The ability of a believer in Christ to develop his spirit man in the time of trouble, is very crucial to his spiritual growth. The Kingdom of God is all about growth. It is about the believer’s ability, to be able to use the potentials inside of his redeemed spirit man in replenishing the earth.
That’s why we were all created by God to be here on earth. God has assigned us here on earth to grow up into the likeness of Christ Jesus, in exercising spiritual authority over the evil one (the devil), who had rebelled against Him from the very beginning of all things.
Our Christian lives are also designed by Him, to bring increase into the body of Christ.
Unfortunately many are not making use of the potentials inside of their born again spirit in the time of troubles, to profit in their spiritual growth and the Kingdom of God on earth. Most especially in the time of troubles they’ll rather want the Pastors, or someone else to fight the good fight of faith for them, instead of getting on their fights by themselves. And as soon as the enemy presses in harder on them, they’ll give up and quit to their own shame. But it doesn’t need to be that way. We do actually have the ability on the inside of us, to turn the table back on the enemy. We can turn his spiritual lemons that had been targeted against us, into sweet lemonade drinks for our spiritual growth.
Many have abandoned the Christian faith for the world of sins and unrighteousness, that they once used to live before just because of this. They’ve abandoned faith because they are quitters.
And for some others the problem is not really about the fight of faith. Their problem had always been the unavailability of sound biblical doctrines in their local congregations, that would have helped them to separate their spirit, soul (mind) and body from one another (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Many of these believers today are confused and not strong in faith towards God, while they are still struggling in their spiritual lives to grow up into maturity.
Their spiritual lives are therefore tattered, as they are not being taught within their own congregations, about how to separate the spiritual life from their lives in the soul or the mind. They do need this for them to be able to have the rule over their minds and their bodies, with their born again spirit man.
Consequently by exercising spiritual control through the spirit man within them, over their bodies and their thought patterns, they would have grown up to be whom God wants them to be. They do need this inner empowerment, for them to be able to win the battles and struggles of life that they do face daily.
If a believer is able to identify and separate the voices of his spirit, mind and body from one another, in listening to the born again spirit man within him, that believer will always be able to walk in constant victory. He will be empowered to make the right choices in life by the spirit man within him. He can then grow up spiritually in becoming, whom God created him to be on earth.
TURNING THOSE TROUBLES INTO A STEPPING STONE
Troubles are meant to always come to every believer on earth. No one is ever immunized from troubles. But troubles are also meant to empower and increase our spiritual growth in God’s Kingdom. There is no trouble that a Christian faces in life, which God will not provide a way of escape out of.
God is never the author of your life’s troubles. Neither will He ever bring you troubles, or allow them to come your way; as certain misguided theologians had assumed in misleading many away from faith in God. No, God does not test anyone with evil (James 1:13-18).
We were created in the image of Christ Jesus, and we are to be getting stronger and bolder, in the face of trials and tribulations.
Jesus once said:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NIV
Troubles don’t make us shrink back from God. No, they are meant to make us run to Him always.
The Psalmist says:
“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling.There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.”
Psalms 46:1-5 NKJV
God remains a very strong refuge to the believer in the time of trouble. As we run to God in trouble, we will be saved.
The Psalmist mentioned here that there is a river of God which flows to bring us salvation from trouble. This is a direct reference to the works of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, as we seek God in the time of trouble. God’s help comes to a believer in this way – by His indwelling Spirit within our spirit man.
The Psalmist also says:
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.””
Psalms 91:1-2 NKJV
And again:
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Psalms 50:15 NKJV
Troubles are meant to glorify God in our lives. God is our refuge and fortress in the time of trouble. We don’t run away from God’s people, or from God in the time of trouble. That is where our help always comes from. Our relationship with the Church and with God are meant to make our spirit man stronger than our mind and body.
The spirit man inside of us is our point of contact with the Holy Spirit, from where our victory emanates. Once the spirit man can see the victory coming, that’ll be all that we need to hold on by faith to (the victory), until it manifests in the physical.
The problem is that many don’t know how to hold on, to what they are seeing in their spirit man. In most cases this is because they are not used, to feeding and strengthening the spirit man within them, by praying in the spirit and meditating on God’s Word daily. We do need a strong and bold faith in God and in the victory, that we are seeing in the spirit realm, as we are overcoming the troubles of life.
Faith takes hold of the invisible things to the physical eyes, making it to manifest in the physical. And faith comes through our ability to meditate on the word of God daily.
Trouble is therefore one tactic in the enemy’s numerous attempts, to stop the believer from acting by faith into spiritual maturity. David again wrote from his personal experiences in troubles.
He said:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.”
Psalms 34:19-20 NKJV
A believer in Christ Jesus who is righteous before God, is always guaranteed divine protection from every troubles of life. God will never abandon any of His own in the midst of troubles. No, He will never do that. He fights always for them. The believer comes out unscathed and unharmed by the devil’s troubles in life. Instead he is growing wiser and stronger in faith before God through them all.
But the fight is often unseen with the physical eyes, as the fight can only be seen with the spiritual eyes. And because of this many had abandoned their faith in Christ Jesus. We need faith in God to be able to see with our spiritual eyes of understanding.
Those who had abandoned the good fight of faith, did so because they can’t see their victory with the eye of faith. Their faith walk is dead. And since faith is essential to please God, they may be calling upon Him; but they can’t hear His voice in answer to their prayers without faith. They can only relate with the physical world around them, but their spiritual eyes has been darkened by the devil, to see or hear God in the midst of their troubles.
Paul said of them:
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
II Corinthians 4:3-4 NKJV
They are blinded from the lifestyle of faith, and therefore they cannot see or hear about, what God is giving to them in helping them out of troubles. Many has experienced spiritual failures as a result of this.
THERE IS NO FAILURE IN CHRIST
But there is absolutely no failure for any believer in Christ. The only failure is in the believer’s inability to pray and keep up with the fight of faith.
Apostle John wrote:
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
I John 5:4-5 NKJV
The good fight of faith is about overcoming. It’s all about winning. There is absolutely no failure in Christ. We overcome and are always victorious if only we don’t ever quit.
God never created us in the likeness of Christ, so as to become lukewarm or cold towards His Kingdom in the face of troubles. If we are really saved, then troubles will always reignite the fire of God within us, thereby making us to cling on to Him and to love Him more and more. Troubles and persecutions are designed to help us, in bringing spiritual growth and increase into the Kingdom of God.
The early Church grew and multiplied in the face of persecutions. The more they were being persecuted, the more the Church grew in spiritual strength and power. We are unstoppable and nothing in this world can ever be able to stop the Kingdom of God inside of us as the children of God.
Jesus said:
“And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize–a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].”
Matthew 11:12 AMPC
MAXIMIZING TROUBLES FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND FRUITFULNESS
The ability of a believer to develop his born again spirit man in the midst of troubles, trials of faith and persecutions, is therefore important to his spiritual growth. When the enemy applies pressure on us from the outside, we are meant to apply the pressure back on him from the inside of our spirit man. It is just like squeezing the lemons of life that had been thrown at us, with the aim of making something better out of it.
Our spirit man does this, as it receives strength from the Holy Spirit who lives on the inside of us, while we remain faithful and dedicated to the Word of God and prayer. The Holy Spirit lives inside us, to help us in the times of troubles (John 14:15-18).
We will grow into spiritual maturity as we learn to constantly listen and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit on the inner man during these moments. We do not listen or pay attention to the lies, tricks and deceptions of the enemy around us during these moments.
No, God lives on the inside of us. And the answer or solution to every one of the world’s problems are on the inside of us. The solutions to every problem on earth today, either physical or spiritual are all inside of our redeemed spirit man. We just need to be able to dig into the spirit man inside of us, and bring out the solutions.
In most instances I had personally discovered, how God is even more interested in the minute details of my life, during those moments of trials, troubles and persecutions. Things like what I am eating, drinking or wearing are often more important to Him during those difficult times. I do personally believe that this is a unique way, by which God protects and defends His righteousness within us, thereby preventing us from falling into the traps, or smear of the enemy during those moments.
You do actually have the potential during the troubles to affecting, how you are maximizing your spiritual powers, to impact your spiritual growth out of the situations. When we are able to train the spirit man to listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in little things, we will find it easier in listening to Him for the real deep spiritual things.
But we have to start from the little things first, and as we get used to our fellowship with the Holy Spirit about the little things, we will discover that most of the things that we normally worry about, are not really important to our spiritual growth. But we must be prepared to start taking the little steps of faith before the Lord. They will lead us into greater things.
In actual fact as we are taking those little steps, we are strengthening our spirit on the inner man. We are stretching our spiritual muscles when we are doing this. This was what Paul meant when he wrote to the Ephesians about praying for them:
“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:16-19 NKJV
There is no limit for us in our spiritual growth in the midst of the troubles of life. We actually grow faster and higher in Christ through the trials of our faith. We will begin to love people better, as we grow in the wisdom and love of God. Love is always God’s way of doing things. We will begin to grow deeper in understanding how the love of God works in our hearts towards those who are opposing us.
But it is the ability of a believer to use his spirit man in prayer and intercession, that is therefore vital to his ability to stay strong in overcoming the enemy.
We should therefore never be carried away from faith in God, by all the tactics of the enemy against the mind and the body. Those are the soft targets of the enemy against us.
That’s why Jesus said:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
MATTHEW 10:28 AMP
The soul here is a direct reference to our redeemed spirit man on the inside of us. God’s Kingdom is on the inside of the redeemed spirit man (Luke 17:21). The enemy likes to hit at the soft targets in your life. He can’t touch your spirit man as a believer in Christ, because it belongs to God. The devil is fighting against something that he can’t touch or handle; and that explains why he is so much involved in throwing stuffs at believers in Christ. He is just trying to distract attention away from, the most powerful weapon that God has given you, on the inner man against him. He can’t mess around with that redeemed power source of God inside of you. He may often throw different shots at your physical body and at your mind; but that spirit man inside of you is off limits to him. And that’s where our ability to walk in the victory lies. That’s the position of strength from where we grow up on the inside to overcoming him on the outside.
There is enormous power inside your redeemed spirit man, as that man inside of you develops a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit who lives inside you.
Paul described the power in you this way, when he continued by telling the Ephesians:
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV
There is a great dynamic power inside of you as a believer in Christ Jesus, that is able to help you in overcoming every oppositions from the devil in your life. You are stronger than who you think you really are. You are capable of doing more than what is available to you right now.
And the secret to being able to annex your spiritual power appropriately, lies in your ability to develop the spirit man on the inside of you. Your spiritual growth comes from the inside of that man inside of you. Your spiritual growth has nothing to do with your mind or physical body. But as spiritual growth comes, it will start affecting both the mind and the physical body.
That’s why the ability to bear spiritual fruit is important to the spiritual growth of any believer, even while going through trials, persecutions and tribulations.
But the truth is that, you can actually turn the devil’s lemons, which are continually being thrown at you, into sweet lemonade drinks for your spirit man to drink from always, as you build up your most holy faith by praying in the spirit (Jude 1:20-21).
This was what Jesus meant when He said:
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
John 7:37-39 NKJV
Are you tired or running out of spiritual power in the midst of the lemons or troubles of life. It’s time for you to start squeezing out the juice out of your lemons, by praying more in the spirit and by the Holy Spirit in you. You can turn those lemons of your life into sweet lemonade drinks, to not only grow into maturity as you drink of it. But you can also turn it all around into blessing the world around you for the enlargement of God’s Kingdom. You can bring increase into the Kingdom of God through your trials. The world around you is waiting on you, to turn things around. What are you waiting on? Start drinking from that fountain of life in you today.
