Rejoice in Your Sufferings (Part II)

November 27, 2012

(If you are reading this, as one of only a handful of people across the world, please comment or email me at mail@christopherlharvey.com to let me know your thoughts. I know God is moving in these words, and I wonder how, if you would share, He is moving in your life... )

“His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹ The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. ⁴² Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”

Acts 5: 40 -42

Today was, well interesting. I have just joined two other men to begin a men’s discipleship ministry and it has, at best, been a beautiful disaster. Our goal has been to plan, without planning; to create a framework, but to allow the Holy Spirit to move as He pleases through the ministry. And, beginning in the den of one of these men’s home on Sunday night, what we have seen so far has been incredible.

Nobody I know reads these blog posts. So there is no sense in hiding the name of the ministry. It is called Prime (www.mensprime.org) and it is a simple framework by which to allow men to disciple each other through the movement of the Spirit. And, to much surprise, it has caught like fire among friends and family and is growing.

Which is how I came across these verses today. Because today was, well, interesting.

I began today in prayer for my friends and family. I created a “cheat sheet” for prayer that lists several dozen people and their specific prayer needs. Because I have the time and, more importantly, the desire, I have been dedicating my mornings to praying for these specifics needs in people’s lives. The list grows every day. Which is fine. Because I know God answers 

these prayers too.

This morning I prayed over a women’s ministry that I have been, tangentially, a part of. And, in this prayer, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and healing for women involved. At the same time, I sense some impending doom for me and my men, with whom I have chosen to lock arms.

And, sure enough, doom was soon to follow. I met with one of my brothers who helped set up Prime. We had great conversation over lunch, and even prayed for a “stranger” who took care of us at our table. But when we parted, after prayer, I felt almost immediately oppressed.

So I prayed, with all petition and thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), that God would lift this oppression.

I contacted my brother who told me, almost instantaneously, that he too experiences similar attack.

A moment later I contacted my two other brothers, with whom I had committed to locking arms with in Prime, and they too told me that at almost the same exact time they also experience a similar spiritual attack.

So, we prayed.

And we prayed more.

And we prayed still more.

And I realized in this prayer that this could be, perhaps, the first time I truly experience persecution for stepping out in faith.

If you have followed me thus far, you know my hand is at the plow. I have committed my life to Christ, to serving His will, whatever and however that may be. Prime is just the start. But as the start, it is the end of Satan’s control over me. And, not to give away the ending, but I think Satan is a little pissed that not only have I locked arms with two brothers in an intimate relationship in Christ, but also we filled the den of my brothers house with 14 men on Sunday night, each of whom agreed to grab two other men to lock arms with.

So, as Paul and John were flogged and ran through the streets in joy, I cannot help but sit here a mixture of joy and fear. Fear, because I know that I am doing God’s will and that will necessarily invoke the attention of evil. Joy, because whatever oppression and persecution I endure through this, it is not for my sake, but for the sake of Jesus.

I felt horribly oppressed today. Satan knew my one sure weakness and, as in the movies when the good guy is shot and the bad guy presses into the wound, he pressed into me where I was most susceptible to giving in… for once I just cried out to God in thanksgiving!

If I am worthy to suffer for Christ, let it be so.

If I am worthy to cry out what I have known to be truth in the face of persecution, let it be so.

If I am to be considered crazy or confused for the sake of what the Holy Spirit has revealed in me, let it be so.

But no longer let me be quiet.

No longer let me know Truth, but be afraid.

No longer let me accept that it is OK for me to rest quietly in simple understanding.

Let me face what God wills, that Truth spread among the men of my city- and to the world. Let me endure what God knows I can handle, for the sake of His Gospel, His Good News. Let me be what must be, in order that lives are transformed.

My faith is real. I might not be able to touch God, or to explain Him to you in terms that make any kind of logical sense. But I know that there is a Truth that supersedes intellect, and a peace that passes all understanding. I know that there is a love that knows no bounds. And I am willing to suffer oppression in days like today, knowing that others might come to learn of this great Love…