GAINING EXPERIENCE

"THEREFORE BEING JUSTIFIED by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:1-5).

 

The year before I retired from the job I had for 42 years was a very difficult one.  I was asked to supervise five separate departments, all of which were “problem areas.”  I was forced to ask a lot from the people who reported to me, and I was asked to give more of my time to try to turn some of the worst operations around.  The problems were mostly engineering and maintenance issues resulting from the purchase of new equipment that wasn’t robust enough to do what the engineers were expecting of it.  My challenge was to provide the manpower and oversight required to run the equipment around the clock, and seven days a week.  It was exhausting and frustrating to be sure, and the patience of many of the operators was wearing thin.  To add to the confusion, the manager I reported directly to and had formed a good working relationship with over several years, retired; and they had no one to replace him with during this critical time.  The director tried to step in until they found a replacement for my boss, but he was new to our plant and knew little about the day-to-day operations.  Looking back at that time I can see that it was a perfect storm brewing around me that I wasn’t able to avoid.

 

Things came to a head one evening when I was forced into what I considered was an impossible situation.  I made a decision that I thought was a reasonable compromise between what I was asked to do and what I needed to do.  The decision that I made did not result in any negative effect to any of the operations that I was responsible for, but it was viewed as insubordination, and I was demoted right afterwards.

 

I was devastated by the turn of events, and I went before the Lord asking Him for some clarification of why this had happened, and if there was anything I could have done differently to have prevented it.  The answer that He gave me was unexpected.  He led me to the story in the Book of the Acts about Paul and Silas being thrown in a Philippian prison for preaching the Gospel.  These two men of God had been sent to this city after Paul had seen a vision telling him to do that very thing!  That decision eventually resulted in their being unjustly beaten, chained, and thrown in a dungeon.  Their reaction to these events was exemplary, however.  Instead of despairing, they prayed - and not only prayed, but they sang praises to their God from the depths of that prison!   

 

The thing that got my attention the most about this story was the way in which God chose to deliver these two beloved saints.  He sent an earthquake!  Out of all the ways that I would expect God to answer the prayers of His beloved, an earthquake would be toward the bottom of my list.  An earthquake is dangerous.  An earthquake is frightening.  An earthquake is something that we would never pray for specifically, but it was an earthquake that God chose to send.  The force of it shook the prison to its foundation, caused all of the doors to open up, and even released the shackles that bound the men of God.  The Lord showed that He can even use an earthquake as a precision instrument when and if He chooses!  No one was injured, and no one escaped; but at least one man, along with his family, was changed forever that night.  The jailor was moved to repentance because of what he had seen and heard.

 

After reading this story, and praying about it in connection with what had just happened to me, I came to realize that God had allowed an earthquake to come my way to release me from my shackles and lead me in an unexpected direction.  I hadn’t even been considering retirement up to this point, but all of a sudden it was a very real possibility.  The Lord wanted to open my prison doors so that I could then devote myself more fully to His Word and work.  He was able to use something unexpected – and potentially dangerous – to get my attention and lead me in a direction that I would otherwise have never considered.

 

Not everything in life goes smoothly for Christians.  We don’t always receive the deliverance that we are looking for, or get healed in the way that we expect; but God is always moving in the background to work all things together for good in the lives of His children.  We can be confident of this one thing: He Who said, “Let us pass over unto the other side,” will see that it happens regardless of how many storms we encounter on the way over! 

 

Everything that happens to us is providing us with experience that will be invaluable to us going forward.  Our bad experiences are just as valuable as our good ones (often even more so).  Our failures are as instructive as our successes (often even more so).  Paul said that he was instructed “everywhere and in all things.” (See Philippians 4:12).  And so are we.  Nothing is wasted with God.  He is able to weave every random thread into the beautiful tapestry that He is creating of our life.

 

The ideal formula that God employs to produce growth in us is: tribulation + patience + experience = hope.  All these things are connected.  One thing produces the next thing until we reach hope.  Hope is the inner assurance that God will handle everything in our future because we have seen Him handle things in our past.  It is experience, however, that gives us credibility.  When we have come through some storms and survived, we can comfort and help others who are going through storms.  If I were to hire a plumber or a mason to fix a problem in my house, I would want someone who had dealt with a problem like mine before, and not someone who had merely looked it up in a book or online and thought they could tackle it.  I once had a dentist who told me that I needed a root canal.  I asked him if he was able to do that himself, and he said something like, “I’ve never done one, but I should be able to do it.”  Needless to say, I declined the offer and never went back!

 

The power of the Word of God is in the personal witness of those who have been quickened by the Spirit of God through faith.  This is what is meant by the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, and this is something that the Church desperately needs to see in these last days.

 

Jesus is, and always has been, the Word of God.  He was in the beginning with God, and He spoke all things into existence (see John 1:1-3).  He is the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of His person.  He upholds everything by the Word of His power.  In the fullness of time, it pleased the Father to send His Son into the world in the form of flesh and blood.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Jesus became the Word made flesh.  Mankind could see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears what God would be like if He were confined in a mortal body.  When we allow the Word to transform us and become engrafted in us, we, too, begin to manifest the Word in our mortal flesh.  After all, we are the Body of Christ and should, therefore, manifest His words, His deeds, and His example.

 

Scripture tells us that TRIBULATION (which can come in the form of affliction, trouble, distress, anguish, persecution, anxiety, stress, temptation, or oppression) works PATIENCE (endurance, perseverance, steadfastness) in us, and patience then works EXPERIENCE.  So then, it is the trials that we go through in this life, with the resulting patience that we gain from them, that gives us the experience that we need to be effective witnesses of what God can do.

 

Joseph went through many trials in his life even though he was faithful to God.  Each experience forged the Lord’s character and image in Joseph and propelled him toward the ultimate purpose that God had planned for him.  That purpose was to stand before the very brothers who had betrayed him and wished him dead, and to be free of any feelings of hatred, resentment, or revenge.  It was to be filled with the love of God for them, and to minister to them out of a heart of compassion.  Without the refining and the tribulation that Joseph had gone through, he couldn’t have spoken to his brothers without guile or rage.  God had changed his heart.  Joseph said to his brothers, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life…and God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” (Genesis 45:5-8).  In that hour, Joseph manifested the grace and glory of the Son of God, and was able to minister to his brethren because of the experiences that he had come through himself.

 

Paul covers the subject of experience and its value to the Christians pretty fully in 2 Corinthians chapter one.  He starts by saying, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3, 4).  God is a God of comfort.  He has placed His own Spirit within us and called that Spirit “the Comforter” for a reason.  God spoke to us through Isaiah when He said, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.  When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.  For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.” (Isaiah 43:1-3).  The Lord said WHEN we pass through the water, and WHEN we walk through the fire, not IF we will do those things.  It is a given that we must all face tribulation, but it is God Himself Who comforts us as we go through those trials.  The purpose?  So that we are able to comfort others who are going through trouble because of the comfort we have received from God ourselves.

 

Paul continues, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” (2 Corinthians 1:5, 6).  Paul understood the purpose in pain and the value of experiencing suffering.  He knew that experiencing hardship would forge the character of Christ in him; but also that through the forging process, he would receive an abundance of consolation from the Lord.  Paul knew he couldn’t lose.  As he endured the struggles, he would be an example to other believers of the grace and mercy of the Lord; and as he was comforted by God, it would also give hope, comfort, and strength to others.  “And our hope of you is stedfast, KNOWING, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.” (2 Corinthians 1:7).  No wonder Paul and Silas could sing and praise God when their bodies were aching because of beatings and being locked locked in chains!  They KNEW that God was about to do something amazing for them.

 

“For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence [answer; verdict] of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in Whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).  Paul knew what he was talking about because he experienced hardships first-hand.  For this reason, he was able to minister to others out of the wealth of consolation and comfort that he had received from God when he was experiencing those things.  “Pressed out of measure,” “above strength,” and “despaired even of life” may be things that we are called on to endure; but though we may be under the sentence of death, we are learning to trust in the One Who raises the dead and delivers those who trust in Him.

 

We must learn to rise up, stand our ground, resist the devil, and watch him flee from us.  Often we find, though, that while our spirit is willing, our flesh is weak.  This is when we need to remember the words that our Lord spoke to Paul when that Apostle was suffering with an affliction in his flesh.  Jesus said to him, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

 

The end result of this process of tribulation, patience, and experience is HOPE.  Experience works hope.  The more trials that we come out of, the more we know that God is faithful and will always be with us no matter what we may face.  This is hope!  And hope makes us unashamed of whatever we may go through for the Lord’s sake because God sheds His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that He has given us.  Don’t be afraid of the trials that life brings your way.  They have their purpose and God, in the end, will be glorified.       

 

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5, 6).