Best Life Ever! (Not This Side of Heaven)

The ultimate preservation of the flesh, our fallen nature, is to reject suffering (ultimately death) in every way possible in our lives.Fathers’ sons and daughters are caught in a prison cell with their flesh and the enemy, rebuking or indulging in their responses to their own personal suffering, disallowing the Holy Spirit access to their pain, wounds, tribulations and tragedies.  As Bruce wrote in Eternity Begins Now, Chapter 4, The Holy Spirit:

“Obviously, these are not small matters. We all struggle against our own fallenness, and we all face some serious hindrances that would seek to pull us out of our knowledge of Christ and our walk with Him. For us to become like Him, we have to wrestle constantly with this and seek to embrace such a complete identification with Him that the fallen life within us is put to death. This is an ongoing process and is intended to bring us into an ever-increasing process and is intended to bring us into an ever-increasing conformity to Christ. If we claim to have died with Him and have risen with Him, we must demonstrate this truth by a separation from our old life and a continual walking in the power supplied by Christ’s resurrection. It is this journey that defines our suffering in whatever form it comes in. The power of the resurrected life comes most powerfully to us through this process.”

Christ Himself suffered this side of Heaven. It most certainly wasn’t “His best life now”.  His best life is seated at the right hand of Father on the throne!  Why have we perverted the Way of Christ and how He lived here on earth, sacrificially, serving others, treating others as more important than Himself?

I have personally embraced (in varying degrees of maturity) suffering in my own life for what seems like decades, hopefully maturing year upon year.  There have been plenty of opportunities to experience suffering, from the commonplace opposition to my fleshly wants and desires (which all believers must die to) to suffering from tragedies that have no foundations or consequence in my own personal sin or condition.

There have also been some fairly serious and painful physical sufferings in my health.  I have suffered in relationships, whether it be loss or struggles.  I have also suffered deeply when I am at relational odds with my children, when they have chosen not to walk in the ways of the Lord, but rather, (mostly due to their own rejection of their own suffering), have chosen to gratify their fleshly need to outright reject suffering or outright indulge their suffering.

I have suffered when those whom I love have had a tragedy occur in their lives.

My deepest suffering, however, has been when I have been unable to reach out to the Holy Spirit and give Him access to my suffering, disallowing Him to minister to me and lead me. Keeping myself isolated to the confines of my flesh and the enemy. When I have chosen to indulge my need to reject my own suffering, I have suffered the most.  This rejection of suffering has placed me outside of His loving care and beautiful and much-needed love, comfort and leading.

Why, as believers, are we so afraid of suffering? Most importantly, why are we so afraid of what it means to suffer, biblically? Why are we so ensnared by our fleshly responses to suffering, and why have most of us never dedicated the time personally to equip ourselves with a sound biblical theology on suffering?

How has the body of Christ today, at large, missed this? How has the body of Christ allowed counterfeit theologies, such as the prosperity gospel (best life now), to infest their communities and steal sound, 2-thousand-year-old teachings from Christ Himself?

Why do Christian parents, rather than embracing every opportunity of suffering their child encounters, in the hope of leading them into the will, way and word of God, do everything in their power to rebuke all forms of suffering, or equally have no empathy or compassion for their children in their suffering, requiring them to “soldier on”?

Why, when sharing the stories or the life of my own personal sufferings, have I been rejected, treated harshly, mocked and accused of either sin, lack of faith or worse……..by other believers.

Why, when I have seen my children suffer, have believers, so often, been of little to no support in any way at all?

For so many of us, we do fall into one of these two fleshly pathologies. However, we may display some of each, but our need to reject suffering is probably rooted in one side more than the other.   Some of us are more extreme than others.  Some of us are less extreme and present more socially acceptable, but the fleshly pathologies are still present and preserving our fleshly nature from suffering.

I would like to ask you to do 3 things with this bulletin when you have read this.

We must work at transforming our default from the rejection of suffering to a Holy Spirit-led acceptance.The Holy Spirit is moving in our community in this area – in individuals and families.  Let’s work hard to make this a community victory.  Let’s work hard to become a community that has a sound and deep, practised theology on suffering and most importantly, may the fruits of our labour be manifest in all that we are and all that we do.  May we truly glorify Father in our ability to love each other as we suffer.

God bless you.
Natalie Holmyard