The blessing behind the test

The Apostle Santiago in this epistle begins by saying: "…James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes that are dispersed, cheers…" It is a greeting that he gives before beginning his letter, that was a custom very typical of the ancient world where at first it is like saying, dear so-and-so, I am sending you this letter hoping that you are well and that Mrs. Mohanita and the children are also well, etc. This is a greeting from Santiago.

James was the brother of Jesus Christ, the flesh and blood brother of Jesus. However, how interesting, he says:

"James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." He identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ, even though he is his brother. It makes me think of what Second Corinthians 5:17 says, I think it is, "and if we knew someone in the flesh, we no longer know him that way." If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Behold, all things are made new. Says:

"...From now on we know no one according to the flesh and even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him that way..."

That is to say, here Santiago, the identity that he assigns to Jesus is not that of his carnal brother, of flesh and blood, but of his Lord, and thus we always have to identify Jesus as our Lord, and ourselves as his servants. . No matter how important you are, whether you are a pastor, whether you are an evangelist, whether you are the pastor of a very large or a very small congregation, we are all servants of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this letter was written to the Christian Jews who were in the dispersion. It's a letter that has some Hebrew touches, actually, and we're going to see that later. It is a letter that is written to the 12 tribes that are in the dispersion, referring to the Hebrews who had been scattered from Jerusalem and who were in all parts of the world who could read their letter. Dispersion, the diaspora, all the Hebrews who had been taken to different parts of the earth which was called the dispersion, the diaspora, that is, the scattering, the Jews were scattered everywhere.

But, specifically, Santiago directs his letter to Jewish believers, Christians who are in these different parts and says health, that is, blessing, healing, etc., prosperity.

So here is the first point of the many topics that James deals with, and maybe I'll continue the next time we're together on Wednesday, maybe next Wednesday, but we're going to talk about a word that's here, verse 2 says:

"...My brethren, consider it great joy when you find yourself in various trials..."

I want to talk a little about that, about the Lord's desire that we understand the evidence. How many have gone through a test or are going through a test? I think everyone, right?

I think we have to learn how to face trials. There is not enough talk sometimes in churches, especially in Pentecostal churches, charismatics like us, about trials. We speak rather of triumph, of victory and it is precious, necessary, but it is also good to focus on the role of trials in the life of the believer.

He says,"... rejoice greatly when you find yourself in various trials, knowing that the test of your faith produces patience, but patience has its complete work so that you may be perfect and complete without lacking anything..."

How interesting that Santiago begins by talking about trials. The first thing he writes. Because? Because many of these Christians were in different parts of the Middle East, Palestine, Syria, Greece, Rome, and they found themselves persecuted, sometimes persecuted by their own Jewish brothers, who saw them as traitors to the Mosaic religion. Others were in poverty, others were suffering for being Christians in different ways, and others were just struggling with life, a difficult life that I imagine was lived in the first century.

And Santiago, directed by the Holy Spirit, the first thing he writes to these people who need comfort and strength, is... and he tells them something that could be surprising if you look at it carefully, have great joy when they are in different evidence.

Was Santiago a masochist or what? He gives some weird advice. If you find yourself in a trial, consider it a reason to rejoice and not rejoice in any way but rejoice extremely, rejoice greatly. Either he knows something we don't know or something is involved here, or he's crazy. But there is something very important.

But, I am interested in what he says, when you find in various tests. Why diverse? Because they are many. Because life has many tests. What did the Lord Jesus Christ say? He said, in the world you will find sorrow. That is the nature of human life. We live in a place mined with trials and difficulties. The nature of the world is like that, it is difficult, it is dangerous. Every day I am more convinced of the world, I walk in it more, the more I am convinced that it is dangerous and we are like defenseless animals walking in a forest full of beasts that are looking at us from the undergrowth, and we see their phosphorescent eyes in the middle of the night stalking us and wanting to destroy us. It is a difficult and dangerous world.

That does not mean that we are filled with negativity and that we live all paranoid, always seeing snares in everything. No, I believe that the Christian can enjoy himself greatly, there is no one who has more reason to enjoy life than a child of God, but we also have to know that the world is dangerous and that there are difficulties and there are dangers of all kinds .

That is why I understand Jesus' prayer more and more every day, more deliver us from evil, or deliver us from evil. In reality, what the Lord said is evil, which is the devil, who produces evil. I was preaching in Puerto Rico this weekend and God gave me a word for the congregation to which we preach, Meche was also there and preached on Saturday, by the way, they liked Meche's preaching very much, I felt very jealous, but I prayed and God gave me healing.

I really enjoyed myself, the people really enjoyed his teaching. I spoke about Jabez on Friday night. Jabez also prayed and said, oh, if you would give me a blessing, if you would enlarge my territory and if your hand were with me and you delivered me from evil so that it does not harm me. Rid one of evil.

The world is dangerous, the world is full of sorrows, trials, difficulties, dangers, that is the world we live in. And the Christian has to know how to face that nature of the world in which we live. Trials are going to come into your life whether you want it or not, at some point, no matter how good you are walking, no matter how well you behave, no matter how much you pray, no matter how much you fast, you will never leave this world. without having tasted times of difficulty. Get used to that from now on and take heart from that fact.

Because the important thing is that in the midst of all those things, God will get you through. That is why Paul says, before in all these things we are more than conquerors. Not above, or despite, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors. The Christian needs to understand and arm himself with the knowledge and clear understanding that before we leave this world we are going to have about 10 or 20 good scares and we are going to see ourselves with water around our necks.

And the question is how are we going to get out of it? Believing that God will always get us out of all our predicaments, all our struggles. The just man falls 7 times but he will rise from all of them, says the word of the Lord.

So, it is not a question, if we are warriors, we are soldiers, we are in a world undermined by evil, the tests will come, the question is that the word of the Lord has many teachings to give us on how to go through difficulties and tests and the tribulations that come in the world.

I am going to take some time to work on this and I am going to cut it where I cut it, where the time falls, but I want to continue.

So the first thing to look at is that, in various trials, many different trials are going to come and the important thing is that the word of the Lord always calls us to a posture of hope and an expectation of victory in all the tribulations in which we...

Trials have a purpose and are useful and have a fruit that they can produce and many times God designs them to effect a positive result in us. And I am going to talk a little more about that later, that tests are often God's scalpel to remove something from us that is not good for him, because he wants to use us, nor is it good for us because they are going to use us. Cause damage.

So the tests are sometimes God's interventions in our flesh, in our mind, in our emotions, which cause a result in us. How does God operate in the human soul? I do not believe that God necessarily comes, sometimes yes, he can operate sovereignly and through his grace make a change in us, but many times God works through circumstances, through human relationships, through experiences that are forming us Because it is that God does not violate human nature, the way in which he has constituted us.

He does not come and mess with the wires of the human personality. What he does is that by obeying the nature that he has given us, obeying the laws that he has instilled in us, in our nervous system, our spiritual system, he then puts us through a series of dramas or psychodramas , as used by psychologists, psychiatrists, who often make one play and elaborate a drama in front of oneself, or in a group they make one say one thing and another to another so that one can try out certain situations and that the mind passes through them and that causes a change inside. Because the psychologist cannot get in, or the psychiatrist inside you, and with a spoon or scissors, cut something. No, no, what he does is that he operates through those psychodramas.

Well, God does the same, what happens is that God has much more resources in front of him. He can build a whole drama through his life and allow certain things to happen and sometimes also the devil comes and wants to do harm in your life and destroy you and God is there watching and leaves you… but then he takes that and directs it.

There may be situations in your life too, the world has its own laws, its own dynamics and God is there too, I believe, in a mysterious way. And he uses all these different dynamics and laws and circumstances and experiences of life, and he channels it all towards a beneficial purpose for you.

Say amen if only to let me know you're there. That is why the word says that to those who love God all things work together for good. That is, to those who are called according to his purposes.

That is the wonderful thing, that everything that happens in the life of a child of God, everything, in some way, is working and God directs it, they are like different rivers, different movements, all of God takes it and leads it towards an end. . God's end, says the Bible, which is always good. That's in Hebrews, I don't remember the passage, but you can look it up later. In Hebrews it says that God's ending is always positive, always good. And now he's obsessed with where it says that. That's the problem with me, that sometimes you get into these things and until you find them... but believe me, he says it, that God's ending is good.

So, that's how the processes are, at first the sufferings of the children of God are serious, but God uses everything, God directs everything towards good. God uses all these things to guide us and that's why Santiago is trying, here in code, I want to take a tour through all these different moments that indicate that to us.

We have to have great joy, because there is a purpose in it, God allows all these things because he has a positive ending. Somehow, he is not talking about enjoying ourselves emotionally, he is saying that we have… Lord, what can I learn from this? When you go through a difficult situation, a test, always ask yourself, Lord, what good thing do you have behind this? What are you saving me from? What are you preparing me for? What are you teaching me? What are you cutting into me? What are you promoting in my life through this psychodrama, through which you are putting me at this moment? And how can I find joy in the midst of that difficulty?

The last thing I am going to tell you in this process is that the first expert in suffering, trials and tribulations is our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we believe that if a person is very powerful and very wise, and very holy, they will not go through tribulations, and we have to understand that the great, great expert in suffering and pain is called Jesus Christ.

That is why Paul said that he wanted to get to know Jesus in his resurrection and in his sufferings. Many people want to know Jesus only in his resurrection, his power, in his most victorious moment which was when God raised him from the dead. But what of his sufferings?

Paul knew that he could not know Jesus fully, deeply, totally if he did not know him in that dark dimension of his personality and his ministry, which were his sufferings and sufferings.

And if we want to have true intimacy with Jesus, we also have to go through our own trials. That's why the Lord said, take up your cross every day and follow me if you want.

Look, and I'll leave you with this, Isaiah, chapter 53:7. Again, remember, when you go through situations of tribulation and difficulty in some mysterious way, you are establishing communion with the Son of God who suffered so much in the world for us, for our sins, for tribulations, and who says he was improved. God perfected him through afflictions, in his human nature, that is, the human part of Jesus, he was perfected through different afflictions and difficulties.

But Isaiah 53:7 speaks to us says:

“…Distraught he, that is the suffering servant, the famous portrait of the suffering servant, prophetically the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus, spoke of the nature of his life and ministry. Furthermore, look at verse 3 it says:

"... Despised and discarded among men, a man of sorrows..." it was as if his very nature was pain. “… a man of sorrows, experienced in grief… − then in verse 7 it says, − … distressed and afflicted he did not open his mouth, like a lamb he was led to the slaughter and like a sheep before his shearers he was silent and did not open his mouth, for imprisonment and by trial he was removed, and his veneration who will count it? Because he was cut off from the land of the living and because of the rebellion of my people he was wounded and his grave was made with the wicked, but with the rich in his death, although he never did evil..."

His sufferings were not because he was in sin, because he did something wrong, no, although he never did wrong... there are people who say, you are going through problems because you did some shameless thing out there and he is charging you now. Ah, this illness, yes, you brought it on yourself, this illness that you have, something you are not praying enough or something that God is giving you... brothers, stop fooling around. Many times in the moments of greatest blessing and growth in our life a test, a difficulty can come, in the moments of greatest following the Lord correctly, the test can come.

"... although he never did evil or deceit in his mouth, with all that, the Lord wanted to break him..."

That was not the devil who took Christ to the cross and his suffering, no, for some reason God in his lordship, his sovereignty, his knowledge of who Jesus was, wanted to break him. Of course, because there was a very big, cosmic drama that God was carrying out.

“…subjecting him to suffering. When he has put his life in atonement for sin, he will see lineage, he will live for long days, and the will of Jehovah will be prosperous in his hand. He will see the fruit of the affliction of his soul and will be satisfied..."

You do not see here also an implication for ourselves. When we go through a trial, God takes us through the sugar mill and we come out smelling of smoke, 20 pounds less because of the great scare we went through and the drought and hunger and fear and difficulties. Listen to me, we came out that the skin is fresher, more luxuriant, we feel lighter. We have learned a few things, and then God blesses us.

"... he will see lineage, he will live for long days, and the will of Jehovah will be prosperous in his hand..."

Many times trials and difficulties result in blessing for us. If we spend them as God wants us to, we live long days, we see lineage, God's purpose is prosperous in our lives. So, like Christ, we too are going to have our difficulties, the first teacher, our patron saint is called Jesus in these matters.

If you are young, arm yourself because several moments come. If you're older, you're going to look back and see times when God has passed you by and maybe we still have a few left. But be that as it may, we have to know that the tests play a role, they are part of it.

Now, the good thing is that when we are in the ways of the Lord, and we are in his administration, everything that happens, the devil does not get away with anything. God forces him to do God's work in favor of his children, everything will turn out for the best. So trust in the Lord. Nobody wants to go through a test, and when we are in the middle of the test we have to ask Him, Lord, that my faith does not fail, that I bless you, that I kiss your hand, that although I do not understand why, I know that something is yours. you have at hand in this process that I am living and if I hold on and hold on and take that bitter drink and bless you, in the long run I will come out strong and blessed and more luxuriant and more powerful than ever. Amen.

So, brothers, tonight we are going to receive that blessing from the Lord and may God help us to consider some mysterious joy, finding ourselves in different tribulations and believing that God has a purpose for it and that if we give it time we will see the fruit , we will see the result. God never falls asleep or drowsy. Behold, the one who guards Israel will not slumber or sleep. He is never asleep.

When we are going through tribulations, he is there with us in the test, in the difficulty. He says, don't worry, I am with you every day, I am the one who strengthens you, I lift you up, I defend you. We will get through this together and we will come out stronger than ever. May God bless you tonight and may that security be with us at all times. Amen.