Living on this hill for some 18 plus years now, I have learned a few things about adversity and, perhaps, the most important is that without adversity there is no strong growth, maybe even no growth at all. If I plant a tree, a sapling, such as one brought from elsewhere where the weather is a lot calmer, such as grown in a pot in someone's back yard in a suburban area, such are usually tall and thin, not much strength to them and, once planted, typically last no more than a few weeks, if that. The strong winds here are frequent and can be ferocious and they snap such a tree in two. However, if I grow a tree from seed or very small seedling here on the hill, if it survives, its trunk grows thick, strong, immense for the height of the tree, and that is because of the winds, because of the adversity. I supply it with only enough water to survive the very dry spells that are also frequent here so that it has a chance to put strong roots down deep, through cracks and gaps in the basaltic rock under the thin layer of topsoil and into the deeper volcanic soil where water accumulates during wet periods. It takes time and a lot of care but, once it does that, the tree is immovable. It survives severe tempests, drought, flooding downpours, hail, extreme cold and extreme heat. As long as the rains come at least once in a while, the only thing that can kill such a tree is a direct lightning strike, literally, a bolt from heaven, or a fire.
No athlete becomes great without being subjected to the struggle of intense competition. No professional becomes expert in a field without challenges to overcome. The steeper the climb, the stronger the climber. No faith in God is worth anything without testing and refining and such strengthened faith is needed in order that we accomplish the works which God has, aforetime, prepared and assigned for us to do.
In the midst of all this fear and anxiety with what is going on in the world under the influence of powerful people (whose power, by the way, only exists in our minds as long as we are deceived into believing they have authority over us which, unfortunately, appears to be the case for too many people), with the looming and growingly existential threat of a global totalitarian tyranny, we need meaningfully real hope or we just wither and perish and become easy prey for the powers of wickedness. However, it need not be that way.
God allows this great adversity we face in order to reignite His spiritual nation, true Christianity, His people, and as the adversity grows stronger, everywhere we see signs of turning back to the Ever Living God, signs of people seeking Yeshua, our Lord and saviour. For me, it is a sign that the final Elijah to come will soon be raised up, that the two witnesses are just around the corner, that God is bringing His people out of the worldly wilderness into which they were scattered almost two millennia ago and back into a united, organised entity on the face of the Earth, in preparation for entering "kingdom come", the coming Kingdom of Heaven, of God, on the Earth, exactly as described in the Lord's prayer, exactly as described at the end of Revelation chapter 11, exactly as the Lord Himself told us would happen.
In every situation where the children of God are confronted by an immensely powerful adversary and find themselves under what seems like an irresistable attack, God uses those circumstances to strengthen His people thus increasing their faith in Him. He always uses every adverse situation to help us to grow and nothing He does is wasted. As only one of many examples, consider the situation when the Israelites left Egypt and Pharaoh sent his armed forces to either bring them back into slavery or destroy them. They were afraid for their lives but God used the situation to their advantage, to strengthen their faith and their resolve in moving forward and following Him, and He wiped out the power of Pharaoh in the process, power which Pharaoh only imagined was actually his. Not only that, the people numbered with the Israelites only increased as a mixed multitude out of Egypt had joined them. Remember, Egypt is a parable of the world under the power of the wicked, Pharaoh is an image of the current evil worldly powers which will culminate in the coming son of perdition, ancient Israel is a picture of spiritual Israel and, just as the original Israel came back into the world as a physical nation, likewise will happen to spiritual Israel, it will return as a spiritual nation, the true church of Christ. Finally, the mixed multitude is a picture of those who will turn to God during the growingly treacherous times, and we see it all happening right now, right before our very eyes! So, I say, do not fear for your God comes and nothing can take you out of His mighty hand. That does not mean we will escape all adversity, almost certainly most will not, save for but a few, but it does mean that adversity will not be our end.
Personally, I have experienced bad circumstances, on various occasions throughout my life, which the Lord has turned to my good (though I will not go into details here), so I have no doubts about His ability to do whatever He plans with whatever materials and circumstances He has at hand, be they good or bad, small or great, obscure or obvious. For many of us, the main problem is that we do not know what difficulties we must face and that frightens us, but we do know one thing; He will never test us beyond our true limits. He will only stretch those limits through testing. The trunk grows thicker, stronger and taller and the roots grow deeper.
The apostle tells us that the Lord uses all things (and all really does mean all) for the good of those who love Him:
Rom 8:28 ASV And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, (even) to them that are called according to (His) purpose.
Whatever we face, it is of the utmost importance that we remember that the adversity leading to accelerated spiritual growth is the strong, tempestuous storm which buffets us in our life's journey and, should we choose to stand up to it and push forward in faith, bearing up under the load, carrying the cross, as we enter uncharted territory, we will grow stronger in our faith and, eventually, nothing will seem impossible.
It is instructive to note how the enemy has attacked virtually all of humanity and not focused primarily on the children of God. Why is this? Because the spiritual Israelite kingdom, the true Christian church, the true body of Christ, is still in the worldly wilderness and is yet to be restored as an organised and directly identifiable entity on the Earth. As a result, the enemy being not a true god and limited in capacity, the effectiveness of his attacks are diffused as he desperately seeks to wipe out as much of the populace of the soon coming Kingdom of God as he can, by attacking all of humanity, in the hopes of destroying the faith of the faithful through suffering at the hands of his human minions. Another point worthy of consideration is this idea that all of humanity will own nothing, except, of course, the members of the self-appointed, self-described "elite". Why is this? It is because God has clearly stated that the whole of the Earth is His, the cattle on a thousand hills are His, all that exists is His, so, of course, the enemy wants to take possession of it all to himself, usurping the true owner who is soon to return. No surprises there.
However, when the last Elijah appears and draws out the children of God from wherever they are on the Earth, and the true Christian church reappears on the face of the Earth in preparation for receiving their soon arriving King, the enemy's attacks will then be focused on that body of Christ and the final years, the great tribulation of the saints, will begin. Watch for it in the coming months and years, for I believe it is near. Of course I could be wrong and it could be yet another decade away but I have the distinct impression that it is very near, even at the door.
Trust God, not man.
