Today we continue our series “God is faithful!” The Lord led me to 2 Corinthians 4. In this passage, we are looking at what it looks like to believe God is faithful. Because of God’s faithfulness towards us, we can withstand and overcome anything!
(2 Corinthians 4:1, 7-13, 16-18 TPT)
1 Now, it’s because of God’s mercy that we have been entrusted with the privilege of this new covenant ministry. And we will not quit or faint with weariness.
7 We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours.
8 Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option.
9 We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.
10 We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
11 We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
12 So, then, death is at work in us but it releases life in you.
13 We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith.
16 So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day.
17 We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison,
18 because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
Today we shift our attention to verse 17. This verse says, “We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison.” This verse is about perception and perspective. To teach on it, I will also share the following passage (we looked at this before, we are looking at it through a different lens this time).
(2 Corinthians 12:8-10 TPT)
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to relieve me of this.
9 But he answered me, “My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.
10 So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment—when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ—I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God will give you the experiences you need in order to fulfill your life’s assignment.
Paul had a tremendous assignment. Therefore, his experiences with God had to be commensurate with his assignment. Since he was charged with writing over half the New Testament, he had to be in a position to receive supernatural revelation from the Father. So God allowed Paul to go to heaven. In heaven, Paul got a perspective of God that most humans don’t get to experience before we die.
Paul said the following about some man, but he was talking about himself, “I know that this man (again, I’m not sure if he was still in his body or taken out of his body—God knows) was caught up in an ecstatic experience and brought into paradise, the third heaven, where he overheard many wondrous and inexpressible secrets that were so sacred that no mortal is permitted to repeat them.”
This experience was necessary for Paul’s assignment, so God provided it. God will do the same for you. Whatever you need to become the man/woman God called you to be is available to you. The key is knowing that God provides you with these experiences by grace. It is unearned and unmerited. Don’t think it has anything to do with your performance. It has everything to do with God’s goodness.
2. The attack is against the assignment.
— Paul had a tremendous assignment from God. Therefore, he had a huge target on his back from satan.
— The greater the assignment from God, the greater the attack from satan. The good news is that satan has no power over God. Therefore, he has no power over you.
— Come what may, if you remain submitted to God and reliant on His grace, no attack from the enemy will ever be able to stop you.
— Satan may hurt you from time to time. You will experience pain. Life is not easy. But if you keep going by God’s grace, you will ultimately receive what God promised. Why? Because God’s grace cannot be stopped!
— No matter how much opposition comes, if God is for you, He is more than the entire world against you. God’s grace is unstoppable.
3. There is a difference between suffering for Christ and reaping what you have sown.
— Paul cheerfully accepted the challenges that came to him because of his divine assignment, but this is not to be confused with challenges we bring upon ourselves because of bad decisions.
— If you sow bad seed, you will reap a bad harvest, and that is nothing to be cheerful about.
— Don’t confuse suffering for Christ with the repercussions of the bad decisions you have made. Paul was able to rejoice in suffering because he knew he had not done anything wrong.
— Paul’s divine perception of the suffering informed his human perspective of the pain he was enduring.
— When you have the right perspective, you can keep going, because you know that what is happening TO you is actually happening FOR you!
4. Bigger challenges require more grace.
— Paul faced seemingly insurmountable challenges, but every time he did, God gave him more grace.
— Instead of lowering the bar on the challenges, God raised the bar on His grace!
— As humans, it’s understandable when we ask God for LESS CHALLENGE. But when God responds, He often chooses NOT to remove the challenge. Instead, He gives us MORE GRACE!
— God wants us to rejoice in our weakness because our weakness, as Paul stated, “becomes a portal to God’s power.”
— Paul was able to triumph over every challenge and overcome every obstacle because he was not relying on his humanity. His human strength was too weak. But when he was weak, God’s grace made him strong!
— If you are facing something harder than you have ever faced, know that God has given you access to another level of His grace. But you will never tap into that grace if there is too much of YOU in the way. You must acknowledge the fact that you can’t do it without God. When you are weak, then you will be MADE strong. Your weakness “becomes a portal to God’s power.”
5. Bigger challenges mean God trusts you with more.
— God will not allow you to face something you cannot handle. Therefore, if you are facing it, it is evidence that God trusts you with it and that you have the grace for it.
— Paul took pleasure in every challenge satan brought his way because he knew it meant God was trusting him to face it and overcome it, by grace.
— When you have this type of perspective, there is nothing you can’t do because you know there is nothing God can’t do, and He lives in/with/through you!
— When you develop the right mindset and perspective, God can trust you with greater challenges because you will be ready to embrace greater grace!
6. Greater challenges mean you are being perfected in weakness.
— God will only allow you to face bigger challenges when you die to self and rely on His grace. If God allowed you to face great challenges BEFORE you learn to die to yourself, you would try to face the challenges in your human power, and you would buckle under the pressure. But when you die to self, and you freely embrace God’s grace, God can do, through you, what you could never do without Him!
— If it seems like satan is attacking you at a greater level, and God is allowing it, then it is evident that you are growing in grace by accepting your weakness and relying on God’s strength. Instead of crying about it, thank God that He trusts you with it.
— The more you grow in God, the greater level of challenge He will be able to trust you with. But it takes a mature believer to understand this and to live with this perspective of challenges.
*** When the challenges come, get excited! When you understand God and His grace, you don’t cower under challenges; you get excited about the fact that God has allowed you to face it and that it will be a great testimony when it’s over. This mindset only comes when you have divine perception, and you allow what the Holy Spirit is telling you to shape your perspective!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of LEVELING UP for me. I LEVEL UP by opening my heart to Your amazing grace! My understanding of Your grace is changing the way I look at challenges. Instead of bowing my head and saying, “Woe is me!,” when I face a challenge, I now get excited because I know I have the grace to face it. You will never allow me to face something You have not already graced me to face, so if I am facing it, I can take it, You trust me with it, and I will overcome it by Your grace. Therefore, by faith, I declare that I am not moved by what I see. I trust You, Father, and You trust me. The more I die to self, the more I am able to access and experience Your grace, and the more You are able to accomplish in the earth through me. Satan will do all he can to stop me. But the greater the challenges get, the more grace You give me, and the more excited I get about the experiences I will have in You. I say what Paul said, “I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! … when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ, I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.” Living this way, I know, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
