Persevering in Jesus Christ!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:10-12 NIV

Because living for the world and living for the kingdom of God is totally different and completely opposite to each other, the followers of Jesus Christ ought to wear the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) at all times to withstand the devil’s schemes. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) This is because “we know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19) These mean that the world is probably going to hate and reject us for becoming the followers of Jesus Christ and spreading the Gospel around (John 15:18-21). However, we have to persevere in them, even though following Him until the end of the age is hard (Matthew 16:24-27). In addition, the word of God reminds us to preach the Word in the presence of our Lord Jesus, even though we are out of season (2 Timothy 4:1-2). These are the parts of the reason why Matthew 7:13-14 states, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. (Jude 1:17-22)

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:4-14)

Although we are not facing persecutions right now, we must not abide into the world, and abide in the Spirit of God until the end of the age (Galatians 5:24-25). This is because the love of God is not included in worldly things, but it is included in the one who is willing to please God until the end of the age (1 John 2:15-17). In fact, James 4:4-5 declares, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?” Thus for this reason, we have to overcome the world (1 John 5:1-5) and start to abide in the Spirit of God with repentance before Him (Acts 3:19-20).

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-11)

To be honest, I want to be persecuted for Christ’s sake to test my faith in Jesus Christ (James 1:2-4). However, at same time, I do not wanted to be persecuted for His sake, due to the fact that I am afraid that I am going to deny for the faith in Him. The main reason for this is that I often feel guilty of not becoming the righteousness of God. In other words, I feel that I am always lacking to do the will of God. Nevertheless, I trust that the Holy Spirit is prompting and guiding me into the right paths (Proverbs 3:5-8) and to do the will of God until the end of the age (Matthew 7:21). Furthermore, the Spirit of God has convicted me to evangelize the Gospel of Jesus Christ through one of the sermons of Francis Chan that I want to start a group of Evangelisation, or something like that! This is because I want to see the world to come altogether as a church, the body of Christ (Colossians 1:15-20) and the bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7-9). Therefore, I believe that we ought to take the lowest place, even though the world may hate and reject us (John 15:18-27). “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12) Hence, I have to gain the confidence from the Holy Spirit that I will be able to evangelize Jesus Christ to others, even though I cannot speak out loud properly (1 John 2:27).