Joy in all our Tribulation

Joy in All our Tribulation

I made a post on Facebook yesterday that received an unexpected amount of attention.

With the many comments and also some I read on the shared posts (time of writing 147 shares), I could see my original post needed a simple clarification. But much more than that, an encouragement for the days in which we are living.

So just to clarify, what I observed outside the supermarket yesterday was clearly not the prophesied mark, but illustrated it was drawing ever closer, as indeed it has been for decades.

But so much more important than all of this is one simple fact. Those who are in Christ Jesus have absolutely nothing to fear whatsoever, come what may.

In fact the believer enjoys the exact opposite of fear - and that is the peace and joy of heaven itself.

We can laugh and be exceedingly glad through any trial. Jesus was the most persecuted and yet the most happiest man alive.

As we follow Him in everything we become like Him. We receive everything that is of Him, and yes, even His joy!

Jesus said that His joy, (that’s the joy that He feels and lives in right now), would be in us so that our joy would be absolutely complete.

Is our joy complete? Are we utterly content in Him despite mounting global turmoil? Are we of ‘good cheer’? Jesus expects us to be. Why? Because He has overcome the world - that is, He has overcome the god of this world, Satan and all those who choose to follow him to enact his plan against humanity.

You see Jesus has done it all. He has won our peace for us. Jesus walked in supernatural peace with His Father. That is why He could sleep on a pillow in the middle of a stormy sea when his disciples could not sleep a wink through sheer panic.

Jesus was illustrating a point. He said, ‘Let us go to the other side’, or to paraphrase Psalm 23, ‘Let’s walk through the valley of the shadow of death together.’

Had the disciples received this revelation, they would have been as rested as Jesus. First, the Lord of glory promised they would get to the other side, but second and most important, HE WAS WITH THEM IN THE STORM.

Oh dear friends, He wants to give us everything, so we can live in total peace while walking through the valley of the shadow of death or even death itself.

Jesus also said ‘my peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, do I give to you.’

Many believers do not have or walk in this heavenly revelation of the divine peace from glory that Jesus has given (that is, given as a gift to us, that we possess, that belongs to us, just as it belongs to Jesus!) and He deposits it into all those who truly follow Him and forsake their own lives.

Without living in this divine supernatural peace, it is impossible to walk through tribulation and surmounting turbulence.

Hope of a better day is not the answer.

Hope that this might all stop is not the antidote.

Burying our heads in the sand does not make it go away.

Hope that we might get raptured out of here is not what we put our trust in.

No. Hope in Christ alone is the only antidote to all tribulation, to open the door to our hard hearts and to welcome Him in daily to partake of a meal together with Him, eating the very bread of heaven together, and communing on a deep level with our Heavenly Father, this is the antidote to fear. This divine relationship takes us on and through all persecution and tribulation as we sit together with Him in heavenly places enjoying ourselves with Him in the face of evil itself.

For Jesus, it was the JOY that was set before Him. For James it was PURE JOY. For Stephen, as he was beaten to death with rocks, it was to look heavenward and see His Master Jesus, the Lord of Glory, welcoming him to sit with him on his throne, to hear Jesus saying “Well done, good and faithful servant”. Stephen overcame by the word of His testimony and the blood of the lamb, having loved not his own life even in the face of death.

Oh what joy of heaven!! - that we would all walk in this divine truth by revelation from the Father and see the reality of heaven coming down to earth and into the heart of every believer today!

Much sincere love to you all. I pray for you.

And finally remember, Jesus said, I AM WITH YOU EVEN UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE AGE.