Resistance Training
March 5th, 2008 11:11 pm
Via Priscilla van Sutphin
Acts 9:5 AMP And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance].
“Beloveds of Mine, I want you to understand that the trials you are going through are merely resistance training and a paring down of any idolatry to the world, because perilous times are at hand, and you cannot hold on to the things of this world. Persecution and very difficult changes are ahead. So I am doing in you some resistance training. Just like when you exercise a muscle, it gets stronger with resistance training, so when I test your faith, your faith and determination and persistence GROWS.
If I ask you to give up everything, would that be too much for you ? Did I not give up EVERYTHING for you ? Why is it you think it strange, when I lead you to lay down something that has you in it’s hold ? Why is it you think that trials are too difficult when I’ve said that I will not test you beyond your ability to ENDURE ?
Have you not read of the early apostles, and the RESISTANCE they encountered ?
Do you really believe if you do nothing in the way of winning souls or teaching My lambs, that the enemy is the one resisting you ? HA ! I AM RESISTING SOME OF YOU because you think I’m unfair. You still have not learned the KEY OF PRAISE.
You go round and round in circles and still are wandering in the desert because you resent people and circumstances and you haven’t learned to PRAISE IN THE FACE OF OPPOSITION.
What were Paul and Barnabus doing when I opened the prison cell door for them ?
THEY WERE IN JAIL. Have you been sent to jail YET ? Do you know what it is to be beaten 39 times like PAUL ? Do you know what it is to be locked in a cell naked like Vietnamese Christians and starved to death like the Chinese Christians, or dismembered for your faith ? Have you had your heads bashed in like the India Christians, or your homes set on fire like in Kenya ? Have you been dragged out of your homes like the settlers in Israel ? You are so weak in muscle that you complain if you are rejected ! If you cannot walk with the soldiers, how will you run with the horses ?
I am speaking clearly and earnestly when I say that tumultuous times are ahead. Violence & perversion, barreness & famine are growing in strength. But I want YOU to OVERCOME. I want you to walk in MY AUTHORITY and POWER. Come to ME, and let me heal you of your wounds and weaknesses. It is NOT a waste of time to spend time with ME is it ? AM I truly your FIRST LOVE ?
Will you spend time with ME FIRST and THINK OF ME FIRST ?
Do you really want to know what LOVE IS ?
I WILL DEMONSTRATE MY LOVE TO YOU IF YOU WILL LAY ASIDE all idolatry to the things of this earth, all worry, all fears. I can eliminate all this through the outpouring of My love in you, if you will just come to ME more often than you go to other lovers to get comfort.
There isn’t much time left before all unravels. For there is a great unraveling coming.
Things that have been unseen will become known, and things that have been hidden will be seen as they really are, yet many will still go on in delusion because they have chosen their adulteries – their idolatries to other things than to ME. At the same time there will be shocking waves of fire that apprehend those who are the faithful remnant, to such a degree it will even startle you ! THE FIRE OF MY PRESENCE IS COMING even GREATER than you can imagine to prepare you for what lies ahead.
I told you I would not leave you HELPLESS ! So come and spend time with ME. Shut yourself in and do not just run around seeking ME in fruitless pursuit through other men and women. Seek ME in WORSHIP. SEEK ME IN YOUR PRAYER CLOSET. SEEK ME IN MY WORD. MEDITATE ON IT IN YOUR HEART and I will show you great and marvelous things you know not.
CAST ALL YOUR CARES ON ME FOR I CARE FOR YOU !
DEPEND ON ME.
COME TO ME.
LET ME TOUCH YOU.
LET ME HOLD YOU.”
2 Cor 11:23-31 AMP
23 Are they [ministering] servants of Christ (the Messiah)? I am talking like one beside himself, [but] I am more, with far more extensive and abundant labors, with far more imprisonments, [beaten] with countless stripes, and frequently [at the point of] death. 24 Five times I received from [the hands of] the Jews forty [lashes all] but one; [Deut 25:3.]
25 Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been aboard a ship wrecked at sea; a [whole] night and a day I have spent [adrift] on the deep; 26 Many times on journeys, [exposed to] perils from rivers, perils from bandits, perils from [my own] nation, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the desert places, perils in the sea, perils from those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety];
27 In toil and hardship, watching often [through sleepless nights], in hunger and thirst, frequently driven to fasting by want, in cold and exposure and lack of clothing.
28 And besides those things that are without, there is the daily [inescapable pressure] of my care and anxiety for all the churches! 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to stumble and fall and have his faith hurt, and I am not on fire [with sorrow or indignation]?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that [show] my infirmity [of the things by which I am made weak and contemptible in the eyes of my opponents]. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ knows, He Who is blessed and to be praised forevermore, that I do not lie. 32 In Damascus, the city governor acting under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus [on purpose] to arrest me, 33 And I was [actually] let down in a [rope] basket or hamper through a window (a small door) in the wall, and I escaped through his fingers.
