Thought For Today - 5/20/10

When the Word says we are to be partakers of Christ's suffering, it means we are to enter into the victory Jesus bore for us on the cross. The only suffering we encounter in sharing His victory is spiritual.

That's what the Word is talking about when it says we are to be partakers of Christ's suffering. In other words, the only suffering for a believer is the spiritual discomfort brought by resisting the pressures of the flesh, not a physical or mental suffering. Jesus has already borne for us all the suffering in the natural and mental realms.

Romans 8:17-18 says we are to suffer with Him so that we can be glorified together. Jesus isn't suffering physically or mentally, and if we are suffering with Him, we don't have to either.

Right now, He is our head and seated at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12-13). As Christ's Body in the earth, our struggle isn't against flesh and blood - against the physical or mental.

Instead, we spiritually stand against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and wicked spirits in high places (Ephesians 6:12). That's why it's to God's Glory when we are healed or delivered physically and mentally, for we only have to fight in the spirit realm.

As you have probably experienced, any time we are walking in the Word and fellowshiping with the Father, Satan will do his best to stop us. He wants to stop this spiritual relationship.

Satan knows as we receive revelation knowledge into our spirit, we will learn to lord over him in the physical and mental realms. Then his tactics to put us under the law of sin and death will be futile (Romans 8:2).

James 1 says when we fall into different temptations and pressures, we should be happy about it! Why? Because the trying of our faith works our patience - our steadfastness on God's Word.

In other words, the more our faith is tried, the more we'll learn to trust in and rely on His Word, and the more we'll be strengthened in our spirit. Then, when our patience (our steadfastness on God's Word) has its perfect work, we will be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. It's when we "lack nothing" that we have been delivered. We don't have to suffer physically or mentally.

Much love,
Joseph