Suffering to Enlarge the Heart & Bring Peace

3/24/25 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh… Jeremiah 32:27.

So, what am I saying by giving you these scriptures?  How many of us truly know that our bodies are not our own?  One of the results of an affliction that persists is it allows your soul to isolate from your body. To understand that you are not your body, it is merely clothing while on earth. This is hard for most people to imagine but I believe it is a tool of the Lord.

But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Philippians 1:22-23.

And yet, staying in the body through affliction can yield benefits.  God designed Hezekiah’s sickness to enlarge his heart and bring peace.  And then after healing him, God visited him again to test him and to see if his heart had truly become enlarged through his affliction. 

“What shall I say?  He has both spoken to me, and He Himself has done it.  I shall walk carefully all my years in the bitterness of my soul.  O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these things is the life of my spirit; so, You will restore me and make me live.  Indeed, it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; but You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.” Isaiah 38:15-17.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.  Psalm 119:71.

As I have said before, ‘He has stopped me in my tracks (literally) to get filled with a new revelation of His most well-known attribute.  To glimpse His glory in the backdrop of His peace.  To abide in a fresh illumination of His Person.’

“As sons of God, our personal experience of God is often determined by our perception of Him. The moment a portal in our understanding is illuminated by the Spirit of God as to a specific aspect of His nature, that dimension becomes ours to possess and experience. The moment you see a thing in God, it is yours to possess. You possess what you see of the Lord. You become that which you are able to see in God and of God. Whatever specific dimensions of God you see, you become. 

As we behold, we are transformed. ‘Sight’ is God’s methodology to activate and facilitate personal transformation. We are changed by what we see of God. Revelation is God’s methodology for transformation.” From “Healing Part 2 - Peace of God”, Randolph Barnwell.

My friend Wanda Rust had a revelation of how suffering can give us a new perspective of God’s heart.  “As I was studying the word today, God showed me about Jonah, his prophet, who did not want to be obedient to walk in God’s way.  He only wanted to be right; he did not regard the thousands of people who would die. He just wanted to be right.  What happened to him was not by chance but was appointed by God. God appointed a big fish to swallow him, until he surrendered his will. Then God appointed the fish to vomit him on dry ground. He paid his vow of preaching God’s word. Then Jonah was unhappy because they believed and it made him look like a false prophet.

Jonah, only thought of himself, not of the people that would repent. He said, just take my life, it is better to die than to live, because what people might think.  God appointed a gourd to come to life over Jonah for shade, then appointed a worm to smite the gourd to die. Then God appointed the sun to arise and a vehement east wind to beat upon Jonah, until he nearly fainted and he wished to die.  God show Jonah, he had more compassion on the gourd, than upon the people.  Jonah, finally knew the heart of God.  It took the suffering for him to know God’s heart.  It will also take our suffering to know God’s heart.”

If my mind is renewed and reawakened for God’s purposes then, it should also be enlarged for His glory. Switching me from a prayer warrior to a peace seeker and finder, He is expanding my empathy. Learn Peace through Affliction.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2