Hi all,
What we want to look at today is how Paul got to be independent of circumstances. the place where he could feel i
I shared our story in part 1, and it was nothing I would ever wish on anyone. At the same time, it forged in us something very deep in our walk with the Lord. Jesus said in John 16:33:
“These things I have spoken to you that you may have peace. In this world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
That statement is the key to us being initiated into the mystery of how to be independent of circumstances. Jesus said ‘these things I have spoken to you…’ So we stop and take account of what we know that we know He has spoken to us, shown us, revealed to us, caused us to perceive or discern in our spirit. What revelation do you have from Him about your situation? What is the last thing you know that you know the Lord communicated to you?
What did He communicate to you when you were first saved?
Or what did He say at another difficult time? “These things I have spoken to you…..that you may have peace.” The reason for calling up those memories of what He has said or shown us, is that we may have peace. It is by holding on to what we know that we know He spoke directly to us and brings us peace.
Jesus continued: “In this world, you will have tribulation.” The word for ‘world’ here is ‘kosmos’, and it means the world’s system. James 4:4 says that when we love the world’s system, we are spiritual adulterers. It refers to the culture, the ways of the world, which are contrary to God and His ways. In the world’s system, Jesus said you will have ‘tribulation. The root of the word in the Greek is, ‘pressure’. In this world’s system you will have pressure. It is also translated as persecution, distress, and affliction. That sums it up, doesn’t it?
But then Jesus place a responsibility on us: It is up to us to ‘be of good cheer’.
Up until that point all He was doing was making statements. I have told you all these things so you can have peace. In the world you will have pressure. Yes, we get that. But then He says we have to do something: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the kosmos/world’s system.”
The Greek word here for good cheer is ‘tharsos’ and means ‘take courage’ and ‘be bold’. Jesus is telling us that in the middle of the world’s pressures upon us, take courage, be bold, because we remember what He has previously told us. THAT is the only way to become independent from circumstances. That independence is in our spirit, and in our mind and emotions – circumstances will play themselves out – but inside, we can be independent of them, taking the big picture view point that they will go through their processes, but we are in peace in Christ.
Before Paul would write that he could prevail with power in any circumstance through Him who strengthens him, he went through a time he felt like an olive being squeezed in an olive press. In II Corinthians 1: 8-11 he is writing his 2nd letter to the Corinthians about his time in Asia – which would be around Ephesus where there was a riot and he had to be hurried out of the city.
In Acts 20: 1-6 it says Paul left Ephesus to go back to his friends in Philippi and that area.
Verses 3-6 reveal unbelieving Jews planned an ambush, which he learned about, so went back to Philippi and from there left for Troas on the coast of modern day Turkey – the same port he had sailed from in Acts 16: 8-11 to first go to Lydia and the Philippians some 3 years earlier!
It was in Philippi among those close friends and supporters of his ministry, that Paul wrote his 2nd letter to the Corinthians. In 1:8-11 he spoke of his time in Asia – Ephesus – and his emotional condition.
“I don’t want you to be ignorant of the pressure we faced in Asia (Ephesus), where we were pressed down beyond our ability, at an utter loss and despair, even despairing of life. (v9) We had the sentence of death upon us, that we might not trust in ourself but in the God who raises the dead….” Paul used the pressure as a tool to help him turn to the Father who raises the dead.
The words Paul used to describe the pressure was also used to describe and olive press squeezing olives to the point oil pours out – Paul was saying his life force, was being squeezed out. He despaired of life. The word ‘sentence of death’ was a literal death sentence. First the riot in Ephesus, then the Jews who had determined to kill him, so that he had a death sentence within the Jewish system AND from the Greek leaders in Ephesus.
But here we see Paul did what Jesus said to do in John 16:33.
When absolutely powerless, he had to make himself look to the One who raises the dead. He had to do that. There was no special anointing to help him. There was no ‘pray for a move of God’ – he had to make himself emotionally, in his thoughts, turn to the One who raises the dead.
James would write the same thing in James 1:2 when he wrote to ‘count it all joy when you fall into various trials, tribulations, and tests…” (Same Greek word means all 3 of those things)
Here again, it is us to us in the midst of that pressure, to ‘count it all joy’. Joy is a fruit of the spirit, not an emotion. He did not say to be happy, which is of the emotions. He said ‘count it all joy’. In Galatians 5: 22-23 Paul said the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace….
The context is the works of the human flesh and the fruit of the born again spirit. Many incorrectly (my opinion) think this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Not so, that’s not the context, nor is it reflected in the overall point Paul is making. He compares the warring of the flesh against the spirit. The Holy Spirit IS love, joy, peace….but from Him comes these qualities to the human spirit – the fruit of our spirit. Fruit is the means of reproduction for a plant. It is what is seen. It has seeds to make more of that fruit. The fruit of our spirit is what people see when we are going through difficult times.
Paul is saying when people see the love, joy, peace, gentleness and such from our spirit, having the victory over the works of our flesh, even in the midst of pressure from the world, they can pick that fruit for their own lives. In that way the word of Christ in us spreads, when others partake of the fruit coming from our spirit.
James said we have to count it all joy. Jesus said we had to ‘be of good courage’. Paul wrote how he had been initiated into this great mystery – he learned something new, entered a new dimension in his life – as he looked to the One who raises the dead, he realized inside himself he was completely independent of his circumstances. He was free inside, though the circumstances would have to play themselves out.
And it is within that determination to take courage, that determination to count it all joy, that determination to look to the One who raises the dead, that we are initiated into a depth of our walk with Christ that can come no other way.
I wrote briefly about this in Pursuing the Seasons of God. During a visitation with the Lord, having been through all I described in part 1 of this series, I felt some camaraderie with Him, and He with me. In your quiet time with Him, in worship, in that time of sensing His presence within you, focus on that which you have in common. Are people angry at you though you did nothing wrong? That happened to the Lord too – focus on that commonality.
Have you experienced betrayal? So has He. Focus on that commonality. When before Him, when in worship, pull on the essence of what you are experiencing, and focus on how Jesus went through that too – there is where you shift from the pressure of the world’s system against you, to Him who was raised from the dead, to the joy in your spirit, to the courage in your spirit. It is there, when you focus on what you and Jesus have in common in your life experiences, that you can shift your thoughts and emotions to Him – and you will sense an overwhelming peace in your spirit that will carry you through!
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
