There Is A Price To Pay
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”Matthew 5:11-12
Jesus mentioned three forms of that oppression: persecution, reviling, and being spoken evil against.
Persecution speaks of physical attacks, reviling speaks of personal insults, and all sorts of evil spoken is falsehood being spread about us. Sometimes, there is very little you can do about this. You just have to learn, as the scripture says, to rejoice in being persecuted for the cause of Christ.
The Cost of Your Calling
“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he 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.”Acts 9:15-16
Every great calling comes with a great cross. Every Biblical purpose will carry a level of persecution.
The word “witness” in Acts 1:8 is μάρτυς (martus), meaning to testify or witness. It also carries the implication of witnessing unto death, as seen in Acts 22:20, where Stephen is called a “martyr” (the same Greek word). Therefore, when Jesus commissioned us as His witnesses, the text indicates that we will preach the Gospel and we will be willing to testify unto death, like Stephen. We don’t like persecution; we don’t expect persecution but we are ready if it comes because the Lord prepared us for it.
1. The Cost of Your Calling
“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”2 Timothy 2:3
“Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”Mark 10:30
When I was young, I believed that all I needed to do to get the power of God was to humble myself, pray, fast, and then it would come. What never occurred to me was that the moment God starts using you, not only does the devil hate you but religious people will hurt you. When you walk in the purpose of God, you have to have purity. If you do not have perseverance, the surprise attack of persecution will stop you in your tracks. The devil will not be able to stop you because you lack purity but because you lack perseverance. When you have a calling of God in your life, you need purity but you need a purity that is matched by perseverance or you will be stopped.
If they did it to Jesus, they will do it for you. The cost isn’t just sleepless nights of prayer and intercession; the cost of walking in the power of God is the ability to live with constant attacks and persecution without giving up your passion. You have to learn to love people while they are attacking you.
2. Not experiencing persecution is an exception, not a promise.
Persecution is the normal experience of true believers in this age. Not all persecution is the same. Jesus’ promise of persecution is only for His real followers. Suffering comes to everyone – believers or non-believers – but persecution is specifically for Christ’s followers (2 Timothy 3:12).
- Around 365 million Christians are subject to “high levels of persecution and discrimination.” This compared to 340 million in 2021.
- 1 in 7 Christians are persecuted worldwide, including 1 in 5 in Africa and 1 in 7 in Asia. This is compared to 1 in 8 worldwide in 2021.
- 4,998 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons. 90% of those killed were in Nigeria, where attacks on Christians have become more common since 2020 as part of a wider rise in political violence against civilians.
- Open Doors estimates the number of Christians killed for faith-related reasons worldwide was 5,621 in 2023, 5,898 in 2022, and 4,761 in 2021.
- 14,766 Churches and Christian properties were attacked.
- North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, and Yemen had the highest rates of reported persecution against Christians.
God Is Not Caught Off Guard
Your temptations are not catching God off-guard by your sins or mistakes. He will always love you but there will come a time when you will not be able to move forward without dealing with these things in your heart.
Change starts with the realization of a weakness. Change starts when deception is dismantled with revelation and knowledge. The enemy usually uses a legal right to get involved in your life and wreak havoc. He plays on the weaknesses of our flesh and mind to achieve this. There is power in God’s Word. If you are not seeing the power of the Word, it is because it needs to be exercised. If we are not exercising some of the scriptures of power in God’s Word, we are not going to see the victory. We need to get God’s Word involved and exercised in our lives. There are certain principles and powers in God’s Word that if we begin to utilize and exercise, we will see the victory of God in our lives.
Enemies of Temptation
Vicitmhood – How are you ever going to get victory over your temptation if you can excuse it by being a victim? We are supposed to be victorious in Christ Jesus; that is what He has called us to be.
Minimizing Sin – If you think your sin is not too bad, you will always fall into it.
Lack of Repentance – If you are not ready to be broken before the Lord and cry out for mercy over your sin, you will never ruse above it.