John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another, and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing, and even favor upon favor, and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
Romans 8:16-17 (Amplified) tells us, "The Spirit Himself, thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."
Don't just stop reading at, "We must share His suffering" and use this scripture as an excuse for not walking in His inheritance. The Church has been living like it was the Father's will for us to be in a place of only suffering, for years. First of all, we must find out what His sufferings were, before we share in them.
We cannot share in Jesus' suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the cross of Calvary or in the grace. This part of Christ's suffering, was to pay our ransom and the price of our redemption. This suffering was something that only the Perfect Sacrifice of Jesus could pay. We couldn't suffer this for ourselves, but He did this, so that we could be set free.
Jesus paid the Price that we owed for sin, sickness, the Curse of the Law, death and destruction of our eternal lives. He was the One Who gave us Life and right standing with the Father. This was suffering that no one else could or ever will suffer. The above scripture spoke about the suffering that Jesus endured, which was His being misunderstood, disdained by men, rejected by others and becoming a target of the enemy and his many traps and pitfalls.
When satan realized Who Jesus was, he used everything in his arsenal, trying to kill or trap Jesus. Satan tried to prevent Jesus from carrying out the ministry God sent Him to fulfill. Paul was given the Revelation of God's Own family (the Church) and then he too, became a target of the satan and satan used the same weapons against him, that he did with Jesus. This "suffering" is the Light that will break down the darkness, which blinds the world to God's Glory. Satan will do anything, trying to stop and shut out the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ.
Any Christian who is actively spreading the Gospel and operating in the Spirit, is dangerous to the kingdom of this world, according to 2Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified) which says, "For the god of this world has blinded the unbelieving minds that they should not discern the Truth, preventing them from seeing the illuminating Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God."
Everyone who has walked in a place of the Spiritual Blessings, Truths, Gifts, favors and Graces, that "we've all received, all been supplied with and all had a share in," has undergone this suffering and has become a target of satan. Many of us have desired to walk in the Spirit with the Father, but when we step out in His Truth, everything that can go wrong, does. We don't become a danger to satan when we get born-again, because we're baby Christians and really know very little about who we have become in Christ Jesus.
In Mark 4:14-17(Amplified), Jesus teaches, "The sower sows the Word. The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown in their hearts, but when they hear, satan comes at once and by force takes away the Message which is sown in them. And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy. And they have no real root in themselves, and so endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended, become displeased, indignant, resentful and they stumble and fall away."
This is the suffering that Jesus had to endure. He was the Only Living Person on the planet, Who had the Light of the Glorious Gospel. Before Jesus, mankind only had the Law and the Promise of restoration to the Father. So long as mankind was under the Law, satan was protected by traditions he could manipulated. Jesus brought Truth and Grace to mankind, leaving satan with nowhere to hide. The Light of the Glorious Gospel exposed satan's lies and deceptions, so satan needed to stop the Gospel from being preached, at all costs.
A baby Christian is delivered from satan's hands, but he/she isn't damaging satan's kingdom yet. It's only when God's Word is ministered in Revelation, that satan's kingdom is threatened. The first response to the Light, is to try making the darkness even darker. When we don't have the Word of God dispersing the darkness, we will remain in a mindset of carnal knowledge and will be no danger to satan's kingdom.
Satan doesn't care if we get saved, so long as we don't know or walk in "who the Father has made us to be." Satan will do anything he can, in order to prevent our development into the natural and stature of mature children of God. His only defense is, to make sure the Word doesn't develop roots in our spirit. This is why he came "immediately to take away the Word that was sown in our hearts." It's much easier to dig up an acorn, than it is to dig up an Oak tree.
When the Word (the Seed) begins to grow roots in your spirit, then it's hard for satan to control you and prevent your revealing this Truth to others. Thank God for those who are leading others to salvation, out of death and into God's Kingdom, but we are also responsible to feed the sheep.
The moment you try stepping out of organized religion and into Spirit-led Revelation, you become dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. Just being born-again, doesn't mean we're dangerous to satan. We now belong to God and are joint heirs with Jesus, but we have no idea what this means in our lives. Jesus didn't have any problems, so long as those around Him, believed He was "only a man."
Immediately after the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and God proclaimed Him from the Heavens, satan battled to keep Jesus away from the people. When Jesus came forth into His now public ministry, Light began to expel the darkness from the minds and eyes of the people. Satan became aware of losing his hold over the people and tried stopping Jesus at all cost. Satan finally believed that he could destroy and kill Jesus.
1Corinthians 2:6-8 (Amplified) says, "Yet when we are among the full-grown, spiritually mature Christians who are ripe in understanding, we do impart a Higher Wisdom, the knowledge of the Divine Plan previously hidden; but it is indeed not a Wisdom of this present age or of this world nor of the leaders and the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing and are doomed to pass away. But rather what we are setting forth is a Wisdom of God once hidden from the human understanding and now is revealed to us by God, that Wisdom which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification to lift us into the Glory of His Presence. None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this; for if they had they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory."
Satan hasn't been able to stop the Gospel of the new birth, from being preached, but he has stopped the newborn family of God, from becoming mature and dangerous to his kingdom of darkness. We can count those men and women of God, who have gone from milk to meat and matured to adult Christians. Most all of these people have suffered like Christ did. These pioneers of faith have opened a whole new realm of the Super-natural in Christianity, to us. Some of these people are well-known, but others are not. After reading about Smith Wigglesworth, I wondered why most people have never heard about him. Satan must have worked so very hard, to cover-up this man of God's ministry.
This man was rejected and labeled "a heretic," by much of the Church. Many looked upon him as being a false prophet and were offended by his preaching and the demonstration of the Holy Spirit in his ministry. Some might wish they had such a ministry, but could they have held their faith under satan's force against them?
John 1:16-17 says that "We have all been heirs of the fullness of His Own abundance and Truth." Few though, have no real root of God's Word in themselves, so they can stand against satan's trying to take away the Word sown in their hearts. It's seemingly easier to stay "safe" in organized religion, rather than step-out in the arena of the impossible and the Power of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul said that, "He came to us in the demonstration of the Power of the Spirit, not allowed acceptance of the Law and tradition."
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