I have often thought about what the real essence of being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is, and the more I think about it and look at the lives of various men who have walked with God in the scriptures, the more I am convinced that we modern day Pentecostals have taken our focus away from the real thing and concentrated on fleeting and ephemeral things and Paul’s charge to the Corinthian church in 2 Cor 4:18 thus becomes of utmost importance, it says, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul isn’t saying the things that we can see are not important, no, what he’s saying is we cant live our lives the way the heathen do, for them if they cant see, taste, hear, smell and feel it then it doesn’t exist, and it makes no sense to them, but we as Christians live by a higher and better law, it’s the law of the kingdom, the same law that God used when He spoke this world in to being, its from this realm that the really important things take shape and find expression.
This article is borne out of a strong feeling that most people who claim to serve or worship God these days are very vain in their estimation of God, as far as they are concerned, if its God it has to be good and desirable and always positive, but in my study of scriptures I have found out that its not every time that palatable things are synonymous with service to God, don’t get me wrong here, I believe with all my heart that we are expected to enjoy the good life here on earth even before we cross over into eternity with the Lord, but I look around and I see Christians who cant even endure the slightest hardship, the adversary only has to harass them only a little before God loses them to other pursuits and I marvel and wonder what the apostles and saints who have gone ahead of us think when they see what we have turned the cause of the Kingdom into, 2 Tim 1:12 says, For the which cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against the day. Apostle Paul is saying here that, if suffering a few things is part of the deal, if I must go through these things so as to fulfill the call, I am willing, I am not in these just for the good, I understand that there will be times of hardship but its all part of the territory, these is something most people aren’t willing to accept, even Jesus said, “in this world you will suffer persecution”, why?, because we are not of the world.
In chapter 2 of the same book, and vs. 3, it says, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ. Endurance, long suffering, patience and being able to take the pain is part of the attributes of a good Christian, and as we all know are fruits of the Spirit, vs. 10s says, Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, same concept he talked about earlier on, why would he keep repeating this same things by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? its because its important that we get it, Hebrews 11 is a popular chapter in the bible because it chronicles what mortal men achieved through faith in their God, but I see a sharp twist in the application of faith from vs. 35b, it says, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: Of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth; And these all having a good report through faith, received not the promise. It says they had a good report through faith, this isn’t the definition of faith I hear being preached these days, this sounds like something from a horror movie, you mean sometimes as far as God is concerned He looks at our afflictions and He sees the real meaning of faith, awesome.
I see a perfect application of the things we are discussing here in a lot of scriptural real life situations, the example of Job for one, where he said, “Even if He slays me in Him will I trust”, Esther on the other hand made a profound statement when she said, “If I perish I perish”, but the example that really caught my attention was that of the three Hebrew children in exile in the land of Babylon, their story is found in Dan 3, the whole chapter gives the background to the event and is very instructional but my
emphasis is on vs. 16-18, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter: If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He is able to deliver us out of thine hand, O king: But if not (If it means paying with our very lives), be it know unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods not worship the golden image which thou has set up. Emphasis mine. What they were saying in essence was, we believe in the ability of our God to deliver us from your hand, He is the one who delivered our fathers from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, He led our fathers through the wilderness for forty years, and they didn’t hunger or thirst, He was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, He chased out nations greater and mightier than they and set them up in their lands, if He did all these great things, then we have full assurance that He will also deliver us from this fire, this was a great speech of faith and trust in the God of the heaven and earth, God obviously had enough credit with these guys, but they didn’t end here, they went further to say, peradventure there is no hope of deliverance from Him, perhaps this once, may be He decides to forsake and abandon us, may be He’s rejected us because we have trespassed against Him one way or another and He will not save us, it has no bearing on our response to you O king, because bowing down will mean going against the law of God which says you shall serve only the Lord your God and He alone should you bow down to, hence bowing for a graven image is not an option, we will rather burn than bow. So for them it wasn’t all about being delivered by God, it was more about obeying Him against all odds, that’s the level God wants all His children to get, where we serve and follow Him not just because of what He’s done or can do, but because we were created for just one thing, to bring glory to Him, in whatever situation we find ourselves.
Where am I going with this line of thought, someone may ask, and why the title what if? My question is, what if God doesn’t come through for you in that situation will you still follow Him? What if you don’t get that job you have prayed and believed for and even given a testimony for as a proof of your faith, will you still serve Him? What if your wife doesn’t have a child after 5 years of marriage will He still be your God and will you still be His child? What if haven prayed for a loved one who is sick, the person gets worse and eventually dies, will you still believe that by His striped we are healed? What if you lose your job, your house, your spouse, your kids, your respect and even your reputation in the society will you still put your absolute trust in Him? What if you suffer for being a Christian and your very life is at stake will you still think He is the Almighty God? What if faith stops working and there is no hope of you ever getting an answered prayer and you have to get things done with your own effort and power, will living for Him still be an attraction to you? Finally, what if there was no assurance of whether or not there’s a heaven or hell and it doesn’t matter how you live your life here, once you are dead its over and done with, will there still be a desire in you to please Him?
Tough questions, I believe our response to this line of thought will prove a lot in our sincerity with our walk with Him and will help us in re-ordering our priorities as believers, the next time you think you aren’t exactly getting what you think you desire or deserve from God, before you say or do anything rash, remember WHAT IF?, God bless you.