HOW DISTRESS POINTS US TO GOD'S GRACE (CHRIST)

'And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.' - Romans 8 vs 28

Greetings to you dearly beloved of God in Christ Jesus. I believe that this message will be a tremendous blessing to your life. I want you to give diligent attention to a story which I want to narrate to you right now, which actually happened, as it relates to a certain Brother. Be lifted!

A certain Brother born and brought up in a Christian family, trained uprightly in the ways of God, being that he was from a very religious background. To cut the story short, he grew to be 26 years old of age, still a virgin, he had kept himself these long years, guided by the strength of the flesh. One day something happened, he couldn't explain how it happened on that evil day; how the temptation overcame him he couldn't explain, he fell to the sin of fornication. Oooo! his world was over! The first thing he thought about was to commit suicide, he couldn't imagine that his 26 long years of virginity has been chattered in a day. It was too much for him to phantom, it was tormenting and torturous to his soul; he couldn't believe that what he was actually hiding and running from till marriage these long years of his life has actually happened to him just like that. To him, there was no way out of that pain seeing that his ill-action cannot been undone, therefore satan also helped in convincing him that his pain and torment is for a life time. O I could imagine what depression he was faced with. O, I can tell the pain, it was indeed terrible for him in that trying period of his life. This young man met me by divine connection, and here were my counsels which brought life back to him and restored peace to him:

Firstly brother, you have to believe that all things works together for the good of God's children as the Bible has said - all things! You have to believe first of all that this your predicament is working together for your good. God in His divine predestination structure does not set trials on our way, He doesn't send trials to us, but in His divine predestination plan, He has commanded that every test that comes the Believer's way should work out for his good. And one of that good our trials work out for us is that they point us to Christ, our redeemer, they point us to God's grace from which we have fallen, and opens our eyes to see His great love bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus, which as a result, brings about our restoration and affirms our victory over that trial/distress. - Selah

Brother, you have lived 26 years of your life in the flesh and not in God's grace, you have had all your confidence in the flesh and not in God's grace. See this:

'For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' - Philippians 3 vs 3 {KJV}

He said we have no confidence in the flesh. Why should confidence not be placed in the flesh as the Word said? Because,

'For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.' - Romans 7 vs 18 {KJV}

You see that? The flesh imbeds no good thing - that makes it very unprofitable and risky to bank strength and confidence on the flesh. - Selah

Now brother, you have a choice, to fully accept that you have sinned the sin, you are to acknowledge to the Lord now that you committed that sin, because you had the ability to! Someone does not become a thief because he steals, but steals because he is a thief. Therefore, you didn't become a sinner because you committed this sin, rather you committed it because you are a sinner (having the ability of a sinner to sin). Therefore, you are gonna acknowledge before the Lord that even if this sin had not occurred, you were still a sinner waiting to happen because of the blood and nature of the first Adam running in your being. Now acknowledge this beloved brother. And he in tears began to muse over it, as the Holy Spirit used the Words which I have spoken to break him, and he lifted up his hands and began to make confessions of acknowledgment. As he was doing all that, I said unto him, now you must realise that this is why Jesus came to become your Righteousness, and your Sanctification. Jesus in your life makes you Righteous and Holy all round, whether in your thoughts, in your words, or in your deeds. It has nothing to do with you, whether you are perfect in these areas, rather it has all to do with God, what He chose in His infinite loving plan to do for all of mankind, through His Son Jesus. You can't boast about it, you can't brag about it like you did with your life for 26 long years because of your upbringing which turned out to be futile and vain. It's all about Jesus! And the more you realise this, I am sure of one thing it will make out of you, it will make you a thanks giver. - Selah 

These Words broke him the more, as gradually the Holy Spirit was pointing him to see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hold on, what's happening here? It was distress, but see how God is with the very distress pointing a man to His grace. - Selah. I believe at this point my message is getting clear to you and is being understood.

Let's see some Bible verses:

'In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.' - Jeremiah 33 vs 16 {KJV}

'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption...' - 1 Corinthians 1 vs 30 {KJV}

I love what the verse 31 of this chapter (1 Corinthians 1) says:

'That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'

O praise God! You see... Not long, this beloved brother began to see how all of his confident boasting in himself all these while was against the Word of God. Because he had always boasted that he hadn't done this nor done that, and he even uses himself as an example when preaching most times, but all that came to an end, and he who once boasted in his works, was made, compulsorily by reason of circumstance to make the switch to begin to make his boast in Christ because he had no more reason to boast in himself, but every reason to boast in Christ. O I like this.

Now Beloved, you see how distress points us to God's grace in Christ, and that is strictly the work of the Holy Spirit which God has given to us in Christ Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!

I believe someone is blessed, I believe someone is lifted. Write me at [email protected], share your testimony with me, I want to hear it. It's blessed to know that the Word of the Lord is working mightily in you and producing its peaceable effects in you. Amen.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

- Jenning U. Angel