“The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered according to the will of God (1 Peter 4:19) having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God’s purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God’s orders through a shortcut of their own. God’s way is always the way of suffering—the way of the long road home.”
– Oswald Chambers
“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Philippians 3:10-11
In his book Make Your Bed, Admiral William McRaven (US Navy retired) tells the story of his 37 years as a Navy SEAL, including his experience in SEAL training. McRaven’s first day of SEAL training began with their instructor setting the stage.
“Gentlemen, today is the first day of SEAL training. For the next six months you will undergo the toughest course of instruction in the US military. You will be tested like no time in your life. Most of you will not make it through. I will do everything in my power to make you quit. I will harass you unmercifully. I will embarrass you in front of your teammates. I will push you beyond your limits. And there will be pain. Lots and lots of pain. But if you don’t like the pain, if you don’t like all the harassment, there is an easy way out. All you have to do to quit is ring this bell three times. But let me tell you something. If you quit you will regret it for the rest of your life. Quitting never makes anything easier.”
150 recruits began SEAL training that day. 33 (22%) made it through. The biggest guys with the most muscles often fell away first. Perseverance and endurance count more than brute strength.
McRaven writes: “SEAL training was always about proving something. Proving that size doesn’t matter. Proving that the color of your skin wasn’t important. Proving that money didn’t make you better. Proving that determination and grit were always more important than talent.”
It’s the strength of the heart that counts. As important as education and knowledge are, when we’re forced to endure pain and suffering for weeks and months, it is the inner strength that God supplies with the determination to keep going no matter what that will carry us through.
Navy SEAL recruits know up front they have a long, tough road ahead of them in the months ahead. There are no surprises. Military leadership has telegraphed what they are in for previously, plus, the SEALS’ reputation for having a tough boot camp precedes them. How the new recruits handle the pain and ongoing, intense suffering will reveal what they’re made of and how badly they want to become a Navy SEAL.
In God’s word we see the apostle Paul extend an invitation with a tough challenge to Timothy, twice.
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” (emphasis mine).
2 Timothy 1:6-8
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
2 Timothy 2:3-7
Paul’s invitation to Timothy was to go to war in the spiritual realm and join him in God’s work to set captives free. “Civilian pursuits” such as the pleasures and entertainment of this world were to be set aside; intense focus was required. In accepting Paul’s invitation to go to war and pay the price of suffering, Timothy would reap the rewards that come from getting wins in the spiritual arena.
This same invitation to go to war with the willingness to endure pain and sorrow is not only extended, but demanded of all who would follow Christ.
“Now great crowds accompanied him (Jesus), and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-33
That’s quite the boot camp initiation. In essence Jesus is saying He must be our everything, no matter the cost, until our last breath. “Renouncing all that we have” are tough words. Note that the subject of warfare is woven in. Walking with Christ is a fight to the finish for those who are all in.
“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
1 Peter 4:1-2
Jesus just upped the ante in boot camp lecture #2. We must accept suffering as a way of life for the believer so that our self-life might be assassinated, for the purpose of pouring out our lives as Jesus did. You won’t find counsel like this in “10 Steps to Your Best Life.” Many are ringing the bell and quitting today. “That’s not how I pictured ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life’ working out. I didn’t sign up for this.”
It is the Rogue Christian who keeps going.
New converts to Christ don’t usually hear such strict demands (nor do many believers who’ve been in church for decades). Better to make it easy for them at first, right? Who would tell a new convert they should expect to suffer right out of the gate? We don’t want to scare anyone away.
“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he (Paul) is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Jesus spoke these words through Ananias to Paul just days after Paul first encountered Christ on the road to Damascus. Throughout his life, which ended in execution by beheading, Paul paid a high price for being a disciple of Jesus.
“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”
2 Corinthians 11:23-27
My friends, suffering and trials come packaged with salvation. We should expect it, accept it, be trained and equipped to cope and persevere through it, learn from it, and allow God to use it to shape and mold us for His purposes.
And press through to victory.
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so 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.”
Romans 8:16-18
This is getting dangerous. We are heirs of God if we suffer with Him?
What might this mean for those who quit? Or check out in a life of pleasure and entertainment?
Many churches have failed to prepare their people for the battles they will face, with devastating consequences. Since 2020 the number of believers who have fallen away has accelerated. Youth have been hitting the exits in droves for more than 20 years. Our focus on comfort, ease, and pleasure has caused spiritual atrophy.
John Eldredge writes:
“When you grow up in a world where everything is done with a few clicks on your phone, it doesn’t exactly develop resilience. Anyone living in the developed world has experienced a level of ease unimaginable to previous generations. This is the overnight delivery age. Let me be quick to say, I have fully enjoyed all the conveniences of our modern moment. But I’m also aware that they’ve made me soft. The web we have been caught in was years in the making—a brilliant interlacing of the Comfort Culture and the Babel of Technology at our fingertips. By way of contrast, the World War II generation emerged from the Great Depression with a sense of reality, grit, and resilience.”
This is what happens when we don’t see church as a holy boot camp, meant to heal the wounded and equip and challenge them to step out into the battlefield. Healing the wounded is impossible if we run away from topics such as sex, pornography, masturbation, the occult, entertainment addiction, or the other areas people are struggling with. Boot camp? Has your church equipped in you in spiritual warfare and the art of prayer, both which are critical for war?
Let’s do a heart check. Would you describe yourself as a warrior willing to pay the price? Are you engaged in the fight, pouring your life out? Is your life having so much impact for the Kingdom of God that spiritual warfare is a consistent part of your life?
How do you handle trials when they hit? None of us get suffering right all the time, including me. Medicating with porn or some other false comfort, stuffing the heart, or checking out in entertainment doesn’t work. Considering our trials joy (James 1:2), praise, giving God thanks, prayer, time in His word, rest, and walking with others gets us through, along with gut-level determination to press through no matter what.
What is the fruit of your life? Hopefully you’re not like the typical American who spends 2,200 hours a year in entertainment yet minutes a day in prayer and Bible reading.
These are tough questions, but it’s far better to ask them now than wait until a severe crisis hits and you’re swept away with the current, or the end of your life when it’s too late.
There are seasons of life. We all have moments when we’re going through a trial and are in so much pain that just getting out of bed in the morning is a challenge. Yet, the enemy doesn’t take a break when we’re going through rough times. We will have to fight for our healing even when we’re worn out—which forces us to lean hard on God for His strength and power.
The call to suffer with Jesus doesn’t include the sorrow that results from the consequences for sin. God’s call is to suffer for doing what is right, not sin away and think we’re honoring God for wallowing in the consequences.
“For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?”
1 Peter 2:20a
Being a part of a tribe of other believers who can support you through the storms is critical; a non-negotiable essential to the Christian life. Many are living in isolation while making no effort to connect with a tribe of believers while they complain about being alone. God is big enough to provide a tribe for every believer if they ask Him. The question is if we will break out of our comfort zone and get plugged in.
The pieces on the international chessboard continue to be positioned in a manner that lines up with end times Biblical prophecy as we move toward an inevitable collision with the tribulation. It’s critical that we grow deep roots in our relationship with God now, with a strong prayer life, daily immersion in God’s word, consistent crucifixion of self, committing to a life of blameless living (not playing games with sin by confessing our sins to others as needed and keeping short accounts with it), and staying plugged into our tribe.
The Rogue Christian sees this time as ripe with opportunity. The light shines brightest in the darkness. Sold out Christ followers who are hungry for more aren’t satisfied with mere existence, pleasure-seeking, or cowering in a bunker. They want purpose, to make what little time they have left to count. They take long droughts of the presence of God in prayer and then pour it all out in blessings for others.
Ezekiel gives us a picture of the determination and mindset required to overcome tough opposition and make an impact:
“But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”
Ezekiel 3:7-9
And so I extend the same invitation to you that Paul did. Pour your life out. Give everything. Pay the price. Set your mind and purpose on making a difference during your brief stay here. Be prepared to have to fight and press through.
Never retire.
And never quit.
“Are we partakers of Christ’s sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through—we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment and realize— ‘God has strengthened me and I didn’t even know it!’”
– Oswald Chambers
