Rob FranzenA Study in the Purpose of Brokenness Part I
By Rob Franzen
Ever wonder why being a Christian can be difficult at times when outright sinners are not experiencing the difficulties you are as a Christian? Isn’t Jesus supposed to be with me delivering me from these troubles and making life easier for me? Why doesn’t God prosper me more than wicked people; I would use the money for the good. Jeremiah the prophet asked the same question in chapter 12:1-3 “Why are wicked people successful? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives? You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you. But you, Lord, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you” (NET).
The short answer to why we experience sufferings would simply be, “God loves you!” Our heavenly Father loves you too much to leave you in any sinful condition whatsoever; He wants more for you. That’s why the Bible says in places like Rom. 5:3-5; Jas 1:2-4; and 1Pet.1:6-7 that we can rejoice when we’re experiencing difficulties; we know God is at work! “…, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed [at His return](1Peter 1:6-7 NET).
When you became a true follower of Jesus Christ, you just entered into God’s Ultimate Plan for your life! The day you received Christ as your Savior is the day you gave your life (which includes your rights) to Jesus as being LORD; and the day you consecrate your life to Him is the day the Holy Spirit has the liberty to perform the work necessary to prepare you for the Glory of God. God’s ultimate plan for you as well as all creation is to be a part of The Restoration. This is where God restores all things back to His original purpose & plan Acts 3:21. It’s all coming full circle; when everything is restored back to a sinless, perfect order of harmony & balance. But before we can get there we have to go through a cleansing, purification process; a journey of sanctification, in order to work out impurities in our heart and the issue of free will in mankind. This is the journey to the Glory of God through Brokenness. Don’t be afraid of brokenness because completed brokenness always leads to wholeness; and the grace of God is abundantly available to enable us to persevere through to victory, wholeness and His glory!
By being sensitive to the Holy Spirit while going through my own personal trails, I have gained a better understand of the purpose in brokenness, as well as receiving prophetic revelations for the entire Body of Christ in this matter. The subject is deeper and more profound than most of us realize. Put your spiritual eyes and ears on. On the grand scheme of things, God is preparing a Bride; a Bride that has to be made white – through Blood. From the fall of mankind at the beginning, to the great marriage of the Lamb in heaven, God is purifying Himself a Bride and the issue of free will is being ironed out in the whole process! I can’t possibly get it all down in a few devotional letters like this, however, a book has already been started and God helping me, I will share more with you soon.
Christians talk of the glory of God, desire the glory, seek the glory and want to show the glory of God in their lives and ministries. But how many realize what it takes to enter into the glory of God? There is an enormous price to pay for the glory of God in your life, a great trade-off that is quite worth it.
You know we all have a very sinful nature that hinders us from coming into the direct presence of our Creator. God is so pure and holy; we would explode and evaporate without His veil shielding us from His direct, brilliant, Shekinah Glory. No sin can come into His presence. Jeremiah says that our hearts are very deceitful and so desperately wicked that we cannot begin to know how much wickedness is in our own hearts (Jer. 17:9). Yet the Bible says in Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue … holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Holiness is a separation unto pureness that we must achieve. Our Creator-Redeemer has provided us with the shed blood of Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit; but He is also actively at work in our lives helping us to weed-out the impurities deep within our hearts. God desires direct, unadulterated fellowship with us as He once did with Adam so He has to test our devotion as Jeremiah said, and put us through a fiery-pressure cooker. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul means when he said, “that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed unto His death” Phil.3:10.
The late Bible teacher, Derek Prince wrote a devotional that said;
“One thing the Bible teaches very clearly is that God tests His people and the comparison that’s used many times in Scripture is that God tests us the same way as a silver refiner refines silver. In Bible times the way that a man did that was to place the silver in a metal container over the hottest possible fire and then, as the silver began to melt and bubble in the heat, the dross, the scum, the impurities would rise to the surface and he would skim them off as they rose up and he would go on skimming until there was no impurity left in the silver. And the test of that was that as he looked into the surface of the silver he could see his own face properly mirrored in the silver.
So that’s how God tests us in the furnace of affliction. The hotter the furnace, the more the impurities are brought to the surface. And God graciously skims them off with His great heavenly skimmer. He goes on with that skimmer until He sees His own image reflected in our lives. And then He knows the process of refining is successful and He takes us out of the furnace.”
God deals with us like this in order to bring to the surface all the impurities deep within our hearts. The sufferings cause us to recognize and break us of those things, and our hearts becoming purified is the result. When we are under pressure and suffering, or experiencing the Holy Spirit’s discipline (scourging’s), out of nowhere we may experience sinful desires start to surface in our lives. Our sin-nature is trying to survive. Don’t beat yourself up, rather rejoice in the fact that God is showing His love and care for you. Why? For God is showing you what’s inside of you & bringing those impurities to the surface in order to skim them off. When the impure junk starts to surface, confess it as sin and surrender it over to the Lord. 1Cor. 10:13 says: “No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it” (NET). Notice, with every trial or temptation comes also a way of escape.
The Bible is full of heroes that suffered and endured injustices against them. Why does God allow us to undergo these hardships and sufferings? To reveal how we will react and/or respond to injustices against us; thus, revealing who we really are. For under pressure is when our true colors (character) show. The reason for Abraham sojourning in hardship for so many years before he saw any glimpse of the promises of God; and why Jacob suffered injustices by his father-in-law; and why Joseph was sold into slavery and thrown into prison for doing the right thing; and why Moses spent 40 years in exile; and the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness 40 years; and why David was hunted like a dog and lived in hardship running for his life for a decade; and the reason we experience tremendous pain and suffering in life is simply, to reveal & break us of the hidden motives of our wicked heart, that our hearts would be purified so that we can be useful and pliable in the hands of our loving heavenly Father for the advancement of His Kingdom in these last days. (This leads to another main reason we will cover in the next letter).
Notice how these heroes of faith responded: How did Joseph respond when he was unjustly thrown into prison? How did Moses respond when he was in exile 40 years in the desert? How did David respond when spears were being thrown at him? How did Peter, Paul and the Apostles respond to the many false accusations, violence and the many injustices against them? They never retaliated! “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord in Heb. 10:30; Deut. 32:35, 41, 43. They understood that vengeance belongs to God alone. They didn’t react or respond to the negative situation; rather they focused on God and what He was doing in them. Moses went on living his life with strangers, never denying his God; Joseph ministered to others out of his need in prison, David sang unto the Lord in loneliness, and Peter went fishing and Paul kept preaching. Behind the scenes, they were exercising belief and faith.
There is purpose in God’s school of hard knocks. Please do not jump off God’s operation table before the operation is done just because it’s painful. Learn why from the psalmist, who said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. It was good for me to [suffer] to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. I [now] know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous and in faithfulness you have afflicted me(Ps. 119:67, 71, 75 NIV).
I admonish you to have the tenacity and endurance like these heroes of faith, for they believed God (the work of God in our spirit) and did not stagger at God’s promise with unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform(Rom.4:20-21). These heroes weren’t perfect but broke through because they did not focus on all the many difficulties of life but kept their focus on the rewards of faithfulness! We need grace for this. The New Testament commands us to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus(2Tim.2:1). This message is crucial to grasp and understand for the coming days! Please hear with your spirit. God’s grace is more than enough for you in all your many difficulties (2Cor.12:9), you just need to believe it and keep walking faithfully no matter what!
Having done all to stand, keep standing strong! God bless you & keep you.
SERIES:
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- Why Being a Christian Can Be Difficult? A Study in the Purpose of Brokenness Part I
- Understanding Suffering. A Study in the Purpose of Brokenness Part II
- The Patience of the Saints A Study in the Purpose of Brokenness Part III
- The Avoided Doorway to the Glory of God A Study in the Purpose of Brokenness Part IV
The mission of the “Creation Under Fire project” is to educate people with the truth of our origin as revealed in the first book of the Holy Bible – Genesis. To establish a clear understanding of the original thought and intent of the author as it was originally recorded; therewith, dispelling untrue theories of creation within the church. In turn, strengthening people’s faith and equipping them with real answers for the faith they possess and to defend it well. Also to expose the most subtle scheme Satan has ever unleashed on humanity, which has sent more people to hell than any other attack mankind has ever known. Refranzen1@live.com www.CreationUnderFire.com
