Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 206. The mystery of invisible heroes. Part 7.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Point 9. The Pattern for Invisible Heroship in the Church-age -
the Apostle Paul.
EXO 3:11 “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
EXO 4:10 “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
1CO 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
1CO 2:4 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
2CO 10:10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible.”
2CO 11:6 But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.
Paul received both momentum testing and evidence testing while in prison.
While incarcerated, or in some dungeon or prison situation, he was able to advance to spiritual autonomy and to spiritual maturity.
Each stage was tested by suffering for blessing.
Instead of being discouraged by his sufferings for blessing, the recipients of the prison epistles should be benefited by the perception and metabolization of the mystery doctrine of the Church-age.
God has provided both prosperity and adversity in a very organized form for you to execute His plan and will for your life.
Because in prosperity, our friends know us; however, in adversity, we know our friends.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a god to be worshiped.
Seneca -
“The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.”
Prosperity is not without many fears and disasters; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, whereas adversity is the blessing of the New.
Real prosperity is living easily and happily in the real world, whether you have money or not.
Satan is ever present, through his cosmic system or cosmic concensus trying to destroy our glory and remove our crown.
Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.
- Aristotle.
If you do not quit but continue, he who does not tire, tires adversity.
Adversity makes men, while prosperity makes monsters.
You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday.
You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Adversity is the state in which man becomes really acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers.
Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.
Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.
The first is the advance to spiritual maturity through momentum testing and receiving the distribution of your escrow blessings for time.
The second is spiritual maturity plus evidence testing equals the glorification of God to the maximum: the reason why invisible heroes are kept alive.
Point 10. The Source of Invisible Heroes.
The plan from the sovereignty of God is the only plan God recognizes in this Church-age.
He decided to permit the free will of man to coexist with His sovereignty in human history.
Man makes two kinds of decisions: good decisions from the position of strength or bad decisions from the position of weakness.
Since during the course of human history, the sovereignty of God permits the coexistence of our human volition with His sovereignty, He has provided a protection so that we can choose for something far greater than anything man can contrive: Truth.
Our good decision: personal faith in Jesus Christ.
The bad decision: to reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
Point 11. Invisible heroes in the Church-age are a testimony to angels.