, affliction or suffering. It is the same word that Jesus uses in Mat 24:21 – There shall be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world, nor shall ever be.

The word translated Rejoice in vs. 2 and Glory in vs. 3 are actually the same Greek word. The phrase, “Glory in tribulations” could be translated in any of the following ways: Glory in Tribulations, Joy in Troubles, Gladly Suffer, Rejoice in our sufferings, Boast in our sufferings, Glory in afflictions, Rejoice in afflictions, Exult in our tribulations, Full of Joy even when we suffer, Rejoice in our sufferings, Boast in the tribulations…

REJOICING IN THE GLORY OF GOD AS A REQUISITE
Only the one who desires for the Lord to gain the greatest amount of Glory from His life regardless of what happens to Him, will be one who can GLORY/REJOICE in Tribulations. This is a key point, if you are not given to live for the Glory of God, you will complain in tribulations without considering the divine activity of conformity to Christ or the forging of your soul into the pure design God has desired for you.  You will not regard whether or not the Lord is receiving glory from your life and will forfeit the prospect of bringing glory to His name in exchange for attaining benefits for yourself. A life willing to be layed down for God’s Glory is able to willingly, gleefully and joyfully REJOICE through tribulation and suffering.  This life recognizes that God gains great glory when His people love well through suffering.

SPIRIT OF GLORY
1Pe 4:12-16  Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;  13  but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.  14  If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.  15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.  16  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

Rejoice that you get to partake of Christ’s sufferings, for if you do, the Spirit of Glory rests upon you as you suffer as a Christian. On your part He is glorified… Jesus is glorified through your life when you glory in tribulations.

God is not so much interested in your comfort, He is mostly after your conformity to the image of His Son.

Being able to Rejoice in Tribulation/suffering, at least in part, equals Conformity to Christ. The extent that you are unable to rejoice through tribulations is an indicator of the lack of conformity that you have to Christ.  It is an indicator of the distance you have to go in your journey of Conformity to Christ.

A PEOPLE WHO GLORY IN TRIBULATIONS
Oh that God would have a people who glory in tribulations.  To glory in tribulations means your motives have changed – you no longer seek to glorify yourself and gain glory for yourself… it means you have died and yet Christ lives in you, it means you have embraced the Love of God as the great reward of life, it means you trust that He is benevolent and that nothing can separate you from His Love.

QUALITY/BRAND OF CHRISTIANITY
The quality of Character – spirit and soul – that a believer has to have in order to actually glory in tribulations is foreign to our concept of Christianity in the West.

We try to avoid tribulation at all costs, we believe that those suffering tribulation lack faith. We twist or explain away the entire concept of suffering in the will of God because we have no palate for it.

We are shallow in our Christianity so we cannot conceive of trials/tribulations/suffering being anything but negative. We are therefore short-cited and have no faith to believe for the inner fortitude produced through suffering nor the rewards gained in the age to come from suffering in this age.

1Pe 3:17-18  For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

1Pe 4:19  Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

1Pe 4:1-2  Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,  2  that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

1Pe 2:19-21  For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.  20  For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.  21  For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

Php 1:29-30  For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,  30  having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.

ARE YOU RESIGNED TO THE WILL OF GOD?

THE THEMES of ROMANS
There is a continuity to the themes in the book of Romans… each builds upon a previous one.

The concepts in Romans 5 are all built upon Paul’s explanation of  justification. In Romans 5 Paul is offering a summary of what is available to all who are justified. The whole book was written in order for Paul to level the playing field between Jew & Gentile and that all would be accepted in the Church at Rome.  That is the main thrust of the book.

There are several different strands of themes that take place throughout the book.  The book climaxes in Romans 11 where he warns the Gentiles not to be haughty against the jews and explains that ALL Israel will be saved.  Paul describes that the method that God is going to use to bring this to pass is a provoking to jealousy.  He explains that in order to provoke the Jew to jealousy salvation has come to the Gentiles.

Rom 11:11 to provoke them to Jealousy salvation has come to the Gentiles

Rejoicing in the Glory of God enables one to Glory in Tribulations.  Glorying in Tribulations is a key to being conformed to the image of Christ.  This whole package is the picture of what believers will look like who will provoke the Jews to jealousy.

Right now there is not much provoking going on… but oh for that day, there will be a great provoking.  And because of the call to provoke the jews Paul says in Romans 12 present your bodies a living sacrifice which is your reasonable service, don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed. The Jews who historically complained through their sojourn in the wilderness will be astounded by believers who will rejoice through tribulations at the end of the age.

Anyone who rejoices through tribulations is a testimony to all who are around them.  How much more will the affects of this testimony be compounded when persecution and martyrdom is happening en masse across the Globe and the church stands un-offended, rejoicing in the fact that she gets to suffer for the sake of the Lord Jesus.  How will this affect the wayward nation of Israel who has for many years rejected the beckoning of her messiah?

Act 5:40-41  And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  41  So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.