Ministering To The Body Of Believers
“For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:36 HCSB).
This week’s article is an encouragement to the brethren to persevere in this race of faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). The Lord led me to write this message and use a brother’s testimony to encourage the brethren who are overwhelmed by sin, falsehood, and weaknesses to cleanse through the Blood of the Lord their filth garments and persevere to inherit God’s Kingdom. As a ministry, we often received some emails from folk around the world who details their struggles against sin and various stumbling blocks. While listening with a sympathetic ear, we would offer prayers and encouragement, and being encouraged too by our fellow brethren’s struggles we shared the unity in faith and spirit (2 Corinthians 1:4). It is true; the body of believers is strengthened by the struggles others endure in the name of the Lord Jesus as the above scripture declares.
Sin Hinders Perseverance
In all God’s dealings with humans, He laid down two paths (Deuteronomy 30:19; Matthew 7:13-14; 24-27; Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:46) and to obey or disobey (Genesis 3:2). Similarly, we could choose to follow the Lord and endure or we could choose to abandon our walk with God. I would also like to add when we all first came to the Lord, and like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we each received a unique load of troubles that we should either persevere and endure or live the wrong and solve our problems through worldly means (Acts 9:16; 2 Timothy 3:12; James 4:4).
We are going to share an experience a God-fearing man shared with us recently and we could all learn from some of his experiences. The brother explained how the sinful desires he had after giving his life to the Lord started leading him away from the Lord. He further explained how a burning desire to sin became addictive and uncontrollable and this particular sin opened the door for many other serious sins that left the brother completely powerless.
In other words, the dominion of sin in his life (Brother Fred, not real name) made him a slave to the dictates of sin (Genesis 4:7). By baring his soul, Brother Fred explained how he lost his appetite for prayer, witnessing, and Church services. While he still has a fear for God, his heart like King Solomon was driven to the pleasures of sin (1 Kings 11:3-8). In his distress, our Brother Fred has turned to the Church of God and he is appealing to all of us for prayer. As he explained his faith has been rocked and he lost all his spiritual weaponry that is why he said that he has been operating between sinning and repenting without any commitment and back again to sinning. In his own words, he explains that he is basically backslidden with a thin layer of faith remaining.
Fight The Good Fight Of Faith
Brethren, our intent is not to ridicule but to encourage others who reached this level of spiritual weakness in their faith, to turn to a trusted brother or sister in Christ for encouragement and counseling like our dear brother Fred has done. It could be easy for him to simply just give up and be lost (Hebrews 10:39) but he is concerned about his soul and eternal destiny. Being determined not to give up but to persevere, our brother Fred feels that he still have a fighting chance to reclaim his honor in Christ, not by his strength which failed him but by the grace he will receive from the Lord like Joshua and the prodigal son (Zechariah 3:2-7; Luke 15:11-32). In a confident statement, our brother Fred vowed to ask the Lord to help him endure one day at a time (Matthew 6:34).
In conclusion and given to brother Fred’s experience, we prayerfully hope to encourage our fellow brethren to pray, endure the pressure of our share of sufferings, minimize complaining as it displeases the Lord and leads us into sinning and to speak to a trusted, Spirit-led child of God to encourage and pray with you and share the pain of your burden (Numbers 11:17; Galatians 6:2). So then, if we preserve in our faith and the pain of our load we will emerge as more than conquerors (Romans 8:31-39).
If you would like to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please start by praying this Prayer of Sincere Repentance. For any questions or comments on this article or our ministry, please contact us.
Blessed Regards
Brother Glenn
