The temporal existence you are passing through must never overwhelm the eternal vision that God is placing in your heart. When the momentary circumstance or problem becomes too big in your sight, you can lose the overall goal and the overall vision. Keep your eye on the goal continually. Never lose sight of the vision, for it will always encourage you.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:17–19: We are children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
You may believe for the manifestation of the sons of God, but are you also prepared for the birthpangs, the travail, the groanings too deep for utterance, the intercession that must come forth within you? When you realize how totally God is doing His work within you and how you are reacting to it, it gives you a sense of true value. Any project that God sets before you only has significance because it is a vehicle for you to accomplish His will. When God gives you a word to do something, and you become totally dedicated to do it, He will bring forth His will in you. God’s will is wrought in you while you are doing His will. At times, problems may arise that are absolutely shattering. Then you must realize that God is bringing forth His perfect will in you while He is bringing forth His perfect will through you. No one has the will of God wrought in him unless he is in motion. No one finds the will of God perfected in him if he withdraws or draws back. Therefore, you must have a dedication to press on into God’s will for your life.
Romans 8 speaks of the sufferings of this present time, yet at the same time it is talking about sons of God coming into their glory, into their full manifestation, and releasing all creation from futility. Most people find it difficult to understand that the will of God is being done through the frustrations that they suffer. Rarely does anyone reach any depth in the Spirit unless he is continually in a place of frustration. With each dealing of God, He circumcises your heart a little deeper than before. Do not be discouraged, do not withdraw, even if seemingly important problems start looming up. Turn your telescope around and look through the wrong end, so that you shrink down those problems; do not magnify them. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “You have run well; who has hindered you? You were doing a good job. Let nothing discourage you now” (Galatians 5:7).
Nothing could give your life more significance than being a part of what God is doing in the earth in this end time, and being submissive to it. God is calling for a people who will do His will, who will bring forth His will in the earth, and who will be His will in the earth. As He prepares them to come into the dominion and the authority that belong to the sons of God, they will have to suffer. Like natural birth, coming into full sonship is a traumatic experience. Imagine what it must be like for a little baby to come out of his warm little bed in his mother’s womb and suddenly be thrust out into the world. He does not even know how to help himself. No wonder he cries! Coming into sonship is very similar. It brings us into a new realm where we must face death to many things.
Do not focus upon the temporal situation. You must believe in your heart that any suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. God has a way of bringing tests and trials to give us a depth and a stability. He takes us through experiences and lifts us into realms of dying that few people have known in former centuries. The Lord is going to rain righteousness upon us (Hosea 10:12). He will bring judgment in the earth. He will bring forth authority. He will bring forth manifested sons. All you can say is that these sufferings are not worthy to be compared to all of that.
How much time is left? Will the judgments break forth in a year? A race is on to finish what God has set before us. We could compare it to the experience of Noah. He did the will of the Lord too. While he was building the ark, the ungodly people passed by, swearing at him and making fun of him. He worked for one hundred and twenty years with very little help, but he knew he had to build it. When he was finally finished, he probably did not realize the significance of what he had done. Likewise, God’s end-time remnant today may not know the significance of what they are doing. They do not realize why God is dealing with their hearts and putting them through so many difficult experiences. The New Testament churches that God is raising up will serve as an ark, a vehicle that will carry His people through the days of tribulation and into the Kingdom. We must not lose our vision for this. As we labor in the works He sets before us, we must keep the vision burning within our hearts. Even if we suffer and travail, we must realize that there is something beyond this present struggle to complete the work. II Corinthians 4:17 calls it “the light affliction for the moment,” and Romans 8:18 says that it is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is coming.
Start dreaming about that glory. Start thinking about what is going to happen. Can you visualize the days of the greater works when the lame, the halt, and the blind will be completely healed? Can you see the days when frustrated people will be fleeing out of religious Babylon into a place already prepared for them? The only thing that will reach them is a pure and living Word that does not compromise with the religious system. God must deal with the traditional, satisfied Christians of today. When they realize that they are sinking, they will open their hearts to the pure Word that God is bringing to His people today. There must be a worldwide outlook and vision, as the living Word is proclaimed with love; but that Word cannot be watered down so that it pleases everyone. Most people come into a deep walk with God when they are overwhelmed by the anointing from the Lord, not because they have read a tract or a book to which they could relate. They come into a relationship with God after He deals with them and gets their attention.
Always seek for a deeper experience and revelation of the Lord. It is not enough to labor physically and do a good work for God. He will never allow a project to be wrought by some human program that is adequate in itself. Always look to God for a miracle of provision, for it is in the miracle that God will be glorified, and it is in the miracle of your life that He will be glorified. Whenever problems arise, believe God and press on. Believe that He is working out everything for His will. He wants everything done right. As a result, God may take a little longer to finish what He has set out to do. God teaches you how to let Him bring forth His perfect will in you. You have sensitivities that you should not have. God discovers your sensitive area, and then, like a masseur who has found a sore spot, He gives it special attention and rubs it until eventually the soreness is gone.
Let this be your prayer: “Lord, give me the hide of a rhinoceros and the heart of a dove. Let me not be sensitive to those things that would wound or discourage me in my spirit. Give me a heart that is always tender and sensitive before You.”
The only thing that counts is that you win where the will of God is concerned. Your justification is not the issue. Your relationship to the Lord must be like the fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after. This idea is expressed in Psalm 23:6: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” When the Lord wins in producing a real overcomer in you, then two winners will be walking together. How do you overcome? When persecutions come against you and people tell lies about you, do not seek the Lord to have Him vindicate you; instead, seek Him for a right spirit. Vindication must never be the issue; the issue is what is in your spirit. When you bow to His will and submit to Him, something beautiful will come forth. Persecutions are never an end in themselves; God uses them to work His will in you. When you realize this, you can rejoice in them.
Do you sometimes feel that no one understands you, or that things are happening to you which should not be happening to you at all? If so, be sure that you do not pray for God to vindicate you. Instead, pray for God to accomplish in your spirit what He wants to do through that circumstance. When you are in the will of God, everything has a leverage of faith if you have a right spirit. Then anything can be accomplished. Believe for the right outcome. The only thing that counts is the fact that you will be a winner.
If you have set yourself to walk with God and to overcome principalities and powers, then at the initiative of the Holy Spirit, you will be opening up areas of warfare. What do you think those principalities and powers plan to do? Will they obligingly lie down and let you swing at them? You are going to bring Satan under your feet shortly (Romans 16:20); but until he gets under your feet, what do you think he will do to you? Can you take it? You are going into a fight, and in a fight it is often very difficult to tell the difference between the winner and the loser. At times the winner is only the winner because the loser has had enough and he goes home. They both have the same number of bruises. This is also true of the spiritual warfare that comes when you walk with God. An exchange with the enemy is inevitable, but happy is the man who comes forth with a beautiful spirit, contending for God to have His perfect will in him.
In most problems that develop between believers, it is useless to arbitrate who is right or wrong for the simple reason that over ninety percent of the situations can be traced to demonic assault. The enemy is rubbing on some little weakness. He is raging, raging, raging. Every battle you win against him is casting him down that much farther.
If this generation is to change, it will happen through a people that God is raising up who will gain the spiritual supremacy over the powers of darkness. In faith they will enforce the victory of Christ upon the whole spirit realm. This will not be done by a people right out of spiritual kindergarten who passively say, “Satan, we rebuke you.” It will require some tough veterans who have been through many battles.
Victory is not achieved by something that you say; victory is a state of heart which is pure faith. The minute you stand against Satan, he will throw an obstacle in your way to try and make you waver in your faith, to make you say that the vision is not true, that the commission of God is not real. He tries to make you back off from it. The enemy will push, and if you waver, you will lose the victory. The vision is not to be abandoned because of the storm. A commission that God gives is not to be renounced because of conflict. Discouragement and the fear of man always destroy true faith. If Satan can make you quit, it is because you do not have the living faith that is necessary to be an overcomer. You overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony (Revelation 12:11). You overcome by an unwavering word and an unwavering faith in that word.