The Perfect Kind of Suffering

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. Proverbs 24:16

Suffering is a necessary part of following the call of God. There is no way around, under, or over it; we must pass through it.

There is no way to speed it up or find a shortcut if we want to finish the call without going astray on our own way.

Every person who says yes to the call will go through a process of purification by fire and testing in order to remove all and anything in us that is resisting or sabotaging us answering and finishing that call. We all wish there was another way, but there is not. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ walked through great suffering, rejection, loss, and leaving all of Heaven behind to follow His assignment, so we too will walk the road of suffering in order to complete ours.

The suffering of the righteous and the pure of heart is very different than the suffering and calamity of those who are in rebellion or compromise. Just as this verse from Proverbs reveals, the suffering of the righteous involves falling a certain amount of times, seven times, but they will always rise again and be delivered from it every time. In contrast, the wicked, rebellious ones will not go through a process of falling and rising and may go on for years or even decades without facing very much trial and hardship at all. BUT, when the appointed time comes for them to reap what they have sown, and they have not taken the many chances for repentance given, they will fall by calamity without that same promised deliverance and help given to the righteous.

At some precise point, the Lord gives them over to the destruction they have sown to.

Do not doubt it, we would be wise to receive this promise and warning.

Why does the righteous one suffer seven times? Seven in the Word of God is the Lord’s number of perfection and completion. Just as the Lord told Peter to forgive the one who sins against him seventy times seven, the Lord is speaking of a perfecting process (Matthew 18:22). He designs it for the complete removal of all bitterness and unforgiveness in Peter’s case, and a complete and total purging of the sins, character weaknesses, propensities to fall, open doors, hooks and generational iniquities and strongholds that are still a little bit or a lot inside us as we move toward His heavenly destiny for our lives.

Many of these things are dormant or very well hidden, and they will only come out, be exposed and given the chance for repentance in a season of suffering and pain. If these things were not exposed or addressed before reaching the appointed time of our destiny call, those very things would destroy and ensnare us and cause us to fall short of the high call He has for us. This is why some individuals, who are not willing to walk the humble road of obedience because of the change, waiting, suffering, loss and pain that is involved, fall into great sin or are led astray when they come into a position of promotion. They may be very gifted because the gifts from the Lord are present and irrevocable, but their character is weak and has not been through the fires of testing and pruning required to walk in the weight of the call. They will be divided in all their ways and have doors open to the enemy in their lives.

The Lord also perfects our faith through this seven suffering process by testing and building our faith— to build a faith in us that cannot be shaken or moved, especially when we are walking in our calling. Great and risky faith is always required for those who walk their life calling out. And faith is what the Lord accounts to us as righteousness.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

Beloved, consider this reality with me: Every person, Christ first and foremost, and all who followed Him both before He came and after, had to suffer much more than those around them when they responded to His call and purpose for their life—Abel, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Ruth, Esther, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the prophets, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John and the disciples, Paul, Silas, and all the great saints in His kingdom who fulfilled their high calling throughout history. Suffering, trial, satanic resistance, physical trials, spiritual harassments, threats, false accusations, rejection, misunderstanding, loss, public shame, long periods of waiting, hiddenness and isolation— these are the common threads in the lives of those heroes and victors in the faith who followed the call.

So why would we have any wonder, when we say yes to Him with a pure heart, that it would not be so for us.

And yet, wonder and wrestle we do. It is at these points in the journey, we need to submit ourselves to what He says about the righteous and why they suffer. That is pure faith—absolute submission to what we cannot understand or make sense of.

There is another reality we must consider and that is the earth and its current state: it is a battlefield, much of it still held under the dominion of Lucifer and his kingdom. So, we must be brave enough to accept the reality of the war we are in, for undeniably it is so, whether we accept it or not. Dangerous teachings have come from many pulpits stating that because there is blessing and reward in allowing Christ, that we will not also suffer great things for the same reason.

The truth is clear. There will be reward, blessing and inheritance, and there will be persecutions:

So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 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 10:29-30

Not accepting both will bring great confusion, double-mindedness, shame and doubt—it leads to questioning the faithfulness of God when the righteous suffer. If we are living on a battlefield of two opposing kingdoms, why would we NOT face arrows and attacks when we say yes to fulfilling our role in the very kingdom which is the greatest threat to the Satanic realm?

The Lord said to His disciples,

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33

The same world that put Christ to death and tried to make a mockery of His Lordship will most certainly be threatened by those who take seriously their purpose and are willing to walk the narrow road.

Jesus reminds those who follow Him and pay the price of this great truth: He overcame them all because of His own willingness to walk the path of suffering and give His own life. So we who are in Him are in this eternal victory with Him. We are seated with Him in the eternal realm, living in victory over the domain of darkness, even though while we live in the body, we must walk through the tribulations and attacks. We live in both realities at once, but the spiritual reality is where we live and receive our identity and destiny from. For it is the Highest Realm and Dominion.

There is a reward, a GREAT reward, for those who suffer for being righteous, for following the call of the Lord no matter what it costs or how long it takes.

The reward is the authority and inheritance of reigning with Him and being united with Him as His purified Bride (Revelation 2-3). The reward is also the generations and individuals, the nations that will be blessed by the fruit of our yes and our obedience to walk out the full perfecting process of suffering.

Most undeniably, the Lord Himself is our Reward, and all the good and perfect gifts He has for us, in this life on earth and in eternity.

Let’s circle back to the beginning of this message, and remember, that suffering is what perfects us. Of course it is a process of perfecting until we go to be with Him, but there is a place of readiness that comes after a season of perfect suffering, and the perfecting process gives us the purity, the authority, and the faith required for the height of our call.

This is why it cannot be skipped, avoided or rushed- when we truly believe it, we will want to walk it, for His sake and for our own.

I pray this perspective and heavenly viewpoint on suffering brings you great comfort, encouragement and hope for why the suffering continues, why it seems like the wicked continue to prosper, why it feels like God punishes the righteous. Remember His vision is for you to complete your life purpose, unhooked and unhindered with nothing to stop or block you, and He promises,

though you fall seven times, the Lord Himself will deliver you out of them all.