Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

Enduring End-time Trials

I firmly believe that the Remnant of God’s people are going though a purifying and strengthening process by waves of trials. I know many Believers who are wrestling with great hardships. My family has not been exempted from that purging process. It seems that you barely get through one trial, have a brief period of peace, and another one comes rolling in. I sometimes feel like a rock in the surging tide. We have no option but to accept it, stand in God’s armor (Ephesians 6:11), and wait for the wave to pass. It is essential to remember to put on His armor—not ours. Trying to fight in our armor would be a disaster.

When the Believer attempts to fight the enemies of righteousness in his or her own strength and abilities, it is a huge mismatch. Sometimes all that we can do in the firefight of light against darkness is to cry out for more light. Like a solar powered vehicle, we are “light-powered” and must stay in the light to function at optimum performance. It means to overcome evil by doing good, to walk in the light, and not descend into a mêlée designed by Satan with his rules and on his battlefield. Instead we commit our battle to the Lord and trust in His faithfulness.

Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. – Psalm 37:5

The Hebrew word for “commit” is galal, which means to “roll off or roll oneself.” When I discovered that blessed nugget long ago it became a source of great comfort and relief for me. It means to roll off my burden onto the Lord. That is much different than handing Him a burden. A burden that can be handed off does not appear to be much of a burden.

When working on a farm I carried heavy bags of feed on my shoulder. One did not lay such a heavy burden down—it had to be rolled off. Sometimes I would carry it to the entrance of the barn and roll it off onto another guy who would take it inside and stack it. The relief is instantaneous and you feel light-footed as you head back to the truck for another bag.

Sometimes it means that we must remain silent in the face of a torrent of demonic attacks. When it becomes unbearable, we bow our heads and roll it into the care of God. Remaining silent does not mean you are weak, guilty, or that you are defeated. The silence of Christ was to the old Serpent an indication of defeat. A cruel instrument of torturous death delivered what Satan believed was his magnum opus. However, the cross became the instrument of eternal life. The Lamb was murdered and placed in a tomb, but He rose from the dead as a Lion. His victory is an eternal one for all who believe in Him. When Christ returns with the called, chosen, and faithful, He will recompense Satan for his eons of disaster on the human race.

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. – Hebrews 12:3

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. – Isaiah 53:7; Acts 8:32

Until we depart this temporal realm or our Lord appears in His glory, we have to endure the consequences of a sin-ridden earth. We must realize that the short span when we endure satanic animosity is but a testing ground of the genuineness
of our faith; faith that must be purified and polished by fiery trials. Certainly, it gets difficult, but have we shed blood striving against sin? The seed of our faith was purchased by blood and sown in blood. It is the unwavering belief that the Gospel of Christ is worth both living and dying for.

Our natural inclination when under the burden of the hostility of trials and sinners is to succumb to despair. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,who suffered greatly by the wiles of a ruthless Communist dictator, wrote in his book Gulag Archipelago that despair was suffering without cause. It is the proclivity of our human nature to ask “Why” during suffering. God’s word gives us the answer in the hope of His promise that cannot be taken away. It is the cause that we need to overcome despair. We could endure losing all our material possessions, our freedom, and even face losing our lives, if we can only hope in God’s promise of a “far more exceeding eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

We have the promise of eternal life eternal in a city built by the Lord Jesus where nothing will ever harm or distress us. That is what the Apostle Paul told us that we should measure our suffering by the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8:18-19). With that empowerment and the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can stand in every adversity, through every storm, in the Refiners fire, and to the “end of our faith—the salvation of our souls” (1 Peter 1:6-9)

Perhaps Satan, as so many of his braggadocios bad girls and boys, believes that he rules superior in wickedness. That’s the delusion. Wickedness only produces death and death is the ultimate end of Satan and his crew. So the more that he pushes toward his goal, the more he stirs the pot of his eternal death. In the process his aggression merely stirs the gift of God within us. After all, how do we know that faith is genuine and viable if we never have to use it? How can faith be genuine enough to believe in Christ who died and was resurrected from the dead if our faith is not resilient enough to endure hardships of temporal trials?

Building ourselves up on our most holy faith (Jude 1:20) is accomplished one fire-hardened “brick” at a time. When the white-washed walls with untempered mortar comes down with the fury of God, the foundation of trial-fired faith will stand. I firmly believe that as painful as our trials are at the moment, one day we will be grateful that we endured them. On that day we will not take the wealth of the entire world in exchange for them and their work in our spiritual lives.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

10 Comments

  1. Rhonda Williams

    Cedric,
    As I was reading this latest post, it caused me to think of something that I had not thought of before. I hope I can convey my thoughts properly. You were speaking of the silence of Christ during His suffering. This caused me to think of those who constantly and verbally rebuke and bind the devil (never remaining silent) whenever trials of any sort come their way. Yes, we will all face many trials but if we can learn to remain silent in our suffering as Christ was and face the trials with confidence and faith in our God then how much more than that can we honor the Lord? Having full confidence that He will use our hardships and trials for His honor. and to bring glory to His Name. So, during this little trial that I am facing right now, this article has been most helpful.
    On a side note- this is the third time that I have tried to post a comment. Each previous time the reCAPTCHA button seemed to disappear when I was ready to submit my comment.

    • C.H. Fisher

      Sorry about the CAPTCHA. We got hacked once and our site was wiped out. The webmaster has recently installed a different CAPTCHA. Hopefully, it will work better. If not, we will replace it as well.

  2. Sola Scriptura

    Great article. My wife and I have lost so many friends to the NAR type churches. It seems few understand that Jesus Christ didn’t come to earth to make us rich or find us a soulmate. He came to earth to pay for our sins, and that he did with blood, sweat and agonizing pain. THAT is more than enough for me.

    BTW – your biography was an excellent read. My wife and I took turns reading chapters to each other. Honestly, I wanted more about how your post-salvation life. If you do a fill in the gap sequel, we are in!
    Bless you my brother for your hard work for the Lord.

  3. Davina Wonderling

    I’ve been in a Pentecostal Church since 1986, and I’ve just lately been reading your posts, Roger Oakland’s posts, Warren Smith’s, etc. I am just beginning to believe that there is no where in the BIBLE where we are supposed to verbally rebuke and bind the devil and loose GOD’s blessings in our trials or when we are praying for somebody else who is going through trials. As touching false prophets, I’m beginning to think maybe these evangelists who give people personal prophecies after they preach might even be false. We had an evangelist come to our church and prophesy to a young couple who have a 1-year-old son that they were going to have another baby, and that it would be a girl. Well, that’s exactly what is happening. It was announced a few weeks ago that they are expecting another baby-a daughter. Could it be that even if an evangelist’s prophecies do come to pass he could still be false simply because Satan has a counterfeit? Certainly, there are false signs & wonders. I was just wondering what your take is about this. Thank you for your wonderful ministry! Ministries like yours and Understand The Times, The Berean Call, Guarding The Flock, etc., are like a drop of cool refreshing water in a desert wasteland of NAR, spiritual formation, name it/claim it, and all the rest! Keep up the great & GODLY work! Ministries like yours are sorely needed to open our eyes and help get the word out.

    • Barbara wilhelm

      If you read Deuteronomy 13 you will find the explanation for false prophets whose prophecies come true. Yes, it does happen, but that chapter states exactly why God allows it. Barbara W.

  4. Barbara wilhelm

    Cedric, I have found myself reading a number of your posts on your website and on Lighthouse Trails. May I ask if I could post this particular one as a guest column on a blog I have? It is not a large blog but the readers would be encouraged by would you have written – and the comments that accompany the article.

  5. Bro Bill

    Great article, I was blessed by it. I posted on my FB page.

  6. Davina Wonderling

    Thanks, Barbara. I can vaguely remember reading about this somewhere in the Old Testament. Thank you for pointing to the scripture; I will read it! GOD bless you.

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